Matthew 13:54-58

Jeremiah 26:1-9

Psalm 69:5, 8-10, 14

Matthew 13:54-58

Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue.

They were astonished and said,

“Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?

Is he not the carpenter’s son?

Is not his mother named Mary

and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?

Are not his sisters all with us?

Where did this man get all this?”

And they took offense at him.

But Jesus said to them,

“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place

and in his own house.”

And he did not work many mighty deeds there

because of their lack of faith.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I contemplate today the mystery of the rejection of your Son in his hometown of Nazareth. I pray that I never take offense at Jesus and always welcome him into my life. I believe, Lord, help my faith grow and flourish.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Rejection of Jeremiah: When King Jehoiakim was installed as the vassal king of Judah in 609 B.C., Jeremiah took center stage in Jerusalem by preaching his famous “Temple Sermon” (Jeremiah 7:1-15, 26:2-19). Like the prophets who ministered before him, Jeremiah taught that ritual sacrifice without obedience to God and injustice to neighbor provoke God’s wrath. This is why Jeremiah preaches that God will destroy the Temple in Jerusalem just as he had obliterated the sanctuary at Shiloh (see Amos 2:6-4:12; Hosea 4:1-19; Micah 7:1-7) (see Duggan, The Consuming Fire, 295). The reference to Shiloh refers back to the time of the Judges, to the centuries before King David, when the Ark of the Covenant was housed at Shiloh, the de factocapital of Israel at the time. After the Ark was captured in battle by the Philistines and given back to the Israelites some months later, it was taken to Kirjath-jearim for twenty years. King David moved the Ark to the house of Obed-edom for three months and then brought it to Jerusalem, where his son, Solomon, built the Temple. However, during the time of Jeremiah, the city of Shiloh lay in ruins. The punishment for Jerusalem’s disobedience, idolatry, and injustice would be the destruction of the Temple and the city just as Shiloh was destroyed. The people did not want to listen to Jeremiah’s prophesy and laid hold of him, crying out that he should be put to death for speaking against the temple, the house of the Lord. 

2. The Rejection of Jesus, the New Jeremiah: In this way, Jeremiah prefigures Jesus Christ, who foretells the destruction of the Second Temple. Jesus said: “Amen I say to you, there will not be left here a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down” (Matthew 24:1-3). Like Jeremiah, Jesus was arrested and put on trial by priests who demanded his death. False witnesses accused Jesus of saying that he could destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days (Matthew 26:61). They confused his words and did not know that he was speaking about the temple of his body (John 2:19-21). Jesus was also rejected by the Nazoreans, his countrymen, in today’s Gospel. Jesus came to his native place and taught in the synagogue. This time, the people were not amazed in a positive way, but rather in a negative way and took offense at Jesus. They could not believe that the humble carpenter who they had known for so many years was able to speak wisdom and perform mighty deeds. Jesus is the prophet-like-Moses who is greater than Moses. Like the prophets of old, which include Jeremiah, Jesus was not honored in his native place and in his own house.

3. The Lack of Faith in Jesus: Jesus was able to do some mighty deeds in Nazareth, but not many. This was due to the people’s lack of faith. “The word for lack of faith is literally ‘unbelief,’ a word Matthew uses only to describe those who oppose and reject Jesus. When the apostles struggled in faith, they are called ‘men of little faith’ (6:30), whereas the people in Jesus’ hometown are outright unbelievers who take offense at him and reject him” (Mitch and Sri, The Gospel of Matthew, 185). Throughout our lives, we will at times struggle to believe and love as we ought. This is something the saints in the Gospel teach us. We will struggle. But, at the same time, we pray that we do not lose the gift of our faith and reject Jesus like the Nazoreans and the religious leaders of Israel.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, I see how the people of your hometown took offense at you. Instead of believing in your words of wisdom and deeds of power, they rejected you. I pray that I do not reject you in my life. Do not let me choose the path of sin or reject the way that leads to eternal life with you.

Living the Word of God: When we preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, we too will sometimes encounter opposition and be rejected like Jeremiah and Jesus. On that day, we are not to worry about what we are to say, for the Holy Spirit will teach us and give us the words we are to say (Matthew 10:19; Luke 12:11-12). As the psalmist sings, we will bear insult and rejection for the sake of the Lord. The risen, glorified body of Jesus is the New Temple of God, and our zeal for this Temple, the Body of Christ, consumes us. We pray that God help us with his grace and favor in our mission to announce his Kingdom. We pray also that men and women do not reject Jesus, but rather welcome him and his reign.