OUR LORD REJECTED BY HIS OWN

     In last Sunday’s Gospel passage, we heard how Our Lord returned to His home town of Nazareth for the first time after His Baptism and told the astonished townsfolk that Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah was now fulfilled in their hearing by Himself.  Yet because they knew Him, or thought they knew Him - ”isn’t this Joseph’s son?”- they would not accept that He could be anything out of the ordinary.

     Our Lord went on to tell them how this was like what had happened in the case of two great figures from the Old Testament, Elijah and Elisha. They had both worked miracles for foreigners in need when they had not been able to do the same thing for any of their own people in the same need.

     In this way he illustrated the meaning of His words:“I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.” Yet Jesus was unruffled at the Nazarenes’ fury. Although they were intent on throwing Him to His death from a very high point, He “slipped through the crowd and went away”.  

     Thus does Our Lord show himself always in control. No one could lay hands on Him unless He willed it. It would be so once again when He allowed Himself to be arrested in Gethsemane, once again “so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled” in Him “when His Hour had come”. 

                                                                                                           ~   Fr. Paul Dobson