A social or diplomatic blunder, a noticeable mistake, a familiarity, faux pas, impropriety, a clumsy social error; a blatant mistake or misjudgment…is called a “gaffe.”
“Gaffes” happen. They do!!!
I am sure you have probably made a gaffe or two in your lifetime – I know that I have made tons of gaffes in my life. Gaffes seemingly just happen.
An example of a gaffe might be something like when Christina Aguilera asked the question: “So where’s the Cannes Film festival being held this year?”
That’s kind of like asking the embarrassing question with an outside voice, BTW – who IS buried in Grant’s Tomb?
A BBC Radio Correspondent was asked “How long did the 6 day war between Egypt and Israel last?” To which he responded, he was pretty sure it was 14 days.
Dwight David Eisenhower (AKA Ike) once told the troops, “Do not needlessly endanger your lives, until I give you the signal.”
Sounds like something that Yogi Berra might have said… “You know you can observe a lot by watching!”
Well today is Gaffe Sunday. Great, just what we need for the Super Bowl Weekend…a lot of gaffes or mistakes!!!”
Yikes!
Get scared!
We know that Jesus made a few dreadful public relations and marketing gaffes in his day.
Sometimes, we might pause and scratch our heads and ask what in the heck just happened!
For example: how did Jesus go from – having everyone speak well of him and being like totally amazed by his gracious words—to—all in the synagogue were filled with rage…so they got up and drove him out of the town…
What did he say in between?
Just what did he do?
How do we go from being praised to having the people want to throw you off a cliff?
It almost sounds like a premonition of things to come…like during Holy Week for example…
How did the crowds go from saying, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna! To crucify him, crucify him?
This unfortunately is a similar incident.
In our gospel text for today, Jesus does this to himself. He doesn’t need any help. The gaffes belong to him and to him alone!
I hope you caught it. They are a little bit subtle!
First, Jesus puts words into the people’s mouths, by assuming that they are going to quote a proverb to him.
Why would he do that?
Did everyone know the proverb? Is he sure? Why the assumptions…
And then, he assumes that they will demand miracles from him…
The people said neither thing. This was assumption based. And you know what they say when you ASSUME things…
Then, Jesus responds to them again based upon what he assumes that they were going to say next…
Calm down, Jesus. Breathe deep!
We realize you are home, but come on…
So what does he do? He tells them the story about Elijah that ends up condemning THEM for their exclusivity.
The people said nothing. The people did nothing!
Jesus is assuming. Yikes!!!!
He is assuming they are ALL EXCLUSIVE. That’s just not fair! Actually, it is a little judgmental, Jesus. Why are you judging your old townspeople? Come on, give them a break! Then Jesus suggests that like Naaman, “OTHERS” will be healed and NOT THEM!
No wonder they were furious with him. He was putting words into their mouths. He was assuming things. He was comparing them to others. He was judging them and condemning them.
Maybe Nazareth was narrow in its thinking and doing, but certainly not all of its people.
Maybe some of them have changed.
Going home was a nightmare. It was not the wisest of all choices. And Jesus made a gaffe or two or three…and as a result, his townspeople were filled with rage.
Beware the gaffes…they happen! Even to the best of us!!! Amen.