wheat

Feb 28, 2005

A Prophet in His Own Land
Lk 4:24-30

Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth: "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

There is no prophet accepted in their native land. Jesus told the truth about the prophet Elijah and the people were furious with him. They thought he was a heretic and sought to kill him. I think that those who know us from living with us often take for granted or overlook our true gifts and abilities.

The other reading for today is about Naaman coming to the prophet Elijah for healing from leprosy. At first when he is told to bath in the Jordan, Naaman thinks it is too simple a cure and needs to be convinced by those who care about him to do this. Some of the cures and solutions that will come to us will seem as if they are all too simple. They require faith to make them complete.

Of all the lepers in Israel at the time only one was healed, Naaman. I am praying for special healing for my uncle who is having a lung biopsy today.