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Morning Meditation
June 2, 2026
Reading: Matthew 13:53-58
When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place. He came to his hometown and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? 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 this?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor except in their own hometown and in their own house.” And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.
Meditation by Peter Vanderveen
Efficiency is a great virtue. But is it a universal one?
Would we be better off if we were determined to get to the heart of the matter about all things as quickly as possible – for time’s ticking?
I’ve often thought about the publication of an “Efficiency Bible,” in which all the unnecessary verbiage in each of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments could be edited out. My Oxford English translation is 1514 pages long, and the font size is inconveniently small. Who has time to read all of this? Or the desire? Let’s face it, the Bible is an uninviting text. It asks too much of us. Imagine the book of Leviticus shrunk down to only one chapter. More people might read it.
And there’s precedent for such an enterprise. There are still, in print, Bibles that highlight Jesus’ words in red ink. One can forgo all the noise found in the black ink passages and hone in directly on what Jesus had to say. Isn’t this what’s most important? Or, more to the point, isn’t this what’s most employable by us. We could have, ready-at-hand, whatever sayings of Jesus are most applicable to our own particular circumstances. Maybe such an edition could be renamed for marketing purposes: 783 Steps to Heaven.
It’s tempting.
In the text appointed for today, Jesus’ words are often quoted out of context. They are taken as a general rule, which seems to hold true. Even today we have this disposition toward people who are considered prophets. So why do we need what precedes Jesus’ observation? Why do we have to endure the repetition of questions that are all quite similar? Do any of these questions actually matter?
Well… yes. They do. And they’re just as important as Jesus’ response to them. For every question is a slightly different exploration of why people were astounded and offended. No one in Jesus’ hometown really expected anything from a mere local – someone who was as dead common as all the rest of them. They couldn’t figure Jesus out, and the numerous questions they placed are meant to show us how committed they were (and we are) to keeping life as predictable as possible. Jesus simply couldn’t be who others said he was. The repetition of their questions turned their query into insistence; and Jesus allowed them this. He did nothing remarkable in their midst, which was what they wanted.
Often in the Biblical text the passages that seem most inconsequential, which try our patience as readers, are meant to slow us down so that we can become reflective enough to discover elements of ourselves that, otherwise, would remain hidden. In this way, the Bible functions not so much as a book of answers but as the means by which God invites us into the discipline of a kind of therapy, where we are asked to learn about the very things that we most resist encountering – God being chief among them. This takes time.
Yet in the end, what we gain is our selves.
Prayer
O God of love, we ask that you give us love; love in our thinking, love in our speaking, love in our doing, and love in the hidden places of our souls; love of our neighbors, near and far; love of our friends, old and new; love of those with whom we work, and love of those with whom we take our ease; love in joy, love in sorrow, love in life, and love in death; that so at length we may be worthy to dwell with you, who are eternal love. Amen.
William Temple: Archbishop of Canterbury
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