Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 4:28
And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
28. were filled with wrath ] The aorist implies a sudden outburst. Perhaps they were already offended by knowing that Jesus had spent two days at Sychar among the hated Samaritans; and now He whom they wished to treat as “the carpenter” and their equal, was as it were asserting the superior claims of Gentiles and lepers. “Truth embitters those whom it does not enlighten.” “The word of God,” said Luther, “is a sword, is a war, is a poison, is a scandal, is a stumbling-block, is a ruin” viz. to those who resist it (Mat 10:34; 1Pe 2:8).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Filled with wrath – They were enraged, probably, for the following reasons:
- They saw that the cases applied to themselves, because they would not receive the miraculous evidences of his mission.
- That he would direct his attention to others, and not to them.
- That the Gentiles were objects of compassion with God, and that God often showed more favor to a single Gentile than to multitudes of Jews in the same circumstances.
- That they might be worse than the Gentiles. And,
- That it was a part of his design to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, and not confine his labors to them only.
On these accounts their favor was soon turned to wrath, and the whole transaction shows us:
- That popular applause is of little value.
- That the slightest circumstances may soon turn the warmest professed friendship to hatred. And,
- That people are exceedingly unreasonable in being unwilling to hear the truth and profit by it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Luk 4:28; Luk 4:31
And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath
Nazareth; or, Jesus rejected by His friends
I.
WHO WERE THESE REJECTORS OF CHRIST? They have their types and representatives now.
1. They were those who were nearest related to the Saviour. They were the people of His own town.
2. They were those who knew most about Christ. The whole story of the wondrous Child was known to them.
3. They were people who supposed that they had a claim upon Christ. They no doubt argued, He is a Nazareth man, and of course He is in duty bound to help Nazareth.
II. WHY THEY THUS REJECT THE MESSIAH.
1. I should not wonder but what the groundwork of their dissatisfaction was laid in the fact that they did not feel themselves to be the persons to whom the Saviour claimed to have a commission. Observe, He said, in the eighteenth verse, that He was anointed to preach the gospel to the poor. Now, the poorest ones in the synagogue may have felt pleased at that word; but as it was almost a maxim with the Jewish doctors that it did not signify what became of the poor–for few but the rich could enter heaven–the very announcement of a gospel for the poor must have sounded tothem awfully democratical and extreme, and must have laid in their minds the foundation of a prejudice. Did not some of them say, We have worn our phylacteries, and made broad the borders of our garments; we have not eaten except with washen hands; we have strained out all gnats from our wine; we have kept the fasts, and the feasts, and we have made long prayers, why should we feel any poverty of spirit? Hence they felt there was nothing in Christs mission for them. When He next mentioned the broken-hearted, they were not at all conscious of any need of a broken heart. They felt heart-whole, self-satisfied, perfectly content. What is the acceptable year of the Lord to us, if it is only for bruised captive ones? We are not such. At a glance you perceive, my brethren, the reason why in these days Jesus Christ is rejected by so many church-going and chapel-going people.
2. I entertain little doubt but what the men of Nazareth were angry with Christ because of His exceeding high claims. He said, The spirit of Jehovah is upon Me. They started at that. And so men now reject Christ because He sets Himself too high, and asks more of them than they are willing to give.
3. Another reason might be found in the fact that they were not for receiving Christ until He had exhibited some great wonder. They craved for miracles. Their minds were in a sickly state. A young man yonder has said to himself, If I had a dream, as I hear So-and-so had, or if there should happen to me some very remarkable event in providence, which should just meet my taste; or if I could feel to-day some sudden shock of I know not what, then I would believe. Thus you dream that my Lord and Master is to be dictated to by you! You are beggars at His gate, asking for mercy, and you must needs draw up rules and regulations as to how He shall give that mercy.
4. Again, and perhaps this time I may hit the head of the nail in some cases, though I suppose not in many in this place, part of the irritation which existed in the minds of the men of Nazareth was caused by the peculiar doctrine which the Saviour preached upon the subject of election. He laid it down that God had a right to dispense His favours just as He pleased, and that in doing so He often selected the most unlikely objects. They did not like this. The doctrine of free grace to the needy is ever a stumbling-block to men.
5. They loved not such plain personal speaking as the Saviour gave them.
6. They could not bear to hear Him hint that He meant to bless the Gentiles.
III. And now, WHAT CAME OF IT?
1. They thrust the Saviour out of the synagogue, and then they tried to hurl Him down the brow of the hill. These were His friends, good, respectable people: who would have believed it of them? You saw that goodly company in the synagogue who sang so sweetly, and listened so attentively, would you have guessed that there was a murderer inside every one of their coats? It only needed the opportunity to bring the murderer out; for there they are all trying to throw Jesus down the hill. We do not know how much devil there is inside any one of us; if we are not renewed and changed by grace, we are heirs of wrath even as others.
2. But what came of it? Why, though they thus thrust Him out, they could not hurt the Saviour. The hurt was all their own. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Men seldom see the great in what is about them
We ride without eyes under Greylock, and go to the White Mountains for sublimity. The moon in Venice, and the sky in Naples, have more charm than here at home. The weeds of other climates become our flowers, and our flowers seem to us but weeds. There is little heroism, little devotion and nobility on our square mile; there are no epics or lyrics of human deed and feeling sung in our streets; the great, the beautiful, the excellent, is at a distance. Why we think thus it may be hard to tell, unless it is from instinctive reverence on the one hand, and on the other because the realization of greatness makes us aware of our own littleness, and so provokes us to every danger. So that what we read of here is no strange history, but only an illustration of a daily fact: a great spirit rejected by friends and neighbours; it is only the carpenters Son, the boy who grew up in the midst of us, and now, forsooth, claiming to be a prophet! And so they drive Him out of their city. (T. T. Munger.)
Cause of the Nazarenes wrath
What was actually the cause of the sudden upboil of these mens wrath? It was that their selfesteem was wounded. Christ declared that only the humble and meek would be able to receive Him. Elijah was persecuted, and received only by one poor widow. Naaman was unworthy to be healed till he humbled himself to dip in despised Jordan. The men of Nazareth understood the inference. It was not flattering to their pride; they could not be fed and healed unless they became humble, and submitted to the Lords Christ. This they would not do–and they cast Him out of their city. As with Christ, so with His Church, and with His messengers. As long as they preach a gospel which does not touch mans pride and lower his selfesteem, they wonder at the graciousness of the gospel; but the moment it bids them not to be wise in their own conceits, insists on submission of body, soul, and reason to Christ, and calls to a lowly walk and self-abasement, then men rise up against the Church, and its ministers, and against the true gospel of Christ, and would, if they could, cast it out of their city, and hurl it from their thoughts. (J. Baring. Gould, M. A.)
Capernaum
It lay on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, and was, in Christs day, a thriving, busy town. The highway to the sea, from Damascus to Ptolemais–now Acre–ran through it, bringing no little local traffic, and also opening the markets of the coast to the rich yield of the neighbouring farms, orchards, and vineyards, and the abundant returns of the fisheries of the lake. The townsfolk thus, as a rule, enjoyed the comfort and plenty we see in the homes of Peter and Matthew, and were even open to the charge of being winebibbers and gluttonous, which implied generous entertainments They were proud of their town, and counted on its steady growth and unbounded prosperity, little dreaming of the ruin which would one day make even its site a question. (Dr. Geikie.)
Dr. Robinson, Captain Conder, and others place the site of Capernaum at Khan Mingeh, a spot of unique interest and beauty. Captain Conder certainly adduces strong reasons in favour of this hypothesis. (L. Oliphant.)
Not far from the banks of the Jordan stands Capernaum (now Tell. Hum), and here we find ourselves in the very centre of the Lords Galilean ministry. It was at Capernaum that He dwelt. This was the startingpoint of His journeys, and to this He returned after going about from place to place doing good. (E. Stapfer, D. D.)
Blindness of prejudice
A lady who excelled in making wax flowers and fruit was often criticised severely by her friends, and her work decried, as she thought, unjustly. She convicted them by showing an apple, which they as usual found fault with, one as to the shape, another as to colour, and so on. When they had finished, the lady cut the apple and ate it. (Baxendales Anecdotes.)
Overawed by the Spirit
The Rev. Charles G. Finney gives, in the words following, an account of the effects of a Christian look on a certain occasion:–I once preached, for the first time, in a manufacturing village. The next morning I went into a manufacturing establishment to view its operations. As I passed into the weaving department, I beheld a great company of young women, some of whom, I observed, were looking at me and then at each other, in a manner that indicated a trifling spirit, and that they knew me. I, however, knew none of them. As I approached nearer to those who had recognized me, they seemed to increase in their manifestation of lightness of mind. Their levity made a peculiar impression upon me; I felt it to my very heart. I stopped short and looked at them, I know not how, as my whole mind was absorbed with their guilt and danger. As I settled my countenance upon them, I observed that one of them became very much agitated. A thread broke. She attempted to mend it; but her hands trembled in such a manner that she could not do it. I immediately observed that the sensation was spreading, and had become universal among that class of triflers. I looked steadily at them, until one after another gave up, and paid no more attention to their looms. They fell on their knees, and the influence spread throughout the whole room. I had not spoken a word, as the noise of the looms would have prevented my being heard if I had. In a few minutes all work was abandoned, and tears and lamentations filled the room. At this moment the owner of the factory, who was himself an unconverted man, came in, accompanied, I believe, by the superintendent, who was a professed Christian. When the owner saw the state of things, he said to the superintendent, Stop the mill. What he saw seemed to pierce him to the heart. It is more important, he hurriedly remarked, that these souls should be saved than that this mill should run. As soon as the noise of the machinery had ceased, the owner inquired, What shall we do? We must have a place to meet where we can receive instruction. The superintendent replied, The mule-room will do. The mules were run up out of the way, and all the hands were notified, and assembled in that room. We had a marvellous meeting. I prayed with them, and gave them such instructions as at the time they could bear. The Word was with power; and within a few days, as I was informed, nearly every hand in that great establishment, together with the owner, had hope in Christ. (Bates Influence of Mind on Mind.)
Remarkable change in the conduct of a mob
A missionary who had been sent to a strange land to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God and who had passed through many hardships and was often in danger of losing his life, through the persecutions excited against him, came to a place where he had often before, at no small risk, preached Christ crucified. About fifty people who had received good impressions from the Word of God, assembled: he began his discourse; and after he had preached about thirty minutes, an outrageous mob surrounded the house, armed with different instruments of death, and breathing the most sanguinary purposes. The preacher then addressed his little flock to this effect, These outrageous people seek not you but me, if I continue in the house, they will soon pull it down and we shall be all buried in its ruins, I will therefore in the name of God go out to them and you will be safe. As soon as the preacher made his appearance the savages became instantly as silent and as still as night: he walked forward and they divided to the right and to the left, leaving a passage about four feet wide for himself and a young man who followed him to walk in. The narrator who was present on the occasion goes on to say, This was one of the most affecting spectacles I ever witnessed, an infuriated mob without any visible cause (for the preacher spoke not one word) became in a moment as calm as lambs. They seemed struck with amazement bordering on stupefaction; they stared and stood speechless, and after they had fallen back to right and left to leave him a free passage, they were as motionless as statues. They assembled with the full purpose to destroy the man who came to show them the way of salvation, but he, passing through the midst of them, went his way. (Dr. Adam Clarke.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 28. Were filled with wrath] They seem to have drawn the following conclusion from what our Lord spoke: “The Gentiles are more precious in the sight of God than the Jews; and to them his miracles of mercy and kindness shall be principally confined.” This was pretty near the truth, as the event proved. Those who profit not by the light of God, while it is among them, shall have their candle extinguished. The kingdom of God was taken from the Jews, and given to the Gentiles; not because the Gentiles were better than they were, but because,
1st. The Jews had forfeited their privileges; and
2dly. Because Christ saw that the Gentiles would bring forth the fruits of the kingdom.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Unhappy Nazareth, where Christ had now lived more than thirty years! They had seen him growing up, increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favour both with God and man, Luk 2:52; they had had the first fruits of his ministry, and, Luk 4:22, they bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth; they knew his education, so as they could not think he had this wisdom and knowledge from any advantages of that, but must have it from Heaven; yet when they hear him preaching, and but touching them for their contempt and rejection of him, and tacitly comparing them with their forefathers in the time of Ahab, and preaching the doctrine of Gods sovereign and free grace, and hinting to them that the grace of God should pass to the Gentiles, while they should be rejected, they are not able to bear him. Thus, Act 22:21, the Jews heard Paul patiently, till he repeated Gods commission to him to go unto the Gentiles; then they cried, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit he should live. This was according to the old prophecy, Deu 32:21, (applied to the Jews by the apostle, Rom 10:19), that because they had moved God to jealousy with that which is not God, he would move them to jealousy with them that are not a people, and provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. This is further matter of observation, that wretched sinners, who cannot obtain of their lusts to be as good and holy as others, yet are ordinarily so proud, as they have no patience to hear that others are better than they, or have or shall have any more special share in Gods favour. Those of Nazareth which were in the synagogue hearing these things, are filled with wrath, thrust Christ out of the city, as not fit to live among them, and go about to kill him, by throwing him down headlong from the brow of the hill upon which their city was built.
But he passing through the midst of them went his way. How he got out of their hands, when they had laid hold of him, the Scripture doth not tell us, nor is it our concern to be curious to inquire. We read much the like passage, Joh 8:59, when the Jews had taken up stones to stone him. We know it was an easy thing for him, who was God as well as man, to quit himself of any mortal enemies; but how he did it, whether by blinding their eyes, or altering the nature of his body, and making it imperceptible by them, or by a greater strength than they, (which the Divine nature could easily supply his human nature with), who is able to determine?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28, 29. when they heard thesethingsthese allusions to the heathen, just asafterwards with Paul (Act 22:21;Act 22:22).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And all they in the synagogue,…. The ruler and minister, and the whole multitude of the common people that were met together there for worship; and who before were amazed at his eloquence, and the gracefulness of his delivery; and could not but approve of his ministry, though they could not account for it, how he should come by his qualifications for it:
when they heard these things; these two instances of Elijah and Elisha, the one supplying the wants of a Sidonian woman, and the other healing a Syrian leper, when no notice were taken by them of poor widows and lepers in Israel:
were filled with wrath; for by these instances they perceived, that they were compared to the Israelites in the times of wicked Ahab and Jezebel; and that no miracles were to be wrought among them, or benefits conferred on them, though they were his townsmen; yea, that the Gentiles were preferred unto them: and indeed the calling of the Gentiles was here plainly intimated, which was always ungrateful and provoking to the Jews; and it was suggested, that the favours of God, and grace of the Messiah, are dispensed in a sovereign and discriminating way, than which nothing is more offensive to carnal minds.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
They were all filled with wrath ( ). First aorist passive indicative of the common verb followed by the genitive case. The people of Nazareth at once caught on and saw the point of these two Old Testament illustrations of how God in two cases blessed the heathen instead of the Jewish people. The implication was evident. Nazareth was no better than Capernaum if as good. He was under no special obligation to do unusual things in Nazareth because he had been reared there. Town pride was insulted and it at once exploded in a burst of rage.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And all they in the synagogue,” (kai pantes sunagoge) “And all those who were in the synagogue,” who had heard Him read the Scripture that Sabbath Day, wondered at His gracious words, fixed their eyes on Him for moments of awe, admiration, and astonishment, Luk 4:20-22.
2) “When they heard these things,” (akountes tauta) “Upon hearing these things,” being reminded of these things, that not all who were in need or afflicted were objects of the same degree of Divine miraculous relief and release at the same time, in the will and purpose of God. Miracles had specific purposes, for specific occasions, Joh 2:22; Joh 3:1-2; Joh 20:30-31.
3) “Were filled with wrath.” (epleothesan thumon) “Were filled with anger,” or indignation, reflecting the impulsive fickleness and inflamed passions of human emotions, that were not held in subjection to the wisdom and Word of God, Jas 1:5; Eph 4:12-15.
They were maddened by the suggestion that the heathen had been more worthy than they, the pious Israelites.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
28. Were filled with wrath They perceived that the object of those two examples, which Christ had produced, was to show, that the grace of God would be removed from them to others: (327) and therefore they considered that he had spoken to their dishonor. But, instead of having their consciences stung to the quick, and seeking a remedy for their vices by correcting them, they are only driven to madness. Thus ungodly men not only resist, with obstinacy, the judgments of God, but rise into cruelty against his servants. Hence it is evident, how forcible are the reproofs which proceed from the Spirit of God: for the minds of those who would willingly evade them, (328) are inflamed with rage. Again, when we see that the minds of men are so envenomed, that they become mad against God, whenever they are treated with some degree of roughness, we ought to implore the Spirit of meekness, (Gal 5:23,) that we may not be driven, by the same fury, into such a destructive war. (329)
(327) “ Que la grace de Dieu leur seroit ostee, et envoyee a autres;” — “that the grace of God would be taken from them, and sent to others.”
(328) “ Qui les laisseroyent volontiers escouler sans y penser;” — “who would willingly allow them to steal away, without thinking of them.”
(329) “ Afin que ne soyons transportez a entreprendre une guerre si folle, a nostre grande confusion;” — “in order that we may not be hurried away, to undertake a war so foolish, to our great confusion.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(28) Were filled with wrath.The admiration they had felt at first was soon turned into bitterness. They heard themselves spoken of as though there might be a faith in Zidon and in Syria which was not found in Israel, of which they themselves were altogether destitute.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
28. Were filled with wrath All at once the Church became a mob. It was clearly seen that the faithless widows and lepers were but types of themselves, the faithless Nazarenes. They now proceeded to show the justness of the type.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And they were all filled with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things, and they rose up, and cast him forth out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, so that they might throw him down headlong.’
So filled with anger as they listened to Him in the synagogue, they rose from their seats, dragged Him outside the town, and prepared to throw Him headlong over a nearby cliff, a part of the mountain on which Nazareth was built.
We have here the second indication that God’s purposes are not going to go smoothly but are going to meet up with resistance. John is now in prison (Luk 3:20), and the life of Jesus is threatened. Not only is the Devil at work in seeking to bring the work of God down (Luk 4:1-12), but the rulers are assisting Him, along with Jesus’ own home town. It was a symbol of the fact that the Jews as a whole would reject Him too. The way ahead is not going to be easy
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The attempt to kill the Lord:
v. 28. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
v. 29. and rose up, and thrust Him out of the city, and led Him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong.
v. 30. But He, passing through, the midst of them, went His way,
v. 31. and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath-days.
v. 32. And they were astonished at His doctrine; for His word was with power. Up to this point the congregation had listened to Jesus, though with growing indignation, since He dared to expose and flay their national vice, their self-righteous pride. But now their indignation, which filled them to overflowing, carried all reason and common sense before it. The entire population shared in the movement. Rising up, they cast Him out of the synagogue, out of the city. And then they deliberately laid hold upon Him and led Him to a precipice of the hill on which their city was built, a place where there was a steep, sheer drop into the valley below, their intention being to throw Him down bodily. Theirs was the action of people that have lost all semblance of calm reasoning, whom insane wrath has deprived of the ability to think right and to consider the consequences, a typical mob, such as are the rule to this day under similar circumstances. As long as faithful pastors speak in a general way in their preaching and admonishing, they have peace and are even praised. But if the same men dare to point to individual sins, they are accused of unjust criticism and condemnation. For it is a peculiarity of the truth that it embitters and makes enemies where it does not work conversion. There is no worse censure for a pastor than that winch was spoken of one concerning his position in his congregation: We do not hurt him, and he does not hurt us. But the mob, in Christ’s case, did not realize its murderous intention, though they received evidence of the supernatural power of the Lord. For He quietly passed through their midst and went His way. Whether He rendered Himself invisible for the time being, or whether they were struck with blindness, or whether their arms were paralyzed by a power above them, is not stated. It was not merely the power of a tranquil spirit and a firm will over human passions, but the almighty power of the Son of God that stayed their hands.
Jesus went down from the hill country to the city of Capernaum, which He made His headquarters during His Galilean ministry. Here He made it a habit to teach in the synagogues on the Sabbath-days, for the preaching of the Gospel of salvation was the first and principal part of His work. And wherever He taught, the effect of His words was the same: people were astonished almost to stupefaction over His doctrine, which differed so radically from the vapid discourses of the average rabbi, and in authority and power His word went out. There was not only the force of conviction behind it, but the merciful power of God which is in the means of grace and gives them their efficacy. Note: Luke always adds the geographical references for the sake of his readers, who were unacquainted with the location of the various towns which are mentioned in the Gospel story.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
DISCOURSE: 1487
CHRIST ESCAPES FROM HIS BLOOD-THIRSTY PERSECUTORS
Luk 4:28-30. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way.
NOTHING is more uncertain or transient than popular applause. However just may be the grounds of any praise that is bestowed, the smallest circumstance is sufficient to obliterate all remembrance of a persons merit, and to render him an object of general indignation. At the close of his life our Lord experienced this in a most astonishing degree: for the very people, who but three days before had followed him with acclamations and hosannas, were instigated by their rulers to cry out with equal fervour, Crucify him, crucify him. Scarcely inferior to this was the instance that occurred to him the very first time he preached at Nazareth. When his sermon was but half finished, his auditors were filled with admiration at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth: but before the close of it, they rose up in murderous rage in order to destroy him.
We shall consider,
I.
The occasion of their wrath
Our blessed Lord had preached to them in a kind but faithful manner
[He had opened to them a passage from the prophet Isaiah, and informed them, that it was accomplished in him. This on the whole afforded general satisfaction: but yet he saw that there were some objections lurking in their minds, relative to his parentage and education; and that they were displeased because he had not given a preference to his own townsmen, and wrought his miracles there rather than at other places. These objections he anticipated, and proceeded to return an answer to them. He observed, first, that prophets in general were not received in the place where they had been educated, because the people who had known them as equals or inferiors, did not like to submit to them in their prophetic character. Secondly, he shewed them, from different instances in the Scriptures, that God had always dispensed his favours in a sovereign manner, and had sometimes imparted them to the despised Gentiles in preference to his own peculiar people.
This was the immediate purport of what he spake; but doubtless there was much more insinuated, than what was plainly expressed. His answer was intended to bring conviction upon their minds, and to shew them, that they were indulging prejudices against him in spite of all they had heard respecting him; and that, if they yielded to their unbelief, they would constrain him to withhold his blessings from them, and even to send them to the Gentile world in preference to them.]
This was the true ground of all their rage
[They saw the drift of his discourse: but they hated the light; and therefore sought immediately to extinguish it. They were not disposed to contend with him in a way of argument; for they saw that the truth was against them. They resorted therefore to clamour and persecution, the usual substitutes for truth and reason. But to reject him merely, was not sufficient; nor could they be contented even with expelling him from the city: no; nothing but his blood would satisfy them; and therefore, forgetting the sanctity both of the synagogue and of the sabbath, they rose up with one consent, and thrust him out of the city to an eminence, that they might despatch him in a moment. Probably in executing thus, what they would have called, the judgment of zeal [Note: Num 25:7-13.], they thought they were doing an acceptable service to their God; so blinded were they by their own passions, and captivated by the devil at his will.]
The inspired historian has declared to us,
II.
The manner in which our Lord escaped itseffects
Our blessed Lord on different occasions withdrew himself from those who loved, and from those who hated him [Note: Luk 24:31. Joh 8:59.]. His escape from them at this time may be considered,
1.
As it respected them
[His withdrawment from them was miraculous, as much as if he had beaten them all down with his word [Note: Joh 18:6.], or smitten them with blindness [Note: Gen 19:11. 2Ki 6:18.], or struck them dead upon the spot [Note: 2Ki 1:10; 2Ki 1:12.]. The precise mode of his withdrawment is not specified; but it seems that he rendered himself invisible, and thus escaped from their hands.
It was also merciful, both as it tended to convince them of his miraculous power, and especially as it prevented them from executing their murderous purposes. What a mercy did David esteem it, when by the interposition of Abigail he was kept from destroying Nabal [Note: 1Sa 25:32-33.]! Much more, if they ever received grace to repent of their wickedness, was it a mercy to those infatuated zealots, that they had not been suffered to imbrue their hands in the blood of Gods only Son.
But it was also judicial: for, by means of his departure, the people of Nazareth were deprived of many temporal benefits, which, if they had received him more worthily, he would have imparted to them: they were deprived also of his spiritual instructions, which, if duly improved, would have converted and saved their souls.]
2.
As it respects us
[In this escape of his we see, what care he will take of us, and what care we ought to take of ourselves.
Every faithful servant of God must expect persecution. But he is immortal till his work is done. God will screen him from his enemies, how numerous, potent, or inveterate soever they may be [Note: Zec 2:5. Isa 33:21-22. 2Ki 6:16-17.]. Look at Paul when a conspiracy w;as formed against his life; and at Peter when chained in an inner prison in order to be brought forth the next day for execution: how seasonably, and in what an unlooked-for manner, did God interpose for their deliverance [Note: Act 23:12-13; Act 23:16-24. Act 12:5-8.]! Thus will he exert his almighty power on behalf of all who serve him faithfully, unless indeed the hour is come for them to receive their full reward. We never need to fear the face of man: for God has put a hook in the nose, and a bridle in the jaws, of every man; nor can any have even the smallest power against us, except it be given him from above.
But notwithstanding our assurance of Divine protection, we ought to take all prudent precautions to avoid the fury of our enemies, and to avail ourselves of those methods of escape which God in his providence has opened to us. If they persecute us in one city, we should flee to another, and like Paul, when let down by the wall in a basket, elude the resentment which we cannot pacify. We must not indeed deny Christ, or decline any duty, even though death should be the inevitable and immediate consequence of our fidelity: but we must never court death, if we have an opportunity of saving our lives by privacy or flight.]
Infer
1.
What need have all Christs followers to count the cost before they take up a profession of religion!
[Ministers indeed, for the most part, are called to stand foremost in the post of danger, and to bear the brunt of the battle: but every soldier of Christ is called to endure hardness, and to fight a good fight. If by our life and conversation we condemn the world, though the reproof be tacit, and rather intimated than expressed, the world will be filled with wrath against us; and, if suffered by God, will persecute us unto death. Let us then know what we are to expect, and stand at all times prepared for the worst.]
2.
What a ground of thankfulness should we esteemit, if we are in any measure divested of carnal prejudice!
[All of us, if not restrained by God, should, like the Nazarenes, be ready to vent our indignation even against Christ himself, if he uttered any truths offensive to our ears. What a mercy then is it if we can hear our sins condemned, and have our indignation turned against them, rather than against our faithful monitor! Let us cultivate this disposition, whether it respects the public preaching of the word, or private admonition. Against our sins we cannot manifest too much displeasure. Happy would it be for us, if by one act of zeal we could despatch them utterly. Let us at least set ourselves against them without delay, and prosecute them from henceforth without intermission, and without mercy.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
Ver. 28. And all they in the synagogue ] Though but plain rustics, yet they soon understood this saying of preaching to the Gentiles: which put them into an anger, and our Saviour into a danger.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
28 30. ] The same sort of rage possessed the Jews, Act 22:22 , on a similar truth being announced to them. This whole occurrence, whenever it happened in our Lord’s ministry, was but a foreshadowing of His treatment afterwards from the whole nation of the Jews a foretaste of , ( Joh 1:11 ). The expression of St. Paul, Rom 11:25 , , has been regarded as corresponding with the judicial infliction on these Nazarenes, by means of which our Lord passed out from among them. But see my note, and Ellicott’s, on Eph 4:18 , from which it appears that cannot mean blindness at all.
The modern Nazareth is at a distance of about two English miles from what is called the Mount of Precipitation; nor is it built literally on the brow of that mount or hill. But (1) neither does the narrative preclude a considerable distance having been traversed, during which they had our Lord in their custody, and were hurrying with Him to the edge of the ravine; nor (2) is it at all necessary to suppose the city built on the , but only on the mountain, or range of hills, of which the forms a part which it is: see Robinson, iii. 187.
Our Lord’s passing through the midst of them is evidently miraculous: the circumstances were different from those in Joh 8:59 , where the expression is . : see note there. Here, the Nazarenes had Him actually in their custody .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 4:28-29 . Unsympathetic from the first, the Nazareans, stung by these O. T. references, become indignant. Pagans , not to speak of Capernaum people, better than we: away with Him! out of the synagogue, nay, out of the town ( ). . ., etc., to the eyebrow ( supercilium , here only in N. T.) of the hill on which the city was built, implying an elevated point but not necessarily the highest ridge. Kypke remarks: “non summum montis cacumen, sed minor aliquis tumulus sive clivus intelligitur, qui cum monte cohaeret, metaphora a superciliis oculorum desumta, quae in fronte quidem eminent, ipso tamen vertice inferiora sunt”. Nazareth now lies in a cup, built close up to the hill surrounding. Perhaps then it went further up. ( , T.R.) with infinitive indicating intention and tendency, happily not result.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
28-30.] The same sort of rage possessed the Jews, Act 22:22, on a similar truth being announced to them. This whole occurrence, whenever it happened in our Lords ministry, was but a foreshadowing of His treatment afterwards from the whole nation of the Jews-a foretaste of , (Joh 1:11). The expression of St. Paul, Rom 11:25, , has been regarded as corresponding with the judicial infliction on these Nazarenes, by means of which our Lord passed out from among them. But see my note, and Ellicotts, on Eph 4:18, from which it appears that cannot mean blindness at all.
The modern Nazareth is at a distance of about two English miles from what is called the Mount of Precipitation; nor is it built literally on the brow of that mount or hill. But (1) neither does the narrative preclude a considerable distance having been traversed, during which they had our Lord in their custody, and were hurrying with Him to the edge of the ravine; nor (2) is it at all necessary to suppose the city built on the , but only on the mountain, or range of hills, of which the forms a part-which it is: see Robinson, iii. 187.
Our Lords passing through the midst of them is evidently miraculous: the circumstances were different from those in Joh 8:59, where the expression is . : see note there. Here, the Nazarenes had Him actually in their custody.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 4:28. , with wrath) They had thought that the giving of a very different character to themselves, and a different return, namely thanks, were due to them for their applause. But by their own very act they prove the truth of Jesus words.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
were: Luk 6:11, Luk 11:53, Luk 11:54, 2Ch 16:10, 2Ch 24:20, 2Ch 24:21, Jer 37:15, Jer 37:16, Jer 38:6, Act 5:33, Act 7:54, Act 22:21-23, 1Th 2:15, 1Th 2:16
Reciprocal: Hos 14:9 – but Joh 1:46 – Can Heb 12:3 – contradiction
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
8
The people saw the point that Jesus was making. If those old prophets passed over so many people and bestowed their favors upon a few humble cases, it was because they were considered worthy of the benefits. Hence, these people in the home community of Jesus were not going to receive very much attention from him because they were not considered as being entitled to it, having given him “the cold shoulder” because he was an old home product. When they saw this lesson in the teaching of Jesus it made them to be filled with wrath.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 4:28. Filled with wrath. The wrath was sinful, but natural. They were angry at the rebuke, but their conduct only proved its justice. We restore the more graphic order of the original.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. The horrid impiety of the people of Nazareth, in thrusting their Saviour out of their city, and their barbarous and bloody cruelty in bringing him to the brow of the hill, with full intent to cast him down headlong. But Christ was to die a clean contrary way, not by throwing down, but by lifting up.
O ungrateful and unhappy Nazareth! Is this the return you make the divine Guest, which for thirty years had sojourned in your coasts? No wonder that the ablest preaching, and most exemplary living, of the holiest and best of Christ’s ministers obtain no greater success at this day amongst a people, when the presence of Christ at Nazareth, for thirty years together, had no better influence upon the minds and manners of that people; but instead of receiving his message, they rage at the messenger: neither let any of the ministers of Christ think it strange, that they are ignominiously despised, when our Master before us was in danger of being barbarously murdered, and that for his plain preaching to his own people, the men of Nazareth.
But observe, 2. The miraculous escape of our blessed Lord from the murdering hands of the wicked Nazarites: He, passing through the midst of them, went his way. How and after what manner he escaped is not declared, and therefore cannot without presumption be determined.
Although the Romanists, to make way for their doctrine of transub- stantiation, positively affirm, that, contrary to the nature of a body, he penetrated through the breasts of the people. But whether he struck them with blindness that they did not see, or smote them with fear that they durst not hold him, or whether by a greater strength than theirs, (which his Godhead could easily supply his human nature with), he escaped from them.
It is neither prudent to enquire nor possible to determine: we know it was an easy thing for him who was God as well as man, to quit himself of any mortal enemies; and at the same time, when he rescued himself, could have ruined them, by frowning them into hell, or looking them into nothing.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Luk 4:28-30. And all they in the synagogue were filled with wrath The Nazarenes, perceiving the purport of his discourse, namely, that the blessings which they despised would be offered to, and accepted by, the Gentiles, were enraged to such a pitch, that, forgetting the sanctity of the sabbath, they gathered around him tumultuously, forced him out of the synagogue, and rushed with him through the streets to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built; that they might cast him down headlong. So changeable are the hearts of wicked men! So little are their starts of love to be depended on! So unable are they to bear the close application, even of a discourse which they most admire! But he, passing through the midst of them Probably by making himself invisible; or by overawing them: so that, though they saw, they had not power to touch him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vers. 28-30. Conclusion.
The threat contained in these examples exasperates them: Thou rejectest us: we reject thee, was their virtual reply. The term , to cast out, denotes that they set upon Him with violence.
About forty minutes distant from Nazareth, to the south-east, they show a wall of rock 80 feet high, and (if we add to it a second declivity which is found a little below) about 300 feet above the plain of Esdraelon. It is there that tradition places this scene. But Robinson regards this tradition as of no great antiquity. Besides, it does not agree with the expression: on which the city was built. Nazareth spreads itself out upon the eastern face of a mountain, where there is a perpendicular wall of rock from 40 to 50 feet high. This nearer locality agrees better with the text.
The of the Alex. reading signifies: so as to be able to cast Him down. It was for that purpose that they took the trouble of going up so high. This reading is preferable to the T. R.: , for the purpose of.
The deliverance of Jesus was neither a miracle nor an escape; He passed through the group of these infuriated people with a majesty which overawed them. The history offers some similar incidents. We cannot say, as one critic does: In the absence of any other miracle, He left them this.
The greater part of modern critics regard this scene as identical with that of Matthew 13. and Mark 6., placed by these evangelists at a much later period. They rely, 1 st, On the expression of surprise: Is not this the son of Joseph? and on the proverbial saying, Luk 4:24, which could not have been repeated twice within a few months; 2 d, On the absence of miracles common to the two narratives; 3 d, On the words of Luk 4:23, which suppose that Jesus had been labouring at Capernaum prior to this visit to Nazareth. But how in this case are the following differences to be explained?1. In Matthew and Mark there is not a word about the attempt to put Jesus to death. All goes off peaceably to the very end. 2. Where are certain cases of healing recorded by Matthew (Mat 13:58) and Mark (Mar 6:5) to be placed? Before the preaching? This is scarcely compatible with the words put into the mouth of the inhabitants of Nazareth (Luk 4:23, Luke). After the preaching? Luke’s narrative absolutely excludes this supposition. 3. Matthew and Mark place the visit which they relate at the culminating point of the Galilaean ministry, and towards its close, whilst Luke commences his account of this ministry with the narrative which we have just been studying. An attempt has been made to explain this difference in two ways: Luke may have wished, in placing this narrative here, to make us see the reason which induced Jesus to settle at Capernaum instead of Nazareth (Bleek, Weizscker); or he may have made this scene the opening of Jesus’ ministry, because it prefigures the rejection of the Jews and the salvation of the Gentiles, which is the leading idea of his book (Holtzmann). But how is such an arbitrary transposition to be harmonized with his intention of writing in order, so distinctly professed by Luke (Luk 1:4)? These difficulties have not yet been solved. Is it then impossible, that after a first attempt among His fellow-citizens at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus should have made a second later on? On the contrary, is it not quite natural that, before leaving Galilee for ever (and thus at the very time to which Matthew and Mark refer their account), He should have addressed Himself once more to the heart of His fellow-countrymen, and that, if He had again found it closed against Him, the shock would nevertheless have been less violent than at the first encounter? However this may be, if the two narratives refer to the same event, as present criticism decides, Luke’s appears to me to deserve the preference, and for two reasons: 1. The very dramatic and detailed picture he has drawn leaves no room for doubting the accuracy and absolute originality of the source whence he derived his information; whilst the narratives of Matthew and Mark betray, by the absence of all distinctive features, their traditional origin. 2. John (Joh 4:4) cites, at the beginning of his account of the Galilaean ministry, the saying recorded by the three evangelists as to the rejection which every prophet must undergo from his own people. He quotes it as a maxim already previously announced by Jesus, and which had influenced from the first the course of His ministry. Now, as the three Syn. are agreed in referring this saying to a visit at Nazareth, this quotation in John clearly proves that the visit in question took place at the commencement (Luke), and not in the middle or at the end of the Galilaean ministry (Matthew and Mark). We are thus brought to the conclusions: 1. That the visit related by Luke is historical; 2. That the recollection of it was lost to tradition, in common with many other facts relating to the beginning of the ministry (marriage at Cana, etc.); 3. That it was followed by another towards the end of the Galilaean ministry, in the traditional account of which several incidents were introduced belonging to the former. As to the sojourn at Capernaum, implied in Luk 4:23, we have already seen that it is included in the general description, Luk 4:15. Joh 2:12 proves that from the first the attention of Jesus was drawn to this city as a suitable place in which to reside. His first disciples lived near it. The synagogue of Capernaum must then have been one of the first in which He preached, and consequently one of those mentioned in Luk 4:15.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
4:28 {5} And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
(5) The more sharply the world is rebuked the more it openly rages: but the life of the godly is not always subject to the desires of the wicked.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jesus allowed the crowd to drive Him out of town and to the brow of the hillside near where Nazareth stood. Later He allowed another crowd to drive Him out of Jerusalem and nail Him to a cross. However this was not the time for Him to die, and Nazareth was not the place. Luke did not give the details whereby He escaped His neighbors’ wrath. We need not suppose that His deliverance came through some supernatural act or intervention. The description of His escape does picture Jesus in sovereign control of the situation, however.
This pattern of violent Jewish rejection continued and mounted through Jesus’ ministry. It is significant that it began at the start of His ministry because of a revelation of God’s desire to bless His people.
"Thus in the first scene in the narrative of Jesus’ mission, Jesus announces ’words of grace’ but encounters the violent rejection which prophets can expect in their homeland. The good news which Jesus preaches is already shadowed by a conflict that will persist to the end of Acts." [Note: Tannehill, 1:73.]
"The visit to Nazareth was in many respects decisive. It presented by anticipation an epitome of the history of the Christ. He came to His own, and His own received Him not. The first time He taught in the Synagogue, as the first time He taught in the Temple, they cast Him out. On the one and the other occasion, they questioned His authority, and they asked for a ’sign.’ In both instances, the power which they challenged was, indeed, claimed by Christ, but its display, in the manner which they expected, refused. The analogy seems to extend even farther-and if a misrepresentation of what Jesus had said when purifying the Temple formed the ground of the final false charge against Him (Mat 26:60-61), the taunt of the Nazarenes: ’Physician, heal thyself!’ found an echo in the mocking cry, as He hung on the Cross: ’He saved others, Himself He cannot save.’ (Mat 27:40-42)" [Note: Edersheim, 1:451.]
"In all this we have a commentary on the third temptation. The people tried to put Jesus into the position Satan had suggested. But He did not let them." [Note: Morris, p. 108.]
"It is important to appreciate how central good teaching is to ministry. In an era when feelings and interpersonal relationships are high on the agenda, it is wise to reflect on why Jesus spent so much time instructing people." [Note: Bock, Luke, p. 139.]