Six Verses Later . . .

The life of Jesus seemed to disappoint, at times, almost everyone. For instance, the authority figures of His day, Herod and Pilate couldn't get Him to answer most of their questions. Then we have the Pharisee's - who were the spiritual leaders, who grew tired of Him always answering their questions, and in fact, even most of His own family didn't understand who He was and the message He was teaching. 

His closest confidantes, His disciples, who spent an extraordinary amount of time with Jesus, even a great number of them became disillusioned and eventually fell away, except for a diminished few. 

So lets recap. 

The greatest person who has ever walked the face of the earth, God's very own Son, perfection personified, and human beings still found fault and reasons to prevent them from giving Him their devotion.

People are fickle. (And sometimes worse . . . )

Loyalties change.

Obedience is difficult.

Faith, without God's help, is impossible.

Human beings, since the beginning of time, followed famous people of culture, political leaders, rulers that possessed might, you name it, as long as the objects of their affection align with their personal ideology and desires. 

You want a quick example of just how fast people turned on Jesus Christ? As we join this particular story, found in Luke 4:22, Jesus had just finished reading from scripture in his hometown church, and had proclaimed that He was the answer to the prophecy He had just read.

"All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips (Jesus). “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’” 

“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. (Jesus was explaining that God sent healing and miracles to the Gentile in His story rather than His own people of Israel because of their disobedience) They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill (which is now known as Mt. Precipice - see the picture listed above) on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way." (Luke 4:22 -30)

Six verses.

That's all it took for the people to go from praising Jesus to attempting to kill Him. Why? Because Jesus said something that they didn't agree with. Jesus didn't seem to care if He ticked people off, He was always about telling the truth and pleasing His Father. Not pleasing people, not building up His own fame, not even growing His crowd of followers, The heart of Jesus was always in allegiance with His Father, and no one else. 

It occurs to me that this might be an ideal way for us to measure my faithfulness to Jesus as well, this question of our desire to please Him above all else? Or do I possess a more conditional allegiance, subject to my own desires and not the commands of my Savior?

Most of the people in Jesus day, who witnessed breathtaking miracles, and saw with their own eyes the Son of God made flesh and walking in their midst, still chose not to follow Jesus Christ. 

Thousands of years have passed since Jesus said these words but they still ring true today,  "If you love me, you will obey my commandments." (John 14:15)

So the question stands, are you an admirer of Jesus or a follower of Jesus? The answer to this simple question could determine your eternal home.