A look at the gaps in the lectionary.
This week: the gap between Proper 8B + 9B
The text: none
This week’s story of rejection is contrasted with two chapters of massive support.
Jesus is mobbed wherever he goes. People reaching out to be healed and bringing their sick family members to him.
It comes after he crossed the sea to get away from the crowds only to find a different kind of crowd there.
The sense in all of these stories is that Jesus is extremely popular—particularly for what he can do for people. He can heal them, drive out demons, and even still storms. Jesus really is like a rockstar.
As we go into this week’s gospel, which shows Jesus’s rejection at his homecoming, we might be tempted to contrast this moment purely with Jesus’s divinity or with our own assessments of who he is. I find sufficient contrast here with who everyone else then and there think he is.
“And they took offence at him.”
I sometimes wonder about the clueless way with which we sometimes operate. How easily we can be offended by another through our own ignorance. There is very little to see in Jesus that is offensive. He has only had the audacity to heal the world—and so far, has.