LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
No Prophet Is Honored In His Own Land
The Lord Jesus granted Nazareth an honor that the Nazarenes never dreamed of. An obscure town in a despised region, Nazareth was home for several decades to God incarnate.
However, he was not there as God-man, but as the Son of Man. His simplicity was such, his assimilation to the human condition was so perfect, that nothing made the Nazarenes think that the carpenter's son was the Son of God. His exemplarity as a son and as a citizen was not sufficient reason, in their blindness, to make them conceive such a great thought.
For him, to be a man was a thing of the highest dignity, although in his divine condition he could have considered it as something of little importance. That is why he did not refuse to live the restriction of being a man, even more, of being an anonymous man, in an obscure city. All this was an expression of ineffable love and humility.
However, there are more notes that add to this marvelous symphony. He not only accepted to descend to live as a Nazarene, but he accepted to be despised by the city he honored with his presence. So when, after having begun his ministry, he goes to Nazareth, the people marvel at his wisdom and his miracles, but they are unable to find an explanation for it all. Rather, it was a cause of scandal, instead of them glorifying God.
But, in reality, we should not blame Nazareth for that blindness, because it is the same blindness of all of us. We too are Nazarenes in that, and our city too has rejected him. We would not have acted differently.
But, the fact of accepting to be rejected by those he loved, and by those he honored with his presence shows us something else. Being the exemplary Man, Jesus accepted the greatest humiliation, so that no man after him would consider it an offense to be thus rejected. All that he lived, he lived to the highest degree, so that no one might think that his own suffering is greater.
Is there anyone who was unjustly rejected? Jesus was more so. Is there anyone who has been betrayed by someone very close to him? Jesus was more so. Is there any prophet despised among his own? Jesus was more so. Thus, the sum of all the injustices, of the rejection, of the forgetfulness fell on him, so that no one might glory in himself, but in him.
The day will come when every Christian will taste a drop of these things, a drop of rejection, a drop of betrayal. But then there will be no excuse for rejecting that cup; there will be a greater example to look to, for encouragement and hope, for humility and patience. If in the green tree they did those things, in the dry what shall not be done (Luke 23:31).
Just as the Lord Jesus was rejected in Nazareth, every Christian will be rejected in his midst. In our case, this will be God's method of causing us to be grounded and not puffed up.