“And Jesus said to them ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his own country…’ and he marveled because of their unbelief.”
Our Lord returns home… not quite to the welcome any of us, even He might anticipate! File this one under “familiarity breeds contempt. It’s human nature, I suppose. It’s like the maxim in our culture (not even excluding the Church, I might add) that an “expert” is someone with a briefcase who lives more than 100 miles away. Or it’s like the old saying that “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” People are all-too-seldom able to perceive the value in the familiar. He could do no mighty work, or deed of power there because of their unbelief. Strange how “mighty work” and “belief” are so solidly linked. Strange how hardened hearts can cut even God off at the pass. “Where did this hometown boy get all this? Isn’t He the carpenter, just the son of Mary & Joseph?” So it went and they took offense at Him.
It is important to remember what a prophet really is. Not a future teller, but a speaker of the truth and one who calls the people into judgment. Prophets are really often without honor even in places outside their homelands. The truth of God is frequently uncomfortable, troubling, confrontational, and conscience-prodding. But the fact is that God will provide the life-giving and life-saving values that lead to meaning, joy, and fulfillment. God can connect us with love, grace, and forgiveness. However, God’s power goes unused if we are not faithful enough to accept what He has to offer… Jesus could do no mighty work in Nazareth because of the people’s unbelief.
The issue which runs deeper than “familiarity breeds contempt” with even greater devastating consequences is the scandal of the Incarnation. It hounded Galilean hearts and minds then, as it hounds us now. “The Word made flesh” is both our only salvation and the greatest bugaboo of modern culture and piety. Yes, by God! He was the carpenter, the son of Mary and Joseph. The mystery of the Incarnation holds our greatest solace and comfort; namely that wherever we go in suffering, in hurt and sorrow and despair, God has gone there first, goes with us, and shows us the way… if we are but people of faith and love as shown us in His son.
Would you be surprised to know that the first greatest heresy in the Church was not the denial of Christ’s divinity, but the denial of His full humanity?! The Nicene Creed we recite every Sunday was the Church’s response to these errors. Yet, we still struggle with it because we really want a two-fisted super-hero God who kicks tail and mounts the winds with thunder and lightning. Instead we get a bumpkin blue collar carpenter who puts himself at our mercy and who now and then resembles our good ol’ boy neighbor Fred. Yep, His mama was Mary and He was a precocious little boy and as a young man He sawed wood and got splinters in His fingers and scraped His knees and got sore muscles. And he considered God His father, whom He called “Dad” (Abba)– our parent too, He tells us. When we begin to seek God in the ordinary, daily things and find that God is really there, then “mighty works” begin to happen: Works of mercy and compassion. Works of healing and empathy. Works of forgiveness and understanding and of great joy. I agree with the theologian who maintained that miracles do not evoke faith as much as faith evokes miracles.
This past week Americans celebrated the 236th birthday of the nation. As time inexorably distances us from the founding fathers, I wonder if the country we know is what they envisioned in the Declaration of Independence. It seems like the pure altruism of liberty they projected for humanity has led us from self-freedom to self-centeredness, loneliness, superficiality, and harried consumerism. Dare I observe how “free” many of our citizens feel with overstocked medicine cabinets, security systems, growing ghettos, gang violence, and a pervasive drug culture? To me the freedom we celebrated on the 4th of July should be a freedom and independence from poverty, fear, and injustice; not a freedom to exploit others for personal gain and decide who is worthy by our standards to have equal rights under the law, and from whom we will withhold civil liberties. Can we honestly say that in this “one nation under God” there truly is “liberty and justice for all”?!
Sadly, the human condition displays many symptoms of our fallen nature, in Jesus’ day and in ours. That is why God came among us to show us another way. This truth is found in the simplicity of outpouring compassionate love. A truth so simple and yet profound that the Nazarenes among us “take offense” at it. But for the shining examples of the holy ones throughout the ages, we might join our Lord and marvel at the unbelief of humanity. For those of us who choose to follow the gentle carpenter from Nazareth we can indeed be instruments of compassion and hope, liberty and justice; allowing him to perform his mighty work and deeds of power in our community and world, which he could not in his own hometown.
Amen.
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