Well, if you're a visitor, we've been working through the Gospel of Matthew, and we come to the end of chapter 13 today. You'll find that in Matthew chapter 13 on page 974, where we have Jesus coming to his hometown in Nazareth. So we'll be looking at verses 53 through 58 of Matthew chapter 13. Let's give our attention this morning to the holy Word of the Lord, beginning at verse 53.
"And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there and coming to his hometown, he taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished and said, where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? Are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief."
And there will end the reading of God's Word this morning.
The question that I have as we open up Matthew chapter 13 this last little section following the parables which is important to think about for a minute: is why since matthew is not putting things in chronological order but is doing things theologically to teach us certain truths other gospels have them more chronologically; the events Matthew has his own purpose here why did he put this little story of the rejection of Jesus in his hometown right after the following of the parables that he told in chapter 13?
I think that's an important question that we're looking at this morning. I think if we can answer that, we will get to the heart of what this text is showing us.
After the instruction that Jesus gave in speaking to the crowds in parables in the previous words, Jesus asked in the previous verses just before this jesus asked an important question after he told the parables to his disciples: "Do you understand all these things? Do you understand what I've been saying to you?" And, of course, they said yes. The parables of the kingdom that were given the parable of the soils the different seeds growing up together the weed and the tares the parables that spoke about the great treasure hidden in the field the pearl of great price of valuing the kingdom of god and those last ones there, Jesus was telling to indicate and show us certain things about response to his Word. And they emphatically said, "We, we understand this. We get this." And, of course, that indicated the blessing of Jesus upon them, as he said, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear."
Then he gave that last little parable, essentially saying to them, "You are the true scribes, so go out and pull out of your treasure and give that treasure to the people in the way that you speak the word things old And things new and that's where we ended up last time.
Well, here we have Jesus illustrating some of the very things we just learned in the parables. That's why Matthew is doing this this morning: about the challenges of giving the Word. And remember, the disciples are students at this point; they're learning many things at this point. And Jesus is giving indications here of some of the very challenges of ministry. It presses us to think: about what soil? If you're looking at the soils of the human heart, what soil is the most difficult? What soil is the most difficult to to reach and to think of the Word that lands among the path of the seed that lands among the path that Satan comes and takes away. Well, what we have today is Jesus being rejected in his hometown. These are the hometown crowd. This is, uh you know, hometown crowds can be pretty rough, and that's exactly what we have here.
And the goal, of course, is Jesus telling this, showing this to his disciples, and for future generations to read this particular account and to understand a particular dynamic in the kingdom that is a real problem in the kingdom of those who do take offense at him.
This is um as you know basketball i've said is the greatest sport ever invented under the sun before men, and it's not soccer. I'll tell you that. Um, there's a scene I've told you before I I don't quote many movies but i like *Hoosiers*, and it's my favorite movie and And Hackman comes to this small town in Indiana, and he goes into the barber shop, and there are all the guys sitting around smoking. That's what they did back then. And the response to him was, "This town doesn't like change much. So we thought we'd get together and show you how we do things around here. We trust that you're a God-fearing man with Christian morals who will set a standard of leadership for our boys. Tell me: do you believe in man-to-man or zone defense?"
"Zone defense is all we've played in the past, and it's the only thing that will work this year."
And some guy pops up. "Listen, I have no idea why we hired somebody who's been in the water for the last 10 years. If we don't start getting this guy playing ball, we're not going to win."
So, hometown crowd. If you understand the spirit of that, I think you get something like what's happening here. It's the kind of attitude that we see to Jesus in his hometown. But this is a little different. This is the Son of God. This is not like anyone coming home.
And so we come to the text with these things in mind.
Verse 1 we read that he went away from there, and he came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him, and on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue. So he is doing now what he had just illustrated in the parable of the soda He's scattering seed he's scattering seed indiscriminately and now he's scattering the seed of the word in the hometown undoubtedly reports are all over the region about Jesus now. Now he comes to his hometown, and there, of course, are his family and there are his friends. Notice he mentioned his own household and his hometown.
There's always something exciting about coming home. If you ever look at anyone with notoriety or greatness, they like to come home. They like to show up back home. And, you know, when somebody of greatness comes back home, there's a sort of homecoming, and everyone's excited, and everyone is overjoyed to see this person who's made it on the outside. What we would expect then is great reception of Jesus, wouldn't we? That's what we'd expect.
We do this all the time, you know? My hometown which is no hometown to boast of It's kind of like nazareth it's called lemur you know, we boast of steve perry sometimes you'll hear me singing you know "Don't Stop Believing" in my car. Or Lo Neal. Lorenzo Neal. He still owes me a jersey because I beat him in the 400. Or the Olympian who doesn't didn't have such a great name: Tommy Smith. We're proud of hometown heroes. We're proud of hometown heroes.
Jesus has become famous in the land. Jesus has become famous. He is doing things that nobody has ever seen before. And they had all heard the reports about their hometown boy. But Jesus is no showboater. He's on a mission.
Matthew records that the first thing he wanted to do when he came home was to enter the synagogue and to teach. You will notice that he didn't do at the very end mighty many mighty works there. That's a crucial, crucial insertion by Matthew into this. There's an important reason for that.
You could imagine the reception. As he had started healing, and now, what if he had come in to the hometown and started healing right away and started healing all of mom's friends And all the relatives and everyone is amazed that Jesus is this great figure. Now he's doing this in the hometown. But he didn't.
You'll remember, in the home region, as a boy, he went into the temple and he was asking questions of all the scholars. He would sit, and he would listen to the rabbis teach, sitting among them. And you'll remember the little phrase about Jesus when he was there: they were amazed at him. But he's not asking questions anymore. He is not asking questions anymore. He had a goal in the preaching and the teaching. He had a goal in the preaching. It came like this: "The time is fulfilled. This is how he began his ministry. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel." You need to believe in me.
You can imagine the problem this would bring. You can imagine the problem this would bring. This is the guy who went to grade school; our kids went to grade school with. This is the guy they went to high school with. We think of him in this context, grabbing the scroll of Isaiah and reading from it.
He unrolled the scroll and found the place was written. It's recorded in Luke: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, think about this, to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set out liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." And he rolled up the scroll and he gave it back to the attendant and sat down, and all the eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. And then he said this: "Today it's all fulfilled in your hearing."
Can you imagine that? Sit there for a minute. This would be like me and I'm not the Son of god but this is like me going back to Hanford Christian and telling all my teachers and all those people I went to church with, "It's all about me. It's all fulfilled. Now repent and believe in me." Teachers would say, "Chris? Isn't that the guy who got so many spankings? I mean, they did that at Hanford Christian. They still spanked. I've got notches on a paddle somewhere."
Matthew doesn't give us the detail here, but I really want to capture the scene for you. There's Mom. There's Dad. There's all the family. There are all the friends. There are all the people he grew up with. We already know from chapter 12 that his family tried to stop him because they thought he was crazy. So you can imagine the family is on edge here.
For a moment, it seems like everything's going well. Luke even says they spoke well of him. The sense is, as he taught, they were astonished: "Where did this man get this kind of wisdom? Where did he get these kind of mighty works?" They say it again in verse 56. It's twice said the impact of his teaching the the wisdom the power of his preaching reaching down into their hearts. He was no boring preacher. He preached it with authority and not as the scribes. That's what we were told at the end of Matthew 7. But then, all of a sudden, something happens.
Matthew captures what appears to be, from the text, an immediate change of heart. Right away. Right away. At one moment they're astonished at him, and then Matthew records a barrage of questions that seemed to take away the effect of what was heard. The astonishment turns to clearly to ridicule.
"Where did he get these things? Where did this man get these things? Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? Are not his brothers James and John and Simon and Judas? Are not his sisters with us?"
There's something about being so close to family that you never actually get the respect of growing up. You hear the shift? From amazement to rejection. Just like that.
And you notice a little phrase: "and they took offense at him."
They took offense at him.
Now remember what Matthew just said in chapter 12: "Blessed is he who is not offended because of me."
Now, I know of no better place to go to illustrate what Jesus had taught than the parable of the sower, than what just happened. The parable of the sower was put on full display right here. Of the first soil, where the Word is cast out, the Word is spoken, and it lands on the path, and then immediately, said Jesus, "the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in the heart." It was gone in a moment. Puffed like a steam. Gone. They immediately looked for something to discredit him.
Everything he had taught about the kingdom of god the soils the tares is playing out in front of the disciples. What are they questioning? Why? We want to get into a little bit: this why. Are they doing this? Why? why The term well you can kind of understand it on a human level. You can really understand it, can't you? But the question: "Where did he get these this that wisdom where did He get these mighty works where "Is this from is this not the carpenter he was a woodworker is not Mary his mom?" Conclusion: he's never been trained.
Can imagine the teachers that were sitting there who trained him who are now offended because he's wiser than them. Jesus has never been to rabbinical seminary. Not one book has been written by Jesus. There are no letters after his name. He has no credentials. He has no credentials. And yet he's blowing their minds by his wisdom.
You could imagine the pride involved here. James Boyce, um, records a story, and D.L. Moody's theology wasn't always the best, but he records the story. D.L. Moody was they said overflowing with preaching Christ, and his preaching. But But everyone was confused about D.L. Moody. The newspaper writers were puzzled as to why this man, whose bad grammar reflected his grade four education, could fill halls with thousands of people. People were always trying to find weaknesses to discredit him.
We're fascinated today with what? Well, if you want to be greatly respected today, if you want to have a platform, if you want to gain a following, you've got to have the credentials.
Carl Truman, a few years back, was sitting on a panel with a bunch of pastors, it was Ligon Duncan and others, and some of the big name pastors of the day, and he challenged all of them in the middle about all these organizers of the great conferences in our country as to why we only platform the great names. He says, "Why don't you ever give give these positions to ordinary pastors who are daily working hard to preach the gospel?" And I think the answer is very clear: few would attend. Few would attend.
My personal opinion: this is one of the reasons why it's best for pastors to have they need to be trained they need to have an ordinary seminary training but not to fall into the trap that the PhD is what establishes credibility. The PhD does not establish credibility, but we're enamored with it. Our country's taken by this stuff. In Christianity, so the people here were judging by credentials but not by whether the doctrine was true.
We judge by credential. We've seen this with I think you can, you can make this case in our country there's been a movement to the, to move to the professionals. And I'm not against professionals; I think we need professionals. But we've seen this with the raising of children today. It's very thing: the children go off the rails, and the parents come in. "We need counselors. We need therapists. We need experts to solve the problem for our children." And the right kind of assessor of this situation would say, "You're the parent. They need you. They need you. And they need grandparents." That's not that's ordinary.
Well, John 7. This issue came up. Jesus and the Jews: "How is it that this man has learning when he's never studied?" And he says, "I want you to judge by the one who's doing the will of God. Then you will know whether the teaching is true or whether I speak on my own authority. Listen to this: The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory. Ah, there comes the offense. But the one who seeks the glory of Him who sent me is true."
What an aim! What a purpose! You judge not by credential or accreditation. See? And this is what people do or polish presentation or that which feeds false conceptions of validity but by what the doctrine is, what the aim is. That's how you know what's true.
The concluding statement of this section was: they were in total unbelief. Unbelief. All they knew was: this guy's a blue-collar worker.
It is interesting to say: some of the smartest men I've ever met, wisest men have been farmers, by the way. They have a lot of time to plow the field, so they can think.
Jesus did not go get worldly accreditation to be validated. It's important.
What was it about Jesus that offended them? Well, as I studied this past week, I wanted to find think about some way to capture this. And and there was one writer who said something I thought was profound. He said, "The people of Jesus' hometown could not get past the veil of ordinariness." They could not get past it. No training, no books, no degree, no academic achievement. And we see his sisters. We see his family. Everyone knows Joseph. And I think Mark actually picks up on that as a dig: we don't even know who his real dad is.
Now he comes home with this ragtag group of fishermen. Are you kidding? Fishermen? You know, fishermen of all people. The group wasn't all that attractive. Peter seemed to be a loose cannon. He's hanging out with tax collectors and sinners. I mean, if these are his choices if this is supposed to represent the kingdom of God? How can it be from God? We've got to be really careful of this, I think. Jesus was a stumbling block to the hometown crowd on this account. Maybe it was just because familiarity breeds contempt. Maybe it was just because all of it had become so familiar. They wanted something greater.
See, this is all pretty familiar to us, isn't it? Christian this, Christian this, Jesus this, Jesus this. It's been rightly said, you know, you can, especially in our culture, in our situation, you can be born in a Reformed hospital and buried in a Reformed grave. It's all familiar. It's all familiar. And the tendency is to not listen to Jesus. Tendency is to look for something better.
You know, it's interesting that Isaiah, when he prophesied about Jesus so many years before, said something that I don't know that we've considered, but I think it shows up right here. "Like one from whom people hid their faces, he was despised," and here it is: "and we held him in low esteem." Low esteem. That's the last thing anyone wants to be held in. We all want greatness.
Isn't it something? The eternal Son of God didn't come wearing the phylacteries, Prating degrees or as if that kind of thing that would feed the people this way to think that's what makes something valid. We didn't even wear one of those little funny hats, you know, the Pope.
Now, I had to ask myself: do you see what unbelief is? It's exposing it. Nothing about Jesus fit into their box. Nothing about him fit nicely into what they thought legitimized him. He was always, they were always, notice this, pushing and wanted the credential and the authority to what Jesus was saying.
They looked at Jesus and said, "He's a boy. We remember him when he was a boy. He played with our kids." All of this was hidden by choice under the veil of ordinariness and taking on a human nature. He didn't even choose a body that outwardly attracted anyone to him. That's what Isaiah says: the very body he chose had no beauty that we should look upon him and say, "Wow, isn't something?"
When you think about Jesus, how he purposely chose this kind of life and how he wanted the doctrine and think of the blessing of election that he opened eyes for people to see him. His aim in preaching was different than anyone else's. His aim in preaching was conversion, repentance, not to fill their head with arguing about the superfluous fine points of the law a law which the scribes would sit around. Remember we just talked about scribes? What is a true scribe? He gives out of the treasure old, new. The scribes did only the old. They sat around, and all they did was argue about the fine points of the law. They memorized 613 commandments, and they waxed eloquent and talked about what so-and-so rabbi said and what so-and-so rabbi said, and they sat around and debate. They didn't care about the people.
Now, what does this tell you of the danger that's here? The danger is that familiarity and the ordinariness to discredit it is a very real danger, so that we discredit what is truly from God.
An unaccredited man saying he didn't go to Yale. Think about all of us. Think of how parents are obsessed. "To think about my kid's the greatest kid ever, and I'm going to get him the great he's going to be the greatest sports hero, and then he's going to get a scholarship, he's going to go to the greatest school." We live with this. "What good comes out of Fresno State? I mean, who goes to Fresno State?" That's what they said about him: "Good comes out of Nazareth?"
A lot of people, beloved, cannot get out of this kind of thinking. It's pride.
And you see, Jesus came back to his hometown, and they were offended by the veil of his ordinariness.
Listen to Jesus's response. "And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household
There's the hardest soil: the hometown crowd. The hometown crowd.
And listen, look at the end of this: "And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief."
That's the end of the section here. It's generally true that and that's that's a fascinating statement it's generally true that a prophet in his hometown will receive from them the least honor. But verse 58: he did not do many mighty works there. Why? It's not because he lacked the ability. He chose not to do works there. He chose not to do what he was doing everywhere else. We were just told that their unbelief prevented them from seeing many mighty works. In other words, he will not give anyone something that feeds this kind of mindset. And so they sacrificed themselves seeing his power. The miracles were given to validate and to confirm the Word. They sacrificed it because of this mentality.
And I would say the same thing happens today: when we think a lot like this, we lose the ability to see Christ. The true power that is at work among us now listen in the Word. The true power that is at work among us in the Word. "Blessed are your eyes, for they see." Who do we see?
One of the blessedness of the Christian life is to see and hear the voice of Jesus. The power of Christ, beloved, is not found where we think it's found. I've been trying to say this my whole ministry, and I, I don't i i want to say it in such a way that doesn't cause people to get offended that I'm telling everyone that we're the only church that's doing it right. I never wanted to do that. I probably come off that way sometimes. I've never wanted to do that. But I wanted to make this point: the power is bound up with the message, so that the ability to see Christ is a blessedness that comes to us as we receive that Word as it is in truth, the Word of God, aside from what we have determined makes something valid.
We see Jesus, the veil of the cross. See? As he came to his own town, he wanted for them to embrace his Word. And what was that Word? Well, when you preach, you had the goal that people would have their sins forgiven through a message of power that he was proclaiming in his life, death, and resurrection that by faith and believing in him, they would be saved. You can't see that apart from divine grace. You can't see it.
I want to apply that. What have you experienced as Christians? Well, where his Word is received, there is real power. Where that Word is humbly believed humbly not in pride and judging, trying to find something, trying to find something that I can discredit it Maybe the pastor said a word wrong today. Or just something. We fall in awe at who is speaking to us and what this is: that he made himself nothing, that he took the form of a slave for us, and that humbling himself, he became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. That's what he wants you to hear. What great news! A Word spoken through weak servants. That he continues bumbling servants, we are receiving right here the power of God to save. The message of the cross foolishness to the wisdom of men is the power of God to save.
We've been pressed with different kind of soils: weed and tares, parable of the treasure in the field. And then Jesus said, "A true scribe, out of that treasure, will give you the words of eternal life old and new."
Under the veil of ordinariness, God has sent to us his only begotten Son. He has spoken Gospel to us that we should repent and believe, and made a great announcement to the ends of the earth. And he comes to the hometown crowd and says it: "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life."
Clear everything else away and hear it. Repent. Believe it. When you receive that Word, it's true power in your life. And Jesus is willing to help you. He's coming to the home crowd to help. He was the one who had compassion on people who were as a sheep without a shepherd. Can you accept a Savior who's not great to the world, who's not going to entertain you to death, who's going to confront you with the most pressing issues of life and make you uncomfortable about your sin so that you receive the joy of forgiveness? Can you accept that? Can you accept a Savior who was crucified, beaten, and bloody, and went to the cross because of your sin when he's preached under the veil of ordinariness?
Can you receive that? What do you need? What are you burdened by? What discouragements? What sins? I know some of you are deeply burdened and struggling against sin and wondering if God loves you and wondering where the help is. Well, this is the people who don't get the help because they will not believe him. Jesus came to the hometown crowd and he spoke the truth to them that they might be saved.
Our Lord is so wonderful. He desires to forgive us, demonstrate mercy. The first and most important truth in the Christian Gospel is to know that Jesus is willing because of our sin, to give us mercy and forgive us. The greatest of sinners. The second great truth you must know is that you need it.
May we never be like the hometown crowd difficult critical, complaining, always finding something to discredit what is so powerfully set before us. You won't be able to play the game with him, but may instead we celebrate who has come to us, our Champion, who today has risen victorious over the grave and who is crowned with many crowns as we'll sing, who has given to us the words of eternal life.
So I close with the words of Jesus: "He who has ears, let him hear."
Amen.
Let's pray.
Gracious Lord, thank you for this stirring text, to show us a great problem of the soil of the human heart. May we remove away, by Your grace, all those things that prevent us from hearing. And let us see Jesus. Let us hear the Word that's been spoken to us. And let us respond in faith. Unlike what is shown to us here. May this hometown grouch celebrate their Champion, that He's not just a mere man. He is the Son of God, sent from heaven to earth, and who has risen indeed to deliver us and to show us the mercy that we all need.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.