A rejeição em Nazaré - Texto: Lucas 4:14-30

It is legitimate to ask ourselves: do the people who are by our side stay with us because they love us or because they desire what we can offer? If the day came when you had nothing left to offer, except a lot of work; if you became invalid, dependent, and needed others to meet even your most basic needs, who would remain by your side? Without any fear, who would be able to uphold those classic words that many promise, but few uphold: "in joy and in sorrow, in health and in sickness, in wealth and in poverty"? Well, that person is precious. Value them. In a sense, that is exactly what we find in our text. Jesus' fame was growing throughout Galilee. News of the miracles performed in Capernaum had spread, and the inhabitants of Nazareth knew this very well. Those who saw Jesus grow up, who lived with him during the first years of his life, were they interested in truly knowing who Jesus was or only in receiving what he could offer? Were they interested in the gifts or in the Giver of the gifts? While reading Isaiah in the synagogue, Jesus declares that he was anointed by the Spirit to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to restore sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to announce the acceptable year of the Lord. Indeed, he came to bring all these blessings. But these blessings are inseparable from his own person. Many there were not interested in who Jesus was; that mattered little to them. What they desired was what Jesus could offer. But Jesus shatters their vain expectations by recounting two particularly unpalatable stories from the Old Testament, in which those who benefit from God's grace are not Israelites, but Gentiles who believed in his word. After all, the true gifts of God are not received by those who love the gifts themselves, but by those who first know and trust in the Giver of the gifts. Only those who receive the Giver can receive his eternal gifts. Those who seek the Lord God for the gifts He can offer ultimately receive neither the gifts nor the Giver of the gifts. The truth is that there is no gift without a giver. If you reject the Giver of the gifts, if you do not want communion with Him, you cannot receive His gifts. In the end, the greatest of all gifts is the Giver of the gifts Himself. What Christ offers is not something that proceeds from His hands, but Himself. And that should be enough for us.