Unacceptable

 

Luke 4: 24-30

Jesus Rejected

²⁴ “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. ²⁵ I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. ²⁶ Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. ²⁷ And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸ All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹ They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

A very tense moment for the "hometown boy"! Jesus spoke harshly about his lack of acceptance by the people of his hometown and aggravated them even more, to the point of their desire to throw him off a cliff! Jesus spoke the truth bravely, and met with rejection. Do we have the courage to do the same? The answer might be obvious, or muddled by circumstances but no doubt there is fear of rejection or uncertainty about stepping on toes.  May our prayer today offer the clarity and conviction we need to be a stronger witness to Jesus than we are right now.

Bro. Rene

Lord Jesus: In your hometown synagogue you told your neighbors that no prophet is accepted in his native place and that prophets tell people what they don’t want to hear. They turned on you! Lord Jesus, give me the strength to speak your word even in the face of rejection. Amen.

Rev. Jim Lackenmier, C.S.C.