The Rage of the Nazarenes

‎That first sermon of Jesus to His own townfolk did not close as winningly as it began. Jesus knew the heart of these people, knew their selfish desire to profit by His greatness. So He warned them that His miraculous powers were not to be exerted to them. He would neither bring them into worldly honor nor cure their sick. At this, they rose against Him in tumultuous anger. They hustled Him out from the synagogue. Then, their wrath increasing with its expression, they haled Him to the top of a cliff beyond the town, meaning to cast Him from the edge and slay Him. “But he passing through the midst of them went his way.”

‎Thus the first persecution which broke out openly against the Christ was in His own native town. It was an example of the way other men were to rage against Him when He crossed their evil desires. As Jesus sadly said to the Nazarenes in His sermon, “No prophet is accepted in his own country.”