Friday in the 17th Week of Ordinary Time, August 2, 2024

Matthew 13, 54-58

Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.” And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.

We can understand this event in the Lord’s life very profitably in the literal historical sense.  It is also very interesting to study and identify the Lord’s relatives, who are mentioned by name, and to figure out his wider family.  In addition, we can look at this event and see in it a summary of the Lord’s Incarnation, the effect his presence has had on the world, and its reaction to him.

“Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue.”  The Son of God came down to the world of human beings, uniting himself to a human nature in the womb of a Jewish mother.  Consequently, he first announced the coming of the Kingdom of God to the Jews.

“They were astonished.”  The Greek verb carries the connotation of “to be shocked” or “to be overwhelmed”.  We might think of an ordinary-seeming toddler one day at his daycare taking his crayon and working out the calculus for a flight to the moon, and then the workers showing this to his mother.  For thirty years, Jesus had lived a quiet life among his relatives and townspeople and now reveals himself to them, very casually, as something way out of their expectations.  The Jews simply did not know what to do with him.  He shocked even those who knew him best, his Apostles, by walking on water and commanding storms to cease.  “Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?”  They tried to reassure themselves that he was one of them — the “wisdom” and “the mighty deeds” must be explained away somehow.  Some of the Jews even proposed, in desperation, that he cast out demons by the prince of demons — he could not possibly possess the power that he seemed to have.

“They took offense at him.”  Literally, they “stumbled” at him.  Rather than accept the truth, however impossible it seemed, they would not.  They “tripped” over the truth and landed in the darkness of unbelief.

“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.”  The angels who throng the vast realms of heaven cry out their praise of him in their ecstasy, but on earth, he is met with denial and rejection.  In Luke 4, 29, the Evangelist even tells us that the people of Nazareth tried to kill him rather than believe in him.  And this the leaders of the Jews did, incredibly thinking that killing the One who could raise others from the dead would end their crisis.

“And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.”  The Lord Jesus did not perform magic.  He healed those who wanted to be healed and who believed that he could heal them.  No one can be healed against his will.  And no one can be saved from hell against his will.  Since the time of the Apostles, the Lord has worked miracles throughout the world through the hands of his servants.  The great saints even raised the dead.  A little girl is cured instantaneously from a deadly disease after her physicians have despaired.  One would think this would make the news, but it does not.  It is too much for worldly people to accept.  For them, there is no miracle because they do not have faith to believe in miracles.  They do not have faith because in order to have it they would have to stop believing that there is a world beyond this one, and an all-powerful God who loves us.