Familiarity breeds complacency.
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It’s easy to become so familiar with some things that we don’t have to put much thought into it.
Driving home from work. Most accidents happen within a 3 mile radius from our homes.
We can also become familiar with our spouse, our kids, our coworkers… people at church, at school, our job, our routine.
We can even become familiar with Jesus and that familiarity can breed complacency.
We can be so stuck in our circumstances that we don’t give margin for Jesus to work in our life the way HE is wanting to work in us.
Our casual familiarity with Jesus can make it hard for us to believe that God is able to work things out for our benefit and HIS glory in our life.
Life is busy and so often we see Jesus as something that we need to squeeze into our calendar of events instead of following Jesus and being led by the Holy Spirit in all parts of our life.
Familiarity breeds complacency.
In Mk 6 Jesus went to his home town of Nazareth.
1 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.
And he went about among the villages teaching.
PRAY
These people knew Jesus, they were very familiar with Jesus. So familiar that they were complacent toward Jesus.
Whenever we go back to our home town, everyone knows our name, they know our family, they know our past. It’s almost like time stood still even though life moved on.
The memories deceive us into thinking that nobody changes but the reality is that people do change. The kids become parents and grandparents and mature and have families of there own.
When Jesus showed up in Nazareth, the people knew who HE was. They were familiar with HIS mother, brothers, sisters, job as a carpenter. They saw Jesus as a person in the community, an average person like one of them. But, when Jesus was teaching in the synagogue they were astonished, they were amazed.
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.
The Greek verb for “amazed” in all these verses is ekplesso, which literally means “to strike out of one’s senses.” The people were so amazed it was as if they had been struck with a blow, stunned. They were flabbergasted.
What was the source of their amazement?
How did this man get the wisdom of HIS teaching and the miracles HIS performed.
They knew his miracles were supernatural, but they wondered about their source and how Jesus could do them.
(ether God or satan)
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”
Either way, they were flabbergasted.
They saw Jesus only as a carpenter, part of the family they knew well.
55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
Jesus was almost thirty years old before he began his public teaching ministry. For the years prior to that, he had been at home, learning the trade of carpentry from his father and probably helping to support himself and the family after Joseph’s death.
When the townspeople called him the son of Mary, it may have been a derogatory remark. Even though Joseph was already dead, in any normal situation Jesus would still have been called “son of Joseph.” But Jesus was conceived prior to Joseph and Mary’s wedding, and perhaps the townspeople saw Jesus as not even being Joseph’s son. The stigma Mary continued to carry, even when Jesus was almost thirty years old.
The people knew the family well. Apparently they were all ordinary people and Jesus had experienced an ordinary childhood. So for Jesus to claim to be someone special caused them to take offense at his words, meaning they stumbled over them and could not accept them.
They were offended that others could be impressed by Jesus and follow him. Their rejection was complete and absolute; he was one of their peers, and their preconceived notions about who he was made it impossible for them to accept HIS message. Jesus had come to them as a prophet, but they saw only a hometown boy.
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.”
Jesus was not the first prophet to be rejected in his own country.
Jesus also experienced rejection by relatives and members in his own house.
HIS family thought he had gone crazy, and most of them didn’t believe until after HIS resurrection.
Jesus said that a prophet is never honored in his hometown. But that doesn’t make our work any less important. A person doesn’t need to be respected or honored to be useful to God. If friends, neighbors, or family don’t respect your Christian work, don’t let their rejection keep you from serving God. Often Christian service is defamed merely because it brings people to God by confronting people with sin and encouraging faith. This rejection is the cost of discipleship.
God stands with you; God will keep you strong.
5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.
Jesus could have done greater miracles in Nazareth, but he chose not to because of the people’s unbelief.
Mark’s Gospel emphasized the power and presence of God revealed only to those with faith.
Jesus’ mighty works were meant to further the kingdom of God, not to try to convince a group of stubborn people who had already thoroughly rejected him.
Doing miracles would be of no value because the people did not accept HIS message or believe that HE was from God.
Mark 6:6 (NLT)
6 And he was amazed at their unbelief.
Jesus was fully human and yet as the divine Son of God, Jesus would not be amazed at anything. But as a human being, Jesus went to Nazareth and had been rejected by the people he grew up with, knew, and loved… and that amazed him.
The word for “amazed” is the same word Mark used to describe people’s reactions to Jesus’ miracles.
The miracles “amazed” the people of Capernaum and Jerusalem; in turn, the stubborn unbelief of the people of Nazareth “amazed” Jesus.
This certainly provided a key lesson for the disciples who would also experience rejection as they began their ministries.
This was the second time Jesus came to Nazareth and there is no record that he ever returned.
Most people feel that they may have unlimited opportunities to believe, but often there is no second chance.
TAKE AWAY:
Let our relationship with Jesus be fresh and new every day. Don’t let familiarity lead you to complacency, skepticism, critical spirit, and eventually unbelief.
Unbelief blinds us to the truth and robs us of hope.
Jesus is and will always be more then enough. Don’t just be familiar with Jesus, know Jesus, love Jesus, live for Jesus, draw near to Jesus.