Fourth Sunday In Ordinary Time
LUKE 4:21-30
Last week's gospel narrated the visit of Jesus to the synagogue at Nazareth, Galilee, his hometown. Today's gospel opens with the closing words of last week's gospel, when Jesus said, 'Today this gospel has been fulfilled in your hearing." What gospel? "Gospel" must here be translated as "Good News." The Good News consisted of the mission statement Luke chose for his version of Jesus’ life and ministry. It came from Isaiah 61:1-2, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...to proclaim good news to the poor, release to captives, sight to the blind, liberty to the oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Luke now claims that Jesus' presence in the synagogue at Nazareth fulfills the words of Isaiah.
This was the former village carpenter holding forth in the synagogue. His audience was at first receptive, "All spoke well of him, and wondered at the gracious words that came from his mouth." Crowds are fickle. They can change quickly. Some asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?" With a proverb Jesus suggests what they are thinking, "Physician, heal yourself!" They heard of Jesus' ministry in Capernaum, a city north of Nazareth on the NW shore of the Sea ofGalilee. Why not do the same at Nazareth, his hometown? Capernaum would become the center of Jesus' activity in Galilee and surrounding regions. The home of his disciples, Andrew and Simon Peter, would be his "mission control."
Jesus quotes another proverb, complete with a mild oath, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own county." Jesus must have sensed that opinion in the crowd was turning against him. What must the Nazarenes be thinking? Does our carpenter consider himself a prophet? The Lucan Jesus goads the crowd with two examples to illustrate the meaning of the proverb about a prophet being without honor in his own country. At the same time these two examples justify his ministry in Capernaum rather than in his hometown. The first example: the prophet Elijah (9th century B.C.) punished Israel with a three-year drought. During the drought Elijah drank water from a creek and the Lord commissioned ravens to bring him a "sandwich" twice a day. The creek dried up.
The Lord could have provided for Elijah in his home country of Israel. Instead he sent the prophet into a heathen land to a widow to provide him with food and water. The widow was very poor, not a great cook. The story, in 1 Kings 17, is funny but too long to relate here. The point is made. God's plans can reach beyond one's own country. The second story makes the same point. The prophet Elisha, successor to Elijah, cures a leper who was a worshipper of heathen gods, rather than an Israelite leper, of whom there were many. By this time, the homily of Jesus the carpenter had gone too far. The men of Nazareth had enough of this upstart. They rushed him from the synagogue, proposing to throw him off a cliff. Jesus made a cool and courageous escape.
What is Luke teaching by this episode? He has moved beyond any rivalry between a little town, Nazareth, with an inferiority complex toward Capernaum, the big city on the lake north of Nazareth. By citing examples of prophets working among heathens, Luke justifies a universal outreach for Christianity, the mission to the Gentiles. It was difficult for Christian Jews to envision such a move beyond the "Chosen People." Luke proclaims that Jesus' mission was to all people, not a new idea. The Old Testament already envisioned God's revelation to Israel to be the channel for bringing salvation to the Gentiles. Two examples: the Book of Jonah and the Book of Ruth. Jonah is compelled by God to preach to the archenemies of Israel. The pious Ruth, not an Israelite, but from the hated, and condemned (Deuteronomy 23:3) Moabite tribe, becomes the great grandmother of the ultimate Israelite hero.. King David. Luke's message is simple: God loves all people, and Christianity cannot be restricted to the privileged few, but is destined to be universal.
JEREMIAH 1:4-5,17-19
Jeremiah's prophetic ministry was in Jerusalem from 626-580 B.C. The Lord informs him, "Before you were formed in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations." This passage is ideal for a homily on the right to life of the unborn, but that is not the point of today's liturgy. Our reading also speaks of the opposition Jeremiah will encounter from rulers, priests, and people. This sounds hauntingly familiar. Jesus is a Jeremiah figure. Like Jeremiah, Luke presents Jesus in today's gospel as a prophet to all nations. Opposition to him comes from people, from priests, and from rulers. In fact, Luke models the violence against Jesus in today's gospel on the violence Jeremiah encounters in his own hometown, Jeremiah 11:18-23.
1 CORINTHIANS 12:31-13:13
For the third week in succession, the second reading portrays Paul challenging disunity in his new congregation at Corinth. Their quarrels centered on various ministries and spiritual gifts. Paul offers a remedy for their disunity: love. We owe to their disunity the beautiful and popular hymn to love Paul includes in his letter to them in this reading. "0 happy fault, that merited such words!”
