Filled With Fury

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, "Is this not the son of Joseph?" He said to them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself,' and say, 'Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'" And he said, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. 

Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."

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 4:16-30)

Luke wrote his Gospel around 85 C.E.  It appears to have been written for Gentile converts. It traces Jesus’ genealogy back to Adam, the “father” of the human race rather than to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people.  We see his emphasis on Gentiles in today’s Gospel with its reference to the widow in the land of Sidon and Naaman the Syrian, two non-Jews.  This is why those in the Jewish synagogue became so angry and tried to throw Jesus headlong off the hill.  Luke was making it clear that Jesus was for everyone, and he was not simply the Jewish Messiah.  Moreover, and quite dramatically, Luke in these passages had Elijah and Elisha ignoring the many widows and lepers in Israel in favor of the Gentiles.  Now that’s a Luke provocation!  The people in the synagogue were "filled with fury!"

In a similar way, followers of Jesus were thrown out of the Jewish synagogue.  This separation of Jews who waited for their Messiah to come and those who felt he had arrived as Jesus the Christ is most evident in the Gospel of John.  These were incompatible views. In Luke’s words, Jesus passed through the midst of them [Jews] and went away.  Indeed, he did, and upon him the Christian Church eventually was built.

Now the question is whether we Christians follow him so as to bring glad tidings to the poor; proclaim liberty to captives; recover sight to the blind; and let the oppressed go free.  If not, then we risk his passing through the midst of us and going away.  That would be tragic.

Deacon David Pierce