"Is not this Joseph's son?" the Nazareth Crab Bucket

Luke 4:21-30

In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, and began to say, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?"
He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."
When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.


"Is not this Joseph's son?"

Wisdom from Boggy Creek:

If you put one crab in a bucket alone, it will surely escape unless you put a lid on the bucket. But two or more crabs can be kept in a lidless bucket. Why?

Because any crab that rises above its fellows will be pulled back down long before it can make good an escape.

When applied to a community of humans, especially an oppressed minority, this is termed The Crab Bucket Syndrome. (“CBS”)

When seen in action an observer may be heard to spit “Crab Bucket!” which is no complement.

The Jews of Roman occupied Palestine are just such an oppressed minority community and the CBS is clearly in evidence on several occasions in the Gospels, not the least of which is the Passion of Our Lord.

Today we see the Nazareth Crab Bucket operating in a single sentence.

"Is not this Joseph's son?"

The question could be genuine, or even awed and admiring, but it isn’t.

How do we know? Look at the emotional flow of the story.

Jesus reads and preaches. – Every one speaks well of him.

Then

"Is not this Joseph's son?"  

Immediately, Jesus starts to articulate the unspoken, snarky thoughts of some of them. Drawing out the baiting, jeering questions that he knows they are thinking.

Then having dragged their venomous reptile thoughts into the light, he stamps down on them with two very big boots:

Elijah -- 1 Kings 17:1

& Elisha -- 2 Kings 5.1

"Is not this Joseph's son?"  

Is clearly spoken by someone who is used to looking down the social ladder on Joseph and his class.

Someone who is accustomed to speaking in the synagogue and being thought well of themselves.

Someone for whom the rank and position of the speaker is more important than the words spoken. Akin to the man who stays in the burning restaurant because the waiter told him to get out, and he “doesn’t take orders from servants!”

But the speaker is not alone.

Class is a groupthink operation. The lower classes in a class society are every bit as invested in the Class structure as the upper class. Often more-so as their hold on their position in the structure may be more tenuous.

"Is not this Joseph's son?"  

Is the seed crystal that causes the entire crowd to self-consciously remember their own haughtiness. In a flash their hearts go from being open to the Word of God to being hardened against this uppity young whippersnapper.

And snap the whip is exactly what Jesus does.

    

Both the Elijah & Elisha stories are examples of God’s love – but as Jesus points out, God was loving people who were not Jews, who had no claim on the Covenant with Father Abraham, who were not part of the Chosen People.

Jesus is saying, and they hear him clearly, “You think you are privileged, but you are wrong. You think you know what your place in the creation is, and that it is secure but you are wrong.”

This is worse than a death threat.

Think about it. Men and women willingly give their lives for a cause greater than them selves. But undermine the cause, or their belief in the cause, and you do not threaten them with mere death. You threaten them with a wasted or meaningless life.

No wonder they wanted to kill him.

But you can’t get rid of the truth by throwing it off a cliff.

Jesus is The Truth.

And if you have to choose between following Him, and anything else, everything else, that which defines you and which you hold most dear…

choose Him.

Choose to find the place you have been called to in the structure of the world as revealed by its author.

Choose to measure all things against God’s Loving Word.

Choose to be open to the Truth no matter how unexpectedly it comes.

Choose Jesus, and make all your other choices in submission to Him.

And the next time you see someone unexpectedly rising up above their station, overcome the Crab Bucket Syndrome, give’em a push!