Jesus said; A prophet is not without honour

originally posted by: schuyler
Another way of looking at it is that those familiar with you know you aren't a prophet and also know your frailties. Strangers, on the other hand, don't know what an idiot you are and will believe anything.

In many situations there would be a mixture of reasons.
Sometimes people would be looking for any excuse not to take notice of what the person was saying.
If I went back to my home village claiming to be a prophet, then perhaps what you suggested would be the case.
In the case of Jesus, "we know he's got relatives and some of them are still here" was not a very relevant reason for rejecting him. It's the only one quoted.

a reply to: DISRAELI

The question then is why Jesus had a different experience.

Because Jesus' rejection by "Jews" is intrinsic to the story. Jesus continually preached messages of divisiveness when it came to "family" and allegiances, and the acceptance of persecution for "his name sake".

a reply to: windword
Events in history don't happen just because they are intrinsic to a story.
Even if a moral is drawn from them afterwards, they happen for other reasons.

If you walk down the street and slip on a banana skin, that happens because somebody threw away a banana skin, not because your fall is "intrinsic to" a lecture on careful walking which another pedestrian decides to give you.

The reaction of the Nazarenes to the teaching of Jesus is a phenomenon which can be explained in terms of human psychology.

a reply to: windword

sounds like individualism to me...

armed with proper conduct why not?

a reply to: DISRAELI

Events in history don't happen just because they are intrinsic to a story.

You're mistaken in thinking that my comment alluded to the story as literal history. I don't look at biblical stories as being factual, literal, historic events. They're stories with a purpose and an intended instruction.

The obvious instruction in this story is that Christians should expect to be rejected by their "families" and hometown friends from a past life.

a reply to: windword
I disagree with you, but arguing that out would be a completely different topic.
My purpose was to analyse the psychology of what actually happened.

a reply to: DISRAELI

My purpose was to analyse the psychology of what actually happened.

I believe what actually happened is that this "event" turned into a Christian ideology that teaches Christians to expect rejection and persecution. Do you agree?

a reply to: windword
I think the rejection theme is there because rejection happened.
Later on, Christians got killed by the Roman Empire, and that's how the persecution theme came into existence.
Inventing the idea of rejection just for the sake of having it in the story would be a pointless exercise.

Anyway, I was talking about the pyschology of what happened in Nazareth, when Jesus visited them. That is my topic.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Later on, Christians got killed by the Roman Empire, and that's how the persecution theme came into existence.
Inventing the idea of rejection just for the sake of having it in the story would be a pointless exercise.

No. There was no need to invent a persecution theme, as Jews were already being persecuted at the time, by the Romans. The psychology of the rejection and persecution of Jesus at Nazareth is an indictment of the overall persecution of the righteous by the proverbial wicked.

a reply to: windword
You seem to intent on discussing the story of the visit of Jesus to Nazareth as an imaginary event.
The topic of this thread treats it an historical event, setting out to explain what happened, and I do not intend to discuss it on any other terms.
That was my point a couple of posts back.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Whether historical or symbolic, the psychology of the outcome of the story has the same effect. That is, Christians should expect rejection and persecution, just like Jesus experienced in Nazareth.

a reply to: windword
Since you are determined to drag the thread off-topic, and apparently determined to get the last word in doing so, I will leave you to it.

a reply to: DISRAELI

I don't see what's off topic about observing that the "psychology" of the "event" of Jesus' rejection and persecution at Nazareth became a lesson in the expectation of the same for Christians. That was the lesson that was taught to me in Sunday School.

This particular gospel story was reassuring for the early Christians. They too were being rejected by their Jewish neighbours. They could take heart, as we can, from the fact that even Jesus was rejected by people he had known and trusted all his life.
www.jesus-story.net...

This week in Children’s Church we learned about the time when Jesus was rejected in Nazareth. Nazareth was Jesus’ hometown. It was where He grew up. Unfortunately it seemed that people were too familiar with Him to see that He was the Son of God. Many people there refused to believe in Him. It was so bad that the Bible says that He couldn’t do very many “mighty works” because of their unbelief.

Sometimes we might be rejected because of our stand for Jesus. There may be someone who laughs at us because we believe in Jesus.
calvarystp.org...