The rejection in Nazareth

Our Gospel reading this Sunday is a continuation of last Sunday’s Gospel reading, which was in “The Prologue”. The continuation can be found in Luke 4:21-30, which also starts as our Gospel last week.

“21 [Jesus began speaking in the synagogue, saying], “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 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?” 23 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.’”

24 And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. 25 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. 26 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.”

28 When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. 29 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. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went away.”

Reading this passage gives you an idea of how the brothers of Jesus, the Nazoreans were first amazed by their own kin … by his wisdom and spoke highly of him. But some started to ask, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” Perhaps that question was asked because Joseph was known to them as a carpenter and therefore worked with his bare hands, which I’m sure they must have seen or noticed that when Jesus was a boy, he must have helped his father do this manual work. So it is amazing to them that the Jesus that they know would now speak up in the synagogue and read scripture.

But their amazement of their own kin was short-lived when our Lord Jesus said, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’ Most especially when he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.” That was a sort of prediction of what would happen a few minutes later because I’m sure that they must have heard Jesus had become popular in Capernaum for curing sick and the lepers.

So as the Gospel tells us, our Lord Jesus told them about the time when the sky was close and famine had set in, Elijah was sent not to the Jews, but to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. The prophet Elisha was sent to cure Naaman, the Syrian, but no Jewish lepers were cured. This saying incensed the Nazoreans who believed in themselves to be the special people of God and therefore God would always help them. But what the Jesus was telling them was that; God did not help the Jews, but the pagans!

Again I’d like to point once more what we wrote about last Sunday’s article that the last Sunday’s Gospel and today’s Gospel teaches us that very early in his ministry, the Jews would reject Jesus, their very own kin despite the great miracles and wonders that our Lord Jesus would show them during his short time here on earth. Today, the Jewish race never embraced someone from their own race with the name of Jesus was really and truly the Messiah and two thousand years later, all hope for Judaism that the Messiah would come seem to have faded into God’s unfulfilled promise.

Unfortunately for the Jews, God did fulfill his promise and sent the Messiah in the person of his only begotten son, our Lord Jesus Christ who came from the loins of David as was prophesied by the prophets. He is Emmanuel, which is in Hebrew “God with us” by the prophet Isaiah.

All they needed to do was read the scripture, especially what was written in last week’s gospel, which our Lord Jesus read before the Nazoreans, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”

So if the Jews who lived in a small sitio or barangay named Nazareth rejected one of their own kin as the Messiah, despite the prophesies that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and come from the line of David, which his father Joseph did belong, how could the rest of Judaism embrace Jesus? Because they failed to recognize the Messiah that God sent to them whom they eventually killed, the Jews lost the Temple in a revolt by the Zealots and Jerusalem fell and destroyed the Holy Temple.

Now the Jews have only the wailing wall left to pray and worship, while we Catholics who got our faith from our Jewish King, Jesus continue to enjoy God’s promise… God with us” through the institution of the Holy Eucharist, where we eat the Bread of Life so God will truly be with us!

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