On one particular sabbath day when Jesus was visiting his family in Nazareth, Jesus went to the synagogue and got up and began to teach. The story tells us that the people were amazed at what he was saying. But then they started connecting the dots. “Isn’t this Mary and Joseph’s son?” And then they remembered his brothers, James, Junior, Judas and Simon and his sisters, who might have actually been there by the way, and they found it pretty hard to match what Jesus was doing with the family that they knew. Makes you wonder if there was a reputation to overcome here. I prefer to think that Jesus was learning that when he goes home he should just be his own ordinary self. No matter what your importance in the eyes of the world, families and old friends are there to keep you from becoming too full of yourself. They keep you humble, and humble is good.
Mark 6: 1-6