"Isn't this Joseph's son?"
The people of Nazareth have an image of Jesus in mind. The image is that he is just a hometown boy and he couldn't possibly be anything special. They have him trapped in an image and no amount of teaching or miraculous signs can change their image.
We lived in a small town for four years. It was a great experience. But one of the things I noticed living in the town is how people never forgot other's past. They talked about what each other did as children or young adults and never seemed to let some people grow up.
Watching them, helped me realize how I do that. I can form an image of someone in my mind and nothing can change that image. Do you do that? Do you judge a person in a particular way and keep looking for little signs that your judgement is correct? In doing so we never allow for a person's life to be changed.
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Many years ago, I attended a high school class reunion. I was surprised by the fact that many lived in the same small town in the hills of the Ozarks - and were doing the same thing they did when we graduated. I'm not sure if it was I who could not see the changes or that they really hadn't changed - including the same small "cliques!" As I think about the reaction of the people in Nazareth to Jesus as related to my story, I can easily believe that they still held the old perception of Him - no matter what He did. For me, it helped make the decision that I did not want to move back to that small town. For Jesus, He left Nazareth. How sad that his hometown missed out on the most wonderful blessing in the world because of holding on to old ideas. I wonder if we ever miss out on blessings because of our old perceptions/ideas about people, places or events?
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