Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C 30th January 2022
Lectionary Readings: Jeremiah 1 v4-10; Psalm 71 v1-6; 1 Corinthians 13 v1-13; Luke 4 21-30.
The people of Nazareth turn against Jesus.
Luke’s story of the people’s reaction to Jesus declaring that the prophecy of Isaiah had come true in him, (Luke 4 v16-20), begs many questions. What was Jesus up to? Why did he deliberately provoke an angry reaction from the people of his home town?
Jesus didn’t help matters by recalling the experience of prophets as recorded in Jewish scripture or by pointing out that God’s love extended to non-Jews. The crowd responded as a mob, intent on killing him.
I think Jesus was trying to shake the people of Nazareth out of their apathy, their unconscious acceptance of the status quo. Jesus wanted them to think about what God wants his people to do now that ‘the year of the Lord’s favour’ had arrived.
Jesus was well aware of how difficult life was for ordinary people living under Roman rule. He was also aware of the inadequate leadership exercised by the temple authorities and ‘teachers of the Law of Moses’. Jesus wanted the people to recover their national identity, their sense of purpose as the people of God. He wanted them to become the means of translating God’s love into actions that bring about reconciliation between people and God and between peoples of every nation. He wanted to open their eyes to God’s vision of a better world.
If Jesus was exercising ‘tough love’, then it was certainly a high risk strategy; Jesus could easily have got himself killed before his ministry had begun.
Luke follows this passage with stories of healing. Maybe this was Luke’s way of answering the questions posed above, by drawing our attention to the fact that Jesus came to save, to heal, to restore and to show us how we can reveal God’s love to others.
I think Paul had God in mind when he wrote his poem on the theme of love. ‘Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful and trusting. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13 v 7,8).
Hymn-writer, Andrew Pratt, speaks of how Love (capital L Love=God) inspires (righteous) anger.
Love inspired the anger that cleared a temple court,
overturned the wisdom which their greed had wrought.
Love inspired the anger that set the leper free
from the legal strictures that brought misery.
Love inspired the anger that cursed a viper’s brood:
set on domination, self with God confused.
Love inspired the anger that curses poverty,
preaches life’s enrichment, seeks equality.
Love inspires the anger that still can set us free
from the world’s conventions bringing liberty.
From Singing the Faith No 253.
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version