8 March 2021
Monday of the Third Week of Lent
Jesus preaches in His hometown of Nazareth, and just by reminding them that God has favored Gentiles over His own people in the past, they become furious, wanting to throw Him down the hill. How dare the Son of a carpenter say such things! We are God’s Chosen people; who are YOU to lecture us! They rejected Jesus because they knew Him; or at least they thought they knew Him. In Matthew’s account of this incident the people say among themselves “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son….Where did this man get all this?” (Matthew 13:54-56). They know His family, His background; they know He didn’t go to a school or anything of the sort; He had no authority they felt compelled to recognize. So they reject Him; during this time of Roman oppression it’s safe to assume any favor shown Gentiles was unpopular.
But the sad fact is that they did not know Jesus; not as He desired to be known. Their hearts were so hard and proud that the amazement they initially experienced at hearing Him preached perished quickly; imagine what He might have preached or what He might have accomplished had humility made room for true faith! If only they would receive “…hearts of flesh…” and give up their “…hearts of stone…” (Ezekiel 11:19), that God might write His law upon their hearts, and He might be their God and they His people (Jeremiah 31:33). Then would Jeremiah’s prophecy be fulfilled: “They will no longer teach their friends and relatives, ‘Know the Lord!’ Everyone, from the least to greatest, shall know me…” (Jeremiah 31:34).