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. (Lk 24:28-30)
It’s hard to believe that the above gospel passage is referring to our Lord. The crowd had been listening to him teach in the synagogue in Nazareth, and because they knew him as a “local boy” they could not take what he has to say seriously. Even more, it’s so infuriated them that he tried to toss him off the edge of a cliff.
We’ve probably had similar situations, although we may not have found ourselves about to be hurled down a hill. But, I’ll bet we have tried time and again to get certain people in our lives to understand us. I’ll bet we’ve tried multiple times to get them to see something that we saw or to accept a warning that they didn’t want to hear. I’ll even bet that we received some backlash for it. Perhaps we were ridiculed, laughed at, or scorned. At the very least, we probably were ignored.
Jesus experienced all of this and more; he understands what we’ve been through and how much it hurts. He understands the frustration and heartbreak of having a message that simply won’t be listened to. He understands the feeling of standing alone in a hostile crowd. He shares the The yearning of our hearts.
Because he understands us and shares in our sorrow, he can carry the burden for us when we can no longer carry it ourselves. If we allow him to work in and through us, we won’t be facing the opposition alone; even when we’re standing at the edge of the cliff.
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