Fourth Sunday:   No Prophet is accepted in his native place

A reflection by Brother Leo Smith:

How fickle a crowd can be, how easily the pendulum swings from elation and acceptance to anger and disaffection.   Today’s gospel passage is a continuation of the scene set by Luke in last Sunday’s reading where Jesus made Isaiah’s words his own: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…  Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.  As Jesus spoke people were amazed at him because he spoke such gracious words, but they were also puzzled by what he was saying and what he had done in the surrounding villages.  Jesus confronted the situation directly – spoke aloud the doubts in their hearts: No prophet is accepted in his native place.  The examples he used left no doubt in anyone’s mind the truth of the proverb - no one missed the point.  He brought everyone in that crowded synagogue back down to earth.   And quickly praise turned to disenchantment.

It is understandable that the people of Nazareth would expect to receive VIP treatment from Jesus.  If wonders were performed in Capernaum it would be expected that greater wonders would take place in Nazareth.  It is an unwritten law and accepted practice in many cultures that if someone in the family attains a position of authority and responsibility, the family “will be taken  care of”, jobs provided – often competence and skills a secondary consideration! There is an obligation to family, tribe and clan that takes precedence over what may seem fair or just.  This can be more obvious in less sophisticated cultures but is prevalent in every culture in slightly different forms:  as we say, “it sure helps to know someone” or “it’s who you know not what you know.”  Jesus, however, disabused his neighbors of this expectation - this will not be his approach.  As the gospel relates they turned on him and attempted to throw him over an embankment just outside the village.

Later in his ministry Jesus’ stance is shown succinctly and starkly when he is told that his mother and brothers are outside waiting to see him.  He tells the crowd around him that my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.  What is important in Jesus’ eyes is not that we are members of his family, of the same tribal or ethnic background, but rather that we have hearts open to the movement of God in our lives – that we hear the word of God and live it out concretely.  It is a call to faith, a call to respond to the invitation to enter into an intimate, personal relationship with God   As Jesus said on so many occasions throughout his public ministry: your faith has made you whole.  It is not “who you know or who you are related to” but “who you are and how you strive to live according to God’s will.”