BUMMER-FREE ZONE

Recently, I was walking through the parking lot on my way to the camp’s office when I saw a woman standing at the far end of the ball field taking a picture. At first, it wasn’t clear to me what she was photographing. Her camera was aimed in the general direction of the maintenance yard, but when I looked in that direction I didn’t see anything worthy of being photographed- just a line of shaggy cypresses that flank the driveway and the entrance to the maintenance yard. I looked back at the woman who was still busily taking pictures. Convinced I had missed something I scanned the area a second time, but still saw nothing. As the woman walked off the field I asked her what she had been photographing. She pointed toward the peak of Mt Tahquitz in the background, and said, “Aren’t the mountains incredible?”

Isn’t it amazing how easily we can become habituated to truly remarkable things? To me, a guy who lives and works in the mountains, the view of Mt Tahquitz had become an unremarkable backdrop, but to this woman it was “incredible.” It never even occurred to me that she might be photographing Tahquitz even though it dominates the horizon. We were looking at the same scene, but it affected us very differently.

This reminds me of Matthew 13:54-58, which reads as follows; “When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”

Jesus was not common (anything but!), but to His neighbors He seemed common. To them He was just the son of a carpenter…a fellow who had grown up among them…from a humble and unremarkable family. Unbelievably, His neighbors, and even His family (John 7:5), didn’t recognize Him for who He was, and these were the people who would have known Him best. They didn’t believe Him. They thought of Him as common. They must have thought all the hoopla surrounding Jesus was very strange. I can imagine them saying, “It’s just Jesus!” And when confronted with Jesus’ wisdom and mighty works they couldn’t reconcile these experiences with the Jesus that they thought they knew. Whereas others saw Jesus as something wonderful, new and remarkable His neighbors and family remained skeptical. And because of their lack of faith, Jesus did not do many mighty works there.

I’m aware that many of you, like me, grew up in the church, and in a very real sense we grew up around Jesus. We went over to his house on Sundays. We attended Sunday school and VBS. We have sat through countless hours of sermons, prayer meetings, and Bible studies. Yet, for some, the years have dulled their passion, and have caused them to question the efficacy of prayer. For some, their walk has been reduced to a ritualistic pattern of dates, times and obligations. There is a warning here for any of us who have begun to view the church or our relationship with Christ as unremarkable…a common thing. If this sentiment could be true of people who met Jesus in the flesh, heard Him speak and witnessed His miracles it can certainly be true of us today. In scripture, Jesus performs some miracles as an aid to faith, and certainly His victory over death is the best example of that truth. In many other instances though He performs His mighty works in response to faith. “Be of good cheer, daughter, your faith has made you well.” (Matthew 9:23b) If our hearts are essentially the same before Christ as His neighbors in Matthew 13, than it follows that He will not do many mighty works in us either, and that not from want of grace or power in Christ, but rather from a lack of faith in us. Many of us want to see Christ move in powerful ways, but in our heart of hearts we simply don’t believe that He will. We have been habituated over the discouraging years to regard Christ’s statement, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God,” as an inspiring thought rather than a truth to live by. Over time, if we’re not careful, our relationship with Christ can become something we take for granted…something we’ve come to view as common and unremarkable. As a result, we may cease to believe in our heart of hearts that uncommon things can truly happen.