The rejection in Nazareth

Our gospel story this Sunday is a reality that our Lord Jesus Christ faced when he returned to his hometown of Nazareth to speak in the synagogue. This gospel story is about his rejection in Nazareth by his own townmates and you can read it in Mark 6:1-6.

“[Jesus] came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given to him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!

3 Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not his sisters here with us?

And they took offense at him. 4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” 5 So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith. He went around to the villages in the vicinity teaching.”

*  *  *

There is no doubt that the people of Nazareth knew where Jesus came from because it was a small town where everyone knew everyone. The people inside the synagogue even identified Mary as the mother of Jesus and that he was the son of a carpenter. For sure, many of them got the services of St. Joseph for their furniture needs. Since Nazareth wasn’t a big city like Jerusalem, for sure they did not have schools for priests in their town. Perhaps even their synagogue was a small one. So they questioned where Jesus got the wisdom to dare preach in their synagogue?

But when our Lord Jesus spoke before his fellow townsfolk… they were all amazed at his wisdom, but at the same time they were surprised where he got his wisdom. For sure he did not learn this from a lowly carpentry shop owned by his father. Actually, this is also happening in real life. For instance, one would never expect a jeepney or a taxi driver to suddenly be preaching about scriptures. But if it happens, for sure, his own family or his peers or his fellow jeepneys or taxi drivers would be just amazed as the townsfolk in Nazareth. But would you believe that there is a taxi driver here in Cebu City who knows how to preach the gospel?

I submit that I too have had a similar experience, especially from close friends who cannot believe that I also write about the gospel every Sunday and that I’ve been doing this for more than five years now. That’s because I’m not schooled in Theology nor was I ever in the seminary. But when you learn about self-abandonment and surrender to the Lord, the Holy Spirit will guide you and use you to do God’s will. Then when you open your Bible, suddenly the words jump out of the paper into your heart and you receive one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit… the gift of knowledge.

When John the Baptist, who was already known (even King Herod feared him) to many people in Galilee for baptizing people with water and preaching the coming of the Messiah, finally met our Lord Jesus Christ in the River Jordan and baptized him, it was the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove that guided him to the Lord.

One day when he saw our Jesus walking along the banks of the Jordan River, he told his disciples, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one who ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.” John then surrendered himself to the Lord when he said, “I must decrease and he must increase.” In saying that, John the Baptist traded his own will to God’s will. This is an act of true Christian piety.

Some years back, I was invited to talk about our Catholic Faith before the Couples for Christ at the Mabolo Church, which was jam-packed. I must have talked for an hour, but since it was the first time for me to talk to a charismatic group, I felt truly honored that they asked me to speak before them, while my own charismatic community never invited me to talk with my own charismatic brethren. Indeed people closer to you simply take you for granted, while others see a lot of goodness in you.

There I was at the altar of the Mabolo Church, speaking to people and what was racing in my mind was today’s gospel. It was then that I really understood what the Lord really felt, because his own kin “took offense at him.” Come now, why should your own neighbors or anyone for that matter take offense against you if you suddenly knew how to interpret the scriptures or the Bible? Indeed, God works in strange ways. He even raised from nothing a nobody called Manny Pacquiao, a lowly boxer from General Santos to be the pound for pound boxer in the whole world and now he preaches the Gospel of the Lord. This was his call to conversion.

*  *  *

Email: [email protected]