Lenten Devotion: See the True Authority (Matthew 13.54-58)
Day 13 – 19 Mar 2025
And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour except in his hometown and in his own household.” And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. Matthew 13:57-58
The people of Nazareth were familiar with who Jesus was. They knew who his parents and siblings were, and they knew who he was. Yet, when he appeared to them and started to teach them, they were astonished by his wisdom, teaching and power. They acknowledged his mighty works, but they thought of him as someone being too common to be the real Messiah. They took offense (v57) at him.
The familiarity of Jesus led them not to believe who he really is. They lacked spiritual vision as they saw things in an earthly way did not recognise God’s working. They downplayed the evidence of what Jesus had done and chose to focus on their previous knowledge of him.
- Do we choose not to believe the truth that someone is telling us?
- Is this unbelief masked behind the familiarity that we have towards people who are human instruments of God?
- Is our unbelief due to the fact that these human instruments may not be perfect?
God’s human instrument can be anyone in our lives: our parents, our siblings, our spouses, our bosses, etc. We honour God by recognising His authority behind the human person used to relay His messages to us. To refuse them is to refuse God.
May God open our spiritual eyes to see that it is His authority behind every true messenger of His.
Jasmine Tan🙏✝️