In today's Gospel, Luke 4: 16-30, Jesus returns to his home town and participates in the synagogal services. He opens the scroll to the book of Isaiah, where it is 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." The people are astounded by His explanation of the Scriptures. He spoke with authority, unlikes the Scribes and Pharisees. They say to one another: we know this man's brothers and sisters and mother. We know that he is Joseph's son. Where does he get all this wisdom and the power to heal the sick and raise the dead to life and restore sight to the blind--miracles they know he has done in other places. He then tells the people that he cannot do these things here in Nazareth, his home town, because of their lack of faith.
Imagine Jesus visiting you or me and saying to us: I am unable to proclaim liberty to you, am unable to restore your sight or free you from that which oppresses you because of your lack of faith. And then tells us that He has been able to do so among those people whom we consider inferior to us, less worthy than us and certainly not the ones we recognize as God's beloved. Faith in Christ Jesus demands absolute surrender to the Lord, a sincere acknowledgement that we are totally dependent upon God, that God is our Lord and Savior, the Creator of our being, the One who sustains us, mentors us, prepares the way for us to do good in this world.
Faith also demands that I recognize Jesus in others. Jesus' home town folks rejected Jesus, wanted to throw Him off the cliff. He slips out of their grasp. The people said of Him: "Who does He think He is? We know his mother and brothers and sisters. We know he is Joseph's son." Who do I reject because "I know who he or she is? I know from where he or she comes? No way will I listen to him or her."
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