Luke 4:16-30 GOSPEL READING AND REFLECTION. (August 31 2020)
When Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, as he usually did. He stood up to read, and they handed him the book of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus when unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written “The spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has annointed me, to bring good news to the poor; to proclaim liberty to captives; and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed; and announce the Lord’s year of mercy.” Jesus then rolled up the scroll, give it to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.Then he said to them. ” Today, this prophetic words come true. Even as you listen.” All agreed with him, and were lost in wonder, while he spoke of the grace of God.
Nevertheless they ask, “Who is this but Joseph’s son?” So he said, “Doubtless you will quote me the saying : Doctor, heal yourself! Do here, in your town, what they say you did in Capernaum.” Jesus added, ” No prophet is honored in his own country.
Truly, I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens withheld rain for three years and six months and a great famine came over the whole land. Yet, Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in the country of Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet; and no one was healed except Naaman. the Syrian.”
On hearing this words, the whole assembly became indignant. They rose up and brought him out of the town, to the edge of the hill on which Nazareth is built, intending to throw him down the cliff. But he passed through their midst and went away.
POINT OF REFLECTION
Before coming to his home land, Nazareth, Jesus did his preaching and shown miracles to the people off of his country men. What was done by him was not kept in secret instead, the news spread across all countries so that Jesus was almost known by everyone.
His popularity was more than that of the many prophets who heals ahead of him. So that when it is time for him to be back to Nazareth many were curious about listening to him while doing his teaching in front of them and expected him to show up miracles like what they had heard from the miracles he did in the other lands. Upon reading what was written on the unrolled scroll, all acknowledge about the greatness of the good news and wonder about the quality of their faith.
But one had questioned Jesus in his person as being the Son of Joseph, the carpenter. This created on them some doubts which in turns became a blockage of fixing their eyes unto Jesus as the son of Joseph, the carpenter, rather than being the son of God.
Let us remember that the people of Nazareth was seen in two social personalities. The group of the recognized one, the good and the group of the unrecognized one, the bad.
Unfortunately, Jesus was seen to them as bad by looking at the social classification of his parents who heals from the poor family. Jesus gave to them the saying of the “Doctor heals yourself!” Highlighting the fact that the possibility of doing the same miracles heard off lands would be remote.
But their mind were made dull so that their understanding were irrelevant looking Jesus as an ordinary person having the privilege of a prophet of the prior days. So, they decided to throw him down the cliff but Jesus passed on their midst unnoticed and unharmed.
Truly, it is very hard to the one like him to speak out the defects of the community most specially those who belong to the lower class, like Jesus in those time, because of their pre-processed beliefs.
In essence, the real roadblock to our journey of quality faith is our irrelevant pre-processed beliefs that was just accepted from our ancestors through out generations without the merit of assessment. What is more painful is hearing someone from the folk the limitation and defects of the group boldly presented on their face. As if giving them an insult.
Brothers and sisters, social classification do not have any impact unto Jesus. What matters most is the profile level of one’s faith illustrated by the package of spiritual person. Being poor, is not about the material possessions but about the quality of faith we might have unto Jesus. It is this faith that would make Jesus perform the miracles in his home land.
In general, all of us would love to experience Jesus miracles in our lives. But are we investing so much in growing our faith and in work to become worthy of these requested miracles from Jesus? A worthy faith is all needed for Jesus to perform miracles in our lives.
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Doctor in Development Education ( Dev. Ed. D.), an all time educator as School Head and HEI Instructor.
