It’s Super Bowl Sunday, that uniquely American holy day, observed by at least as many as bother to observe Easter. It’s literally a feast day, as most with eat way more this evening than they normally would, and it’s one of the very few days a year I allow myself to dig into the best party food known to man, Lipton Onion Dip.
Like any other sporting event, everyone has a prediction on who will win. Sportsline, one of the premier sports betting sites, has the Rams giving 2.5 points, so the Patriots are the “underdogs” in this one. Every sports commentator has become a prophet this past week, attempting to foretell the future.
“We are rightly suspicious of self-appointed prophets. Biblical warrant for this suspicion lies in the fact that the typical prophet in Scripture is profoundly reluctant to accept the appointment. Whence the sarcastic label “self-anointed prophet” applied to anyone who too readily claims such a role. In most biblical contexts, the term prophet means “forth-teller” rather than “fore-teller.” That is, the designated person is asked to speak to the community in the name of God. Sometimes, indeed, the message does include reference to the future, but mainly it is a message the community needs to hear regarding how it ought to alter its way of proceeding in the present.”[1]
“Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country.”
Last week we heard Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Then He had the audacity to apply these words to Himself.
“He said, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing”! As everyone knew, “this scripture passage” was known to refer to the Messiah. They saw clearly that Jesus was claiming to be the very Messiah!
“Stunned! They were stunned. He had grown up in their midst. He was the carpenter’s son, the one they used to see weekly in this same synagogue. Why in the world would a local man invent such a bizarre story?”[2]
We have the benefit of knowing that this story, while bizarre, has the benefit of being true. Jesus knew that too, as did others. John the Baptist knew; John even got to see the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus at His baptism. Satan knew; he caught up with Jesus when He was out in the desert pray, and he tempted Jesus with earthly power, with self-satisfaction and ego. Jesus won that battle, by the way.
But now Jesus was back in His hometown, where the people didn’t know who He really was. But how were they supposed to understand? He looked like a madman, claiming equality with God! To them he was insulting his home town simultaneously with his people, with Israel, and with God.”[3]
And so they tried to push Him off a cliff, which we can chalk up to a natural reaction, given the circumstances. “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country.”
In today’s gospel and in everything that Jesus said and did, indeed in just who Jesus is, we see the tension between God’s truth and our truth, between what God says is good and what we think is good. We still live in this tension, because when we listen to Jesus, when we listen to Him in Scripture, when we hear Him during worship, or in prayer, we don’t always hear what we want to hear. Jesus, and indeed all the prophets, make us face ourselves and see what we’ve become.
So the choice becomes, do we push Jesus off a cliff? Or do we, with the benefit of knowing who Jesus is, with the benefit of knowing that true life comes from listening to the good news of His salvation and following Him, do we allow His love to change us from within? What kind of crowd do we want to be?
[1] Dennis Hamm, SJ: http://liturgy.slu.edu/4OrdC020319/theword_hamm.html
[2] John Foley, SJ: http://liturgy.slu.edu/4OrdC020319/reflections_foley.html
[3] Ibid.
Domine, non sum dignus 