Fourteenth Sunday of
Ordinary Time Year B
Jesus departed from there and came to his
native place, accompanied by his disciples.
His native place was his home
village of Nazareth. It was the place he spent up to 30 years of his life.
Everyone knew everyone. There may have been around 1500 people in the village
around the time of Jesus. His place of
ministry was Capernaum.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in
the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.
It was the normal religious practice to go to the
synagogue on the sabbath to praise the Lord, to hear readings from the Word of
God, the Scriptures, to receive instructions on the readings and to offer their
prayers of intercession. As a covenanted Jew, Jesus went to the synagogue every
Sabbath as a child and as an adult. Even during his three years of public ministry,
he went to the synagogue, even though he was the Son of God.
They said, “Where did this man get all
this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by
his hands!
They have heard of his mighty deeds in other areas. They
have heard that he was an anointed preacher and teacher from others. Now, they
experience this latter personally. They are at first astonished, because only
the rabbis were trained in the interpretation of the scriptures. Yet, he seems
to understand and explain the scriptures with authority. But as they taught among themselves, things
changed.
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?” And they took offense at him.
There is no mention of Joseph in this
passage. The presumption is that Joseph has died. They remember that he was a
carpenter in the village, before he left and became a preacher and teacher.
They knew him as the son of Mary, who still lived in the village, nothing more.
Because we believe that Mary was a
virgin before, during and after the birth of Jesus, by God’s design, we know he
did not have blood siblings. Two explanations have been given. One is that Joseph
was married prior to Mary and had children from his first wife. The other is
that in those times the words brother and sister were used in an extended way
to include close cousins.
They take offense at him because they
couldn’t accept that he was no longer the person they knew. He spoke words that
challenged them and they didn’t want to hear.
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.”
Jesus acknowledges that he is a prophet whose words are
not received because they would not accept him as anything other than they
remember him to be. They tried to control him and box him in to fit their
expectations.
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed
there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was
amazed at their lack of faith.
Without faith there is no relationship
with Jesus. They could not put their trust in him and in his words. They had an
encounter with Jesus, but their hearts remained basically closed. Only those
who were so opened experienced the power of his saving mercy and healing love.
How do we apply this to our lives? We
have had many encounters with Jesus. What has been the result of each of those
encounters? Has our faith increased? Is he more the Lord of our lives?
