Matthew 13:51-58 (Mark 6:1-6)
Jesus asks the disciples if they understand what he's taught them. They say yes. 👀 Jesus tells them He's entrusting these things to them. Then Jesus went back to His hometown of Nazareth, and taught in their synagogue. (It was approximately 15 miles from the sea of Galilee to Nazareth.) The people were shocked at His wisdom, and asked among themselves, "Isn't this Joseph and Mary's son? Haven't we known His family for years?" They took offense, but Jesus said He expected them to say that, based on the reaction to prophets throughout history.
"With great power comes great responsibility." (Peter Parker, Spiderman. 😁 Also credited to others.) Jesus is instilling the gospel, along with the new covenant mindset of the kingdom of heaven into His disciples. And now that they have heard, and claim to understand, they are responsible for sharing it. Jesus is speaking in His hometown synagogue, very likely the same one He grew up attending. Why had the people never heard Him speak? According to Jewish Law, a man was required to be 30 years old to lead in any of the Jewish holiday ceremonies (One such holiday is Rosh Hashanah, the first of the High Holy Days specified in Leviticus 23:23-32, which starts tonight and goes through Sunday evening.) Age 30 was considered to be an age "worthy of leadership". So when His hometown heard Him speak, they were shocked at His wisdom and maybe a little jealous? Like He was "lording" His wisdom over them. (Pun intended.) Jesus was ready for that reaction. But, although He was expecting their rejection, it still stung. These were the people who'd watched Him grow up, and He probably had several friends among the crowd. He didn't do many mighty works because of their unbelief. (Mark says He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.)
Why IS it so much harder to share our testimony to our unbelieving friends and family than to a stranger? I think we can see the answer from this 2,000 year old story. They know us too well. We share the mighty work God has done in our lives, and they can counteract it with plenty of stories of what we've done wrong. Sometimes we are our own worst critic--"I can't say that, they KNOW me." (🙋) Jesus said in Matthew 7:6 "Don't cast your pearls before swine", meaning "don't waste good things on people who will not appreciate them." I don't think this gives us an automatic pass to walk away before we ever walk towards. But using the discernment God gifts us as we learn, we can know when to walk away from those who won't believe and towards those who will.
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