Lent Wk 3rd: Monday 13th March, 2023 March 13, 2023
Reflection on the WORD
Truth – Hurts: In today’s Gospel, Jesus revealed the painful truth to His townsfolks in Nazara, that God could not work for Israel who continues to reject Him. They were furious and even wanted to kill Him. Ponder on: When our pride is too deep, it can destroy our precious relationships and even our faith in God.
Luke 4:24-30
Jesus came to Nazara and spoke to the people in the synagogue: ‘In truth I tell you, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.
‘There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah's day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a town in Sidonia. And in the prophet Elisha's time there were many suffering from virulent skin-diseases in Israel, but none of these was cured - only Naaman the Syrian.’
When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him off the cliff, but he passed straight through the crowd and walked away.
Today's Pointers on God's Word
As you read the passage what words, phases or meanings caught your attention?
- The Jews, being the “Chosen race” were prejudiced against the Gentiles, whereas Jesus treated both the Jews and Gentiles with equal dignity.
- Hatred and anger in racism blinds us to the truth that our dignity comes from God who created all peoples to be His precious creatures. No race is superior to another.
- Pray for more racial harmony and peace in the world especially for countries that are suffering from injustice of racism and unjust religious and other human rights.