After Jesus’ baptism (recorded in Luke 3), Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness “for 40 days to be tempted by the Devil.” [Luke 4:2 HCSB]
We know Jesus answered every temptation the Devil aimed against Him with the Word of God. When the Devil realized he was not going to win, he left, but as Luke reminds his readers, “he departed from Him [only] for a time.” [4:13 HCSB]
After Jesus victory over the Devil’s temptation, he returned to the region of Galilee and taught in the synagogues, eventually arriving at his hometown Nazareth. His hometown first spoke well of Him but also noted that He was not much more than Joseph the carpenter’s son. [vs 22]
It does not take very long, however, before his hometown is offended by His comments and turns on Him. “They got up, drove Him out of town, and brought Him to the edge of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl Him over the cliff. But He passed right through the crowd and went on His way.” [4:29-30 HCSB]
Later in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus will inform His disciples that He has come for a specific purpose, and that purpose includes, suffering and rejection. (“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.” [9:22 HCSB])
Sadly, Jesus’ first rejection comes at the hands of the people in His hometown, people who knew His family, people who knew Him – perhaps even watched Him grow up among them. They are so enraged at His words that they would have killed Him, but it was not yet His time to die and neither was being hurled over a cliff the way He was to die.
There is a cross waiting for Him ahead and an even greater rejection when God will turn His back on His One and Only Son as He becomes the Sacrificial Lamb slain for the sins of the world.
