Don’t be one of the crowd

I was recently reading Luke 4:14-30. It was interesting to me an emphasis that seemed to be made in the text. In the prior section, Jesus had just been led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil (4:1). Jesus, of course, had not fallen for satan’s temptations, but put him in his place with Scripture. Jesus had “returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit” (14).

Next is the beginning of what I noted – News of Jesus had spread throughout the region and he was “being praised by everyone” (15 CSB*) or the ESV* says, “being glorified by all.” We enter the scene where Jesus was called upon to read at synagogue and the passage was from Isaiah regarding the one anointed to proclaim good news to the poor and liberty to the captives and those who are oppressed; to recover the sight of the blind. After Jesus sat down, he then had the audacity to state, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (21). (I’m pretty sure I heard a gasp.) [About being blind . . . ]

Verse 22 reiterates the favor of the people – “All spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth” and yet something was stirring, because, wasn’t this Joseph’s son? Then, seeing their response, Jesus stirred the pot even more. He proceeds to tell them that a prophet is not welcome in their hometown, but that God had already established a precedent in taking his kingdom where it would be accepted, to the gentiles, as illustrated by Elijah and the widow Sidon and Elisha and Naaman the Syrian.

What was the people’s response now? “all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things” (28). How dare this presumptuous local son!

As I pondered this, I thought of two things –
1) for those in any sort of leadership role, beware of the favor of humanity, because it is fickle and can turn as soon as something pushes the right button
2) for all of us when not in a leadership role, we need to be careful of our reactions – particularly in our present culture where “all the people” feel they need to express their opinion without taking a step back to analyze the situation.
Don’t “shoot the messenger.” Does what you are hearing line up with the character of God and the principles and values of his kingdom that are found in the Bible? Do your responses fall into line with that same standard?

*CSB: Christian Standard Bible
ESV: English Standard Version