March 28, 2011
Monday of the Third Week of Lent
“Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?” With this, he turned about in anger and left. But his servants came up and reasoned with him. “My father,” they said, “if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, 'Wash and be clean,' should you do as he said.” So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 2 Kings 5:12-14
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. Luke 4:28-30
Piety
Be Not Afraid
(Bob Dufford, S.J., a Catholic Hymn)
You shall cross the barren desert
But you shall not die of thirst
You shall wander far in safety
Though you do not know the way.
You shall speak your words in foreign lands
And all will understand
You shall see the face of God and live.
Be not afraid I go before you always
Come follow Me And I shall give you rest.
If you pass through raging waters
In the sea, you shall not drown
If you walk amidst the burning flames
You shall not be harmed.
If you stand before the pow'r of hell
And death is at your side
Know that I am with you, through it all.
Blessed are your poor
For the Kingdom shall be theirs
Blest are you that weep and mourn for one day you shall laugh.
And if wicked men insult and hate you
All because of Me
Blessed, blessed are you!
Study
According to Luke’s account, Jesus hardly wasted any time at all in afflicting the comfortable. Upon beginning his ministry in the temple of Nazareth, he so upset the people with his very first lesson, that they were ready to throw him over the cliff.
No demons had yet been cast out. Simon’s mother in law was yet to be healed. No lepers cleansed. No fish caught. No sermons mounted. No paralytics walked. No tax collectors dined. No disciples called. No wineskins were broken. No dead sons raised. No centurion servants cured.
This initial admiration and nearly simultaneous rejection gives us a glimpse on the life of Jesus to come and encapsulates all of Luke’s Good News. In this incident, Jesus simply invoked the Hebrew Scriptures in such a way that inflamed the people. What did he say while quoting from Isaiah?
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, To announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God, to comfort all who mourn; To place on those who mourn in Zion a diadem instead of ashes, To give them oil of gladness in place of mourning, a glorious mantle instead of a listless spirit. They will be called oaks of justice, planted by the LORD to show his glory. Isaiah 61:1-3
Note what is missing. When you look at the original text from Isaiah (as translators have passed it down to us), Jesus failed to say that he would bring about “…and a day of vindication by our God.” The Jews were waiting for a Messiah who would lead them up in revolt against their Roman occupiers-oppressors. They wanted vindication for centuries of persecution and slavery. But Jesus of Nazareth would have none of the vindication game.
Jesus embraced the social outreach to “love what is right” but stopped at the threshold of violence. From the outset of his public ministry, he defined his work as a mission based upon love of neighbor, not revenge. He knew that this would not win him a scholarship to the Dale Carnegie Institute to win friends and influence people. He knew that like Elisa, he would be rejected as a prophet and be treated as a stranger in his own homeland.
But the time was not right for such rejection to succeed. Jesus kept the peace he so often wished to others. He passed through the turbulent crowd unharmed and kept right on going…wiping the dust from his feet in Nazareth until he arrived in nearby Galilee to pick up this ministry.
Action
What is it that gives you the most personal trouble or fills you with the fury of those in the temple at Nazareth?
Imagine that you were in the crowd at the Nazareth temple as Jesus had this first public encounter. Gaze into his eyes and realize that the church is about how we make his words come alive in the world for all people who seek justice. Make your Lenten journey about looking into those eyes, listening to the words of Jesus and obeying them with your prayers, fasting and almsgiving. Don’t be the angry crowd. Accept the peace of Christ in the midst of fury.
