what does familiarity breed?

In today's reading from the New Testament, found in Mark 6:1-29, we see Jesus being thwarted by the severe lack of faith in His hometown. The gospel says that He was unable to do many miracles because of their unbelief.

And what caused the unbelief? Familiarity. They thought they "knew Him", and were offended that someone who they grew up with was now claiming such audacious things about Himself. And truly, His claims were audacious. He said that before Abraham was, "I am." He said that whoever has seen Him has seen God the Father. He claimed to be God. And as C.S. Lewis points out, that means He's either a horrible liar, or a deluded lunatic, or He's exactly who He said He was... God Himself.

But the takeaway message today is that familiarity can be a very dangerous thing. Just because people saw Jesus grow up, they thought He couldn't be who He said He was. Yet we know that He was. That same kind of familiarity can hurt our faith, too. When we see God working in the lives of those around us, especially our family, it's easy to ridicule or doubt the sincerity of their actions. When we see someone who exhibits particular sins, and then repents and tries to live a better life, it's easy to be cynical and even hope that they fail.

Worst of all, when we see God working in our own lives, we can sometimes doubt our selves, feeling that we're being disingenuous, exhibiting great hubris in acting like we're something we're not. That when people really find out who we are, they'll know we've been acting this whole time. It's tempting to doubt the truth of God's work in our lives because we know where we came from.

But God calls us to trust Him. To allow Him to do these great works in our own lives and in the lives of those we know. It requires faith in Him, to overcome our doubt in ourselves and in others. But it's important to remind ourselves: with God, all things are possible.

God, thanks for helping us to overcome the contempt that familiarity brings us - even for ourselves.