Is he not the carpenter's son?
Is not his mother named Mary
and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
When God spoke to Moses in thunder and flashes of lightning on Mount Sinai the people were afraid and begged that God would speak only to Moses and not themselves lest they die (see Exodus 20:18-21). But when God came to the people in the form of Jesus he was so approachable that they were indifferent and unable to recognize or appreciate him. The way God had appeared on Mount Sinai was beyond what normal human consciousness could parse or process. But the way he appeared in the person of Jesus Christ was accessible only to the eyes of faith. The approach on the mountain was not one likely to be subject to misunderstanding, but it was never going to establish the close relationship he desired. For this reason he chose to be born of a woman as part of the human family even though he knew this would be the source of misunderstanding.
Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?
It was not so much the wisdom or the deeds themselves that were in question as though he were being accused of deception of fraud in this instance. Rather it was precisely the juxtaposition of the extraordinary nature of the wisdom and the deeds with the apparently ordinary nature of Jesus himself. They assumed, perhaps, that God could only reveal himself through the extraordinary, as he had on Mount Sinai. But if so they forgot the lesson of Elijah who learned that "the LORD was not in the wind", nor the earthquake, nor the fire, but was revealed by the still small voice that followed (see First Kings 19:9-18).
Where did this man get all this?
Jesus was willing to take risks in order to draw near to humanity. He recognized the fact that he would be misinterpreted, but still wanted to give people at least an opportunity to recognize him and have faith. He was not content to remain distant from the human race even at the risk of provoking a backlash and causing some hearts to become hardened in response.
A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and in his own house.
The native place of Jesus is within his Church were he made his dwelling among us. But isn't it within his Church that we are often the most set in our expectations about Jesus, and how he desires to work in our midst? We formulate elaborate programs of our own plans based on our preset understanding of Jesus, assuming that such things can advance his Kingdom. But we seldom stop to listen. We don't really accept the fact that he has come so close that he might actually speak to our current moment and present situation. We treat him as a story from the past from which formulae for dealing with our own day may be derived. But this approach makes it come down more to us and our wisdom than to his. What was missing then in the Gospel we read today is still missing now. We need a living faith if we really want to see Jesus move in power in our midst.
These are the festivals of the LORD which you shall celebrate
at their proper time with a sacred assembly.
We might assume that the repetition of the liturgy would be a bad thing for cultivating living faith. It might seem to be something that would trap us in a crystalized version of past history. But not actually. The liturgy is not merely about the past, but is actually the place where heaven and earth have the closest contact. It is there that we receive the grace we need to have our hearts transformed and filled with the faith we need.
you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (see Hebrews 12:22-24).
