Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He wondered at their unbelief.
— Mark 6:1-6, emphasis mine
I read the above excerpt this evening in a renewed effort to understand who You are, God, as revealed in Jesus. I typed, “God might wonder at our unbelief,” and I realized You might be wondering at my unbelief. I am, in a way, from Your hometown: I’ve been a Christian for my entire life. And You have surrounded me with friends and relatives who have experienced You in miraculous ways. And the Internet, far from being festooned with critics and skeptics only, is full of other stories for which a naturalistic hypothesis seems farther-fetched than a divine one.
And yet I doubt. No wonder You wonder.
Today’s skeptics echo the questioners in Jesus’ hometown.