The Hometown Crowd

Are you in the hometown crowd?

I am.

Jesus left that place and came to His hometown.

I became a Christian when I was 11 years old. My early years were spent in Sunday School and Vacation  Bible School, so by the time I took my first independent step of faith toward Him at eleven, He was very familiar to me. I had diligently studied His every expression in the stained glass, I knew what He wore in every flannelgraph set, and many memorized prayers were part of my young life.

And on the Sabbath He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astonished, saying, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?...

Over the years between then and now, I've often encountered a Jesus that does not seem to be the same person that I became comfortable with in the spring of my life. His actions, or non-actions, seem to be uncharacteristic at times. And I'm often shocked, and sometimes a little scandalized, by what I see Him doing in the world.

...Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands?" 

I'm left trying to match the Lord of my Ecclesiastical Youth with the Lord of the Unexpected Now, and my faith-legs seem too wobbly sometimes to make the leap.

And they took offense at Him. 

And He could do no mighty work there...

I do not want to be part of this story from Mark, chapter 6, but this morning, I saw myself there! Do you ever see yourself in the scriptures? Yikes! 

You're in there, too - I  just checked. 

Thanks to the gentle revelations of His Holy Spirit, we have an opportunity to repent and remove ourselves from having a Hometown Crowd sort of faith. Because this -

...He marveled at their unbelief.

is not what I'm going for.

Are you in the hometown crowd?