JESUS REJECTED BY HIS HOMETOWN OF NAZARETH

JESUS WAS REJECTED BY HIS FRIENDS
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Luke 4:28-30. “And all they in the synagogue, when
they heard these things, were filledwith wrath, 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. But he
passingthrough the midst of them went his way.”
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Graciousness Of The Words Of Christ
Luke 4:22
W. Clarkson The gracious words [words of grace] which proceeded out of his mouth. The
"words of the Lord Jesus" were "words of grace" indeed. They were so whether we consider -
I. THEIR SUBSTANCE. They were not, indeed, without seriousness, and at times not without
severity. Christ did say, when the occasion required it, things which startled his hearers, things
which are well fitted to make us pause and even tremble if we are obnoxious to their severity. He
is, as a Divine Teacher and Revealer of God, as far as possible removed from the easy good-
naturedness which would represent it as a matter of indifference what men hold and how they
live, - the "good God" will make it all right in the end. No man can listen attentively and
reverently to Christ and settle down into comfortable unbelief or self-complacent sin. Yet were
his words predominantly and pre-eminently "words of grace." By the truths he preached he made
known to mankind that:
1. God is accessible to all; the Approachable One, who is always willing to receive his children,
and who welcomes back those who have wandered farthest away.
2. That a noble life is open to all; we may be in character and spirit, as well as in name and in
position, the children of God (Matthew 5:45-48); we are to be "the light of the world," "the salt
of the earth."

3. That a glorious future is within the reach of all; "in the Father's house are many mansions."
4. That salvation is very near to all; the Scripture is fulfilled; the Redeemer is come; the blind
may see; the captives may be delivered; this is "the acceptable year," "the accepted time;" "to-
day is the day of salvation." Or whether we consider -
II. THEIR FORM. There is about the gracious words of Christ:
1. An accent of persuasiveness. He does not angrily threaten, he cordially invites us; he says,
winningly, "Come unto me... I am meek and lowly;" "Abide in me, and I [will abide] in you;"
"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock," etc.
2. A note of considerateness. "Come into a desert place, and rest awhile;" "I have many things to
say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now;" "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
3. A touch of tenderness. "I will not leave you comfortless;" "Because I have said these things
unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart."
(1.) It is perilous to abuse the grace of Christ. There is such a thing as "the wrath of the Lamb."
(2.) It is perfectly safe to trust in his grace. He means everything he says; the worst may obtain
his mercy, the most diffident may confide in his redemption of his word. - C.
Biblical Illustrator
And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath.
Luke 4:28, 31
Nazareth; or, Jesus rejected by His friends
C. H. Spurgeon.I. WHO WERE THESE REJECTORS OF CHRIST? They have their types and
representatives now.
1. They were those who were nearest related to the Saviour. They were the people of His own
town.
2. They were those who knew most about Christ. The whole story of the wondrous Child was
known to them.
3. They were people who supposed that they had a claim upon Christ. They no doubt argued,
"He is a Nazareth man, and of course He is in duty bound to help Nazareth."
II. WHY THEY THUS REJECT THE MESSIAH.
1. I should not wonder but what the groundwork of their dissatisfaction was laid in the fact that
they did not feel themselves to be the persons to whom the Saviour claimed to have a
commission. Observe, He said, in the eighteenth verse, that He was " anointed to preach the

gospel to the poor." Now, the poorest ones in the synagogue may have felt pleased at that word;
but as it was almost a maxim with the Jewish doctors that it did not signify what became of the
poor — for few but the rich could enter heaven — the very announcement of a gospel for the
poor must have sounded to them awfully democratical and extreme, and must have laid in their
minds the foundation of a prejudice. Did not some of them say, "We have worn our phylacteries,
and made broad the borders of our garments; we have not eaten except with washen hands; we
have strained out all gnats from our wine; we have kept the fasts, and the feasts, and we have
made long prayers, why should we feel any poverty of spirit? " Hence they felt there was nothing
in Christ's mission for them. When He next mentioned the broken-hearted, they were not at all
conscious of any need of a broken heart. They felt heart-whole, self-satisfied, perfectly content.
What is the acceptable year of the Lord to us, if it is only for bruised captive ones? We are not
such. At a glance you perceive, my brethren, the reason why in these days Jesus Christ is rejected
by so many church-going and chapel-going people.
2. I entertain little doubt but what the men of Nazareth were angry with Christ because of His
exceeding high claims. He said, "The spirit of Jehovah is upon Me." They started at that. And so
men now reject Christ because He sets Himself too high, and asks more of them than they are
willing to give.
3. Another reason might be found in the fact that they were not for receiving Christ until He had
exhibited some great wonder. They craved for miracles. Their minds were in a sickly state. A
young man yonder has said to himself, "If I had a dream, as I hear So-and-so had, or if there
should happen to me some very remarkable event in providence, which should just meet my
taste; or if I could feel to-day some sudden shock of I know not what, then I would believe."
Thus you dream that my Lord and Master is to be dictated to by you! You are beggars at His
gate, asking for mercy, and you must needs draw up rules and regulations as to how He shall
give that mercy.
4. Again, and perhaps this time I may hit the head of the nail in some cases, though I suppose not
in many in this place, part of the irritation which existed in the minds of the men of Nazareth was
caused by the peculiar doctrine which the Saviour preached upon the subject of election. He laid
it down that God had a right to dispense His favours just as He pleased, and that in doing so He
often selected the most unlikely objects. They did not like this. The doctrine of free grace to the
needy is ever a stumbling-block to men.
5. They loved not such plain personal speaking as the Saviour gave them.
6. They could not bear to hear Him hint that He meant to bless the Gentiles.
III. And now, WHAT CAME OF IT?
1. They thrust the Saviour out of the synagogue, and then they tried to hurl Him down the brow
of the hill. These were His friends, good, respectable people: who would have believed it of
them? You saw that goodly company in the synagogue who sang so sweetly, and listened so
attentively, would you have guessed that there was a murderer inside every one of their coats? It
only needed the opportunity to bring the murderer out; for there they are all trying to throw Jesus
down the hill. We do not know how much devil there is inside any one of us; if we. are not
renewed and changed by grace, we are heirs of wrath even as others.
2. But what came of it? Why, though they thus thrust Him out, they could not hurt the Saviour.
The hurt was all their own.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Men seldom see the great in what is about them
T. T. Munger.We ride without eyes under Greylock, and go to the White Mountains for
sublimity. The moon in Venice, and the sky in Naples, have more charm than here at home. The
weeds of other climates become our flowers, and our flowers seem to us but weeds. There is
little heroism, little devotion and nobility on our square mile; there are no epics or lyrics of
human deed and feeling sung in our streets; the great, the beautiful, the excellent, is at a distance.
Why we think thus it may be hard to tell, unless it is from instinctive reverence on the one hand,
and on the other because the realization of greatness makes us aware of our own littleness, and so
provokes us to every danger. So that what we read of here is no strange history, but only an
illustration of a daily fact: a great spirit rejected by friends and neighbours; it is only the
carpenter's Son, the boy who grew up in the midst of us, and now, forsooth, claiming to be a
prophet! And so they drive Him out of their city.
(T. T. Munger.)
Cause of the Nazarenes' wrath
J. Baring. Gould, M. A.What was actually the cause of the sudden upboil of these men's wrath?
It was that their selfesteem was wounded. Christ declared that only the humble and meek would
be able to receive Him. Elijah was persecuted, and received only by one poor widow. Naaman
was unworthy to be healed till he humbled himself to dip in despised Jordan. The men of
Nazareth understood the inference. It was not flattering to their pride; they could not be fed and
healed unless they became humble, and submitted to the Lord's Christ. This they would not do
— and they cast Him out of their city. As with Christ, so with His Church, and with His
messengers. As long as they preach a gospel which does not touch man's pride and lower his
selfesteem, they wonder at the graciousness of the gospel; but the moment it bids them not to be
wise in their own conceits, insists on submission of body, soul, and reason to Christ, and calls to
a lowly walk and self-abasement, then men rise up against the Church, and its ministers, and
against the true gospel of Christ, and would, if they could, cast it out of their city, and hurl it
from their thoughts.
(J. Baring. Gould, M. A.)
Capernaum
Dr. Geikie., L. Oliphant., E. Stapfer, D. D.It lay on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, and
was, in Christ's day, a thriving, busy town. The highway to the sea, from Damascus to Ptolemais
— now Acre — ran through it, bringing no little local traffic, and also opening the markets of the
coast to the rich yield of the neighbouring farms, orchards, and vineyards, and the abundant
returns of the fisheries of the lake. The townsfolk thus, as a rule, enjoyed the comfort and plenty
we see in the homes of Peter and Matthew, and were even open to the charge of being
"winebibbers and gluttonous," which implied generous entertainments They were proud of their
town, and counted on its steady growth and unbounded prosperity, little dreaming of the ruin
which would one day make even its site a question.
(Dr. Geikie.)Dr. Robinson, Captain Conder, and others place the site of Capernaum at Khan
Mingeh, a spot of unique interest and beauty. Captain Conder certainly adduces strong reasons in
favour of this hypothesis.

(L. Oliphant.)Not far from the banks of the Jordan stands Capernaum (now Tell. Hum), and here
we find ourselves in the very centre of the Lord's Galilean ministry. It was at Capernaum that He
dwelt. This was the "startingpoint of His journeys, and to this He returned after going about from
place to place doing good.
(E. Stapfer, D. D.)
Blindness of prejudice
Baxendale's Anecdotes.A lady who excelled in making wax flowers and fruit was often criticised
severely by her friends, and her work decried, as she thought, unjustly. She convicted them by
showing an apple, which they as usual found fault with, one as to the shape, another as to colour,
and so on. When they had finished, the lady cut the apple and ate it.
(Baxendale's Anecdotes.)
Overawed by the Spirit
Bate's Influence of Mind on Mind.The Rev. Charles G. Finney gives, in the words following, an
account of the effects of a Christian look on a certain occasion: — "I once preached, for the first
time, in a manufacturing village. The next morning I went into a manufacturing establishment to
view its operations. As I passed into the weaving department, I beheld a great company of young
women, some of whom, I observed, were looking at me and then at each other, in a manner that
indicated a trifling spirit, and that they knew me. I, however, knew none of them. As I
approached nearer to those who had recognized me, they seemed to increase in their
manifestation of lightness of mind. Their levity made a peculiar impression upon me; I felt it to
my very heart. I stopped short and looked at them, I know not how, as my whole mind was
absorbed with their guilt and danger. As I settled my countenance upon them, I observed that one
of them became very much agitated. A thread broke. She attempted to mend it; but her hands
trembled in such a manner that she could not do it. I immediately observed that the sensation was
spreading, and had become universal among that class of triflers. I looked steadily at them, until
one after another gave up, and paid no more attention to their looms. They fell on their knees,
and the influence spread throughout the whole room. I had not spoken a word, as the noise of the
looms would have prevented my being heard if I had. In a few minutes all work was abandoned,
and tears and lamentations filled the room. At this moment the owner of the factory, who was
himself an unconverted man, came in, accompanied, I believe, by the superintendent, who was a
professed Christian. When the owner saw the state of things, he said to the superintendent, 'Stop
the mill.' What he saw seemed to pierce him to the heart. 'It is more important,' he hurriedly
remarked, 'that these souls should be saved than that this mill should run.' As soon as the noise of
the machinery had ceased, the owner inquired, 'What shall we do? We must have a place to meet
where we can receive instruction.' The superintendent replied, 'The mule-room will do.' The
mules were run up out of the way, and all the hands were notified, and assembled in that room.
We had a marvellous meeting. I prayed with them, and gave them such instructions as at the time
they could bear. The Word was with power; and within a few days, as I was informed, nearly
every hand in that great establishment, together with the owner, had hope in Christ."
(Bate's Influence of Mind on Mind.)
Remarkable change in the conduct of a mob
Dr. Adam Clarke. — A missionary who had been sent to a strange land to proclaim the "gospel
of the kingdom of God" and who had passed through many hardships and was often in danger of

losing his life, through the persecutions excited against him, came to a place where he had often
before, at no small risk, preached Christ crucified. About fifty people who had received good
impressions from the Word of God, assembled: he began his discourse; and after he had
preached about thirty minutes, an outrageous mob surrounded the house, armed with different
instruments of death, and breathing the most sanguinary purposes. The preacher then addressed
his little flock to this effect, "These outrageous people seek not you but me, if I continue in the
house, they will soon pull it down and we shall be all buried in its ruins, I will therefore in the
name of God go out to them and you will be safe. As soon as the preacher made his appearance
the savages became instantly as silent and as still as night: he walked forward and they divided to
the right and to the left, leaving a passage about four feet wide for himself and a young man who
followed him to walk in. The narrator who was present on the occasion goes on to say, This was
one of the most affecting spectacles I ever witnessed, an infuriated mob without any visible
cause (for the preacher spoke not one word) became in a moment as calm as lambs. They seemed
struck with amazement bordering on stupefaction; they stared and stood speechless, and after
they had fallen back to right and left to leave him a free passage, they were as motionless as
statues. They assembled with the full purpose to destroy the man who came to show them the
way of salvation, but he, passing through the midst of them, went his way.
(Dr. Adam Clarke.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(28) Were filled with wrath.—The admiration they
had felt at first was soon turned into bitterness. They heard themselves spoken of as though there
might be a faith in Zidon and in Syria which was not found in Israel, of which they themselves
were altogether destitute.
Benson CommentaryHYPERLINK "/context/luke/4-28.htm"Luke 4:28-30. And all they in the
synagogue were filled with wrath — The Nazarenes, perceiving the purport of his discourse,
namely, that the blessings which they despised would be offered to, and accepted by, the
Gentiles, were enraged to such a pitch, that, forgetting the sanctity of the sabbath, they gathered
around him tumultuously, forced him out of the synagogue, and rushed with him through the
streets to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built; that they might cast him down
headlong. So changeable are the hearts of wicked men! So little are their starts of love to be
depended on! So unable are they to bear the close application, even of a discourse which they
most admire! But he, passing through the midst of them — Probably by making himself
invisible; or by overawing them: so that, though they saw, they had not power to touch him.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary4:14-30 Christ taught in their synagogues, their places of
public worship, where they met to read, expound, and apply the word, to pray and praise. All the
gifts and graces of the Spirit were upon him and on him, without measure. By Christ, sinners
may be loosed from the bonds of guilt, and by his Spirit and grace from the bondage of
corruption. He came by the word of his gospel, to bring light to those that sat in the dark, and by
the power of his grace, to give sight to those that were blind. And he preached the acceptable

year of the Lord. Let sinners attend to the Saviour's invitation when liberty is thus proclaimed.
Christ's name was Wonderful; in nothing was he more so than in the word of his grace, and the
power that went along with it. We may well wonder that he should speak such words of grace to
such graceless wretches as mankind. Some prejudice often furnishes an objection against the
humbling doctrine of the cross; and while it is the word of God that stirs up men's enmity, they
will blame the conduct or manner of the speaker. The doctrine of God's sovereignty, his right to
do his will, provokes proud men. They will not seek his favour in his own way; and are angry
when others have the favours they neglect. Still is Jesus rejected by multitudes who hear the
same message from his words. While they crucify him afresh by their sins, may we honour him
as the Son of God, the Saviour of men, and seek to show we do so by our obedience.
Barnes' Notes on the BibleFilled with wrath - They were enraged, probably, for the following
reasons:
1. They saw that the cases applied to themselves, because they would not receive the miraculous
evidences of his mission.
2. That he would direct his attention to others, and not to them.
3. That the "Gentiles" were objects of compassion with God, and that God often showed more
favor to a "single" Gentile than to multitudes of Jews in the same circumstances.
4. That they might be "worse" than the Gentiles. And,
5. That it was a part of his design to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, and not confine his labors
to them only.
On these accounts their favor was soon turned to wrath, and the whole transaction shows us:
1. That popular applause is of little value.
2. That the slightest circumstances may soon turn the warmest professed friendship to hatred.
And,
3. That people are exceedingly unreasonable in being unwilling to hear the truth and profit by it.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary28, 29. when they heard these things—these
allusions to the heathen, just as afterwards with Paul (Ac 22:21, 22).
Matthew Poole's CommentaryVer. 28-30. Unhappy Nazareth, where Christ had now lived more
than thirty years! They had seen him growing up, increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favour
both with God and man, Luke 2:52; they had had the first fruits of his ministry, and, Luke 4:22,
they bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth;
they knew his education, so as they could not think he had this wisdom and knowledge from any
advantages of that, but must have it from Heaven; yet when they hear him preaching, and but
touching them for their contempt and rejection of him, and tacitly comparing them with their
forefathers in the time of Ahab, and preaching the doctrine of God’s sovereign and free grace,
and hinting to them that the grace of God should pass to the Gentiles, while they should be
rejected, they are not able to bear him. Thus, Acts 22:21, the Jews heard Paul patiently, till he
repeated God’s commission to him to go unto the Gentiles; then they cried, Away with such a
fellow from the earth, for it is not fit he should live. This was according to the old prophecy, Deu
32:21, (applied to the Jews by the apostle, Romans 10:19), that because they had moved God to
jealousy with that which is not God, he would move them to jealousy with them that are not a
people, and provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. This is further matter of observation,

that wretched sinners, who cannot obtain of their lusts to be as good and holy as others, yet are
ordinarily so proud, as they have no patience to hear that others are better than they, or have or
shall have any more special share in God’s favour. Those of Nazareth which were in the
synagogue hearing these things, are filled with wrath, thrust Christ out of the city, as not fit to
live among them, and go about to kill him, by throwing him down headlong from the brow of the
hill upon which their city was built.
But he passing through the midst of them went his way. How he got out of their hands, when
they had laid hold of him, the Scripture doth not tell us, nor is it our concern to be curious to
inquire. We read much the like passage, John 8:59, when the Jews had taken up stones to stone
him. We know it was an easy thing for him, who was God as well as man, to quit himself of any
mortal enemies; but how he did it, whether by blinding their eyes, or altering the nature of his
body, and making it imperceptible by them, or by a greater strength than they, (which the Divine
nature could easily supply his human nature with), who is able to determine?
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleAnd all they in the synagogue,.... The ruler and minister, and
the whole multitude of the common people that were met together there for worship; and who
before were amazed at his eloquence, and the gracefulness of his delivery; and could not but
approve of his ministry, though they could not account for it, how he should come by his
qualifications for it:
when they heard these things; these two instances of Elijah and Elisha, the one supplying the
wants of a Sidonian woman, and the other healing a Syrian leper, when no notice were taken by
them of poor widows and lepers in Israel:
were filled with wrath; for by these instances they perceived, that they were compared to the
Israelites in the times of wicked Ahab and Jezebel; and that no miracles were to be wrought
among them, or benefits conferred on them, though they were his townsmen; yea, that the
Gentiles were preferred unto them: and indeed the calling of the Gentiles was here plainly
intimated, which was always ungrateful and provoking to the Jews; and it was suggested, that the
favours of God, and grace of the Messiah, are dispensed in a sovereign and discriminating way,
than which nothing is more offensive to carnal minds.
Geneva Study Bible{5} And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled
with wrath,
(5) The more sharply the world is rebuked the more it openly rages: but the life of the godly is
not always subject to the desires of the wicked.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Expositor's Greek TestamentHYPERLINK "/context/luke/4-28.htm"Luke 4:28-29.
Unsympathetic from the first, the Nazareans, stung by these O. T. references, become indignant.
Pagans, not to speak of Capernaum people, better than we: away with Him! out of the
synagogue, nay, out of the town (ἔξω τῆς πόλεως).—ἕως ὀφρύος τ. ὄ., etc., to the eyebrow
(supercilium, here only in N. T.) of the hill on which the city was built, implying an elevated
point but not necessarily the highest ridge. Kypke remarks: “non summum montis cacumen, sed
minor aliquis tumulus sive clivus intelligitur, qui cum monte cohaeret, metaphora a superciliis
oculorum desumta, quae in fronte quidem eminent, ipso tamen vertice inferiora sunt”. Nazareth
now lies in a cup, built close up to the hill surrounding. Perhaps then it went further up.—ὥστε
(εἰς τὸ, T.R.) with infinitive indicating intention and tendency, happily not result.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges28. were filled with wrath] The aorist implies a
sudden outburst. Perhaps they were already offended by knowing that Jesus had spent two days
at Sychar among the hated Samaritans; and now He whom they wished to treat as “the carpenter”
and their equal, was as it were asserting the superior claims of Gentiles and lepers. “Truth
embitters those whom it does not enlighten.” “The word of God,” said Luther, “is a sword, is a
war, is a poison, is a scandal, is a stumbling-block, is a ruin”—viz. to those who resist it
(Matthew 10:34; 1 Peter 2:8).
Bengel's GnomenHYPERLINK "/luke/4-28.htm"Luke 4:28. Θυμοῦ, with wrath) They had
thought that the giving of a very different character to themselves, and a different return, namely
thanks, were due to them for their applause. But by their own very act they prove the truth of
Jesus’ words.
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 28. - And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things,
were filled with wrath. The Jews in the synagogue quickly caught the Master's meaning.
Thoughts such as "Thou our Messiah, who talkest of Gentile, Syrian, and Zidonian in the same
breath with us the chosen and elect of God, who hintest at the possibility of the accursed Gentile
sharing in our promised blessings!" flashed through their minds, and as one man the
congregation rose, and, seizing the Preacher, dragged him out of the synagogue, and hurried him
through the little town to one of the rocky precipices close by.
◄ Luke 4:29 ►
And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill where on their
city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(29) The brow of the hill.—See Notes on Luke 1:26.
The hill now shown as the Mount of Precipitation is about two miles from the city, and could
hardly have been the place referred to. There is, however, a cliff about forty feet high close to the
city.
That they might cast him down headlong.—The Greek word implies casting down from a cliff or
precipice. It was not a recognised Jewish punishment, as flinging from the Tarpeian rock was at
Rome; but we have an instance of it as an improvised method of execution in Amaziah’s
treatment of the Edomite prisoners in 2Chronicles 25:12. A multitude under the influence of
fanaticism or anger is always fertile in expedients of this nature.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary4:14-30 Christ taught in their synagogues, their places of
public worship, where they met to read, expound, and apply the word, to pray and praise. All the
gifts and graces of the Spirit were upon him and on him, without measure. By Christ, sinners
may be loosed from the bonds of guilt, and by his Spirit and grace from the bondage of

corruption. He came by the word of his gospel, to bring light to those that sat in the dark, and by
the power of his grace, to give sight to those that were blind. And he preached the acceptable
year of the Lord. Let sinners attend to the Saviour's invitation when liberty is thus proclaimed.
Christ's name was Wonderful; in nothing was he more so than in the word of his grace, and the
power that went along with it. We may well wonder that he should speak such words of grace to
such graceless wretches as mankind. Some prejudice often furnishes an objection against the
humbling doctrine of the cross; and while it is the word of God that stirs up men's enmity, they
will blame the conduct or manner of the speaker. The doctrine of God's sovereignty, his right to
do his will, provokes proud men. They will not seek his favour in his own way; and are angry
when others have the favours they neglect. Still is Jesus rejected by multitudes who hear the
same message from his words. While they crucify him afresh by their sins, may we honour him
as the Son of God, the Saviour of men, and seek to show we do so by our obedience.
Barnes' Notes on the BibleThe brow of the hill whereon ... - The region in which Nazareth was is
hilly, though Nazareth was situated "between" two hills, or in a vale among mountains. The
place to which they led the Saviour is still shown, and is called the "Mount of Precipitation." It is
at a short distance to the south of Nazareth. See the notes at Matthew 2:23.
Cast him down - This was the effect of a popular tumult. They had no legal right to take life on
any occasion, and least of all in this furious and irregular manner. The whole transaction shows:
1. That the character given of the Galileans elsewhere as being especially wicked was a just one.
2. To what extremities the wickedness of the heart will lead people when it is acted out. And,
3. That people are opposed to the truth, and that they would do anything, if not restrained, to
manifest their opposition.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary29. rose up—broke up the service irreverently and
rushed forth.
thrust him—with violence, as a prisoner in their hands.
brow, &c.—Nazareth, though not built on the ridge of a hill, is in part surrounded by one to the
west, having several such precipices. (See 2Ch 25:12; 2Ki 9:33.) It was a mode of capital
punishment not unusual among the Romans and others. This was the first insult which the Son of
God received, and it came from "them of His own household!" (Mt 10:36).
Matthew Poole's CommentarySee Poole on "Luke 2:28"
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleAnd rose up,.... In great wrath, and, in a noisy and
tumultuous manner, before the service was well over, and without being regularly dismissed:
and thrust him out of the city; first out of the synagogue, and then out of their city, as unworthy
to be in it, though an inhabitant of it; and as if he had done something deserving of death; and
therefore to be punished as a malefactor without the city:
and led him unto the brow of the hill; the edge of it, where it run out, and hung over the
precipice:
whereon their city was built; so that it was a city upon an hill, and very visible, to which Christ
may allude in Matthew 5:14. That they might cast him down headlong; and break him to pieces:
in this manner ten thousand Edomites were destroyed by the Jews, in the times of Amaziah, 2
Chronicles 25:12 though this was not an usual way with the Jews of putting persons to death, as
with some other nations (u); their four capital punishments were stoning, strangling, burning, and

killing with the sword (w): nor did the inhabitants of Nazareth proceed in any judicial manner
with Christ, but hurried him away, in order to destroy him, without any formal process, in the
manner the zealots did; though to put any man to death, or to inflict any punishment on a person
on the sabbath day, as this was, was contrary to their own canon, which runs thus (x);
"they do not inflict punishment on the sabbath day, even though it is the punishment of an
affirmative precept; they do not beat one that is guilty, nor put to death, as it is said, Exodus 35:3
"ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day": this is a caution to the
sanhedrim, that they do not burn on the sabbath day he that is condemned to burning; and this is
the law with respect to any one that is liable to the other punishments.''
But these men, without any regard to the place where they were, and the worship they were
concerned in, and the day of the sabbath which then was, rise up in great wrath and fury, and
without any show of justice, and in the most brutish and barbarous manner attempt to take away
the life of Christ.
(u) Vid. Rycquium de Capitol. Born. c. 4. (w) Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 1.((x) Moses Kotseneis
Mitzvot Tora, pr. neg. 67.
Geneva Study BibleAnd 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.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT CommentaryHYPERLINK "/luke/4-29.htm"Luke 4:29. Ἕως ὀφρύος τοῦ ὄρους] up
to the lofty brink (supercilium) of the hill. See Duncan, Lex. Hom., ed. Rost, p. 877, and
Wetstein. This situation of Nazareth upon a hill (ἐφʼ οὗ), i.e. hard by a hill, is still entirely in
accordance with its present position,—“the houses stand on the lower part of the slope of the
western hill, which rises steep and high above them,” Robinson, Pal. III. p. 419. Especially near
the present Maronite church the mountain wall descends right down from forty to fifty feet,[90]
Robinson, l.c. p. 423; Ritter, Erdlc. XVI. p. 744.
ὥστε] of what, as they figured to themselves the result was to be. See on Matthew 24:24;
Matthew 27:1; comp. Luke 9:52; Luke 20:20.
κατακρημν.] 2 Chronicles 25:12; Dem. 446. 11; Josephus, Antt. ix. 9. 1.
[90] The place which is pointed out by tradition as the spot in question is at too great a distance
from the town. See Robinson, l.c., and Korte, Reisen, p. 215 ff.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges29. the brow of the hill whereon their city was built]
The ‘whereon’ refers to the hill not to the brow. Nazareth nestles under the southern slopes of the
hill. The cliff down which they wished to hurl Him (because this was regarded as a form of
‘stoning,’ the legal punishment for blasphemy) was certainly not the so-called ‘Mount of
Precipitation’ which is two miles distant, and therefore more than a sabbath day’s journey, but
one of the rocky escarpments of the hill, and possibly that above the Maronite Church, which is
about 40 feet high. This form of punishment is only mentioned in 2 Chronicles 25:12; but in
Phocis it was the punishment for sacrilege. (Philo.)
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 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. The place
now shown as the scene of the act of violence of the fanatics of Nazareth, known as the Mount of

Precipitation, is some two miles from the town. It must be remembered that this happened on a
sabbath day; this would therefore be beyond the limits of a sabbath day's journey. There is,
however, close to Nazareth a cliff about forty feet high.
Vincent's Word StudiesThe brow (ὀφρύος)
Only here in New Testament. Wyc., cope, which is originally cap or hood. The word is used in
medical language both of the eyebrows and of other projections of the body. It would naturally
occur to a physician, especially since the same epithets were applied to the appearance of the
eyebrows in certain diseases as were applied to kills. Thus Hippocrates, describing a deadly
fever, says, "The eyebrows seem to hang over," the same word which Homer uses of a rock. So
Aretaeus, describing the appearance of the eyebrows in elephantiasis, depicts them as προβλῆτες,
projecting, and όχθώδεις, like mounds. Stanley says: "Most readers probably from these words
imagine a town built on the summit of a mountain, from which summit the intended precipitation
was to take place. This is not the situation of Nazareth; yet its position is still in accordance with
the narrative. It is built upon, that is, on the side of a mountain, but the brow is not beneath, but
over the town, and such a cliff as is here implied is found in the abrupt face of a limestone rock
about thirty or forty feet high, overhanging the Maronite convent at the southwest corner of the
town" ("Sinai and Palestine").
Cast him down headlong (κατακρημνίσαι)
Only here in New Testament, and in the Septuagint only in 2 Chronicles 25:12.
PRECEPT AUSTIN RESOURCES
BRUCE HURT
Luke 4:28 And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these
things;
• were: Lu 6:11 11:53,54 2Ch 16:10 24:20,21 Jer 37:15,16 38:6 Ac 5:33 Ac 7:54 22:21-23
1Th 2:15,16
• Luke 4:22-30 Jesus' Return to Nazareth: Rejection by the People - John MacArthur
• Luke 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Luke 4:16-31 records Jesus' initial rejection in His hometown of Nazareth and Mark 6:1-6 the
final rejection.
Spurgeon - They did not mind hearing the first part of his teaching; but now that he exalts the
sovereignty of God, and lays the sinner low, he speaks too plainly for them: “They were filled
with wrath.”

All the people in the synagogue - Note that Luke uses the word "all" (pas) which means all
without exception. This was condemnation of Christ by consensus! Note secondly where the rage
rises up! In the Jewish synagogue! The most hatred opposition to Jesus was always from those
who were "religious" but who lacked a relationship with God. If you are a Spirit filled preacher
or teacher (like Jesus was - Lk 4:1, 14, 18), then you can be sure that you will experience
opposition and it will usually come from the "religious" folks in your congregation! This is a sad
truth and one I have painfully experienced to the point it led me to consider never teaching
again! So next time it happens to you dear one, remember that Jesus has been there before you.
Filled (4092)(pimplemi from the obsolete pláō = to fill) to fill, to make full, to complete. In the
passive voice as in this verse pimplemi speaks of of intellectual and spiritual processes signifying
to experience completely. Figuratively pimplemi speaks of persons filled with something which
means they are wholly affected, controlled or influenced with or by what fills them, especially
the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:15 = of John the Baptist while still in mother's womb, Lk 2:4, Acts 4:8 = of
Peter, Acts 4:31 = the praying believers, Acts 9:17 = of Paul, Acts 13:9 = of Paul) Filled with an
emotion often bad (Lk 4:28, Lk 6:11 = filled with rage, Lk 5:26 = filled with fear, Acts 3:10 =
wonder and amazement, Acts 5:17 = jealousy, Acts 13:45 = Jews filled with jealousy, compare
Acts 19:29 = city filled with confusion). The point is that what fills you controls you and here a
spirit of anger and rage filled them and controlled them and led them to seek to actually commit
murder! Remember these are the religious people who had just been in the Synagogue
presumably to worship a holy God! But sadly the Holy God-Man had provoked a most unholy
reaction from His hearers!
Rage (indignation) (2372)(thumos from thuo = to seethe, to move impetuously, particularly as
the air or wind, a violent motion or passion of the mind; move violently, rush along) describes
passion (as if breathing hard) and so speaks of an agitated or "heated" anger that rushes along
(impulse toward a thing). Thumos describes a tumultuous welling up of the whole spirit; a
mighty emotion which seizes and moves the whole inner man. Thumos (especially when
accompanied by breathing violently or hard) pictures a "panting rage". We've all seen individuals
in whom there was a sudden outburst of this type of passionate anger. You can even see their
nasal passages widening to take in more air in the heat of their passion. Eadie says thumos is
"explosions of rage that proceed from a vindictive heart and an ungovernable temper."
It is worth noting that it was not Jesus' claim that He was the Messiah that made them angry, but
it was His suggestion that their reaction made to His claim made them like one of the worst
periods of Israel's history along with the implication that Gentiles might be more helped by God
than the nation would be. This is the only place in Luke's Gospel where he uses this term for
anger.
Similar Jewish reactions to the mention of Gentiles appear in Acts
Acts 22:21-22 “And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”
They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said,
“Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live!”
Acts 26:23-24 that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from
the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the
Gentiles.” While Paul was saying this in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, “Paul,
you are out of your mind! Your great learning is driving you mad.”

A T Robertson - were all filled with wrath (eplēsthēsan pantes thumou). First aorist passive
indicative of the common verb pimplēmi followed by the genitive case. The people of Nazareth
at once caught on and saw the point of these two Old Testament illustrations of how God in two
cases blessed the heathen instead of the Jewish people. The implication was evident. Nazareth
was no better than Capernaum if as good. He was under no special obligation to do unusual
things in Nazareth because he had been reared there. Town pride was insulted and it at once
exploded in a burst of rage.
StevenCole on Jesus' rejection - Being religious does not guarantee that we will accept Jesus
Christ. If anything, it increases the danger that we will reject Him for the reasons just mentioned,
as I will explain. It was the religious crowd in Nazareth that not only reacted against Jesus’
sermon, they went right from their “church” service to try to shove the speaker off a cliff! I trust
that no one here would do that, but still, we must be careful to examine our own hearts, so that
we do not imitate the religious people of Nazareth in their hostile rejection of Jesus.
Religious people reject Christ because they do not want to submit to His lordship.
A. Religious people may accept Jesus on a superficial level, but they do not want to bow
before Him as Lord.
Outside of Nazareth, the news about Jesus was spreading, and so far it was favorable: He was
“praised by all” (Lk 4:15). Probably at this point, the people of Nazareth were proud of their
hometown boy who was becoming famous. A few may have grumbled, “Why doesn’t He come
to Nazareth and show His stuff here? Does He think He’s too good for us now?” But others said,
“He’s just too busy. But He will come and we’ll see if the rumors are true.” Sure enough, He
soon came into town, and everyone turned out at the synagogue that Sabbath. The synagogue
probably originated during the Babylonian captivity, after the Temple had been destroyed. It
served as a local center for worship and instruction each week, even after the Temple had been
rebuilt. A typical synagogue service consisted of the reciting of the Shema (Dt. 6:4-9, “Hear, O
Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one....”), prayers, a reading from the Law, another reading
from the Prophets, instruction on the passages, and a benediction. Any qualified male could read
the Scripture and expound on it. So Jesus stood up to do this. There is debate about whether He
deliberately chose the passage from Isaiah 61:1-2, or whether it was the assigned portion for that
day, but Luke seems to hint that He picked the passage Himself. (The KJV includes in Lk 4:18
the line, “to heal the brokenhearted,” which is in the LXX of Isaiah 61:1, but there is weak
textual support for the phrase in Luke. Also, Luke adds from Isaiah 58:6 the phrase, “to set free
those who are downtrodden.” We can’t say for sure, but perhaps Jesus expounded on the phrase
from Isaiah 58 during His sermon, and Luke summarizes it here.) We have here (Lk 4:21) only a
sentence summary of Jesus’ sermon, because Luke states that Jesus began to speak, and the
people mention “the gracious words which were falling from His lips” (Lk 4:22), implying that
He said much more. But, the point is, the initial response to Jesus’ sermon at Nazareth was
favorable, although superficial. They were speaking well of Him and were amazed at the smooth
manner in which He communicated. As sermon critics, they were giving the “hometown kid”
good marks on His delivery and style. “Not bad! I can see why we’ve been hearing good reports
about the young man. He’s a polished speaker.”
But it wasn’t long until the nodding heads began to stop, and the approving smiles turned to
frowns. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. “Who does He think He is, making these claims

about fulfilling this Scripture? He’s implying that His message applies to us! We’re not poor!
We’re not slaves! We’re not blind and downtrodden! How dare He imply that He can be our
Savior, as if we even needed one! If He really is so great, then why doesn’t He do here some of
the miracles we heard that He supposedly did in Capernaum? Then we might believe in Him!”
They were initially impressed by Jesus’ style, but they took offense at the substance of His
sermon. Their offense soon turned to rage and rejection.
Even though it came right out of their own Scriptures, they were offended when Jesus brought up
the stories from Elijah and Elisha’s ministries and applied it to them. The point of both stories
was the same. Israel was at a low point of idolatry and moral corruption. God told Elijah to pray
that it would not rain, and so a famine came over the land. That meant that Elijah himself needed
food. God could have picked any one of many widows in the land as the place to send Elijah for
sustenance, but instead, God sent him to a widow in Sidon, a Gentile. Through her, God
provided both for her and for the prophet. Similarly, in Elisha’s time, there were many lepers in
Israel whom God could have cleansed. But instead, God chose to heal a pagan man, Naaman the
Syrian, a general in the army of Israel’s enemy.
These stories offended the religious crowd in Nazareth for two reasons.
First, they were offended because the stories clearly teach that God sovereignly chooses those
on whom He bestows His mercy, and that no one can demand His grace, because all are
undeserving sinners. If God chooses to go outside Israel and bestow His blessing on a widow in
Sidon or a general in Syria, while withholding His blessing from those in Israel, He is free to do
that. Proud man will accuse the Almighty God of being unfair because He does not pour out His
grace on everyone, as if everyone was deserving of it! But the Bible teaches that there is none
righteous, not even one (Ro 3:10), and that God owes nothing but judgment to all sinners. If He
chooses to show His mercy to some, that is His prerogative as the Sovereign Potter, but Scripture
plainly declares, “He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires” (Ro
9:18). And if proud man cries, “That’s not fair,” Scripture’s answer is, “On the contrary, who are
you, O man, who answers back to God?” (Ro 9:20). That doctrine is offensive to religious people
who think that they are deserving of God’s blessings because of their basic goodness.
The second reason these stories offended the religious crowd was that they show that God is
pleased to bestow His blessings on pagans as well as the religious. The widow in Sidon and
Naaman the Syrian were both pagans, outside of the covenant blessings of God’s chosen people.
There is a wrong way to apply the doctrine of election, namely, to grow conceited and think,
“I’m really something because I’m one of God’s chosen people. But that person is not as good as
me, because he is a pagan.” The proper application of the doctrine should fill us with humility,
gratitude and fear (Ro 11:17-22). When we realize that God shows His mercy to one kind of
person only-sinners-we who know God should reach out with compassion to those who are lost.
Let’s apply this point to ourselves: It’s easy to accept Jesus on a superficial level. We hear that
God loves us and that Jesus cares for all our needs, and that’s true. So, we welcome Him into our
lives. But at some point early on we begin to get a bit uncomfortable as we realize that Jesus’
teaching confronts our pride and self-righteousness. Rather than building up our self-esteem,
Jesus begins shining the light of His holiness into the dark, hidden closets of our soul. We begin
to see that “nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (Rom. 7:18). At this point, you have
a crucial decision to make. You can dodge the hard truths of the Bible, either by throwing out the
whole thing or, as many people do, by finding a church where you hear more soothing,

comfortable messages. Or, God’s way is that we face the hard truth about ourselves and submit
to Jesus as Lord.
Luke 4:29 and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the
hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.
• drove: Joh 8:37,40,59 15:24,25 Ac 7:57,58 16:23,24 21:28-32
• brow: or, edge
• in order to: 2Ch 25:12 Ps 37:14,32,33
And they got up and drove Him out of the city - Why did they get up from the worship
service? As discussed above instead of being filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit, they
were filled with and controlled by a most "unholy spirit" (not saying they were demonically
possessed but only that their own spirit had very evil intentions!)
Drove out (1544)(ekballo from ek = out + ballo = cast, throw, drive) means literally to throw
out of an area, to cause to leave (but in this context that sense is probably too "soft"!) Ekballo
often has the idea of force (Mt. 8:12; 15:17; 25:30; Acts 16:37, 27:38; Lxx - Lev. 14:40). To
throw out of an area or object, throw out, jettison (Mt 21:39 Acts 27:18). Frequently used of
casting out demons (Mt 7:22, Mt 8:16, 31,9:34, 10:1, etc). Used of casting or throwing
unbelievers into outer darkness (hell). Mark 1:12 used this verb to describe the Holy Spirit
impelling Jesus to go into the wilderness. How sadly ironic that the same verb used to describe
Jesus casting out evil spirits (e.g., Mt 8:16) is the very verb used here to describe the "religious"
Jews with evil hearts seeking to cast out Jesus!
Luke uses ekballo frequently -
Lk. 4:29; Lk. 6:22; Lk. 6:42; Lk. 9:40; Lk. 9:49; Lk. 10:2; Lk. 10:35; Lk. 11:14; Lk.
11:15; Lk. 11:18; Lk. 11:19; Lk. 11:20; Lk. 13:28; Lk. 13:32; Lk. 19:45; Lk. 20:12; Lk.
20:15Acts 7:58; Acts 9:40; Acts 13:50; Acts 16:37; Acts 27:38
Vincent on the brow - Only here in New Testament. Wyc., cope, which is originally cap or
hood. The word is used in medical language both of the eyebrows and of other projections of the
body. It would naturally occur to a physician, especially since the same epithets were applied to
the appearance of the eyebrows in certain diseases as were applied to kills. Thus Hippocrates,
describing a deadly fever, says, "The eyebrows seem to hang over," the same word which Homer
uses of a rock. So Aretaeus, describing the appearance of the eyebrows in elephantiasis, depicts
them as προβλῆτες, projecting, and όχθώδεις, like mounds. Stanley says: "Most readers probably
from these words imagine a town built on the summit of a mountain, from which summit the
intended precipitation was to take place. This is not the situation of Nazareth; yet its position is
still in accordance with the narrative. It is built upon, that is, on the side of a mountain, but the
brow is not beneath, but over the town, and such a cliff as is here implied is found in the abrupt
face of a limestone rock about thirty or forty feet high, overhanging the Maronite convent at the
southwest corner of the town" ("Sinai and Palestine").
The brow of the hill on which their city had been built - The core of old Nazareth is situated
in a long, bowl-like valley surrounded by several hills. Newer buildings and dense

neighborhoods cover the hillsides above the old city, the elevation of which is approximately
1,200 feet (400 meters) above sea level.
In order to - Always be alert for terms of purpose pausing to ponder them.
The NET Note is "too nice" to the enraged Jews - The attempt to throw him down the cliff looks
like "lynch law," but it may really be an indication that Jesus was regarded as a false prophet
(Ed: Recall what made them mad was His relating a true story of two true prophets -- nothing
false was even implied) who was worthy of death (Dt 13:5). Such a sentence meant being thrown
into a pit and then stoned.
Robertson on in order to throw him down the cliff - (katakremnizo from kata = down +
kremnos = precipice = cast down from a precipice, cast down headlong only here in the NT but
used in Lxx of 2 Chr 25:12) Neat Greek idiom with hōste (in order to) for intended result, "so as
to cast him down the precipice." The infinitive alone can convey the same meaning (Mt 2:2;
20:28; Lk 2:23). Krēmnos is an overhanging bank or precipice from kremannumi, to hang. Kata
is down. The verb occurs in Xenophon, Demosthenes, LXX, Josephus. Here only in the N.T. At
the southwest corner of the town of Nazareth such a cliff today exists overhanging the Maronite
convent. Murder was in the hearts of the people. By pushing him over they hoped to escape
technical guilt.
See a modern picture of this cliff outside of Nazareth! It is striking! Look at the rocks upon
which Jesus would presumably have fallen!
Luke 4:30 But passing through their midst, He went His way.
• Jn 8:59 Jn 10:39 Jn 18:6,7 Ac 12:18
But passing through their midst, He went His way - NLT - "but he passed right through the
crowd and went on his way." As Spurgeon says "They could not destroy him at that time. His
work was not done, and he was immortal till it was fully accomplished. (cf Rev 11:7+ "when
they [the two witnesses who witness for 1260 days - Rev 11:3+] had finished their testimony"
the beast was allowed to kill them.
THOUGHT - Beloved you too can be fully assured that you are immortal until the work
the Lord has given you to accomplished is fully finished! Thank You Lord!)
Ryrie on passing through their midst -- These words do not necessarily imply a miraculous
deliverance. Rather, His commanding presence and righteousness had power to thwart the
crowd's plan. (Ed: That "power" certainly suggest at least a hint the miraculous - This reminds
one of His effect on those who came to take Him captive in John 18:6 - "When therefore He said
to them, "I am," they drew back, and fell to the ground.")
Henry Morris on passing through - By some unexplained method, however, whether by
miraculous power or merely by force of character, He passed through their midst unharmed.
We see other accounts of the Jews trying unsuccessfully to seize Jesus.
John 8:59 (Why? See Jn 8:58) Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus
hid Himself and went out of the temple.

John 10:39 (Why? See Jn 10:39) Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He
eluded their grasp.
Went (4198)(poreuomai form póros = a passing or passage which is from peírō or peráō (n.f.),
to pierce or run through; Eng. = pore) means to go from one place to another, to move from one
place to another, to transport oneself, to traverse, to take a journey, to go from one place to
another. To pursue the journey on which one has entered, continue on one's journey. The first use
of poreuomai in Lk 1:6-note illustrates the figurative meaning of poreuomai for Zacharias and
Elizabeth were "walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord (in
short they were "OT believers!") Here is the contrasting lifestyle - "The seed which fell among
the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way (speaks of their
conduct, behavior) they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring
no fruit to maturity." (Lk 8:14)There is another contrast in the Septuagint, where God describes
the devil's "way of life" declaring to him "Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than
every beast of the field; On your belly you will go (Lxx = poreuomai) And dust you will eat All
the days of your life." (Ge 3:14) In 2 Pe 2:10 poreuomai is used in the figurative sense is to
follow (poreuomai) after (opiso = behind) the flesh or as Young's Literal puts it "those going
behind the flesh in desire of uncleanness" which is a striking picture of our fallen nature's
inclination to follow after the lust of the flesh rather than the life of the Father exemplified in His
Son and empowered by His Spirit! O my!
The verb poreuomai in Luke often suggests divine direction, "to go in a led direction"
(Luke 4:42; 7:6, 11; 9:51, 52, 56, 57; 13:33; 17:11; 22:22, 29; 24:28)
Here in Lk 4:30 poreuomai in the imperfect tense depicts Jesus as going on His way.
Poreuomai is a favorite verb of Luke's Gospel where he uses it 51x in 48v (out of a total
of 153x in 146 verses in NT) -
Lk. 1:6; Lk. 1:39; Lk. 2:3; Lk. 2:41; Lk. 4:30; Lk. 4:42 (twice); Lk. 5:24; Lk. 7:6; Lk. 7:8
(twice); Lk. 7:11; Lk. 7:22; Lk. 7:50; Lk. 8:14; Lk. 8:48; Lk. 9:12; Lk. 9:13; Lk. 9:51;
Lk. 9:52; Lk. 9:53; Lk. 9:56; Lk. 9:57; Lk. 10:37; Lk. 10:38; Lk. 11:5; Lk. 11:26; Lk.
21:8; Lk. 22:8; Lk. 22:22; Lk. 22:33; Lk. 22:39; Lk. 24:13; Lk. 24:28 (twice)

Nazareth; or, Jesus Rejected by His Friends
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon Jun 2, 1867 Scripture: Luke 4:28-30Sermon No. 753 From:
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Volume 13
Nazareth; or, Jesus Rejected by His Friends
“And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 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. But he passing through the midst of them went his way.” — Luke 4:28-30.
JESUS had spent severalyears in retirement in the house of his reputed father
at Nazareth. He must have been well known: the excellencyof his character
and conduct must have attractednotice. In due time he left Nazareth, was
baptised by John in Jordan, and beganat once his work of preaching and
working wonders. The inhabitants of Nazareth, no doubt, often said one to
another, “He will be sure to come home and see his parents; when he comes,
we will all go to hear what the carpenter’s sonhas to say.” There is always an
interest in hearing one of the lads of the village when he becomes a preacher,
and this interestwas heightened by the hope of seeing wonders, suchas he had
wrought at Capernaum. Curiosity was excited, everybody hoped and trusted
that he would make Nazarethfamous among the cities of the tribes; perhaps
he would settle down there, and attracta crowd of customers to their shops by
becoming the greatPhysician of Nazareth, the great Wonder-workerofthe
district. By-and-by, when it so pleasedhim, the famous Prophet came to his
own city, and, when the Sabbath drew near, the interest grew very intense, as
men askedthe question, “Whatthink you, will he be at the synagogue
tomorrow? If he shall be there, he must by some means be induced to speak.”
The ruler of the synagogue,sharing in the common opinion, at the proper
point of the service, whenhe saw Jesus present, took up the roll of the prophet
and passedit to him, that he might read a passage, andthen speak according
to his own mind upon it. All eyes were opened ; no sleepy people were in the
synagogue that morning, when he took the roll, unfolded it like one who was
well accustomedto the book, openedit at a passage mostpertinent and
applicable to himself, read it, standing, thus paying respectto the word by his
posture; and then, when he had folded up the book, he took his seat, not
because he had nothing to say, but because it was the good practice in those
days for the preacher to sit down and the hearers to stand, a method much to
be preferred to the presentone in some respects, atany rate when the
preacheris lame, or the hearers drowsy. The passagewhichJesus readto
them, I have said, was very suitable and applicable to himself; but the most

remarkable point perhaps in it was not so much what he read, as what he did
not read; for he pause 1 almost in the middle of a sentence:“To proclaim,”
said he, “the acceptable yearof the Lord,” and there he stopped. The passage
is not complete unless you read the next words, “and the day of vengeance of
our God.” Our Lord wiselyceasedreading at those words, probably wishing
that the first sermon he should deliver should be altogethergentle, and have
in it not so much as a word of threatening. His heart’s desire and prayer for
them was that they might be saved, and that instead of a day of vengeance it
might be to them the acceptable yearofthe Lord. So he folded the book, sat
down, and then beganhis expositionby opening up his owncommission. He
explained who the blind were, who the captives were, who the sick and
wounded and bruised were, and after what sortthe grace ofGod had
provided liberty and healing and salvation; they were all wonder struck; they
had never heard any one speak so fluently and with so much force, so simply,
and yet so nobly. All eyes were fastened, and everybody was astonishedat the
speaker’s style and matter. Soon a buzz went round the synagogue,foreach
man said to his fellow, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother
calledMary? and his brethren, James, and Joses,and Simon, and Judas? And
his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these
things?” They were astonishedand envious too. Then the speaker, feeling that
it was not the objectof his ministry to astonish people, but to impress their
hearts, changedhis subject, and chargedwith tremendous vigour upon their
consciences;for if men will only give the minister their wonder, they have
given him nothing. We desire you to be convinced, and converted, and short of
this, we fail. Jesus turned from a subject so glowing with interest, so fruitful
with every blessing, seeing that to them it was no more than pearls to swine,
and he spoke to them personally, pointedly, somewhatcuttingly, as they
thought. “Ye will surely sayunto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself:
whatsoeverwe have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country;”
and then he plainly told them that he did not recognise theirclaims, that albeit
he might have been bred in that district, and have lived with them, yet he did
not recognisefrom that reasonany obligation to display his power to suit their
pleasure;and he gave an instance in point; he showedthat Elijah (when God,
“ the father of the fatherless, and the judge of the widow,” would bless a
widow) was not sent to bless a widow of Israel, but a Gentile woman, a
Syrophenician, one of the accursedCanaanites. To none of the widows of
Israel“was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that
was a widow.” Then, again, he mentioned that Elisha, the servant of Elijah,
when he had healing to give to lepers, did not heal Israelitishlepers, he healed
not even those lepers who came with the goodnews that the Syrian host had

fled, but he healed a strangerfrom a far country, even Naaman. Thus the
Saviour setforth the doctrine of sovereigngrace;thus he declared himself to
be free to do as he would with his own; and this, with other circumstances
connectedwith the sermon, so excitedthe angerof the entire congregation,
that those eyes which had lookedupon him with wonderat first, now beganto
glare like the eyes of beasts, and those tongues which were ready to have given
him applause, beganto howl forth indignation. They rose up at once to slay
the preacher;the curiosity of yesterdaywas turned into the indignation of to-
day; and whereas, a few hours ago they would have welcomedthe prophet to
his owncountry, they would now think, “Crucify him! crucify him!” too good
for him. They drag him out of the synagogue, breaking up their own worship,
forgetful of the holiness of the day to which they paid such wonderful respect,
and they haled him forth to casthim, as malefactors sometimes were from
lofty rocks, from the brow of the hill whereontheir city was built. He evaded
them and escaped, but what a singular termination to such a beginning! Why,
you and I would have said, What a fruitful field have we here! The best of
preachers, and one of the most desirable of audiences — a people all attentive,
every ear open, almostevery mouth open, so wonder-struck are they with
him, with his mode of address, and with what he has to say! There will be
innumerable conversions here. Nazarethwill become the stronghold of
Christianity. It will be the very metropolis of the new faith. But no such thing:
such is the perversity of human nature, that where we expect much, we get
but little, and the field which should have brought forth wheata hundredfold,
yields nothing but thorns and thistles.
My designis, as God may help me, to make an application of this narrative to
the hearts and consciencesofsome now present, who are doing with the
Saviour somewhatin the same manner as these men of Nazarethdid with him
in the days of his flesh. We shall consider, first of all, who were these rejectors
of Christ; secondly, why this rejection; and thirdly, what came of it.
I. First, then, WHO WERE THESE REJECTORSOF CHRIST? I ask the
question because I am persuadedthat they have their types and
representatives here at the present moment.
They were, dear friends, first of all, those who were nearestrelated to the
Saviour. They were the people of his owntown. Ordinarily, you would expect
fellow townsmen to show a man the most kindness. He was come unto his own,
and though his own receivedhim not, this was a subjectof wonder that they
should not do so. Now, there are some in this house this morning who are not
Christians: they are no with Christ, and consequentlythey are againsthim ;
but still they are the nearestrelated to Christ of any unconverted people in the

world, because from their childhood they have attended religious worship,
they have joined in the songs, and prayers, and services ofthe Lord’s house;
moreover, they are fully persuadedof the authenticity and divinity of the
word of God, and they have no doubt but what the Saviour was sentfrom
God, and that he cansave, and is the appointed Saviour. They are not
troubled with doubts, scepticalthoughts do not perplex them; they are, in fact,
Agrippas, almost persuadedto be Christians. They are not Christians, but
they are the nearestrelatedto Christians of any people living upon the face of
the earth. You would naturally expect that they would be the best people to
preach to, but they have not proved to be so. They have not proved to be so in
my case,for some such attending here are less likely to be brought to decision
than those who are afaroff. You know to whom I refer, for some of you, as
you look me in the face, might well think, “Master, insaying so, thou rebukest
us also.”
These people of Nazareth, again, were those who blew most about Christ.
They were well acquainted with his mother and the rest of his relatives. They
knew his whole pedigree. They could tell at once that Josephand Mary were
of the tribe of Judah; probably could tell why they came from Bethlehem, and
how it was that they once sojourned for awhile in Egypt. The whole story of
the wondrous child was known to them. Now, surely these people, not needing
to be taught the rudiments, not requiring to be instructed in the very elements
of the faith, must have been a very hopeful people for Jesus to preach to; but
alas!They did not prove to be so. I have many here who are wonderfully like
them. You know the whole story of the Saviour, and have known it ever since
your childhood. More than that, the doctrines of the gospelare theoretically
well understood by you. You can discuss gospeltruths, and you delight to do
so, for you take a deep interest in them. When you read the Scripture, it is not
to you a dark, mysterious volume, which you cannot at all comprehend, but
you are able to teach others which are the first principles of the truth; and yet,
for all that, how strangely sadit is, that, knowing so much, you should
practise so little. I am afraid that some of you know the gospelso well, that for
this very reasonit has lost much of its powerwith you, for it is as well known
as a thrice-told tale. If you heard it for the first time, its very novelty would
strike you, but such interest you cannot now feel. It is said of Whitfield’s
preaching, that one reasonof its greatsuccesswas, thathe preached the
gospelto people who had never heard it before. The gospelwas to the masses
of England in Whitfield’s day, very much a new thing. The gospelhad been
either expunged from the church of England and from Dissenters’pulpits, or
where it remained, it was with the few within the church, and was unknown to

the masses outside. The simple gospelof “believe and live,” was so greata
novelty, that when Whitfield stoodup in the fields to preachto his tens of
thousands, they heard the gospelas if it were a new revelationfresh from the
skies. Butsome of you have become gospel-hardened. It would be impossible
to put it into a new shape for your ears. The angles, the corners of truth, have
become worn off to you. Sundays follow Sundays, and you come up to this
Tabernacle — you have been here long — you take your seats and go through
the service, and it has as much become as mete a routine with you as your
getting up and dressing yourselves of a morning. The Lord knows I do dread
the influence of routine upon myself; I fear lestit should getto be a mere form
with me to deal with your souls, and I pray God he may deliver you and me
from the deadly effectof religious routine. It were better if some of you would
change your place of worship, rather than sleepin the old one. Go and hear
somebody else, if you have heard me long and obtained no blessing. Sooner
than get to sit in those pews and perish under the word, lulled by the gospel
which is meant to arouse you, go elsewhere, andlet some other voice speak to
your ear, and let some other preachersee what Godmay do by him. O may
the Spirit of God but save you, and it shall be equal joy to me whether you be
savedunder some one else, or under my own word. Yet here is the matter: it is
sad indeed that men so nearly relatedto Christianity, who know so much
about Christ, should yet rejectthe Redeemer.
Again, these were people who supposedthat they had a claim upon Christ.
They did not feel that it would be a greatkindness on the part of the Lord
Jesus to heal their sick. They no doubt argued, “He is a Nazarethman, and of
course he is in duty bound to help Nazareth.” Theyconsidered themselves as
being in a sorthis proprietors, who could command his powers at their own
discretion. Our Saviour rejectedthat idea, and would not weartheir yoke. I
have sometimes fearedthat you who are children of godly parents, or seat-
holders, or subscribers to various religious objects, in your hearts imagine
that if any are to be saved, surely it must be yourselves, yet your claim has no
basis to rest upon. I would to Godthat ye were not only almost, but altogether
saved, every one of you; but perhaps the very fact that you think you have a
claim upon grace, may be the stone which lies in your path, because you think,
“Surely Jesus Christ will castan eye of favour upon us, even if others perish!”
I tell you he will do as he wills with his own, and publicans and harlots will
enter into the kingdom of heaven before some of you, if you think that you
have any right to mercy; for the mercy of God is God’s sovereigngift, and he
will have you know it to be so. He has said it, said it as with a voice of thunder,
“I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassionon

whom I will have compassion.”If you kick againsthis sovereignty, you shall
stumble at a stone upon which you shall be broken. Oh, but if you can feel you
have no claim upon God, if you can put yourself into the position of the
publican who dared not lift up so much as his eyes towards heaven, but smote
upon his breast, saying, “Godbe merciful to me a sinner,” you are in a
position in which God canbless you, consistentlywith the dignity of his own
sovereignty. O take up the position which grace accepts. Beggars, andsuch
you must be, must not be choosers. He who asks for grace, mustnot set
himself up to dictate to his God; he who would be saved, though he be
unworthy, must come to God upon the footing of a suppliant, and humbly
plead that for mercy’s sake,the Lord’s love would be manifested towards
him. I fear that there may be a spice of this kind of spirit in the minds of some
of you, and if so, you are the people who have rejectedChrist. Hear, O
heavens, and give ear, O earth! We callthe skies, andthe round earth to
witness, here are those that are near to being Christians, who know the gospel
by the letter of it, and who think they have a claim upon the Saviour, who yet
remain disobedient to the divine command, “Believe and live:” they turn upon
their heel and rejectthe Saviour, and will not come unto him that they might
have life. Hear it, I say, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth!
II. Secondly, we are to explain the reasons WHY THEY THUS REJECTTHE
MESSIAH.
The reasons willbe applicable to some of you, ye unconverted people, who are
sitting here. Sometimes the Spirit of God comes with a melting power overan
audience, and makes men feel the truth which is meant for them. Pray, my
dear brethren in Christ, that such may be the case now;that our unconverted
friends, who give us so much concernbecause oftheir enmity to Jesus, maybe
impressed with the remonstrances now addressedto them. Why did they
rejectChrist? I think they did so under a very complex feeling, not to be
accountedfor by one circumstance. Severalthings went to make up their
wrath and enmity. The fire of their anger fed upon severalkinds of fuel.
In the first place, I should not wonder but what the groundwork of their
dissatisfactionwas laidin the fact that they did not feelthemselves to be the
persons to whom the Saviour claimed to have a commission. Observe, he said,
in the eighteenthverse, that he was “anointed to preach the gospelto the
poor.” Now, the poorestones in the synagogue mayhave felt pleasedat that
word; but as it was almost a maxim with the Jewishdoctors that it did not
signify what became of the poor—for few but the rich could enter heaven—
the very announcement of a gospelfor the poor must have sounded to them
awfully democraticaland extreme, and must have laid in their minds the

foundation of a prejudice. He meant, of course, the “poorin spirit,” whether
they are poor in pocketor not, for those are the poor whom Jesus comes to
bless;but the use of expressions so contrary to all that they had been
accustomedto hear made them bite their lips, while they said within
themselves, “We are not poor in spirit; have not we kept the law?” Did not
some of them say, “We have worn our phylacteries, and made broad the
borders of our garments;we have not eaten exceptwith washenhands; we
have strained out all gnats from our wine; we have kept the fasts, and the
feasts, and we have made long prayers, why should we feelany poverty of
spirit?” Hence they felt there was nothing in Christ’s mission for them. When
he next mentioned the broken-hearted, they were not at all conscious ofany
need of a broken heart. They felt heart-whole, self-satisfied, perfectlycontent.
What is the use of a preacher? Who is to preachto the broken-heartedwhen
all his hearers feelthat they have no cause to rend their hearts with
repentance? Thenwhen he spoke ofcaptives, they claimed to have been born
free and not to have been in bondage to any man; they rejectedwith scornthe
very idea that they neededany liberator, for they were as free as free could be.
When Jesus farther spake of the blind — “Blind!” said they, “does he insult
us? We are far-seeing men — blind 1 Let him go and preach to some of the
outcasts who have become blinded, but as for us, we can see into the very
depths of all mysteries. We need no instruction and opening of eyes from
him.” When at last he spake of those who had been bruised, as though they
had been beatenwith stripes for their sins — “We have no sins,” said they,
“for which we should be braised; we have been honourable, upright people,
and never have been chastenedby the scourge ofthe law; we want no liberty
for them that are bruised. What is the acceptable yearofthe Lord to us, if it is
only for bruised captive ones? We are not such.” At a glance you perceive, my
brethren the reasonwhy in these days Jesus Christis rejectedby so many
church-going and chapel-going people. Here you see the reasonwhy so many
of your respectable attendants at our places ofworship reject salvationby
grace;it is because theydo not feel that they need a Saviour. They think that
they are rich and increasedin goods, and have need of nothing; but they know
not that they are naked, and poor, and miserable. They claim to be intelligent,
thoughtful, and enlightened; they do not know that until a man sees Christ he
walks in darkness and is stone blind, and beholdeth no light. They are not
bruised, they say. Would God they were!God perhaps has left them, because
it was of no avail to bruise them; and why should they be smitten any more?
They only revolt more and more. Becausethey feel no smarts of conscience, no
terrors of God’s law, therefore Jesus Christ is a root out of a dry ground to
them. They despise him, as the healthy man laughs at the physician, and as the

man that is rich cares notfor the alms of the benevolent. Ah I but my dear
friends, let me remind you that if you do not feel your need of a Saviour, that
need exists for all that, though you do not see it. You were born in sin and
shapen in iniquity, and no baptismal waters can washawayyour defilement.
Beside this, you have sinned from your youth up in heart, and word, and
thought; and you are condemned already, because youhave not believed on
the Sonof God. Although you may not have been openly wicked, yet there is a
text which I must needs bring to your remembrance — “The wickedshall be
turned into hell with all the nations that forgetGod.” That last list includes
you, my hearer— you who forget, and postpone, and trifle, who wait for “a
more convenient season;” you who live with the gospelbefore you, and yet do
not comply with its commands, but sayto your sins, “I love you too well to
repent of you,” and to your self-righteousness,“Iam too fond of this
foundation to leave it to build upon the foundation which God has laid in the
person of his dear Son. Ah! my dear hearers, it is the self-conceitwhich makes
the empty bag think itself full, which makes the hungry man dream that he
has feastedand is satisfied. It is self-righteousnesswhichdamns the souls of
thousands. There is nothing so ruinous as this presumptuous self-confidence, I
pray the Lord may make you feelyourself to be undone, ruined, lost, cast
away, and then there is no fear of your rejecting Christ, for he that is perfectly
bankrupt is willing to accepta Saviour; he that has nothing of his own, falls
flat before the cross, andtakes gladly the “all things” which are storedup in
the Lord Jesus. This is the first and perhaps the greatestreasonwhy men
rejectthe Saviour.
But, secondly, I entertain little doubt but what the men of Nazareth were
angry with Christ because ofhis exceedinglyhigh claims. He said, “The Spirit
of Jehovahis upon me.” They started at that. Yet they might be willing to
admit that he was a prophet, and so, if he meant it in that sense, theywould be
patient, but when he said, “The Lord hath anointed me to preach,” and so on,
claiming to be no other than the promised Messiah, they shook their heads,
and murmuringly said, “He claims too much.” When he placedhimself side
by side with Elijah and Elisha, and claimed to have the same rights and the
same spirit as those famous ones, and by inference comparedhis hearers to
the worshippers of Baalin Elijah's day, then they felt as if he sethimself up
too high, and put them down too low. And here, again, I see another master
reasonwhy so many of you goodpeople, as you would be thought to be, reject
my Lord and Master. He sets himself too high: he asks too much of you: he
puts you down too low. He tells you you must be nothing, and he must be
everything. He tells you that you must give up that idol god of yours, the

world, and the pleasures thereof, and that he must be your Master, and not
your own wills. He tells you that you must pluck out the right eye of pleasure,
if it comes in the way of holiness, and rend off the right arm of profit rather
than commit sin. He tells you that you must take up your cross and follow him
without the camp, leaving the world’s religionand the world’s irreligion,
being no longerconformed to the world, but becoming in a sacredsense a
Nonconformistto all its vanities and maxims, customs and sins. He tells you
that he must be the Prince Imperial in your souls, and that you must be his
willing servants and his loving disciples. These are claims too high for human
nature to yield to them; and yet, dear hearer, remember that if you do not
yield to them, a much worse thing awaits you. Kiss the Son, kiss his sceptre
now, I say. Now bow down and acknowledgehim, for if not, beware “lesthe
be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.”
Those who kiss not the sceptre of silver, shall be broken with the rod of iron.
They who will not have Christ to reign over them in love, shall have him to
rule over them in terror in the day when he puts on the garments of
vengeance, anddyes his vesture in the blood of his foes. O acknowledgehim as
he is coveredwith his own blood, lestyou have to acknowledgehim when he is
coveredwith yours! Accept him while you may, for you will not be able to
escape from him when those eyes, which are like eyes of fire, shall flash
devouring flame upon his adversaries!Alas! this is a fruitful source of
mischief to the sons of men: they cannot give King Jesus his due, but would
fain thrust the Lord of glory into so great, so good a King!
Thirdly, anotherreasonmight be found in the fact that they were not for
receiving Christ until fie had exhibited some great wonder. They craved for
miracles. Their minds were in a sicklystate. The gospelwhichthey did want,
they would not have; the miracles which he did not choose to give, they
eagerlydemanded. Oh! how many there are nowadays who must see signs and
wonders, or else they will not believe 1 I know you, young woman, you have
setin your heart this before you, “I must feel as John Bunyan felt— the same
horror of conscience, the same gloomof soul, or else I never will believe in
Jesus.” Butwhat if you never should feel it, as probably you never may? Will
you go to hell out of spite with God, because he will not do for you just what
he did for another? A young man yonder has said to himself, " If I had a
dream, as I hear So-and-so had, or if there should happen to me some very
remarkable event in providence, which should just meet my taste; or if I could
feel to-day some sudden shock of I know not what, then I would believe.”
Thus you dream that my Lord and Masteris to be dictated to by you! You are
beggars athis gate, asking formercy, and you must needs draw up rules and

regulations as to how he shall give that mercy. Think you that he will ever
submit to this? My Masteris of a generous spirit, but he has a right royal
heart, and he spurns all dictation, and maintains his sovereigntyof action. But
why, dear hearer, do you crave for signs and wonders? Is it not enough of a
wonder that Jesus bids you trust him, and promises that you shall be savedat
once? Is not this enough of a sign that Godhas proposedso wise a gospelas
that of “Believe, and live”? Is not this enough— is not the gospelits own sign,
its own wonder, and its own proof, because he that believeth hath everlasting
life? Is not this a miracle of miracles, that “Godso loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoeverbelievethin him might not
perish”? Surely that precious word, “Whosoeverwill, let him come and take
the waterof life freely,” and that solemnpromise, “Him that cometh unto me,
I will in nowise castout,” those are better than signs and wonders. A truthful
Saviour ought to be believed. He never did lie. Why will you ask proof of the
veracity of one who cannotlie? The devils themselves declaredhim to be the
Son of God; but will you stand out againsthim? Sovereign, mighty, irresistible
grace, come and conquer this wickednessin the hearts of men, and make them
willing to trust Jesus, whetherthey see signs and wonders or not.
Again, and perhaps this time I may hit the head of the nail in some cases,
though I suppose not in many in this place:part of the irritation which existed
in the minds of the men of Nazarethwas causedby the peculiar doctrine
which the Saviour preachedupon the subject of election. I question whether
that was not at bottom the realsting of the whole matter; he laid it down that
God had a right to dispense his favours just as he pleased;that in doing so he
often selectedthe most unlikely objects:that for instance, a widow awayin
idolatrous Sidon, had her wants supplied in famine, while the widows of Israel
were left without meal: that at another time under Elisha, when God would
heal a leper, he left the Israelitish lepers to die, but a leper who came from the
idolatrous land of Assyria, and who had been accustomedto bow in the house
of Rimmon, receivedhealing. Now, they did not like this, and I suppose even
in this congregation, though you are pretty wellaccustomedto strong
statements upon the sovereigntyof God, and we are not ashamedto preach
predestination and electionas clearlyas we preach any doctrine, yet there are
some who are mightily uneasywhen, the doctrine is mooted, and feel as if they
could almost slay the preacher, because the doctrine is so offensive to human
nature. Everywhere you will notice that the church of Rome has not half the
hatred to Luther anism that it has to Calvinism. It is the doctrine of grace,
which is the soul of Calvinism, that is the poison of Popery; it cannotendure
the truth that Godwill save where he wills; that he has not given salvation

into the hands of priests, nor given it to our own merit or our own will to save
us. God holds the keys of the casketofgrace, and distributes as he pleases.
This is the doctrine which makes men so angry, that they know not what to
say of it; but, my dear hearer, I trust this is not the reasonwhy you refuse to
believe in Jesus, forif it be, it is a most foolishreason, for while this is true,
there is yet another truth that “Whosoeverbelievethin Jesus Christ, shall not
perish.” While it is true that the Lord will have mercy on whom he will have
mercy, it is equally true that he wills to have mercy, and has already had
mercy on every soul that repenteth of its sin, and that puts its trust in Jesus.
Wherefore cavil at a truth because you cannotunderstand it? Why kick ye
againstthe pricks to your own wounding, when the pricks remain as sharp as
ever, and will not be moved by all your kicking. The Lord of Hosts hath
purposed it to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the
excellencyof the earth: “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showethmercy.” The Lord will bring down the high tree, dry
up the greentree, and make the dry tree to flourish, that no flesh may glory in
his presence, but that the Lord may be exalted. Bow, then, to sovereigngrace!
Should he not be King? Who else should rule but God? And if he be a King,
has he not a right to forgive the felon condemned to die, and yet give no
reasonto you? Leave that question, and all others, and come to Jesus, whose
open arms invite you. He saith, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” If you wait till you have solvedall
difficulties, you will never come at all. If you refuse Christ till you understand
all mysteries, you will perish in your sins. Come while the gate is opened and
while the lamp holds out to burn, and he hath said it, “Him that comethunto
me, I will in nowise castout.”
I must still mention another reasonfor the quarrel of the Nazarenes with our
Lord: it was probably because theyloved not such plain, personalspeaking as
the Saviourgave them. Some hearers affect greatdelicacy. You must not call a
spade a “spade;” it is an “agricultural implement,” and only to be spokenof in
dainty terms. But our Lord used no fine talk, He was a plain speaking man,
and he spoke to men plainly. He knew that men would go to hell, let him be as
plain as he might, and therefore he would not let them have the excuse that
they could not understand the preacher. He put the truth so clearly that not
only could they understand it, but they could not misunderstand it if they
tried. His preaching was most personal. “Ye will say.” He did not speak about
Capernaum, but all about Nazareth, and this helped also to make them angry.
Once again, he gave a hint that he meant to bless the Gentiles. Elijah had fed
and Elisha had healed a Gentile, and this undoubted fact made the Jew sethis

teeth, for he fearedthat the monopoly of blessing was to cease,and that gifts
of grace were to be given to others besides the sons of Israel. A Gentile dog
was to be admitted into the family, to be permitted not only to eatthe crumbs
that fell from the table, but to be changedinto a child: the Jews couldnot bear
it. Now, there is a greatdeal of this monopolising spirit among self-righteous
people. Why, I have heard people say — shockedI have been to hear it —
“Oh! they are having meetings for getting togetherthese girls off the street. It
is no use — you may try; it is no use trying to reform them. And then here are
other people looking after these low characters, going into those nasty back
slums. Well, if people get there, they ought to be there; we ought not to lower
ourselves to look aftersuch good-for-nothing people. There is the church, if
they do not choose to go, let them stop away.” turn up their noses atold
Jewishmonopolising of the gospel;as if these people were not as goodas you,
for all their sins and for all their poverty; for though their vice may happen to
be outward, it is not a whit more detestable than the pride of some people
which makes a boastof a self-righteousnesswhich does not exist. I do not
know which God looks upon with the greatestabhorrence, the open sinner or
the openly goodliving personwhose inward pride stands out againstthe
gospel. It matters nothing to the physician whether he sees the eruption
outside the skin or knows it to be inside; perhaps he thinks it may be harder
to get at the secondthan at the first Now, our Lord Jesus Christ will have you
to know, howevergoodyou are, that you must come to him just as the vilest of
the vile must come. You must come as guilty — you cannot come as righteous;
you must come to Jesus to be washed;you must come to him to be clothed.
You think you do not want washing;you fancy you are clothed, and covered,
and beautiful to look upon; but oh! the garb of outward respectability, and of
outward morality, often is nothing but a film to hide an abominable leprosy,
till God’s grace changesthe heart. God requireth truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden part he will make us to know wisdom; but this superficial
England of ours is perfectly satisfiedwith outside gentility, and you may be as
rotten as you will within the heart. The living God will have no pretence, you
must be born again. This doctrine, again, is one which people cannotendure,
and all hard things will they say of the preacher, and for this reasonthey
rejectChrist, but in so doing they rejecttheir own mercy, they rejectthe only
hope of heaven, and they sealtheir own destruction.
III. And now, WHAT CAME OF IT?
This came of it. First of all, they thrust the Saviour out of the synagogue,and
then they tried to hurl him down the brow of the hill. These were his friends,
good, respectable people:who would have believed it of them? You saw that

goodly company in the synagogue who sang so sweetly, and listened so
attentively, would you have guessedthat there was a murderer inside every
one of their coats? It only needed the opportunity to bring the murderer out;
for there they are all trying to throw Jesus downthe hill. We do not know how
much devil there is inside any one of us; if we are not renewedand changedby
grace, we are heirs of wrath even as others. The description which is given in
the Romans, that secondchapter, that awful chapter, is a truthful picture of
every child of Adam. He may look respectable;he may seemto be a lamb, and
to be so quiet that a weanedchild might play on the cockatrice’sden; but he is
a deadly cockatrice forall that. The snake may sleep, and you may play with
it, but let it wake, andyou will see that it is a deadly thing. Sin may lie
dormant in the soul, but there may come a time when it will wake up; and
there may come a time in England when those goodpeople who hang on to the
skirts of Christ, and attend our places ofworship, may actually develop into
persecutors. It was so in England. The people who used to hear the gospelat
the close ofHenry the Eighth’s day — the people that were so pleasedto hear
Hugh Latimer under Edward the Sixth, were quite as ready to carry a fagot
under Queen Mary, and to burn the servants of the Lord. My dear friends,
your opposition to Christ may not take that active form, but unless you are
convertedyou are enemies to Jesus. You deny it! I ask you why then do you
not believe in him? Why do you not trust him? You are not opposedto him,
why do not you yield to him? But so long as you do not trust him, I can only
setyou down as his enemy. You give this clearestproofof it, that you will not
even be saved by him. If there were a man drowning, and another man put
out his hand, and he said, “No, I will not be savedby you, I would soonerbe
drowned,” what a proof that would be of enmity! What proof could be surer
That is your case, yourefuse to be saved by Christ’s grace. Oh, what an
enemy of Christ at the bottom of your heart you must be!
But what came of it? Why, though they thus thrust him out, they could not
hurt the Saviour. The hurt was all their own. Christ did not fall from the hill;
he escapedby his miraculous power: and the gospelwill not be hurt even
though you reject it, and do worse than rejectit — setyourself in opposition
to it. Jesus Christ glides through the midst of his enemies uninjured. Through
the persecutions ofNero, and Diocletian, the true Christ of Goa went on his
way. Through all the burnings of Mary, and the hangings of Elizabeth, right
on through the times of Claverhouse and his dragoons, the goodold gospel
remained unconquered by its foes. It abides still to this very day the same:it
escapesfrom all the angerof its most virulent foes. But what became of them?
Well, they had rejectedChrist, and he left them, left them unhealed because of

their unbelief — that will be your case. And now it is one thousand eight
hundred and sixty years ago, and the souls of all these men of Nazarethhave
appearedbefore the judgment-seat; and in a few more years, when the great
trumpet shall sound, all those men who tried to throw him down the brow of
the hill will have to look at him; and they will see him seatedwhere they
cannot grasphim, nor abuse him, nor casthim down. What a sight it will be
for them! Will they sayto one another, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”When they
see him sitting on the throne of his glory, and all his holy angels with him, will
they say, “His mother, is she not with us, and his brothers and his sisters?”
Will they then sayto him, “Physician, healthyself”? Oh, what a change will
come over those brazen brows ! How for every sneerthere will be a blush, and
for eachword of angerthere will be cries, and weeping, and wailings, and
gnashings of teeth! My hearers, the same thing will happen to you. Within a
few more years, you and I will have mixed our bones with mother earth, and
then after that shall come a generalresurrection, and we shall live and stand
in the latter days upon the earth, and Christ will come in the clouds of heaven,
and you who heard the gospeland despisedhim, what will you say? Have your
apologyready, for you will soonbe called upon to say why judgment should
not be pronounced upon you. You cannotsay you did not know the gospel, or
that you were not warned of the result of rejecting it: you have known, what
more could you have known? But your heart would not receive what you
knew. When the Lord begins to say, “Depart, ye cursed,” what claim will you
have not to be numbered with that accursedcompany? It will be in vain to
say, “We have eatenand drunk in thy presence, andthou hast taught in our
streets,” forthat will be an aggravationthat the kingdom of heaven came so
nigh unto you, and yet you receivedit not. And when the thunderbolts are
launched, and he who was once the Lamb so full of mercy, shall shine forth as
the Lion of the tribe of Judah, full of majesty, that thunderbolt shall be
winged with extra force and speedwith this tremendous fact — that you
rejectedChrist, that you heard him, but turned a deaf earto him; that you
neglectedthe greatsalvation, and did despite to the Spirit of grace. As I
cannot even hope to find words that can have the force of God’s own
language, I shall close this sermonby reading you these few words, which I
beg you to lay to your heart. They are in the first chapter of Proverbs, at the
twenty fourth verse:“BecauseI have called, and ye refused; I have stretched
out my hand, and no mail regarded; but ye have setat nought all my counsel,
and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock
when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your
destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish comethupon
you. Then shall they callupon me, but I will not answer;they shall seek me

JESUS REJECTED BY HIS HOMETOWN OF NAZARETH

JESUS REJECTED BY HIS HOMETOWN OF NAZARETH

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JESUS REJECTED BY HIS HOMETOWN OF NAZARETH