Read­ing Time: 2 minutes

Introduction

We con­tin­ue to read about Jesus’ activ­ity in the Temple of Syn­agogue. As I explained last week, after read­ing out his pro­gram, the eyes of every­one in the Syn­agogue were fixed on Jesus, as he delivered his undi­luted and spir­it-filled homily. Jesus told them “today, this writ­ing or this scrip­ture is ful­filled in your hear­ing.” Luke says all spoke well of him and were amazed at the gra­cious words he spoke, that they wondered if he is not the son of Joseph – “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gra­cious words that came from his mouth. They said, is not this Joseph’s son?” (Lk. 4:22). In Mark, the set­ting is dif­fer­ent. Accord­ing to Mark and Luke, this incid­ent took place in the Syn­agogue. But while in Luke, Jesus read a pas­sage from the Scrip­ture and explained it, in Mark, Jesus arrived Naz­areth, went into the Syn­agogue and star­ted teach­ing the people. In Luke, while the people spoke well of Jesus and were amazed at his wis­dom, in Mark, there was out­right rejec­tion. They wondered where he got his wis­dom. Hence, they asked “Is not this the car­penter, the son of Mary and broth­er of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sis­ters here with us? And they took offense at him” (Mark 6:3). Once Jesus entered his homet­own, Mark said some­thing very import­ant. Because Sab­bath was approach­ing, Jesus star­ted teach­ing the people, the same thing he does in oth­er towns and villages.

The price of unbelief

In his Pro­logue, John notes that the true Light came into the world but the world did not recog­nize him. He came to his own people, but even his own people did not receive him. How­ever, to all who recog­nized, received and believed in him, he gave the author­iz­a­tion to become chil­dren of God (cf. John 1:10–13). Such rejec­tion and unbe­lief are reflec­ted in the read­ing of this Sunday. Unbe­lief leads to the sin of pre­sump­tion. To pre­sume is to dare to think we know what is right. It is arrog­ance that makes the arrog­ant say, “I know the way,” and then acts on its own. Unbe­lief is believ­ing some­thing oth­er than what God has said about a situ­ation. You can believe Jesus was raised from the dead, you can believe he is your personal.…

Conclusion

To Jesus’ words that sal­va­tion would be taken to oth­ers since the Jews rejec­ted it, many reacted neg­at­ively and took him to the moun­tain top and wanted to throw him down the cliff, but he escaped from their midst (cf. Luke 4:28–30). Jesus was able to escape from their midst because it was not yet his time to die (Luke 22:53; cf. John 7:30), and because God was with him. We should also not for­get that the Holy Spir­it he received after his bap­tism, which led him to the wil­der­ness and brought him back, is still accom­pa­ny­ing him and will remain with him through­out his mis­sion. Do not be des­per­ate in cer­tain situ­ations you find your­self. So long as you are not involved in any form of evil, there will always be a way to escape from the ugly situation.

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE: SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I‑II-III)!! The reflec­tion for the 4^th Sunday of the year © is found in vol. III pages 98–105. Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

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