You see it over and over when you drive through a new area on one of the “blue highway” roads.  As you come to the next town, you recognize the sign of welcome and its promotion of local pride.  One of these signs might read like this:

Welcome to Robbinsville, home of the 2011 All-State girl’s AA softball team!  The victorious Lady Jackets welcome you!

These signs are familiar markers of local support and identity.  Some hometown heroes cement community solidarity and shape local tradition.  “This is who we are and this is why we are special!”  Interesting, though, how Nazareth—certainly a small town—did not end up erecting one of these enthusiastic signs about Jesus  Still, at first it looked like the sign makers might have some business.

With this visit back home, Jesus had obviously decided to shift the location for his ministry.  Previously, he had traveled throughout Galilee, teaching in synagogues, speaking the parables of God’s reign, and healing the sick.  But now, he determines that it is time to return home.  And there in Nazareth, as he began to teach in the synagogue, the people at first were quite positive.  They were “astonished” at his teachings.  Their reaction was similar to what we expect when someone says “my mind was blown!”   (Really boggled!)  And what astonished them was his wisdom.  “Where did this man get all this?” they ask.  It sounds as if the good folks in Nazareth were almost as devoted to some kind of wisdom as we are.  Of course, for us, the purveyors of wisdom are everywhere and all the time.  

Check out something on the internet and a pop-up ad is showing some “doctor” from a Beverly Hills clinic warning, “Eat blueberries and you will kill your liver!”  You can check out his new diet in a book you can order today!

Open one of the unsolicited pieces of mail that just came.  It offers a “secret” system for making stock market choices that will only increase your dollars.  

Watch a tv news program and you are amazed by the hardened political positions that lurk in both left and right wing movements.  In both cases, no deviation is tolerated.  To not be 100% “in,” you will be thrown out, canceled, utterly rejected.  Such wisdoms offer a world of radical either-or polarities.  And no deviation is tolerated!

We are indeed awash in the competing “wisdoms” of our world.   We can become so entrapped in this wisdom game that we look eagerly to the cultural horizon to spot the next wisdom that will call for our allegiance.  

In Nazareth, there must have been something like this afoot among the folks of this small town.  They are tolerant to their home town boy and are astounded at his teachings.  Maybe this homecoming will turn out well.  At least it seems to have started off on a positive note, astonished as the townsfolk were.  But quite rapidly, the situation goes sideways.  Something seems to have shifted the crowd away from that astonishment they had at first.  Suddenly they were complaining about Jesus, carping about whom he used to be and now what he had become.  Some asked with prosecutorial intensity, “Is not he the carpenter?”  The term they use does not, in itself, demean anyone who is a carpenter.  In fact, both Jesus and Joseph before him managed to provide nicely for the family.  This vocation was respected and needed in a Jewish community.   The complaint here, perhaps, was that Jesus should be here at home, continuing to provide for his family and upholding his community instead of wandering all over and calling attention to himself.  We heard this complaint again and again during the Civil Rights era.  The leadership, including Martin Luther King, was screamed at with the shout, “Get a job!”  

Back in Nazareth, another complaint is heard from the crowd:  “Is this not the son of Mary?”  But notice the odd wording here.  In such patriarchal cultures, the obvious way to speak of Jesus would be as “Joseph’s son.”  But could it be that  the words “son of Mary” are meant to question the legitimacy of his birth?  Finally, the crowd points to Jesus’ brothers and sisters who have chosen to remain in their little village.  They become “Exhibit C” of Jesus’ shortcomings.  So the townspeople try to cut him down to size.  Their logic is that Jesus is just one of us, and that he should bring his actions into accord with our status.  The outcome of all these slurs by the hometown folks was, as Mark says, “They took offense at him.”  More closely to the Greek term, they were scandalized at him.  So, a Markan commentator adds, “The mystery of Jesus includes his surprising offense, and specifically to those closest to him…”  So at first it seemed that the Nazoreans would commend Jesus and welcome him home.  But that positive note faded away in an instant.  They attack him with slurs and are scandalized by him.  “Get yourself back home where you belong,” they insist!  “Who do you think you are?”

At this point, the story of Jesus’ visit to his hometown and his family turns to his own self-designation as a prophet.  The old aphorism is heard again:  

A prophet is not without honor, except in his native place, and among his own kin and to his own house.

Also, Mark shares with us that Jesus “was not able to perform any mighty deed there,” apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.”  Being a dishonored prophet there in Nazareth had real consequences for Jesus’ prophetic ministry of healing and demonic exorcism.  These mighty deeds did not happen there.  But we need to recall that in his wider ministry, our Lord cured some who were ill and praised them for their faith.  In other cases, the faith of the person who had been healed was evidently not a part of the mystery of Christ’s healing them.  Was it that Jesus so resented the attitude of his townspeople and is family that he withheld deeds of power from them?  Not at all!  We know the loving character of our Lord, know it in our own lives and in our life together.  On the other hand, it cannot not be that Jesus’ prophetic powers are somehow weakened by such negativity that he is rendered incapable of exercising his ministry of healing.  Again, some of his most powerful acts of healing occurred in synagogues where the leaders were in outright opposition to him and wanted him dead!  The burden of the matter falls back upon the people of Nazareth and their hardened attitude towards Jesus.  One commentator sums it up:  The community’s “lack of faith limits the reception of help readily available from Jesus.”  

This insight translates directly to our sacramental life.  It is not in anyone’s power to negate the power and presence of Christ at the Holy Eucharist.  And it is not the case that the Lord makes himself available only to a select subset of those who receive Holy Communion.  (A weird kind of sacramental predestination!)  But it is certainly the case, as with the townspeople in Nazareth, that our own lack of faith may limit our own reception of the fullness of Christ’s Gift of Himself.  Still, there were only a few in Nazareth who received the blessings of being healed by Jesus on that visit back home.  We had expected that those close to Jesus, those from his own native place, would be first to understand and welcome him home.  Instead, they ironically become outsiders to the gospel.  And Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith.

As Christ’s own, his baptized, we are by grace and the work of the Spirit made into one body with him.  We are God’s “new-born children through water and the Holy Spirit.”  By grace, we have been brought into a community with Mary and all the saints, forgiven and reborn in Christ to eternal life.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we will not dishonor our Lord as we draw nearer to him.   Instead, we will welcome him as he welcomes us—and  praise him all our days and in the glory of his kingdom forever.

Amen.

2. Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm, Preaching the Gospel of Mark: Proclaiming the Power of God, Louisville, KY: Westminister John Knox Press, 2008, 104.

3.  “The Blessing Batismal Water,” The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults.