What we know kills what we could know!

Mat 13:53-58

53 When Jesus finished telling these stories, he left there, 54 returned to his hometown, and gave a lecture in the meetinghouse. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. "We had no idea he was this good!" they said. "How did he get so wise, get such ability?" 55 But in the next breath they were cutting him down: "We've known him since he was a kid; he's the carpenter's son. We know his mother, Mary. We know his brothers James and Joseph, Simon and Judas. 56 All his sisters live here. Who does he think he is?" 57 They got their noses all out of joint. 58 But Jesus said, "A prophet is taken for granted in his hometown and his family." He didn't do many miracles there because of their hostile indifference.

Food for thought

It is said that the weight of what we know, especially what we collectively know, kills all innovation. What we know of other people is many times lethal to what we can know about them. Our former education, our former experiences, our past, our memories is many times our greatest enemy. This is what happened in today's gospel reading.

Everything was going on well, until past knowledge came in. The people were getting impressed, "We had no idea he was this good!" they said. "How did he get so wise, get such ability?" Then, they remembered Jesus: "We've known him since he was a kid; he's the carpenter's son. We know his mother, Mary. We know his brothers James and Joseph, Simon and Judas. All his sisters live here. Who does he think he is?"

Many of us are victims of our memories, our past experiences. Our past education, meant to help us master what is new (as Jesus taught us yesterday), can be completely at odds with learning new things. This is why the more we grow old the harder we learn. Or as they say, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Indeed, familiarity breeds contempt. Some of us have grown to old, not in years, but in ideas. When did you last read a book on anything?

What happened to Jesus in today's gospel is a lesson to us. In any church service the congregation preaches more than half the sermon. The congregation brings an atmosphere with it. That atmosphere is either a barrier through which the preacher's word cannot penetrate; or else it is such an expectancy that even the poorest sermon becomes a living flame.

Again, we should not judge a man by his background and his family connections, but by what he is. Many a message has been killed stone dead, not because there was anything wrong with it; but because the minds of the hearers were so prejudiced against the messenger that it never had a chance. When we meet together to listen to the word of God, we must come with eager expectancy, and must think, not of the man who speaks, but of what he speaks to us.