TRANSLATION MATTHEW 13:53

When Jesus had completed these parables, he left that place. Arriving in his home town he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were struck with amazement, and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and powers? Isn’t this the builder’s son? Surely his mother is called Mariam, and his brothers Jacob, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Surely his sisters are all here with us? So where does he get all this?” So they took offence at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not dishonoured except in his own town and in his own household.” He did not perform many miracles there because of their lack of trust.

In the midst of Matthew’s magical realism about Jesus, he gives the reader an episode showing that it is quite possible to reject the magic, the divine connection which brings human beings into the creativity of God. Those who reject it are realistic: a builder’s son is a builder’s son and nothing more. They are unimportant villagers and nothing more. In such a culture there can be no miracles, no transformation. In limiting Jesus to what they consider their level, they limit themselves. The Greek word I have translated ‘took offence’ is ‘skandalizein” which refers to the practice of laying stumbling blocks in an enemy’s path. Jesus is a stumbling block to his people: he trips them up by his sober partnership with God. Had he arrived with the accoutrements of religious authority, or even a dramatic show of popular prophecy, they might have responded. As it is, Matthew uses them as an example of lack of trust in Jesus.