8 July - Mark 6.1-13

Mark 6:1-13

The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth

⁶He left that place and came to his home town, 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 offence^* at him. ⁴Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, 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.

Jesus was rejected because he was too ‘ordinary’ – he was just a carpenter. Barclay points out that in today’s world, he would probably be seen as a handyman – very skilled – but nothing special and adds the telling point that …

“ … God, when He came to earth, claimed no exemptions. He took upon Himself this common life with all its common tasks …”

Jesus would have been rejected today as well, because people evaluate people by externals and not because of their inherent worth as individuals.

Jesus never left Nazareth until he was about thirty. Why? Because his father had died young and he was needed to support his mother and his brothers and sisters. It was only when they were old enough to fend for themselves that he felt free to leave. Even God’s mission had to wait. I find this truly wonderful; God being there in the ordinary in every respect.

Because Jesus had lived in this little insignificant place for so long, and because he was so well-known that he was rejected. Barclay writes: “Some times we are too near people to see their greatness.”

It is sad that Jesus could therefore do no mighty works in Nazareth and this itself reminds us of an important truth and that is that some things simply cannot be done if the atmosphere is all wrong.

Firstly, no person can be healed if they refuse to be healed. Without the will to live, even the best doctors can do nothing. I will always cherish the memory of Trish’s lovely father who was broken by the tragedy of the death of his son followed by the deaths of his brother and closest friend – all in a matter of months. He simply broke and on his death certificate the cause of death is “… of a broken heart …” He lost the will to live – but he is with our Lord and is now at peace.

Secondly, there can be no preaching in the wrong atmosphere. Barclay contends that congregations preach half the sermons. I find this to be so true. If people engage with me as the preacher I feel a real sense of liberty and can preach well, but if they are hostile, everything falls flat. I am sure you will also have had this experience in South Africa when challenging Apartheid from the pulpit, sometimes the hostility was palpable!

There can be no peace-making in the wrong atmosphere. If people come together to hate, they will hate. If they come together with the conscious decision to love Christ and each other, it will always work. Barclay concludes:

“There is laid upon us the tremendous responsibility that we can either help or hinder the work of Jesus Christ. We can open the door wide to Him – or we can slam it in his face.”

It would appear that Mark, when writing this passage, was of the opinion that this incident was the foundation event for all future Christian activity was based. The disciples had spent a time of preparation with Jesus, listening to his teaching witnessing his mighty works, and now it was time for them to become active in ministry themselves, both by words and works.

Denis Nineham is my source for this reflection.

Mark does not explicitly say what they were told to say, in fact he does not go into detail to explain what their specific instructions were before setting off. Some have tried to suggest that this is because this incident is ‘unhistorical’, but Nineham rejects this suggesting rather that the explanation can probably more be found in ‘… the lack of tradition about, or interest in, the incident in the Church in which St Mark was writing …’ These instructions belong to the context of Palestine, but should not be seen as the paradigm for all missionary activity. This becomes obvious when reading the experience of St Paul. Paul could never have carried through his immense missionary journeys if he had remained faithful to the letter of these instructions.

At the time of writing, the conditions within Palestine had changed very little and so Mark could be emphatic in his writing in this way. As a result this tradition became precious to them and were elaborated on by Matthew and Luke. From these accounts we learn more, i.e. that the message was the coming of the Kingdom which was considered imminent and that if the news of this was to spread in time, there were to get a move on, so they must travel light and waste no time where people refused to listen to them.

Now, the responsible thing to do would be to be well prepared – as Paul was – and to be supported by the Church as we reach out. Context is important and so, where you and I minister, we need to be sensitive to the needs of those in our mission field. What we say and how we say it needs to be tailored to the fact that our congregations have no choice – they are told to be there – and this binds us to a great responsibility not to abuse the privilege.

Barclay points out that one can summarise what the twelve did as follows:

(i) They were heralds of the message of Jesus – they did not create a message, they ‘brought’ it. They did not tell the people what they believed or considered probable – “… they told people what God had told them …” They were like their prophets of old and could begin what they said with the words: “Thus saith the Lord …” I know this is difficult, but we need to be able to do the same.

I love reading the sermons of the great thinkers, because this is when one really gets to the essence of their wisdom. There is something about the preached word, the dynamism, the inspiration from the Holy Spirit, the response of those listening as God moves in the place, and one can even get this from reading the sermons afterward.

It is this conviction that led us Methodists to answer when we are asked: “What are your doctrines?” we reply that they are contained in John Wesley’s sermons.

I vehemently disagreed with Paul Tillich – until I read his sermons – and the same applied to Rudolf Bultmann.

(ii) They preached the message of Jesus which had at its core: “Repent!” There is a need to change. This is bound to hurt and be unpopular, because it implies that we are getting things wrong. It requires that we are ‘disturbed’ and most people like being kept in their comfort zones. But repentance is the most positive thing anyone can do – because it means that we can change and become more like the people we want to be – deep down – by becoming the person God wants us to be. It is for our sake – not God’s sake. Repentance needs to be at the core of our message and until it becomes so, the Church will continue to decline.

Like it or not, a central feature in Jesus’ message was the need to repent – because he knew that, by nature, we are all selfish and in order for things to become better for all – we need to undergo radical change. Barclay illustrates this by using an example from the novel “Quo Vadis” where a young Roman falls in love with a Christian girl. Because he is not a Christian, the girl will have nothing to do with him. He tries to find out more and so secretly follows the Christians to one of their meetings and listens to the sermon preached by Peter. Barclay writes:

“He felt that if he wished to follow that teaching, he would have to place on a burning pile all his thoughts, habits and character, his whole nature up to that moment, burn them into ashes and then fill himself with a life altogether different, and an entirely new soul. That is repentance.”

And most people in Britain today simply do not want this. They just want to be left alone. Because this is a lovely country in which to live and because by far the largest majority of people are not guilty of robbery, theft, murder, adultery – what Barclay refers to as the ‘glaring sins’ – they believe they are good people. And by the standards of the rest of the world, they definitely are. But the standards for a disciple of Jesus are much higher, because they require a complete paradigm shift from  being self- centred (which our society largely is) to being God-centred and this requires change, and if there is anything British society does NOT like, it is change!

Barclay concludes:

“Repentance is no sentimental feeling sorry; repentance is a revolutionary thing – this is why so few people repent.

This passage ends with the way the disciples brought with them the ‘King’s mercy’ – help and healing. They brought liberation from demons and illness; they desired to bring health to both body and soul, what Barclay refers to as ‘whole salvation’ and not just ‘soul salvation’. There is great significance in the way they anointed with oil, because in the ancient world oil was regarded to have great healing powers. In the hands of the disciples, an old remedy therefore took on new significance, because the spirit of Christ gave it new virtue and power.

The twelve brought to the world the message and the mercy of the king, ‘… and that remains the church’s task today and every day …’