Word to the Wise
Thursday, January 8, 2026 - Thursday after Epiphany, or Jan. 10
[1 John 4:19-5:4 and Luke 4:14-22a,291][Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet, Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." Andall spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. [Luke]
It's tough to preach to your hometown folks because they have known the preacher "from way back when!" It took a few moments for what he had to say to sink in. At first, they were simply captivated by his voice, but then there was that "Wait a minute! Did you hear what he said?" moment and they became hostile! How dare this son of our local carpenter make such a claim? How can he be the fulfillment of a messianic prophecy? When Jesus confronted them with their lack of faith, they ran him out of town! In the Gospel According to Mark [3:20-21], his family tried to remove him from public ministry!!! The fundamental emphasis in all of this is the theme of rejection that will be repeated throughout the gospels.
Our baptismal commitment as "missionary disciples" challenges us to make the same claim! Do we "put skin on" the teachings of Jesus so that they are manifested in our dealings with others? Are those teachings "fulfilled in the hearing" and experience of others to our witness to our faith? Rejection is hard to take, especially if it comes from those closest to us! But Jesus warns us numerous times in the gospels to expect rejection and hostile, even lethal, reactions. The charm of the Christmas/Epiphany season can lull us to any hard thoughts but Jesus had no illusions about his ministry. Neither should we! AMEN