Meditations On The Gospel Of Luke For The FamilySample

"MEDITATION 6: Jesus in the Synagogue of Nazareth"


This long passage is, no doubt, one of the most disconcerting in Luke’s Gospel. In the previous verses, the evangelist has summed up Jesus’ initial activity in a few words: “…news of him had spread throughout whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all” (4:14b-15). So, Jesus was already well known and in fact, the people in the synagogue were looking “intently at him.”

A son of an almost unknown village had won fame and was there, ready to display his knowledge of the Scripture. His first words are a solemn statement about his condition. The salvation announced by the prophet is taking place right then, it was not a simple promise to be fulfilled in a distant, vague future. Jesus’ message is basically a message of liberation. According to the prophet’s words, he has been sent to set free from disease, imprisonment or any kind of servitude, those who live under oppressive circumstances. Those words of grace cause amazement in the audience. But they also provoke a desire to see those liberating promises fulfilled among them. They knew that Jesus was Joseph’s son. They wanted him to act and show his power in Nazareth just as he had done in Capernaum.

One cannot but feel disconcerted at the strange reaction of the audience.
From speaking “highly” and being “amazed at the gracious words” from his mouth, they turn to an attitude of fury and wrath, to the extent of trying to “hurl him down” from the brow of the hill where Nazareth stood. What had happened to make them change their attitude so abruptly? Perhaps they found in Jesus’ words about Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5:1-14) and the widow from Zarephath (1 Kings 17:7-16) something neither they, nor even the religious authorities, could understand: that the Kingdom of God was not the exclusive property of Israel, but that God’s mercy and salvation reaches to all humankind. That is why Jesus was considered a heretic: his dealings with sinners, outcasts, impure people… and Gentiles!

Rev. Fr. Mariano Perrón, Roman Catholic priest, Archdiocese of Madrid, Spain