Matthew 13:53-58 and Mark 6:1-6
…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?” (Mt. 13:54) We had a discussion in our Men’s Group a few weeks ago about Jesus’ deity. I believe we came to the conclusion that Jesus had heard from His mother, Mary, from early childhood on about His miraculous birth and that He was the Son of God. So He lived His first thirty years with that knowledge, living a “normal” life in Nazareth, with the knowledge of who He was, but without the prompting from His Father that it was time to do something about His calling. So with that, I maintain that something extraordinary happened on the occasion of His baptism, when the Holy Spirit appeared as a dove alighting on Him and His Father proclaimed, “This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” (Mt. 3:16-17) So then Jesus goes into the wilderness where His calling is now affirmed and His Holy Spirit becomes resident within Him. He then goes on to Cana for a wedding, then to Jerusalem for His cleansing of the temple, then to Nicodemus and the woman at the well, then to Capernaum and vicinity, across the lake to the land of the Garasenes, then back to Capernaum, and finally to Nazareth. He may be in his late-first or second year of ministry when He finally returns to His hometown. He is clearly a changed man from the person who left some many months before. He has “new wisdom” that He had not displayed before, and He now has a track record of miracles performed elsewhere. But to the people of Nazareth, he is still the same guy who grew up in town. Nothing has really changed (in their minds): “He is different, but He’s still the same Jesus that we grew up with.” (Sarcasm intended…!)
See also: May 1 / Matt. 13:53-58; May 2 / Mark 6:1-6