GOSPEL REFLECTION, FRIDAY, 17TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, 31 JULY 2026, ST IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

Matthew 13:54-58.  During his ministry in Galilee, Jesus at last visited his hometown of Nazareth.  He visited the synagogue, as usual, and there he taught the people.  Likely he had been invited, as a guest, to comment on the scriptures of the day, or give a sermon.  There was no fixed person in the synagogues of his time who gave the sermon, but any adult male in good standing who had something to say performed the task.  He could offer to preach or be asked by the people to do so.  Jesus was recognised as belonging to Nazareth, so likely that is the reason he gave the sermon.  People were “astonished” at what he had to say but not astonished with delight in this case.  Jesus and his family were known as belonging to Nazareth, his parent Joseph as a labourer, and himself as a ‘carpenter’ (this is the only time in the gospels Jesus was known as such.  His parent Joseph was known as a ‘labourer,’ someone who could do a variety of tasks.  The people were ‘astonished’ that a person with such a background, so familiar to them, could possibly be say the things he things he did.  It did not make sense that he could so confidently speak on such familiar terms with divine realities, so they “took offense” at Jesus – how could he possibly “get such  wisdom and these deeds of power?”(v. 54). 

When people struggled with Jesus on other occasions, questioning and arguing, Jesus spoke of them as people of “little faith” – some faith, but not yet enough to grasp what he was saying or doing.  In the case of the synagogue at Nazareth, the gospels use another expression – they were people of NO faith at all.  The Greek word used here means ‘complete lack of belief, lack of trust,’ a term used by Matthew not for those who struggle with faith, but for those who objected outright and opposed Jesus.  That is the issue here – faith.  We often use this term rather glibly, but always in the gospels and in or spiritual lives, it is a serious matter.  The word for faith in Greek is ‘pistuein,’ meaning ‘to have faith,’ but with an attached meaning of ‘having  trust’ in someone.  It means ‘to be deeply convinced,’ therefore, and to lack faith is to lack belief and trust in someone, a matter of  a very personal quality.

Theologians have referred to Jesus’ background in a small village at the far edges of what was then taken as civilisation , in that particular time and in that particular set of circumstances as a ‘scandal of particularity.’  It raises big questions: why there and not in a prominent and civilised place, at a time with great significance?  Their resolution for us is faith, trust, conviction in what the gospels have to say.  For the people of Nazareth Jesus was simply not believable (the word used for their unbelief is that strong).  They had already formed an image of who Jesus was, the circumstances of his life and family, and what they witnessed in the synagogue was so inconsistent with that that they simply did not believe in him.