6:1-6
30. Sabbath Service in Nazareth
It was the practice of the Lord to teach and to preach the word in the synagogues where the Jews habitually assembled (John 18:20) upon the sabbath. The fact of the people coming together in this manner afforded an opportunity of placing the truth before many at once, and of this opportunity the Lord continually availed Himself (Matt. 4:23; 12:9; Mark 1:39; Luke 4:44). It was His “custom” to do so (Luke 4:16).
By this service in the word of Jehovah on the seventh day the Servant-Prophet most truly did the will of Him that sent Him, and most effectually honored and observed the sabbath. Such a spirit was enjoined in the prophecies of Isaiah: “If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, and honorable, and shalt honor it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD” (Isa. 58:13, 14).
In none was this fulfilled in the degree that it was in Him who said, “I delight to do thy will, O my God.” His ministry to others in word as here and in deed as elsewhere was a perfect observance of the holy day and also the occasion of His own ineffable joy arising from the accomplishment of the Father's will in spite of the unbelief with which His service was received by man.
The audience in the synagogue at Nazareth was “astonished.” Apparently the amazement was not only at what the Lord Jesus taught but also at the manner in which He taught it; for He “taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes” (Matt. 7:28, 29). Those who were present knew Joseph and Mary, and Jesus was to them as “a root out of a dry ground.” They had observed Jesus as He grew from boyhood to manhood. And they would not suffer one they knew so well to teach them. Where was His authority? Who made Him a teacher? How knoweth this man letters? (cp. John 7:15; Matt. 21:23; Mark 11:28). What was the wisdom given to Him? Why were such mighty works wrought by His hands? Was He not the carpenter, and the son of a carpenter? They knew His brothers, and were not His sisters in their midst?
THE STONE OF STUMBLING
The inhabitants of Nazareth were destitute of belief in the Lord. The evangelist says, “They were stumbled in him.” It had come upon them already as it was quickly coming upon both the houses of Israel, for the national stumbling had been foretold. The Lord of hosts was in the midst of the nation even then, in accordance with Isaiah's prediction, as a sanctuary for those who would come to Him. But He was there also “for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” And many would “stumble thereon and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken” (Isa. 8:13-15). The Stone of Israel was in lowly form then, and the proud Pharisees stumbled at Him and His sayings (Matt. 15:12), but He was soon to be exalted and to become the headstone of the corner (Psa. 118:22). In the day of His glory Messiah will be “marvelous” in the eyes of His people, though in His humiliation they saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. They will be a humble people then and the stumbling-block will be removed, and they will find that the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity dwells also with him who is of a humble and contrite spirit (Isa. 57:14, 15). And then will be brought about the full accomplishment of the prophecy of aged Simeon spoken to Mary, “Behold, this child is set for the falling and rising up of many in Israel” (Luke 2:34).
The unbelief at Nazareth was therefore the precursor of the unbelief of the nation which delivered Him to the Gentiles to be crucified. The builders thought they knew the Stone well, and it did not please them, and they rejected it.
We may find this hostile spirit foreshadowed in the historical types of Messiah. Was it not so foreshadowed in the house of Jacob? God communicated visions of his coming power and wisdom to the elder son of Rachel. This was offensive to his brethren. “Shalt thou,” they said, “reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?” And they envied Joseph, and hated him for his dreams and his words.
Did not the same evil spirit animate the hearts of the brethren of David when he spoke of the dishonor which the name of Jehovah was suffering from the vaunts of Goliath the idol-worshipper? They hated him, and their anger was kindled against him for his words: “Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?” The sons of Jesse stumbled at the stumbling-stone; they were not prepared to accept that their shepherd brother was the anointed of Jehovah though, the prophet Samuel had declared it. Thus the proverb was true then also: neither a king nor a prophet is accepted in his own country and among his own kin.
MARY'S UNBELIEVING HOUSEHOLD
The human imagination in poetry and art has in its retrospect woven many sensuous legends around the private life of our Lord. But scripture is strikingly reticent upon this subject. Where so many holy mysteries are thrown open for our learning, such a reservation should be regarded as a warning to us to avoid any intrusion into what is thus guarded. The Spirit of God makes some few but brief references in the Gospels to the early days of our Lord which “were spent in the physical and mental growth of the true humanity which He had assumed.”
But the general tone of the allusions throughout the Gospels to Mary and her family suggests that their attitude towards Jesus as the Messianic King and Savior was one of incredulity if not of actual hostility. Mary in her canticle of praise as we have it in Luke (1:46-55) expressed her confidence in the immediate coming of Him who was God her Savior, but this seems subsequently to have been overshadowed somewhat. Her faith diminished like that of the austere prophet of the Highest who testified, “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world,” but afterward sent from prison to Jesus his depressed inquiry, “Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?”
The humble guise and ways of the Lord Jesus seem to have been to Mary and to John the Baptist as well as to the mass the stumbling-block, and their early visions of His majesty and dominion and earthly power all faded into dimness, if not into obscurity.
On this occasion the lack of interest on the part of Mary and her household appears to have been cited by the men of Nazareth as evidence against the divine claims of the Master. They said, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Jude and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?” And in another connection we are told definitely that His brethren, whose names are all so strikingly patriarchal, did not believe on Him (John 7:5). The Lord's words in the synagogue therefore created great astonishment among the audience by their wisdom, but His lowly origin and His poor relations confounded them, and they “fell backward into a deadly snare.”
Their inconsistency illustrates how ill men reason when they lack faith. They could see there was nothing in the household of Mary, with all of whom they were well acquainted, to account for the extraordinary nature of the ministry of Jesus, but they failed to seek a divine origin. They could see His power was not derived from man, but they would not see it was derived from heaven.
Such misunderstanding arising among His own and developing into hatred and persecution was foretold by the Spirit of prophecy: “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends” (Zech. 13:6). But though this detraction sprang not from strangers, but from those who might rank as “familiar friends” the pain of it was borne by our Lord with the utmost patience and without retaliation. He looked not to men, but committed Himself to Him who judgeth righteously, as it was written again: “A man's enemies are the men of his own house. Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me” (Mic. 7:6, 7).
But Jesus had come to bless men, and unbelief could not altogether prevent the accomplishment of this work. It might diminish the stream of blessing for a time or divert its channels, because faith is essential to its outflow. “And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.” In a future day the righteousness which is by faith will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea; for the just shall live by faith. But now the unbelief of Nazareth was as phenomenal in its nature as the faith of the Roman centurion, and Jesus marveled at both (Matt. 8:10).
(continued from page 291).