Marvel Turned to Wrath

Luke 4:17-30
Jesus is in the synagogue and begins to read from Isaiah 61, declaring wonderful and mighty things that God will bring to pass, then telling the people that he is the one to carry it out, and now is the time of its happening (vs. 18-21).  Upon hearing this the people are obviously excited and ripe with anticipation, which leads to their embracing him and speaking well of him, even marveling at him (vs. 22a).  But in the second half of verse 22 we have a turning point.  This verse says that they begin to ask, "Is this not Joseph's son?"  Here is the key.  The passage in Isaiah speaks of the one to come, the Messiah.  This is what he is telling them of, but they only see him as Joseph's son, as a simple prophet (vs. 22b, 24).  Are they excited to see him?  Sure.  Is it genuine excitement and acceptance of him?  Absolutely.  But it is not because he is the Messiah, God's own Son that they are glad to see him and readily accept him.  It is because of the benefits he offers, the miracles they have heard about, hoping he will do the same for them (vs. 23).  They want Jesus, not as Messiah, but as healer, as giver, as provider.  They only see him as Joseph's son, miracle worker, prophet, not Messiah, Savior and Lord.  But they are willing to accept him anyways since he offers such wonderful benefits to them.  He exposes this in verses 24-27.  He takes away these benefits, telling them that although there are sick and needy here, he will not be performing these miracles and healing these people in this place, the same as Elijah and Elisha did not heal and perform miracles for everyone in their day.  Then the people's hearts truly come out.  All of a sudden they are no longer accepting of him.  They no longer marvel at him or speak well of him.  In fact, they are furious and endeavor to kill him (vs. 28-29).  What a quick and harsh reversal.  But we must meditate on this before we judge.  What if Jesus came to us, telling us he is the Messiah who is capable of showing forth the Lord's favor, but will not be doing so in our lives.  How accepting of him would we be at that point?  Are we content to have him as Lord and Savior without his blessing?  He is perfectly just in withholding from us anything and everything, if he so chooses.  He did in Elijah and Elisha's time, who is to say he will not do the same in our time?  These people were happy and excited to have a Jesus with fringe benefits.  They shouted his praise and accepted him into their lives, much as we have done today.  But the real test comes when we do not see his blessing and there are no "miracles".  Do we still shout forth his praise and declare his glory?  Do we still accept him into our lives?  Or do we push him aside, out of the way, as these people sought to push him off a cliff to get him out of the way so he wouldn't interfere and so he wouldn't bless others while ignoring them.  Look at our lives and what we invest our time and energy in and we will see which way we have chosen and embraced.