In today’s Gospel reading, something extraordinary happens in the most routine and ordinary of settings. By now we know this is the trademark of our Lord. In a very mundane setting amongst neighbors in his hometown, Jesus drops a blockbuster statement that we are still digesting two thousand years later. He announces to the neighbours and the world that he is the promised Messiah. In addition to the gravity of the message itself, what struck me about today’s reading is the compelling way Luke lays it out for us. The very ordinariness of the Saturday scene he describes draws me in to the point I feel I’m in the room.
We learn that Jesus has returned to his hometown of Nazareth “in the power of the Spirit,” tipping us off that something unusual is in the works. Luke describes for us the scene on that Saturday: Jesus went to his hometown synagogue on the sabbath day, “according to his custom.” Most of us can relate to attending Sunday or daily Mass in our hometown as part of our usual routine and “according to our custom.” The church and the parishioners are very familiar. We know where everyone normally sits.
We may be distracted, perhaps thinking of our next meal or what the person in front of us is wearing and lamenting that the church is too hot in the summer. There may be a visiting seminarian or priest from the area, and we wonder how things have gone for them while away. In this case, Jesus’ ministry had become well known in the countryside, so there would have been an expectant buzz in the town around his return and talk of his reputation as a teacher.
Sense of Anticipation?
Jesus stood to read and was handed a scroll. He located and performed a reading from Isaiah about the anointing of a Messiah, and “handed it back to the attendant,” then, taking a seat, while “the eyes of all … looked intently at him.” By now, Luke has reeled me in; I too am looking over at Jesus and then scanning the faces of my fellow parishioners for their reactions. Perhaps there was a palpable sense of anticipation about what he might share in his own hometown. We know his parents well. How will he relate to us here at home? Has he grown “too big for his britches?”
Luke also allows us to picture the scene from Jesus’ point of view as He calmly sits down and looks around the anxious room, no doubt aware of the reaction that will come from the remarks He is about to make. In this very ordinary human setting, Jesus calmly informs his neighbors and the world that the hometown boy is, in fact, the promised Messiah.
Swelled with Emotion
The neighbors’ reaction comes in further readings for another day. They tell us that the crowd’s emotion swelled, first with admiration. But then, twisted with envy and familiarity, the group sentiment began to morph into something else and exploded into outright anger and rage, to the point that Jesus left the scene. The initial admiration followed by heartbreaking rejection gives a “focus group” glimpse of what will unfold in Jerusalem very soon.
Twenty centuries later, don’t we still grapple with the message and often offer the same rejection towards Jesus and his Church? Outright anger and violence are still the reaction in many parts of the world. Even in areas where Christianity is deeply rooted, many these days consider it to be dull, passe, old-fashioned, anti-intellectual, and not worthy of serious belief unless it can be altered into something that approves of our current way of doing things. As practising Catholics, we may not always live as if we appreciate the magnitude of the message.
Oh, to have been there on that routine, ordinary Saturday.
[Readings: Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-30; Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21]
