Monday of the Third Week of Lent

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031212.cfm

Spring is bursting out
all over. 

Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.


Some scholars suggest this story is a telescoped narrative of what happened in Nazareth. In other words, a series of events that might have stretched over several days or weeks is foreshortened as if they happened in a few minutes one Sabbath afternoon. The author uses this telescoping device to accentuate the disturbance Jesus caused and the rejection he finally met. 
But it's still not clear what they were so upset about. The modern reader might ask, "What went on in the minds of this congregation that they were transformed from an astonished audience into a lynch mob?" 

It's a good question but the Evangelist does not choose to answer it. Perhaps it misses the point. 

The fact is their reaction was not one of belief. Whatever they expected of Jesus, they were clearly disappointed. Their expectations may have  been as varied as the number of people in the crowd but their reaction was the same. They were "filled with fury." 

Were I a Greek-reading scholar of the New Testament, I might be able to tell you more about fury. But I can safely declare, "It ain't the Holy Spirit!" 

And if the Holy Spirit doesn't teach us how to respond to Jesus, we will get furiously angry with him. 

Elisha was filled with the Holy Spirit when he told Naaman to go wash in the river. Naaman's servants must have been touched by the Spirit when they made their reasonable suggestion that he try the Prophet's advice anyway, despite his disappointment. And Naaman was filled with something like the Spirit of Baptism when he emerged from the Jordan River. 

Jesus was also guided by the Spirit when he walked through the crowd and went on his way. Apparently the Holy Spirit also paralyzed the crowd as they let him pass. As Saint John would say, his hour had not yet come. 

Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?

The Nazarenes were not thirsting for the living God. They wanted something else. Perhaps they saw in Jesus a healer who would ease their innumerable aches and pains. Perhaps they saw Jesus as a favorite son who could bring some class to their rusticity. Perhaps they saw a tourist attraction and an opportunity to bring pilgrims from all over the world. Even in those days the wealthy indulged their fancies with travel to far off, exotic places.  
God had other plans. Jesus had aroused the thirst of the Nazarenes but they could not know him until they had learned to live with that divine discontent. 


Lent is a season of discontent for us. We are not happy with our sins; we are not satisfied with our predicament. We must wait and watch with him for that hour when our deliverance appears.