In 2004, Katie and I left our hometown so that I could continue my education at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. I had never lived outside of my hometown, and now we were 6 hours from home. For 11 years, we lived outside our home community. In 2014, we moved back to our home community, and what I have realized is that it is both a blessing and difficult to minister in your hometown. In our passage today, Jesus returns to Nazareth and experiences a difficult situation. As we walk through this devotion, I want to focus on two primary truths from Scripture. So, let’s dive in and look at the text through our devotional.
Focus on the Message
When Jesus returns to Nazareth, he does what he always does: on the Sabbath, he goes to the synagogue and begins to teach. As he is teaching, the people are absolutely astonished at his teaching. He is teaching with authority and power, and they are wondering where he got that from. He is the son of a carpenter, who trained in building things, not trained in the law. Even though he had been gone from Nazareth for a while, they knew he wasn’t traveling with one of the rabbis learning the depth of the law. I am sure they knew of the miracle work that he was doing, but this teaching authority astonished them. It completely caught them off guard, because all they remembered and focused on was his family heritage. He was the son of a carpenter, and his mother, brothers, and sisters were still living in town. They were not leaders in the religious community but were simple lay people who were just living life.
What amazes me about this story is that I am sure they have had conversations with Mary about his birth and maybe even heard the stories of when he was 12 in the temple speaking to the council. They had to know that there was something different about him, but they either ignored it or never realized the impact of those things. In their eyes, he was still the son of a carpenter and a carpenter himself. He was not a teacher of the law, and because of that, this teaching with power and authority caught them off guard and astonished them.
One of the things that I take away from this part of the text is that Jesus was focused on teaching the Word and not the response of the crowd. As a pastor and teacher of the Word, it is so easy to get caught up in the reaction of the crowd or audience that we forget that our task is simply to teach the Word with Authority and Power. As I read this text, I constantly remind myself to just teach the Word and allow the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts and minds of the audience.
The Rejection
They took offense at Jesus’ teaching because he was proclaiming the gospel, and that was not what they desired to hear. Jesus then makes a profound and stirring comment to the crowd. “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” Jesus is comparing himself to the prophets of old, which would have set them off in a deeper hatred than already existed. In their eyes, Jesus was in no way a prophet, and how dare he connect himself to the prophets of old. And because of his teaching and this statement, he couldn’t do the miraculous things he had been doing in other places.
The unbelief marveled at Jesus, and with that he left and went to other places to teach. Unbelief blinds us to the truth of what is right before us, and we have unbelief because we are blinded by our sin. The rejection of Jesus was not just rejection of a hometown boy but was a rejection of the prophecy of the Old Testament of the Messiah who was standing before them. They rejected the Word that was standing before them because of their blindness and unbelief.
As followers of Christ, we should not be surprised that people are still rejecting the truth that is right before them. The Apostle Paul says it this way in Romans 1:20-23: “ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” Those who have unbelief have no excuse because the truth is right before them and they openly reject it. They reject salvation because of the deep unbelief that blinds them.
Conclusion:
As Christians, our focus is on the message as we look to reach people for the gospel of Christ. So often we think people are rejecting us, but they are rejecting the gospel that is right in front of them. Not only did the people of Nazareth reject the hometown boy, but they rejected the prophets who spoke of the one to come (the Messiah), who was standing right in front of them. Today, people are still rejecting the prophets and the proclamation of the gospel which is standing right in front of them. We are to pray that the Holy Spirit removes the blindness and unbelief, so they can see Jesus.
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