The Rejected Prophet...

For me recently, the place of significant learning has been last few verses of Luke 4. Before I went to Africa, I tended to skip over vv22-28. So impressed was I by Jesus’ declaration in the Synagogue that I hardly noticed the rage invoked by his teaching in the Synagogue or the murderous intent of the crowd trying to throw him off a cliff. What I failed to appreciate was that when Jesus went back to Nazareth and spoke the truth in the Synagogue, he not only impressed but profoundly offended his listeners. In the desert he had encountered holy otherness & become an outsider in the process.

Jesus speaks truly when he says, “…I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown”. Why ? Because a true prophet is always an outsider. A true Kingdom vision expressed and acted upon is one of reversals. It is a vision of the world where the poor are empowered, where the captives are released, where the blind are given vision and the oppressed go free.

I’ve got to tell you, this is a powerful & threatening alternative for many people in the centre whose interests are best served by maintaining the status quo. Indeed whenever Jesus encounters people in the gospels whose interests are best served by domesticating & watering down the Gospel - offence quickly turns to rage, then to hatred & murderous intent that finally ends in a painful death on the Cross.

Walter Bruggemann says, “the task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish and evoke a perception & conscious alternative to the consciousness & perception of the dominant culture around us.”

That is the way of the discipleship & it is certainly the way of mission !

Outwards & downwards...