1) Luke positions the Rejection at Nazareth story closer to the beginning of his book. In Mark Jesus has performed many miracles before this scene, where in Luke most of the previous passages were background and an introduction to Jesus. In Luke it was after this story that the majority of Jesus’ teachings and healings were done.
2) Luke has developed Jesus’ sermon by showing Jesus in the same light as Isaiah. When Jesus read from the book of Isaiah he wasn’t just reading, but proclaiming this as a statement over himself. Jesus, using the book of a previous prophet, stood up and told the people that the Spirit was on him, he was the anointed one there to preach the good news to the poor. After doing this Jesus proclaimed that the prophesy was fulfilled.
3) In Mark’s telling of the story the crowd had taken offense to what Jesus had preached. However, in Luke, once Jesus had spoken and sat down the crowd was in awe of him. It says they spoke “well of him and wondered of the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth.” The attitude of the crowd that heard Jesus speak does a complete turn around from Mark’s book to Luke’s.
4) The crowd Jesus spoke to appeared to have little faith because they questioned Jesus asking if he was not merely Joseph’s son. Luke knows how important it is to have faith in God and the one He sent. We see this in Luke’s account of Jesus’ response to the crowd by the examples Jesus gives to them. Jesus tells the crowd of the many widows in Elijah’s time, but there was one widow who was chosen by God to feed His prophet Elijah. Elijah’s faith in the Lord brought him to her, and her obedience to God saved her and her family from famine. Jesus’ next example is of a man healed of Leprosy. Jesus says there were many lepers in Israel, but the one who had faith that the Lord would heal him, was in fact healed. Luke understands Jesus as the true Son of God. He has faith in that, and believes that Jesus is there to demonstrate the power of faith to the people. He also believes that people who have faith in God are the chosen ones, the ones who will be saved both in this life and the next.