Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Matthew 13:54-55
As people wrestle with questions of faith and the “possibilities” of God, Jesus presents us with a paradoxical dilemma.
Sometimes, people say that they can’t believe in God because the supernatural and the extraordinary don’t work for their rationalistic minds. That can be an honest and authentic challenge. Can we believe that God created the world, for instance? Or perhaps, closer to Jesus, can we believe that he was born of a virgin? The rational thinker may say, “I can’t believe it – it’s too fantastic, impossible. I have to see it to believe it. I have to be able to touch it.”
On the other hand, there was an equal challenge that rejected Jesus. People suggested he’s too ordinary. Just a man. One of us. From a backwater town no less. He was a baby, a boy, a man – who was touchable and who touched, who was seeable and who saw. He walked, talked, ate and slept among us. Here he is. To this one, people said – “I can’t believe he is God’s son, the messiah. He is too ordinary, too much like normal life. No, he’s no messiah, just an ordinary teacher.”
So we reject the idea of God on the grounds of the supernatural and the extraordinary. Then reject Jesus as God on the grounds of the too ordinary. In his own hometown (where can you be seen to be more ordinary except perhaps in your own family) people were amazed at how extraordinary he was – miraculous powers and all. On the other hand, they were amazed at how ordinary he was, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?”
Interesting how God works. For today’s thinker who wrestles with the supernatural, how about the “natural Jesus?” For today’s thinker who rejects the ordinary, how about the sent from God, born of a virgin Jesus?
Hardly a day goes by that I don’t keep looking to see if my faith is true. Hardly a day goes by, that I am not amazed to see God in the unique truth of Jesus.
