How difficult it was for the locals who had known Jesus while he was growing up to accept him as the messiah he had come to be. When he started speaking to them in ways which were unfamiliar to them, they couldn't comprehend. It was much easier for him to go into and area where he was a stranger and his reputation preceded him. There, he would enter like a rock star. But in his home town, to say he came down from heaven, when his parents' friends knew better was too much. They couldn't get their heads around the abstract nature of his language. Metaphor was lost to them. But more than this, the idea that such transformation could occur in someone they thought they knew was beyond them.
Have you ever had profound transformation in your life only for your friends and family to not believe you, or to treat you more like your old self than your new self? It's a difficult thing. It's so difficult, in fact, that the fear of being misunderstood or not believed has the power to keep us from making major life change in the first place. When we leave who we were behind, we fear that people will reject the "new us" we become. The fear is valid and warranted. It takes people some time to adjust, but they do. Don't fear to make the changes you need to make to be the authentic person God created you to be. The sooner you do, the sooner you'll be free to be the you God created.
Readings: 1 Samuel 8:1-9:27; John 6:22-42; Psalm 106:32-48; Proverbs 14:34-35
