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.”    Mark 6:4. Image: Provenance unknown.

 

 

 

Jesus uses a kind of double negative here, perhaps for emphasis. But it can be unclear. Read without the negative, you get this: “A prophet is without honor in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house”. Jesus was in his home town of Nazareth, among his own kin, and was apparently rejected by them all. How on earth, they seemed to be saying, can this son of the local carpenter speak with such authority, right here, among us? The effrontery! They seemed to have heard nothing of Jesus’ message, and concentrated on the mystery of how he could address them like that. It strongly reminds me of an episode in my own family many years ago. My mother was born into the Anglican Church of England (the Episcopalian Church in the USA). Out of the blue one day in the 1960s she announced that she had become a Catholic. We had no idea at all. She had been instructed by a saintly old Franciscan priest in the area, been baptized, all without a word to us all. Being her Catholic priest-son, I was both flabbergasted and ecstatic. And there it was. Several years later she announced she had given it all up! No more Mass, no more Catholic anything. So I asked her “Why?” Her answer was that she had been told by the saintly old priest that she HAD to go to confession if she wanted to receive communion. She had begun to make up sins so as to be able to say something in confession! I chirped up at once: “Mother, as a priest, I tell you, you do not have to go to confession in order to go to communion unless you really have something to confess”. “Yes, dear, I know” was her response. Who was she going to believe: the saintly old priest or her son? Regrettably the old priest won. I did not know who he was, so I could not say or do anything more. But I think Jesus may have experienced the same feeling in today’s gospel. 

 

So what to do or say in such situations? It seemed to limit Jesus effectiveness, as the gospel says, “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”. Let us hope that the few cures he performed were enough to change their hearts. We will never know. The gospel mentions Jesus’ family, but in such a way that it seems they were not present at that time, so they could not defend him. They say familiarity breeds contempt, so we might have an example of that here today. Perhaps they thought Jesus was being “uppity“ which might induce the same reaction. Whatever it was, it strongly influenced Jesus, as a human being, very greatly.

 

The message today? Clearly today’s gospel revolves around the interaction of Jesus with the people who knew him the most; he had grown up there, in a small Jewish community 2000 years ago. They all knew him intimately, the young and the old. They heard him speak. They realized what he said he said with authority. Somehow he had developed into a person way beyond the fellow they remembered. Now there are at least two ways to deal with such. One way is seen clearly in today’s gospel. The other would be to take this young man seriously, listen to his message, evaluate it with an open mind, and then make up your mind. All the others who heard him came back for more! The people of Nazareth did not. In another gospel describing this scene, they tried to throw him off a cliff! (Luke 4:20-30). From our point of view today, if those closest to you, the people you grew up with, encourage you and support you, you are dealing with a different world. So if we find ourselves with the situation Jesus experienced the answer might well be, “what am I going to do about it? Jesus went off to the other towns and was much better received. He did not fall into depression and despair. Clearly his family and good friends stood by him, seen later in the Passion narrative. He must have been strengthened at that time with his mother and others at the foot of the cross enduring his passion with him. So it must be with all of us. When friends, or people we know, demonstrate skill, care, knowledge which is helpful, we must respond in the way we would want others around us to respond, positively, supportively and helpfully. In that way we build the Kingdom and enjoy the presence of God. That’s a much better way of dealing with any kind of rejection. Let us ask God for such support in challenging times whenever and wherever they may occur.