Chapter 13

“We’ve known him since he was a kid. He’s the carpenter’s son. We know his mother, Mary. We know his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas.”

Jesus was teaching in His hometown in Nazareth when the people who were there became shocked at His wisdom and works. They began talking about how they knew Him, His brothers and sisters, and His parents. They then took offense at Jesus because of this. Many of us get lost in our pride, envy, and selfishness. You can probably tell from the nuance of verse 55 that these people were Jealous, envious, and were not happy that this "person" they've seen growing is talking to them in so much wisdom.

In doing so, they allowed the enemy to close their hearts and close their eyes as well. They could not recognize the Truth, Savior, Redeemer who was standing right in front of their very own eyes. Let us not allow ourselves to be filled with jealousy, envy, and selfishness. We have to keep our minds and hearts pure so that, unlike those who took offense, we are able to see Jesus and the works of God in our lives.

It goes on to say in Matthew 13:58, "that Jesus did not do many works there because of their unbelief". Our own emotions can be a hindrance to the works of God in our lives. We might be the very same people sending the people God has sent to us away, just because we feel they are not qualified to be in that position or to talk to us with "wisdom".

Another thing that occurred here is that those who took offense had become too familiar with Jesus that they subconsciously/consciously put Him in a mental box framework. When Jesus spoke and taught with great wisdom, this mental box might have just imploded, causing cognitive dissonance. The most common way people deal with cognitive dissonance is to make the other person or thing seem less desirable. We can see this in the people referring to Jesus as the son of a carpenter. This ultimately caused them to have unbelief that affected their blessings

Our prayer today is that God you may help us not to be Familiar with you, help us to have pure emotions and desires. Teach us how to think and reason that we may not be victims of our own hands, costing us blessings you had prepared for us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

"Jesus, help us not to have impure emotions and not to be too familiar with you"