Jesus driven out of Nazareth

Continuing with Fouard's Life of Christ:

Chapter IV: Jesus driven out of Nazareth

John iv. 43-46; Luke iv. 15-80; John iv. 46-54.

After two days spent in Samaria, Jesus resumed the journey to Nazareth, but He lingered in many places along the road.  Saint Luke shows Him "teaching in the synagogue;" and Saint John says "that the Galileans welcomed Him because they had seen all He had done in Jerusalem during the Feast." "He was extolled by all men, and His fame was spread throughout the whole country."

Jesus knew "that no Prophet is honoured in his native land," and that He had nothing to expect from His own home; but He would wait until such time as His Heavenly Father saw fit to make known His desires, before He would quit it for ever.  He returned therefore to the little town "where He had been bred," and once more appeared before the eyes of the Nazarenes, just as formerly had been His wont, — outwardly, with the same simplicity of demeanour and garb as of old; wearing a long tunic,1 girt about His loins with a leathern belt; sandals upon His feet; a cloak drawn about Him; for head-covering, a loose veil bound about the forehead by a cord.

Nor was there anything in His features which would startle the beholder; it was such a countenance as we may trace out among the paintings of the Catacombs, an oval face; the beard scanty and very fine, ending in a double points; the complexion of austere whiteness; the I'd dark and burning; His long hair parted over the brow and falling upon the shoulders; the expression one of gentleness habitually veiled in sadness.  Although the exterior of Jesus was so familiar to His fellow-citizens, none of them had as yet any knowledge of the power of His Word, for always in His youthful days He had been one who rather sort retirement and silence.  All were then eager to hear Him, and they gave Him a warm welcome, when, on the Sabbath following, He came to the religious services of Nazareth.

We shall so very often find the divine Master in the synagogues of Judaea, that we shall surely be pardoned for delaying the narrative an instant, if by so doing we may give some idea of those edifices, and of the ceremonies which were conducted therein.

Of different degrees of richness and grandeur, that varied according to the importance of their respective towns, the synagogues were, however, built all upon the same plan, a long hall extending between two porticos, and terminating in a Sanctuary.  Here there was neither image nor altar to be seen, but only a casket of wood, covered over with a veil and enclosing the Sacred Books of Israel.4  This part of the structure was held in the highest honour.  It was there were to be found "the first seats," much sought after by Scribes and Pharisees, and the places of distinction, to which were conducted such of the faithful as were renowned for their wealth.  Near the centre there was a raised platform upon which the Reader of the Holy Books would ascend, with the Rabbi who was to exhort the gathering.  As to the faithful, they kept to the nave of the edifice; this was divided by a balustrade into two parts, one of which was reserved for the men, the other for the women.

Every synagogue had at its head a Chief, who was assisted by Elders and Pastors.  This body presided over the religious exercises, pasta judgments, decreed Irishman's, excommunicated guilty parties, was sent them back in chains to the Sanhedrin.  The most active of its members was the Angel or Legate of the Synagogue, who read the prayers and was the representative of the assembly abroad.  Below all the various dignitaries was an inferior minister, the Chazzan,8 who presented the Reader with the Holy Books, guarded the doors and was a general caretaker.

As to the order of the services, it was fixed by the rules must scrupulously observed.  To the chanting of the Psalms succeeded the Prayer, taken from Deuteronomy and called, from its first word, the Schema, Hearken: "Hearken, Israel, the Lord thy God is the One and only God: thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength." Then came the eighteen Benedictions, followed by the Instruction, which held a high place in the religious service of the synagogue.  From the evidence of Saint James we learn that "Moses was read every Sabbath, from the most ancient times;" and as this reading was given in Hebrew, which the people no longer under stood since the Captivity, an interpreter repeated the Sacred Text, phrase after phrase, in the vernacular.9  He did the like for the reading of the Prophets, which succeeded that of the Pentateuch.  Ordinarily it was read by a Rabbi, who made a running commentary upon it, and addressed to his listeners "the Word of Consolation." But when some stranger or some Jew distinguished for his doctrine happened to appear in the assembly, they would press him eagerly to mount the platform, so that they might profit by his instructions.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. J-J Tissot

The renown which had now begun to surround the name of Jesus merited such honours for Him.  The moment of His rising to speak was just as the reading of the Law was concluded.  The caretaker of the synagogue handed Him the Oracles of Isaias.  The Saviour, unwinding the long scroll of papyrus, rolled about a wand of wood or ivory, found the Lesson marked for the day, and read these prophetic words:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; therefore it is He has consecrated Me by Anointment: He hath sent Me to bring good tidings to the poor, to heal the afflicted hearts, to announce to the captives their deliverance and to the blind recovery of their sight, to bring back, as freemen, those who would be broken beneath their fetters, to publish forth the Year of Pardon of the Lord, and the Day of His Justice."

Jesus could not have happened upon a more favourable theme.  His comments were made upon the Hebrew text, whose full force we may well recall here.  "The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me; therefore it is He hath anointed Me, to announce the Good News to the meek; He hath sent Me to heal the broken hearts, to announce freedom to the captives, to give unto the prisoners once more to see the light, and to proclaim the Year of Pardon of the Lord." The Vulgate adds the words of the Prophet, which are not given in the Greek text of the Gospel: "And to announce the Day of His Justice." The Saviour could not, indeed, deliver the lonely and the desolate, save by humbling those who oppress them.

The reading finished, Jesus rolled up the manuscript, handed it back to the servant, and according to the custom of the Rabbis, seated Himself and began to exhort the faithful.  "The eyes of all were fixed upon Him," and we may easily fancy what emotion thrilled to the audience on hearing Him declare "that on this day this same Scripture is found to be fulfilled." They were the poor, the captives, the blind, the sorrowful hearts, to whom He was bringing salvation; and in their own times they had seen a "The Year of Pardon," the Jubilee of the Lord, above all others.  His language, so full of grace, amazed them at first; it sounded in their ears with all the weight of one having authority in the synagogue.  "All were delighted with the words which fell from His mouth, and they said: Is not this the son of Joseph?"

But this wonderment soon turned to suspicion.  "The son of a mechanic, a carpenter himself, whom they had seen so many a day working with his hands in their midst, could he be a Prophet, unless indeed he could prove his mission by some prodigy, at least?  Certainly he had spoken "of healing souls," and there were gossips who said that elsewhere he had done such miracles; then why doesn't he begin now and here among is fellow-citizens?"

"Physician, heal thyself!" a mocking voice cried out at Him, as though it would say: "Do for yourself and your own that which you had procured for others!"

With perfect sweetness Jesus put aside this attack.  "Of a certainty," He said, "you may apply to Me the proverb: ‘Physician, heal Thyself.  The great things done at Capharnaum which we have had spoken of, do the same in Died native land.’ But in truth, I say to you, A Prophet is not received in his own country.  There were many widows in Israel in the time of Elias, when the heavens were closed during three years and six months, and there was a great famine over all the earth, and Elias was not sent to any one among them, no, not to any, but only to a widow woman of Sarepta, a city of the Sidonians.  So also there were many lepers in Israel, under the Prophet Eliseus, and not one among them was purified save only the Syrian Naaman."

After these words a sudden access of fury brought the assembly to its feet: "Dares he compare them, the sons of Abraham, with Pagan women and lepers!"

Thinking to cast Him headlong down. J-J Tissot.

There were now no longer the mutterings of a few dissatisfied here is, but cries of rage against Him.  All surging forward together, they seized Jesus, and swept Him along up to the summit of the mountain on which their town was built, thinking to cast Him a headlong over the Heights into the rocky hollows below.

But His hour was not come; although it was permitted to the Nazarenes to push and thrust Him before them, to heap blows and abuse upon Him, yet, when they had reached the edge of the precipice, some superhuman Power held their arms fast.  Helpless, speechless, transfixed, they saw Jesus pass through their midst and go upon His way, leaving them spellbound with a sudden stupor.

He withdrew from Nazareth as He had done from Jerusalem.  In great sadness and weariness He climbed the hill which separates it from Cana, and from the wooded ridge cast one last look upon the peaceful valley where His youthful days had been passed, on the house which had sheltered Him during those thirty years, and where as a poor Labourer He had toiled and suffered, and lived out this every-day existence of ours.  It had mattered nothing, after all, that this village and this people were indeed His own, by so many ties of kinship and acquaintance, "His own received Him not;" He must depart to bear unto strangers the Salvation which these Nazarenes disdained; now, at last, He must go forth, not having where to lay His head.

Jesus, driven out of Nazareth, dwelt for a certain length of time at Cana, long enough for the news to be spread through all the cities around the lake.  We do not know His reasons for remaining in this village, but we still find Him there when one of the king's officers hastened to Him from Capharnaum, beseeching Him to cure his son who was dying.

Although little was known of Jesus among Herod’s courtiers, His Name was always regarded with something of respect and all among them, and cherished with longing hopes as well, by such as admired Him in secret.  The Saviour greeted the Jewish nobleman, not without pity; and yet, comparing His self-seeking supplications with the generous forgetfulness of self shown by the Samaritans, it made Him grieve the more over the incredulity of Israel.  "If you do not see signs and prodigies," He said, "you do not believe." In uttering this reproach, it was not His intent to repulse the supplicant, nor to extinguish the glimmering spark of faith which He saw in his heart.  This the officer must have gathered from the compassionate glance of the Master and from the tones of His voice, for he redoubled his urgent suit:

"Lord, come down before my poor little one dies."

What a note of terror is sounded in this prayer! — in the touching terms in which he mentions the son whom he fears he may never see again; but, too, how great was his mistake when in his anxiety and alarm he dreaded lest Jesus Himself would be rendered powerless if death were to anticipate and prevent Him!  This man did not know that it is no more difficult for God to resuscitate the body than to cure it, and that neither time nor space can impose limits upon His power.  The Divine Master took compassion upon this father's blindness, distraught with grief as he was.

"Go," he said; "your son lives."

And at the same moment wherein He healed the body of the child He worked so powerfully upon the heart of the father that the latter rose up to return home, filled at once with glad hope and confidence.

It was one o’clock in the afternoon when the officer parted from Jesus. Even in the shortest days of winter he could have reached Capharnaum by nightfall, since Cana is not more than a six hour journey; but some obstacle delayed him upon the road; he slept at some posting-place on the way, and did not arrive until the morrow.

As he neared his mansion the servants hurried out to greet him with the announcement that his son was living.

Immediately he asked them at what hour the child had begun to revive.

"Yesterday," they replied, "at the seventh hour, the fever left him."

He knew then that it was the very moment in which Jesus had said to him "Your son lives." And he believed, he and all his household.

"This was the second miracle which Jesus had performed thus far upon His return from Judaea into Galilee." By adding these words the Evangelist does not mean to ignore the wondrous deeds done at Capharnaum, but he is thinking only of the miracles done by Jesus at Cana, and his intention is simply to connect two facts that took place in the same locality.  The changing of the water into wine was the first manifestation of the Saviour made by Him on His return from the banks of the Jordan into Galilee.  The healing of the official’s son was the second sign, not less striking than the other, and destined indeed, as well as its predecessor, to mark the beginning of a new period in the Ministry of Jesus.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam