Jesus is in his hometown. On the Sabbath, he visits his synagogue and claims to be the Messiah. The people from his hometown have heard about his miracles and popularity. At first they are excited about Jesus, but that lasts just a few moments. Then...
Luke 4:23-30 Is not this Joseph's son? 23 Jesus said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" 24 And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Suddenly Jesus is no longer popular. First he predicts that they are going to reject him. Then he compares them to their ancestors who rejected the prophets and brought upon Jerusalem its current state of Roman occupation. Oh boy! Watch out now! Now he has made them mad!
Jesus isn't going to do them special favors because they are family. He has a mission from his heavenly Father that is more important than whatever favors his hometown people are demanding. He has claimed to be more than they can ever attain. They are jealous and angry.
So they try to kill the hometown boy by throwing him off the cliff.
His own hometown tried to kill him! The people he grew up with - his teachers - his priest - his friends. They want him dead!!! If you have ever experienced rejection - the loss of a job, the rejection of a loved one, the rejection of your family - Jesus has experienced it along with you.
Jesus spoke truth instead of letting them feel good about a hometown boy's accomplishments. He didn't manipulate them with sweet talk or avoidance of the truth. He spoke truth and they tried to kill him.
Do you want to follow this Jesus who doesn't sugar coat? Who is willing to be unpopular? Who is willing to be rejected? This Jesus may just get you thrown off the cliff too. Or did you have something else in mind when you begin following Jesus?
Is there somewhere in your life where speaking the truth is the right thing to do even if you are rejected?
**** Other accounts of this story in the gospels:
Matthew 13:55-58 55 Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?" 57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor except in their own country and in their own house." 58 And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.
Mark 6:3-6 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. 4 Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." 5 And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6 And he was amazed at their unbelief.
John 6:41-42 41 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42 They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?"
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