Monday of the Third Week of Lent

 

Monday in the Third Week of Lent and the Gospel reading has always bothered me! For starters, Jesus sounds defiant and hostile, like he's picking a fight, having a go at his old neighbors in the Nazareth synagogue, which doesn't seem like him, does it! Except that the entire event fits Luke's agenda of Jesus the prophet so infuriating the authorities that eventually they kill him. 

And for next, the lesson is lifted out of context, opens in the middle of a pericope, a little story. Yes, it's appointed because it follows the OT story of the cleansing of Naaman, and the lectionary framers cut it short to keep us from complaining that the long reading made us leave Monday morning Mass late for work, but still! 

So I go to Bible Gateway, locate Luke 4 in the NRSV(UE), and read the whole story, here it is:

14 Then Jesus, in the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding region. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

        to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

    and recovery of sight to the blind,

        to set free those who are oppressed,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 

23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’ ” 24 And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months and there was a severe famine over all the land, 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many with a skin disease in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. 

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Why are "all in the synagogue filled with rage"? Because Jesus goads them by suggesting that only unclean foreigners honored the prophets of Israel, the implication being that that's why they are not accepting and honoring him, Jesus, as a prophet. He's ranking himself with the beloved prophets, he too will be a prophet to the Gentiles, and they are outraged!

The event is simpler in Mark 6 and Matthew 13, where the "parishioners" do resent Jesus; but Luke elaborates with a story of them rising up and trying to kill Jesus. Why? it fits Luke's theme of Jesus the prophet rejected and ultimately killed by the "faithful" in Jerusalem, his spiritual home. So, it's okay. 

Would the folks at Nazareth actually have killed him? IDK, it's Luke's story, only he knows; but actually it's a precursor of what eventually will indeed happen in Jerusalem, so it could not have happened that he got killed early, he had to be killed in Jerusalem, which from start to finish of Luke's gospel is the center of Jesus' life. 

  

The Collect

Look upon the heart-felt desires of your humble servants, Almighty God, and stretch forth the right hand of your majesty to be our defense against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Old Testament 2 Kings 5:1–15b

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. And the king of Aram said, "Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel."

He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy." When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me."

But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel." So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha's house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean." But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, "I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" He turned and went away in a rage. But his servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, `Wash, and be clean'?" So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.”

The Psalm Psalm 42:1–7 

1 As the deer longs for the water-brooks, * so longs my soul for you, O God.

2 My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God; * when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night, * while all day long they say to me, "Where now is your God?"

4 I pour out my soul when I think on these things: * how I went with the multitude and led them into the house of God,

5 With the voice of praise and thanksgiving, * among those who keep holy-day.

6 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? * and why are you so disquieted within me?

7 Put your trust in God; * for I will yet give thanks to him, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

The Gospel Luke 4:23–30

In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." 

When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

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An 88 year old pensioner has a lot more to think about and say this early morning. Temperature 64° humidity 100% DewPoint 64° making fog almost inevitable. Nice out though, a cool, damp spring morning on the Florida Gulf Coast.

RSF&PTL

T88&c

Picture: pinched online. property of GoodSalt. Naaman washing and being cleansed of his leprosy in the River Jordan.