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17 -- FALSE RELIGION AND TRUE

Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."

So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. 30Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

Jesus never did miracles to impress people or to support his claim to be the Messiah -- and generally only performed healings in response to the faith of those who came, or were brought, to him with a sincere desire for help. This is why, although he did many miracles in towns such as Caperaum, we read in a parallel account to this one that in his home town of Nazareth: "He could do no miracle there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith" (Mark 6:5-6).

The reason for that lack of faith, as Luke explains, was the familiarity that breeds contempt, and the fact that he was the son of Joseph, a well-known local man. As a result, although his listeners in the synagogue had been impressed by the way he spoke and perhaps by his unrecorded comments, they very soon took offence at his claim of Messiahship, and certainly had no faith in his ability to perform the kind of healings described in the passage he had just been reading about in the prophecies of Isaiah.

It was, apparently, accepted practice for a congregation to pass audible comment on what they heard, and it seems in this particular case that a strong groundswell of disbelief and anger spread through the synagogue -- which would explain is why Jesus then says: "You will surely say this proverb to Me, "Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country."

An important lesson here seems to be that even devoutly "religious" people may well be completely close-minded, un-enlightened and quite unable or even afraid to think for themselves. They simply cling to a set of beliefs. As a result, they act and react as cultural zombies, either accepting or immediately rejecting any "new" ideas and information on the basis of whether or not it accords with the knowledge they have already accepted into their minds as being "Truth" -- most of which they were probably taught and uncritically accepted as children.

In attacking "religion" of all sorts, atheistic intellectuals such as the evolutionist Richard Dawkins are able to exploit this situation -- because it is a fact of life, as Solomon explains in the "Song of Songs", that false assumptions we have uncritically accepted earlier do then patrol our minds, like the watchmen on the walls of an ancient city, poised to forcefully intervene and prevent any conflicting and so potential troublesome new ideas entering afterwards, and disturb the sleepy peace of blissful prejudice.

The situations in that metaphorical mental city can, however, slowly change over time and even reverse with the watchmen being given new and possibly totally reverse orders. This is why, for example, even though evolution was originally roundly condemned in Darwin's day, it is now assumed true by most people in the western world, with the result that those who oppose it are now regarded as uneducated and naive. We have to learn to ask questions and think for ourselves.

Religious belief, then, may simply be a cultural veneer that covers up and conceals a quite unpleasant dose of human nature and an intolerance that easily erupts into blind hatred and violence -- as illustrated by the fact that the supposedly devout "believers" in the Bethlehem synagogue, enraged by Jesus' words, immediately set about trying to kill him by tossing him over a cliff.

However, pure or true "religion", as James explains (James 1:27), is not about rituals and ceremonies or beliefs and creeds that people can argue about -- but changed hearts and minds and a sincere love for other people that manifests itself as good works, as practical help, as care and kindness, gentleness, mercy and friendliness as Paul also stresses (1 Corinthians 13).

Another key lesson of this section seems to be that although the good news of the Kingdom is being proclaimed to the world as a witness (Matthew 24:14), God has not actually been trying to convert and save the world throughout the ages -- but rather has let people, like Adam and Eve before them, choose their own way, do theri own thing, and hopefully learn from the natural consequences.

Jesus illustrates this point with examples from the Hebrew scriptures to two quite different individuals with whom God did work -- both of which were gentiles, a fact that also seems to have angered the Jewish worshippers who were, apparently, more interested in finding a powerful military leader to set their nation free from Roman rule rather than in personal repentance and learning a Godly way of living.

The first individual was a kind but poor widow from the village of Zarephat in Sidon (1 Kings 17:7), and, as we have already seen, it generally those humbled by poverty that are most ready to listen and respond to the gospel of the Kingdom of God.

The second individual, on the other hand, was the epitome of success, a rich and powerful Syrian soldier called Naaman (2 Kings 5:1), who was, however, humbled and brought in contact with a servant of God as a result of contracting leprosy.

As already noted, the gospel of the Kingdom is presently being preached merely as a witness, but when God does set about converting the world, the proud will be humbled and attitudes will be changed (Isaiah 2:11, 13:11). For many, who would appear to have been "lost" in this life, that change may well come after a resurrection from the grave (Ezekiel 37:11-14).

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