"And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, 'Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor.'And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. " Matthew 13: 57-58. NIV.
THE NEIGHBOR KID
In this passage, Jesus was in his hometown and the people took offense at him. The people were basically saying, "We know this guy, don't we? He grew up here. It's just Jesus, Mary's kid." They were so familiar with Jesus they thought they knew that they missed out on who he really is.
We do that with all our relationships. We get comfortable and begin to take a friendship, a family member, or even a spouse for granted; we assume we know all there is and nothing more is there.
FAITH IN WHOM
The problem becomes the words, "And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith." They were too familiar with a Jesus they thought they knew and that translated into a lack of faith. It is as if Jesus became common so they failed to see past the usual. The commonness of Jesus became an obstacle that diminished their faith. Because they misunderstood who he was they were not able to have faith in who he was.
Today we might say, "Isn't this just the Baby Jesus we sing about at Christmas? Don't we take about him in Sunday School every week? Isn't he in the songs on my Gospel music collection? Isn't he the topic of the book I bought at the Bible Book Store?" It is just the same as the people in Jesus' hometown.
MIRACLES
If Jesus does not bless us with miraculous it may not be because we lack faith, but that we have a wrong idea about him and who he is. We must pray that he reveals himself to us clearly, and be open to having our ideas corrected by him. We must not neglect our relationship with Jesus; we may need to repent of doing so and seek his forgiveness.
Jesus is knowable. He is revealed in the Holy Scripture. If you want to know how to have Jesus in your life follow this link to my other blog: Click Here.
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