“Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed.  ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?’ they asked.  ‘Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?  Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?  Aren’t all his sisters with us?  Where then did this man get all these things?’  And they took offense at him.  But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.’  And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” (Matt. 13:54-58).

Contrast this with the Samaritan woman at the well and the Samaritan villagers.

“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’  The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’  He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.  I have no husband,’ she replied.  Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband.  The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.  What you have just said is quite true.’  ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet.  Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’  ‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.  Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’ The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’  Then Jesus declared, ‘I, the one speaking to you—I am he.’.  So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.  And because of his words many more became believers.  They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.’  ” (John 4:13-26; 40-42).

Those in his home town began to rationalize all the facts they knew as truth.  This searching led them to take offense.  The woman asked for the life-giving water Yeshua offered and she received it.  She had faith that when Messiah came He would explain everything; her faith was manifested and rewarded.  A preponderance of the evidence will not certainly lead to faith.  Faith comes from hearing the word of God. (Rom. 10:17).  Those who trust their mental faculties and senses my be fooled.