TD Jakes - The Homeless Jesus
In His hometown, Jesus faced familiarity that bred offense and unbelief, limiting miracles there despite His power; yet this rejection and displacement propelled Him into purpose, showing that discovering who you are often means not fitting in your old places, and God marvels at persistent unbelief amid exposure while anointing others to carry His glory where it's not recognized.
Familiarity in Nazareth
The Bible says He came back home, and there He is in His own country, amongst the people He grew up with, who could fill in the blanks that I cannot fill in between what happened between 12 and 30. Whatever happened in Jesus' life between 12 and 30 happened amongst these people, and stuff happens.
Whatever has happened to them, and I am not suggesting that anything illicit or immoral has happened in the life of Jesus. I do not know what happened. I am just suggesting that whatever has happened between 12 and 30, they knew what we did not know, and whatever they knew stopped them from being healed.
It did not stop Him because ultimately He would reject them and go to another city and still be who He was, but it limited them from benefiting from knowing who He was because they had to find Him in such a limited region.
Offense at the Familiar
They said, "We know You. Is this not the carpenter? Did You not fix my plow a year ago? A couple years ago, I remember my daddy brought his plow over there, and Your daddy and You worked on the plow." "Yes, I know You. And Your sisters, do we not know His sisters?" "From whence comes this wisdom?" That is what they said.
They did not say He was not wise. "From whence come these miracles?" They did not say they were not real. Imagine, in the face of such compelling evidence, that you would still reject Him. And not just that they rejected Him—the Bible said they were offended.
Offended by healing? See, some of you right now have made your life's goal to win somebody who does not like you, and you do not realize it. You keep trying to figure out why they do not like you.
You do not have to do anything wrong for people to dislike you. Anytime you rise above what they deem to be appropriate, they have an issue. And they start saying stupid stuff like, "Look at her. She thinks she is something." What does that mean? How do you know what she thinks? Are you a mind reader?
What makes you an authority on what is going on in my head, and what is wrong with thinking I am something? I am something. Do not get it twisted. I am something. I am something that you are going to miss. I am something that you are going to miss because I am more than how you see me.
And as soon as I get with somebody who sees me as I am, I am going to rock that thing.
Purpose Requires Displacement
I think myself too profound to merely come this morning to tell you that people are crazy because the truth of the matter is you already know that people are crazy, and all I am doing is reaffirming what your life's experiences have already validated—that you have to live amongst people who say, "You have forgotten where you came from."
So why are we having this discussion? Did you merely come to tell me that familiarity breeds contempt? No, I am trying to tell you that to discover your purpose is to lose your home because the moment you find out who you are, you will also discover that you do not fit.
You cannot have purpose without displacement. In fact, I want to go further and suggest to you that it is, in fact, the displacement that pushes you into your purpose.
If you can begin to embrace what I am saying, you will thank them for being offended because if you would accept me, I would nest in you. I would make you my hole and crawl into you. I would build my nest and say, "Look, I am one of them," and I would stay.
Your offense is absolutely fine because you reaffirm the fact that my country is not of this world, that I am a stranger sojourning through this world, that I have a home somewhere beyond the swelling banks of the Jordan. And now I realize why I can never fit—because I am not at home, not yet.
Finding Rest in Purpose
To find my purpose is to put me in a state of constant search because once I have found my purpose, then I lose my nest because I am only happy when I am in my purpose.
Jesus said, "You all go on down there and get something to eat. I am going to sit by the well and wait on a woman to come." When they finally came back and offered Him the food, they said, "Are You not hungry?" And He says, "I have meat that you know not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me."
I get out of my purpose what you get out of your food. I get out of my purpose what you get out of your house. Foxes have holes. Birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. The Bible says He laid His head in the locks of His shoulders on the cross because it was His purpose.
I am never happier than when I am doing my purpose. I never have the energy like I do when I am doing my purpose. I never have glory like I do when I am walking in my purpose. And because I am a spiritual being, my spirit only rests when I am in my purpose.
Anything else is unsettling, and I am always a little bit discontented, even in places where other people find rest, because I have meat that you know not of, and I have a house that you cannot see. I am only comfortable when I am doing the thing I was created for.
Offended by Excellence
And the Bible says they were offended. "Offended" is a big word. Offended means that they were insulted. Your desire to live on the level of your capacity insults people who are satisfied to stay where they are.
They find your zeal irritating. You do not fit, and how dare you come from the same place I come from and try to be more? And I am offended because your success reminds me of what I could have been had I pushed myself a little bit harder.
They were offended. He was healing them. How could you be offended that I am helping you? Why is it that we push away who we need and hold onto who we do not need?
Jesus Marvels at Unbelief
Two things shocked me in this text. Jesus says there is something that He cannot do. His inability to perform on the level that He had in the fifth chapter was stifled by their perception in the sixth.
And the second thing was He marveled at their unbelief. There are a few times in Scripture that it says Jesus marveled, and generally it talks about Him marveling at the faith of the Gentiles. The Bible said that Jesus marveled at the centurion's faith, for He had not found so great a faith in all of Israel.
So every other time Jesus marvels, He marvels at faith, but at home, He marvels at their unbelief.
God, the omniscient, God who knows everything, says, "You shock Me. I am amazed that you could be so familiar with something and yet have no faith. I am shocked that you could come to church every Sunday and yet have no faith."
He said, "I marvel at how much you have not changed, for all that you were exposed to, for all that I sent to you, for all of the opportunities that I gave you, for the Word that I spoke to you. I am shocked at your unbelief."
The Danger of Familiarity Without Faith
Jesus is saying, "How could you not grow?" He later says, "Other cities will rise up and condemn you because they did so much more with so much less."
Everybody is saying, like the disciples did at the Last Supper, "Lord, is it me?" And that is a good thing to challenge yourself—to say, "What have I done with what I have been given?" Because God is saying, "I am shocked that you did not do more with what I gave you."
Jesus says, "I marvel at your unbelief. I marvel that you insist on being blind. I marvel that you still have that temper. I marvel that you still walk in that depression."
"I marvel that you could go to church every Sunday and be exposed, and you know all about Me. The preacher cannot quote a Scripture before you finish it. You know all about Me." "I know your sister and them. Oh yes, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But my God shall supply all of my needs according to His riches in glory."
And yet when you need something, you freak out. Jesus said, "I marvel because you are familiar with Me, but you do not know Me. You do not know what I would do if you believed."
Shifting the Anointing
Jesus said, "I will tell you what I am going to do. I am going to change the strategies for you." He called the twelve together and said, "They will not receive what I have for them because they are familiar with Me, and a prophet is without honor in his own country."
"So I am going to take what is on Me and put it on you, and I am going to send you out in My name, and they will receive the gift because they do not recognize the giver."
So the Bible said that He is going to send you out, and you are going to be Him in disguise. He said, "Lay hands on the sick. Raise up the dead. I am going to do the work through you."
The homeless Jesus now takes Himself and becomes at home in those who follow Him. He says, "I am going to take the glory that I could not give a home and give it a home in you. Wherever you go, if you speak peace and they receive you, they will receive the One who sent you."
When God puts something on you for somebody, sometimes it is not even you. It is Him loving them. It is Him teaching them. It is Him healing them. That is why you say, "God, I cannot go." Well, it is not you anyway. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
As soon as you open yourself up so that God can use you, you can walk into situations where man has given up hope, and if you would feel about it the way God feels about it.