Introduction
How would you describe your hometown? Was it a place filled with warmth, love, and community spirit? Or maybe it was more individualistic, where people just did their own thing and left each other alone. Some of that depends on regional differences, sometimes there are differences based on population density (whether you grew up in the city, a smallish town, or a really small town/rural area can make a big difference).
One common theme, with small towns in particular, is that there is a sense of knowing everyone who is from that place. There is, of course, a literal sense in which you do know a higher percentage of the population when the population is relatively small. And this can be one of the benefits of living in a small place like Remsen, is that after a while you can feel like this is a place where you know people and are known. But the downside of that is that it is fairly easy to be pigeon-holed. For people to get in their head that “this is Mary, the daughter of Bill and Angela, and the thing you need to know about her is that she is really into horses.” Forget the fact that Mary hasn’t ridden a horse since she was in high school 25 years ago. She’s in her forties, and people still know her by who her parents are and how she spent her time a quarter century in the past.
That issue, of pigeon-holing someone mentally, and then not being able to properly assess the reality of the current evidence in front of your eyes, is precisely what we see in the first half of our text this morning. Turn with me to Mark 6:1-6a:
6 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is 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. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief.
Double Rejection
Last week we read of Jesus performing two miracles in the city of Capernaum; healing the woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years, and then raising the daughter of Jairus from the dead. In that text we saw the compassion, the contagiousness, and the conquering power of Jesus’ holiness. But not in chapter six, we are told Jesus and his disciples head from Capernaum to Nazareth, about a journey of about 20 miles. A good long walk for a day, though perhaps they broke it up into a couple or three days and did ministry as they traveled, we don’t know.
We do know that when Jesus came into town, on the Sabbath day he entered the Synagogue. There he began to teach the people. And the curious thing is, no one was upset by what he was teaching (at least not yet). They referred to his words as “wisdom” (v2), and they were astonished by the works of his power, his miraculous ministry of which they have heard (v2). Their question was not, “how can you say something like that?” Rather, they questioned, “how canyou say something like that?”
How do these people know Jesus? Not as a Rabbi. In fact, quite far from it. They say, “Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” They identify Jesus with the trade in which he worked from probably close to two decades. He would have begun his apprenticeship under Joseph while he was still young, and then he would have continued to learn the trade until, by the time of his adulthood, he was a master in working with wood. In fact, the word used for carpenter in our text is actually broader and covered those who worked with stone and various other mediums. Which is to say, Jesus was an all around handyman. If it was broken he could fix it, if it needed to be built, he could build it.
And then he is identified by his family connections. The reference to Mary is curious, considering the fact that - even if Joseph is already dead by this point - it would be customary to refer to a son in connection with his father, not his mother. Could this be people dredging up old stories about the questionable origins of Jesus? Like, “how could someone who isn’t even a legitimate child dare to teach like this in our synagogue? We know who he is.” And then there are the references to Jesus’ brothers and sisters (which, of course, makes clear that Mary was not perpetually a virgin - she had many more children after Jesus!!). It’s as if they’re saying, “look, this is a pretty normal family. Maybe even a family with more than normal problems. How can Jesus think he is anyone or anything special?”
You might be familiar with the concept of the rural brain-drain. It refers to the trend of young people growing up and leaving their small towns for education and then never returning. Which from the outside you can look at and say, yeah, that makes sense. But if they stay gone, you will find a very interesting phenomenon, in that even if those folks are wildly successful - perhaps especially if they are - many times the hometown folks won’t be cheering them on, but will be skeptical and condescending: he might think he’s too good for this place, but we know who he really is. Folks leaving and doing good work elsewhere leads to a deep-seated resentment.
That’s at least part of what seems to be happening here. So verse 3 ends: “and they took offense at him.”
That phrase “took offense” translates the verb form of the Greek, skandalon. And that term, skandalon, was also used of a building stone which was rejected. When builders were constructing the foundation of a structure, they would be particularly choosy about which stones were used, because you didn’t want anything weak or loose or cracked or misshapen to ruin the whole thing. And if this stone talk is ringing a bell, it’s because Psalm 118:22 says, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” This is a favorite passage of the New Testament authors when referring to the life and ministry of Jesus.
Later on in Mark, in 12:10-11, Jesus is telling the parable of the wicked tenants, demonstrating clearly the wickedness of the Jewish leadership at that point. And there he quotes Psalm 118:22-23,
“__read the Mark text__”
Peter takes this text up in describing the church in 1 Peter 2:7, and then in verse 8 he adds a quote from Isaiah 8:14, which says,
“He will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”
As R.C. Sproul put it: “He was “despised and rejected by men” (Isa. 53:3). He was rejected by His own people, by His family, by the townsmen, by the nation of Israel. The One whom God appointed to be the cornerstone of His building was considered flawed and repulsive by His contemporaries.” Especially the contemporaries of his own hometown.
Jesus then speaks words which, paired with a few others not recorded in Mark’s gospel, nearly get him killed (see Luke 4:22-30). But Mark’s emphasis is not on the anger of the mob which wound up turning into a violent flame. Rather, his focus is on their unbelief. Jesus states in verse 4: “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” They thought they knew Jesus, and so they couldn’t accept the idea of the carpenter becoming more than just a carpenter.
The devastating result is that they then missed out on experiencing Jesus’ power in their midst. Verse 5-6a, “And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief.”
Now, what does it mean that Jesus couldn’t work there? Did he suddenly lose his supernatural power? Is Jesus dependent upon our permission to work? Absolutely not. Rather, I think we need to see this in the context of a verse like John 5:19-20
“Read that text”
Jesus couldn’t work there because Jesus always does what the Father desires (the Divine Will is One). The Father, in his wisdom and grace, has determined that faith is the means through which we receive good things from his hand. So if the people refused to believe, they cut themselves off from the opportunity to experience the blessings of God. They cut themselves off from salvation.
There were a few who believed, and received healing at Jesus’ hands. This should be encouraging to you: though we live in a culture hurling away from Christ, you can still stand for him, trust in Christ, and receive his salvation. But nonetheless, in Nazareth, most remained skeptical. And that skepticism - that unbelief - brought on them the same judgment Jesus pronounced in Matthew 12:38-42,
“Read the text”
The people of Nazareth brought judgment upon themselves by rejecting the cornerstone, their hometown son. And so he moved on.
Good News Everyone
Mark 6:6b-13:
And he went about among the villages teaching.
7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. 10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
As we look at this portion of the text I still want to contend that the main through line connecting it with verses 1-6 is the importance of faith. And we see that in two respects: the faith of the disciples, and the faith of the crowds.
The Disciples
Jesus’ instructions for the disciples are both stunning, and for them, they must have been terrifying. First of all, he gave them authority over unclean spirits. This is stunning. While Jesus has to this point in Mark’s gospel shown that he has power over such spirits, there is no indication anywhere in the Bible that humans should normally expect such power. In fact, Jesus’ brother Jude would later write that only fools speak ill of demons and seek to confront them - that even the archangel Michael, in confronting Satan, did not pronounce a blasphemous judgment but said, “the Lord rebuke you.”
But here, the disciples seem to be given that delegated power. As Jesus’ personal eyewitness representatives, he wanted his power to be clearly demonstrated through them. He then sent them out - but without provisions. Again, not normally how the Lord expects us to work. He commends those who count the cost before building a power, measure their army’s strength before engaging in battle, and go to the ant to see his diligent method of preparation for winter. But not here. Jesus told them to go two-by-two with nothing but the sandals on their feet and the shirt on their backs from town-to-town.
As they went, Jesus told them to stay in the home of whoever accepted them in, and if they weren’t accepted, to simply shake the dust off their feet and move on to the next place. Once more, I would contend that this is not a normative form of ministry. There certainly is a place for itinerant ministry, wherein one travels and ministers where it is accepted and supported and leaves when those things dry up. But most ministry is intended to be for the long haul.
To jump into a very practical aside here, that’s why this church exists. We don’t exist to be a roll-in preach the gospel and hope it’s received today otherwise we’re outta here man type of church. We are here for the long-haul, seeking to build roots deep into Christ, that we might bear fruit in this place over the course of years and decades to come. To use a military analogy, the long-term strategy in the church age isn’t to carpet bomb places with the gospel and then fly away. Rather, our goal should be long-term insurgency, leading to the building of a new and better culture. That’s what Jeremiah 29:11 is actually about. He told the people of Israel to build homes, plant gardens, and have families in Babylon. Be faithful and fruitful where God plants you.
But again, that’s an aside. The point, I believe, of these instructions is that the disciples wouldn’t be able to rely on their own resources. They couldn’t bring their savings account cash to sustain them on the journey. They would be dependent upon the Lord to provide for them through his people as they came into a town. They would be trusting the Lord that their clothes would not wear out and their sandals would not break. They couldn’t even take a bag of trail mix.
That kind of faith is required of us today, and everyday. We will not experience the blessing of God in our lives so long as we are dependent upon our own resources to supply our needs. This is a hang up which prevents many Christians from giving faithfully to the Lord’s work. It prevents them from taking a risk in having a hard conversation with an unbelieving friend about Jesus or confronting a fellow believer over sin in their life. We don’t trust that the Lord will provide for our every need. But Jesus sent the disciples out, two-by-two, to proclaim his word with their mouths and to put into action the trust in his provision which needed to rule in their hearts.
And the results were stunning. Verse 13 says, “they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.” And now notice what didn’t happen in Nazareth through Jesus but that did happen in the surrounding towns through the disciples: “they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.”
The disciples were able to exercise the authority over demons which Jesus had given, and they healed many who were sick. The anointing with oil is the subject of some debate, but I think the best explanation is that given by Hans Bayer and Grant Osborne in the ESV Study Bible, that anointing with oil was meant to be a symbolic representation of the Holy Spirit’s healing power. The oil itself had no healing properties, but to pray and anoint with oil was to place the matter in God’s hands, and God had determined to exercise healing power through the prayers of the twelve.
Place yourself in their shoes. This would have taken radical faith in Jesus, to believe that he was going to do these things through you. So we see the faith of the disciples at play. But we also see that those in these outlying areas had such faith in Jesus’ power that they were willing to trust that he could work through his emissaries. Those in Nazareth did not believe and did not receive Jesus’ merciful work on their behalf, though he was present with them. Those who could not see Jesus, and who yet believed, received his mercy through the ministry of the twelve.
The Imperative: You Must Believe
And it is in this contrast that we find the imperative in this text: you must believe in Jesus. In his Divine authority. In his saving work on the cross. In his offer of free forgiveness for all those who place their faith in him. In his demand that you walk in trusting obedience today. Though you cannot see Jesus, as you hear his word proclaimed, you are responsible to repent of your sins and trust in him as your Savior and Lord.
The Question: What Are Your Hang-Ups?
What is stopping you from trusting him?
Maybe you simply think you don’t need him. You’re okay on your own without a Savior. You’re pretty good, after all. Way better than your mom or your neighbor or that guy you knew in high school. But friend, you know this isn’t true. You may not be yet sure about Jesus himself, but you know that there are things about yourself that are wrong, that are broken, that are -in a word- sinful: and you can’t get out. You are sick, with no one to heal you. You are spiritually dead, with no way to wake from death. You know you need a Savior. Friend, Jesus is that Savior.
Maybe that sounds too simple. You think that simple trust in Christ can’t be enough. There must be more to it. You must need to do something to earn what he offers. But that is simply the same objection as the person who thinks they don’t need a Savior. You can’t bring anything to the table. You have nothing to offer God. You must completely despair of yourself and your ability to earn salvation. Receive what Jesus gives for what it is - a gift.
Maybe you know all that, but it’s too familiar. Too hum-drum and boring. Old hat. Trust in Jesus, blah blah blah blah. Maybe you grew up in church and Jesus seems just as ordinary to you as he did to the kids he grew up with. I urge you to read this passage, read this gospel, with fresh eyes. Do read assuming you know all the details. Don’t see a story, think, “I know that one”, and skip it. Read carefully, praying that God would open up new realities to you which you have never seen before. And be flattened both by the reality of your own sinfulness, and the overwhelming nature of God’s grace given in Christ. The one who will save any who trust in him.
Conclusion
Friends, the disciples went out proclaiming that people should repent. That is our message today as well. It is the message you need to hear - repent of your sins, look to Christ alone for Salvation - and it is the message you have been given to take into this world. Let our prayer be that God the Holy Spirit, would be preparing the soil of sinners hearts to receive such a message with faith.
