4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 30, 2022

Jesus’ rejection by those with whom he grew up

Luke 4:21–30

He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”

He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’”

And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.

Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land.

It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.

Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury.

They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.

But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

Notes:

The references to Elijah and Elisha serve several purposes in this episode: they emphasize Luke’s portrait of Jesus as a prophet like Elijah and Elisha; they help to explain why the initial admiration of the people turns to rejection; and they provide the scriptural justification for the future Christian mission to the Gentiles.

Another example is the reference to “A widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon”. Like Naaman the Syrian in Lk 4:27, a non-Israelite becomes the object of the prophet’s ministry, again hinting at the expansion of the early Church’s mission beyond the Jews.

Music Meditations

• “You Raise Me Up”—Nathan Pachco
• “Ah Holy Jesus, How Have You Offended?”—Fernando Ortega
• “Healer of My Soul”—John Michael Talbot
• “Love is Patient. Love is Kind”—Anusha Anthony

Opening Prayer

Lord, do not let my anger or my prejudices blind me to the good works or the message of those trying to bring your truth to the world.

Help me to see beyond my own preconceived notions of how the world is supposed to work, how people are to look or behave, so that I may be open to the workings of Your Kingdom.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from Living Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Now, as our reading opens, we find him in Nazareth, a small town in Galilee and the place where he grew up. From the verses immediately preceding, it does not seem that Jesus actually began his ministry in Nazareth. The event described here may not have taken place until a year later. One suggestion (NIV Bible) is that all that is described in John’s gospel between 1:19 to 4:42 took place between the temptation in the desert and the moving north to Galilee (vv.13 and 14).

But Luke has arranged the structure of his gospel so that Jesus will begin his public life in Nazareth and will gradually proceed southwards towards his goal, Jerusalem, without turning back. In the other Synoptics he moves around Galilee in all directions and John suggests that he made a number of visits to Jerusalem during his public life.

The Jerusalem Bible suggests that our passage today actually combines three distinct parts: the first, vv.16-22 (Jesus is honoured), occurring at the time indicated by Matt 4:13; the second, vv.23-24 (Jesus astonishing his audience), the visit of which Matthew and Mark speak; the third, vv.25-30 (the life of Jesus threatened), not mentioned by Matthew or Mark and to be placed towards the end of the Galilean ministry.

In this way Luke presents an introductory tableau which is a summary and symbol of Christ’s great offer and of its contemptuous rejection by his own people.

As the event opens, we find Jesus in the town synagogue. It is a sabbath day. He gets up to read the scripture and comments on it. The ruler of the synagogue could authorize any adult Jew to read the scripture lesson. The passage he reads is full of significance. It comes from the prophet Isaiah and Jesus’ reading of it amounts to a manifesto or what we might call today a “mission statement”. ‘Books’ in those days were in the form of scrolls and the Scriptures were kept in a special place in the synagogue and given to the reader by an attendant. Jesus may have chosen the passage himself or it may have been assigned for that day. But it is more than just a mission statement. As he reads it becomes clear that the whole statement is about Jesus himself. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” This has already been confirmed during his baptism in the river Jordan when “the Holy Spirit came down on him in the form of a dove” and a voice was heard to say, “You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). “Because he has anointed me.” In saying this Jesus is making an unequivocal claim to be the Messiah or the Christ, the long-awaited liberating King of Israel. The word “Messiah”, translated into Greek as Christos (Χριστοσ), means someone who is anointed with oil. (We call the oil in baptism and confirmation ‘chrism’.) And a person was made king by having oil poured over his head. (We remember how David was anointed king.) Jesus, of course, was not literally anointed but had been figuratively ‘anointed’ by the coming of the Spirit on him in his baptism. ‘Anointing’ is our equivalent of ‘coronation’, symbolized by the putting of a crown on the new king.

Then comes the mission of this King:

To preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are hurt and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

There is nothing here of restoring the glories of Israel, nothing about conquering enemies and laying waste their lands. No, it is about letting the poor of this world hear the Good News of God’s love for them. It is about healing and reconciliation. It is about liberating those who are tied down by any form of enslavement. It is about helping people to see clearly the true meaning of life. It is about restoring wholeness to people’s lives and to societies. It is about the inauguration of the Kingdom by its King.

It is, in short, the whole picture of Jesus that will unfold in the pages of Luke, a gospel which focuses on the poor and vulnerable, a gospel of tenderness and compassion, a gospel of the Spirit and of joy, a gospel of prayer and healing.

It is about “proclaiming a year acceptable to the Lord”. This refers to the Messianic age when salvation would be proclaimed. Isaiah in the original text is alluding to the Year of Jubilee, when every 50 years slaves were set free, debts were cancelled and ancestral lands were returned to the original family. Isaiah was thinking mainly of freedom from Babylonian captivity but Jesus was speaking of liberation across the board of human living.

And, as he finished the reading, Jesus put down the scroll and said that these things were now being fulfilled as they were hearing them.

And the townspeople who thought they knew him so well were overawed by the wisdom with which he spoke. This positive reaction to Jesus is a favorite theme in Luke. “Is not this Joseph’s son?” they asked rhetorically. But they were wrong. He was not Joseph’s son; he was the son of Mary and of the Father, the divine Word sharing our ‘flesh’.

And this in turn leads us to today’s reading which provides an unexpected turn of events and is more in harmony with the later part of Jesus’ public life. Jesus’ hearers were surprised at the way he spoke but they were not moved to change. After all, he was just the son of Joseph, and someone they knew so well could have nothing to say to them. At the same time Jesus says they, his own townspeople, must be wondering why he is not doing the things in Nazareth that he was doing in places like Capernaum.

Capernaum, apparently a sizeable town, was where Peter lived and Jesus made his house the center out of which he did his missionary work in Galilee. A 5th century basilica now stands on the supposed site of the house and there is a 4th century synagogue quite near.

The reason for their non-acceptance is that they do not really accept him for what he is. He reminds them that prophets are seldom accepted in their own place. Familiarity blinds people to their message. “I know who he is and he has nothing to say to me.” Jesus then gives two rather provocative examples:

During a great famine in the time of the prophet Elijah he was sent to help not his fellow Israelites but a poor widow in Sarepta, near Sidon in non-Jewish territory. Sidon was one of the oldest Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean coast and about 33 km north of Tyre. Later, Jesus would heal the daughter of a Gentile woman here.

And in the time of the prophet Elisha, there were many lepers in Israel but he was sent to cure Naaman, a Gentile general from Syria.

God reaching out to Gentiles through his prophets sets the stage for the Gentiles to receive the message of the Prophet Jesus, which is so much a theme of Luke’s writings. But these remarks so angered the people of Nazareth that they dragged Jesus to the brow of a hill with the intention of throwing him down but he just walked through them. Whether he did this miraculously or from the sheer power of his personality is not clear. In any case, his time had not yet come.

Prophetic voices being rejected by their own is a phenomenon only too common in our own day. And it was something Jesus foretold would happen to his followers, simply for being his followers and proclaiming his vision of life. In the meantime, let us make Jesus’ mission statement our own. It is what being a Christian means.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Have I ever made a claim to expertise or special knowledge and been dismissed? How did I feel?
• Whom have I rejected because of some preconceived notions about him or her? Whom have I rejected because of appearance or social status? Whom have I been to ready to accept or not ready to accept based on my personal opinions or prejudices?
• Jesus offered hope and healing to those present in the synagogue that day, but they were unwilling to listen. Have I ever failed to be open to a message of hope or one of warning because my mind was closed to the person delivering it? Have I ever failed to be open to such a message because I was not yet ready to change my mind or my actions?
• The townspeople were unwilling to accept that someone they know so well and whose family was nothing special, claimed to have a special mission from God. Have I ever been the tiniest bit irritated when someone I knew well achieved success? Do I ever see God speaking to me in the people or rituals of my everyday life? How can I do better at paying attention to those closest to me?
• Jesus’ very familiarity blinded them to his colossal mission. Many of us have been familiar with the scripture stories, the teaching, and customs that we take them for granted. Do I view the scriptures as something living and active or just background noise from my upbringing? What can I do to renew my interest in and devotion to Scripture? What is the role of prayer in this commitment?
• Have I ever been rejected by someone I was trying to help? Was it because of some innate bias on the part of the other? Was it because I handled the situation clumsily? Can someone reject an opinion or statement of mine without my feeling as though I myself am being rejected?
• Have I ever rejected someone’s help or advice because my own ego got in the way?
• Jesus was castigated for suggesting that God’s offer of salvation extended beyond the Jews. Is my Christian belief so restricted that I fail to see those to whom God has extended His graciousness?
• Jesus was reviled and embarrassed in front of many, who then turned violent on him also. Have I ever been in a situation when a group of people derided me or publicly embarrassed me? How did I react? Did I ever feel the same way about those people again? Can I learn anything about how to react from Jesus’ actions?
• Who are the prophetic voices in my life today? Who are the prophetic voices in my world today? What are they telling me about my culture, and about my individual actions?
• Do I, like Jesus, feel a call from God?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Jesus applies to himself the words of Isaiah, that he was bringing care for people who are poor, sick and oppressed. At first people accept Him, but late dislike him because of His criticism of their mistakes. This passage is a resume of the life of Jesus and why He was rejected at the end of His life. It is natural to be grateful when things go well but we can change quickly when things go against us. So much trouble is caused in our relationships to Jesus when we expect Him to keep us happy all the time, and refuse to listen to Him when He is correcting us. It is lovely to believe that Jesus is helping us to grow and mature, and not just there to keep us happy, He is like a good friend or parent in this respect. Of all the texts available to Him, Jesus chose this ringing description of His mission from Isaiah: to bring good news to the poor, to give sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free…

As I reflect on Jesus’ own understanding of His mission, I look at our world as we struggle with so many social issues: the welcome of refugees and migrants to our countries and communities, the growing inequality between those who have and those who have not, the destruction of the environment. What is the Spirit of the Lord sending ME to do as a follower of Jesus? I ask for the grace not to be deaf to this call, but to carry it out with great generosity. How generous am I, really?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

We Christians look at these stories of Jesus’ rejection from the perspective of two thousand years of post-Resurrection theology, and sometimes we can be very critical of the sheer blindness and stupidity of Jesus’ neighbors and relatives. But if we look at the incident through the eyes of these townspeople, we see a man who left his widowed mother at home to fend for herself while he wandered around the countryside as an itinerant preacher. He had no credentials, such as education, or training, and he antagonized the religious establishment, possibly leading to defections and bad behavior. He never married, which for a Jewish man, is a sort of scandal: Jews were expected to marry and produce more children for the future. Moreover, he did not seek celebrity for his actions which might have ensured a better reception from those with whom he came in contact. And, worst of all, he proclaimed that Yahweh was at work in everything he did. Who was he to set himself up as a special prophet of God, able to fulfill God’s promises?

Today, we live in a society that seems to crave publicity, where the cult of personality pervades our political, social and cultural atmosphere. Where would Jesus fit? I suspect he would fare no better, as we tend to be overly critical of people who have risen from ordinary circumstances to achieve greatness. Whether it is based on resentment, envy or sheer competitiveness, it seems hard for us to give anything but grudging respect to our peers. So the questions for today are: Am I overly dismissive of the people of Jesus’ time, feeling vaguely superior, because I know the Jesus was from God, and WAS God? In the same vein, do I sometimes live my life as though Jesus and his actions do not apply to my life and modern circumstances? In focusing on the rejection of Jesus and his miraculous escape through the angry crowd, we fail to see ourselves in the picture. What would Jesus be saying to me if he were here right now?

What if the message of Jesus came disguised as my cousin, my classmate, my co-worker? How willing would I be to hear the rather counter-cultural message about what should matter in my life?

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Consideration and Imagination:

There are many instances throughout the Gospels where Jesus was rejected, reviled, and eventually killed by those who hated his person or his message. The following is adapted from Surrender: A guide for Prayer, by Jacqueline Syrup Bergan and Sister Marnoie Schwan:

As I recall the signs of Jesus power, I imagine again the people whose lives we transformed by this compassionate man: the man born blind who was given sight, the woman cured of the hemorrhage, Lazarus raised from the dead….

I place myself in the crowd of onlookers who witnessed these signs of power, I look at the people present to see if they are angry, doubtful, threatened, excited, joyous…I especially consider how the witnesses respond to the person of Jesus. I note that some believe and others do not. I am aware of my own heart’s response to Jesus

I become aware that I myself am among those people for whom Jesus came and eventually died, and am not often aware of this fact.

I pray for the grace to understand that I too am called by God to witness, to help, to cure, to protect, just as Jesus did. From what earthly attachments do I need to detach in order to be more fully present to God’s will for me, even in the face of rejection and discouragement?

What sacrifices might I need to make? Am I willing to do so?

Poetic Reflection:

Father Ed Ingebretsen, S.J., reflects on our individual response to Jesus and His mission for us:

“Lonely Christ”

Lonely Christ
I pray to you.
You are a puzzle to me
as those I love
always are.

My soul is at odds
with the words.
What mad reach of mine
touches any thread of you?
Or what of mine, arms or eyes,
ever shares with people
where they may lie—
as they always do—
in a hard place!

What of mine shall make good
their taking of a breath,
their rising, caring, feeding
their sleeping in fear—
what shall make good
their slight faith,
their enormous promises
made in iron
for a child, man, a woman—

what of mine shall be with the people
as they caress a special grief
fondled again and again
In bludgeoned love?

What do I bring
with which to clutch
the merest hint of your shadow?

Poetic Reflection:

This poem by e.e. cummings seems to speak to this passage about Jesus’ escape from the angry mob in his hometown. How do I imagine Jesus felt being in the midst of those who hated him enough to kill him?:

no time ago or else a life walking in the dark i met christ jesus)my heart flopped over and lay still while he passed(as close as i’m to you yes closer made of nothing except loneliness.

Closing Prayer

Lord, help me to be your messenger to bring hope to the hopeless, comfort to the grieving, regardless of the obstacles I may face. Let me bring your presence and love into the lives of ________________________ this week. Help my church community to be a beacon of light for all who are in need of such in these often dark and lonely times.