Filled With Wrath

“And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things,

were filled with wrath...” (Luke 4:28)

What were the things that the people in the synagogue heard that caused them to express such wrath? And who was the object of their wrath? None other than the LORD Jesus Christ, Whose reading from Isaiah 61:1-2 had prompted praise and regard for Him initially [Luke 4:22] but then, what changed?

Our LORD, knowing the hearts of sinners, was not impressed by the outward show of religion and spoke to their point of rebellion which was threefold:

1.) That He, the God/Man is the Subject and Fulfillment of all of Scripture and not Israel, vv. 20-22.

2.) That God is sovereign in the salvation of sinners, passing by whom He will and saving whom He will, vv. 23-27.

3.) That sinners in their fallen, wicked nature will oppose all that is true and just in the person and work of the LORD Jesus, no matter how upright they may appear in their own eyes. This was none other than Christ the Lamb of God, opening up the Scriptures for the hearers that day in the synagogue, yet they were filled with such wrath against Him for preaching the Father’s sovereign grace and distinguishing love, for those that He, the Son of God, came to save.

There is no greater evidence of the depravity of the heart than sinners expressing such anger against the Holy God, preferring to justify themselves in such opposition to Him and to His Son, the LORD Jesus. Psalm 2:1-3 asks the question, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”