From Astonishment to Offense

“And when He was come into His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, whence hath this Man this wisdom, and these mighty works?  Is not this the carpenter’s Son?  is not His mother Mary? and His brethren James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?  And His sisters, are they not all with us?  Whence then hath this Man all these things?”  Matthew 13:53-56

Jesus had been extremely busy on this particular day going about His Father’s business of teaching, healing, and enduring criticism from the religious leaders.  Now it was time to go home and continue His ministry.  Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but grew up in Nazareth (Luke 2:39-40), thus Nazareth was His hometown.  In Luke’s account of Jesus’ visit to Nazareth (4:16-30), Jesus went into the synagogue and stood up to read from the book of the prophet Isaiah.  In the portion of scripture that He read, He identified Himself as the One whom Isaiah had foretold would come to preach the gospel and heal those who were broken hearted, captive, blind, and free those who were bruised (by sin), “to preach the acceptable year of the LORD”.  Everyone in the synagogue was spellbound.  He then told them that “this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”  It was when Jesus finished His teaching that the people asked astonishingly, “Is this the carpenter’s Son?”  They could not believe that this Man had this depth of understanding of scripture.  Some of them had likely seen Him do miracles or at least heard about it.

They couldn’t believe that One from a family of a father who was a “blue collar” worker, a mother who was a housewife, and who had several brothers and sisters, could speak so eloquently and intelligently, more so than their most educated religious leaders.  After all, they were just commoners with little education, working with their hands to earn a living, and Nazareth wasn’t known for its affluence and ivory tower residents.  We know that from John 1:46 when Jesus’ disciple Philip told Nathaniel that he had found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.  Nathaniel asked, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?”  Thus Jesus’ hometown was what some might say on the “other side of the tracks”.  We have probably all known someone who came from a very humble background or perhaps from an extremely dysfunctional family but managed to become someone of stature, wealth, or fame and surprised us all.  This is how the townspeople of Nazareth felt, at first.

However, after the initial astonishing response of the people, all of a sudden they became offended.  Why?  What could they possibly find wrong with deep teaching and doing miracles?  For the answer, we must look again to Luke 4:23-32.  Because Jesus could read their hearts, He knew what they were really thinking.  They would not accept Him as God’s Son.  They saw him as an ordinary Man from an ordinary family, and they likely thought that “He’s no better than us” and “how dare He assert His authority over us”.  As the saying goes, “familiarity breeds contempt”.  It wasn’t just that the towns people did not recognize the exceptional in Jesus, they were actually outraged and insulted by His actions and words.  Jesus had already warned His disciples that there would be those who were offended by His word.  We have all met folks who, at first, seem very likeable, but then, after we become more familiar with them, our opinion of them changes.  However, these people weren’t really familiar with Jesus.  They knew that He was from Nazareth, and they knew about His family, but they really didn’t know Him.  They just knew about Him.

Jesus never let a good teaching moment escape.  He began to chastise them for their unbelief.  He told them that, “A prophet is not without honor, save (except) in His own country, and in His own house.”  In other words, the people were so prejudiced against Him that He refrained from doing miracles in Nazareth.  They wanted Him to do miracles in Nazareth, but their unbelief caused Jesus to withhold His healing touch.  He gave them examples from the Old Testament to show that two of God’s prophets chose, by God’s direction, to only heal foreigners rather than those of Israel because of their lack of faith.

Unbelief on the part of a person is like a self-imposed wall which does not allow God’s love to penetrate.  God loves the individual, but he or she cannot feel that love because of his or her unbelief.  The Lord never forces Himself upon anyone.  James 1:6 tells us that we must ask God for our desires in faith, nothing “wavering”.  Jesus said in Mark 11:23 to not doubt, but believe.  In Hebrews 11:6 we find that “without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”  Therefore we can see the relevance in faith in God and receiving answers to prayer.  A man’s refusal to believe or have faith in the power of Jesus Christ does not diminish that power.  The people of Nazareth certainly missed out on a great opportunity to be spiritually and physically blessed, and they had no one to blame but themselves.