Who he's always been

Luke 4:14-29 NASB

And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.  And He  began  teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.
 
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.  And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,  "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,  To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."
 
And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.  And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."  And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, "Is this not Joseph’s son?" 

And He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’"  And He said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.  "But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land;  and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." 

And all  the people  in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things;  and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.

My thoughts -

In his home town Jesus had always been Joseph's son. He was the son of a carpenter. That was an easy way to categorize him. It didn't require any work. There was no reason to confuse it with new information. Jesus, Joseph's son, to the people of Nazareth was just that. That is all he was. It was who he had always been.

We shouldn't look down on the people of Nazareth too much for this. We seldom allow for people in our own lives to grow, to mature, and to change. This is not to say that Jesus as the only Son of God, changed to become the Messiah. But clearly he was different after he began his public ministry. The Spirit was with him and he was ready to reveal who he really was. Who he was didn't necessarily change but how he would be received by others certainly did.

I know that I don't often allow for growth and change in those I have known for a long time. More than once lately I have said things like "I can't believe he's getting married" or "I can't believe he's going to be a father" or most especially with some of my friends "I can't believe he's going to seminary, he'd make a terrible pastor".

Of course when I think and say these things I'm not thinking about who these people are now, I'm thinking of who they've always been to me. I'm thinking of the person I knew back in high school. I haven't allowed for growth. I haven't allowed for maturity. I have taken my friends and frozen them in time, preserving them in a way that is comfortable to me. They become easy to categorize. They are who they've always been, even if I've known them since childhood. It's just easier for me that way.

Jesus revealed himself publicly to the people he had known longest on this planet. But to them Jesus was who he had always been. He was Joseph's son. Nothing more. In their minds he was the son of a carpenter. He was the kid they watched grow up. He was the guy who was going to settle into the same life he had grown up in. He was one of them. They knew him. He was not the Messiah. That was just crazy talk.

I mean, this is Jesus. We know him. We know his parents. Just who the heck does he think he is?

They have placed this person, Jesus, in a box. They have frozen him in a time and place that is comfortable for them. It doesn't require any effort. It doesn't allow for new information or for change. And Jesus has shattered their comfortable image of him. He has given them new information to deal with. And they can't handle it. So they try to kill him.

I can't imagine the pain this brought him and his family. But then again, this reject thing is something he had to deal with. His public ministry begins with rejection and attempted murder. It also ends with rejection and crucifixtion. Jesus was God's only Son sent to reconcile a people who had rejected God to God. Rejection was always part of the mission. We still reject Jesus.

Does our rejection hurt any less?