Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country

 

 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.  And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.  So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up.  And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.  And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.  And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,

Because He has anointed Me 

To preach the gospel to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives

And recovering of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." 

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.  And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

 

So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.  And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"   He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself!  Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.'"  Then He said, "Assuredly, I  say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.  But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of the was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."  So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.  Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

 

- Luke 4:14-30 

 

Yesterday we read that, following His Baptism by St. John the Baptist, Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil.  And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.  And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."  But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'" Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.  Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours."  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan!  for it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"  Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.  For it is written:  'He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"  And Jesus answered and said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"  Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.   

 

   Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.  And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.  So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up.  And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.  And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.  And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."  Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.  And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."  My study Bible notes that, as Christ is the eternal Son of God, He did not become the world's anointed Savior, but rather has always been our Savior from before the foundation of the world.  It was Christ who spoke through Isaiah who said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me" (Isaiah 61:1).  Jesus doesn't say, "The Spirit has come upon Me."  When the Spirit of the LORD descended on Jesus at His Baptism (see above, Luke 3:22), this was a sign which revealed an eternal, not temporal, truth to the people.  The acceptable year of the LORD is the time of the Incarnation, when the Kingdom of heaven has come to earth (see 2 Corinthians 6:2).  

 

 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.  And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"   He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself!  Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.'"  Then He said, "Assuredly, I  say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.  But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."  So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.  Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.  According to my study Bible, this double response of both marveling and rejection occurs frequently in those who encounter Christ (see Luke 11:14-16; John 9:16).  Being rejected in His own country fulfills the rejection of the Old Testament prophets such as Elijah and Elisha.  Moreover, it foreshadows Christ's rejection by the whole Jewish nation at His trial before Pilate (John 19:14-15).  My study Bible adds that Christ accepts death according to the Father's will, not at the will of the Jews.  Here, the hour of Christ's Passion has not yet come (see John 8:20).  Important to note is that Jesus' statement, "Assuredly, I  say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country," appears in all four Gospels (see also Matthew 13:57; Mark 6:4; John 4:44).

 

We all face rejection in our lives, perhaps on a frequent basis.  But shall we consider Christ, the Lord of the Universe, and the rejection He goes through in His earthly ministry?  There is not simply this rejection that we read about in today's reading, but, as my study Bible also notes, the rejection to come from the entire nation.  Perhaps it is important that this first rejection comes so early in His ministry, and it happens in His hometown of Nazareth.   We may find familiarity with what we've experienced in life; that is, the humiliation of being embarrassed, and rejection in front of a body of our peers.  This is important, because Christ gives us a sense of what it is to persevere in doing what is right in God's sight, and out of loyalty and love for God.  In this sense, Christ's rejection is another kind of temptation that bears a small resemblance to the temptations in the wilderness by Satan which we read about yesterday (see above).  In yesterday's reading, Jesus' relation to the Father was tested ("If You are the Son of God. . .") in terms of His needs (bread), worldly power and authority ("all the kingdoms of the world"), and the danger He would face ("throw yourself down from here").  In today's reading, we find similar temptations, in that in His hometown He is no longer welcome (so it could not be a place of refuge for Him in the world), His authority is rejected, and He's placed in danger as they try to throw Him off a cliff.  These all repeat, in some sense, the temptations of the devil.  If we examine this pattern closely, we see that for Jesus it will repeat in different forms throughout His ministry, particularly in the patterns of growing hostility and opposition by the religious authorities in Jerusalem, and among those who rule for Rome.  But additionally, the people will also turn against Him at different times, the crowds who are often led in very capricious ways either by authorities or one another.  In all ways, Christ's earthly ministry is meant to heal, and so His rejection becomes a paradigm.  When we find ourselves in this place of rejection or humiliation, we need to turn to Him for how to walk through it, how to find His light in our darkness (John 12:35).  For Jesus, His "pattern" is always to be the Son of God; this is who He is and the life He leads.   But for those of us who desire to become "sons of God" by adoption, it is also the identity we must follow in imitation of Him.  "How does God want me to respond?" is always an important question.  Turning to prayer, to Scripture, to the saints, to worship -- all are essential ways to face our own temptations in the face of humiliation and rejection, the withdrawal of safety and security, the uncertainty of hostility and danger.  This must be an active pursuit on our part, not a passive or lazy one, for each person will face unique struggles and challenges, and God may desire particular responses for each situation.  Such is the nature of spiritual struggle, for which we have been given so much by Christ, including the gift of grace, the Holy Spirit, and all the tools of the Church.  Let us "work the works of God" in our active spiritual life, as He has taught us.