Matthew 13:51-58 The Carpenter’s Son
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: April 8, 2019, Matthew 13:51-58
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
“Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.
(Understanding the Text) Jesus asks if the disciples have understood. When they answer “yes,” He calls them scribes who have been trained for the kingdom of heaven. He tells them that they are masters of a house and have treasure. I never realized before that this saying is about understanding parables. With parables, we have the old lessons that we have learned, but we also have new lessons that become apparent to us later. Everyone always emphasizes the lack of educational background of the apostles, but Jesus here emphasizes that they have been trained and that they are ready to be called scribes. Jesus said that they were learned men.
Astonished usually seems positive to me, but in the Bible it is usually negative. I guess maybe there is an element of unbelief in astonishment. Anyway, here where it says that they were astonished, it is not saying that they were positively impressed by Jesus. I think they resented that the hometown boy had passed them by and made good. They felt that He was putting on airs, and getting above His station. They were convicted by His teaching and let the devil’s birds snatch the thoughts of the kingdom right out of their heads by facts that were unrelated to the message. “We don’t have to listen to Him. He’s just the son of a carpenter, not some mighty king or rabbi. We know His mother and brothers and sisters. His sister is married to my cousin’s uncle.” (I added that, but it’s the kind of thing hometowns think.) “He’s not any better than His brothers.”
According to this passage, Joseph had at least seven children counting Jesus–four sons, at least two daughters, and Jesus. This passage gives us the names of Jesus’ brothers: James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. We know about James and Jude. They were later apostles who wrote epistles that are in the Bible. James was the leader of the Jerusalem church and martyred for Jesus. Jude saw visions of the past and future. Peter interacted extensively with the two brothers after Jesus’ death. I know this because of the Jerusalem council and because Peter quotes Jude’s epistle almost verbatim in one of Peter’s letters. You only do that if you are so familiar with the person and the person’s words that they come out naturally as your own. James was a take-control kind of guy, so I wonder if he was one of the ones who led the way for the family intervention to take Jesus home because people were saying that He was crazy. On the other hand, I know nothing about Joseph and Simon and Jesus’ sisters, except that they lived in Nazareth. I assume that the sisters had all married into families from Nazareth. I wonder why we never hear anything about Joseph and Simon? Did they die before Jesus’ ministry was finished? Were they unbelievers? Or are they like so many other people who worked great things for God that were simply not recorded?
There is disagreement in the commentaries as to whether these were Jesus’ half brothers or stepbrothers. If half brothers, then they would have been younger than Jesus because He was the firstborn child of Mary. However, they act more like older brothers. The only argument against Jesus being Mary’s only child is that people who believe this are putting Mary on a pedestal as the virgin who could not be sullied by human touch. That is an argument based on contempt rather than logic. It makes sense that Joseph was an older man who was a widower with many children already. From issues raised when I studied the genealogies, the reason that Joseph contracted marriage with Mary may have been because her father had no male heir and needed a relative to marry his daughter to gain an heir. In other words, there are indications that Joseph was acting as the kinsman-redeemer, and his other children were heirs to his lineage while Jesus was heir to Mary’s father’s lineage. The Bible does not say whether Jesus’ siblings were older or younger, so in the end, I guess that it’s not that important for me to know.
(Revelation of God) Is faith necessary as a connection for God to work miracles with us, or is it necessary because God won’t work any kind of transformation in us without our permission? I know that faith is necessary, but I’m not sure why. When Jesus said that a prophet didn’t have honor with His hometown and family, it’s obvious what He meant about hometown, but I think there is an interesting inference that His family was without any faith in Him also. This changed after His resurrection with at least two of His brothers, and maybe more of His family.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that I need to study Your word so that I may have the treasures in my heart ready to bring out and share with others. I pray to have Your word in my heart and in my mind.