2. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus’ first public act is an exorcism (1:23-28). Luke uses Mark as his main source, but he chooses to make Jesus’ first public act a sermon (4:16-30). This sermon comes from Mark (6:1-6), but Luke repositions it to the beginning of his gospel (in Mark it occurs much later in the plot, after Jesus has performed a number of miracles, has entangled himself in arguments with opponents, and spoken in parables). Clearly, this is an intentional move on Luke’s part, and must have been done because he wanted to highlight certain themes. Carefully compare Lk 4:16-30 with Mk 6:1-6 to appreciate how Luke has transformed the story. Specifically, how has Luke 4:16-23 elaborated upon Mark’s account: what is the content of the sermon, how does Jesus understand himself in relation to the content of the sermon, and how does the crowd react? Next, consider the aftermath (4:24-30): how do the stories of Elijah and Elisha intersect with Luke’s understanding of Jesus, and why does the crowd react with such fury?

In Luke 4:16-30, the author makes clear that this particular scene of Jesus’ sermon takes place in his hometown of Nazareth, establishing his rejection from his own people as even more shocking and rather unexpected (the rejected prophet). In addition to merely beginning his gospel with Jesus’ sermon, Luke decides to lengthen the story to a full 15 verses, as compared to Mark’s mere 5. In his sermon within the gospel of Luke, Jesus reads directly from a scroll stating that, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” The prophet continues to state that he has been sent to “release the captives recover the sight of the blind and let the oppressed go free.” Following this proclamation, he reiterates his position and ability to do just as the scripture has written, and to this the crowd reacts quite positively almost oozing a sense of pride that he, the Holy One, is a native to Nazareth. However, Jesus continues his sermon stating that many times throughout history, and well throughout his own doing, miracles by the grace of God have become accessible to Gentiles as well as Jews alike. Here, Luke introduces the idea of Jesus’ teachings as one that is both versatile and non-discriminatory, addressing the possibility of his audience as being other than Jewish. This in turn makes the crowd in the synagogue upset and “filled with rage.” This reaction occurs because the crowd finds insult and impossibility within the idea that any other religion or lifestyle outside of the Jewish culture is acceptable to the God that they worship. In the end of Luke’s passage, he writes that the crowd got up to chase Jesus out of the village and push him off of a cliff, but instead he is able to peacefully leave, only later mirroring the crucifixion of Jesus as a product of the Jewish people themselves.