11 Jesus’s Ministry in His Hometown, Nazareth

Dr. Doug Bookman

A. Jesus’ First Visit to Nazareth (Near the Beginning of the Galilean Ministry)

Scripture: Luke 4:13-22

Notes: This visit occurred early in Jesus’s Galilean ministry, after He had been gone for about a year. (That is, it was about a year earlier that Jesus had left to be baptized by John; as far as the record goes, He had not returned since.)

Questions/Observations:

  1. Notice that Jesus returned to the synagogue “as was His custom”; it is my belief that the point is that this is the synagogue He had attended when He lived in Nazareth, and, therefore, these people knew Jesus and His family very well.
  2. Jesus was recognized as a rabbi and invited to participate in the Sabbath service. Why do you think He was given that opportunity?
  3. From what Old Testament passage did Jesus read? Do you think He chose that passage, or was the passage was chosen for Him?
  4. How do you understand Jesus’s reference to the Sidonian widow and the Syrian leper? What is Jesus’s point, and why do the townsfolk react with such anger?

B. Jesus’s Second Visit to Nazareth (Very Late in the Galilean Ministry)

Scripture: Matthew 13:54-58 and Mark 6:1-6

Notes: These two passages narrate a visit toward the close of the Galilean ministry. Together, the two events provide an instructive microcosm of the Galilean ministry as a whole.

Adapted from the Life of Christ study notes of Dr. Doug Bookman, professor of New Testament Exposition at Shepherds Theological Seminary (used by permission).

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