When Jesus returned to Nazareth, His hometown, He was not accepted. The residents had known Jesus and his family. When Jesus spoke, the people of Nazareth were amazed and asked, “Where did He get all this wisdom and the power to perform such miracles” (Mark 6:2). 

After asking that question, they scoffed in offense at Jesus, “They were deeply offended and refused to believe in Him” (vs. 3). The people of Nazareth could not move past the judgments they made based on their familiarity with Jesus. Their unbelief had become a stumbling block to their belief. More specifically, the language used in this text defines the kind of offense that prevents us from seeing anything but our That disapproval hindered the Nazarenes from acknowledging the authority of Jesus. 

Jesus responded to their unbelief saying, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his hometown and among his relatives and his own family” (vs. 4). Familiarity will breed contempt if those feelings have not been submitted to God.  To dishonor Jesus by their scoffing and contempt had a profound blinding effect on the city of Nazareth.

The contempt and dishonoring of Jesus had a consequence, “And because of their unbelief, He couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was amazed at their unbelief” (vs. 5-6).

All revivals begin in a familiar setting – in someone’s hometown. The Lord begins revivals by using familiar people to do remarkable things. What faced Jesus on His return to Nazareth will challenge many of us in the coming days when God begins to ignite a revival in a familiar setting loaded with the baggage of our personal history.

We will have to deal with the negative effects of our familiarity regarding the messengers God chooses to use. If our familiarity is not processed and healed by the Spirit, our contempt and dishonor will prevent us from looking past our contempt to see what the Lord is doing in our familiar setting.