Today’s readings: Ezekiel 2, 2-5; 2 Corinthians 12, 7-10; Mark 6, 1-6.
The setting in today’s gospel seems very normal, with Jesus going to his home region and preaching in a synagogue on a Sabbath. So it is difficult to understand why his own people were suspicious of him, questioning his wisdom and the power of his word. He was one of them, but they could not accept that he was distinguishing himself so much. He was above their expectations.
The point in all this seems to be that for them there was no need to upset the status quo; though uncomfortable they were happy and couldn’t be bothered. Most probably this is the episode in Mark that should serve as the key to understand the entire dynamics of the history of Christianity. Whenever religion, any religion, settles down and is not provoking, it loses its punch.
Religion is meant to upset society. Since the beginning of Christianity, there have been times when conflict between religion and society was the order of the day. We even thought we were better off when religion was our culture and when culture was our religion. But things were never meant to be like that.
The gospel is an ongoing story of rejection. The prophets in the Old Testament went through experiences of rejection, persecution, even to the point of death. This is what today’s scriptures mostly portray to us. Ezekiel was sent as a prophet among rebels who would not listen, and Jesus was disowned in his own hometown. That should tell us something about the nature of religion, particularly of Christianity.
Having no conflict in religion may easily be false perceptions of peace. Not that we take pleasure in being rejected. But the fact remains that we are called to be inserted in the world without becoming the world. The logics of the world and that of belief are different by nature, and religion can never be domesticated.
We live in times that have become allergic to truth claims. Very often, when in the name of religion we push certain arguments too far, it’s tantamount to being fundamentalistic. Not insisting, on the other hand, may be interpreted as weakness and lack of prophecy. Is there a middle way that can safeguard the truths of faith on one hand, and respect for diversity on the other?
Some theologians call it ‘uneasy alliance’. The role of religion in society needs to find common ground with society, and so it is an alliance. Yet the element of conflict is inevitable, and that makes the alliance uneasy. Political correctness in its extremes may not be the remedy. Segregation may be worse.
From today’s reading from Ezekiel and from the episode in Mark where Jesus is rejected as a prophet in his own hometown, it transpires that it is in the nature of faith to provoke and unsettle the peace of society. We need to rethink ourselves, because quite often we may have projected a distorted Christianity.
Jesus was a prophet, more in line with the Old Testament prophets than with the Old Testament priesthood. His strength was in his word and his platform was not cult and worship in the temple but the proclamation of good news mainly to the poor and afflicted. So we need to think twice before claiming that Jesus was the founder of a new religion or of the true religion.
If he was a prophet, his strength was outside the ambit of religion. That explains the rejection we read about in Mark today. If he operated within the boundaries of religion and the parameters of the synagogue, he would have created no problem for his hometown people.
Prophets throw light on hidden things and dig deep in people’s hearts to show how dangerous and deceptive surface religion can be. So the real conflict is not between religion and life, but between surface religion and the demands of an authentic conscience.
It was in this sense that Jesus disturbed the peace of the synagogue and was consequently rejected. His call for authenticity made him an out of place prophet in the temple. That’s what prophets are for, to constantly recall our attention to return to base whenever we wander away. When prophets are silenced, religion becomes suffocating.