Jesus, The Hometown Boy?

Last night at our District Pastors meeting, we looked a Luke 4-- the story of Jesus being poorly received in his Hometown. On of the parallel accounts of this same story is in Mark 6. Here in the beginning of Mark 6, we see Jesus being treated very differently in his hood than he had in other towns. We see comments made such as:

• Where did this man get these things?
• Where did his wisdom come from?
• Isn't this the carpenter?
• Isn't this Mary's son?
• Isn't this the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?
• Aren't his sisters here with us?

They were basically saying, who does this guy think he is? He is just one of us. Surely, he can't do these things.

Jesus quickly identified the problem by saying "only in his hometown is a Prophet without honor." Then, there is this stunning phrase where Jesus is "amazed at their lack of faith." It takes a lot to amaze Jesus. And I'm guessing this was not a "good-amazed"!

While sharing about this story last night, Richard Showalter (EMM President) shared a profound insight with me:

Have we made Jesus a "hometown boy"? Have Christians in America so familiarized him that we have lame duck'd Jesus and doubted his power among us? We've made "Jesus is my homeboy" t-shirts and made him so "relevant" that it seems to flirt with familiarization. We need to watch this.

He is not just Jesus! He is JESUS, the king of kings, the lord of lords, the savior of our souls and the author and finisher of our faith.

Lord, help us protect against making Jesus a Hometown boy and doubting his power among us!