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Today's Gospel
Jesus Doesn’t Fit In
6 min
Gospel
Lk 4:16-30
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke well of him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth; and they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself; what we have heard you did at Caper′na-um, do here also in your own country.’” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Eli′jah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land; and Eli′jah was sent to none of them but only to Zar′ephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Eli′sha; and none of them was cleansed, but only Na′aman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong. But passing through the midst of them he went away.
Readings are from Dynamic Catholic’s New Testament Bible: RSV Catholic Edition
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Transcript
Jesus Doesn’t Fit In
What is it that jumps out at you today? This line, "Is not this Joseph's son," they say about Jesus. And when they say that what are they saying? Well, we know this guy. And what else are they saying? He isn't fitting into the image we had of him because we knew him when he was kicking a ball around with his friends or when he was a little kid, playing in the mud or whatever. And so Jesus isn't fitting into the image they have in their minds of who he is. And I think at different times in our lives people say the same thing about every single person. They say it about you, they say it about me, they say it about everyone. They say, "Is not this Joseph's son?" It was some form of that. They say it. And what are they saying? Like, you've changed. What are they saying? You're not who I thought you were. What are they saying? You're making me uncomfortable. That's what Jesus was doing. He's making them uncomfortable. They weren't comfortable with who he was. And they wanted him to be this other person that they imagined him to be as a child. And sometimes when you change and grow, it makes people uncomfortable. And very often, in their discomfort, they lash out and they criticize you, or they speak badly about you to other people behind your back. But what's really happening is your change is challenging them to change. It's calling them to change. It's inviting them to change. And they are rejecting the challenge. They are rejecting the invitation. And that's why so many of us, when we really start to live our faith seriously, we lose friends. We lose friends and sometimes friends who are very close to us for a long time.
And if you take your spirituality to the next level, you might lose friends again. There might be friends who say, "Hey, you used to be like this. What happened to that person?" And you're going to have to say, God's calling me to more. And that might make people uncomfortable. That might make them criticize you. That might make them not be your friends anymore. But still, you have to follow your call. I have to follow my call. Have a great day following your call. And remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.
