The young man had come home. Here he was in his own synagogue, surrounded by the people who had seen him grow up. Of course he was asked to do the Scripture reading from the Torah and to make brief comments afterwards. After all, he was one of them.
Some stories had spread in the small village about amazing things—unbelievable things—that he was supposed to have done. Lots of these kinds of stories circulated in those days. But here he was at home, where he belonged, in the synagogue, looking out for the need of his own! What a good son Joseph had.
The Scripture for this Sabbath was from the prophet Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.
What a great Scripture! This wonderful Good News is for the poor—that’s us! We are so poor. And we are captives to the Romans who oppress us. The Lord’s favor has not come yet. We know the Messiah will come and give us prosperity and freedom again, but at least this Scripture offers us future hope.
The young Nazarene sat down to deliver his comments. Well, he is still young. But then he said, “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
Well, I don’t know what that is supposed to mean! After all, this is Joseph’s son. We’ve known him since his family came back from Egypt years ago. He is such a nice young man—and here at home, where he belongs, to take care of his own! A strange message, but he’s one of us, and he will lose that youthful arrogance over time.
Then more pointedly, Jesus said,
But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown. Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27 And many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.
Jesus said, It’s not about you! You don’t want to hear anything but what is about you. It’s not about you; it’s about the Syrians and the Lebanese, it’s about Iranians and Iraqis, North Africans and . . . Others. God sent his spokesmen to foreigners—because the hometown folks are chasing other things. Sure, they long for the Messiah, but they only want the one who will save THEM and who will bless THEM and who will free THEM!
The hometown folks became a mob. They hated hearing that God loved foreigners! And they hated the Messenger, so they tried to kill him. Eventually they did.
But He still loves foreigners.
Mark's Blog 
Mark, I’ve never noticed this observation before in Luke. Thanks!
The elders of the church where I attend have a theology that Christians should help only the “legal” foreigners/aliens. What’s the best response to this?
What would Jesus do? He ignored the Sabbath laws to heal the sick and feed the hungry. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Charles, I wonder what your elders would do if they found an injured, obvious foreigner by the side of the road….ask for his papers before they take him to the hospital? You might ask them. (Dan taught me to answer questions with a question.). ~~ Anne B.
Well said, Mark! Any honest heart has to admit that all of us are descended from foreigners who immigrated to this continent…even the Native American Indians…there is solid research that establishes this. True intentional followers of Christ know that we are pilgrims on a journey…and that all that we have is on loan from God, our Father. If we don’t know that…maybe we do not know The Father very well?