Mark 6:1-6
1 Jesus left that part of the country and returned with his disciples to Nazareth, his hometown. 2The next Sabbath he began teaching in the synagouge, and many who heard him were amazed. They asked, "Where did he get all this wisdom and the power to perform such miracles?" 3 Then they scoffed, "He's just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us." They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. 4 Then Jesus told them, "A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown. And among his relatives and his own family." 5 And because of their unbelief, he couldn't do any mighty miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 And he was amazed at their unbelief.
The problem Christ encountered with the hometown folk was that they couldn’t see beyond the ordinary to the extraordinary in their midst.
The family circumstances of Jesus were too well known among his neighbors, and they reasoned that a poor, obscure day laborer had nothing to offer. He was simply one of them—and nothing more.
Perhaps the biggest surprise about the Lord is that he prefers the ordinary and the everyday. After all, this is the God who was born in a stable and made furniture for a living; who used spit and sand to make a blind man see; and who rode a donkey into town when it was time for him to die.
And this is the God who used ordinary bread and wine to share his life with us in the most extraordinary way.
Christ shows up in our lives more often than we realize—in the bits and pieces of our days, in the laughter and the tears, and most important, in the people we meet.
But it won’t make any difference if we don’t recognize him, because the Lord can’t do anything for us if we don’t know he’s there.
(Taken from FaithFronts Archives)
