St. Luke 4: 16 – 32

January 29, 2023

16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?

23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;

26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,

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.

30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

31 And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.

32 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.

Now read verses 29 and 30 again … go ahead; I’ll wait. Did you see it? There are instances of this scattered throughout the New Testament and they catch my eye every time. And my imagination. And my thrill at Jesus being Jesus.

Jesus – fully human (that’s important to remember!) and yet fully divine (now we’re coming to it …) IF Jesus were not the Son of God, how did He go from verse 30 to verse 31??? Remember – He’s surrounded by these people that want to push Him off a cliff! HOW did He ‘pass through the midst of them’? Because He is fully divine and not held to the same boundaries ordinary humans are! They couldn’t do anything to Him that He didn’t allow. He did not allow them to send Him to His death by falling from a high cliff. He ALLOWED the one circumstance of His death which He and the Father agreed should happen.

In modern day parlance, we would say He ‘disappeared’ from where He was and put Himself in Capernaum. Because He was (is) fully divine. He could be anywhere He wanted to be at any given moment.

This fact is supported by Matt 26: 53 – Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? His ‘allowance’ of what is to happen is supported by Matt 26: 54 But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? Do you see it?

So. How do we know Jesus was human and divine? I think we just proved it.