<p>13:54&nbsp;<em>And coming into his hometown he taught them in</em>- The fact Jesus had a&nbsp;<em>patria</em>&nbsp;is an eloquent essay in His humanity. His physical origins were earthly; He didn&rsquo;t literally come down from Heaven, having been a pre-existent being there.</p>
<p><em>Their synagogue-</em>&nbsp;The Mosaic feasts are described in the OT as &ldquo;feasts of the Lord&rdquo;, but in John as &ldquo;the feast of the Jews&rdquo;. We have the same idea here in the reference to the synagogues as&nbsp;<em>theirs</em>. The Jews had hijacked&nbsp;<em>God&rsquo;s</em>&nbsp;religion and turned it into their own, just as &ldquo;the table&nbsp;<em>of the Lord</em>&rdquo; has been turned effectively into &lsquo;our table&rsquo; by so many who profess to be mere guests at that table. Matthew repeatedly speaks of<em> their</em>&nbsp;synagogue (Mt. 4:23; 9:35; 10:17; 12:9), and also of the &lsquo;synagogues of the hypocrites&rsquo; (Mt. 6:2,5; 23:6,34)- not the synagogues of God.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>So much so that they were astonished</em>- The Gospels emphasize how people were astonished at the Lord's&nbsp;<em>doctrine / teaching</em>&nbsp;(the same word is used in Mt. 7:28; 19:25; 22:33; Lk. 2:48; 4:32). There was something arrestingly different in the Lord's message, quite apart from the astonishing miracles He performed. We note how on hearing Paul's teaching, men were &quot;astonished [s.w.] at the doctrine of the Lord&quot; (Acts 13:12). Our preaching and teaching is the Lord Jesus as it were personally teaching others; for we are Him to this world. And the response to our teaching is therefore comparable to the response made to the Lord's. The phrase &quot;wisdom and mighty works&quot; in Greek seems to directly connect the wisdom [the teaching] and the miracles [the works]. Mk. 6:2 is more explicit in the connection: &quot;What wisdom is this... that such might works are worked?&quot;. The miracles were therefore directly connected to His teaching. Any 'doing good' we may do in society is to be likewise underpinned by our teaching of the Gospel, and is to be a consciously connected exemplification of it. As in the Lord's ministry, there is to be a clearly visible connection between the teaching of the Gospel, and the good works.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>And said: From where has this man received this wisdom and these mighty works?-</em>&nbsp;The idea may have been: &lsquo;From God, or from Satan?&rsquo;. But see on :56&nbsp;<em>whence</em>. They couldn&rsquo;t &lsquo;get it&rsquo; that a man could come to such things through private study of God&rsquo;s word and personal relationship with God.</p>
<p>One of the most surpassing wonders of the Lord&rsquo;s character was that He could live for 30 years in a small town in Galilee, never ever committing sin, and never ever omitting an act of righteousness... and yet when He stood up and basically proclaimed Himself to be Messiah, the people were scandalized. They were shocked that this carpenter&rsquo;s son should think He was anything much more than them. Yet whenever we try to be a bit more righteous than our fellows, it&rsquo;s always noticed and held against us. Yet the Lord Jesus was both perfect, and also in favour with men. He came over as the ordinary guy, and yet He was perfect, and the light of this world. In this there is a matchless example for us. This wondrous feature of the Lord&rsquo;s achievement in His own character is reflected by the way His own brothers, who knew Him better than any, perceived Him to be just an ordinary person. When He started implying that He was the Son of God, they thought He&rsquo;d gone crazy. I wish to labour the point- that to my mind, one of the most artless and surpassing things about the Lord was that He lived a sinless life for 30 years, and yet when He began His ministry those He lived with were shocked that He could ever be the Messiah. He was &ldquo;in favour&rdquo; with men (Lk. 2:52), not despised and resented as many righteous men have been. He was the carpenter, a good guy- but not Son of God. Somehow He showed utter perfection in a manner which didn&rsquo;t distance ordinary people from Him. There was no &lsquo;other-worldliness&rsquo; to Him which we so often project to those we live with. We seem to find it hard to live a good life without appearing somehow distasteful to those around us. In fact the villagers were scandalized [<em>skandalizein</em>] that Jesus should even be a religious figure; they had never noticed His wisdom, and wondered where He had suddenly gotten it from (Mk. 6:2,3). This suppression of His specialness, His uniqueness, must have been most disarming and confusing to Mary. Her son appeared as an ordinary man; there was no halo around His head, no special signs. Just an ordinary guy. And this may well have eroded her earlier clear understanding that here in her arms was the Son of God. Until age 30, the Lord was &ldquo;hidden&rdquo; as an arrow in a quiver (Is. 49:2). So profound was this that Mary may have come to doubt whether after all He was really as special as she had thought, 30 years ago. 30 years is a long time. We also need to bear in mind that opposition to Jesus both from the other siblings and from His home town was significant. A fair case can be made that He actually moved away to Capernaum, perhaps before the start of His ministry. Mk. 2:1 RVmg. describes Him as being &ldquo;at home&rdquo; there; Mt. 4:13 NIV says He lived there; Mt. 9:1 calls it his &ldquo;own city&rdquo; (cp. Mk. 2:1). Don&rsquo;t forget that the Nazareth people tried to kill Jesus early on in His ministry- this was how strong the opposition was. And Mary had to show herself for or against... and it seems she at least on the surface didn&rsquo;t exactly show herself for Him. &nbsp;</p>