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Recently I finished Ann
Rice’s new book, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. She became famous for
her vampire novels, so I didn’t know what to expect from this book about
Christ. My first thought was that it would be a rehash of the wacky
stories about the hidden life of Jesus from the Gnostic gospels.
And there is some of that, but not much. The book attempts to describe
the life of Jesus as it might have been experienced from the perspective
of a seven or eight year old child Jesus. She describes what might
have been the process by which the very human boy Jesus came to
understand himself as the Son of God and Savior of Israel.
The book ends with the still very young Jesus just coming to terms with
his own identity. I’m sure there will be a few more books in the Christ
the Lord series.
It looks like Ann Rice did her homework and then a lot of prayer. Her
work gave me a greater appreciation for the human side of the Savior.
In the book, Jesus clearly loved people, especially his family and the
people with whom he grew up. He possessed a great sensitivity to their
joys and sufferings.
That is why today’s gospel
passage is so poignant. In many towns Jesus preached the good news of
the Kingdom of God. He helped people to see God and themselves in a new
way. He gave them hope by casting out demons and healing the sick.
Imagine how he must have wanted to do the same for his own people at
Nazareth.
But for them Jesus would always be the carpenter, son of Mary, kin of
James and Joses, Judas and Simon. They knew Jesus so well that their
minds were closed to any possibility other than what they had already
experienced. Jesus was just another carpenter for them. Jesus could do
little in Nazareth, because the friends and neighbors of his youth would
put no faith in him.
Today Jesus preaches and teaches through the Church. It is his body in
the world today. Does history repeat itself among us? Have we,
like the friends and neighbors of Jesus, become so familiar with his
message that we no longer hear it? If we do not find our identity and
hope in Jesus, where will we find it? Will science teach us who we are?
Will the government give meaning and purpose to our lives? Will our
children learn to live fast, last as long as you can, and then go
quietly into oblivion?
True followers of Christ are becoming more and more counter cultural.
Christian values challenge the way society deals with the unborn, the
handicapped, the old,
the undocumented, the poor, the weak and the oppressed. If we
accept only what we want of Jesus’ teaching, are we any different from
his old
friends in Nazareth? How much can we expect him to do in our lives?
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