“And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” (Matt. 13:58) “Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” (Mark 9:23)
Because of their unbelief is how our first verse ends, and so one must wonder, did the Lord not do those works in His hometown because they were like Herod was, they wanted to see the magic man do some tricks, or were those works not performed because of what we could call a symbiotic relationship in the miracles. For our second verse states that belief is one of the key components of the fulfillment of our asking the Lord in prayer for those things we desire.
We of course should already be aware that whatever we ask must be within the boundaries of the will of the Father, and that means in some way it must glorify God, self-centered prayers for selfish reasons are answered with a resounding “No.”
Jesus did not need to prove that He is God, His works should have been enough, “But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.” (John 10:38) And so one must, I believe, conclude that the Lord does not need us to believe to perform a miracle in our lives, His power is not tied directly to our belief, Lazarus did not need to believe that the Lord was going to raise him from the dead, in fact he couldn’t, he was already dead, and probably quite content where he was for those three days.
Our belief in whether or not God can do something bears no factor on His ability to do anything, He gains no more power or strength because of our belief, and if He wants to do something, He will do it. “And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Daniel 4:35)
So, one must wonder, why not do the miracles in your hometown, would not they have proved who He said He was, don’t miracles draw us closer to the Lord, so to speak, in our faith and belief in Him, don’t they cement our trust in His promises. It might be wise to go back to the first time that the children of Israel saw the pillar of cloud, and then that night saw it change into a pillar of fire. Total and complete amazement, awe-inspiring doesn’t even begin to describe what they felt, I am sure. But ask them about it twenty or thirty years down the road, it was probably not even noticed most of the time.
If you woke up tomorrow morning and there was a fully cooked breakfast on the table, and no one in the house prepared it, astounding would be the word you probably would use. If it happened every day for the next few years, it would not only be commonplace, it would be expected. “Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?” (Matt. 13:55)
These people had watched Him grow up, they watched Him in the carpenter shop, saw Him on a day-to-day basis for almost three decades, and apparently didn’t see a lot of miracles going on, and if they did occur at times, they were wrote off as a coincidence, much like people do today. They disbelieved, and because of that any miracle would not have changed their minds, but there is one part of that verse we must look at closely, “Not many,” it doesn’t say no mighty works, no miracles, and so it implies there were some. I don’t know how many people lived in Nazareth at that time, but I don’t think it was a major metropolitan town, it was big enough that a carpenter could make a living there though, and so perhaps not all knew of the miracles that He did do there. But we are moving into the land of conjecture now, and only false faith finds a home there.
Suffice it to say, if we believe, and if it will glorify the Lord God, our prayers will be answered. Apparently not many in that town at that time were willing to take those steps of faith.