ADMIRATION, amazement, doubt, anger, resentment – these were the emotions felt by the people of Nazareth in this Sunday’s gospel (Luke 4:21-30) as Jesus taught in their synagogue. A continuation of last Sunday’s gospel (Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21), this Sunday’s gospel begins after Jesus’ reading from the book of Isaiah, and his proclamation that what he had just read has been fulfilled in the listeners’ hearing.
Fulfilled what? Fulfilled in himself the person and the works of the Messiah: “to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and freedom for the oppressed, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
Having heard their preacher, the gospel tells us that all people in that synagogue spoke highly of Jesus. And who would not? They were listening not only to the word but to the Word made flesh – to Jesus who is the Son of God, the God Incarnate himself. Elsewhere, in Matthew 7:28-29, we are told of the same thing--that at Jesus’ teaching, “crowds were astonished, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”
We, too, hardened as our hearts may be at times, cannot escape the efficacy of God’s word. In Isaiah 55:10-11, God tells us, “Just as from the heavens the rain and the snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but shall do what pleases me, achieving the end for which I sent it.” Jesus’ words are powerful, and his teachings are marvelous, for they come from the source of all wisdom and the greatest Teacher of all.
Continuing with the gospel we next hear the people asking, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” Doubt begins to poison their narrow minds. This is Nazareth, and it was in this same small city where Jesus grew up, spending thirty years as an ordinary boy and young man in the company of his equally ordinary father, Joseph, and mother, Mary. Didn’t they see him grow up? Didn’t they see him out of school? Where could have all this knowledge come from?
Familiarity breeds contempt, and prejudice smells like poison. Just as it is in our times. Are not people still discriminated because of their background? Are not unfairness and injustice done on account of prejudices and biases on race, nationality, ethnic origin, gender, age, religious belief, socioeconomic status, physical ability and disability, and the like? If only like Jesus we can be more inclusive and welcoming of diversity, we will have a more peaceful world.
The gospel continues with Jesus citing two familiar Old Testament stories – that of the Prophet Elijah being sent only to a Zarephath widow in the land of Sidon to perform a miracle of the Lord in the production of food at a time of famine when there were also many widows in Israel (see 1 Kings 17:7-16), and that ofthe Prophet Elisha cleansing, by the power of God, the leprous Syrian army commander, Naaman, at a time when there were also many lepers in Israel (see 2 Kings 5:1-13).
Hearing this, the people became so angry, that they even attempted to kill Jesus by hurling him down the hill. But why? Because the two characters just mentioned – the widow in Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian – had something in common. They were both foreigners, not Israelites, and yet God was gracious to them. The people in the synagogue wanted exclusivity. They must have thought, “Are not the Israelites the chosen people of God? But why was God’s mercy extended to these foreigners and not first to the people of Israel?”
Very much like the high-nosed mentality in our days. Of feelings of entitlement. Of special treatment in the favors coming from the Lord. Of self-righteousness and self-centeredness.
But in the two stories, Jesus was just driving a point that he may be true to what he has just proclaimed. He is the Savior, the face of our loving Father, who comes to “bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and a jubilee in the Lord.”
Truly, in Jesus, everyone is loved and cared for. Walls of division have been torn down, and cords of oppression, destroyed, by no other than God himself in the person of Jesus.
May nothing stand our way as we live and savor this freedom in Christ.