At Home

This weekend we enjoyed having my sister Deb at the house. She had a weekend visit to be with her kids. As you might imagine, after four months of being away she was glad to be home for a couple days. She had a great weekend with lots of hugs from new friends, and lots of love from the family.

Jesus made a trip back home to Nazareth after being gone for some time. Jesus had been with his disciples preaching and performing miracles throughout Judea. Word had gotten back to Nazareth about Jesus and many people were amazed by “the hometown boy.” When Jesus stood to preach in the Synagogue at Nazareth people began to say to one another, “Isn’t this Mary and Joseph’s son? Isn’t Jesus the big brother of James, Joseph, Simon and Judas along with his sisters? Who does Jesus think he is preaching? Where did he gain such knowledge, and how can he do all these miracles?”

[57] 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."
[58] And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Matthew 13:57-58 (NIV)

Those who thought they really knew Jesus only knew about him; Jesus was so common to them that they could not see his genuine identity as God’s Son—the promised Messiah. Their familiarity with Jesus robbed them of faith and Jesus did few miracles there.

Sometimes I wonder if we are not guilty of making the same mistake. While we have acknowledged Jesus as our Savior, has Jesus grown so familiar to us that we know all about Him without truly knowing His heart? Has our faith grown cold?

Make it your prayer today that Jesus will be at home with you, that you can enjoy His presence throughout the day. But more than that ask Jesus to make Himself known to you, that you can know the depth of His love and the limitless bounds of His wisdom and power.

Lord Jesus, make yourself know to us as you are—AS GOD! And give us childlike faith to believe you can and will do anything for us!