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Luke 4:23-30
Jesus has given an overview of what His ministry would be and now is giving a prophetic message of how the Israelites will respond to His ministry. He states in Luke 4:23 (NKJV), “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Luke 23:35 states, “And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, ‘He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.’”
Jesus goes on to give two examples that while many Israelites were in need during the times of Elijah and Elisha, who both were prophets of the Old Testament, they were sent to help only foreigners. Jesus shows this at the beginning of His ministry in that He came to save all man from sin, not just the Israelites. John 1:10-13 states, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The Israelites who heard these words of Jesus were outraged that Jesus would give an impression that foreigners would be considered equal to or more important to God than themselves; they were God’s chosen people and would not stand for such teachings. In their frustration, they were ready to kill Jesus by throwing Him off a cliff. Jesus, however, was able to slip away from them in the confusion of the angry crowd.
This is a promise of how the Israelites (God’s chosen people) would respond to Jesus’ teaching.
This is a prophecy from Jesus of what the Israelites would say to Him as He would later be crucified.
This is a promise that Jesus came to save the world from sin; not just the Israelites.
This is a message from Jesus that we are all included in God’s great plan of salvation. We all, also, have a tendency to be selfish; we want to be better than others. It’s the sinful nature within us that wants to put others down or below us on the ladder of life, but we learn in Matthew 20:25-28, “But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Jesus calls us to serve one another, and in doing so we may have to make sacrifices in our own lives in putting others before ourselves. That is the love of Christ Jesus; to put the needs of others before ourselves. He sacrificed His life for the needs of humanity so that we would be saved from sin by His pure work in paying our debt to sin. The death that we need to experience in our sacrifice is the death of the sinful nature, by accepting what Jesus has done for us and making the choice to live a new life of forgiveness in Him.
Dear Lord,
Please help us to see that in Christ we should be representatives of Him; that we should share the good news of salvation in Him – that we should do as Jesus commanded us in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” In Jesus name I pray, amen.