Familiarity

"Jesus Rejected at Nazareth" / Jeff Watkins

⁵³And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, ⁵⁴ and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? ⁵⁵ Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? ⁵⁶And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" ⁵⁷And 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." ⁵⁸And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.
Matthew 13:53-58

 The word "familiar" comes from the same root word as "family"--the Latin famulus actually means servant. In its broadest sense it denotes "household". 


It is intriguing that those of Jesus hometown and family so readily rejected him. Jesus remarked, "a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household."


Thus the adage, "familiarity breeds contempt" is very true.


This drips from the account above. Those of Nazareth were so utterly familiar with Jesus that they rejected him. In fact, "they took offense at him"! Here Jesus was, walking around like a big shot--like he owned the joint. They knew his beginnings. They knew his pedigree. They weren't going to stand by and get too big for his britches (or cloak, as it were). 


Familiarity bred contempt.