Luke 4:24-30

2 Kings 5:1-15ab

Psalm 42:2, 3; 43:3, 4

Luke 4:24-30

Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth:

“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.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, you are able to cleanse me and wash me clean. You are all-powerful and offer me the wondrous gift of forgiveness. Bestow your merciful love upon me and teach me to be merciful towards my brothers and sisters.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Proclamation of the End-Times Jubilee: When Jesus went to his hometown of Nazareth and taught on the Sabbath, he inaugurated the end-times Jubilee. During a normal jubilee year, all debts were forgiven, all ancestral land that was sold to pay debt was returned, and anyone sold into slavery was set free. The end times jubilee was foretold by the prophet Daniel, who learned from the angel Gabriel that the time of Judah’s tribulation would be prolonged and last 490 years. Since the jubilee was to be celebrated every 49 years, the 10^th jubilee held special significance. In Nazareth, when Jesus proclaimed “a year acceptable to the Lord” (Luke 4:19), he was proclaiming the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy and Daniel’s prophecy about the end times jubilee. The people of Nazareth were pleased at the proclamation of the jubilee year but reacted negatively when Jesus announced that jubilee mercy would be given to the Gentiles. The people of Nazareth wanted freedom from the Gentiles, not for the Gentiles themselves to receive divine mercy. 

2. Jubilee Blessings for the Gentiles: In today’s Gospel, Jesus does not say that the blessings of the jubilee year would be bestowed exclusively on the people of Israel and Judah. In his preaching, Jesus spoke about two Gentiles who received mercy in Northern Israel during the time of Elijah and Elisha: the widow of Sidon was miraculously provided for during the famine and Naaman the Syrian was cured of leprosy by washing in the Jordan River. The reason why the people of Nazareth tried to throw Jesus off the hill, was that Jesus “had just implied that they – the good Israelites of Nazareth – were less worthy of a miracle than an old widow from the accursed Sidonians, and a leprous general (Naaman) from one of Israel’s most ancient enemies, Syria” (Bergsma, Jesus and the Jubilee, 75). Both Old Testament miracles mentioned by Jesus have New Testament sacramental implications: the flour that never failed for the widow looks forward to the Eucharist and the washing in the waters of the Jordan looks forward to Baptism. The Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist are the principal ways the Gentiles will receive divine mercy: they will be washed of their sins in Baptism and given the Bread of Life in the Eucharist.

3. Perpetual Jubilee in the Church: The end-times or final Jubilee was not expected to come to an end. “It was supposed to be the beginning of a new era of God’s peace and justice. So how would Jesus perpetuate – make permanent – the jubilee that he proclaimed?” (Bergsma, Jesus and the Jubilee, 77). Moses perpetuated the jubilee through laws that commanded it be celebrated every 49 years. Jesus perpetuates the jubilee through the Church by granting the authority to forgive sins to his apostles (see Matthew 18:18; John 20:21-23). “Christ created the mystical body of his Church and appointed ministers with the power of the Holy Spirit to be prophets and priests of the order of Melchizedek: to proclaim liberty and free people from slavery to Satan and debt to sin” (Bergsma, Jesus and the Jubilee, 78). When Peter asked Jesus how often he should forgive, Jesus alluded to the number of the end-times Jubilee: “70 times 7 times,” 490 times! “In one sense, Jesus was referencing the era of punishment the angel Gabriel described to Daniel for Israel’s offenses against the Lord (seventy weeks of years). In a way, he was saying, ‘As many times as God has forgiven Israel, so you should forgive others.’ … Thus, when Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive, Jesus’s ‘seventy times seven’ response meant: be generous as your Father in heaven was generous. Jesus commissioned Peter and his successors to be the living embodiment of jubilee, to perpetuate the age of the Messiah” (Bergsma, Jesus and the Jubilee, 79).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you have washed me in the waters of Baptism and cleansed my soul from sin. At Nazareth, you inaugurated the end-time jubilee of mercy. Be merciful to me, release me from the bondage of sin, and guide me as I live the freedom of the children of God.

Living the Word of God: The communion antiphon today invites all nations to praise God for his mercy and love: “O praise the Lord, all you nations, for his merciful love towards us is great.” Contemplate today how God has been merciful to you. Ask yourself in prayer: How can I rejoice in God’s mercy today? How can I thank and praise God for his mercy?