Where Did This Man Get Such Wisdom And Mighty Deeds?
In today's Gospel reading (Mt 13: 54-58) we see a clear example of how hard it is for people to overcome their preconceptions and inherited prejudices. Jesus shows up in His hometown, Nazareth, and people "take offense" at Him when He teaches in the synagogue. Why? The answer can't be that He is a fraud or pretending to have wisdom and power that He does not have. Matthew tells us that the people are astonished at Jesus' wisdom and mighty deeds. So they see, and can't dismiss, who He is-- He works miracles and teaches people in a way that cannot be ignored or refuted. So what could be the problem? Why is it that those who know Him best, the people from His hometown who grew up with Him and His family, refuse to accept Him? Jesus hints at the answer. He says that "a prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house." Why would that be the case? I think the answer is that people develop notions of those around them, based on years of experience and observation and the words of others, and those notions become so imbedded that it is almost impossible to remove them. Jesus grew up in Nazareth and apparently did nothing remarkable (excpet for the time He stayed behind in the Temple in jerusalem) from His birth to His baptism by John the Baptist. At least, there is nothing in the Gospels (or any other New Testament literature) about that period of His life, and you'd think that if there were something exceptional, folks would have talked about it and included it in the writings. So, to all the people in Nazareth, Jesus is an ordinary guy, the son of a carpenter. He isn't the kind of person who thinks great thoughts or does great deeds. He's just a regular guy-- always has been and always will be. That's probably true with most prophets as well. They were regular people, not possessing anything out of the ordinary, until they were touched by God, and began to give voice to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. People who don't know the prophets have no preconceived notions about who those persons are, just like the people from outside Nazareth had no preconceived notions of Jesus. So there were no barriers based on the past that had to be overcome. But in Nazareth-- and in any prophet's hometown-- the people just couldn't get their heads around the notion that Jesus was something very special, and that He was filled with the Holy Spirit. The whole town probably had an inferiority complex as well-- nothing good ever comes out of Nazareth, after all. So Jesus couldn't possibly be what they saw with their own eyes that He was. Hence, they reject Him. That's how humans operate, after all. We build up a set of preconceptions over a life time, and those can get terribly strong. It is a way to simplify the snap judgments that humans throughout history have had to make. At some point almost no amount of evidence can overcome those preconceptions. We find ourselves simply rejecting evidence contrary to our established views out-of-hand, or we simply don't see it. That attitude, an evolutionary defense mechanism we all have, is at the root of things like racism and other cultural biases. We have to fight to overcome it. We often don't even see it. We're not racists, we say and even believe, just like the folks in Nazareth didn't see what was causing them to reject Jesus. We might remember the example of the folks in Nazareth the next time we're in a discussion about whether or not racism is a problem in our world and our country.