Fresh from lonely desert life, dust still under his fingernails, Mary and Joseph’s son came home to teach. Home from the wilderness to the place and people who raised him. His work would begin here. The place looks and feels different… smaller somehow. From the seat in his childhood sabbath meeting house, a place where he studied as a boy, he reads the old promise that God gave to Isaiah about the coming of a new way. A great promise of liberation and sight to all who stand in need.*
Turning loose his childhood, Jesus spoke about this new way with power in his mouth and heart, pouring out as freely as the wine would at Cana. A resounding new echo from the past carries his bold and heavy claim: “I am the bringer!”
The hometown hearers say “He sounds good, but we know his parents, and everything there is to know about him.” As I read this gospel passage, I hear the writer Thomas Wolfe say, “You can’t go home again.”
He sternly reminds them of stories from their past where God is found reaching out to those beyond the safe boundaries of their meetings houses, their towns, their faith. Stories of “the other” being given new life. This was just too much for them to bear. Furious, they rise up ablaze with hurt feelings and quickly move to hurt him back. He narrowly escapes, as he will do a few more times along his journey, and sets his eyes and feet to a new place. How soon did his racing heart get back to its’ regular rhythm?
He is by himself again—a full day’s dusty walk ahead to the next town. It would be a handful of days before he’d have good company along the path that he has chosen. Indigenous folks around the world have called this the “red road,” when head and heart are in alignment. When one is walking one’s truth. He walks, trusting that the road ahead is his. I hear the poet Mary Oliver say, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
-Jim Marsh, Jr., Bread of Life Church
*Luke 4:21-30, The Message (MSG)
Questions to ponder:
- Can you empathize with Jesus not being heard in his hometown? Have you ever felt unwelcome or uncomfortable when visiting the place where you grew up?
- What do these prophetic words stir in you: “Proclaiming, good news to the poor, pardon for the prisoner, and recovery of sight for the blind?” What kind of response is required after hearing this?
- How could your life be a reflection of this proclamation? How far might your call reach?
