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Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Matthew 13:53-56
When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his home town, 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. 'Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?' (NIVUK)

In Nazareth, they knew Jesus.  He had grown up in the village, running the carpentry business with Joseph and taking over when he died, we presume (Mark 6:3). They had traded with Him.  He had made their doors, and ploughs, and coffins, and mended their broken furniture.  Everybody knew Mary and her family.  Jesus had half-brothers and half-sisters; everybody knew their names.  He was a real-life man who worked hard to support the family.
 
The problem, for people around Him, was that His words were extraordinarily wise.  Even at age twelve He astounded the religious experts in the temple (Luke 2:46-47).  As a man, He always seemed to have the right word at the right time and spoke as though He saw things from God's point of view (Matthew 7:28) … and He actually did, because He was God in a human body (John 1:14)!  Also, His miracles amazed everybody (Luke 5:24-26).  Nobody could explain them: how did He do them, who taught Him, where did He get such power from?
   
Although they thought they knew Jesus, they did not know who He was.  They only saw Him through the lens of their experience: Jesus was a nice local boy who became a skilful carpenter.  If they had seen Him in the light of the Scriptures, which they professed to love, they would have realised that He is the Messiah (Christ) of God (John 5:39-40).  They had wrong ideas about what the Messiah would be like too.  They could not fit Jesus into their picture because they were not looking at Him from God's point of view.
 
The same is true today.  People say Jesus is a good teacher: but He must be more than that because He used the ancient Name of God (I AM) as His own.  The miracles all pointed to Him having the power of God, far exceeding anything that anyone has ever seen.  If only people would look at Jesus in the light of Scripture they would see He is the Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God and Prince of Peace described in Isaiah 9:6.  Familiarity breeds contempt (an old English proverb) but it is very dangerous to dishonour Jesus.  He said, "Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven." (Matthew 10:32-33).

Prayer 
Father God. Thank You for having opened my eyes to see who Jesus is; and for giving me the faith to trust myself to Him. Forgive me for the times when I have been so familiar with Him that I have failed to recognise Him, and to speak well of His deity and salvation to others. Please help me to honour Him as He deserves, and to tell others about Him so that they too might see Him as the Saviour and put their trust in Him. In His Name. Amen.
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