The gospel reading for mass today is really odd. Why did Jesus provoke everyone in his hometown so much that they wanted to throw him off the cliff? This seems so totally out of character for Christ. Jesus is so loving and kind with everyone else. Even he says so in the gospel today, “And you will say, Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” It’s like he knows exactly what the people are all thinking while they are sitting in the synagogue watching him. Many of their faces he must have known from childhood. He probably knew most of them like the back of his hand. Why would he want to offend them all? Not just offend them, but make them infuriated with him to the point that they wanted to kill him? One moment everyone spoke well of Jesus and the next moment they wanted to kill him. Christ was a smart man and part divine as well, so he certainly must have known how they would react. Jesus provoked the whole town intentionally and it’s like no one had any clue why he did it.
However, there is a tiny little clue in these words that are written about the event “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.” Ok. Maybe we should stop and think about this for a moment. Jesus was greatly esteemed in his hometown. Everyone spoke highly of him and was amazed at what an excellent public speaker he was. Maybe Jesus was sort of like a celebrity in their midst. A spiritual superstar. A small town boy who went on to become someone big and important and everyone in the town could brag that Jesus was from their town. Did you happen to notice that it was after this part, that it says everyone spoke well of him?
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
This could have sounded a little arrogant to the townspeople when he read these words to them, but it didn’t. “They all spoke well of him.” And, that may be the point. The townspeople did not need to have too much pride about Jesus coming from their town. There are places in the world today where miracles have occurred and the towns where the miracles occurred becomes a tourist town. The townspeople sell everything under the sun related to the miracle and promote their town to tourists. Curious people come from all over the world to see just where the miracle occurred. Things can sometimes get out of hand, and the tourists chase the miracle, rather than the one who gave them the miracle. Maybe Jesus did not want the townspeople to think too highly of him and the miracles he performed because he didn’t want their town to be esteemed any more than any other town in the area.
Another thing, when Jesus was explaining the beatitudes to his followers he said, “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.” Luke 6:26. Jesus would not have wanted everyone to “speak well of him”, because he was not a false prophet, but was truly the son of God.
It’s possible that Christ purposely provoked the entire town for their own good. That would actually be just like something he would do! He made them all mad at him so they would not put him on a pedestal. If you remember, there was another time that Christ thwarted the crowd and that was after he multiplied the bread and fish and fed 5,000 men. They wanted to carry him off and make him king, but he evaded them, just like he did in today’s gospel too.
What appeared to be a mean act when Jesus provoked the townspeople, underneath it all may have been a great act of kindness that he did for them. Things are not always what they seem to be on the surface of things.
The readings for mass this Sunday was about humility. Jesus didn’t just teach about humility, he lived it.
It is admirable that Jesus did what he had to do, for the townspeople’s own good and he faced their rage willingly. This is a hard thing for us to do in our own lives sometimes. To do what needs to be done and let others handle their own feelings about it. We are not responsible for other people’s feelings. That is the biggest thing that we might be able to learn from today’s gospel. Jesus said what needed to be said and then let others deal with their own feelings. He never assumed responsibility for other people’s feelings and we shouldn’t either. The truth will always provoke strong emotions, but the truth isn’t what causes anger, it is the pride and selfishness inside of us that is offended.
However, the thought for today might be to not assume responsibility for other people’s feelings. Let their feelings remain with them. There are a lot of people who feel guilty if they unintentionally hurt someone’s feelings, or they needed to speak the truth to someone in charity and love and yet that person became angry with them. This happened to Jesus too.
