The people of Nazareth find Jesus too familiar to take seriously. How can this son-of-a-carpenter make these kinds of demands on us?
It’s a perennial temptation. The more familiar Jesus becomes, the more we’re apt to blunt the force of His radical demands: The Jesus I know wouldn’t ask me to sell all to gain the kingdom. My Jesus doesn’t ask for a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees.
All of us are potential Nazarenes.
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