Carpenter or God: Who Is Jesus, Really?

Introduction

One day, Jesus went back to Nazareth, the town where he had grown up. The people had known him since he was a child. They had seen him play in the streets, help his father in the workshop, grow up from one Sabbath to the next. So when he stands up in the synagogue, takes the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and declares, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled," they don't know what to think anymore. "Isn't this Joseph's son? Isn't this the carpenter?"

The town of Nazareth asked itself this question two thousand years ago. And today, it's being asked of you. Carpenter or God? A mere man or Savior? That's the whole stake of this passage from Luke 4:14-30, preached by Kitayama at Kobe Christ Glory Church. The title borrows from chapter 3 of the well-known book More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell: is Jesus a liar, a lunatic, or Lord?

Take the time to read this text carefully. The answer you give to this question changes everything.

Article Outline

1. Who do you say Jesus is?

2. Isaiah 61's intentional choice

3. The Messiah's mission in four points

4. The Year of Jubilee, the year of grace

5. "Today this Scripture is fulfilled"

6. Nazareth's refusal, and yours

1. Who do you say Jesus is?

In Luke 4:22, the people of Nazareth react by saying, "Is not this Joseph's son?" There's doubt here, almost suspicion. In the same account reported by Mark, they go further: "Is not this the carpenter?" (Mark 6:3). And in Matthew: "Is not this the carpenter's son?" (Matthew 13:55).

That's how the town that had watched him grow up answered the question "carpenter or God?": carpenter. Nothing more.

Today, the same question is put to you. How will you answer? Will you react like the people of Nazareth, reducing Jesus to what your reason can measure? Or will you confess that he is more than a carpenter, that he is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior?

2. Isaiah 61's intentional choice

In verse 17, we read that the scroll of the prophet Isaiah is handed to Jesus, and that "he opened the scroll and found the place where it was written." He didn't open the scroll at random, like a child flipping through his Bible hoping to land on a verse that suits him. He searched. He found. He chose.

This choice is intentional. Of course, God's providence can lead a reading to open on this or that page. That's not excluded. But either way, the Father's will was directed toward Isaiah 61. Jesus deliberately singled out this text to apply it to himself.

Why this passage? Because Isaiah 61 is a messianic text. It announces the one who will come, anointed by the Spirit of the Lord, to bring good news. By reading it, Jesus publicly declares: it's me, this promised Messiah.

3. The Messiah's mission in four points

Verses 18 and 19 lay out Jesus' mission. Kitayama sums it up in four points.

a. Preaching good news to the poor

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor." The word "poor" doesn't only refer to those who lack money. Matthew speaks of the "poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3). These are people who recognize their spiritual poverty before God, who know they have nothing to bring on their own. It's to them that Jesus comes to announce the gospel.

b. Proclaiming liberty to the captives

His mission includes a spiritual liberation from everything that enslaves: sin, Satan, oppression. Jesus says it himself in John 8:34-36: "Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin... So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." A little earlier in the same chapter, he declares, "The truth will set you free" (John 8:32). That's why he came.

c. Giving sight to the blind

Jesus has the power to heal physical blindness, the gospels bear witness to this. But there's a spiritual dimension too. In Scripture, blindness represents the inability to see God. Paul prays for the Ephesians in these terms: "having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know... the immeasurable greatness of his power" (Ephesians 1:18-19). It's the eyes of the heart that need to open, in order to discern the coming of the kingdom and the good news of salvation.

d. Setting the oppressed free

The same dynamic as with the captives. Those carrying burdens (because of sin, because of social injustice, because of spiritual powers) receive the announcement of a liberation. Christ comes to break what crushes.

4. The Year of Jubilee, the year of grace

Verse 19 sums it all up: "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." This expression refers to what the Law of Moses called the Year of Jubilee. Open Leviticus 25:8-10:

"You shall count seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years... And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property, and each of you shall return to his clan."

The Jubilee is the year of liberation. Every fifty years, slaves were set free, debts were canceled, land was returned to its original owners. It was an overflowing grace, an immense joy. That's what the year of the Lord's favor is. And that's what Jesus came to proclaim and to fulfill.

5. "Today this Scripture is fulfilled"

After the reading, Jesus sits down. Every eye is on him. And he speaks this astonishing sentence:

"Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21).

This declaration is twofold. On one hand, Jesus announces that the messianic era has arrived. On the other, he identifies himself as the Messiah promised by Isaiah. He is saying plainly: I am the one anointed by God, sent to proclaim the year of grace.

That's what the people of Nazareth hear. And that's why their reaction is so sharp. They had seen Jesus as a child. Perhaps they had heard his baby cries. Perhaps they had seen their own children play with him. Maybe Jesus had even repaired a piece of furniture or a door for them just a month earlier. So how could this man possibly be the Messiah? "He's just the carpenter's son!"

6. Nazareth's refusal, and yours

Jesus goes on with the examples of Elijah sent to the widow of Zarephath rather than to the widows of Israel, and of Elisha who cleanses Naaman the Syrian rather than the lepers of Israel (verses 24-27). The message is clear: because of their unbelief, the blessing will pass them by. They explode with rage (verse 28). They drive him out of the town, up to the top of a hill, to throw him down.

It's an attempted murder in the making. Jesus escapes, his hour has not yet come. But the scene foreshadows what would happen in Jerusalem a few years later: "Crucify him! Kill him!" The crowd that rejects Jesus in Nazareth foreshadows the crowd that would nail him to the cross.

And on that cross, Jesus stayed. Some shouted at him, "Come down from the cross, and I will believe that you are God." He could have come down. The one who had come down from heaven could also have come down from the wood. But he stayed. Why? To save you. To bear your sin. To set you free. That's the gospel. That's the year of grace that continues to be fulfilled today, at this very moment.

Key Takeaways

• Jesus is more than a carpenter. The town that watched him grow up reduced him to his human origins. Don't make the same mistake.
• Isaiah 61 is Jesus' messianic identity card. He chose it himself, deliberately, to reveal himself.
• His mission has four dimensions: good news to the poor, deliverance to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed.
• The year of grace is being fulfilled today. The Jubilee announced in Leviticus 25 comes true in Christ, at this very moment.
• Two possible answers. Believe or don't believe. There is no middle position.

Personal Application

• If someone asked you today, "Who do you say Jesus is?", what would you truly answer, without reciting a lesson?
• Is there an area of your life where you reduce Jesus to a mere "good example" rather than to your Lord and Savior?
• Among the four dimensions of Jesus' mission (poor, captive, blind, oppressed), which one speaks most to your current need?
• What would "the year of grace" mean for you if you lived it out concretely this week, debts forgiven, chains broken, a return to your spiritual family?
• Where do you stand on the choice: believe or not believe? Is there a step of faith you keep putting off?

Scriptures Cited

• Luke 4:14-30 · Jesus rejected at Nazareth
• Mark 6:3 · "Is not this the carpenter?"
• Matthew 13:55 · "Is not this the carpenter's son?"
• Isaiah 61:1-2 · The mission of the anointed Messiah
• Matthew 5:3 · "Blessed are the poor in spirit"
• John 8:32-36 · "If the Son sets you free"
• Ephesians 1:18-19 · The eyes of the heart enlightened
• Leviticus 25:8-10 · The Year of Jubilee
• Luke 3 · Jesus' baptism and the descent of the Spirit
• Luke 4:1-14 · Jesus full of the Spirit, the temptation, the return to Galilee

FAQ

Why did the people of Nazareth reject Jesus?

They had watched him grow up. They couldn't see him as anything but the carpenter's son. Familiarity had dulled their discernment. When Jesus hinted that the blessing would go to others because of their unbelief, they moved from skepticism to fury, to the point of wanting to kill him.

What does "the year of the Lord's favor" mean?

It's a reference to the Jubilee described in Leviticus 25: every fifty years, slaves were freed, debts canceled, land returned. Jesus declares that this Jubilee is fulfilled in him: he comes to free, to forgive, to restore. And this proclamation keeps being fulfilled every time a person receives his salvation.

Do I really have to choose between believing and not believing?

Yes. That's the point Josh McDowell makes in More Than a Carpenter: Jesus claimed to be God. Either he was lying, or he was insane, or he was telling the truth. There's no comfortable middle ground. Turning Jesus into "a good moral teacher" without recognizing his divinity ultimately means saying he was wrong about what he himself declared.