53 When Jesus had finished these parables, He departed from there. 54 He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? 55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” 57 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.” 58 And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.

Two things amazed the people who met Jesus, the wisdom of His teachings and the miraculous things He did. But these things brought two results, either people accepted Him or rejected Him. The majority position was the latter of these two, rejection. Nowhere is this more obvious than when Jesus returned to the town in which He grew up. Instead of praising God for Jesus’ teaching and miraculous deeds, they dismissed Him as an offense.

At this point, we note the record of Jesus’ siblings. They shared the same earthly mother, but the brothers had Joseph as their father, whereas Jesus did not. Some have asserted that they were in reality cousins and that Jesus had no siblings, Mary remaining a virgin all her life, on the assumption that the terms “brother” and “sister” refer to relatives. However, this conjecture is baseless. While it was prophesied that the Messiah would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), there was no prophetic requirement that the mother would remain a virgin after the birth of Messiah. Furthermore, in the passage Mary is mentioned as Jesus’ mother, so the most natural reading would conclude that the other individuals named were Jesus’ actual siblings (half-brothers & half-sisters). It is clear that His own family did not accept the teachings and miracles of Jesus either (“without honor except … in his own household”).

The half-brother James came to faith sometime later and went on to be a leader in the early church. In Acts 15 we find him acting as the spokesperson for the Jerusalem council. In Galatians 1:19 he is referred to as the Lord’s brother. In Galatians 2:9 Paul mentions him as one of the pillars of the church along with Peter and John. Also, he most likely was the author of the Book of James. (He was not the apostle James in Acts 12).

Because of their unbelief at the time, Jesus did not do many miracles there, giving rise to the adage, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown.”

Lord, help me not become so over-familiar with the Lord Jesus Christ that I fail to honor Him in all of my life.