Slices
Prepare
Pray: ‘Lord, open my eyes to your glory. Deliver me from distraction and overfamiliarity. Clean the lens of my spiritual vision.’
Bible passage
A prophet without honour
6 Jesus left there and went to his home town, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
‘Where did this man get these things?’ they asked. ‘What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him.
4 Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honour except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.’ 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few people who were ill and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Jesus sends out the Twelve
Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. 7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.
8 These were his instructions: ‘Take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.’
12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed with oil many people who were ill and healed them.
Explore
It isn’t often that you read of Jesus being surprised, but the lack of faith he found in his home town shocked him. Overfamiliarity made the Son of God invisible. People saw the local carpenter; the brother to a large group of siblings; the son of Mary, whose husband seems to have died. ‘We all know Jesus.’ So today, many people have ‘moved on’ from Jesus to try more exotic spiritualities.
Jesus always resisted self-advertisement. Because of the reality of the incarnation, of God truly becoming fully human in Jesus, anyone could look at him and see ‘just another bloke’. But these stories show that the problem lies with the observer. When people lack faith to approach Jesus for help, his true identity remains hidden from them.
By contrast, Christians are often tempted to impress and, in so doing, they actually conceal the work of God. Jesus sends the disciples without bread, money, spare clothes or begging bowls. Their evident lack of resources, and being so unimpressive, would make the power of God more evident when they preached, cast out demons and anointed people for healing.
Respond
You may know people who grew up in the church but who no longer show any interest in Jesus. Or there may be people who just roll their eyes when Jesus is mentioned. Pray for revelation, that they would see him for who he is.
Deeper Bible study
‘When I survey the wondrous cross / on which the Prince of glory died, / my richest gains I count but loss, / and pour contempt on all my pride.’1
In rural Nazareth, Jesus Ben-Joseph, the young carpenter’s apprentice, learned his trade from his father. Then he left Nazareth, left his father and mother, left his siblings, left his trade and disappeared from recorded history. How long he was away is unknown, but it was long enough for the people of Nazareth to need a few moments to work out who he was. It makes sense that between learning his trade and starting his ministry of teaching and healing, there was a necessary period of dedicated spiritual growth. The most logical context for that would have been in a desert community, perhaps with his cousin, John.
That Jesus is not immediately recognised is testament to his humanity, to a normal, unremarkable upbringing. This is not the fanciful childhood of the fictional ‘gospels’ outside the canon of Scripture. In these he makes birds of clay that fly, or miraculously stretches timber to fit the bed-frame Joseph was making.2 It is the very ordinariness of Jesus’ life in Nazareth that deters people from seeking healing. The faith of the receiver is as important as the faith of the healer.
Soon, Jesus decides that it is time to risk sending the disciples out on their own. They go only with Jesus’ authority and are never independent of Jesus’ mission. The church today is in danger of prioritising its own institutional survival. We see some leaders whose ministry seems to be a way of fulfilling personal desires for power, prestige or even material gain. The disciples will be sent out again but, in this first mission, they are to take nothing with them. They are to learn dependence on God and that their ministry must never be a means of personal gain.
Lord Jesus, forgive our desire for prestige or wealth. Call us back to you, renew us and send us out again to continue your real mission in the world.
1 Isaac Watts, 1674–1748 2 Infancy Gospel of Thomas, 2:4; 13:1,2
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Jeremiah 47,48; John 17
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray for Ben Poch as he leads Regional Mission at Scripture Union, asking for God’s guidance and blessing. Pray especially for the impact of the Faith Guides supported by Regional Mission as they reach out to the 95 and share the message of Jesus.
