The Danger of Familiarity

Matthew 13:53–58 ESV

53 And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, 54 and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” 58 And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

Introduction

Have you ever thought you had a good understanding of something, only to find out later you were ignorant of the matter? What comes to my mind is a story about my friend Mike. Back in my days as a bachelor, my friends and I rented a large house in Jefferson, Maine. One day, we were talking in the kitchen and we discovered that Mike had no idea that pickles were cucumbers. All his life, he had eaten pickles and had enjoyed them. If you had asked him where pickles came from, he would have confidently asserted that they came from the pickle plant—obviously! To his great surprise and dismay—at 23 years old—he discovered the truth: pickles are just cucumbers that have been, well, pickled.

This is a trivial example of an age-old problem: the danger of familiarity. When we become familiar with something, we tend to become uninterested in it. We ask less questions, and we assume more than we ponder and inquire. We see this very problem in the Scripture before us.

I. Nazareth’s Familiarity with Jesus (Matt 13:53-58 & Luke 4:16-30)

What did the Jews in Nazareth know about Jesus? To begin with, he grew up in Nazareth. They knew he was the son of Joseph and Mary. They remembered him as a child. Many of their children grew up playing with him. They knew he had a humble and insignificant upbringing. Most of the town probably thought he was a good man and had respect for him. This is evidenced by the fact that he was allowed to speak in the local synagogue. It is not entirely clear what they were expecting him to say, but they certainly were not prepared to be offended by his words.

Why were the people of Nazareth offended by him? It certainly was NOT because of his miracles, for Luke’s Gospel tells us that they had also heard of the miracles he had done in Capernaum and were eager to see them. The offense came because of the message that he brought to them. In Luke 4, Jesus applies Isaiah 61:1-2 to himself; a passage which was rightly understood by the Jews to be a messianic prophecy. Here is what it says:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; - Isaiah 61:1-2

At first, the Jews in Nazareth were astonished and impressed by how well he presented himself and how clearly he taught. But no sooner had admiration entered their mind than did unbelief begin to take root.

Notice what they said to themselves: “Is not this the carpenter’s son?”. Their reaction says it all. These Jews thought they knew Jesus already, and messiah was not part of his bio. Carpenter? Sure. Gifted teacher? Of course. Good man? Without a doubt. But messiah? One could hardly imagine how a poor carpenter’s son from Nazareth could be the messiah of God; the one who would liberate them from the Roman Empire. They were too familiar with him; or so they thought.

Their central problem was unbelief. We see this in Matthew 13:58, which says, “He did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief”.

How did they justify their unbelief? By what they thought they knew about him. Instead of taking Jesus at his word, they relied on their own pre-conceived notions to determine the worth of his person and the truthfulness of his words. They were familiar with him, and this led to the arrogant assumption that they already knew everything there was to know about the man.

Ironically, this familiarity was ignorant and shallow at best. It was only a perceived familiarity. In order to see Jesus for who he really was, it would take humility, trust, and contentment; the likes of which were not to be found in most of the Jews in that day.

II. The Church’s Familiarity with Jesus

Let us be quick to remember, however, that this shallow familiarity is not merely a Jewish problem of the past; it is a human nature problem in all ages. We in the Christian Church are just as liable to fall prey to this sin as any Jew in the 1st century was. Listen to what the late Anglican Bishop, J.C. Ryle, has to say about our passage:

Expository Thoughts on Matthew Matthew 13:51–58: Christ’s Treatment in His Own Country,—Danger of Unbelief

Let us see, in this history, a melancholy page of human nature unfolded to our view. We are all apt to despise mercies, if we are accustomed to them, and have them cheap. The Bibles and religious books, which are so plentiful in England, the means of grace of which we have so abundant a supply, the preaching of the Gospel which we hear every week,—all, all are liable to be undervalued. It is mournfully true that in religion, more than in anything else, “familiarity breeds contempt.” Men forget that truth is truth, however old and hackneyed it may sound, and despise it because it is old. Alas! by so doing, they provoke God to take it away.

Do we wonder that the relations, servants, and neighbors of godly people are not always converted? Do we wonder that the parishioners of eminent ministers of the Gospel are often their hardest and most impenitent hearers? Let us wonder no more. Let us mark the experience of our Lord at Nazareth, and learn wisdom.

Do we ever fancy that if we had only seen and heard Jesus Christ, we should have been His faithful disciples? Do we think that if we had only lived near Him, and been eyewitnesses of His ways, we should not have been undecided, wavering, and half-hearted about religion? If we do, let us think so no longer. Let us observe the people of Nazareth, and learn wisdom.

Here in our land, we still have much Christian light shed on us. Many of us grew up in the Christian faith. We were taught the Bible, instructed on how to pray, warned to flee from sin, and were given the message of forgiveness found in Christ. Yet how many of us took these blessings for granted? I certainly did in my earlier years. My affections were rarely stirred with thankfulness for these things during those days and I would venture to say that some in this room are experiencing that same coldness and apathy right now.

We must be careful, however, not to conclude that familiarity in-and-of itself is the problem. Familiarity is fundamentally a good thing. We are clearly commanded to teach the truths of our Faith to others; particularly to our children. We want them to be familiar with Christ and his teachings. Ignorance is no virtue, especially when it comes to the things of God.

At the heart of the mater, then, familiarity is only dangerous when coupled with unbelief. Before we talk about the solution to this pervasive issue, let us consider one other passage of Scripture that speaks to unbelief.

Hebrews 3:7–4:2 ESV

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ” 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. 1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

Notice that the God says, “They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways”. These people did not know God’s ways in the truest sense, but they did “know” his ways in a superficial sense. They fully aware of the stories of their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were miraculously delivered from Egypt. They were provided mana in the morning, quail in the evening, and gushes of fresh water from a rock on a few occasions. They received the Law of God from Moses. Thus, they were familiar with God, his works, and his word, but this familiarity did not benefit them. Why? Because of unbelief.

They had every reason to believe and obey The Lord. The Jews in the wilderness knew the truth, but they went astray in their hearts because of unbelief. Most of them did not personally embrace the truth and submit themselves to it.

The author of this passage in Hebrews is taking the story of Israel’s unbelief in the wilderness and applying it to the Christians of his day. In his day, the Jewish Christians were being tempted to abandon Christianity and go back to Judaism, because it appeared easier than being a Christian, considering the persecution and cultural pressures. However, if they returned, they would be slaves to sin and the Law, similar to how the Jews were slaves in Egypt yet were tempted to go back when they were in the wilderness.

For you Christian, take great care, lest there be in you an evil, unbelieving heart that leads you to abandon the living God. Don’t allow yourself to become like the Jews in the wilderness. Take a look at all that God has done for you, particularly in his Son, Jesus. Look at the blessings he has given you in this life and the life to come. Respond with gratitude in your heart. Take what you know in your mind and guide it to your heart, to your mouth, and finally to your hands.

Be painfully aware of your tendency to go astray in your heart and go to battle on your knees, in prayer. Read the Bible and don’t close it until you have fought to stir your affections for Christ. Then go and carry out what you have read, with gratitude and humility.

III. Modern Apostates’ Familiarity with Jesus

I would be doing this church a disservice if I did not bring up the glaring problem in our day of people putting false words in Jesus’ mouth.

In the West, because of our Christian heritage, most people have a residual respect for Jesus; a kind of warm sentimentalism. Though, it is more of an admiration of the “idea” of Jesus than of Jesus himself.

It is discouraging to see how often people manipulate the “idea of Jesus” to bring about their evil ends. Whether it be gay activism, feminism, unruly political ideologies, or heresy, there is no shortage in our day of this wicked method. But this problem of dressing evil things in Christian garb is not new.

Exodus 32:1–6 ESV

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Notice particularly what Aaron said in response to this idolatry: “Tomorrow shall be a feast to YAHWEH”. False worship was disguised by throwing the true God’s name on it. God had just finished giving them the 10 Commandments just a few chapters earlier, the first three of which were broken in this one act.

Let this be a warning that our thoughts about God and his Law must come from what he has revealed in the Scriptures. We cannot rely on our own perceived familiarity with God and his commands. Otherwise, we are in danger of fashioning God in our own image, rather that us being fashioned into His, and thus incur eternal condemnation.

Conclusion

Don’t allow your unbelief to hi-jack your familiarity with the Christian Faith. Instead, though faith, let the familiarity be a blessing.

Expository Thoughts on Matthew Matthew 13:51–58: Christ’s Treatment in His Own Country,—Danger of Unbelief

There are three great enemies against which God’s children should daily pray,—pride, worldliness, and unbelief. Of these three, none is greater than unbelief.