What was it that limited either the divine power or the divine will of Jesus, Son of God, Savior and Messiah and kept him from doing any significant miracles in his hometown? Matthew’s gospel points out that it was the unbelief of his friends and family. Their limited expectations disqualified them from experiencing the very visitation of God that had been the passionate longing of their hearts for generations. I sure hope that never happens to me—or to you! So stay open to Jesus and his miraculous power. Expect the unexpected in the routine of your daily walk with him. Perhaps he will write a new Kingdom chapter through extraordinary language of the miraculous in your life today!
The Journey: Matthew 13:51
And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.
I wonder what those “few miracles” were that Jesus performed in his hometown of Nazareth. Perhaps he healed a couple of headaches or lengthened a shortened leg or two. But he did none of the sensational stuff that had been getting the attention of the Jews in that day: delivering the demonized, healing the lame, opening the ears and eyes of the deaf and blind, and even raising the dead.
What was it that limited either the divine power or the divine will of Jesus, Son of God, Savior and Messiah? Matthew says it was the unbelief of the folk in his hometown. They knew Jesus well. They had been his neighbors, had gone to school with him, had sat next to him in synagogue services. They had watched him grow up, shared meals with his mom and dad, bought furniture from the carpentry shop he and his father operated. They were so familiar with the Jesus they thought they knew that they missed his unique standing as the one and only Son of God. To paraphrase S.D. Gordon, God was spelling himself out in language that men could understand through Jesus, but the people of Nazareth didn’t bother to open their eyes to the greatest story ever told.
Sadly, limited expectations disqualified them from experiencing the very visitation of God that had been the passionate longing of their hearts for generations. The Joy of Man’s Desiring was right in front of their eyes, yet they failed to behold him.
I sure hope that never happens to me—or to you. I hope that we don’t become so dulled by the ordinary and routine of a daily walk with Jesus that our limited expectations prevent the very Jesus we long for from breaking into our world with the extraordinary.
Stay open to Jesus! Expect the unexpected in the routine of your daily walk with him. Perhaps God will write a new Kingdom chapter through extraordinary language of the miraculous through Jesus Christ in your life today!
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