Power Within the Humble
We have all heard the proverb, “Good things come in small packages.” I take it that this does not refer only to little boxes holding jewelry. I think it generally means that we can be surprised by the value and greatness of someone or something even if we could not detect that greatness initially.
The psalm and the Gospel reading for Sunday have this concept tucked into them. Psalm 48 is a Jerusalem song, celebrating Zion as God’s City. It elevates the city by its poetic modes, extolling it as the paragon of cities, which God protects. Depending on which archeologist you consult, Jerusalem might be deemed a little backwater capital among the great cities of the ancient Near East. That does not stop the poet from imagining and depicting it in cosmic terms. Take a look:
1 Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised; *
in the city of our God is his holy hill.
2 Beautiful and lofty, the joy of all the earth, is the hill of Zion, *
the very center of the world and the city of the great King.
3 God is in her citadels; *
he is known to be her sure refuge.
4 Behold, the kings of the earth assembled *
and marched forward together.
5 They looked and were astounded; *
they retreated and fled in terror.
6 Trembling seized them there; *
they writhed like a woman in childbirth,
like ships of the sea when the east wind shatters them.
7 As we have heard, so have we seen,
in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God; *
God has established her for ever.
Just like the story of David facing mighty Goliath, this little city on a relatively small hill comes through as a lofty, exquisite gem to behold and, militarily, as an intrepid, indomitable establishment. Both with David and with the Psalmist’s image of Jerusalem, the difference is God. David may be smaller than other warriors on the scene, but good things come through him because in God he trusts. There may be physically grander centers of civilization, but Jerusalem, just a town, by comparison, is God’s town. So, here we have Psalm 48, describing the little package of Jerusalem as a delight to all the inhabited earth. People tremble to behold it.
When Jesus goes to his hometown and teaches in the local synagogue. The townsfolk are thinking it is just plain Jesus, the one they know. Those who heard him are muttering, “We know this carpenter, we know his brothers, his sisters, and we know his mom. What is going on? He is blowing us away here with his wisdom. He is astounding us with his deeds of power!” His Nazarene hometown folks are wondering how such good things are coming from this familiar, small package of Jesus the local carpenter. At first, they respond with astonishment, but their sentiments twist and they began to take offense, as you can see:
On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. (Mark 6:2-3)
They wanted to hang on to their tame impression of the hometown boy. They did not know how to absorb the powerful wisdom and works of Almighty God generated from Mary’s son the carpenter. They passed on the gift, and Jesus moved on. Jesus knew the old saying about prophets always getting their due honor, except in their native town, among their relations, and their own house.
How about us? Will we recognize the authentic grandeur of Jesus in our life? It is not unknown that Christians drift off into scoffing at their connection to Christ, thinking it is that old stuff they have believed so long. Our connection to the Living Christ does not get old and small. That is just us drifting and not staying receptive to the freshness of God’s steadfast love, which is new every morning.
And there is a second application: The Anointed One lives within you. You never need to underestimate your place; you must not scoff. You may be a small package, but the good things in you are precious indeed. Jerusalem might have looked like a little spot on a nice mound in the hill country, but the poet rightly depicts it as the beautiful city of the great King. You may think of yourself as merely that familiar face in the mirror, but you hold within yourself the Agent of powerful deeds, and. Source of glorious Wisdom.