July 4, 2021

Title:  "Jesus Goes Home"

Scripture:  Mark 6:1-13

(Other lectionary suggestions include II Samuel 5:1-5 and 9-10, Psalm 48, and II Corinthians 12:2-10.)

Mark 6:1-13

The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth

1He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. 4Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." 5And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6And he was amazed at their unbelief.

The Mission of the Twelve

Then he went about among the villages teaching. 7He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; 9but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." 12So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

          The first part of today's Scripture reading is sort of amazing in how true Jesus's experience in his own hometown was. What I mean by "true" is that what Jesus experienced is what a LOT of famous people experience when they go back home:  people saying, "Oh, you're that smart-aleck neighbor kid who lived down the block! We know your parents!" Or how about this one: "I remember when you were knee high to a grasshopper", or "I remember ......." Fill in the blank. Some people - LOTS of people - simply can't imagine that a local boy made good! And not just in Jesus's case, but in so MANY cases!

          I must tell you that I - yes, I, your MINISTER! - have been guilty of such thoughts. In my hometown in Indiana, I played sports and I was on the high school teams, and I can remember little kids looking up to me. One little kid, who was kind of FAT (!), grew up to be a tremendous high school basketball player, and I was AMAZED! Not only that, but when I was in college, this fat little kid was a star on my former high school's basketball team, and that team went to the Final Four of the Indiana state basketball tournament! The team I played on (or sat on the bench on!) never got out of the local sectional, which was the first round of the state high school basketball tournament. What I'm saying is that I had a hard time accepting the fact that this little fat kid made good, and he did a lot better in basketball than I ever did!

          That may have been what was happening when Jesus went home as a preacher for the first time. Maybe some of the locals simply couldn't STAND it that a guy from THEIR town had actually "made it" in the world! So that's why the comments of "I knew you WHEN" kept coming up.

          There is something else going on here that I find very interesting. We are told "he could do no deed of power there" and also that "he was amazed at their unbelief". Wait a minute, Mark, I want to say! This is the Son of God we're talking about here, and you're telling us that he could do no act of power? That is what we heard this morning, and I am shocked that not even God, God in Christ, could do a deed of power. What does that say to you? To me it says that our faith - or lack of faith - means something. God may have the power, Jesus may have the power, but apparently God can't do it alone! Now you may say, "Well, God COULD if he wanted to, regardless of whether we had faith." Maybe....but THAT'S NOT WHAT the SCRIPTURE SAYS!

          Your faith is important! Your trust is important! I am reminded of other passages in which Jesus says, "Your faith has made you well." Not MY faith, says Jesus, but YOUR faith has made you well. I had a children's book, and maybe you did, too, called, "The Little Engine That Could". It was about a little train engine, and he kept saying, "I think I can, I think I can." Whether a person is religious or not, his or her faith seems to make all the difference. And perhaps the message is, Whether you think you can or you can't, you are RIGHT!

          Here is what N. T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham in the Church of England, has to say. This is from his commentary on Mark's Gospel, called, "Mark for Everyone". "Once again we see the mysterious connection between healing and faith. Lack of faith, it seems, seriously hinders Jesus' power; an important lesson for all who try to preach or live the kingdom. If even Jesus was thwarted by the unbelief of those around, we shouldn't be surprised if sometimes we don't seem able to do what we thought we should....And as so often in Mark, there is a pointer here towards the time when Jesus came to the city the Messiah might think of as home, to the Temple where a Messiah ought to go, and was once again rejected, this time with fatal consequences." Speaking of pointers, if you were here last week, you may recall the story of Jesus raising the 12-year-old girl from the dead, and the point was made that the raising of the little girl points toward an even bigger raising from the dead of Jesus later on. The Gospel of Mark seems to be FULL of such connections! Amen.

Pastor Skip