What I’m Thinking: Confrontation

After Jesus spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth, the initial reaction sounded favorable: they were amazed at the gracious words he spoke. Jesus challenged them, though, that what they said was not what they thought. He would start with truth.

Here’s a transcript:

I’m thinking about the fourth chapter of Luke (Luke 4:21-30), the follow-up to last week’s story about Jesus reading from the Isaiah scroll and announcing that “these words had been fulfilled in their hearing.”

The people’s response was some amazement, amazement at the gracious words that came from his mouth. “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” they asked. That might have been perfectly benign.

Jesus, however, didn’t seem to think so. It sounds for all the world as if Jesus picked a fight, challenging them with the unspoken words, “Physician, heal yourself.” “Do here in Nazareth what you’ve done in Capernaum,” and of course the clincher: that “a prophet is not without honor except in his home town.”

Sometimes the people who know us best, I guess, may not know us at all.

But why did Jesus push it? Why did Jesus speak the things that they would not?

I don’t really know. But it does seem as if truth makes a difference. Honesty makes a difference. And in cases where we really need to come up with some new understanding of a relationship or a reality, a new understanding of a person and her or his or their place in the world, we need to start with honesty, with reality.

And not yet a “kind” silence tell our lies.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below; I’d love to hear from you.