Jesus Returns Home

Luke 4:14-30
This past weekend I returned to my hometown for a family funeral. As I paid my respects with other friends and family, I experienced what is for me a recurring hometown phenomenon: "oh, you are all grown up!" or "that's Dr. Sandin's son."  Now I realize they all mean well and I am not particularly insulted by anything they have said, but every time I return home and see people it always like I am still a boy and have never left.  To come home after establishing yourself as professional, a leader, a parent, an adult it can be frustrating to feel that in their eyes perhaps nothing has changed. I think this is how Jesus felt when he returned home to Nazareth.
When Jesus returns home he goes to the synagogue and stands to read. He is handed the prophet Isaiah and he chooses to read a passage about the coming messiah.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19

After reading this hopeful and powerful text about how the coming messiah will liberate the oppressed he does something remarkable; he tells them that he is the one who will do this.  Jesus says: "today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (v.21) He is revealing his true identity to those who know him best, to those who have watched him grow up, and most likely the people Jesus feels the most for.  Their reaction?

All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” Luke 4:22

 

Rather than respond to the content of what he said, which was remarkable and powerful, they thought he spoke well which surprised since he was the son of a carpenter.  At this point Jesus realized that he would not be accepted in his hometown and compares them to faithless generations from the past and is summarily run out of town.
The transformation that Jesus goes through from the power of Spirit is such that he is no longer the same person who grew up in Nazareth as Joseph's son.  His self-understanding and identity now rest in God's plan for his life.  He is frustrated to be taken so lightly. So it is with each of us when God has been working in our lives.  When God is at work in your life you become transformed and become the person you were created to be. I am no longer the same person who grew up in Ashland.  God has been working on me and changing my heart. It is much easier to be received in a new place that an old place because once people have an opinion or understanding of you it is difficult for them to see you differently. 
In the end, I suppose we need to offer one another grace in such situations. For just as they might think of you as having not changed we are probably thinking they haven't changed either. We should however remain open-minded and hopeful when we meet old friends that God has been working in their lives.  It ultimately matters less what others think of us and much more about what God thinks of us and how we see ourselves.  If we depend on the recognition and affirmation of others for our self-esteem we will always feel frustrated and misunderstood.  But if we truly find our identity as child of God then we know that no matter what anyone might think of us we can rest secure in who we truly are.