Hometown (Hero?)
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Mark 6:1-6
Mark 6:1-6
1 And he went out from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And when the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed, saying, “Where did this man get these things? And what is this wisdom that has been granted to this man, and the miracles such as these performed through 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 were offended by 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 was not able to do any miracle in that place except to lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 And he was astonished because of their unbelief. And he was going around among the villages teaching.
Intro:
We’re back in Mark.
The gospel that has a mission statement at the beginning which is to show us that Jesus is the son of God.
And today we’re going to see Jesus interacting with some people who will never see him for who He i
We’re dropping into a story that has been unfolding before our very eyes.
Today we’re gonna look at the day Jesus comes back to his hometown.
When we pay close attention to the story, we see the humanity of Jesus come through.
Today I can book a flight to just about anywhere in the world and travel there tomorrow.
It’s become relatively easy to leave your hometown in our age.
And because of that, I think we can all identify a little bit with what Jesus is experiencing here as he strolls into Nazareth.
I would venture to guess that most everyone in here has experienced one side of this phenomenon.
A. You’ve experienced leaving your hometown, and then coming back.
You come back for a high school reunion, or a holiday.
And it’s weird.
Leaving your hometown lets you reinvent yourself in ways.
Your’re not the kid who left that place.
Yet somehow, a lot of those people you left behind are EXACTLY the same.
They’re just doing the same day in, day out that they were 10 years ago.
Others of you are like, hey man I like the day in day out.
There’s benefits to burning the boats in your hometown and raising a family.
That’s me.
I’m a hometown boy.
If you’re like me you’ve seen people leave the hometown, and they do get a unique opportunity to shape their identity, but they lose some of the benefits of the community they grew up with.
Different ways of doing things for different people and different personalities.
But what about Jesus?
A lot of you may have left your hometown because you did some pretty bad things there and you needed to start fresh.
Not Jesus.
He doesn’t have any baggage.
He didn’t sin it up in high school and then peace out.
Nope.
He sat and listened to his synagogue leaders teach the Torah.
He obeyed his parents.
He probably worked his Dad’s trade and provided for his family and the poor through the profit of being a skilled craftsman.
And then he left.
He walked away and was baptized.
The story we’ve been tracing through the book of Mark is
everything that followed Jesus’s growing up years.
Jesus is just doing astonishing things left and right.
He’s been preaching.
He’s been healing.
He’s calmed a storm.
He’s healed a centurion’s servant from afar.
He’s preached his landmark sermon on the mount.
He’s been unfolding a comprehensive teaching to the people of Israel.
What Jesus was unfolding for them wasn’t healing, miracles AND preaching about the kingdom.
His healing and miracles were a direct sign that the kingdom was already being inaugurated among them.
The section that we have just worked through over the last few weeks is a series of parables where Jesus reveals truths about the kingdom of heaven being like seed among weeds, like a mustard seed, like hidden treasure, and like a dragnet.
But right before he rattled off these parables, we see Jesus interrupted by the arrival of his family.
He seemed dismissive of them.
But I find it interesting that the very next thing we see him doing is making his way back to Nazareth to visit them.
Jesus’ mission was to the people of Israel.
And that includes his family, and the people of Nazareth.
Jesus has a natural, human affection for them.
Fully God. Fully man.
Jesus probably had favorite smells in Nazareth. Favorite places to rest.
Friends who he was looking forward to dining with.
A mother to embrace.
This place was special to him because it was his!
Nazareth wasn’t considered to be all that special in Israel.
but,
Every one loves his country, not because it is beautiful, but because it is his own. Seneca.
Even if they’re going to reject him.
Which has to hurt.
Something we see in Jesus here is his willingness to be patient with those who initially reject him.
Thank God for that.
His family and countrymen have already shown their doubt and scorn for who he is.
But Jesus circles back, eager to teach them and tell them the good news of his inaugurated kingdom.
And he tells them alright.
But unfortunately we don’t see spiritual revival in Nazareth.
There was no baptisms en mass as people fell at Jesus’ feet in worship.
In fact we see that the people of his hometown were actually offended by him.
Matthew 13:53–56 (NASB95)
53 When Jesus had finished these parables, He departed from there. 54 He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? 55 “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 “And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”
“And they took offense at him.”
What did Jesus say?
Why didn’t they just enjoy the nice teaching from their hometown hero?
After all he’s basically a celebrity at this point.
Everybody likes to talk about the celebrities from their own hometown.
If you’re from Picture Rocks, sorry, I don’t think you have any celebrities to speak of.
The rest of you have Linda Ronstadt.
And I think Paul McCartney owned a house here one time.
So why were they so ticked off at him?
What had Jesus been teaching?
Gospel of the Kingdom.
He just finished all these parables where the kingdom of God was the direct focus.
In fact all of Jesus preaching has been focused on this “Gospel of the Kingdom.”
Gospel = Evangellion
This isn’t something Jesus just invented.
Evangellion Contrast:
Jesus is subverting the language of his day to show that HE is the way the truth and the life.
Jesus Christ is directly in opposition to the authority of Caesar.
The Gospel that Jesus is preaching includes Jesus Christ being crowned king of the world.
Not long before Jesus was born another man was born.
Consider this message written about Caesar Augustus not long before Jesus was born.
The Priene Calendar Inscription:
“Since Providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a savior, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance (excelled even our anticipations), surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the gospel[εὐαγγέλιον] for the world that came by reason of him,”
“this Koine Greek term εὐαγγέλιον was used at the time of the Roman Empire to herald the good news of the arrival of a kingdom - the reign of a king that brought a war to an end, so that all people of the world who surrendered and pledged allegiance to this king would be granted salvation from destruction.”
This is why it is so stunning when Mark’s gospel starts with,
“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
Jesus is subverting every earthly authority that would claim his role as the king of the world.
As the God of the world.
In Luke’s gospel we actually get a view of what Jesus said.
Pay attention to the contrast with the roman announcement.
The birth of Augustus was promising peace, and a reordering of all things.
Luke 4:16–21 (NASB95)
16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, 19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” 20 And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Now the people of Nazareth were likely not big on the idea of Caesar.
But why should they care if some Roman emperor thousands of miles away says that he is god.
After all, Rome let them keep worshipping YHWH as long as they didn’t revolt.
The problem for them isn’t that Jesus is opposing the Caesar.
In fact, astonishingly, it doesn’t even seem like they take immediate offense at his claim to be God.
They’re currently viewing him as the hometown celebrity.
They’re actually maybe a little proud of their boy.
They’ve heard that he’s been popping off miracles left and right.
But they aren’t connecting the dots here.
The miracles are confirmation of the message.
The message is that it’s the year of the Lord’s favor.
It’s Jubilee of Jubilees’s time.
The king is in our midst!
Now the mission of Israel can be fulfilled to bless all the nations!
But no.
Even the people who reside on Jesus’ native soil are off mission.
In fact, all of Israel is Jesus’ native soil.
And we see Jesus employ a sad rebuke that pops up over and over throughout the gospels.
Israel has failed their covenantal mission to the world.
Both Luke and Matthew record the initial pleasure on the part of those listening in the synagogue.
Here it is from Luke:
Luke 4:22 (NASB95)
22 And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”
But Jesus doesn’t want them to be his fans.
He wants them to be his followers.
He wants them to the true Israel they were called to be.
So he hits them right at the core of their national sin.
Luke 4:23–27 (NASB95)
23 And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” 24 And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. 25 “But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; 26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 “And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
Jesus’ refrain through the gospels is one in which warning is being offered to the people of Israel.
Just because you’re God’s covenant people doesn’t make you an automatic son or daughter!
You can disobey God’s covenant.
The apostles continue this theme in the epistles as is becomes abundantly clear that inclusion in the family of God has nothing to with ethnicity or national origin and EVERYTHING to do with faith.
Faith in the promises of a covenantal God.
Jesus’ family.
Didn’t believe in him.
A few weeks ago we read about how Jesus repainted the idea of family by saying that His family are those who do the will of God.
They think he’s crazy.
“A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.”
The people of Nazareth, and especially Jesus’ family are suffering from what I like to call PBS.
Powdered Butt Syndrome
Dave Ramsey uses this term to describe the condition where people who changed your diapers are not interested in hearing you give them financial advice.
In the Matthew account of this story, we see that the people of Nazareth are just like
“Isn’t this the poor carpenters son?”
“We know his brothers and sisters.”
Essentially, “You’re not fooling us Jesus.”
I think we limit our own reflection on the incarnation of God when we don’t reflect on the realities that God didn’t just take on human flesh and become fully man,
He became fully baby.
We use weighty terms like “The Hypostatic Union” to describe the incarnation.
And words like that are important.
But hypostatic union might not communicate the reality that Jesus nursed at his mother’s breast, and pooped in his little baby linens.
And Jesus’ family, the people of Nazareth SAW that.
Their familiarity bred contempt.
Jesus had just preached about the dragnet.
Jesus is immediately exemplifying his teaching here.
He’s casting his net all over Israel, and some are responding, many are not.
I take the statement that he did not perform many miracles to mean that he did perform some.
What is the spirit of God saying to the 21st century church?
Is this just a nice story?
We’ve been listening in.
We are in danger of committing the “They’re so dumb” fallacy that we often commit as we read the Bible and read Israel’s story.
We are Jesus’ hometown people.
The people who would slap him on the back.
And ultimately reject him.
Question:
Do we take offense at Jesus Lordship?
It’s all gravy while Jesus’ saying the things that you like,
but as soon as he calls for your repentance and baptism into his suffering and death...
“I don’t want to play with you anymore”
the common humour of the children of men, to undervalue excellences that are cheap, and common, and home-bred.
Hope for mercy and grace.
The final mercy for those who doubt:
The resurrected Christ.
Even the disciples struggled with unbelief in the promises until they saw Jesus raised from the dead and touched him.
Encountering the resurrected Christ changes everything.
I want us to consider one tiny little subgroup of people.
Jesus’ brothers.
As we consider these men, we will see that on one side of the resurrection, they were the MOST familiar with Jesus of Nazareth.
On the other side of the resurrection, we see them retain this same familiarity but now, having been with their resurrected Lord, their brother, they are changed.
Jesus’ brothers were the most hometown as hometown can get.
They saw Jesus grow up.
They wrestled with him.
They teased with him.
They watched him learn how to eat food.
They watched him excel in his learning at the synagogue.
They watched him obey their parents perfectly.
They watched him stub his toe and skin his knee and play with toys.
If there is anyone who would struggle with the idea of the incarnation of God, it would be Jesus’ brothers.
In the OT, we see Joseph get into a whole world of hurt at the hand of his brothers after he tells them he had a dream where they were bowing down to him.
Imagine how much of a non starter it would be for you, if your older brother comes and visits your hometown, stands up in the synagogue, and undeniably claims that he is God.
I imagine his brothers pulling him aside.
Don’t you realize that you are blaspheming God?
What do you mean you’re Yahweh?
“Hear oh Israel, YHWH Elohim is one!”
You’re not God!
Let’s jump ahead in the story.
Jesus dies.
God raises him from the dead.
And he starts appearing to people.
Each of the gospels has testimony of Jesus appearing to people personally.
But it’s not until we’re reading Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church that we see this astonishing statement that we can just blast past.
4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; 8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
We can easily skip past this, but Jesus appeared to his brother James.
What do you think he said to him?
We’re not told.
But I have to imagine it was an astonishing encounter.
Maybe James was always able to beat Jesus in wrestling matches and Jesus finally pinned him with his resurrection body.
Probably not.
I suspect that Jesus, full of mercy and grace, approached his brother with tears in his eyes.
Maybe he spoke to him words like he speaks to his best friend John at the beginning of Revelation.
17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
No matter what happened there, James repents and believes in the gospel of the kingdom.
The gospel that is an eternal, cosmic, and comprehensive gospel that changes everything.
We see him go on to lead the church in Jerusalem.
We see him play influential roles in the extension of the gospel to the gentile nations.
And we see him write a letter that makes it’s way into our NT canon.
It starts like this.
1 James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.
James grew up on the same native soil as Jesus. But now that he believes the gospel, he doesn’t use this as part of his message. He calls him self a bond-servant or a slave.
Which to the New Testament church would have evoked this in their memory:
15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
Jesus’ other brother Jude also writes a letter that ends up in our Bible.
1 Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:
James and Jude were physical blood brothers of Jesus.
But for them, they proclaim to their generation of natives all through time all the way to us here:
To the churches in Tucson, mere proximity to Jesus will not save you.
But in his kindness and patience, Jesus would give this church ALL of the benefits of sonship and adoption into his family as heirs and friends.
But he must be our Lord. Our Master. Our King.
A Lord that makes us his friends.
There may be an understandable thought you might be having right now.
If I could just see the resurrected Christ, I would believe too.
Here’s the hope and the promise.
You can.
21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, 22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.
When Ryan taught through communion recently he rightly pointed out that the Spirit of God is the primary actor in our age.
And it is precisely in our gathering at the table for communion that we truly do commune with Christ.
And it is precisely through this communion, that we too, along with the disciples and the brothers of Jesus, can meet the resurrected Christ.
This is Christ’s body.
Which is FOR us.
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Benediction.