i tell you the truth. . . no prophet is accepted in his hometown.
– luke 4:24
in the “wilderness” or transition period between ignition and launch, our squad has been reading and studying luke 4-11. i’ve read through these chapters already, but am reading them more closely. there is just so much to each chapter, especially chapter 4, but i wanted to reflect on this one verse because i believe i now identify more closely with Jesus in the time i’m back home in new york.
in luke 4:14-30, we see that the people in his hometown, nazareth, got quite irate with him. they didn’t react this way immediately though: in the synagogue He has the privilege of reading God’s word and the opportunity to teach. they’d seen Jesus grow up – “isn’t this joseph’s son?” – and are open to what He has to share, initially impressed with how articulate He was.
they never expected Him to call them out though:
He answered, “i suppose you’re going to quote the proverb, ‘doctor, go heal yourself. do here in your hometown what we heard you did in capernaum.’ well, let me tell you something: no prophet is ever welcomed in his hometown. isn’t it a fact that there were many widows in israel at the time of elijah during that three and a half years of drought when famine devastated the land, but the only widow to whom elijah was sent was in sarepta in sidon? and there were many lepers in israel at the time of the prophet elisha but the only one cleansed was naaman the syrian.” (luke 4:23-27, the message)
according to the notes in my zondervan niv study bible, Jesus is refering to instances when God helped non-israelites. i didn’t understand why this all this made his hometown so irate, but it seems that “Jesus’s inclusion of gentiles as recipients of God’s blessings” was the last straw. it’s bad enough that the son of a carpenter assumes that He is the one being spoken of in isaiah 61:1-2; and now He adds insult to injury by exposing his hometown’s close-mindedness.
by no means have i faced that kind of hostility here at home. there’s been more openness amongst my extended family to my going on the world race, and my parents have come a long way since i last wrote about their initial reaction in november – the last time i was home (the weekend at the end of may) mom and dad graciously offered to assume the payments of my student and car loans! and i’m so thankful that i’ve a cadre of cousins who will be backing me with their prayers.
but there’s still a bit of a gap of understanding. while i’ve the moral support of a handful of friends from my church here, my connection to the body at large is mostly strained and frankly, i’m not holding my breath for its support. this isn’t meant to be a criticism or a passive-agressive release of bitterness; i’m just coming to terms with – and perhaps i need to grieve through this – that my home church isn’t my home anymore and hasn’t been for awhile. the church i now consider home is in herndon, va; and it has been home for the past seven years. i still love my cmc brothers and sisters (and if these words have hurt you, i’m sorry), but slowly, i am releasing any expectation and entitlement for support from this body and asking that God would break, rebuild and bless them.
as for most my family, while they more than tolerate my going, some of their off-hand comments that would’ve hurt quite a bit months ago are things i just have to brush off, the way Jesus walked away from the maddening crowd. comments like, “do you have to go for a whole year?” (and this coming from one of my Christian relatives, too!) or “you better come back right after, or your mom might change the locks and kick you out.” or, regarding fasting, “so, how long are you starving for?”
our enemy’s quite clever and cunning, he’s trying to explode the adage that “familiarity breeds contempt” in my face to discourage me from going. he’s trying to convince me that i haven’t changed, that i’m a different person at home in new york than i am in dc/va, that i can’t face my past. he’s trying to exploit my weakness as a people-pleaser, my fears of being an outcast. he wants me to appease my relatives and comfort my parents.
and a couple times in the past two weeks, images of my parents reacting very adversely to attempts to have some hard conversations nearly scared me. but if Jesus said that anyone who hears God’s word are His mother and brother (luke 8:21) and that no one who left homes and family for the sake of the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in the present age in addition to eternal life (mark 10:29-30), i will keep stepping out – even if that means i step further away from the familiar and comfortable.
these less-than-two weeks are gonna be about clearing out the skeletons in my closet. if going on this world race makes me the black sheep of my family, never to be fully accepted or understood by the skeptics and unbelievers of my family, so be it. the phrase “it’s the end of my life as i know it” has been echoing in my heart but i’m not afraid of hearing it, not anymore.
