One moment they are marveling and speaking well of the gracious words uttered from his lips, the next they are fuming furiously, driving him out of town and on the brink of throwing him off the cliff.
The account is recorded in Luke 4:16-30. Jesus is in his hometown of Nazareth. It is the Sabbath day and he is in the synagogue and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and began to read from Isaiah 61:1-2. The passage was full of good news as it pointed to an anointed man chosen by God whose Spirit would empower to proclaim good news to God’s people. The anointed would set captives free, give sight to the blind, safeguard the oppressed, and proclaim God’s favor.
For hundreds of years, God’s people clung to these words while looking forward to the arrival of this anointed super hero, their savior.
“When will this fearless and courageous chosen one come?” they must’ve thought.
After Jesus finished reading the Isaiah passage, “He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him” (Luke 4:20).
Why were their eyes fixed on Jesus? Were they waiting for a commentary? An explanation?
Whatever their expectations, their eyes were fastened to him as he made his way back to his seat to sit down. There was a brief momentary stillness and fierce staring.
And then Jesus broke the deafening silence.
Mic-Drop #1
“And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” This was the first of three mic-drop statements made by Jesus. This was like Clark Kent partially unveiling the ‘S’ underneath his buttoned-up dress shirt. Jesus was the long-awaited chosen one to come and bring salvation!
Unsurprisingly there was an outbreak of happy conversations among the listeners as “all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth” (Luke 4:21-22). They saw themselves on the receiving end of God’s good blessings.
Mic-Drop #2
But then Jesus unexpectedly summarized two Old Testament accounts where the great prophets Elijah and Elisha went to the Gentiles, rather than God’s people, to rescue the Gentiles even though there was great distress in Israel (Luke 4:23-27). This was the second mic-drop statement. How would the listeners respond to this one? Happily? Favorably? Agreeably?
Hardly.
“When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff” (Luke 4:28-29). Astonishing, isn’t it?
To suggest that the crowd was merely upset would be a gross understatement. “Why would he help the Gentiles?” they must’ve been thinking. They were so sick to their stomach, so grieved, and so filled with wrath that they protested and rioted Jesus out of the town with scandalous determination to throw him off a cliff.
And before we point fingers too quickly, we should see our own hearts here. Apart from grace, we rage against a Savior who won’t conform to our expectations, offended that His mercy reaches people like “them.” That murderous mob isn’t just a historical description of a strange reaction—it’s a mirror of us in our sin.
How would Jesus respond surrounded by an angry mob, His life on the brink of death? Would this be the last of Jesus? Would He retaliate and violently defend Himself against a crowd of angry men bent on ending His life?
Mic-Drop #3
“But passing through their midst, he went away” (Luke 4:30). Without uttering a word, Jesus makes such a loud statement that it sends chills down my spine every time I read verse 30. He exercised divine sovereignty with a calm ‘You-can’t-kill-me-until-the-day-I-willingly-lay-down-my-life-And-today-is-not-that-day’ kind of an exit. He passed through the rage-filled crowd similar to the way Moses passed through the tempestuous Red Sea. Unscathed, unharmed, and untouched. This was Jesus’ unspoken, yet clearly felt, bombshell of a mic-drop announcement. This is the “Jesus did what?!” moment. He sovereignly walked away from the mob with no stoppable resistance.
But here’s the wonder: though they couldn’t hurl Him down a cliff that day, there would come a day when He’d climb a hill willingly—not to escape death, but to embrace it. The very One they tried to kill would one day lay Himself under the wrath of God for the very kind of sinners standing in that mob—and for sinners like you and me.
Paul describes Jesus as the image of the invisible God and that by Jesus all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:15-17). Every galaxy, every star, every planet, every creature, every heartbeat, and every cell and molecule has been fashioned and is held together by Jesus. He literally upholds the universe by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3). He merely has to say the word and everything and everyone crumbles to bits and pieces. But right now he is sovereignly choosing to hold and uphold everyone and everything, visible and invisible, together.
This is why the crowd had no shot at overpowering Jesus with their over-determined will to kill. “No one takes [my life] from me,” said Jesus, “but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:18).
And this is why you have every reason to renew your hope in Christ alone. The same sovereign Lord who walked untouched through a murderous mob would later walk alone to Calvary’s cross for you. He not only upholds the universe by the word of His power—He sovereignly upholds you too, dear Christian. The One who could not be forced to die is the same One who freely chose to die in your place, and He will safely carry you through every storm until He brings you home.
And that’s good news.