The story of Jesus rejected in his home town seems to be a microcosm of the Messiah’s rejection by the Jewish people.  But why is it so easy to reject people so close to you?  Asking it like that almost makes it clear.  The people you are close to are the people whose faults you see for what they really are.  It’s easy to idealize someone who is far off, but the reality comes home when you actually have to live with the person.  The American people are coming to this realization right now with their President.  The campaigns and theories sounded so good, ‘Hope’ and ‘Change’.  Who could oppose that?  The President successfully erased his past, so everyone was left to draw him however they wished.  The media went along painting a portrait of a messiah which post-modern, humanist America would love.  He would unite racial divides, heal the earth, clean up Washington, and do everything the opposite of Bush.  But then the reality came home, we had to live with this guy and all his crazy ideas.  And we are all worse off.

Jesus’s teaching rejected by his own townsfolk in Nazareth by Hole, William Brassey c. 1905.

But with Jesus the problem was the opposite.  They knew him, or they thought they did, he was one of them, he grew up with them and there was his family, right over there.  Yet they heard rumors of all his successes around Israel.  He had conquered demons, disease, and death.  And that brought them to a crossroads, they were forced to decide which story to accept, the one they had observed or the one that was pushing in from all around them.  In fact they now at this time observed the latter, they saw his wisdom.  Yet they chose the first, they chose to write him off.  I think this is a very common thing. If you grow up with someone and share in all their experiences and they turn out successful there is a tendency to dislike them.  It’s called envy.  It’s almost a worldwide virtue these days.  The most popular economic theories are based on it, if someone has something it must be because they took it from you.  Envy is basically wanting what other people have without the hard work.  It is a mix of sloth and pride.  Who are they to have this or that?  So we invent all kinds of justifications.  Oh well they went to this or that school.  Their parents were this or that.  They got lucky, were born with a silver spoon, or fate shined upon them.  Really we just want to excuse ourselves.  There is also an element of  God’s providence that we would like to reject.  God does bless whom he chooses, who are you to complain when it happens?

We do the same thing in the church.  Oh he is special because he did this or his father was a pastor or he went to the right school, but I couldn’t be expected to live to that standard.  He has lots of followers and his books sell millions of copies he must know what he is talking about.  He went to he right schools and got all the fancy degrees, so I can listen to his generic self-affirmation.  But when my buddy down the street confronts me with my sin, “what does he know” “he hasn’t walked in my shoes” “he doesn’t know how hard it is to be me” “he’s not a professional”.

Then there was Jesus.  His life was just like the rest of the people in Nazareth.  The Bible is always making this point, he was tempted in every way as we are, yet he didn’t sin, Hebrews 4:15.  He is just like us, he is fully man.  He grew up as a normal human, next door.  He didn’t go to any fancy schools or train under any fancy teachers, unlike the Apostle Paul.  He was just a carpenter (or he followed some other lowly trade and this was a derogatory term). So what does he know? Yet he obviously has this great wisdom, it’s not fair.  So rather than humbly admit that they had been lazy.  Rather than realize that they had been foolish in overlooking him all these years.  They decided that he was just the bastard child of some guy named Joseph. And they tried to push him off a cliff.

That’s where our society is today.  I have had it said to me countless times that America is different than it once was.  The self-made man was once the goal of everyone.  Today the successful and wealthy are treated with distain, that is envy  And that is the first step to success, admitting that you can be better and that you need to change.  In the past titles and position didn’t mean much.  We mocked the rest of the world for it’s caste systems and aristocracy.  Respect and success were built on what you could achieve not your title.  But today we are going back to the old system. Titles and classes are coming back.  We invent titles and create experts for things like raising children, eating, walking, you name it we have an expert for it.  You can get a Ph.D. in the Beatles, Puppetry, or Psychic Abilities.   Yet as we specialize and hand out titles, we are increasinly less capable of raising children, eating, or doing all the basics of life.  But we like it because it exempts anyone from any change.  We only have to worry about our little piece of the assembly line without confronting areas where we need work.  Nothing can ever really change because the powerful people with all the titles over there, are responsible.  And as for those people, they love the power.  So we lavish praise on the titled and hope one day to become one ourselves.  Instead of the day to day reality of living with ourselves as complete humans.

My grandfather was basically a self-taught civil engineer.  He designed expansive canal systems that water thousands of acres in the Columbia River Basin.  He had a degree in English Literature.  The only Architect most people can name, Frank Lloyd Wright, didn’t have a degree in anything.  These are the people that built our country, they didn’t take out huge loans and go to all the right schools, they just did the hard work and got it done.

But as Christendom fades, and people become less humble, only the correct certification will get you anywhere.  And that will only exempt us from letting in the people who can really change things for the better.  When those people do show up we can just write them off.

“Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?”  –Mark 6:2-3

The visionary and the prophet are very similar.  Both bring us to repentance.  It takes humility to recognize that cars are better than horses.  It takes humility to recognize that electric lights are better than gas lamps.  And the same is true of every tiny bit of technology that we all enjoy.  It is true of every flaw in our lives. There was a time when we humbly accepted these men but now the words of Christ ring true.

“The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.”     – John 7:7