The last paragraph

The last paragraph in Matthew 13 is about Jesus being rejected in his hometown. Rejected by the people he grew up with, and who knew Him the best.

This is one of the ways Jesus suffered. Friends can bring about the deepest and harshest wounds.

The knew Jesus as a boy and as an adolescent. They watched him grow up. And now this familiar face claims to be the long-awaited Messiah. This is too much for them to accept.

There is a corollary truth in all this. Sometimes the church, we, the very family of God, don’t take Jesus as seriously as we should. He can become too common, too ordinary, and too sentimentalized. We must be careful.

Below is a long quote from one of the best commentaries on Matthew.

The story teaches us to weigh realities. It teaches that Jesus is not less messianic for being human nor is he less divine for coming from ordinary stock. It is the glory of God to stoop. (Notice God’s ancient choice of a very human Israel and his later choice of a very human church.) “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10), spoken by Paul of himself, is also true of God, as the cross shows. Therefore, when we encounter difficulties with Scripture, hypocrisies in the church, or “humanities” in Jesus, let us not be discouraged like the Nazarenes and lose faith, for the divine treasure – the treasure of the gospel itself – is always contained in earthen vessels (2 Cor 4:7). -Dale Frederick Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary: The Churchbook, Matthew 13-28

 

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