Belief and Honor - 2

For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. (John 4:44)

Last time I began exploring this issue of honor and how it relates to the kind of belief that we have in Jesus. I feel that this is so vital to understand and assimilate that I cannot move past it quickly. I feel more and more conviction about my own need to have a better kind of belief, to move closer to the kind of belief that will bring more honor to the name of Jesus and God's reputation instead of causing God to have to work much harder to elicit any kind of belief at all from me in order to work in my life as He had to do so much with the Jewish people.

I noticed in this verse that it says that Jesus Himself testified about this problem and I became curious as to what this refers to. When I checked the cross-references I was led to the following three passages, each relating to the very same story.

And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household." (Matthew 13:57)

Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household." (Mark 6:4)

And He said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown." (Luke 4:24)

These verses are all referring to the statement made by Jesus near the end of His first synagogue sermon when He came back home to Nazareth early in His ministry. Quite possibly because John did not include that story in this book, this may have been his way of linking that story into the flow of this gospel. John left many stories out of his writing because he had a very intentional and focused purpose for the things he chose to include in the gospel of John. This book is much more about certain issues that John wants to get across much more than about just being a narrative of the life of Jesus.

As I looked a little more at the context of this story I noticed some significant connections regarding this issue of honor that John mentions in his note in verse 44. Here is the larger context of the passage from Luke which really highlights the contrast between the Jewish mindset and the attitudes of belief more easily found in non-Jews when Jesus interacted with them.

And He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.'" And He said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things. (Luke 4:23-28)

When I read this with the idea of honor as the context, it becomes rather evident that not making someone welcome and furthermore becoming enraged at them is the opposite direction from honor. But I still want to explore the real meaning that John had in mind when he talked about honor in this passage and look at the related stories linked through these references that can help to bring more light to this subject.

I looked up in Strong's the Greek word translated honor in this verse and here is some of what I found.

a value, i.e. money paid, or (concretely and collectively) valuables; by analogy, esteem (especially of the highest degree), or the dignity itself:--honor, precious, price.

According to this, it appears that what Jesus was implying was that the people who thought that they knew Him the best, who had watched Him grow up in their midst, who had been familiar with Him running around in their streets and living among them the longest evidently were the most likely to have the least value for Him, who had the lowest esteem and showed Him the least respect. To them He did not seem precious or have dignity like those who had not known Him all of their lives viewed Him.

Boy does that ever expose me! I have grown up being taught every story in the Bible and using the name of Jesus ever since I was in the cradle. My familiarity and knowledge about His life is broad and I have lived around people that are passionate about telling others about Jesus from the Bible. But that very situation has also had the effect of cauterizing my heart and preventing me from having the level of deep appreciation for His love like many experience who have never heard of Him before seem to enjoy. It also takes me so much longer to move into a vibrant kind of faith and belief that brings honor to Him that others seem to be able to jump into immediately. As much as I hate to see it, I have to admit that I am far more like the Jews in these stories than I am like the Samaritans in the last story and I don't like that. But I cannot change the way I grew up and so I have to cooperate with God just as the disciples of Jesus had to spend so much more time with Him before they began to appreciate the real reasons He came to this earth and what He was all about.

These passages also have the effect of exposing a great deal of prejudice in the hearts of people who think they know Jesus simply because of being around Him for so long. The Jews were nearly the epitome of prejudice when it came to how they felt about other nationalities, especially Samaritans. And to some degree I have sensed that I have been inculcated myself with a certain amount of built-in prejudices toward people who don't view religion the way I was raised to view it even though I have spent most of my life trying to avoid all prejudices. But God has at times had to draw my attention to thoughts lurking in my mind about others who teach things I don't agree with or don't have the same beliefs about the Bible that I was taught. I have to always be on my guard to prevent my cultural prejudices to influence how I treat people or even how I believe that God should interact with them.

I can honestly say that I don't harbor any intentional prejudices known to me. I have been raised to view prejudice itself as something that is destructive and blinding and ungodly. I am glad that I was taught to shun prejudice and that has shaped a great deal of my life and my relationships with others. But I also realize that there are many subtle prejudices in all of us that can hide for many years until the Spirit of God flushes them out into the open. It is then that we become responsible to confess them to God and seek His healing grace to change our hearts and challenge our assumptions so that we can come closer to seeing others through heaven's eyes instead of the distorted lenses of prejudice.

Prejudice is one of the most powerful neutralizing elements that can destroy belief. Because of that it is vital that every true Christian be willing to challenge all of their prejudices as God brings them out into the open. I cannot willingly harbor prejudices against anyone and still maintain an authentic, obedient child of the God of heaven who is the Father of every person. To cling to prejudices against anyone is to claim that they are less worthy of being treated as God's children than I am for very artificial reasons, and that is of the devil. God is in the business of drawing all men to His own heart and the closer we come to the heart of God the closer we have to come to each other.

So it becomes clear that prejudice is one of the most blatant ways in which we can dishonor the God that we claim to follow. Prejudice is always based on pride and pride is at the root of nearly every sin. As I come to really know Jesus and the motives that actuated all of His actions and attitudes toward everyone around Him I will begin to reflect the spirit of humility, compassion and love that has no boundaries and respects no human-enforced distinctions.

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28 NRSV)