Reactions (Matthew 14 - P 33)

From Matthew 10 to our reading for today we have been listening to Jesus as he taught those around him.  He has commissioned his disciples, he has confronted the toxic religionists of his day, and he has taught about the kingdom of heaven.  Then he goes home ... to Nazareth.  Read ...

Matthew 13: 53 - 14: 13a

These verses are packed with emotion.  We see the humanity of our Lord.  And we can 'feel' with him.  Let me share a couple of observations with you.

First, the old proverb "Familiarity breeds contempt" is alive and illustrated in the first half of our reading.  Nazareth was a small town.  It is estimated that between 1600 - 2000 people populated the town.  Nazareth was near the much larger Sepphoris, which is most likely where Joseph, perhaps accompanied by Jesus as a son/apprentice, went to work.  Sepphoris had been burned and was being rebuilt.  So carpenters would be in demand.  Carpenters at this time were not only wood workers, but stone masons as well.  Joseph and Mary's household would have been well known.  So Jesus went home.  And he went home to do what he had been doing all over Galilee.  He went to the synagogue to teach.  The reaction?  'Who does he think he is?!'  The citizens of Nazareth could not get past whom they THOUGHT Jesus to be.  Therefore, they could not see who he WAS.  Result?  They were offended ... and they missed the miracles.  

I see a warning here for those of us who grew up in Christian homes.  What a blessing that is!  However, if we are not careful, we allow the familiarity of Christ talk to dim our eyes.  We fail to notice fresh glimpses of Jesus' person in our day-to-day lives.  When we hear people who have just discovered the Christ ... when we hear them talk about the ways they see Him ... the ways they hear from Him ... we can get cynical.  We can respond with a bit of the "who do they think they are?" mentality.  When we react that way ... we, too, can miss the miracles.  Guard your heart from such response!

A second observation comes from the verses in chapter 14.  Matthew told us what happened to John the Baptist.  And the details are gruesome.  Our culture and time in history are not the only ones where violence is rampant ... where violence is perpetrated by those in authority ... where sexuality is used to manipulate.  Those things were alive and well in 1st century Palestine under the leadership of Herod Antipas.  Our culture and time in history are not the only ones where good, honorable people are violated and even killed.  I wonder why we continue to be surprised?  It is a vivid reminder that this world is in the hands of the "evil one".  Never forget that we are in the wilderness.  Life on this earth is not as it was meant to be.  We are aliens here.

But knowledge of the commonality of such things does not assuage the grief.  And our Lord - grieved over the violence done to John.  You see it in the beginning of verse 13.  He withdrew to a solitary place.  He needed to be alone.  He needed to grieve.  I think his heart was sick.  I think he needed to talk to his Father.  I think he may have needed to weep.  Our Lord was fully human.  And yet our Lord was wholly divine ... and that divinity allowed him to know the coming resurrection ... the coming joy.

As we suffer loss in this alien place ... grieve.  But never grieve as those who do not know the Lord.

Let's close our time today with a piece of poetry by Ruth Bell Graham:

When death comes

will it come quietly

- one might say creep -

as after a hard

and tiring day, one lies

and longs for sleep -

ending age and sorrow

or youth and pain?

Who dies in Christ

has all to gain

- and a Tomorrow!

Why weep?

Death may be savage.

We cannot be sure:

the godly may be slaughtered,

evil men endure;

however death may strike,

or whom,

who knows the risen Lord

knows, too, the empty tomb.