Home, Cynical Home, Part 1

Today, Chuck Swindoll reminds us Jesus was not immune from physical exhaustion. We think of our Savior, and certainly we should, as undiminished deity, and He was that without question.

But we tend to discount that He was also true humanity. Feelings you have, He had. Longings that you have, He had. He healed after a full day or a packed week.

He too felt exhaustion. Not fanfare, but sarcasm. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll helps us understand what to make of this shocking rejection of one of their own. We're in Matthew chapter 13. Chuck titled today's message, Home Cynical Home, and we begin with prayer. If you have brought your Bible today, please turn to the first book in the New Testament, Matthew chapter 13. We're looking at the last six verses, 53 through 58.

Matthew 13, 53 through 58. As is always true, our desire is to realize how relevant God's Word is. God does not need any of us to make it relevant.

It is relevant. He uses some of us to help people realize just how relevant it is. In this case, we have an interesting vignette, very brief, just six verses in the life of Jesus, where we find Him in an unusual place in His ministry, and that's the place where He was reared, a place He would call His hometown, Nazareth. I'll be reading for you from the New Living Translation, verses 53 through 58, Matthew 13. When Jesus had finished telling these stories and illustrations, He left that part of the country. He returned to Nazareth, His hometown. When He taught there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed and said, where does He get this wisdom and the power to do miracles? Then they scoffed, He's just the carpenter's son, and we know Mary, His mother, and His brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas.

All of His sisters live right here among us. Where did He learn all these things? And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in Him. Then Jesus told them, a prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family. And so He did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief. This is Insight for Living.

To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck called Home Cynical Home. There's something fulfilling about returning home. I suppose there's a little salmon in all of us that on occasion we just have to go back to our place of roots. And there relive some memories and revisit some familiar haunts and reflect on those faces that represent our lives in years gone by.

We never get too old for this. Even young and strong athletes who enter into the Olympics and are blessed to win the bronze or the silver, ideally the gold, shortly after that has occurred they can't wait to do what? Take them home. Let the people at home rejoice with them as they have earned the honor of that medal.

Professional teams that win the championship in an away game celebrate on the court or on the field, but there's nothing like taking the trophy home and enjoying the parade in the familiar streets of that place they call home. If you've gone through a lengthy illness in a hospital, if you've endured years as an inmate in a prison, when that time ends and you're back on your feet, there are words that come almost to every individual in that place, just take me home. Whether you're an astronaut that's gone to the moon or a soldier that's lived through the combat or a survivor that had been lost at sea and is now rescued, there's no place like home.

Something about it brings back those nostalgic feelings that can't be reproduced anywhere else. A number of years ago, our younger daughter and I took a trip from Southern California to Houston. We took our time, we had a great father-daughter relationship in the car along the way, spent the nights and quietly went through the day in conversation. I remember the last day after we had spent the night in the hill country, around Bernie or perhaps Kerrville it was, where we had breakfast, we struck out not that many miles to Houston. Actually, when we got to El Paso, we thought we were almost there.

Boy, we had a long ways to go after El Paso. Anyway, we're on our way to Houston, our destination, and her type AA father has one gold in mind, get to Houston, leave here, go there. She's looking at a map and she says, daddy, El Campo, which means nothing to you.

That's where I was born and she remembered my talking about it. She said, let's go, we can only turn off if we get down toward Highway 59. I said, honey, we're going to Houston. She says, daddy, let's go down, it's not that far away, look. She numbered up and figured up the miles and I said, okay, okay. She turned on the charm and we went to El Campo. And I remember when we got to the city limits, hadn't been there since I was a kid.

City limits, city in quotes, city limits, about 10,151 and she's very quiet as we drive through the streets. I try to find the Normana Theater, it's not there anymore. It was there when the earth's crust cooled, but now it's been that many years, it's been taken away. Floyd's Theater wasn't there. Red Helmershacks Pharmacy wasn't there. I remember Red Helmershacks Pharmacy, marble counters. My brother, my sister, and I stood on the counter in our silk pajamas, singing high-o-puh, high-o-puh right in the Fuhrer's face.

It was one of the great songs of yesteryear. We sang for a double dip ice cream cone, but Helmershacks Pharmacy was gone. I said, well, maybe there's one place that's still standing. So we took a turn and I did my best to navigate us to where I thought it might be, and sure enough, there it was.

A little garage apartment, sort of leaning as a result of the prevailing Gulf Coast winds. And she said, what's this? And I said, well, Colleen, this is where your daddy was born. Same bed where I was conceived, I was born right there.

My dad used to say that, my mother never liked it that he would tell people that, but it was true of all three of us kids right there. And she sat there in silence and looked and I saw the mist come over her eyes. I was home. We turned and went down a couple of blocks and came to a rather big, white, two-story house where my grandmother and granddaddy had lived all of my childhood growing up. A big porch out front and a swing on the porch. And I pulled up and I said, this is where granddaddy Lundy and mama Lundy lived. Where your daddy, your aunt and uncle played on that front porch. If you listen closely, you could almost hear the kids running up and down the porch.

And as she looked and I looked, it occurred to me that the words of the great theologian Waylon Jennings fit that scene. Splintered wood, rusty chains, this old front porch swing remains a pendulum of memories, swinging back and forth on a summer breeze. Singing old church hymns and nursery rhymes from the days way back before my time. With a little child upon my knee, singing every sweet word back to me. Look how far I had to come to get back where I started from. The child's wisdom passing time, singing old church hymns and nursery rhymes.

Nothing quite like home. Maybe Jesus felt the urge at this tough time in his life and ministry. Oh, he's a grown man in his early thirties, but life is now lived at a nonstop double time level.

The pressure isn't going away. The crowds of his followers, they're enlarging and he is doing a wonderful work among them. He is healing the sick, even a paralyzed hand, he gave life to it. And those with demons, he delivers them. And those who are hungry, he feeds them.

His ministry is just packed with people. And he sees in their faces their need for rest. He says to them on one occasion, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, you who are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, you shall find rest for your souls.

My yoke is easy, my burden is light. And how they must have come, sometimes by the thousands. And if you've ever ministered to people in large numbers and you've done it day after day, week after week, you know the meaning of the word exhaustion.

It's draining. And you love the people and yet those needs never end and they're always, those expectations are always greater than the ability to supply. Except in his case, he could meet whatever the need, but it drained him of his energy. Now on top of all of that, there were those who despised him, never doubted. Even when he has done no wrong, they found wrong. When he and his disciples ate grain on the Sabbath, they found fault in that, though it wasn't breaking the law. He confronted them and he refused to be intimidated by them.

That also is energy draining. And then they'd had enough, according to Matthew 12 and verse 14, they called a meeting and they plotted how to kill him. I don't know if you have ever been stalked, but I know what it's like.

Some of you may. I don't know that anyone ever wanted to kill me, but they did him as pressure. Every move he made, they worked it against him.

Every motive they questioned, every action they criticized, more and more energy drain, more and more. He cast out their demons and along came the Pharisees. He's doing that in the power of Satan. How blasphemous.

But they never let up. Finally, he may have sighed around sunset one evening and thought, I think I'll go home for a while. In fact, that seems to be the way we get into the story at the end of Matthew 13. When Jesus had finished telling the stories and illustrations, he left that part of the country and he returned to Nazareth, hometown.

Let's stop there. It sounds pretty idyllic to most of us who live in a busy city where there's traffic and traffic lights, where there are deadlines and demands that seem never to end. Going back home sounds like a great idea. What you may not know is that it's about 38, 40 miles away from there and in the terrain it is uphill and it is a rugged road. You wonder what he and the disciples talked about along the way and out under the night they spent under the stars.

You wonder what he told them as they were going to sleep. In the back of your Bible you will find a map that's marked Ministry of Jesus. The Ministry of Jesus. You're at the right map when your map shows two bodies of water aside from the great sea on the left, the Mediterranean. When you're into Israel you will see to the north the Sea of Galilee, oval-shaped, and from there the trickling river Jordan down into the greater, larger sea, the Dead Sea that goes nowhere, which is why it has its name. Back to Galilee, look in the northern shore of Galilee and put your finger on Capernaum. No doubt that's where he is at the end of Matthew 13 when he decides to leave and go outside the region. Now trace your way with your finger to the northwest for you who are geographically challenged down a little and to the left. And you will see in the lower Galilean region, Nazareth. Ah, there it is.

As obscure as El Campo in Texas. But there it was, home. When I come to a moment like this I think it's helpful to pause and let my mind run free. We think of our Savior, and certainly we should, as undiminished deity and he was that without question. But we tended to discount that he was also true humanity. Feelings you have, he had. Longings that you have, he had.

The exhaustion you feel after a full day or a packed week or a series of weeks, he too felt exhaustion. So he took the journey. They walked, of course, about a two day walk until they finally came to that little sign that says Nazareth. Maybe it didn't mean as much to the disciples as it did to him because it was there he had spent almost 30 years of his life working in Joseph's carpenter shop. It was there he went to school and the synagogue. It was there he met the neighbors and they knew him. It was there Mary had her other children. Four boys and a number of girls.

We're not told how many or ever told their names. It's a big family. They lived in this little place.

And all the things you went through, he went through. It was there he played with his buddies. It was there that his mom called him to supper. It was there his dad whistled when it got dark. It was there that he earned a living. I'm sure built fine furniture and very comfortable yoke for oxen.

Perhaps even cabinets. It's where his brothers and sisters lived. I'm taking my time here because I want you to feel what the people of Nazareth felt. It's easy to forget old Nazareth and it's easy to forget all of the memories that surrounded him there.

Several years ago I was buying a car and while the paperwork was being done I sat in the little office of the salesman. I've never known him before and haven't seen him since. But while we were together you strike up a conversation as all of you know. I knew he was from another country and he said actually I'm from the Middle East. I'm from a little town called Nazareth. You ever see a name carved into a tree named Jesus? You ever see, he said, name what?

Never heard of him. So we had a chance to get a little better acquainted. It was a great talk we had as he learned a great deal about the one who also was reared where he was reared. It's there that Jesus formed his earliest impressions about life. It was there life made up its mind for him.

We rarely think of Jesus in these human terms, reared as a young boy in the village of Nazareth. And later in his life Jesus would come home to this place for rest, where even his own would reject him. You're listening to Insight for Living. Chuck Swindoll titled today's message, Home Cynical Home. We'll hear an important closing comment from Chuck in just a moment. And to learn more about this ministry, please visit us online at insightworld.org. Well even though the world appears to be making a comeback in terms of the pandemic that swept across the globe, the hardship and damage it's caused is far from over.

And most of us have stories to tell that include our occupation, our families, and even our health. For this reason, we handpicked one of Chuck Swindoll's devotional books that may be an encouragement to you, a family member, or someone in your circle of friends. I'm referring to Chuck's encouraging book called Finding God When the World's on Fire. In his book, Chuck shows us how to replace our worries with courage as we allow the truth of God's word to fall onto fertile soil.

And you can purchase a copy right now by going to insight.org slash offer. Again, it's called Finding God When the World's on Fire. Chuck, just a little over a year ago, our staff at Insight for Living huddled together, trying to figure out how to navigate through the global pandemic. It was faith-building, to say the least, and looking back, none of us imagined how God would provide what's needed to sustain this ministry. Yes, Dave, you would think that nonprofits like Insight for Living Ministries would suffer losses during a global pandemic, but I'm pleased to give you this report.

That's not been our experience. God's people have stepped forward to help us meet and sometimes even exceed our expenses. And if you're among those who have given a recent donation, we are deeply grateful to you. The experts might say that charitable giving goes down during uncertain economic times, but we believe God has accomplished His sovereign plan in His way and in His time. Regardless of what the experts may say and defying conventional thinking, God has blessed Insight for Living Ministries in ways we never expected and could never have predicted. Now, lest you assume that we're flush with resources and no longer need your support, let me clarify this.

I want to dispel that notion right away. Financially speaking, we are completely beholden to the listeners who rely on our daily program. That's the way it works. We have a shared partnership that started back in 1979 and continues to this day, and our goal for the June 30th deadline is impossible to reach without the partnership and participation from friends like you. So, as you measure the value of this Bible teaching ministry in your life, and as God calls upon you to share His message of grace with others, please follow His prompting and give whatever amount God places on your heart. We always give our contact information at the close of our program, and today is no exception. Please get a pen and jot down how to get in touch with us. Then join me in our shared vision to declare the gospel in all 195 countries of the world.

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Again, the number 1-800-772-8888. Or give a donation online today when you visit insight.org. Join us again Friday when Chuck Swindoll continues his message called Home, Cynical Home. Tune in for Insight for Living. The preceding message, Home, Cynical Home, was copyrighted in 2016 and 2021, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.