In spite of his works and remarkable teachings, Jesus’ family and old friends treated him with skepticism. In a culture that measured a person's worth by their place in society, Jesus had clearly overstepped his bounds. After all, he was “just” a carpenter and as such, was relegated to a lowly place in society at that time. Carpenters were itinerant workers who left their home and went from town to town to seek employment. Their families were often left without financial security while they were away. Their time away and loss of economic support or social position often caused them to lose the respect of their own families whom they “abandoned.” By daring to step above his station in life he did not fit into the world of His family and old friends. He, despite his notoriety, was no longer what his home town folks of Nazareth expected him to be. They did not trust him. So, he went back out on the road to serve the surrounding villages. Although Jesus went home, he wasn’t made to feel at home (Mark 6:1-13).
Several years ago I was faced with having to leave a job and career to which I was totally committed and loved for over 30 years. A corporate reorganization resulted in my position and group being eliminated and absorbed. No, they said I wasn’t being fired; "your performance was exemplary; it’s just that your position would no longer exist.” The music stopped; my chair was gone, and now I had to leave a place where I was no longer wanted. How was that possible? I had to uproot my family and an established lifestyle, leave my friends behind and go to a place where I was wanted…but just not here anymore.
Little did I know at the time that this pain and anguish would lead to new opportunities, personal growth and a transformation of sorts that would not have been possible had I remained anchored in that comfortable place. Little did I know that what seemed like an interminably difficult period of loss and “exile” protected me from the peril and upheaval awaiting those in that place I left behind. Little did I know then that in the long run, it was all for the best… and all part of a plan.
Despite having walked the dusty roads of Nazareth he knew so well from his earliest beginnings, his childhood, Jesus was rejected by friends and family. It was as if they did not know him. He was amazed at their lack of faith. It’s not a comfortable scene for us to imagine? Bur then, Padovano writes “home is not a place; it is an attitude which depends on how much we are able to feel at home with ourselves as well as others. Home is something which happens to a person; homecoming has less to do with geography than it has to do with a sense of personal integrity or inner wholeness… The most redemptive all experiences is that by which the human heart is reconciled with itself. One does not remain with his family if he is not heard or listened to or if he gains attention only if he makes an enormous effort or if he is loved merely when he happens to agree with his family.” (Anthony Padovano, Dawn Without Darkness, pp 28, 34)
The comment that Jesus is "son of Mary" was likely intended as a reference to the circumstances of her pregnancy, which would be known to the neighbors, so it was also a put-down.
ReplyDeleteNazareth was a backwater, a no-place. In the Gospel, Nathaniel comments, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" The people seem to have internalized their inferiority. They were nothing, so how could he-- one of them-- be anything?
Jesus' message is that God loves all the children, regardless of place origin. Our family is the People of God; our home is the Kingdom of God.