Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown
up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He
stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the
scroll and found the passage where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to
proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the
oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back
to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked
intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in
your hearing.” And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious
words that came from his mouth. They also asked, “Is this not the son of
Joseph?”
He said to them, “Surely you will quote me
this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native
place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’ And he said, “Amen, I
say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you,
there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed
for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It
was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in
the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of
Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the
Syrian. When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with
fury.
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. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
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Reflection:
Do you always want to be respected? A
person who thinks highly of himself would always want to be respected.
Respect and acceptance is something that
we all want we desire it deep in our hearts. However, there would be times that
we will not be respected and accepted. If this happens to us let us be calm,
take it in stride and humbly accept the humiliation. Then, let us charge
everything to experience and let us quietly walk away from the people who
disrespect us.
When Jesus returned to Nazareth (the place
where He had grown up) He got an unpleasant welcome. He was disrespected and was not accepted by
his town mates. But instead of hating them back Jesus calmly heard their insulting
remarks. Instead of getting back at His town mates Jesus chose to take the road
less travelled which is the great virtue of humility.
They even drove Him out of their town with
the intent of killing Him. But instead of getting back at them He walked away
from them to avoid a troublesome situation. This is Jesus for us, calm under
duress, always humble and peaceful but how about us? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
