Gospel: Luke 4:24-30

 

Today’s Gospel forms part of a larger part. Jesus had presented His program in the synagogue of Nazareth, using a text from Isaiah which spoke about the poor, the prisoners, the blind and the oppressed and which mirrored the situation of the people of Galilee at the time of Jesus. 

 

In the name of God, Jesus takes a stand and defines His mission: to proclaim the Good News to the poor, to proclaim release to prisoners, to give back sight to the blind, to restore liberty to the oppressed. After finishing the reading, He updates the text and says, “Today this text is being fulfilled even while you are listening!”. 

 

All those present were astonished. But immediately after there was a reaction to discredit. The people in the synagogue were scandalized and did not want to know anything about Jesus. They said, “Is He not the son of Joseph?”. Why were they scandalized? What is the reason for this reaction?

 

Because Jesus quoted the text from Isaiah only to the part that says, “to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord” and He omits the end of the sentence, which says, “to proclaim a day of vengeance for our God”. The people of Nazareth remained surprised because Jesus omitted the phrase on vengeance. Jesus does not accept this way of thinking. His experience of God the Father helps Him to understand better the significance of the prophecies. He takes away the vengeance.