This man Jesus is quite a preacher. Rumor says that he even does miracles. But wait a minute! What makes him so special? Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? The hometown folks have known him since he was in diapers. They've seen him play and heard him cry. They've seen him with sweat on his forehead and dirt under his fingernails. Isn't he just an ordinary guy from an ordinary family? Isn't he the son of that carpenter? Isn't his mother Mary? (Come to think of it, didn't she get pregnant before marriage?) Aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Don't his sisters still live right in town? No doubt about it: this man is as human as anyone; he's nobody special.

The townspeople are right that Jesus is as human as anyone. But they are wrong to think he is nobody special. They look so hard at Jesus as a fellow human that they don't see him as God. Let's not repeat that mistake. But let's not make the opposite mistake, either. Let's not look so hard at Jesus as God that we don't see him as human.

Let's rejoice that God's eternal Son entered the human family and became one of us, like us in every way except for sin. This man Jesus knows our hurts and temptations from personal experience. He is not ashamed to be our brother (Hebrews 2:11). Let's not be ashamed of him!

PRAYER--Dear Jesus, you know us, sympathize with us, and represent us perfectly, for you are one of us. Thank you for joining the human family that we might join God's family. Amen.