28 - Like 4:24

’Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.’ -Luke 4:24.

It is probable that Christ, in saying this, was merely repeating a well-known proverb. The instances in which prophets failed to find honour among their own people, and had to go abroad to be heeded, were of such frequent occurrence that men had been disposed to trace in them the operation of a general law. Our Lord’s adoption of the saying shows that it rests on a basis of truth. He did not mean that an instance of a prophet appreciated by his own people was a thing unknown; but that the contrary was generally the case. And it is not difficult to see why it was the case. The prophets were ordinary men before they were appointed to the prophetical office; sinful men, like the rest of the race; and known to their fellow-men in this capacity before they began to speak in the name of the Lord. The Spirit of God moved upon their hearts, brought them into hallowed relations with God, and fitted them for the work of making known his will; but their fellow-townsmen could not forget the long years during which they had been associating with them on terms of companionship, had been engaged with them in a multitude of pursuits, had been identified with them in all essential particulars. Looking upon the prophet they would call to remembrance this former fellowship, and would ask why this one should have been chosen for the office rather than any of them. Men are very reluctant to see one of their own number, not designated for it by themselves, chosen to be clothed with authority over them. They are ready to say to him, Physician, heal thyself: hast thou less need of healing than the rest of us? Thus Moses was rejected of the Israelites when he first offered himself to them as a deliverer; only after he had spent forty years in a foreign country did they consent to receive him. Our Lord was in Nazareth "where he had been brought up." They that were listening to him in the synagogue had known him from early years; were well acquainted with Mary his mother, with Joseph, and with the other members of that humble household; they had known Jesus and Joseph as carpenters, had actually employed them to make this or that article of furniture, to execute this or that repair; had money dealings with them. Now, men were talking about this Jesus as though he were some great prophet, more than a prophet, the Messiah even, Son of God, heaven knows what all; as though he had some extraordinary powers the like of which no man possessed, some divine wisdom casting into the shade all the wisdom of the most renowned Rabbis. It was enough to make a man go wild to hear of such pretensions. ’Has he dropped from the skies, this Jesus? Has he descended in a fiery-chariot? Has he come from the ends of the earth? Is he a stranger? Who is this but Jesus, our townsman, the carpenter, brought up among us, perfectly well known to all of us Nazarenes? Before they begin to tell such wild tales, why do not men come to us and learn what we are able to tell them? It would be strange indeed if he had miraculous powers and we knew nothing about it; if he had divine wisdom and we had not found out about it; if he had extraordinary virtues and we had not become acquainted with them. If he had any special call from heaven, why did he never venture to speak about it to us? If he has authority from heaven to take up the mantle of the ancient prophets, why did he not tell us about it? Ah, we should have soon given him his answer. He did well to go away to the Jordan, among strangers, to hear voices from heaven. A very likely thing that the well-beloved Son of God should live to be thirty years of age doing the work of a carpenter in our town, mixing with us as one of us, and never giving us the least inkling of his amazing dignity!’ But oh, ye excited Nazarenes, tell us if you can of anything done or spoken by Jesus, the son of Mary, during all these years, inconsistent with the truth of God? Can you charge home upon him any instances of pride, covetousness, selfishness, malice, ambition, vindictiveness, meanness? While it is true that he may have offended your prejudices by disregarding some of the traditions which some of the Rabbis and Pharisees made so much of, and that he neglected a great deal that passes current with you as religion, can you point to a single instance in which he made light of the will of God revealed in the Scriptures? He was not perhaps a good neighbour in the sense of running with you to the excess of riot, going hand in hand with you in sports and pursuits that were not seemly; but can you mention any instance in which he omitted to succour the needy and the distressed, to sympathise with the poor and the afflicted? Did any of you ever persuade him to do what he believed to be wrong? Has he not, in a word, conducted himself with all meekness and holiness, and purity and kindness and faithfulness?

Ah, there is reason to believe that the faithfulness of Jesus offended more than his humility propitiated. In one way or another, by his walk at all events, he had reproved the ungodliness and unrighteousness of his fellow-citizens; their anger had been elicited; they had censured him for his disregard of the claims of religion as set forth by the scribes and elders and Pharisees, and as recognised by all; for presuming, he Jesus the carpenter, to be wiser than all the world. And now the Jesus whom they had thus censured, and by whom they had been thus unpleasantly reproved, this same Jesus stands before them and asks them to receive him as an ambassador from heaven - asks them to believe that the Holy One of God has been living ever so many years among them, not only unknown, but slighted and condemned. Away with him, away with him! Such a one is not fit to live.

So, rising up in their wrath, they attempted to drag him to a neighboring precipice, that they might dash him to pieces. But he passed through the midst of them, and went his way.