Recognizing the Savior - He reaches out to many others

Luke 4 - The Savior reads in a synagogue a prophecy from Isaiah about himself. He then says that He is fulfilling the words of the prophecy. This definitely made people question whether they believed that could be true or not. Jesus responds to their disbelief (they said, 'is not this Joseph's son?) by explaining that oftentimes the prophets of the Old Testament would bless the lives of those who were not "Jews" even though many Jews could have benefited from the same blessings.

Here's the verses:

22 And all bare him witness, and ^awondered at the ^bgraciouswords which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this^cJoseph’s son?

23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in ^aCapernaum, ^bdo also here in thy country.

24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is ^aaccepted in his own country.

25 But I tell you of a truth, many ^awidows were in Israel in the days of ^bElias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;

26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a cityof Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

27 And many ^alepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was ^bcleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

Jesus explains to them that just because they didn't see the miracles prophesied of, they shouldn't assume that Jesus wasn't the Son of God. The prophecy was the following:

18 The ^aSpirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath ^banointed me to ^cpreach the ^dgospel to the ^epoor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to ^fpreach ^gdeliverance to the ^hcaptives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at ⁱliberty them that are bruised,

19 ^aTo preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Jesus' point was that they shouldn't assume that just because they didn't see the healings mentioned in this verse, Jesus isn't the Christ. He healed many others but not those in his home town because they didn't have faith in him. However, this isn't him trying to fool them. Prophets such as Elijah and Elisha (both mentioned in the verses in Luke with different names) healed not those in close proximity with problems but those who had enough faith to receive the blessings, such as Naaman and the widow of Sarepta.

I appreciate God is willing to bless the lives of those who come to Him and have faith, not just those who are close in proximity. Also, it's up to us to recognize the Prophets and the Savior.

Have a great day.