Holy Wisdom Chapel
“In the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
“A prophet is never welcomed in his
own town.”
How well do we respond to
rejection? Not always very well, speaking for myself. The emotional field that
is stirred up can be vast and varied: Anger, dejection, self-doubt, self-pity,
or self-justification, rejection of the other to just scratch the surface. And
how much more difficult it is when the rejection comes from family or close
friends? But for Jesus Christ, this rejection is part of a larger message St
Luke is laying before us with this incident.
This morning’s gospel reading is
really the third tableau of a series that St Luke is painting to show us how
Jesus’ mission came to be. Prior to this
scene, we have the baptism of Christ and the temptations of Christ in the
desert.
Some commentaries point to the role
of the Holy Spirit making Jesus aware of his vocation through these three
experiences. At Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove
descending on Jesus in the Jordan brings the opening message from God that this
Jesus is God’s son. A message for Jesus and for us. Then the spirit leads Jesus
into the desert where he needs to face those inner yearnings for power and
prestige common to human beings. The smooth-talking devil delivers the
temptations and Jesus fends them off with scriptural authority. Finally,
today’s event involves Jesus selecting a passage from the prophecy of Isaiah,
not by chance but by the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The text describes what
the Good News is that Jesus is to bring to Israel. It’s not a new message, but rather the
revivification of God’s long-standing call to humanity, one too easily ignored.
So, Jesus quotes scripture in a way
that challenges his listeners. They do not want to hear it and they reject him
and his message. But this is God’s message. When Jesus says this passage is
being fulfilled at this time, he is saying that the fulfillment is coming
through him, through Jesus, and his mission, the mission he is now embarking
on.
That mission, articulated long ago
by Isaiah, is: “to bring glad tidings to the poor... proclaim liberty to
captives... recovery of sight to the blind... let the oppressed go free...
proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” But his listeners will have none of
it. This is not the kind of liberation they are expecting. Even more, when he
goes on to point out that God’s favor fell on the Syrian Naaman and the woman
from Sidon rather than on God’s chosen, allowing the Hebrew God to break out of
the confines of being their local tribal god to a universal God, this they
cannot process. So, they run Jesus out of town and try to push him off a cliff,
as Satan tried to do from the pinnacle of the Temple.
St Luke, more than any of the other
gospel writers, returns over and over again to the theme of Jesus being on a
mission to the poor and outcasts of society. Jesus is undeterred by rejection.
He knows his mission and he will carry it out as it is his Father’s will. So, for us to participate in Jesus’ mission,
we need to pay attention to the mission statement from Isaiah. Take it to heart
and act upon it.
As for Jesus’ example in the face
of rejection, we can take away this lesson: know who you are, know what you’re
about and do not let detractors deter you.
