Dr. James Sutherland Bonnell, a Presbyterian minister of another generation, has a great line on this text. “Jesus was favorably received by his townsfolk until he challenged the provincial, racial prejudice. He dared to declare that the children of Israel were not special favorites of God.” Indeed, the heavenly Father had singled out individuals in Sidon and Syria for unparalleled blessings. “And that,” Dr. Bonnell wrote, ‘‘really set the heather on fire!”