adminIf a person comes from a poor background, they hardly apportion any respect or honour to that person. Honour is a perception of life that we are losing in today’s value-free society.
Very few people seem to have any idea of honour either in their daily lives, relationships, work area and in church.
The Webster’s Dictionary defines “honour” as: “ . . . official dignity, repute or esteem. Greek word translated “honour” means “to praise or to revere.” It has its origin in a Greek word meaning “valuable.’’ In fact the Greek word for “without honour” literally means “no value.”
This week I am looking at the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew focusing on verse 54 through to 58. There are parallels in Mark and Luke Gospels for this story.
Verse 54 says: “Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue and they were amazed. Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked.
Verse 55 says: “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?
Verse 56 says: “Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”
Verse 57: “And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honour except in his own town and in his own home.’”
Verse 58: “And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”
Jesus travelled to Nazareth where everybody knew him as the carpenter’s son. And his neighbours and those who know him are astonished at the identity he reveals through his teaching.
How can he have such insights? How can he be so different from the person they knew as the carpenter’s son?
My study bible stated that “they are offended because they can do none of his works and they are unwilling to accept a far greater role and dignity for him.”
What is important is to understand their disbelief, and that they took offence.
Today, it is not surprising that modern Christians are not any different from Jesus contemporaries.
Jesus’ contemporaries decided to give honour according to society standards. Jesus as our Lord and Saviour was accepted by some and rejected by others. But more often than not those people who rejected Jesus were those closest to Him. Many heroes were relegated to the dustbin of history because of who they were yesterday.
People knew you as a nobody in seminary, college or school.
You neither played sport nor were you involved in student leadership as a prefect or monitor and it will be difficult for them to see you in their imagination as a prophet, a Member of Parliament or a CEO of a company in Zimbabwe let alone in neighbouring countries.
Their minds are fixated on what they think you are and not what God has made you to be. It is in the bible that Jesus of Nazareth had to leave Nazareth where He grew up because the people rejected Him and wanted to kill Him. The Nazarenes were astonished by His wisdom and miraculous abilities.
They ask among themselves: Was Jesus not the carpenter’s son? Was He not the son of Mary? They went on to mention the names of his siblings. Do you see what I see here? I see the sin of familiarity? Because they grew up with Jesus in Nazareth, they could not grasp a new identity God had given Him.
Similarly, God has raised men and women of valour of the calibre of Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa among others and yet many are struggling in seeing that. Modern day Christians can have fixations with DNAs and family patterns. The people you grew up with are busy fighting you instead of embracing what God has given you.
The second thing that I have noticed among Christians’ journey is disbelief. The people of Nazareth were blessed by God to have one of their own with such an anointing, but unbelief locked them in stagnation. No wonder why most Christians fail to experience miracles because they do not believe in the power God has invested in His servants the prophets.
The people of Nazareth wanted miracles, but disbelief in their spirits was a serious handicap.
Amazingly, as happened to the people of Nazareth, the people of Capernaum heard with their own ears and refused to believe and miracles escaped them. Today, we face the same parallels in our Christian lives. Jesus was never valued or appreciated by His own people in Nazareth. Unbelief is a huge satanic policeman that has kept us away from our Promised Land.
One other issue that needs to be attended to is jealous. It affects faith seriously. For people in churches, they do not believe a fellow prophet can be anointed in such a way that he or she can perform signs and wonders. I have seen pastors in various churches poke fun or criticise prophets whom God has elevated.
It’s a simple disease called jealous that needs deliverance to cast it out and that pastor will be on his or her way to doing the same signs and wonders in Jesus name!
Unfortunately, familiarity breeds contempt. As one revivalist comments that we find sinners unwilling to believe in what God has sent. “It is not mere ignorance that hinders men, but that, of their own accord, they search after grounds of offence, to prevent them from following the path to which God invites.”
Amazingly, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ summarised it all for us: “A prophet is not without honour except in his own town and in his own home.”
Pastor Rukwati serves at United Family International Church
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