The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Those in the synagogue at Nazareth heard Jesus proclaim this passage from Isaiah as his mission statement. He was the messiah, the one anointed by the Spirit of the Lord, to proclaim a new and definitive year of jubilee, not just for Israel, but for the world.
You shall proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you (see Leviticus 25:10)¹
Jesus' mission was to bring about a restoration, particularly for the poor and those afflicted, whether physically or spiritually. He would open the eyes of the blind while condemning those who were spiritually blind and claimed to see. He came to help not only those who were physically poor but also those humble enough to recognize their spiritual poverty and become like little children. He would fill the hungry with good things, while sending the rich away empty.
He said to them,
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
The crowd in the synagogue had the opportunity to be among those who received the message of Jesus as good news that could transform their own lives. And at first this seemed to sound good to them. They spoke highly of him and were amazed at his gracious words. But although what Jesus said was briefly acceptable to at least some of them it was not to last. People began to consider the things they had heard were done in Capernaum and noticed Jesus was not yet doing such things in Nazareth. This seemed to make them second guess Jesus, remembering what they thought they knew about his human origins as the son, as was thought, of Joseph. It felt to them like either Jesus was holding out on his own kinsmen, to whom he should have been especially obligated, or, as probably seemed even more likely, those in Capernaum were simply gullible and Jesus was who he seemed to be all along when he grew up among them: just a normal individual from their rank and file.
Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Jesus did not concede the point and start working miracles in Nazareth in order to vindicate himself. Rather, he doubled down by demonstrating that it was a common motif that God would bypass those close to home, those who perhaps felt entitled to his gifts, in order to give to those who would have no expectation of receiving anything. By blessing the Gentiles and momentarily ignoring the chosen people of Israel God made it clear that every gift was based, not on deserving, but on grace. In Nazareth we can see the many reasons why starting too close to home was often fraught. Misplaced expectations about the way God would act limited what the people were willing to believe about what he desired to do for them then and there. Anything God did choose to do would be regarded as not enough to satisfy the sense of entitlement the people felt. They were unable to recognize that what was being given could only be received as a gift. Rather than recognizing the the people of Capernaum received what they received by grace, the people of Nazareth could only dwell on feelings of neglect and the sense that they deserved at least as much as anyone else. God himself, in the form of Jesus Christ, was in many ways too familiar to the people of Nazareth for him to be free to act as he wished. He was familiar in the sense that they had seen and heard him speak for many years. And yet they had never penetrated the true depths within him. Rather than reassessing him on the basis of his teaching, on the fact that he spoke with authority, as no one had ever spoken, they instead chose violence in order to permanently silence him. There was too much cognitive dissonance between his words and their current assessment of him and his ministry for them to tolerate it.
They 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.
We, presumably, like to hear the gracious words of Jesus. But we often make judgment calls about who is entitled to receive his blessings and implicitly judge him when he doesn't bestow grace in the specific sequence we have in mind. He wants to act in ways that surprise us and make it clear that what he gives is on the basis of grace and not merits. But we don't seem to like surprises. We prefer the orderly and predictable nature of a Jesus who never does anything above and beyond what we have already experienced from him in our lives. We sometimes even respond aggressively to the suggestion that our spiritual lives are incomplete and that he has more for us. But he always has more for us. And in this life we will always be in some measure incomplete. So let's not silence him, or begrudge him when he acts elsewhere. Instead, let us celebrate the jubilee which is already beginning whenever we listen to him with faith.
1) Gadenz, Pablo T.. The Gospel of Luke (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture): (A Catholic Bible Commentary on the New Testament by Trusted Catholic Biblical Scholars - CCSS) (p. 99). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
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