“If God was one of us” from the old tune “One of Us” ponders nothing about religion per se, but of experiences that rattle one’s worldview. Happenings that alter our basic perception of ultimate reality. But what if God stood next to you, would you notice? Would you care? Would you be pleased or appalled?
It is the autumn of AD 27,[1] Jesus comes to Nazareth and attends synagogue on the Sabbath (Lk. 4:16). Having grown up in Nazareth (Lk. 2:39, 51), the locals would have been familiar with Jesus, and He would have been included as a participant at the meeting.[2] In those days, the synagogue “service included hymns, prayers, a reading from the Torah, a reading from the Prophets, and a sermon.”[3]
When the time came to read from the Prophets, Jesus stood and read these words from the prophet Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Lk. 4:18-19; cf. Isa. 61:1-2 and 58:6). [4]
Isaiah foretold the arrival of the Lord’s anointed (i.e., messiah) who will be endowed with the Holy Spirit. He will bring good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, sight to the blind, and relief to the oppressed. His concern would be for the least, lost, and lowly of the world. He will announce “the year of the Lord’s favor.” This refers to the jubilee that Moses set forth wherein debts were canceled, slaves set free, and properties returned to their original owners (Lev. 25:8-22). Proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favor signified the dawn of a messianic age.
Jesus then sat down (the normal position of teachers expounding the Scripture[5]) and pronounced: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk. 4:21).
Whether this was everything Jesus said at that service is unknown, but one can hardly understate the significance of what had been communicated. This concise declaration tells us: “(1) The prophecy of Isaiah has now (‘today’) been fulfilled (4:21). (2) The fulfillment is Jesus himself; he is the one whom the Spirit has anointed. The reference to Isaiah 61 and the use of the word ‘anointed’ suggest that Jesus is referring to himself as the Messiah and servant of Yahweh. (3) Jesus’s ministry is directed to those in need—the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed (4:18–19).”[6] Jesus connected His vocation with the spirit endowed messiah bringing jubilee foreseen by the prophet Isaiah. He is proclaiming Himself to be the Messiah or Christ.
Characteristic of a sinful and fallen world are the problems of poverty, slavery (captivity), maladies (blindness), and oppression. Christ is endowed with the Spirit to reverse the effects of the fall and bring relief to those suffering in sin. It is the transformational power of the Spirit that moved Christians to alms, participate in the abolition of slavery, establish hospitals, and seek the welfare of others.[7]
Here the true value of humanity is magnified. Not only is God the Maker of human kind, but God becomes a man to save the lost. It never because humanity performs something so special that God see the benefit of saving them from their sin; rather, God sees the intrinsic worth of those who have been created in the imago Dei. Even the least, lost, and lowly of the world (i.e., those in poverty, slavery, disabled, and oppressed) are worth receiving care and compassion.
The crowds initially “spoke well of him,” and they “marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth” (Lk. 4:22a). A positive impression was made. But the question, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” (Lk. 4:22) revealed doubt. Joseph was a local carpenter, not a wealthy landowner, just a hired laborer, yet the eloquence of his boy perplexed them. They doubted on account of Jesus’ pedigree.
Jesus replies with two proverbs. “Physician, heal yourself” (Lk. 4:23). This is an indirect way of saying, “Prove yourself” or “Show us what you got.” The Lord discerns that the folks at Nazareth would learn of the many miracles being performed in Capernaum, and call upon the Lord to perform them in Nazareth. Coincidentally, the witnesses of Matthew and Mark indicate “unbelief” as the underlying problem for Jesus’ refusal to perform miracles in Nazareth (Matt. 13:58; Mk. 6:5-6).[8] The unbelief of those in Nazareth is exposed.
“No prophet is acceptable in his hometown” (Lk. 4:24). In other words, God sent prophets to the Israelites but the Israelites rejected the prophets. Old Testament history informs us that “the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer” yet “they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God” (2 Kings 17:13, 14). The Son of God dwelt in Nazareth, but the folks of Nazareth rejected Him.
“But in truth, I tell you,” Jesus says, “there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian” (Lk. 4:25-27). Note that “Jesus mentions the socially weak (widows) and marginalized (lepers) here, but the main point is that non-Jews were the ones to accept two of the major signs prophets of the Old Testament. Sidon and Syria were among the particularly despised areas. Jesus’ point: Nazareth will not receive him, but non-Jews will.”[9] The widow of Zarephath in Sidon and Naman the Syrian were pagans who positively responded to the message of Elijah and Elisha, but both prophets of God were rejected by their own Israelite kinfolk.
Luke then tells us that “when they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff” (Lk. 4:28-29). The rejection of the prophet manifests in the dragging of Christ out of town to be executed. The Nazarenes moved to rid themselves of God’s anointed.
“But passing through their midst, he went away” (Lk. 4:30). How Jesus escaped the clutches of the mob is a mystery but He just walked right through the madness of the crowds. The time had not yet arrived for the Son of God to lay down His own life.
What we find is a preview of things to come with the movement Messiah had started. We find that “Jesus reveals his messianic mission of grace and mercy” but “the Jews reject him, and Jesus implies that the good news will then be proclaimed to the Gentiles (cf. Acts 13:44–48; 28:23–28).”[10]
God is near to us, but the great tragedy is failing to acknowledge God’s presence. Just as the Son of God dwelt in Nazareth but was misapprehended to be only the son of a carpenter, how terrible is it for us to go about life as if God was absent.
Why then does God remain invisible and hidden from sight? Why does not God make His presence more obvious? Blaise Pascal would reply, “[God] has willed to make Himself quite recognisable by those; and thus, willing to appear openly to those who seek Him with all their heart, and to be hidden from those who flee from Him with all their heart, He so regulates the knowledge of Himself that He has given signs of Himself, visible to those who seek Him, and not to those who seek Him not. There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition” (Pensees 430)[11] If we are looking for God, God we will find.
God gives everybody enough light so that anyone who searches for God will find God. But the light is dim enough so that anyone uninterested in God and the things of God can simply go about life without taking notice of the divine. Would a spectacular ground shaking lightning making thunder blasting theophany make a difference? Perhaps it can only invoke a feigned loyalty. But even something that magnanimous may never really ignite faith and love for God. There are even those who declare no belief but rage violently against God and the people of God. Yet, those who search with faith, they will find God.
— WGN
[1] A. T. Robertson, A Harmony of the Gospels (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009), Jn 4:43–45.
[2] The folks in Nazareth may have even gotten wind of local reports from other synagogue attendees of Jesus being a capable teacher. After spending time in the wilderness around Jordan, Jesus in power of the Spirit came to Galilee, began teaching in the synagogues in the area, and the audience glorified Him (Lk. 4:14-15).
[3] Thomas R. Schreiner, The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, ed. Gary M. Burge and Andrew E. Hill (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 1069. It is understood that “to have a synagogue service required the presence of ten adult males. At the service, the Shema was recited (Deut. 6:4-9), followed by prayers, including some set of prayers like the Tephilla and the Eighteen Benedictions (m. Berakot 2:2). After this the Scripture was read, beginning with a portion from the Torah (Gen— Deut) and moving next to a section from the Prophets. Instruction then followed. Often the speaker linked the texts together through appeal to other passages. The service then closed with a benediction” (Darrell L. Bock, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Luke, ed. Grant R. Osborne [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994], 88).
[4] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
[5] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Lk 4:20.
[6] Schreiner, 1069.
[7] To explore the influence of Christianity in reforming nations see Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Transformation: A Manifesto for Ailing Nations (Seattle, WA: YWAM, 2009) and John S. Dickerson, Jesus Skeptic: A Journalist Explores the Credibility and Impact of Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2019).
[8] For a good discussion on coincidences that testify to the reliability of New Testament reports, see Lydia McGrew, “The Apologetic Value of Coincidences in New Testament Reporting,” Christian Research journal, 40, 6 [2017]: https://www.equip.org/articles/the-apologetic-value-of-coincidences-in-new-testament-reporting/
[9] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Lk 4:25–27.
[10] Gary M. Burge and Andrew E. Hill, eds., The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 1070.
[11] Cited from Blaise Pascal, Pensees. Translated by W.F. Trotter (Overland Park, KS: Digireads.com, 2009), 53
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