4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Apparently in order to emphasize the nature of His ministry Jesus does not come as a religious leader. He does not hold any position. But he brings his ministry to streets and roads and wherever else the common people are found. He was fond of attending the Synagogues. This was the place of worship for common man. And in today’s gospel also Jesus goes to the Synagogue and reads from Isiah and after reading it, he rolls up the scroll and gives it to the attendant and says, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing”. Luke summarizes that they spoke well of Jesus. But I am not sure if they really understood the real meaning of what Jesus said. In other words, Jesus indirectly told them that He was the expected Messiah who had come to save the world.

In verse 23 Jesus says to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘physician, heal yourself! Do here in hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.” Here Jesus uses future tense. Therefore, Luke presents Jesus as a prophet who foretells what is going to happen in the future. The following statement suggests that he already did his ministry in Capernaum before he came in to the Synagogues in Galilee. That means the people in his own home town (Nazareth) already have heard about his miracles and good deeds. They don’t want to believe in Jesus unless he performs same kind of miracles in his own home town. But Jesus would not do it, because, it is also another form of temptation that the Satan places in front of Jesus to prove his identity. There was no need for Jesus to prove his identity in front of his people.

In verse 24 Jesus says that no prophet is accepted in his own town. He affirms that He is a prophet who has been sent to save the people. He already anticipates what would happen to him that his own people would reject him very soon.

Verses 25 and 26 present two Old Testament prophets namely Prophet Elijah and Prophet Elisha. And Luke presents Jesus as the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophesies. We know the stories of two Old Testament prophets being presented in the gospel. Even though they were the prophets of the people of Israel, they were rejected by the Israelites. Therefore, they turn their mission to the non-Israelites. Now the Israelites lose the salvation granted to them. Why should Jesus make use of their examples? Jesus makes use of their examples in order to warn the present Israel that if they reject him, they will also have the same consequences. They will lose the salvation which was granted to them. It will go to the non-Israelites, in other words it will go to the gentiles.

In the following verses we see that despite of Jesus’ warning the people did not learn a lesson from it. Instead, they are furious and drive him out of the town and take him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But Jesus walks through the crowd and goes on his way for his time has not yet come. Where does he go? He is going to take the same path the Old Testament prophets took because of their rejection.

In our day today life there are so many occasions where Jesus wants to bring us salvation. But how do we respond to it? Do we also respond like the people in the Synagogue? Yes. We do very often. To us also he gives the same warning. He gives us so many chances to receive this salvation. Jesus wants to bring salvation to us through the church’s sacraments. If we reject them, then for sure we are going to lose our opportunity as the Jews it.