When Jesus Went Home, Again
This Week: From Me to You + Buddy the Cat + Our Book + This Sunday: Jesus Fulfills Isaiah's Promise + Reflections for the Week + Resources for Growth + A Blessing
Listen: From Me to You
Our Book: The Way of Grace: Gospel Stories for Lent
Check out our just-released book, The Way of Grace: Gospel Stories for Lent. It's a 7-week individual or group study beginning Ash Wednesday, for the Lenten season – March 5 through Easter Sunday, April 20. Thanks for taking a look!
This Sunday: Jesus Fulfills Isaiah’s Promise, Part 1
Have you ever gone home, again, after being away at college, or the military, or your first real job? When you come back, you sense the pride the folks who watched you grow up feel toward you and your success.
The only problem is – you’ve changed. Unfortunately, the people who have known you the longest, still think they know you best.
That’s what happened when Jesus came back home to Nazareth. When he attends the synagogue, the townsfolk are rightly proud. After all, Jesus’s reputation is growing – rumors are he performs miracles. Naturally, they want to honor Jesus, and recognize him as the teacher he has become. For the service, synagogue leaders ask Jesus to read and comment from the scroll of Isaiah.
But somewhere between the congregation’s expectations and Jesus’s mission, things go in a direction that was unexpected – and as we see next week – unappreciated.
Let’s read the passage for this third Sunday after Epiphany, imagining the scene unfolding in Nazareth.
Luke 4:14-21 NIV
4 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
In this week’s Gospel reading, we find Jesus standing in the synagogue of his hometown, reading from the scroll of Isaiah, and then boldly proclaiming:
“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
These words are both an announcement and a challenge – a declaration of his mission and an invitation to embrace the transformative power of God’s grace.
The Backstory: Isaiah’s Prophecy and Jesus’ Proclamation
Written hundreds of years before Jesus, Isaiah 61:1-2, speaks of a deep longing for the restoration of Israel. Isaiah writes about the Babylonian captivity, and speaks of a people seeking freedom, healing, and divine favor after decades of exile and suffering.
The prophet describes a time when the poor will find hope, the prisoners will be freed, the blind will see, and the oppressed will be liberated. All will experience the “year of the Lord’s favor,” echoing the Year of Jubilee when debts were forgiven, and justice restored. It is a vision of shalom, where God's people are made whole again.
Centuries later, as Jesus reads these words in the synagogue in Nazareth, his comments set Isaiah's words in a radically new context.
The synagogue, central to Jewish religious and community life, was a place where Scripture was read and interpreted by adult men. Jesus, the hometown carpenter’s son, is invited to read and teach. He's not a formal religious leader, but his recent reputation for wisdom and power delights the proud village that day.
As he reads Isaiah’s prophecy, the familiar words are given an unfamiliar immediacy. Jesus declares that this long-awaited promise of liberation and renewal is not a future hope but a present reality—fulfilled in him, right before their very eyes.
In claiming this fulfillment, Jesus aligns himself with the anointed ones of Israel’s history: priests, prophets, and kings set apart by God to lead, heal, and restore. The Spirit of the Lord is upon him, as it was upon Moses, Elijah, and David. Yet, unlike any before him, Jesus is not merely an anointed one – he is The Anointed One, the Messiah.
A Ministry of Liberation
Furthermore, Jesus’ proclamation of “good news to the poor” is more than a poetic statement—it is a manifesto for his ministry. The poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed are not abstract categories; they are the very people Jesus seeks out, touches, heals, and restores.
In first-century Palestine, "the poor" were everywhere, struggling under the weight of Roman taxation and subsistence living. "The captives" could refer to those imprisoned unjustly or those enslaved by debt, sin, or spiritual despair. "The blind" and "the oppressed," both literal and metaphorical, represent those excluded from the fullness of life God intends.
To these, Jesus offers not only words of comfort but tangible acts of grace.
The Tension of Grace
After Jesus reads, rolls up the scroll and takes his seat, he then says,
“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Expecting something else, the crowd must have been stunned. While Jesus’ proclamation was an invitation to hope, it was also a confrontation. In claiming that Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in their hearing, Jesus declares himself the bearer of God’s promise -- a claim that demands a response.
For the residents of Nazareth, this was too much. To them, Jesus was not a prophet or messiah but the carpenter’s son, someone ordinary and familiar. His words sounded not like grace but arrogance, a presumption of status and mission beyond his station.
This tension reminds us that grace often disrupts before it heals. It challenges our assumptions and stretches our vision of what God can do and who God can use. In this moment, the people of Nazareth faced a choice: to embrace the new rhythm Jesus offered or to resist it, clinging to old patterns and expectations. Next week in Part 2, we’ll see their response, although you can probably imagine it already.
Embracing the Rhythm of Grace
This passage poses a question for us as well – how will we respond to the fulfillment of God’s promises when they come in unexpected ways? Do we, like the people of Nazareth, struggle to see God’s grace in the familiar and ordinary? Or do we embrace the rhythm of grace by stepping into its flow even when it challenges our expectations?
Jesus’ ministry was—and is—one of transformation. He meets us in our poverty, captivity, blindness, and oppression, offering liberation and renewal. Yet, his grace also calls us to extend that same mission, to carry the rhythm of God’s kingdom into our own communities.
As you reflect this week, consider where grace is challenging you to see with new eyes, to act confidently with God’s power, and to know that in Jesus, God’s promises are indeed fulfilled.
Reflections for the Week Ahead
- Monday: Read my 3-minute devotional at TodayShalom.com about finding God’s peace within the turmoil of disappointment. Subscribe free for a brief devotional about God’s shalom twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays.
- Tuesday: Today, think about how the Spirit is stirring in your life. How are you joining Jesus’s mission of proclaiming good news to those who need help, hope, and healing?
- Wednesday: Read today’s short devotional at TodayShalom.com and discover the type of peace it presents.
- Thursday: What thresholds of opportunity lie in front of you? How is God inviting you to step into something new?
- Friday: Read Friday’s weekly newsletter here at The Rhythm of Grace which will feature Part 2 of Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth.
- Saturday: Prepare for Sunday by reading again Luke 4:21-30. How does the Nazareth congregation’s reaction surprise or disappoint you? How would your church respond tomorrow if Jesus said, "Today this is fulfilled in your hearing?"
Resources for Spiritual Growth
- Simple Reminder: Write Luke 4:18-19 on a card. Carry it with you this week as a reminder of Jesus’ mission—and yours.
- Watch a synagogue service: Debbie and I regularly watch Central Synagogue in New York City. Their Friday evening Shabbat service speaks to us through the music, prayers, message and hopefulness. Watch this 3-minute clip of Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Cantor Dan Mutlu, and Cantor Jenna Pearsall leading the congregation in a delightful song – all in Hebrew, but you'll get the idea!
A Blessing
The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’ - Numbers 6:24-26 NIV
Thank you for stopping by here this week. If you'd like, leave a comment, forward the newsletter, or like it – or all three! Every blessing, and see you next Friday!
