Until He was thirty years of age, Christ’s life was largely hidden. When He began his public ministry, He went to the synagogue in Nazareth and read aloud a passage from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because he has anointed me; to bring good news to the poor he has sent me, to proclaim to the captives release, and sight to the blind; to set at liberty the oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of recompense (Isa. 61:1). After reading it He said: “Today this scripture you have heard has been fulfilled in your hearing (Luke 4:20)”. But He also said to those who were listening to Him: “Amen I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country” (Luke 4: 24).
“His own people did not accept him” (John 1:11). They were unwilling to accept that a carpenter’s son was truly the one he claimed to be “And they took offense at him . . . because of their unbelief he did not work many miracles there” (Matthew 13: 55-58). Christ left Nazareth and began to teach in towns and villages throughout Galilee bearing witness to the truth of which He had been sent by the Father.
Christ was a martyr to Truth, a value that meant very little to…
