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Jesus had been working around the countryside and doing many miracles in Capernaum. Now, He was home in Nazareth for a visit.

A stop in at the synagogue on the Sabbath was high on the agenda. Jesus either asked to speak or someone asked Him to speak.

At first His listeners were amazed by His words. Then they started mumbling around, “… Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” (Lk. 4: 22 NLT).

So, Jesus said, “… no prophet is accepted in his own hometown!” (Lk. 4: 24 NLT). That is when His listeners got hot under the collar.

Isn’t it easy for us to say, “I wouldn’t do anything like that! I wouldn’t react the way the people of Nazareth reacted. I would have known Jesus. And I wouldn’t have gone off the deep end because I was given a history lesson.”

But don’t we react the same way sometimes? We can’t see Jesus face to face any more, but don’t we still deny that it is Him talking to us sometimes?

When the Holy Spirit tells us God’s plans for our lives, sometimes we flat out deny it is Him talking to us. We say that we’ve had a hair-brained idea that will never work.

Other times, we may say it is the Holy Spirit talking to us, but we are still unsure. Time to get out the fleece (Judg. 6: 36-37).

Worse yet, sometimes we admit it is Him, but we just plain refuse to do what He is asking us to do.

The Nazarites had known Jesus since He was a pup. Sure, there had been some stories circulating around about the events of His birth, but they’d seen Him grow up.

The townspeople had gone to the market place with Him. They had even traveled to Jerusalem with Him when He was twelve. He may have even made some of the furniture that was in their houses. They knew this kid.

Then, Jesus tells the people of Nazareth about what everyone else had done. “But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown” (Lk. 4: 24 NLT).

How dare Jesus compare them to everyone else! Especially when the description fits so perfectly.

Aren’t we like that? Heaven help the person who calls things as they are!

When we have something we want to deny and hide, and someone points it out, don’t we get furious? It would be so much easier to gloss over it or just deny it altogether. But when we get caught and, worse yet, a big deal is made about it, we get furious.

If we do hide things, do we ever deal with them? If no one else sees them, then we just bury them, so people won’t have to know how things really are.

We get really good at putting up a front. It is almost like our lives are a play, and we are just actors pretending to be something we really aren’t.

You know, God has this knack of bringing things out, so we have to deal with them. He goes through every nook and cranny of our lives and pulls out everything we want to keep to ourselves.

But God has a reason for doing that. He is doing it for our own good. He is trying to help us.

God is just trying the replace our earthly nature with His heavenly nature. So back to the original question. Are we much different?

Dear Lord. You are so good at finding things we want to keep hidden. You see things in us that are keeping us from perfect relationships with You. Bring them out into the open, no matter how painful it will be to deal with them. We know You will help us through, and we know we will be better Christians because of it. Amen.