We know that Jesus didn’t always hang out in His hometown of Nazareth. He traveled, living life among His followers, attracting crowds wherever He went.

Hungry souls gathered around, waiting to be nourished by The Word.

During His ministry, He found himself back home. Doing what He did everywhere else He taught people in the synagogue. Many were amazed.

Others weren’t so amazed. They saw Him as merely a carpenter. One who had lived and worked among them at an earlier time but surely not anything more than that.

Folks were unwilling to see Jesus as anointed. They buried their heads in the past, unable to receive who He was in their midst.

They believed He was wise.
They witnessed His miracles.

They just couldn’t let go of the old ways to make way for the ministry He brought to them.

They couldn’t see Jesus as anything more than a carpenter’s son and perhaps His own reputation as a carpenter. They were only able to connect with the old and left no room for the new.

I imagine someone nowadays saying, “Hey Jesus, those miracles are nice and everything, you certainly have a way with words. Your teachings are wise and all but we have this communion table over here that needs to be fixed. That’s really your gift isn’t it?”

Oh how we shuffle our feet during worship when a new song in introduced. When our church shifts ministry direction or a new staff member is brought on board, do we cling to the old?

Matthew 13 tells us that when Jesus visited, even in the presence of solid teaching and miracles in their midst, they didn’t accept Him because they could only see the surface. They only related to the past.

The very last verse made me pause,  “Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”

How often do we miss His mighty works because we don’t believe Jesus is who He is? Why oh why do we cease to welcome Him because we only see what He did in our past?

I want to let Jesus in today! Let us not only be open but let us actively invite Him in to shake things up. Let Him pour miracles through our homes and lives and our hearts.

Let’s be open to the miracles in the lives of others. Let go of the destructive bitterness that plants us into the old, rocky soil of yesterday.

The soil is fresh, it’s been tilled and ready. With seeds of love, forgiveness, hope and grace we can grow something new.