And they were all filled with rage in the synagogue, hearing these things;
Moments earlier the synagogue at Nazareth was full of admiration for Jesus. Then the same room wanted Him dead. What turned them was not a claim about Himself. It was two old stories: help sent to a widow in Sidon and to a Syrian leper — both outsiders.
The change of mood is fast. One writer traces it to what grace says about the people who hear it.
Man soon turns from it in anger and dislike. Attracted at first, he turned against it afterwards. The reason is that grace tells out the ruin of man, and it always insists on going out wherever there is need and misery.
The blessings themselves were welcome. What was not welcome was the footing on which they came.
This beautiful presentation of grace in its practical working did not suit the people of Nazareth. Gracious words were all very nice in theory. But the moment they realised that grace assumes nothing but demerit in those who receive it, they rose up in proud rebellion and great fury. They would have killed Jesus if He had not passed from among them. The good things that grace brings were acceptable enough. But they did not want them on the ground of grace, since grace assumed they were no better than Gentile sinners.
God sent Elijah past every widow in Israel to one in Sidon. Elisha cleansed no leper in Israel — only a Syrian. One writer explains why the blessing skipped the people who seemed to have first claim on it.
The moral condition of the people was so bad, and their forgetfulness of God so appalling, that God's holy government passed over the people who held the outward place of privilege. Grace, which can never be inactive, sought out a Sidonian widow and a Syrian leper as fit objects to satisfy it.
Their rage did not come from lack of evidence. They knew what He had done in Capernaum.
They would not listen to a ministry of grace, though they were fully aware of the proofs of His divine mission that He had already given in Capernaum... They were willing to see displays of power. But they were not willing to hear of God acting in the sovereignty of His grace, so they cast Him out.
Luke notes that the wrath was unanimous — everyone in the synagogue. One writer traces it to pride.
Wrath fills the heart of those who reject grace. They did not believe, and they could not see the blessing that had visited them. Still, they will not have it go elsewhere. Their pride made them unable to value grace, and would not hear of it going to others. They seek to destroy Jesus, but He goes on His way.
This was not one town's problem. Another writer puts the same reaction inside every human heart.
The very people who "wondered at the gracious words that came from His mouth" the same day sought to cast Jesus down headlong. And what was it that brought out their enmity? The assertion of man's evil and God's true grace. Man cannot endure the thought that his salvation depends upon God's mercy. He cannot bear that it is for the worst of sinners as much as for anyone else.
They took Him to the cliff edge, and He walked away untouched. One writer sees His whole future rejection pictured in that moment.
They try to kill Him by throwing Him from the brow of the hill where their city stands. But He passes through the middle of them and goes His way. What a plain foreshadow this is of the rejection waiting for Him at the hands of the people! It also shows how the death they planned for Him did nothing to hinder the purposes for which He stooped even to death. And so grace went out to the Gentiles.
Their violence did not deflect Him, though it cost Him something.
They might be enraged, but grace does overstep their limits. They rose up to thrust down Him who had denied their privileges, but He passed through to renew the work of grace elsewhere. This does not move Jesus; it tries Him and breaks His heart, but it does not move Him.
- Grace spoken. Jesus preached grace, and the synagogue first admired His gracious words.
- Grace exposes. Grace tells out the ruin of man. The moment they saw it treated them as no better than Gentile sinners, admiration turned to rebellion.
- Grace travels. A widow in Sidon and a Syrian leper show the pattern. Grace passes over the place of privilege and goes where the need is.
- Grace enrages. Wrath fills the heart that rejects grace. It will not take the blessing, and will not let others have it.
- Grace continues. He walked through the crowd and went on; their fury foreshadowed His death, and it could not stop grace reaching the Gentiles.
and rising up they cast him forth out of the city, and led him up to the brow of the mountain upon which their city was built, so that they might throw him down the precipice;
Minutes earlier the people of Nazareth had admired His gracious words. Now the same crowd was dragging Him to a cliff edge. What did He say that turned their praise into an attempt on His life?
He had just spoken of God's sovereignty and of grace reaching people outside Israel. The offence was not the offer of good things but the terms on which they came.
This beautiful display of grace at work did not suit the people of Nazareth. Gracious words sounded very nice in theory. But the moment they realized that grace assumes nothing but demerit in those who receive it, they rose up in proud rebellion and great fury. They would have killed Jesus if He had not passed from their midst. The good things that grace brings were acceptable enough. But they did not want them on the ground of grace, since it assumed they were no better than Gentile sinners.
Their fury had a second edge. They would not take the blessing themselves. They would not let it reach anyone else either.
Wrath fills the heart of those who reject grace. They do not believe, and they cannot see the blessing that has visited them. So they will not have it go elsewhere. Their pride made them unable to value grace, and it would not hear of grace going to others. They seek to destroy Jesus, but He goes on His way. Here is the whole history of Jesus among the people traced out beforehand.
Luke marks the place: the hill their own town stood on. This was home, the streets where He grew up.
Nazareth was the place where Man's life toward God had been displayed. Now He visits it to display the heart of God toward man... They all spoke well of Him and wondered at the gracious words that came out of His mouth. But then He declared the sovereignty of God and grace for all people. That filled them with wrath, and they rose up and thrust Him out of the city. Herod had sought His life when He was a baby. Now the people He had lived among, and for whom He came from heaven, seek to kill Him.
Throwing a man from a height was a known way of killing, but the law of Moses never prescribed it:
Capital punishment was at times carried out in ways not mentioned in the law: sawing apart and cutting with harrows and axes, 2 Sam. 12:31; Heb. 11:37; throwing from a height, 2 Chr. 25:12; Luke 4:29.
So the men most eager to defend Israel's privileges broke Israel's own law to do it.
Filled with anger, they break their own law again without hesitation. They try to murder God's prophet by taking Him to a cliff to throw Him over. They would say He was not loyal to His own nation. But men's ideas of loyalty are too often only a selfish devotion to their own group. Here that feeling was so strong that it turned to cruel and violent murder.
The hillside shows in small what the nation would later do. It also shows that their plan stopped nothing.
But the men of Nazareth are only roused into fury by such words. They seek to kill Him by hurling Him from the brow of the hill their city stands on. But He passes through the middle of them and goes His way. How clearly this foreshadows the rejection that awaited Him at the hands of the people. The death they intended for Him did nothing to hinder the purposes for which He stooped even to death itself. And so grace went out to the Gentiles.
The people who knew Him best came closest to killing Him. That is the lasting warning of the hillside.
Two paths lay before them. They could accept their Prophet, or treat Him as all other true prophets had been treated. They chose the latter. They led Him to the brow of the hill to throw Him down headlong. In this way they would put out, if they could, the light that exposed their unbelief... But note this well. The place of privilege, like the prophet's own country, is a place of great danger, because it carries such great responsibility.
- Grace offends. Nazareth loved His gracious words. But grace assumes that those who receive it deserve nothing, and their praise turned to fury.
- Grace travels. Their pride would not take the blessing, and would not let it reach anyone else.
- Grace exposes. At the cliff they tried to put out the light that exposed their unbelief. Religious men broke their own law to do it.
- Grace prevails. The death they planned hindered nothing. He went His way, and grace went out to the Gentiles.
- Grace warns. The town that raised Him came nearest to killing Him. Being closest to the light brings the greatest responsibility.
but *he*, passing through the midst of them, went his way,
Moments after His words charmed the crowd in the Nazareth synagogue, the same people were dragging Him to a cliff edge. He walked straight through them and left, which raises two questions: what turned admiration into murder, and what stopped it?
Grace does not flatter the people who hear it, and it does not stay inside Israel.
They were attracted at first. Afterwards they turned against it, because grace both exposes the ruin of man and always insists on going out wherever there is need and misery. Still, the Lord did not make it clear that grace would go out to the Gentiles until their rejection of Him began to show itself. And now the same men who were so struck by the charm of grace were ready to throw Him headlong off the hill their town was built on. But He passed through the middle of them and went His way. His time had not yet come.
The offence was what grace implied about them. Needing grace puts a person on a level with everyone else.
Yet the reminder itself is unbearable to the Jews of Nazareth. It offends their religious pride and national dignity. Does it not bring Jews down to the level of people who need grace? Law, not grace, is the principle they want. Yet they, and all Israel with them, were guilty of breaking the law. They badly needed the grace Isaiah 61 had spoken of, and they needed the Messiah who had spoken to them.
Commentators differ on how He got through. Some point to who He was.
Was it a miracle? It was the result of His own dignity as the perfect Man. That dignity awed the crowds, so that no one dared to touch Him.
Others doubt it was a wonder at all, and give a reason drawn from His whole life.
Some call this a miracle, but the words do not have to mean that. Our Lord never seems to have worked a miracle for His own benefit, so we are slow to think He did one here. He simply passed through the middle of them. In all their noise and confusion, they were perhaps not yet united enough to carry out their purpose.
One answer looks past the crowd to God — and reaches all the way to believers today.
Here is the protection of the power of God for the obedient Man. He shows no supernatural display of power. Rather, God made His enemies powerless to carry out what they intended. This same power is often at work, completely unknown in most cases, to protect believers who depend in faith on His sovereign grace.
The danger was never the height. One writer sets this hill beside the pinnacle of the temple and finds the same refusal at both.
That hill was not higher than the pinnacle of the temple. Jesus was in no more danger at the one spot than at the other. But how then would He fulfil the Scripture that He came not to honour Himself? So He passed through the middle of them and went His way. He withdrew unnoticed and unknown, keeping His place as a servant and showing His grace in the thoughts of His saints.
Nazareth wanted Him dead years before Calvary. The scene is read as a preview — including a preview of how little His killing would achieve.
What a clear picture this is of the rejection waiting for Him at the hands of the people. It also shows how the death they planned for Him did nothing to hinder the purposes for which He stooped even to death. And so grace went out to the Gentiles.
The verse does not end with escape; it ends with a direction. (Older translations read "went His way"; the ESV has "he went away.")
What does He do? "He, passing through the midst of them, went His way." What was His way? It was a way of divine mercy and goodness to people in every condition you can imagine. Did He meet hungry men? He fed them. Blind men? He gave them sight. Men with leprosy? He cleansed them. Deaf men? He opened their ears. Dead men? He raised them. Whatever the need was, He met it.
Walking away calmly is not the same as feeling nothing.
They rose up to throw down the One who had denied their privileges. But He passed through them, and took up the work of grace somewhere else. This does not move Jesus; it tries Him and breaks His heart, but it does not move Him. The reproach of man turns Him to God.
- Grace offends. The message that thrilled Nazareth turned deadly the moment it put its hearers among the people who need grace.
- Grace travels. Refused at home, it "went out to the Gentiles" — out to people beyond Israel.
- Grace is guarded. He passed through untouched because His time had not yet come. There was no display of power then, and the same power still guards those who depend on Him.
- Grace stays a servant. The hill was no more dangerous than the temple pinnacle. He would not use power to honour Himself, so He withdrew unnoticed.
- Grace keeps walking. He went His way — feeding, healing, opening eyes. Rejection tried Him and broke His heart, but it never moved Him.