A Hometown Boy and a Mission (July 7, 2024) Mark 6.1-13

Ricky Skaggs has compiled an impressive body of work in music over the past 40+ years. It spans the gamut of both Bluegrass (he is a legend in that genre, especially on the mandolin) and country music (where he is known for his playing of multiple instruments). And in that body of work there is a song named Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’(a cover of Flatt and Scruggs hit). In this song he is talking to his girl and asking her to remember how she was raised, to keep her feet on the ground and, above all, remember him. In other words, don’t be getting snooty and forget where you came from. Now we have all heard this phrase. We may have even said it to someone. But have you even had it said to you? I have. And it stings when it is said, and people really believe that you are getting “beyond your roots”. Historian Michael Birdwell says this about the phrase:

"Gettin' above your raisin'" is a phrase I've heard all my life. The notion is you want to change social classes. You try to change social classes, there's this feeling that you're forsaking the family, you're forsaking place, you're forgetting where you came from…and here's this real fear that if you leave, that you'll become ashamed of where you came from.

But isn’t that what most of us are told to do with our lives? Many of us have been encouraged to go to college, study hard and make something of our lives. And if one could not go to college, then one worked hard so that their children would have the opportunities that they did not have. In other words, we have been encouraged, especially in the United States, to “get above our raisin’”, but to also remember from where we came. We expect our politicians, our CEOs, our movie stars and so on to come from “humble roots” and when they return to their places of origin, they are expected to be the same “good ‘ole boy or girl” that they were when they were growing up. And when they are not, then people get upset that they have “changed.” So, it is confusing, discouraging and sometimes infuriating, when accused of wanting to forget one’s roots.

Jesus was healing and performing great deeds of power in the area surrounding Capernaum and the Lake of Galilee. People flocked to him to hear his teachings, to be healed and to watch the deeds of power he is doing. But this is tiring, and Jesus feels the need to go back to the old hometown for a short while, to recharge and to see how the old folks are at home.

So, he returns to Nazareth, the village where he grew up and where he plied his trade. This is a village of maybe 300-600 with some very generous assessments saying that there were maybe 2,000 residents. In other words, this is a place where everyone knows one another. It is a smalltown like John Cougar Mellencamp sang about in the 1980s. People have lived their whole lives here and they will die here. That is just the way it is.

Jesus returned to this village with the disciples in tow and was probably greeted with much fanfare. Here was the boy who was seeming to make good with his life. He was doing great things! Maybe he might break the mold! You see, in Jesus’ time, and right up to the end of the Middle Ages, one stayed in the station where one was born. It was believed that this was a God appointed station and one stayed there. If one was born a poor peasant, one was expected to remain a poor peasant until one died. If one was born a rich aristocrat, then that one was expected to remain just that. There may have been some upward social mobility, but it was very rare and usually viewed with suspicion. It is hard for us in the United States, where we dream of getting beyond where we were born, to fathom.

But then things change for the village residents. Jesus is invited on the Sabbath, which implies that he was in town for a longer period of time, to speak in the synagogue. Again, here was the local boy who was talked about all around the area. And Jesus speaks.

The reaction though is not what we would expect, or maybe one we should expect. The people hear the words he is teaching and respond in this way: “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! 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?”[1]They are amazed and incredulous at the same time. Amazed at his words and deeds (Where does he get this wisdom and the power to do these deeds?) but incredulous because they see him as the local boy, the one whom they know from the days when he was toddling around unsteadily, the one whose voice cracked when he read the Torah at his Bar Mitzvah, the one who was plying his trade as a carpenter (or construction worker), the one who took care of his mama when Joseph died, the one whose family went to get and bring home when they thought he lost his mind. They know him and nothing he says or does can change that.

The know him so well that they are literally scandalized by what he is teaching and doing. They just cannot believe it. And so, they accuse him of getting above his raisin’.

For the first time we are told that Jesus is amazed. Amazed at their reaction. Here are the people who know him well, who helped to raise him, mentored him and helped shape who he is. They are rejecting him because they think that he is not capable of knowing what he knows and should not be doing the deeds that he is doing. And Jesus states a proverb, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.”[2] He can do nothing here because they do not have the faith that what he is saying is true and that what he is doing is from God. He can only lay hands on a few who apparently do believe. From this time forward Jesus does not enter a synagogue any more in Mark’s Gospel.

If the people of Nazareth will not accept the message he is bringing, perhaps others will. So, Jesus sends the 12 disciples out, two by two so that their testimony can be verified, to other villages. They are told to not be like the Cynics who travel around and state just how bad things are. They are told to take no bag (used for holding food that was given when begged for), no money, no food. Only a staff, sandals and one tunic are what is required. They are to stay with the first house that offers them hospitality. This is important in the Middle East. When offered hospitality, it is not that they are offering a meal for the traveling preachers and then be done with them. No, hospitality meant, and means still, that one’s home was opened up to the stranger and they were to treat it as their own. The disciples are also told that they are not to “move on up” when an offer of larger home or better food is available. They are to stay in the home first opened until they move on to the next village.

And they are given authority over unclean spirits or demons and given power to heal. One must realize the one does not give what one does not possess. Jesus possessed this authority in abundance as clearly shown in his teaching and healings. And now he gives it to the disciples.

Jesus surely was thinking of the reception in Nazareth when he tells the disciples, “…If 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.”[3] Jews did this when they came from Gentile lands back to the lands of Jews. This was a practice of letting those who watched that they were not having the dust of that place settle on them and pollute them. But there is in this practice the hope that the people who see this will change their minds and welcome the message.

The disciples go out and perform healings and casting out demons. They are accepted unlike Jesus in his hometown.

Jesus was a hometown boy. The people knew him and thought they knew what to expect of him. What he said and did told them that he was trying to get above his station. Surely a carpenter should not know what he knows and be able to do the things that he did. Only those who had prestige and honor were to be able to teach and heal as he did. Surely this was not the Son of God.

The thing that caused the people to stumble was that Jesus was human. He got tired, he got hungry, he cried when upset and did all the things that humans do. The people could not wrap their heads around the fact that he was one like them and could teach and do what he did. We have the same problem. We say that we believe that Jesus was human and God. We will even state it in the Creed that is our affirmation of faith. But do we really believe it? It is easy to say that Jesus sits on the right hand of God the Father. It is easy to call him savior and say that our sins are forgiven by his death. It is easy to claim that he rose from the grave. These are easy when we say that Jesus is God. It’s a little harder to say that Jesus was human. It is hard to say that he went through all the things that we went through. And it is even harder to say that he was a simple tradesman. We have romanticized his being a carpenter that we have him making majestic buildings and fantastic hand carved works when in reality he probably made plows, window and door frames and possibly roughhewn tables and chairs. We want the Jesus who is exemplary, who dazzles us with his wit and wisdom. David Garland says this about what we want: “Modern preachers have suggested that Jesus would have been the star of their favorite sport at his high school as well as the class valedictorian. This attempt to inject more grandeur into Jesus’ background reveals that we are still influenced by the world’s standards of judgment and its concern for prestige.”[4]And we as a church seem to have always wanted it. It is embarrassing to think of Jesus as having dirt under his nails and wood shavings in his hair.

And what about the mission of the disciples? I am sure that they were a bit apprehensive about that. They saw the rejection of a hometown boy. What would people say that were strangers? We think the same. We want to do missions, that is fine and dandy, but ask us to say what we believe and we get short of breath and anxious. One commentator states that, “Many Christians would sooner talk about anything else: sex, their salary, anything but what they believe about God”.[5] “What will people think?!” we ask ourselves. But we are told to go and tell the Good News and to work as well. What we do needs to be backed up by what we say.

Hometown boys get into trouble when they “get above their raisin’.” A mission falters when we do not believe we have been sent. We need to be scandalized by the Good News and then go out and tell it to all who will hear. Jesus wants nothing else. Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [2] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [4] Garland, David E. Mark. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996. Print. The NIV Application Commentary. [5]Bartlett, David L. and Taylor, Barbara Brown. Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3, Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) . Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.