John 4:43-45 -- After the two days He went on from there into Galilee. 44 For Jesus Himself declared that a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45 So when He arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him, since they had seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they too came to the feast.
Jesus spent two days in Samaria filled with teaching, talking, and people coming to know and accept Him as savior. A harvest sowed and reaped in just a few days time. A little place called Sychar in Samaria met and learned of the Truth and it set them free.
Now, we find Jesus heading North, out of Samaria and back into the Jewish territory of Galilee. This is the area where Jesus grew up. Nazareth and Cana were within easy walking distance of one another. He knew these people and they knew Him. However, verse forty-four says, "a prophet has no honor in his own country.".
Now, at first this seemed odd that it says this about "no honor in his own country", when the very next verse says when he arrived, they welcomed Him. However, we see in that same verse, "since they had seen all the things He did in Jerusalem".
Jesus just left a small town where the only thing we see recorded He did was break down every conceivable social, cultural, religious wall there was and tell a woman everything she ever did. That caused the whole town to empty out. They had to find out who Jesus was, and once they knew, they received him as 'Savior of the world'. Now, He's back home and is welcomed "since they had seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem".
There was no one rushing to find out who He was. No one running into the middle of town shouting about Jesus being there. They already knew who he was. He was Mary and Joseph's boy. Didn't we see Him doing some crazy stuff down in Jerusalem at the feast last week? Oh yeah, welcome home Jesus. Good to see you, wild time at the temple last week.
I read somewhere the term "False Familiarity" where people can take bits of knowledge about someone and turn it into a feeling of fully knowing them. With Jesus this could lead people who heard this, saw that, read a few things, to all the sudden feel as if they know Him. Therefore, there is no actual desire to genuinely leave their comfort zone, to go after Him, to want to KNOW Him and who He is. Instead, it produces… "Oh.. It's just Jesus.". There is no honor, no reverance, no weight to who He is. Just false familiarity.
Christian, do you KNOW Jesus and have a personal relationship with Him, or do you know of Jesus? Like yesterday this isn't about doubting your salvation, this is about KNOWING that you KNOW Him.
If you have even the tiniest of hesitation then I say don't ignore it, pray, and dive into First John. After I read First John earlier this year one thing was clear to me, if you really read it, you'll walk away either KNOWING that you KNOW Him, or confirming something is off.
Well, that's it for today. The journey of late has brought some challenging things but being challenged causes us to grow if we let it.
Don’t take my word on anything. Be the Berean and get into your own Bible and read these things!
You are loved. You are prayed over. You are not alone.
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