To Close for comfort

Metropolitan UMC, Indian Head, MD
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Mark 6:1-13

New International Version

6  Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.

“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing?  3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph,[a] Judas and Simon? Aren’t 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 own town, among his relatives and in his own home.”  5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village.  7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.

8  These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

12  They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

Background

When Jesus came to Nazareth, he put himself to a very severe test. He was coming to his home town; and there are no severer critics than those who have known us since childhood. It was never meant to be a private visit simply to see his old home and his own people. He came attended by his disciples. That is to say he came as a Rabbi. The Rabbis moved about the country accompanied by their little circle of disciples, and it was as a teacher, with his disciples, that Jesus came.

He went into the synagogue and he taught. His teaching was greeted not with wonder but with a kind of contempt. ‘They took offence at him.’ They were scandalized that a man who came from a background like Jesus should say and do things such as he did. Familiarity had bred a mistaken contempt.

They refused to listen to what he had to say for two reasons.

(1) They said, ‘Is not this the carpenter?’ The word used for carpenter is tektōn. Now tektōn does mean a worker in wood, but it means more than merely a joiner. It means a craftsman. In Homer, the tektōn is said to build ships and houses and temples. In the past, there could be found in little towns and villages a craftsman who would build you anything from a chicken-coop to a house; the kind of man who could build a wall, mend a roof, repair a gate; the craftsman, the handyman, who with few or no instruments and with the simplest tools could turn his hand to any job. That is what Jesus was like. But the point is that the people of Nazareth despised Jesus because he was a working man. He was a man of the people, a layman, an ordinary man—and therefore they despised him. [1]

Video Background click here

Point 1 

Notes from Point 1

Point 2 

Notes from Point 2

Point 3

Notes from Point 3

Summary

[1] William Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Mark, The New Daily Study Bible (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 2001), 159–160.