Mark 6:1 Hometown Blues

First Things: Devotions in Mark’s Gospel

Mark 6:1 Hometown Blues

Mark 6:1   Jesus went out from there and *came into His hometown; and His disciples *followed Him. ² When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? ³ “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him. ⁴ Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” ⁵ And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ And He wondered at their unbelief.

Jesus had been travelling, teaching, doing miracles, and creating quite a stir. Now he came home, to his hometown, to Nazareth. This is the place where his people lived, where everyone knew him. They knew his mother and father, and the rumors that were attached to his birth. There must have been a bit of a stigma attached to Mary, and to Jesus.

I’m not sure how Jesus fit in with the other kids as he grew up. Here is the One who never sinned, the perfect child, completely righteous. How do all the sinner-kids react to such holiness? I can guess that it was not always good. How do other parents act, feeling defensive about their own kids in comparison? And now he goes off, following a quite non-traditional track, leaving the day-job behind, disrupting normal life wherever he goes. Well, it’s just not proper. 

He comes to the synagogue and begins to teach. We have already been told that he does not teach like the scribes. They could describe the fourteen views on this or that subject, and argue the pro’s and con’s. But when Jesus spoke, it was as though God were speaking. Or at least some thought so. But not everyone.

When people know you, well, they think they know you. But they didn’t know Jesus. They didn’t understand His true identity, the eternal Son of God, without beginning and ending. They didn’t understand His uninterrupted fellowship with the Father, and the power of the Spirit that rested upon Him. They didn’t understand His mission, His commitment, His love. They misjudged Him. They resisted Him.

And, though Jesus did a few miracles of healing there (and even one is amazing), the text says this: “And he could do no mighty work there, except …” - that somehow the unbelief of the hometown people acted as a restriction on the power of God in that setting, whether we say that He could not work, or that He would not work. People’s lives could have been changed, and yet they weren’t, because of unbelief.

It scares me (does it scare you?) to think about how I have hindered the work of God because of unbelief; because of what I thought that I knew, but I had it wrong; because I viewed things from an earth-bound paradigm instead of that which is from heaven; because I placed myself in the seat of the judge instead of the one to be judged, convicted, and seeking mercy and forgiveness. 

Let’s learn to look at Jesus’ in heaven’s light, and not in the shadows of hometown blues.