From a forward I received:
(Mat 13:54-57) And when he (Jesus) was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.
A husband was never satisfied with the way his wife canned pickles. He would often remind her how mediocre the pickles were in comparison to how other wives canned theirs. After numerous complaints, his wife decided to take the jars of pickles to the family cottage since her husband did not enjoy them anyway. Hopefully the rest of the family could make use of them while on vacation. Some time later their family spent some vacation time at the cottage. The husband not knowing that the pickles at the cottage were the self-same pickles he complained about back home ate some, and declared to his wife that this is how she should can pickles since they were so much better than the ones she canned at home. He was shocked when she declared that she had in fact canned these pickles.
This true story is another example of the same problem Jesus was facing as he went back to his home town. The town folk could not believe that there was something special about him. After all, he was from a village which was very low on the list of desired places to live. The scripture records the question "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" since many considered Nazareth a less than worthy place to live. He was a descendant from an ordinary family, the son of a poor carpenter. He did not have any credentials from an earthly institution that gave him this authority or wisdom. They knew his family well, and his brethren seemed average, so why was Jesus any different? To them, this was far too ordinary, and did not fit with their picture of greatness, and so they rejected him.
Isn't it interesting that the people that were the closest to him were the same ones that rejected him. When Jesus summarized the problem in one little neat statement "A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house" he was not just speaking of his own situation. He was revealing to us a problem that lies deep within our human nature. We often give less credit, or find more fault with those who are closest to us than those who are strangers to us. We can see small examples of this throughout our daily lives. We tend to find more fault about our church, our leaders, our family, our job and give more credit to churches, leaders or other families who are distant to us. Even though the majority of things are good, and there are a few things that could use improvement, we reverse the ratio and spend the majority of the time talking about the bad, and the much less time talking about the good.
"The grass is always greener on the other side" is a statement that bears similarities to Jesus' statement. If the prophet had come from another village, the people at Nazareth would have been able to accept him. So we can do the same if we think the church down the road is better than ours, or the spouse and family of a friend has far more positive qualities than our own. Are we to ignore the faults that we see in those who are close to us? We know that having a realistic view of everyone's character is not wrong, however if we are dwelling on these faults instead of the strengths, and develop a complaining and critical spirit, we know that we have fallen prey to this human tendency.
Let us ask God to renew our perspective that we could dwell on the good things in those who are around us instead of so frequently dwelling on the negative. Let those who are close to you know that you appreciate them. Make an extra effort to thank someone who has touched your life, even in a small way. There are many who bless our lives every day, and if we are thankful for the blessing, it will become natural for us to think less critically about them. Think of someone in particular that you have been critical about recently, and find something about them that you not only can thank God for, but that you can thank them for. This is a few of many ways we can overcome this subtle but powerful human tendency
(Mat 13:54-57) And when he (Jesus) was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.
A husband was never satisfied with the way his wife canned pickles. He would often remind her how mediocre the pickles were in comparison to how other wives canned theirs. After numerous complaints, his wife decided to take the jars of pickles to the family cottage since her husband did not enjoy them anyway. Hopefully the rest of the family could make use of them while on vacation. Some time later their family spent some vacation time at the cottage. The husband not knowing that the pickles at the cottage were the self-same pickles he complained about back home ate some, and declared to his wife that this is how she should can pickles since they were so much better than the ones she canned at home. He was shocked when she declared that she had in fact canned these pickles.
This true story is another example of the same problem Jesus was facing as he went back to his home town. The town folk could not believe that there was something special about him. After all, he was from a village which was very low on the list of desired places to live. The scripture records the question "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" since many considered Nazareth a less than worthy place to live. He was a descendant from an ordinary family, the son of a poor carpenter. He did not have any credentials from an earthly institution that gave him this authority or wisdom. They knew his family well, and his brethren seemed average, so why was Jesus any different? To them, this was far too ordinary, and did not fit with their picture of greatness, and so they rejected him.
Isn't it interesting that the people that were the closest to him were the same ones that rejected him. When Jesus summarized the problem in one little neat statement "A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house" he was not just speaking of his own situation. He was revealing to us a problem that lies deep within our human nature. We often give less credit, or find more fault with those who are closest to us than those who are strangers to us. We can see small examples of this throughout our daily lives. We tend to find more fault about our church, our leaders, our family, our job and give more credit to churches, leaders or other families who are distant to us. Even though the majority of things are good, and there are a few things that could use improvement, we reverse the ratio and spend the majority of the time talking about the bad, and the much less time talking about the good.
"The grass is always greener on the other side" is a statement that bears similarities to Jesus' statement. If the prophet had come from another village, the people at Nazareth would have been able to accept him. So we can do the same if we think the church down the road is better than ours, or the spouse and family of a friend has far more positive qualities than our own. Are we to ignore the faults that we see in those who are close to us? We know that having a realistic view of everyone's character is not wrong, however if we are dwelling on these faults instead of the strengths, and develop a complaining and critical spirit, we know that we have fallen prey to this human tendency.
Let us ask God to renew our perspective that we could dwell on the good things in those who are around us instead of so frequently dwelling on the negative. Let those who are close to you know that you appreciate them. Make an extra effort to thank someone who has touched your life, even in a small way. There are many who bless our lives every day, and if we are thankful for the blessing, it will become natural for us to think less critically about them. Think of someone in particular that you have been critical about recently, and find something about them that you not only can thank God for, but that you can thank them for. This is a few of many ways we can overcome this subtle but powerful human tendency
