Lk 4:21-30
21[Jesus began speaking in the synagogue, saying], “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22And 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?” 23He 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.’ ” 24And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. 25Indeed, 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. 26It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27Again, 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.” 28When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. 29They 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. 30But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
The Gospel Transcends Narrow Interests
When a clan or group feels the danger of disintegration due to internal and external forces, there is the tendency to regroup and to resist influences that threaten the purity or even the survival of the group. In the history of the people of Israel, two periods especially stood out as “clear and present danger” for the existence of the nation, and the leaders reacted in ways that were extreme and intransigent. Both were marked by the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. First, following the Babylonian exile, the exiles from Judah came back to Jerusalem to rebuild their city and the Temple. They were poor and were subjected to political pressures by their enemies. To deflect the influence of paganism, their leaders refused the help of the Samaritans whom they considered to be half-pagans, thus earning the latter’s ire. Under the priest Ezra and the prophet Nehemiah, they sought to preserve their authentic way of life by denouncing mixed marriages, sending away the foreign wives and the children by them.
The second cleansing followed the destruction of the second Temple by the Romans in the year 70 AD. Up to this time, the Temple was the sign of God’s presence among his people. With no more temple cult, the Jewish nation survived through the leadership of the Pharisees who anchored the faith on the Torah, on their faithfulness to the Law of Moses. In the process, the Jews who did not share the official teaching of the Pharisees were excluded. Affected were the Christians who held Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah. In the gospels and other New Testament writings we see the strains of confrontation not only between Jesus and the religious leaders but also between the synagogue (the Jewish group) and the ekklesia (the Christian believers).
Returning to his native Nazareth, Jesus is welcomed as a son who “made good” in other towns, and he impresses people when he reads and comments on the prophet Isaiah. But things turn awry when he touches the sensitive feelings of the Nazarenes, influenced by the clannishness and exclusivity that characterized the mentality of the Jews who came back from exile long ago. The Nazarenes think that they are entitled to the wonders that Jesus is said to accomplish. They cannot bear the thought that people outside their own family, clan, or milieu can share in the same grace or privilege.
Jesus refuses to be tied to this kind of provincialism. As a prophet, he does not live up to the expectations of people, but is totally guided by the word of God that he must transmit “in season and out of season”—whether people accept or reject it. In this instance, he shows the Nazarenes—and all the Jews—that God is the God not just of Israel, but of the pagans, too. The example of the prophets Elijah and Elisha who were sent to the pagans even in Israel’s time of need is a clear sign that Israel cannot possess God or dictate on what God can or cannot do.
Like the prophet Jeremiah, Jesus becomes “a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall of brass, against the whole land” (see First Reading) to those who would dissuade him from doing the will of the Father. He is accused of being a glutton and a drunkard for associating with tax collectors and sinners (Lk 7:34). The Nazarenes want to get rid of him as a “Gentile-lover,” while the Samaritans do not want to receive him in their village because “his destination is Jerusalem” (Lk 9:53), a Jew to the core. Neither the murderous intentions of his fellow citizens nor the refusal of non-Jews can deter Jesus from following the will of the Father.