Matthew 13:53-58
The Daily Office
Matthew and Mark both report that Jesus’s hometown of Nazareth rejected him. But they don’t agree on one detail. According to Matthew, Jesus “did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.” According to Mark, “he could do no mighty work there…And he marveled because of their unbelief.” (6:5-6). In Matthew’s Gospel, it remained within Jesus’s power to heal or not heal. In Mark’s, it was the Nazarenes’ lack of faith that determined whether healing was to take place.
Perhaps the author of Matthew’s Gospel was uncomfortable with Mark’s implication that Jesus was less than all-powerful. It seems to me that in either case, the message is the same. As children of grace, we can do nothing good without God’s mighty power to heal. But whether God won’t, or can’t, heal without our consent; we have to open the door to him. We are not God’s puppets or God’s puppies, to be pulled on a string, or coddled. God wants partners in the work of saving people from whatever is oppressing them in body, mind and spirit. And while we can never earn our way into that partnership, neither will it be imposed on us.
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