Unwelcome

Author: Joseph

Date: September 27, 2020

The ministry of Yeshua brought Him many places. He went wherever the Father had planned for Him and He performed the good works of the kingdom everywhere He went. Along His ministry, Yeshua returned to Nazareth, back to the town of His youth where He was brought up by Joseph and Mary.

Yeshua taught in the synagogue and the people of his hometown were amazed at His wisdom and the miracles He performed. Sadly, however, instead of listening to the good news He was preaching and praising God for His miracles, they doubted Him and did not trust the validity of His good works. They reasoned, “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” among many other doubting accusations (Matthew 13:55). God’s ministry to the people of Nazareth was hindered by the peoples’ lack of faith and by their taking offense at the preaching of the good news.

The people of Nazareth knew that Mary, who gave birth to Yeshua, had other children after Yeshua and that they were just ordinary people. They also likely knew the family’s lowly status, as Joseph, the father of the household, was a carpenter. The family Yeshua grew up with was like any other common family, yet the people did not recognize the significance of who Yeshua was and His ministry. Instead of recognizing God through Yeshua, the people focused on the human aspect of who Yeshua was, and therefore, took offense that He would be preaching and performing miracles which seemed to have the authority of God. To the people of Nazareth, Yeshua was pretending to be more than who He actually was because they could not understand how He gained such wisdom and power.

Because of their unbelief, Yeshua chose not to do many works that demonstrated God’s power among them. Why would He spend time doing such things when they were faithless to believe in Him? The more He preached the good news and performed kingdom works, the more they despised Him. The peoples’ hearts were hardened and they were unwilling to hear His message and accept God’s kingdom.

Believers also face the same resistance when preaching the good news and even more so when they are led by God to perform kingdom works. We are called “intolerant,” and wrongly criticized for calling people to repent from sin and receive salvation through God. We are accused of being “self-righteous,” even though we are well aware that God alone makes us righteous and that we obey His commandments because we now live for Him and not ourselves. (Our obedience to God can be very difficult in a world full of sinful temptations and deceitful teachings, so to do so takes great reliance on God, not ourselves – it is anything but self-righteous). We are called “fools,” because we believe in God, instead of believing in people and their ideas. This world would rather honor themselves (and their ideas) because they love pride and despise honoring God and seeking His glory instead of their own, which requires humility. Our message of the good news and God’s kingdom is mocked as a “fantasy” that will never come to fulfilment, meanwhile the world’s false hopes are spouted as absolute truth (wealth, fame, success, gratification, etc.).

God is unwelcome in this world and we, as His disciples, are therefore, also unwelcome. Just as Yeshua was rejected by His hometown, so are we rejected by the world we live in. His preaching was hated, so will ours be. His kingdom works were dismissed or mocked, so will our good works which God has given us to do. We are unwelcome.

"...we must go out into the world and face our opposition without hesitation."

This world will reject us and treat us as unwelcome, but we must not stop preaching the good news and doing kingdom works. Just as Yeshua still returned to His hometown knowing the resistance and persecution He would face, so we must go out into the world and face our opposition without hesitation. We are unwelcome, but that does not change who we are in God and our ability through His enabling to serve Him and do good.

Matthew 13:53-58