In order for Jesus to heal us, He must first expose our sins, prejudices, and myths. That process is not pleasant. It made the folks in Nazareth fighting mad. In order for Jesus to heal them, he had to challenge some of their cherished myths and prejudices.

When I was a boy of 7 or 8, I was running through a neighbor's yard one day and stepped on a sling blade. Today's children don't know what a sling blade is, but it was an ancient grass-cutting instrument. My foot was cut rather deeply. I ran and hid. Why? Because I had heard that in such cases a doctor would stitch up the wound, and nothing sounded more dreadful to me than having somebody sticking a needle and thread into me repeatedly like I was a piece of cloth. Fortunately, one of my loud-mouthed friends told my mother and I was discovered. To my great relief the doctor did not stitch me up, though he probably should have. My fear of the cure was for me much worse than my wound. We want the cure that Jesus brings. We want Jesus to forgive and save us, but not to make us change, especially if the changes hurt. We are like the little boy whose bedtime prayer sounded like this, "Dear Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it. I'm having a real good time like I am."