Matthew 13:53-58 - Rejected At Nazareth

⁵³ When Jesus had finished these parables, He left there.

⁵⁴ And after coming to [Nazareth] His hometown, He began teaching them in their synagogue, and they were astonished, and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers [what is the source of His authority]? 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 His sisters, are they not [living here] among us? Where then did this Man get all this [wisdom and power]?” ⁵⁷ And they took offense at Him [refusing to believe in Him]. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” ⁵⁸ And He did not do many miracles there [in Nazareth] because of their unbelief.

¹ Jesus left there and came to His hometown [Nazareth]; and His disciples followed Him. ² When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and many who listened to Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things [this knowledge and spiritual insight]? What is this wisdom [this confident understanding of the Scripture] that has been given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? ³ Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are His sisters not here with us?” And they were [deeply] offended by Him [and their disapproval blinded them to the fact that He was anointed by God as the Messiah].

⁴ Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor (respect) except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” ⁵ And He could not do a miracle there at all [because of their unbelief] except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ He wondered at their unbelief.

And He was going around in the villages teaching.

¹⁶ So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. ¹⁷ The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me (the Messiah),
Because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to announce release (pardon, forgiveness) to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed (downtrodden, bruised, crushed by tragedy),
¹⁹
to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the favor of God abound greatly].”

²⁰ Then He rolled up the scroll [having stopped in the middle of the verse], gave it back to the attendant and sat down [to teach]; and the eyes of all those in the synagogue were [attentively] fixed on Him. ²¹ He began speaking to them: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing and in your presence.”

²² And [as He continued on] they all were speaking well of Him, and were in awe and were wondering about the words of grace which were coming from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

²³ So He said to them, “You will no doubt quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal Yourself! Whatever [miracles] that we heard were done [by You] in Capernaum, do here in Your hometown as well.’”

²⁴ Then He said, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. ²⁵ But in truth I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was closed up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; ²⁶ and yet Elijah was not sent [by the Lord] to a single one of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. ²⁷ And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and not one of them was cleansed [by being healed] except Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸ As they heard these things [about God’s grace to these two Gentiles], the people in the synagogue were filled with a great rage; ²⁹ and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the crest of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to hurl Him down the cliff. ³⁰ But passing [miraculously] through the crowd, He went on His way.