ethnically different

John Piper, in Bloodlines, states the point of Lk 4.16-30 is:

The kingdom I am bringing, Jesus says, is ethnically different from what you think. Your chosen place as Israel has not produced humility and compassion, but pride and scorn. Jesus is the end of ethnocentrism. Look to me, he says. Learn from me. I have come to redeem a people from every ethnic group, not just one, or a few. Woe to you for your failure to see, in the justice and mercy of God, his zeal to gather from all the peoples a kingdom of priests and friends.

While I like sounds of that, I don't think that's what the point is. I'll let Piper elaborate first:

The story is found in Luke 4:16–30. Here is a local young man coming back to his hometown, Nazareth, after making a name for himself in Capernaum. He goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and a crowd comes to hear him. What he does in this message is almost incredible. He virtually incites a riot. And he does it intentionally. First, they give him the scroll of Isaiah the prophet to read from, and he chooses chapter 61. It’s about the coming redeemer who will set free the oppressed and proclaim the favorable year of the Lord (vv. 18–19)—and he claims that it is being fulfilled in their hearing. Luke 4:21: “And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” 

Now that was astonishing. Headline: “Homegrown boy claims to be the Messiah.” But this did not cause the riot. So far they were positive: “And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth” (v. 22). So far, so good. 

But what he says next is utterly unexpected. Inexplicable, it seems, if what you want is a following. Inexplicable if you only want “church growth.” He chooses to tell two stories from the Old Testament that fly right in the face of the ethnocentrism of his own hometown. He could hardly have been more offensive. 

He knows what their response is going to be, because he says in verse 24, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.” This is beforethey get riled up. In other words, Yes, you are speaking well of me now (v. 22) while you have your own conception of what the Messiah will do, and what his kingdom will be like. But wait till I tell you what I am about to do and what my kingdom will be like. 

TWO STORIES OUT OF THE BLUE—AND IN YOUR FACE 

Then he tells story number one. Verses 25–26 are taken from 1 Kings 17: “But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon [Phoenicia], to a woman who was a widow.” 

Out of the blue, he tells a story about God’s passing over all the ethnic Jews to bring a miraculous blessing to an ethnic and political foreigner—a Gen ile from the land of Sidon (Phoenicia). And he does this blatantly and forcefully and without softening or explanation: There were many widows in Israel, and God blessed a foreigner. That’s what he said. 

And if that were not enough, he tells a second story in Luke 4:27 from 2 Kings 5: “And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” Again the point is: of all the people that God might have chosen to heal of leprosy, he chose a foreigner—a Syrian, not a Jew. These two stories were not lost on the ethnocentrism of Nazareth. Luke 4:28–29: “When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.” They got it, and they didn’t like it.

I don't know if Jesus was really announcing the end to ethnocentrism as Piper posits or not. Either way, I thank Piper for linking these passages together. But, more than commenting on ethnocentrism, I think Jesus was saying, my Father chooses whom He wants. He does not choose all and those He chooses, well, they are not likely those you would choose. I think this is what incited the hearers then just as it incites many today ... interesting ...