Reflection on today’s gospel 11

Someone chatted me up last Sunday and said hey buddy I didn't read your blog last Sunday and I said I was jet-lagged having flown too long from Heathrow to JFK, so I didn't attend service. Today is a different story. From what I learnt, today is a continuation of last Sunday’s gospel; Jesus continued his accustomed way of reading the scriptures himself in the synagogue.

In today’s gospel from Luke 4:21-30 it was shocking how the people whom Christ grew up with turned around to reject and spite him to such extent of trying to throw him off the cliff. But it was a revelation to him of what his journey on earth would look like; it was only the start off his numerous rejections. One would actually wonder and ask why those folks were put in a huff after Christ had spoken to them? Their untoward reaction was basically premised on their disappointments from their anticipated prophecies from Christ; he turned out to be the opposite of the kind of Messiah they anticipated him to be- they wanted a Messiah in the form of a political leader who would make Israel a political power within an outside Israeli territory- given the pedigree of previous messianic prophesies of previous prophets before him. It is quite interesting to note that virtually all the messianic prophesies had links to the universality of the messianic kingdom- which was they construed in a political sense based on their worldly understanding of God’s message. However, their interests in spirituality seemed to be at a low gear, thus adding to their philistinism towards the message of Christ. They did not want a spiritual kingdom, and as such found Christ messages as trivial and irritating.

Despite all their hostility to Christ, he gave them all his time in the course of his earthly journey. They were made the first offer of entering the new kingdom- God’s Church, which was founded on the Apostles. Christ spent his public life among them. But then again, they refused, and their refusal culminated to the crucifixion of Christ.

Learning from today’s gospel, we would be tempted to despise easily and entirely the people of Nazareth for being so blind that they attempted hurting one of their own for bringing to them the good message of salvation, but before we cast them away we should ask ourselves if we haven’t in our lives thought so enough that God’s amazing grace should be made more in conformity with our puffed-up and vainglorious standards of judgment? Conformity is a bigger threat than chaos! Do we not often feel upset and offensive when God makes use of something we regard as valueless because most times we anticipate a spectacular God? Though we would not deny Christ overtly like the people of Nazareth, much less of trying of to throw him off the cliff to meet his death, but how often do we push Christ and his teachings away in our daily lives, especially when we act as if we don’t know him? When you provide answers to these questions to yourself you will know better if you are better or not than the people of Nazareth.