I Was Once More Rejected in My Home Town

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

November 1, 2019

I Was Once More Rejected in My Home Town

Page 177

Matthew 13:53b-58; Mark 6:1-6a

In today’s reading, we learn that most of Jesus’ hometown still sees him as the carpenter’s son, not the Messiah. The text gives us the names of some of Jesus’ siblings, including James, and this prepares us for the rest of the story. The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:7 that after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to James. We learn in the Book of Acts that James becomes a leader of the Christian church in Jerusalem, and he writes the Book of James, the 20th book in the New Testament. Jesus has taught us about planting seeds and giving the seed time to grow. James is an example of Jesus’ teaching in Mark 4:8, “Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

However, in that same parable, 75% of the seeds do not produce a crop. We have no information about Jesus’ other three brothers, or his sisters. Perhaps they came to faith in Jesus, perhaps not. This periscope into Jesus’ family illustrates two important truths for the followers of Jesus. First, “God shows no favoritism” (Acts 10:34). Each person stands alone before God, equal in His eyes as any other person in the world. We each get to “work out (our) own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12 NRSV).

Learning to be satisfied only with the sufficiency of God’s grace is the second truth. We all desperately strive to be loved, to be accepted, and to have a sense that our life matters. All of us want adulation and respect from our family and friends. When those needs are not met through our interactions with the culture, let us always rest in the truth of God’s love for us.

My Takeaway: Because of Christ's redemption, we are a new creation of infinite worth. We are deeply loved, we are completely forgiven, and we are totally accepted by God. We are absolutely complete in Christ. When our performance reflects our new identity in Christ, that reflection is dynamically unique. There has never been another person like us in the history of mankind, nor will there ever be. God has made us an original, one of a kind, a special person. Amen!

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.