Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth:
“Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built,
to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away – Luke 4:24-30

Today is a very interesting reading. Imagine everyone sitting inside Church, someone goes up and to read at the lectern, and then all of a sudden, everyone is upset, and ready to throw the man who was reading off a cliff. Well, that is exactly what was happening today. Jesus was in his native land, and after speaking in the synagogue, he upset the entire congregation, to the point where they were going to throw him off the side of the hill. What could he have been talking about that made everyone so upset?

People always want a sign of proof that something happened. A signature, video, word of mouth, an email, whatever, they always are looking for some kind of sign that something occurred, didn’t occur, whatever. The same as the Israelites at this moment in time. They had been waiting for the next prophet, the messiah. Since this story in Luke was at the beginning of Jesus’ Ministry, word was starting to spread of His teachings. So, one would think they would have rolled out the red carpet for him. On the contrary, they knew his backstory, and did not seem to think that Jesus could have been any different from any of them at all. Who was he to come and minister to them in such a way? And to point out that people of foreign nations were the only ones that God actually healed back in the days of Elijah and Elisha, that made their minds go crazy. Who is this guy? Son of Joseph, the carpenter. They had the Son of God right in front of them, yet they were so closed to the idea that maybe Jesus was speaking the truth. If they only could have been just a little more open to the words and teachings he was trying to preach to them. Instead, with closed spirits, they became enraged.

How often in our own lives do we do this? We have all the wonders of the world given to us, roofs over out heads, food on our tables, and there are people out there that would give their right hands for these things. We do not always see things as blessings in the moment, and we have to search for them in hindsight.  I am just as guilty of this as the next person. If only we could be open to the ideas of the blessings that happen to us everyday, every moment, and just be thankful that Jesus is acting in our lives right now. I pray that I can get to a point in my life where every step that I take can be one that is thankful for everything that has been given to me.