Jesus Offended Folks - Day 22

Jesus has been out on the road healing and preaching and exorcizing and doing all manner of good things. News of his success begin to trickle back to his hometown, Nazareth. The folks were probably, at least initially, proud. Yep, that Jesus, well, he is one of ours. Grew up right down the street there. Pretty good boy.
But then he shows up in town. He goes to the synagogue. Those who heard him were astounded. He said more than they were expecting. And then they began to question: “ ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being doing by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offense at him.” (Mark 6:2f)
So, why were they offended? Was this simply the old saying “that familiarity breeds contempt?” Or, was what Jesus was saying about God, about them, about the Kingdom, simply too challenging? Did his faith make them so uncomfortable that they turned on him? It's hard to know exactly, but probably it was some combination of factors.
If Jesus rolled into town, if he came into our synagogue, into our homes, into our lives, would we take offense at him? Would we rather he took his ministry on the road, elsewhere? Would we prefer simply to hear or read about Jesus and take some pride that he came from our hometown and that we knew him when?
If we don’t take offense at Jesus, then something may be missing. Remember he said: give me your life, all of it, follow me, surrender. There is nothing easy or nice here at all.
Jesus offended his hometown. Jesus, real Jesus, still does. He offends me all the time. He sometimes asks for too much. He offends us, offends our rationalizations, offends our control, offends our watered-down versions of him, offends our desire to be our own god, in order to wake us up to real faith, real discipleship, real healing, real love.
So, if you do get offended, that is understandable. But get over it. Get a real life with Jesus. A new life. And then, for him, think about being just a wee-bit offensive yourself. True disciples do rankle.