Prophets and Hometowns!

Monday, March 24, 2025

2 Kgs 5:1-15; Lk 4:24-30

Today’s Gospel highlights the rejection of Jesus in his own native place. 

It must be very surprising that his own country cousins found reasons to reject Jesus when he was enthusiastically received by most people and his popularity was ever soaring among them. 

Jesus comes across to us as someone who never wished to compromise with principles for the sake of being popular. In fact, Jesus was hated for being straightforward and honest. 

The Gospel text reveals why Jesus is rejected by his own country cousins. 

1.Jesus’ use of Gentile examples was offensive to his villagers because, in their view, Gentiles were not virtuous, and therefore, God rejected them. But when Jesus highlights the example of the virtuous Gentiles, it amounts to challenging their cherished and long-held beliefs. 

2. Jesus used the example of the Gentiles to show that those who were not chosen by God were more virtuous than those that God did. In other words, Jesus turned the Gentiles into examples of faith that the chosen people could follow to reshape their lives. 

3. Jesus employs the Gentile examples to teach them about repentance. Thus, Jesus shatters the notion they were ‘justified’ on account of their chosenness. It was Jesus’ way of saying that the chosen people did not match the goodness of even the Gentiles. 

When the people of his hometown found the truth hard and bitter to accept, they ‘drove him out of the town,’ which indicates complete rejection. 

Lack of acceptance and openness blunts our growth, as it did in the case of the people of Jesus’ hometown.

Let us pray that we may embrace all that is good as signifying the goodness of God Himself. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar