Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? This comes from people in Jesus's hometown, and it's dismissal wrapped in familiarity. They know who his parents are. They know his trade. So how could he possibly be more than that?
Mark's detail that they called him 'the son of Mary' (rather than Joseph) suggests either Joseph had died or there was some scandal. Either way, Jesus came from an ordinary, possibly compromised background. His hometown couldn't get past the ordinariness to see the presence. I think about how we do this—assuming we know someone because we know their background. Assuming their current limitations will always define them. Jesus's hometown had to live with the fact that they knew him and still didn't understand him.
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