This quotation simply spells out for us that our worth is not defined by how others see us or how often we may be rejected. It inspires us to maintain our self-esteem and confidence, knowing that our true value comes from within. When we understand this, we can face rejection with grace and resilience, allowing it not to define us.
This is what is happening to Jesus who has returned to his home of Nazareth where people knew him so well as the son of Mary and Joseph. He had left Nazareth as a carpenter but now he comes as a great teacher and a miracle worker. For his village-mates this was too much for them. Someone they had known so well now displaying great wisdom in the words he spoke and the great power of his deeds. He is able to heal and chase demons from people. It was to much for the simple people of Nazareth to grasp, leave alone to wrap themselves around it. Jesus was too ordinary, too much like them to be taken seriously. While Jesus could not do any miracle or preach there, this did not deter him from continuing to preach in other places.
At one time or another we have all experienced the challenges of not being fully accepted by those who are very close to us, especially if our lives have taken a new and inspiring direction. People who knew us as simple, ordinary people probably with no recognizable or substantive accomplishment to show, when we turn up as figures imbued with authority, power, positions of stature they likely to become skeptical. The gospel reading shows that people of Jesus’ hometown were struggling along the same lines trying to reconcile their familiarity with Jesus as a local figure with His emerging identity as a teacher and a miracle worker. Normally they say “familiarity breeds contempt.”
God chose to come to us in and through someone who is like us in all things but sin. Yet Jesus had much more to him than the people of Nazareth were aware of.
He was not just son of a carpenter; he was the Word who was God become flesh as all of us are flesh. God chose to come to them and all of us in and through someone who was like us. His life and teaching are but an expression that God who speaks to us in and through the simple and ordinary people.
We can all get caught up in some biases that can easily prevent us to experience the good in those around us, much less miss out on the blessings there of.
The reading is a caution for us on the dangers of letting our biased perceptions cloud our judgements. The people of Nazareth, rather than embracing Jesus’ teachings with open hearts, quickly questioned Jesus’ origins. They struggled with the idea that someone so familiar could possess extraordinary power and insights. Their unbelief caused them to miss out on the opportunity to witness His power at work.
We are invited to examine our own biases and perceptions while remaining open to the extraordinary, even when it comes from those who are so familiar to us. As we live our Christian life, to cultivate a deeper faith that, God who created us in his image he invites us to be his true witnesses to his teaching. We are worth more than any rejection that might comes our way.