Jesus and the Old Testament (Elijah/Naaman)

In Luke 4, Jesus is in his hometown, Nazareth. His ministry is growing and more and more people are hearing about him and wanting to see him and hear from him. So he returns under the Spirit’s guidance to Nazareth. He goes into his local synagogue and reads from a scroll. He reads from Isaiah 61 and says that he fulfills this prophecy. What is the people’s reaction?

At first, they were amazed. They are fixated on what he has to say next. But what he does say next infuriates them. This is where our main passage comes into play. Luke 4:24-27 says, ““Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”” 

Jesus makes two references here to the Old Testament. A reference to Elijah being sent to a widow and the healing of Naaman. Jesus makes his point of using these stories in v.24- “no prophet is accepted in his hometown”. Jesus knows they are going to reject him, but I also think Jesus is pointing to a bigger picture here than just the village of Nazareth. 

The story of Elijah comes from 1 Kings 17. Elijah’s message was rejected by King Ahab and so he is sent to a widow in Sidon, a non-Jew. This is the reason Jesus brings this story up. There was a famine and Israel had widows in need but Elijah was not sent to them but to a Gentile widow. Why? Because Israel had rejected God’s message and prophets. But the Gentiles were willing.  

Jesus then brings up the story of Naaman from 2 Kings 5. Jesus says there were many in Israel suffering from leprosy. But Elisha was only sent to Naaman, a military leader of Syria, again a non-Jew. Elisha has Namman come to him so that “he will know that there is a prophet in Israel” (v8). The Gentiles are more willing to believe than the prophet’s own people. 

Jesus sees himself as being this ultimate prophet from Israel that is rejected by God’s people. He is better than any prophet and he is still rejected by his own people, God’s people, who he was originally sent to. Even though they have rejected him, he knows he is their ultimate salvation as well. At their rejection, Gentiles will be able to come in and take part in this salvation. Jesus reaches to their past and knows they have rejected their prophets before and he knows they will again. But he still comes and offers them salvation, even though some will reject it. Then as these Old Testament stories depict, Gentiles are welcomed into the salvation story for eternity.