He came to his own people, and they did not receive him.
When Our Lord was arrested, he protested that he had been with the elders day after day teaching in the temple and they had not arrested him. He had been with them in ways that they were not present to him. He saw their hearts, and as he taught he yearned for their love, he longed for them to open their hearts to him. It was not to be until the coming of the Holy Spirit; then many thousands of God’s Chosen People turned to him in faith.
In Nazareth, too, Our Lord was not received with the enthusiasm with which he was welcomed elsewhere. “Is not this the carpenter….are not his sisters here with us. And they took offence at him.” He had been present to them he had been with them for those thirty years, learning his trade and giving himself generously to silent, loving work, building houses that would not collapse in the storms and rains of winter, making yokes that would enable the oxen and the asses to plough, haul the carts and pull the threshing sledge at harvest. Then he had been an unobtrusive part of the community, then they had been with him, he had been with them. But now, the authoritative teacher, filled with the Holy Spirit of God, acclaimed throughout Galilee, no, that was too much. They were not able to receive him. No longer were they with him, although he never stopped being with them.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. St John speaks of the eternal relationship of perfect love between the Father and the Son using the same simple terms as St Mark does of the relationship of the Incarnate Son of God with the people of his time, the communities among whom he lived and taught, both at Nazareth and in Jerusalem. St John enlightens us concerning divine realities for our contemplation, that we may be secure in God’s love for us and be gracious and true in our relationships with one another. The Word is with God: in Jesus God is with us, may we be with one another.