Links for today’s readings:
Apr 9 Read: Hosea 10 Listen: (2:47) Read: Matthew 13 Listen: (7:23)
Scripture Focus: Matthew 13.53-58
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.
Reflection: Cheering Jesus’ Parade
By John Tillman
We expect hometown heroes to get warm receptions.
Wally Funk, of Grapevine, Texas, was one of the Mercury 13 women who took the same training as the Mercury 7 astronauts. In 2021, 60 years after her Mercury training, at the age of 82, she made it to the edge of space on a Blue Origin flight. After riding the rocket, the hometown hero rode in a parade right down Main Street. Many, like me, came from around the DFW metroplex to celebrate “our” hometown astronaut.
After leaving Nazareth, Jesus rocketed to fame. Crowds followed him, hanging on his every word. He left Nazareth a nobody and came home famous. Nazareth was impressed with his words, miracles, and fame but they didn’t exactly cheer.
On one visit, instead of a parade down Nazareth’s main street, they tried to throw Jesus off a cliff to kill him. (Luke 4.22-30) Matthew records a different visit where, instead of facing open aggression and violence, Jesus faced the contempt of familiarity. They responded with dismissive comments like “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?”
Nazareth’s familiarity with Jesus ended in soft contempt and faithlessness. They saw part of Jesus’ life and thought they knew the whole. We face this danger too when we are so overwhelmed with cultural depictions of Jesus that we fail to see him fully and truly. We forget who he really is.
We can also fail to see fellow humans fully and truly. Contempt often begins with assumption. We see part of someone and think we know the whole. This contempt is a faithless denial of the work Jesus wants to do in every person. In The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis reminded us that Jesus desires to make every human glorious. He said, “The dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.”
What assumptions are you prone to? Who are you tempted to dismiss or reject? Is it the addict? The CEO? The immigrant? The jobless? The protestor? The struggling mother? The political operative?
Every person you see is someone Jesus desires to welcome home in a procession of glorious, freed captives. (Eph 4.7-10; 2 Cor 2.14) They may reject Jesus, but we are not free to reject them. Let compassion, not contempt, make us ready to cheer Jesus’ parade, not boo it.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Truly his salvation is very near to those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. — Psalm 85.9
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: Confessing Idolatry—Guided Prayer 2
Israel sought success and security by any means necessary while giving lip service to you, Lord. Help us see and confess our sins, so similar.
Read more: Tares Will Burn
There have always been tares among the wheat, false gospels among the true, and false Christs posing as “saviors” of the church or Christianity.