Save me from a lack of faith

Jesus’ one-liner response to the people of His hometown of Nazareth who were getting angry and jeering at Him out of ignorance, jealousy, envy, or maybe even a lack of credibility due to their familiarity with the ‘carpenter’s son and his brothers and sisters’: “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and his own house.”  (Matthew 13:54-58)

In other words, Jesus was saying, “Look, I know I’m a prophet.  And I know many people from all over are extremely impressed by what I know and do.  But this is what always happens in someone’s hometown and family: lack of credibility, jealousy, ultimately lack of faith.” The expression ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ came to my mind immediately, but His “lack of faith” statement is what I found myself reflecting on today.  

“And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.”  As I see it, we can understand this line in two ways.  First, Jesus was punishing them by choosing not to perform mighty deeds because they lacked faith.  I think this is the way most people usually understand this passage. But I have a real problem envisioning Jesus to be spiteful.  Instead, a second way might actually have merit; that Jesus could only perform mighty deeds if others showed great faith!  I don’t know for sure which is the case, and I don’t intend to limit Jesus so much as suggest that we have a significant role to play in doing God’s work.  The “mighty deeds” of Jesus almost always involve great faith and participation from others: for example, raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11: 1-44), healing the woman who was bleeding and touched Jesus’ garment (Matthew 9:20–22, Mark 5:25–34, Luke 8:43–48), healing the paralytic lowered through the roof by his friends(Matthew 9:2-8, Mark 2:1-12, Luke 5:17-26), and Peter’s walking on water (Matthew 14:32–33).

What “mighty deeds” can we help Jesus to accomplish today?  Will we be able to accept and have faith in the ways Jesus works through a ‘prophet’ in our own family or hometown in order to accomplish these mighty deeds?  “Let the heaven and the earth praise him, the seas and whatever moves in them!” (Psalm 69:35)