Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, came to Nazareth,
where he had been brought up.... Truly, I tell you, no Prophet
is accepted in his hometown. (Luke 4:14ff)
How often we miss the prophets that are right in our midst – they are so obvious and so common that we take them for granted. The little piece of Scripture above is drawn from the Gospel of Luke. Following Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan by John, Jesus went into the desert. After a time of being of being tempted there, he began his mission.
The mission of Jesus was to bring the hopes of God’s People to fulfillment – to proclaim the coming of God’s Reign. This is what we call the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Luke describes how as he began to proclaim this Good News, Jesus immediately faced challenges. Not the least of these challenges was that he was too common. People knew him, they knew his family. Beginning in Nazareth, he was in the midst of his hometown people. Luke notes: No prophet is accepted in his hometown.
The role of a prophet, contrary to what many hold is not to predict the future. Rather, it is to announce to our world word and action how God is present among us. The prophet reveals the presence of God to a particular time and place. This prophetic role for Jesus begins at the time of his baptism in the Jordan by John. But in Luke’s Gospel, there is an earlier reference to it as Luke relates the story of Mary and Joseph presenting the infant child in the Temple (Luke 2:22-40). This tradition was common among Jews of the time.
As the Jesus is presented in the Temple, there is an encounter with two persons. First there is Simeon, a man of strong faith who came into the Temple and saw Jesus’s presentation and announced the significance of the child. Then there was a female prophet, Anna. She saw and recognized in him the fulfillment of the promises made to Israel through the prophets of Israel’s past.
The difficulty of recognizing the prophets that surround us in life, is that often they are too much like us, or too commonly available. Jesus faced this challenge and so do we. It is hard to see the ordinary as exercising a prophetic role for us.
There is an old saying: “An expert is someone from away.” How often we fall into this way of seeing those around us, those who share our life and our community. The prophetic people who walk with us to not stand out. Nor do we. In fact, we share in the prophetic role of Jesus the Christ.
There is an acknowledgement of this prophetic role at our baptism. Following the immersion or the pouring of water on the person being baptized, there is an anointing with the oil of chrism. This is the same oil used at the coronation of monarchs and for the ordination of priests. The words that are spoken with this anointing express the meaning and significance of the anointing in the context of a baptism. As Christ was anointed priest, prophet and king, so may you live always as a member of his body….
Are we ever aware that we are a priestly people of God? Do we acknowledge that we are called to be individually and communally a prophetic people? As prophets, can we accept that in word and action each and all of us are prophets to our world? As such prophets we are called to make a difference in our world, building God’s Kingdom of justice and peace, compassion and love for all humanity.
Comments