Recently I took a class centered around the theme of “home.” We discussed questions like, What is home? What happens when you lose your home? How do you find your place within a home? In today’s passage, Jesus finds it hard to be at home again. The community cannot resolve the tension between the carpenter’s son they thought they knew and the prophet who works miracles. Surely this isn’t Mary and Joseph’s son! How can this hometown boy be so eloquent? How can he speak with such authority? Remember all those rumors about his birth?

A veil covers our eyes when we consider a hometown prophet. We do not see clearly. One of two things happens: We either overrate the hometown prophet’s achievements or dismiss them as impossible. The crowd wants Jesus to prove himself with signs and wonders. Why do they need signs and wonders to believe him? For Jesus, this could be a temptation just like in the wilderness. You can almost hear the devil whispering, “Show them what you can do so that they can be proud of you. They want to claim you and say that you belong to them. You will be adored.” But Jesus belongs to God. He never belonged to them.

Sometimes when we live out our calling, we meet the most resistance from the people who know us best. It’s tempting to fall back into familiar roles we once played, like slipping on an old comfortable coat, but God rarely call us to be comfortable. On the contrary, God usually calls us to stretch beyond what we know and what others think they know about us. Our God makes all things new.