St Matthew, Chapter 13, verses: 53 - 54, Christ teaching in his own country

Our paragraph topic is:  (Jesus at Nazareth) Part 1.   

Christ has finished teaching in parables.  He has finished talking in stories.  He leaves the people and he and his disciples move on from that place.  And as St Matthew tells us in his gospel,  And it came to pass when Jesus had finished these parables, that he set out from that place.  And when he had come to his own country, he began to teach them in their synagogues. 

So Christ has moved on from the multitudes that met him in the countryside.  He has traveled on from the hundreds and thousands who came to see him, to touch him, to be healed by him.  Now he seeks his own in the synagogues and villages where he grew up.  For they knew him as a child.  They watched him play in the streets.  They knew of his brothers and sisters.  They knew his parents Mary and Joseph.  And they saw him as an ordinary child.  They did not see him as a teacher.  They did not see him as a prophet.  They did not see him as a man of wisdom.  For he was just an ordinary child.  They did not see him as the Messiah.  For they could only see him as an ordinary person.

And they were astonished when he taught.  They were unbelieving when they heard him speak.  They were unknowing when they heard his words of wisdom, for they knew him as an ordinary man.  They did not see him as a miracle worker.  They did not see him as a man of God.  They did not see him as the Son of God because they could only see him as an ordinary man.  Some were proud.  Some were learned.  Some were educated.  Some were wealthy.  Some were wise.  Some were prudent.  And many were just ordinary people.  But they could not believe that this man, this ordinary person, this miracle worker, came from their village, from their town, from their midst with the knowledge of the kingdom.   So they were astonished, and said, "How did this man come by this wisdom and  these miracles?"

They only saw him as an ordinary man.  They did not believe.  They did not understand.  They could not see.  For astonishment had taken their eyes.  Astonishment had taken their ears.  Astonishment had taken their hearts and they could not believe.  Walk in the way of the Lord and astonishment will come on your hills.  It will affect the people closest to you.  It will close their eyes and block their ears that they will not hear the message of the kingdom.  For they see you as the person.  They see the liar, the thief, the adulterer, the cheat, the blasphemer.  But, they do not see the Christ in you.  For it is Christ who transforms us.  It is Christ who heals us.  It is Christ who delivers us from the bondage of Satan.  It is Christ that gives us new life in him that we may no longer be that which we were.  They will say, "How did this man come by this wisdom?"  They will say how is it that this man performs these miracles?"  Will you become a miracle worker for Christ?  Come!  Be transformed by Christ that you may have his wisdom.