The Gospel for Sunday, February 1, 2004 (From the Sunday Lectionary)
Luke 4:21-32
Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips. They said, ‘This is Joseph’s son, surely?’ But he replied, ‘No doubt you will quote me the saying, “Physician, heal yourself,” and tell me, “We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own country.” ’ And he went on, ‘In truth I tell you, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country. ‘There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a town in Sidonia. And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many suffering from virulent skin–diseases in Israel, but none of these was cured—only Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him off the cliff, but he passed straight through the crowd and walked away. He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because his word carried authority. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study
The words of Isaiah that Jesus had just read foretold a redeemer for Israel.
"The spirit of Lord Yahweh is on me for Yahweh has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the news to the afflicted, to soothe the broken–hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, release to those in prison, to proclaim a year of favour from Yahweh ...."
Now, as was the custom, he becan to explain them. After telling them that the text was being fulfilled that day, even as they were listening, he "won the approval of all." Then they began to realize that this is the kid from down the street. How can HE be so smart? Oy! Seeing their reaction, Jesus used their shared knowledge of the Hebrew Bible to enrage them. He must have known what he was doing. God, after all, cannot be surprised. The first reference, to Elijah, was set in an Israel at the time extremely disfavored by God.
Elijah had foretold a 42-month drought that besieged Israel. The cause? Ahab, the new king of Israel, had "done more evil than all the kings of Israel before him." The icing on the cake was his marriage to Jezebel, not an Israelite, with whom Ahab then practiced Baal worship.
God sent Elijah to a water hole and had a raven bring him food, until the water hole dried up from the drought. Then God sent Elijah to a non-Israelite widow's home, where the miracle of the jars of grain and jars of oil occurred, blessings on a gentile for Elijah's sake. And where also God restored the life of the widow's son, through Elijah's prayer.
Elisha was Elijah's successor, and cured the commander of the army of Aram, who frequently invaded Israel.
Against this history, Jesus casts himself first in parallel with the prophet who caused a drought in his "own country" and then left it, only to work wonders for a gentile. Then he casts himself in parallel with the healer of an army commander who frequently harrassed Israel.
This boy from down the street, he's calling himself a prophet, and now he's telling us that we're like the Israel of Elijah and Elisha? They at least ran him out of town, even if they didn't try to kill him. They certainly proved his point for him, if nothing else.
A Reflection
I was once transferred into a division of a corporation that was having some substantial difficulties. After a few weeks, I began hearing the muttered phrase, "Dead Horse," from time to time. I asked one of the old hands what that phrase signified. He explained this powerful image:
The leadership of the business had become so familiar with the existence of problems and the dissatisfaction of both the customers and the employees, that all bad news became invisible. As if they could walk into a conference room and find a dead horse lying on the table, and not even see it, notice it, mention it, or do anything about it.
Jesus uses this Dead Horse concept later in his ministry when he creates the instructions about removing the beam from one's own eye before looking for the dust speck in a neighbor's. But it's the same situation occurring when prophets are without honor.
The next time you read about a gang shooting on the streets of the nearest large city, and cluck your tongue and go on to the comics section, stop. Think. That's a HUGE dead horse!
You and I have allowed another society (at least one other) to grow right inside our own, and that society is as surely evil as we wish that ours were good. We have allowed another society to develop because we didn't care about babies that are so malnourished they have practically no chance to learn in school, assuming they ever attend. Boys who have grown up with no role models other than the neighborhood drug dealers and pimps. Girls who have grown up with no role models other than their own mothers and sisters given over to hopelessness.
We put on our blinders. We slip on our latex gloves. We don't drive through "that" part of town. We give a pittance to United Way through our employers, or throw a dollar into the Salvation Army kettle at Christmas. How many "successful" women and men do you know who go around talking about problems like this all the time? Even the big-name religious in our own time, what do they say?
Have you heard "feed my lambs" lately? No, but a lot about gay bishops? Jesus had a lot to say about feeding the hungry, and absolutely nothing to say about gay people, or "bishops." He had a lot to say about clothing the naked, but nothing to say about most of what these latter day "preachers" want to preach about. What say you?
I say, "Dead horse."
7:08:57 AM 
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