Jesus, at His hometown Nazareth, met attitudes at their worship center that were detrimental to true worship (Lu 4:16-30). Their provincial pride of place was saying, “Do your miracle stuff here. We are as good as those folks down at Capernaum.” Jesus confronted this, and Jewish nationalism, by reminding them that Elijah and Elisha did more miracles among the Gentiles than in Israel. Reaction? Hot anger! Get out! Kill him! Jesus left them! Unchanged! More entrenched! More patriotic! Results? They missed the real Messiah, His global kingdom and their place in it!
“Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” Luke 4:26-27 (ESV)
