Familiarity breeds contempt they say – or at the very least, familiarity breeds indifference. It did then and it does now.
It could be the subheading for today’s Gospel reading.
Jesus is back home in Nazareth. His fellow Nazarenes, those with whom he grew and laughed and played and worked, could be saying: look at what he has achieved – what a man.
Local boy made good. We’re so proud of you Jesus, you’ve healed the sick, raised the dead, put our little town right on the map. You are a wonderful prophet, one of God’s own.
They could have, but they didn’t. Of course, they didn’t. No way.
His people, Jesus’ own people, who knew him best, the people of Nazareth, those whom he grew up amongst, are uncomfortable. They are offended.
They are actually ashamed though the word isn’t used.
Jesus himself sums it up, ‘a prophet is not without honour except in his own town’.
Jesus doesn’t use the word shame – but without honour, in Biblical language and culture, even these days, sadly, to be without honour means to bring shame.
Think of that terrible oxymoron, honour killings.
To be without honour is to bring shame –
A prophet who is without honour, is one who brings shame.
They are ashamed of Jesus.
Let’s go back a little. Just before this reading, Jesus has healed the man possessed by demons, and the people who witnessed the exorcism were terrified and asked him to leave; the man whom he freed of possession wanted to follow him, and Jesus said no – but in both instances, there was respect and awe. No shame.
Jesus then healed the woman bleeding for twelve years and raised the daughter of Jarius; there is astonishment and gratitude, dis-ease too, but there is honour and respect. No shame.
Here, in Nazareth, back home; there is no respect, no honour, only shame. Because he is theirs and he is bringing shame to their community.
To understand why, consider two things –
One, that old thing; familiarity. They say it breeds contempt – maybe, but more often, it just breeds complacency.
Other people have heard Jesus and loved him or feared him, followed him, or ignored him, they have been amazed by him and terrified of him. Lives have been transformed by him. Some no doubt have run away from him. But here, back home, where he is known, remembered running around as a little child, maybe with a mucky face and/or snotty nose, with his mum, his dad, his brothers and sisters. There’s no mystery. He’s just the kid we all know who’s got a bit too big for his boots.
It’s a kind of a get back in your box moment. You’re nothing special. A prophet is not without honour except in his own town.
They have known him for ever. They look but they don’t see. Too close to see maybe.
So question one – I ask you – I ask me. Have we become too close to see God? Are we too at home with Jesus? Too comfortable? When we receive the bread, listen to the readings, hear the pattern of the intercessions, is it all just a bit too familiar? Have we become too familiar with God? With Jesus? Have we put God in a box and said, that is where I am comfortable with you? Stay!
Covid caused all manner of trauma, but the breech, the hiatus, that forced us to see church life differently, rethink stuff, seeing it for the first time maybe, may in the end be its greatest blessing. It may rid us all of that awful familiarity. And what is true of church may be true of the wider community too. Now we know who the essential workers are, will we start to see refuse collectors, nurses, shop keepers, lorry drivers differently? Will we pay them more? I doubt it.
If we are too familiar with Jesus, take him for granted, take the church for granted, take Sunday mornings for granted, we will not see what he is showing us. There will be no prophecy.
So familiarity is a problem – then and now. We can be so close to the truth we can’t see it.
But here in this reading, in Nazareth, there is something more fundamental going on than familiarity. If the opposite of honour is shame, the question is why are they ashamed of Jesus, how is he bringing shame to them? Complacency is one thing, but shame??
Look again at the context.
In the equivalent passage in Luke – Luke 4 – Jesus is back in Nazareth where he was brought up and he stands to preach and then he sits down. History tells us there were two seats at the front of the synagogue, one of which was kept empty at all times as it was the seat the Messiah would sit in. This is the seat that Jesus sits in. He is demonstrating to them that He is the messiah. He sits right down and says, in Luke, Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’ – in other words I am the Messiah.
God is so much bigger than this. So much bigger than our imagination, so much bigger than our dreams, so much bigger than the books, even the holy books, we would hold him in.
That sermon didn’t end so well – the locals drove him out of town and tried to throw him off a cliff.
His people are ashamed of him because he is challenging religious orthodoxy, and that frankly makes them look bad.
A prophet is defined in the Bible as a person who speaks the truth of God into a context – is divinely inspired. A prophet cuts through the surface conformities, the orthodoxies and speaks God’s truth, God’s reality, Into any given situation. They are, by definition, counter cultural, and see what the world, and the church, may not be able to see, or want to see.
Religions are inclined to think they have the last word on God. Every religion has thought it was the final revelation. Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism. And the others. But new and godly insights were born, often in pain.
The greatest heresy of any religion in any time, is to think it has the right, indeed the duty, to put God in our box and dare anyone to challenge that place. Every prophet says one thing – God is so much bigger than this. So much bigger than our imagination, so much bigger than our dreams, so much bigger than the books, even the holy books, we would hold him in.
Jesus pushed beyond the holy book, beyond the traditions and expectations of the religious leaders, and of the people, and spoke God’s truth – he said God is out there loving the woman bleeding, the man possessed, the tax collector, the prostitute, the leper, and the response was – how shameful. It cannot be true. But it was and it is.
Let us not be so over-familiar with God, so used to Jesus, so comfortable with our traditions and orthodoxies, that we cannot see, hear and find God in new ways every day. Be surprised. Take risks, even the risk of being called shameful.
The cross was shameful. But it was and is also true.
In the words of St Paul, ‘for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God’.
“We had no idea he was this good!” they said. “How did he get so wise all of a sudden, get such ability?”
Mark 6: 2-3
3 But in the next breath they were cutting him down: “He’s just a carpenter—Mary’s boy. We’ve known him since he was a kid.
Mark 6: 1-4 MSG – Just a Carpenter – He left there and – Bible Gateway
Thank you for reading – I look forward to hearing your thoughts!