The people of Nazareth find Jesus too familiar to take seriously. How can this son-of-a-carpenter make these kinds of demands on us?

It’s a perennial temptation. The more familiar Jesus becomes, the more we’re apt to blunt the force of His radical demands: The Jesus I know wouldn’t ask me to sell all to gain the kingdom. My Jesus doesn’t ask for a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees.

All of us are potential Nazarenes.