The Brow of the Hill Near Nazareth

Several years ago, I went to the doctor because it was extremely painful to lift my right arm above my head. The doctor sent me to a physical therapist.

Head down focusing on her notebook, the therapist asked me, “How long has your arm been hurting?”

I answered, “About a year.”

She looked up at me and asked, “If it’s been hurting for a year, why did it take you so long to see the doctor?”

I replied, “Because I’m a guy.”

She laughed. Then she said, “I understand, but I can’t write that down.”

The majority of men don’t go to the doctor. They say, “It’s just a flesh wound.” Getting help would be less than manly. They don’t want to admit weakness.

Women don’t go to the doctor, either, but for different reasons. Their lives are too hectic. They don’t have time to go to an appointment. What about childcare? If they’re sick, who is left to take care of the family?

So often we know there is something wrong with us, but we refuse to go to the doctor. God provides healing and health through physicians and we reject this help.

That’s what happened to Jesus in the Nazareth synagogue.

Met With Open Arms

In Jesus Unrolls the Book in the Synagogue, Tissot shows Jesus’ return to his home synagogue in Nazareth. Jesus is standing up to read from the scroll of Isaiah. The scroll is ornate, with elaborate silver ornaments.

The Nazarenes are in awe of Jesus. They have heard about the great miracles Jesus had performed in the surrounding country, and that He preached with authority.

They filled up the synagogue on the Sabbath. During the Divine Service, the hometown boy read from Isaiah 61, a big-time Messianic prophecy! It’s where God promises to send a Savior.

He would be the anointed Messianic preacher of the gospel for the spiritually oppressed, freedom for those under spiritual captivity and spiritual sight for the spiritually blind.

The people were impressed. They liked what Jesus had to say.

But then Jesus preached some specific, brutal, attention-getting Law.

He talked about how they and their ancestors had always been stubborn in their unbelief, deafness and blindness.

Jesus knew they would quote this proverb back to him: “Physician, heal yourself!”

Prove it.

Jesus should prove he is the great Physician of body and soul by healing people at home. In Nazareth – the town he grew up in with his parents and brothers and sisters.

Jesus doesn’t perform a miracle on command at home. Instead, he says,

Amen I tell you: No prophet is accepted in his hometown. But truly I tell you: There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months, while a great famine came over all the land. Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in Sidon. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was healed except Naaman the Syrian.

Luke 4:24-27

Jesus reminds them that there were many hungry widows in Israel at the time of Elijah, but only the widow’s grain and oil at Zarephath had multiplied. There were many lepers in Israel at the time of Elisha, but only Naaman the commander of the enemy Syrian army was cleansed in the Jordan River.

You would think that Israel would have the inside track on miracles, but that was not the case- these were outsiders, enemies of Israel even.

All those hungry widows and only an outsider gets a miracle. All those lepers and diseased Israelites, and only the enemy gets healed.

A Change of Heart

Everything went downhill fast after Jesus said this in the synagogue. In fact, that’s what the crowd wanted to do – throw Jesus down a hill, fast. Instead of allowing God’s Word to work, they wanted to kill their Physician.

In The Brow of the Hill Near Nazareth, Tissot portrays the action and outrage of the Nazarenes toward Jesus. St. Luke records it this way:

All those who were in the synagogue were filled with rage when they heard these things. They got up and drove him out of the town. They led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.

Luke 4:28-29

Because Tissot always depicted Jesus in white, we might mistakenly conclude that the man in the middle of the painting is Jesus. But he’s not. Tissot uses this man’s flailing as a contrast to Jesus. This man is waving his arms at a mystified crowd.

Jesus had disappeared from their midst.

St. Luke reports Jesus disappearance very calmly, “But he passed through the middle of them and went on his way” (Luke 4:30).

In Times of Struggle

I have ministered to some tough people who endured a lot of setbacks in their lives, but they could always say, “At least I have my health.”

What, then, if you don’t have your health?

What if you need a cane or walker to be mobile?

What if you drag an oxygen tank around with you all day?

What if your schedule is manipulated by chemotherapy or dialysis?

What is your reaction when you need major surgery? What, when the doctor gives you the diagnosis that you have cancer? Or your child has a terminal disease?

Do you want to kill the physician?

I hope not!

But what is your reaction to Jesus when you need major surgery? How about when you receive the diagnosis of cancer? Do you blame him? Do you cry out in anger at God- do you give up on God- when your child has a terminal disease?

Others are healthy or healing and you, a faithful Christian, are sick and injured. You’re an insider! God should be doing these miracles in your home!

Do you want to kill the Great Physician?

I hope not.

When cancers, diseases, injuries and surgeries break into our lives, we may cry out, “Where in the world is God? And why doesn’t he do something?!”

There is the mistake of unbelief. Jesus has done something- something far more significant and far-reaching than a healing miracle. God has entered our world in the person of Jesus Christ.

Body or Soul?

Have you ever been asked this question: Is Jesus more concerned for the body or the soul?

Those who ask the question believe that Jesus cares more about the soul than the body. They’re wrong.

Jesus is both God and Man. The Son of God took on human flesh in the womb of Mary at his incarnation. From that point on and for all eternity, Jesus is both 100% God and 100% human.

He did not perform miracles as only part of his divinity.

He did not suffer on the cross as only part of his humanity.

Jesus’ divinity and his humanity cannot be divided. He is both God and Man, divine and human.

That’s important to understand in answering, “Is Jesus is more concerned about the body or the soul?” He is just as concerned with your physical body as he is your eternal soul. They cannot be divided. When your body is hurting, it affects your faith and soul. When your faith is weak and your soul is hurting, it affects your mind and body.

That’s why Jesus is the Great Physician of body and soul.

Realizing You Need Both

I mentioned this in the devotions I had with families in two hospitals last week. First, I saw Jack, who was diagnosed with stage three cancer. He needs to see the doctor for surgery to – Lord willing – cut all the cancer out. He also needs to see his pastor to work on cutting out the cancer of doubt or fear of the upcoming surgery.

Then I visited the family of Cordale Jr., who was born at 25 weeks. He’s three months early and weighs one pound. Cordale Jr. needs the medical staff at the hospital to save his life. Without them, he cannot live. I was there as his pastor to give him the gift of baptism. Through water and the Word, God has saved his soul.

Your pastor cannot do what the surgeon does with the scalpel. And the surgeon cannot do what your pastor does with the scalpel of Law and Gospel.

But Jesus can do both. He is the Great Physician of body and soul.

When your body is telling you there is something wrong with it, you need to pray. But don’t just pray, go to the doctor.

When your body is ailing and you are in the hospital, you need surgery. But don’t just have the surgery, call your pastor to come to the hospital to have a devotion and communion with you, to pray with you and for you.

When you are battling addiction or your marriage is falling apart or you are struggling with depression, reach out for help. You can’t do this on your own. Seek secular counseling for your addictive behavior, your marriage problems and your depression. There are counselors who are trained to get to the root of your problems. But also seek spiritual counseling from your pastor. He will be able to get at the root of your problem – sin – with God’s Word. Counselors are better trained than your pastor is on the intricacies of counseling. But the pastor can give you what a secular counselor cannot – God’s timeless truths applied to any situation in your life.

Asking for Help is Healthy

I remember visiting a couple who had not been to worship in months. I knew they were having marriage problems. The wife told me, “We’ll be back in church once we get our marriage figured out.”

No. No. No.

I told her, “Come to Jesus so he can heal your marriage and then everything else can be figured out.”

Too often I have couples who come see me for marriage counseling only as a last resort.

Nothing else worked, so might as well try the pastor.

A better way is when one of my former members in Kentucky called to ask if she and her husband could see me for marriage counseling. I told her, “I didn’t know you were having troubles.” She replied, “We’re not. We just want to have a spiritual check-up.”

That’s awesome! You go to the dentist regularly to have your teeth cleaned and cavities filled. You (are supposed to) go to the doctor annually for a physical.

You should be doing the same with your soul. Let Jesus conduct a thorough examination of your faith. In worship with confession and absolution. At home with your family devotions. On your own with your daily Bible readings and devotions.

Jesus said that in their anger, the Nazarenes would claim the old proverb, “Physician, heal yourself.” What they didn’t realize is that Jesus is actually the Great Physician.

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Through his baptismal waters he makes your dead heart alive again.

With the scalpel of the Law, he cuts away at the anger, the gossip, the venom that you pour out on others.

With the salve of his Gospel, he replaces those sins with peace, forgiveness and healing that you can then share with others.

Through his Word, he breathes life into your dead soul.

He opens your eyes to see the forgiveness he secured. 

He breaks through the blackness of your heart with the penetrating light of his love. 

He reconciles you to God and unites you as members of one faith in his Holy Supper.

This is also the truth that we need to not only hear, but listen to, believe and apply to our lives.

Don’t be like the Nazarenes who were looking for a different medicine, a different doctor. Go see your doctor so he can prescribe the right medicine for your ailments. Come see your pastor so he can prescribe the right medicine for your sins. Schedule time daily and weekly to see Jesus. He is the Great Physician of both the body and the soul.

For those who want it and accept the Great Physician’s aid, Jesus has come to heal us – physically and spiritually.