VISIT TO NAZARETH.



SOON after the healing of the nobleman's son at Cana, our Lord seems to have gone to Nazareth, the place where he had been brought up, to spend a short time. It is said to have been a custom among the Jews for any one who wished to read in the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, to make his wish known; when he would be allowed to read in the hearing of the people whatever portion of Scripture he chose. 

It was probably in accordance with this custom that Jesus "went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, and stood up for to read." And they gave unto him the book of the prophet Esaias [Isaiah]. 

"And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister," or the one who had the care of the synagogue, "and sat down," as it was customary for the Jewish rabbis to do when they taught the people. "And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened upon him," they listened to him very attentively.

Jesus then went on to make known to the people that he was the one to whom the prophet Isaiah referred in the scripture he had just read to them; and that by his preaching and his works of mercy he was fulfilling that prophecy. He said to them, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." At first they seemed glad to hear what he had to say, and wondered at the "gracious words" which he spake to them. They were so interested in his talk that for a time they seemed to forget that he was one who had been brought up among them; but soon they began to say one to another, "Is not this Joseph's son?" He then said to them, "Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, 'Physician, heal thyself'; whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy own country." By this they very likely meant the healing of the nobleman's son at Capernaum, and wondered why he did not heal their sick also.

But he said to them, "No prophet is accepted in his own country;" and then he gave examples to prove the truth of this saying. He said, "But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias [Elijah] when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus [Elisha] the prophet; and none of them was cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian."

So now the people felt condemned by the words of Jesus; "and all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill, (whereon their city was built,) that they might cast him down headlong. But he, passing through the midst of them went his way."