Pentecost 5

Pentecost V
They took offense at him.

Not every one who met Jesus approved of him. The same miracles that dazzled the crowds bewildered and frightened the religious authorities. Those miracles actually offended many of the people from his home town of Nazareth.

Remember, Jesus had been born in Bethlehem. His family fled to Egypt to escape King Herod’s murderous rage. After about seven years they returned to Nazareth. There they settled into the ordinary routine of village life. Joseph worked as a carpenter. Mary over saw an extended family of Jesus’ brethren, very like step brothers and sisters as well as cousins and other closely related individuals. They all lived together and struggled to make ends meet for the good of the entire group.

People seldom took note of Jesus when he was a child, a teen, and a young man. When they did take note, the notice was tinged with scandal. We miss the scandal ancient readers of the New Testament clearly heard. The villagers refer to Jesus as the carpenter, the Son of Mary. For a first century Jewish context this reference questions Jesus paternity and Mary’s fidelity. In that culture a man was always identified as the son of his father, unless there was some question about who the father was.

In this passage there is no reference to Joseph as one might expect. Even if tradition is right and Joseph had died by this time, the proper reference to Jesus would have been, the carpenter the son of Joseph. Instead, we hear the scandal surrounding Jesus’ conception. We hear thirty year old gossip surrounding Mary’s integrity and Joseph’s wisdom in marrying her.

That was the barrier for the villagers to perceive who Jesus was. He was certainly familiar to them. But he was familiar in a specific context. With no proof, they had guarded and maintained the rumors and gossip surrounding Mary and Jesus. That careful attention to old gossip bore the fruit of spite and unbelief.

That spite had hardened their souls and darkened their minds. It had closed their hearts and set their wills in one single narrow and rigid path. The question they ask when Jesus returns home from his ministry of miracles and divine message of love and compassion is: who is this? Who does he think he is?

The villagers had defined Jesus by a false accusation and no evidence to the contrary would change their minds. In some respect they were no different from the religious authorities who reacted to Jesus with fear, or with so many of Jesus’ disciple who reacted from the place of pride. In another way, the sin of spite is the most deadly when compared to pride or fear.

Spite represents an advanced stage of spiritual decay. The spiteful person feels justified in harming the reputation of another person. Spite has no concern for truth and no desire for compassion. It takes pleasure in bringing harm. It does so because it has become so self absorbed and self obsessed that it can no longer distinguish the chain of cause and effect in its own pain. It feels the pain of separation from God and takes the path of condemnation and blame to divert that pain.

A soul that is consumed by gossip and spite is resistant to the call to conversion. It says: not me. It says: who are you to tell me what to do. It says of Jesus: who does he think he is? It takes offense where no offense is given. It rejects all offers of help when ever and however offered.

When Jesus sent his apostles out on their first mission he let them know there would be some, perhaps many, who would not listen to the message of divine love and compassion. They would even react to the healing miracles with fear, pride and spite. Jesus simply told the apostles: when you encounter such people move on.

The potential for grace is limited in the angry, the prideful and the spiteful. The potential for blessing is restricted in a community that nourishes gossip. The time is short. There are many others who want to hear the good news. At some point, Jesus tells the apostles: move on with the mission.

There is always hope for even the most hardened and resistant soul. We can always pray. We can always ask the Holy Spirit to work in their lives. The great challenge is not in the resistance we encounter in others. The great challenge is the resistance we encounter in our own souls.

Spite feeds on self deceit. Are we seeking truth? Are we reading the Bible regularly with an open heart and a teachable spirit?

Spite nourishes itself through gossip. Are we seeking compassion? Are we willing to acknowledge we can’t possibly know all of the facts with direct certainty? \

Separation from God sustains itself by defending against Jesus Christ. This defense takes many forms. Usually the defense starts when we ignore who Jesus is and why he died on the cross.

Jesus came to unify our humanity with God’s divinity. No prophet, priest or king has ever done that or can ever accomplish that.

Jesus died on the cross to transform death back into life. No religions leader, system or ritual has ever done that or can ever accomplish that.

Jesus came to transform lives. He transforms lives in the love and compassion of the Eternal Trinity. All that we seek to accomplish in our worship and parish programs in grounded in these truths. To the extent we are personally faithful to our living Lord Jesus Christ, all that we do in his name- however halting and imperfect- has eternal consequence.

Jesus came into the world to transform lives through a personal relationship with God. Pride, self will, fear, spite distract us from this purpose. They perpetuate the basic human problem of separation. That separation corrodes the spirit and produces a soul lost in spite. Such a soul rejects what God offers in Jesus Christ. It demands something completely different. It says of Jesus: who does he think he is?

But the Good News is in the divine love and compassion that continues to invite all people every where into a moment of grace. The Good News is the blessing that the Holy Spirit wishes to share with us. The Good News is that Jesus continues to work in our world: patiently, persistently and consistently.

The purpose of this passage is not to encourage us to condemn the spiteful and the resistant. The purpose of the passage is to encourage us to identify in our own souls where we resist the reality of Jesus Christ. Where do we take offense at him?

It is there, at that place where Jesus offends us for what he teaches, how he acts, who he is, that the Holy Spirit will identify the place of separation that still holds our souls apart from the truth of love and compassion. It is there that the grace of God will transform us and allow us to live more fully as vessels of grace and channels of blessing.

The villagers resisted, took offense and did not believe. The apostles trusted and went out to spread the Good News. The villagers saw few miracles. The apostles witnessed many miracles. The choice is always ours. Choose wisely. Choose Jesus.