There were many, but. . . The phrase is plucked from Jesus’ comments after receiving the compliments of the people of the town of Nazareth in response to his brief homily on a passage from Isaiah 61. The crowd spoke “well of him” and were “amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.”

Why is it that Jesus seemed to turn on them and proceed to comment about prophets being without honor in their own home town, about how the children of Israel had been overlooked in the time of Elijah and Elisha and these prophets poured out more of a blessing on the gentiles than their own people.

It is perplexing. Isn’t it? It seems that Jesus could have used his celebrity status in Nazareth to pull people to the Kingdom of God as he preached it to them. However, Jesus constantly rejects the spotlight in favor of something less glamorous. He tells people attending a feast to sit in the back row, in the most inconspicuous place they can find, so that the host of the feast, if he so desires, can come get them and escort them to the front in front of all the other guests.

In the end, it’s not about getting to sit at the front or having to sit in the back. It IS about pride. These people wanted to feel good about themselves. We are important because we are the home town of Jesus of Nazareth. They got so caught up about being close to Jesus that few of them ever bothered to really get to know Jesus.

Jesus didn’t come to make celebrities, not even of himself; he came to call servants. Those who make the transition easiest are those who are out of the spotlight – the poor, the blind, the lame, the sick, the gentiles.

Jesus commented on how impossible it was for a rich man to get into heaven. “Easier to push a camel through the eye of a needle,” he commented. It is indeed difficult to get those who have so much to think about doing without. Many of them have spent their entire life working so they WOULDN’T HAVE TO DO WITHOUT! Now, they are being told that they mustn’t hold onto the very things they have worked so hard to obtain, but, instead, it might even be better if they were to sell all that they had and spread the money among the poor, becoming one of them themselves. How ironic! How difficult!

The people in Nazareth wanted to destroy Jesus. What is your answer when He comes to you and rejects all that you have worked to grasp and asks you to become an outcast with him? Are we able to rethink our worth, our self, our very existence?

Pastor Craig