Jesus Goes to His Hometown^(A)

⁵³ When Jesus finished teaching with these stories, he left there. ⁵⁴ He went to the town where he grew up. He taught the people in the synagogue, and they were amazed. They said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and this power to do miracles? ⁵⁵ Isn’t he just the son of the carpenter we know? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? ⁵⁶ And don’t all his sisters still live here in town? How is he able to do these things?” ⁵⁷ So they had a problem accepting him.

But Jesus said to them, “People everywhere give honor to a prophet, but in his own town or in his own home a prophet does not get any honor.” ⁵⁸ Jesus did not do many miracles there, because the people did not believe in him.

Jesus Goes to His Hometown^(A)

¹⁶ Jesus traveled to Nazareth, the town where he grew up. On the Sabbath day he went to the synagogue as he always did. He stood up to read. ¹⁷ The book of Isaiah the prophet was given to him. He opened the book and found the place where this is written:

²⁰ Jesus closed the book, gave it back to the helper, and sat down. As everyone in the synagogue watched him closely, ²¹ he began to speak to them. He said, “While you heard me reading these words just now, they were coming true!”

²² Everyone there said good things about Jesus. They were amazed to hear him speak such wonderful words. They said, “How is this possible? Isn’t he Joseph’s son?”

²³ Jesus said to them, “I know you will tell me the old saying: ‘Doctor, heal yourself.’ You want to say, ‘We heard about the things you did in Capernaum. Do those same things here in your own hometown!’” ²⁴ Then he said, “The truth is, a prophet is not accepted in his own hometown.

^25-26 “During the time of Elijah it did not rain in Israel for three and a half years. There was no food anywhere in the whole country. There were many widows in Israel during that time. But the fact is, Elijah was sent to none of those widows in Israel. He was sent only to a widow in Zarephath, a town in Sidon.

²⁷ “And there were many people with leprosy living in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha. But none of them were healed; the only one was Naaman. And he was from the country of Syria, not Israel.”

²⁸ When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were very angry. ²⁹ They got up and forced Jesus to go out of town. Their town was built on a hill. They took Jesus to the edge of the hill to throw him off. ³⁰ But he walked through the middle of the crowd and went away.