Gospel Reading for September 01, 2025 – Luke 4: 16-30
FOCUS
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.” And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?” He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'” And he said, “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.
————
In Psychology, people who look down on others’ success is due to deep-seated insecurities or feelings of envy. They have a need to reinforce their own self-worth through downward social comparisons. Hence, rather than support, they tend to have negative reactions to the success of a person they know.
This probably was one of the major reasons why Jesus was not accepted in his hometown upon coming back from his successful ministry in Capernaum. So, instead of benefitting from his mighty works, they lost a great opportunity! Although Jesus gave them a piece of his mind which made them want to hurl him down the hill, this treatment of his townspeople did not discourage or deter him from continuing his ministry, albeit not in his hometown as it was an effort in futility and so many people in other places needed him. Negative things like this should never be an obstacle to our mission. For us to be successful, we need to FOCUS on our mission.
Lord Jesus, may we never tire of being focused on the mission you gave us, regardless of what people may think about us!
