Matthew 13:55

Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?

Well, there it is. This was the first council of unbelief ever held against Jesus the Son of God. It occurred not in some ivory tower of learning, nor in some gathering of wise and learned men, ah, no! It occurred in the wretched and miserable village of Nazareth; and the protagonists of this dark drama of rejection were not intellectuals, nor educated and cultured men, but were prejudiced gossips, vulgar, and ignorant buffoons, but still entitled to one marvelous distinction: THEY WERE THE SPIRITUAL ANCESTORS OF ALL THE UNBELIEVERS WHO EVER LIVED!

Satan has long sponsored the lie that unbelief is sophistication, intellectuality, erudition, and "smartness"! But in this original pilot-project for the rejection of the Christ, the truth is evident. Unbelief is not a courageous rejection of ancient dogma; it is not a brilliant conclusion of philosophical intelligence. Nazareth rejected no doctrine, manifested no intelligence, and could lay claim to no particular power, culture, or worth of any kind that could have endowed their rejection with any semblance of justification or honesty. Those who fancy that the rejection of Christ is the result of comparing all religions, let them note that at Nazareth there was no study, no comparison, no investigation, precious little information, and a dreadful suspicion of intellectual mediocrity, if not indeed downright stupidity.

It is clear as the sun at perihelion that the blighting unbelief of Nazareth which blinded their eyes against the only Person who saved that town from oblivion - their unbelief was not intellectual superiority, nor moral courage. nor logic, nor philosophy, nor honest doubt. What was it? (1) It was unworthiness. That town had justly earned an unsavory reputation. As Christ said, "Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). (2) It was egotism. Look at the self-glory of the words, "Is not this the carpenter's son?" What ridiculous snobbery of an inflated ego is implicit in such words as those! Ah, yes; who was speaking? The burgomaster's daughter, no less, or the local salt merchant, or some owner of a wine shop, or of a brothel! Fit citizens indeed to look down upon the carpenter's boy! (3) It was mental laziness. They could easily have ascertained the truth by a little investigation; but no, it was far easier to deny the news filtering down to that wretched little village than to check up on it and find it true. To have done THAT would really have created a problem. The lazy mind takes the lazy way out. (4) It was illogical. Strange that Nazareth should have rejected the Holy One who was welcomed with "Hosannas" in Jerusalem; but the same illogical phenomenon is yet seen in men who will blindly reject a faith that was held by men like Paul, Washington, Newton, and countless others of the greatest minds ever known on earth. (5) It was moral cowardice. The gossips of Nazareth did not have the moral courage to kneel at the feet of Jesus. The rich young ruler did so, but the citizens of Nazareth had no such grace. (6) It was the opiate of the people. Where have we heard that before? Unbelief sealed Nazareth off from what was happening in the world. It was an escape mechanism by which they avoided doing anything. If they had believed, it would have involved them in all kinds of activity; but, with one good drag on the opium-pipe of infidelity, all was quiet in Nazareth! Satan, by his emissaries, has sought to reverse this truth, but it won't work. Infidelity or atheism is the opium of the people. (7) It is self-pity. They were offended in him. Christ had not consulted them; his success had bruised their local pride. This characteristic whine of unbelief is everywhere noticed, even in famous infidels such as H. G. Wells, who said, "The universe is getting bored with man." In view of such plain and indisputable facts as these, what blindness is it that allows Satan to embellish atheism with some aura of intellectual respectability? The epic falsehood of the devil that unbelief is any form of intellectual activity is surely and certainly destroyed by a careful analysis of this classic example of it at Nazareth!

The problem of the identity of the four brothers and three sisters of Jesus, mentioned in this place, did not exist in ancient times. Helvidius, the most ancient commentator on this passage, said that they were all the children of Mary and Joseph, born after Jesus was born. It was only in ages after men had invented religious doctrines incompatible with the obvious truth of Matthew's words, that ingenious interpretations were devised to relieve the embarrassment. All such efforts fail in the light of the simple, obvious, and necessary meaning of Matthew 13:55,56. The truth was built into the passage by the Holy Spirit and is incapable of destruction. As the noted Dr. Adam Clarke so ably expressed it, "Why should the children of ANOTHER family be brought in here to share the reproach which it is evident was designed for Joseph the carpenter, Mary his wife, and their son Jesus?"[9] Cousins or lodge brothers simply do not fit into the picture here at all, nor would their being pulled in have aided the reproach in any way. No, the reproach was directed at Jesus and his immediate family; those others named were his literal brothers and sisters. See more on this under Matthew 1:25. Note, three sisters must be assumed from the words, "are they not all with us?"

This rejection at Nazareth occurred on the second visit of Jesus, the first being described in Luke 4:16ff. This second rejection, recorded also by Mark (Mark 6:1-6), was final and determinative. Mark's words, "He marveled at their unbelief," show the shock and amazement which attended the conduct of the people of Nazareth. Christ himself was made to marvel at it.