Mt 13:54-58 When Life Gets Boring“Jesus said, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.’ And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.”
What makes life boring? A lack of vision, a lack of faith.
To live life as a true and proper atheist would be to live immersed in Quaker Oats, in grits! You are what you eat. You see what you get. You are one with your environment. I am surrounded by quick sand with no chance of escape, no bearings to heed, no compass that will lead, no GPS to guide me. There is no right or wrong, no heights or depths, no crossroads for decision. I am on the edge of a pointless world within a lost universe. I am in the midst of a meaningless moment. I am not who I am. I am not at all.
My imagination is limited to only what I can see, for nothing exists outside of material things. A scream in the night should give little fright, for nightmares are like sound waves that carry no weight.
We are immersed in an endless fire of greed and envy. We are covered in sores like pride and vanity. We are burning in heat; we are fond of death.
All our ailments can be attributed to one single thing – a lack of faith. The Lord came into the world and his own did not want anything to do with him. Jesus was uncommon. He was unique. He was not who he appeared to be. And that was why he had to sink.
Is he not the carpenter’s son? No, He’s not. From the very beginning, his accusers were wrong. When we take away mystery at the very beginning of our logical assumptions, we end up highly disorientated and unfortunately dead wrong.
The Pharisees find a twisted excitement by distorting the truth and creating a stir. They seek to destroy by inciting a riot, a diversion. They hope to knock down what they cannot see. The Lord does not fall into any of our categories. We know what it means to be a liar. We know what it means to be a lunatic. But we do not know what it means to be the Lord of All.
The cause of Christ’s death is found only in Scripture. The word sin does not appear in any autopsy report or scientific journal. And yet, it is the cause of all his and our problems. And the sin that caused our biggest problem is the same sin that caused all His problems. We, since the very beginning of time, have the problem of thinking too much which will always be too little; of thinking the world as round, as round as a penny! The Lord was too big to fit in our heads so he had to be broken and crushed with hammers and nails.
Very few miracles were performed in Christ’s childhood neighborhood. Life in Nazareth was dominated by highly rational and able bodied men who lived a very normal and boring existence. Things can only be what we expect them to be. We can only seek what we can grasp. So when Jesus approached, the leaders quickly sought to strike. They spoke in spite! They ruled in rules. They made the giver of life unapproachable. The River of Life had been rejected in favor of standing, murky well-water. Fishermen threw their nets, and as expected, found what was expected, and it was very little. The kingdom of heaven remained buried like a treasure, all picks and shovels remained idle. Why bother to search for what cannot be seen?
The Lord came and left. He did not return. He did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith. The same will be true to those who seek to understand before they believe.
No matter how hard people try; no matter what people may think, the love of God, the Cross of Christ, cannot be denied, not even in a painting depicting the universe, a painting full of darkness and surprise.
