Slices
Prepare
Imagine Jesus coming to live in your street. Would people be attracted to him or avoid him? Would you behave differently around him?
Bible passage
A prophet without honour
53 When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. 54 Coming to his home town, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?’ they asked. 55 ‘Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’ 57 And they took offence at him.
But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honour except in his own town and in his own home.’
58 And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Explore
Joan Osborne’s 1995 song ‘What if God was one of us?’* imagined meeting God as an ordinary man on a bus. Two thousand year earlier, the citizens of Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, are finding it difficult to accept that God’s Messiah is amongst them. They are astonished by Jesus’ wisdom when he is invited to teach in their synagogue, and by the miracles he performed in Galilee, but he is just the carpenter’s son (as they understand). Instead of rejoicing that God is working in new ways through one of their own, familiarity means wonder turns to contempt (v 57).
Have your preconceived ideas of what a preacher should be like, or how worship ought to be conducted, ever prevented you from hearing what God might be saying to you? Are you able to recognise God at work unexpectedly through people you know?
Jesus does not do many miracles in Nazareth because of their lack of faith (v 58). This is not to say that healing is always in response to faith; there were times when Jesus healed people without signs of faith (eg Luke 7:11–17). Here, however, there is no trust in Jesus but an atmosphere of rejection and hostility.
*‘One of Us’, written by Eric Bazilian, from the album ‘Relish’ by Joan Osborne, Polydor 1995
Respond
How open are you to God doing new things in and through you? If you have become comfortable in your relationship with Jesus, ask him to renew your trust in him.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Job 29,30; Luke 23
Pray for Scripture Union
Please ask God to renew the strength of all serving him through Scripture Union, so that they can continue to share Jesus with children and young people who so need to know his love.
Because a strong start begins with smart preparation
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