Throughout all of his public ministry, Jesus enthusiastically served the sick, the suffering, the poor, the lonely, the marginalized, the outcasts and the sinners. He constantly brought dignity, power and strength to those who were otherwise treated as “the lowly” in this world! Care and acceptance of others, the idea of forgiveness for sinners, and illustrations of the overwhelming and great love of the Father for all, were constant themes of Jesus’ preaching–and his actions matched his words! By what he said and by what he did, Jesus replaced sin with forgiveness, weakness with might, humility with confidence and death with everlasting life!
Through Jesus, many people from regions surrounding the town of Nazareth had come to know God’s love, they had turned away from sin, they had changed their lives, and they had become his enthusiastic disciples. Jesus had become a kind of celebrity in those places, and people scrambled to see him or even to touch him; they also gradually came to believe Jesus was the Son of God, and that he was the great Messiah promised by the prophets of old! What was even more marvelous was that he existed completely and fully as a man, as one who was born into the world just like those to whom he had been sent! While Jesus said and did great things, he was always still the simple son of a humble carpenter! As such, he could completely identify with other people in their own “lowliness!”
In the Letter to the Hebrews, the author casts some light on this idea when he writes: “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin” (see Hebrews 4:15). With regard to what it meant to be a living, breathing, suffering and “tested” person, Jesus “got it!”
Today’s Gospel gives us a glimpse into a moment when Jesus himself was treated as a kind of outcast in his own hometown. And Nazareth was an out of the way, in-the-middle-of-nowhere, small and insignificant town. According to the account, Jesus was confronted there by a group of people who did not accept him for who he was, and they acted negatively toward him, even to the point of wanting to cause him harm. Greatly offended by him, they sneered and clamored with great indignation: “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” (see Mark 6:3). They were unable to show him respect, and they failed to act with true humility given who they were themselves (i.e., poor and simple people). Although Jesus had been preaching and doing great works throughout all of Galilee, the people of his hometown could not accept the possibility that someone they viewed as “lesser than themselves” could in fact be “greater than them.”
This manner in which the people of his hometown of Nazareth did not accept him was a foreshadowing of the way that the religious leaders of his own faith community would eventually reject him as well–something that would ultimately lead to the way in which he was humiliated and punished through his suffering and his death on the cross. We might then say that he who ministered to the outcasts, himself willingly became an outcast as well!
May we imitate Jesus in the way that he humbly served others! Let us never become so full of pride and arrogance toward others that “we forget who we are, and from where we came.” May those in our own time who are “different,” (the sick, the suffering, the poor, the lonely, the marginalized, the outcasts, the sinners, etc.) also always know we are Christians by the manner in which we lovingly accept, serve and honor them!
Praise God! Friar Timothy
No comments:
Post a Comment