Being Rejected 遭受拒絕

Fourth Ordinary Sunday, Year C
Theme: Being Rejected 遭受拒絕

Two weeks ago in our meditation, we found that we were truly blessed because every one of us is a miracle. The very fact that we’re still alive, praising God at the moment is proof of our being images of God and miracles of God.
Last week, we found that we were captives in different manners: captives of our ambitions, of our addictions and even our obsessions etc. We’re in desperate need of God’s liberation. Today, let’s meditate on Jesus’ being rejected and our being rejected.

The three Synoptic gospels report this incident. However, Matthew and Mark don’t even mention “Nazareth”. They simply say, “His native place” (Matthew 13:54; Mark 6:1). They report the lack of faith of the countrymen and Jesus’ amazement of his own inability to work miracles there (Matthew 13:58; Mark 6:5-6). Perhaps the two gospels want to teach the readers the importance of faith. But Luke’s report is more detailed and drastic. We may safely speculate that the Blessed Virgin Mary was present and this is an eye-witness/first person report of what happened on that Sabbath (Luke 4:14-30), like the Annunciation and Nativity narratives. In particular, this Sabbath narrative echoes the rejection theme which runs through His whole life, from Bethlehem to Calvary! It points to a perspective not of theology and invites us to reflect on what we are and what we would do when we meet obstacles and rejections.

Before we proceed, let’s do some geography. Luke mentions the extreme reaction of the folk, “They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.” (4:29) Indeed, when we Google today, we’ll see that Nazareth is truly about 350m above sea-level. But it was not yet time for Jesus to be killed. “His hour had not yet come” (John 7:30). He would be offered up as a sacrifice on the cross 400m higher outside Jerusalem. So, “he passed through the midst of them and went away.” (Luke 4:30)

Without further ado, let’s start from the perspective of the Blessed Virgin Mary whom the Son of God kept amazed. The BVM could not understand how shepherds in Bethlehem would come to visit the Holy Infant (2:19). Nor could she understand the answer her twelve-year-old boy gave in the Temple (2:50-51). There might probably be some more incidents not reported in the gospel. Anyway, I suppose life gradually returned to “normal and peaceful” as the adolescent Jesus matured and became the sole bread-winner to support the family after the death of Joseph until the Baptist emerged to prepare the way of the coming Messiah. Probably Jesus responded to the call and joined the crowd. It seemed that he was the most outstanding disciple, one of a kind among the ordinary followers. It turned out that he was truly gifted. “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all” (4:14-15) was the context for this Sabbath narrative. So, when her only son returned home and started teaching in the synagogue, the BVM must have been very happy and full of expectations, something similar to the moment when she was about to give birth to the Holy Infant at Bethlehem. What would this baby whom the archangel said, “will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (1:33) be like? She came all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the Roman census. She might have anticipated that “there was no room for them in the inn” (2:7) but she didn’t expect the visit from shepherds who turned out to be the major symbol of the mission of the Son of God, both as the Good Shepherd and as the Pascal Lamb!
On that particular Sabbath, the BVM must have been extremely shocked and her heart ached to see her son being rejected in such an extreme manner by his own people in Nazareth! Bear in mind that the BVM was a widow and her future would rely on the well-being of her son. All the efforts to raise this boy seemed to have come to nothing. But this was only the beginning of her son’s public ministry. She might not be able to foresee that it was a pointer to the final rejection at Calvary.

What about Jesus himself? Did he expect such a reception? Not at all! Jesus must have been confident because those were his people. He was raised up among them and must have established a deep and fond bonding with them. Moreover, previous successes in Galilee had proven that he was full of the Holy Spirit, was powerful and was praised by all.
But when he was handed the scroll of Isaiah, aka “The Prophet of the Messiah” in which we are able to find many prophecies about the Messiah, I think his heart would sink and he would have anticipated a cold reception instead. Consider these passages in the scroll. In the very first chapter, we find “An ox knows its owner, and an ass its master’s manger; But Israel does not know, my people has not understood” (Isaiah 1:3). In the Song of a Vineyard, “What more could be done for my vineyard that I did not do? Why, when I waited for the crop of grapes, did it yield rotten grapes?” (5:4) In the Call of the Prophet, “Go and say to this people: Listen carefully, but do not understand! Look intently, but do not perceive!” (6:9) and there are three poems of the “Suffering Servant of the Lord”, spelling out his mission (chapters 42, 49, 52-53). Therefore, his previous successes in Galilee were more probably exceptions than rules. The Israelites were well known to be stiff-necked. They bit the hands that fed him. Humanity is truly irrational etc. must have been racing inside his mind. Nevertheless, it did not discourage Jesus from spelling out his agenda in a positive light. So, he chose to read Chapter 61, a declaration of liberation.

Brothers and sisters! We may be lucky enough not to have been rejected by anybody in our life. But here and there, we hear news about child abuses in families and in children homes etc. We see and visit the homeless, some of whom are probably suffering from different degrees of mental illnesses. We know the existence of all sorts of discrimination in the society. From the media, we are saddened by images of corpses of refugees found on beaches etc.
Brothers and sisters! Don’t despair and be frozen. Our good Lord has taken upon himself our pains of being rejected. Implore his mercy so that our future generation may be able to live in a better world in which nobody is being rejected.
God bless.
2019 Reflection
Photo Credit: cym.com.au