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The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
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“The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,
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and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come. ”
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He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently.
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Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
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Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
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Then he said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’
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But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.
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“Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land.
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Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
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And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”