They would rather not be lifted up to Jesus' stature if that meant they would have to credit him with more stature than themselves, and this they are unwilling to do because up to this point they've had him under their thumbs. He was a kid who could be hollered at, he was a youth who would yield the path to someone who made it clear he'd be shouldered aside. Whether people liked him or disliked him or ignored him, he'd been given a place by the consensus of the community and they weren't going to have their expectations overruled. Lewisburg is a small town. Every place near here is a small town.
People grow up in small places, and early in life are assigned high expectations and low.
Some last names, when they are mentioned, make the teachers at the school expect the incoming pupil to do well or to do poorly, before one ever even sees the other. That literally is natural, since our tendency to divide ourselves up into those who dominate and those who are dominated is part of our inheritance from the world of social animals. And there is great power, both for good and ill, in the community's expectations of its members. Some of us will refuse to give in to some dangerous temptation because the fact that people we respect believe in us tips the scale in the direction of doing right. Others of us, knowing that nobody expects us either to do good or to do well, will find temptation more easily indulged.