Passing through the crowd at Nazareth (Luke 4:28–30)

The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations; nothing is paraphrased.

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St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the single scene that shows both natures — His standing unseized, and His departure:

Herein He shews both His human nature and His divine. To stand in the midst of those who were plotting against Him, and not be seized, betokened the loftiness of His divinity; but His departure declared the mystery of the dispensation, i.e. His incarnation.

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St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (on Luke 4:28–30) Source: trans. R. Payne Smith, 1859. Public domain. Full text: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_luke_02_sermons_12_25.htm

On why His own townsmen, enraged, cast Him out and so condemned themselves:

And that He might not convict them of impiety in words merely, He permitted their audacity against Himself to proceed even unto deeds: for their violence was unreasonable, and their envy untamed.

On His passing untouched through their midst, as One awaiting the appointed time of His suffering:

Leading Him therefore to the brow of the hill, they endeavoured to throw Him from the crags: but He went through the midst of them without taking any notice, so to say, of their attempt ... but as awaiting a suitable time. For it was now the commencement of His preaching, and it would have been unseasonable to have suffered before He had proclaimed the word of truth. For it depended on Him to suffer, or not to suffer; for He is Lord of times as well as of things. And this is a proof, that when He suffered He suffered voluntarily, and that neither then could He have suffered, had He not yielded Himself thereto.

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St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 339–397)

Exposition of the Gospel of Luke, Book IV (on Luke 4:29–30) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the Lord who forces no one, and abandons none who seek Him:

But the Lord who taught His Apostles by the example of Himself to be all things to all men, neither repels the willing, nor chooses the unwilling; neither struggles against those who cast Him out, nor refuses to hear those who supplicate Him.

On His endurance as voluntary, not necessary:

At the same time we must understand that this bodily endurance was not necessary, but voluntary. When He wills, He is taken, when He wills, He escapes. For how could He be held by a few who was not held by a whole people? But He would have the impiety to be the deed of the many, in order that by a few indeed He might be afflicted, but might die for the whole world. Moreover, He had still rather heal the Jews than destroy them, that by the fruitless issue of their rage they might be dissuaded from wishing what they could not accomplish.

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St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735)

Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (on Luke 4:29–30) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the Nazarenes who outdid the devil himself:

Worse are the Jewish disciples than their master the Devil. For he says, Cast Thyself down; they actually attempt to cast Him down. But Jesus having suddenly changed His mind, or seized with astonishment, went away, since He still reserves for them a place of repentance.

On why the hour and place of His death were not yet come:

The hour of His Passion had not yet come, which was to be on the preparation of the Passover, nor had He yet come to the place of His Passion, which not at Nazareth, but at Jerusalem, was prefigured by the blood of the victims; nor had He chosen this kind of death, of whom it was prophesied that He should be crucified by the world.