Commentary on Matthew 13:54-58

The Gospel reading from Matthew describes a scene where Jesus, now engaged in his public ministry, returned to visit Nazareth, the place where he grew up.   When he speaks, the people of the town are amazed:

Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power?

They could not understand because, to them, he was the son of Joseph the carpenter and of Mary, and did they not know all his relatives?  And, because they thought they knew him, they rejected him. 

In response Jesus told them that a prophet will find honour everywhere except in his own place. And as a result, Jesus did not do any ‘mighty deed’ there because of their lack of faith and trust in him.  

It is an example of the saying “familiarity breeds contempt”.  The townspeople thought they knew Jesus but, of course, they did not.  But many others had no problem in seeing the presence of God in the words and actions of Jesus.

It is a problem we ourselves can easily have when we fail to recognise the voice of God in the words and actions of people with whom we are very familiar.  Yet that is the way in which God most often communicates with us.

The passage has been chosen, of course, because of its mention of Joseph as the local carpenter, a man who worked with his hands, and so today we remember especially all those in our society who also work with their hands, people who in the past and sometimes in the present, too, have been abused and exploited.  It is Joseph who gives dignity to what they do.