[Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the Sabbath day. And he stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written: "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." And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
- St. Luke 4:16-21
It’s been said that you can’t really go home again. We can understand that somewhat as we read in St. Luke’s Gospel about Jesus being in the synagogue in Nazareth where He had grown up. The sage elders, the worn and treasured scrolls, the atmosphere of agelessness and familiarity combined, and into it all comes a young man remembered by most but understood by none.
He comes making claims. The words of the great prophet Isaiah have been heard, and then Jesus says, “This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And they almost believe it at first. There’s an authority in His voice, they’re riveted by the very thought that the long-awaited Kingdom had arrived.
But then they come to their senses. This is the carpenter’s son, after all. Surely the words of the prophets wouldn’t be fulfilled by a boy who had played with their children and had visited their homes and had helped in the local woodworking shop.
Those who were in the synagogue that day were very human in their thinking. They couldn’t imagine that God would work through what appeared to be common and ordinary circumstances. Surely the Kingdom would come with legions of angels processing down from the sky. There would be a routing of the Romans. Israel would be first among the nations. There would be some show of power. Certainly it wouldn’t come with this young rabbi standing in the middle of their small-town synagogue.
But God does work through common and ordinary circumstances. He uses common things like water and oil and bread and wine to bring His grace to us. He calls common and ordinary people to be popes and priests and parents. We need to be careful that we don't spend so much time looking upwards for something spectacular that we miss the work of God being done in our own common and ordinary lives.
We each have a calling from God, issued at our baptism, to be His ordinary instruments in the world, to be tools to work His purposes. We may not be anyone special - but then, Jesus appeared to be only the carpenter’s son.