Lk.4:21-30
“No man is a minister of Jesus without being a prophet.” (Joseph Smith, Jr.) We partake in the priestly, prophetic and kingly ministries of Jesus through our baptism. We are called to live these ministries of Jesus in our day-to-day life. Among these three, I believe the toughest choice is to be a prophet. Why is it so? It is always adventurous and demanding. All the prophets whom we encounter in the scripture had to face the difficulties one after the other like rejection from their own people and finally they had to shed their blood for this cause.
Jesus, who was the fulfillment of all the prophecies, was well aware of this fact. One of his parables namely, the owner of the vineyard and servants symbolically depicts this fact. Where there is injustice, a Prophet is the one who is commissioned to become the voice of God for justice. He/she has the responsibility to become the moral conscience of the people and to awaken people from their meritocratic way of living. In today’s gospel, we see Jesus dares to challenge the mediocrity of the people of Israel. They were not ready to accept the teachings of Jesus because of his social and family background.
At this juncture, Jesus points out their lack of trust in Yahweh by quoting examples from the Old Testament. In the case of Elijah, he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a gentile woman and through her God sustained him in those days of severe famine. Similarly, in the case of Elisha, God healed Naaman, the Syrian. Finally Jesus makes them understand that in these two cases God chose non-Israelites to express his universal plan of salvation and exhorted them to come out of their narrow spiritual horizon of exclusivism. These strong words of Jesus raised the anger of the people and they wanted to eliminate him.
As we contextualize this passage, I am not intending to say that it is very easy to be a prophet in our times. We have witnessed the extinction of certain individuals like Ms. Gauri Lankesh, Jamal Khashoggi whom we could address as modern prophets, who tried to give witness for truth. So are you ready to be a prophet? I am not underestimating our fear for life, but I hope, the first reading of today would guide us in this regard. Yahweh assures Jeremiah that “I am with you.” In our fight for truth and justice, this is our capital, the presence of the Lord. We may have to face difficulties in various capacities but let us give witness for truth by being a prophet…