Epiphany Season · Third Sunday after the Epiphany · Year C
Luke 4:14-21
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
January 23, 2028
Overview & Insights
“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)
Jesus’s return from the wilderness area marks the beginning of his public ministry, which will be focused in his home province of Galilee until he sets off for Jerusalem in 9:51. Mark and Matthew record a single visit to Nazareth, which they place later in their narratives. Luke not only tells the story in much more detail, and with his typical focus on Jesus’s mission of deliverance, but also has inserted it at the very beginning of his account of Jesus’s public preaching to act as a sort of frontispiece (a decorative illustration facing a book’s title page) for Jesus’s ministry as a whole. The themes of deliverance, of good news for the poor, and of the universal scope of Jesus’s mission set the tone for all that is to follow. The hostility of Jesus’s own fellow villagers serves as a warning of the opposition that his ministry will provoke from conservative Jewish interests.
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Commentary
Commentary on Luke 4:14-21 Working Preacher
A Luther Seminary commentary on this scene as Jesus' manifesto for his coming ministry.
Luke 4:14-21 Commentary Center for Excellence in Preaching
A Reformed preaching commentary on the Holy Spirit as the maker of Epiphanies throughout Luke and Acts.
Luke 4 Commentary Enduring Word · David Guzik
A verse by verse evangelical commentary on the temptation and the Nazareth synagogue reading.
Luke 4 Commentary Precept Austin
A deep study page gathering Greek word studies, cross references, and many expositors on Luke 4.
Classic commentaries on Luke 4 BibleHub
A classic aggregator stacking Barnes, Gill, Ellicott, and other historic commentators verse by verse.
Jesus' Mission Statement, Epiphany 3 (C) Sermons That Work · Episcopal Church
An Episcopal Sermons That Work model sermon on Jesus' Nazareth manifesto.
Background & Word Study
Luke Enter the Bible
A Luther Seminary book introduction to Luke's structure and its emphasis on the Spirit and the poor.
Overview: Luke BibleProject
An animated overview of Luke's design, framing Jesus' inaugural sermon at Nazareth.
Luke 4 interlinear BibleHub
The Greek text of Luke 4 word by word with parsing and Strong's numbers for the synagogue reading.
The Church Fathers
Sermons & Reflections
Questions preachers ask
What happens when Jesus preaches at Nazareth?
Reading Isaiah's promise of good news to the poor, Jesus declares it fulfilled in himself, and the hometown crowd's wonder turns to fury.
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