OUR FATHER WHO SENT HIS ONLY SON TO HIS OWN PEOPLE BUT HIS OWN RECEIVED HIM NOT

Reaching the end of the teaching of parables, the Lord Jesus travelled back to His hometown and began teaching and ministering there. The end of Matthew chapter 13, going from verses 53 - 58, records that people were astonished at His wise understanding of the scriptures and the supernatural signs that followed Him.

It was incongruous to the people because they knew His family and He was not from an exotic foreign country but rather, He and His humble family lived among them and were well know to them and as a result, they were offended at what Jesus was presuming to do in their midst.

53 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. 54 When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” 57 So they were offended at Him.

But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” 58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

The Lord explained to them the phenomenon of people tending to treat prophets with honor as long as they were not familiar members of their own communities. 

The sad effect of this was that the people, because of their familiarity with the Lordˋs family, had little faith and their unbelief resisted the occurence of miracles and so only a few supernatural works happened there.

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