a prophet has no honor in his own country (John 4:44). Now, going through all the cities and villages of Galilee, accompanied by the disciples and the crowd of those who were healed by Him and believed in Him, now, when His fame had spread throughout all Syria, when in His homeland, it would seem, they should have honored Him, even if only as a Prophet... now He is coming to Nazareth; but He comes, of course, not out of vanity, not in order to receive the honors due to Him, but in order not to deprive His divine teaching of those with whom He has lived for so long, who, it would seem, should have been the first to believe in Him. Apparently, He deliberately delayed His arrival in Nazareth for a long time, giving the inhabitants of this city time and opportunity to learn what extraordinary miracles He performed, what crowds of people constantly follow Him, and how many have already recognized in Him the long-awaited Messiah-Christ.

His preaching in the synagogue of Nazareth

And now Jesus comes to Nazareth accompanied by His disciples, enters the synagogue (it was a Sabbath day) and goes straight to the place from which the law and the prophets were read. He opens the book of the prophet Isaiah given to Him and begins to read the passage where the prophet speaks on behalf of the Messiah, who is to come, about the purpose of His coming. Through the mouth of the prophet, the Messiah says that He was sent by God to announce to all the poor, the poor, the unfortunate, the humble workers that the Kingdom of God is coming for them, to heal by a call to repentance and by preaching love and mercy all those who are crushed for their sins, to declare that even inveterate sinners, captives of sin, by repentance and good works, can receive liberation from the sinful bonds that bind them, to give sight to those who are who, by false teachings and misinterpretations, have been driven to blindness to the true light of the Scriptures, to a lack of understanding of its true meaning, to set free all of them, here tormented, all the poor, contrite in heart, fallen under the power of sin, blinded, and to preach the coming of the Kingdom of God's love and mercy.

The Jews had no doubt that the prophet Isaiah was speaking not in his own name, but in the name of the expected Messiah. Those who were now present in the synagogue undoubtedly heard that Jesus had already accomplished all that the prophet had read that the Messiah was to do; consequently, they had no choice but to recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

Having thus prepared His listeners, Jesus closed the book, gave it to the minister of the synagogue, and sat down. It was a solemn moment. Everybody was looking at Jesus, everybody was looking forward to what He would say. And He began His preaching with the words:

now this scripture has been fulfilled which you have heard (Luke 4:21). Proving then that this scripture had indeed been fulfilled, calling His hearers to repentance, giving them a new commandment of love, and in general explaining to them what is to be understood by the Kingdom of the Messiah and the Kingdom of Heaven, and by what means both can be attained, Jesus would seem to have left not the slightest doubt in His hearers that He is that long-awaited Deliverer, of whom all the prophets spoke.

In fact, many of those in the synagogue, under the influence of this preaching and the miracles performed by Jesus in Judea and Galilee, were ready to accept Him as the Messiah; They were surprised