Grace and Space

Fulfilled in your hearing: Jesus reads from Isaiah and declares that the passage has been fulfilled. At first Jesus meets with admiration from the crowd. He then mentions two incidents from Israel’s past which do not please the crowd: Elijah’s being sent to the widow of Zarephath, a non-Israelite, during a three-year famine in Israel; and Elisha cleansing no lepers but Naaman the Syrian, another pagan. Out of all the widows and lepers in Israel, none believed. With such a reminder of their lack of faith, the crowd immediately rejects Jesus, a hint of the rejection that will continue throughout the Gospel and culminate in the rejection on the cross.