But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went away.
Lk 4:21-30
They also asked, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”
The initial reaction of the people at hearing Jesus was amazement and praise. But this observation marked the change from acceptance of Jesus to rejection of Jesus. In other words, his “kababayan” realized that Jesus and his father were merely carpenters. How can Jesus pretend to be superior to them.
Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.
Nazareth was the native place of Jesus. Capernaum was the headquarters of the public ministry of Jesus.
They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.
The rejection of Jesus by his own people at Nazareth was a preview of the rejection of his own people, the Jewish people. They were not able to kill Jesus at Nazareth. But in Jerusalem they will succeed.
But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went away.
We do not know if the escape from death was miraculous. But it was important because for St. Luke, Jesus could not possibly die anywhere but in Jerusalem.
These words may appear comforting because Jesus managed to escape certain death. But these become frightening words if we see ourselves among the people from whom Jesus escaped. For it means that we are among those people who rejected Jesus. Rejection does not necessarily mean: “I don’t believe in you anymore.” Rejection can take subtle forms, such as failing to pay attention to him or forgetting him or living day by day as if he doesn’t exist.
No comments:
Post a Comment