HOMETOWN BLUES
Opening Prayer
Try and be still as you come before the One who is Lord of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Read Matthew 13:53–58
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
53 When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. 54 Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. 55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.”
58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Our relationship with the past isn’t always a source of comfort. How is God redeeming your future?Published on the eve of war in 1939, Coming Up for Air is a novel about homecoming. Written by George Orwell, it’s the story of a 40-year-old man who decides to go back to his hometown after many years away. His journey is full of anticipation and excitement, yet on his arrival he is met by sad disappointment: everything has changed. New developments have scarred the face of the place he loved and he barely recognizes it.
Jesus’ experience is different, but the disappointment is just as real. On his return to the synagogue where he grew up, his powerful teaching and miracles are suffocated by controlling attitudes. The ordinary details of his background are used against him and he can do nothing there. Far from finding a place of faith where the secrets of the kingdom of heaven are welcomed, he is locked down by their skepticism. To use a metaphor borrowed from the parable of the sower, the seed is snatched away before any growth takes place. This is the worst kind of soil. Placed at the end of a sequence of parables, Matthew is showing us that familiarity does indeed breed contempt and is the enemy of faith.
Apply
Have you become so “familiar” with the things of God that they no longer challenge or thrill you? Read this passage again as if it were for the first time.
Closing prayer
Lord, give me a soft and tender heart towards You that prizes Your presence above all other loves.
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