Jesus rejected at Nazareth: why? Are we sure we would not do the same?

Recollection to the seminarian in Bangalore

1 Cor 13

Lk 4 Jesus at Nazareth

Jesus comes home after few months. We are at the beginning of his apostolate so he must have left only a few month earlier to go down to see John the Baptist, then into the desert, calls the first few apostles. Fame has preceded him, which people were not expecting: he had done miracles in Caparnaum which he never did before in Nazareth. He comes in and starts reading in the Synagogue as many adults able to read would do, and give a comment. The passage of Isaiah speaks about the anointed one of God, the Messiah and Jesus attributes to himself such name.

This should be an honour for the people of Nazareth, the Messiah coming from their small village, especially considering the way he speaks and the miracles done. But it seems they have a different approach to the situation: they want to test him.

Jesus prevents their move and tells that he is not going to do any miracle. This disappoints them.

Their expectation is based on the idea that they have some right to be considered the first to see his wonders, as if Jesus owes them that, a kind of allegiance to the group.

Jesus says clearly, miracles are not based on relation, friendship, and not even on group or religious belonging, but on faith that goes well beyond these things, even beyond religious belonging.

He gives two examples from the Scripture: Elijah makes two miracles for the phoenician widow, which he did not do for any widow in Israel. Elisha did a miracle for the Syrian Leper but not for the many lepers in Israel.

They feel neglected, hurt and they are willing to kill him. Their reaction shows clearly what is moving them. What is it? They need to feel at the centre, need to feel important, need to satisfy their emptiness and low self esteem, need to feel that they can handle Jesus at their service.

But miracles are not matter of power, they are free gifts from God. Even today people have wrong understanding of gifts. A gift is always free cannot be forced or expected.

A relationship which is based on self interest “As long as I need you I keep you” “as long as you satisfy me you are my friend”, “You do something wrong I cut you off” is not a real stable one.

Jesus cannot accept this kind of relationships because they have no future, they cannot bear fruits.

Relationships are based on love. The idea of love Jesus has, is well defined in the second reading (1 Cor 13). There are fourteen adjectives describing love and all of them say clearly: stop thinking about yourself and start worrying about the person in front of you. It says that love is:

patient,

kind,

not jealous,

not pompous,

not inflated,

not rude,

does not seek its own interest,

not quick tempered,

does not brood over injury,

does not rejoice over wrong doing but rejoices with the truth,

it bears all things

it believes all things

it hopes all things,

endures all things.

On the theory we accept that all these adjectives are the best, actually they are the only right ones, but when it comes to practice we have always thousand reasons to make exceptions, to excuse ourselves for not acting in this way. But by doing that we actually fall in the mistake of the people of Nazareth. We want to love those who deserve it, which means those who are satisfying us. This is selfishness, the opposite of love. My love is real when is greater than your mistakes and covers them with its power.

The people of Nazareth knew Jesus well. Many of them were his companions at games, many his neighbours or even his relatives, some may have worked with him or asked him for works, remember he was a carpenter, probably the only carpenter in a village of a few hundred people mainly shepherds or farmers of olives and grapes. They should have been the one to understand him better, to be closer to him and support him in his mission, they should have been the ones to love him most, and yet they are willing to kill him simply for saying that he had been sent to help other people. Knowledge, relationship, are not sufficient when a heart is hardened by pride or selfishness. Only love, only selfless love can open the door to the wonders God wants to make in our life.

We are Christians, devoted ones, some of us are even consecrated to God, and yet when it comes to relationships we make all the calculations in a very human selfish way, like those who rejected Jesus. We feel the hurt and that is difficult to accept, we feel the rejection, the emptiness and we do not understand that only Jesus can fill up this emptiness. We feel the pressure of pride, satisfaction, glory and forget that only in God we will have enduring glory.

Let us analyse our life, our words, our choices and see how many of them are dictated by selfless love and how many by self interest.

Pope Francis in many occasions while speaking to priests and religious reminds us that we are here to serve, to reach out to the poorest, the most abandoned, he uses almost the same words Don Orione used. We are here for that not for a career, not for people's appreciation, not for enjoyment, not for relax, not for laziness. From these attitudes we can clearly see if we are called to be priests or not. Am I able to sacrifice? To give up something comfortable, which I like, if needed by somebody else? Am I able to see the need of the other and act even before he may come to ask my help?