Proper 9

Mark 6:1–13 (NIV84)

1 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, that he even does miracles! 3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 And he was amazed at their lack of faith. Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. 7 Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil 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 tunic. 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, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, 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.

Intro

The theme of this passage is the negative response that Jesus and the disciples face when bringing the good news to the world.

In the first part, Jesus himself is not well received in his own hometown and in the second part Jesus sends the disciples and tells them, “it’s going to be similar for you.”

As we read it NOW and ask what we’re meant to learn from it we can come at it from two different angles.

We could see ourselves in the townspeople and consider how receptive WE are to Jesus.

Or we could see ourselves in the disciples and consider how prepared we are to not be received well as representatives of Jesus.

Both are appropriate meditations.

But it’s the first one that I want to focus on this morning: how receptive are we really to Jesus working in powerful ways in our midst?

Because there’s a warning in this passage we need to pay attention to.

And that is, the cynicism of the townspeople prevents them from experiencing all that Jesus had for them.

I think we need to sit with that.

The fallen world breeds cynicism.

In this passage we basically see the crowds writing Jesus off.

“I know this guy, he’s nothing special.”

Even when they hear him teaching impressive things they’re like, “Where’d he get this stuff?”

The implication being that Jesus is just a huckster trying to build a platform on other people’s ideas.

The text says that they “took offense at him”

Which I take to mean that they just flat out didn’t like him, didn’t want him to be successful, wanted to tear him down, etc.

You know that spirit, that “oh you think you’re better than me?” attitude.

All this to say, they were the opposite of OPEN to Jesus.

They were judgmental and cynical.

And what we need to be honest about is that the cynicism displayed by these people is basically the baseline standard for the world we live in.

Even MORE SO now that all trust in experts, politicians, news sources, educators, doctors, etc. has completely broken down.

Cynicism is at an all time high because we live in a world where people are constantly scheming, constantly manipulating, constantly exploiting, constantly making false promises, and constantly wounding each other.

And we live in a world with a lot of information and more and more is being revealed about just how ridiculous it all is

So in this cynical world, it’s actually the person who manages to remain tender and open instead of hardened that is the outlier.

And even then, we’re cynical about THOSE people, assuming they are either naive or they have some angle to their so-called peace.

Unfortunately our experience with church doesn’t make us any less cynical and so it bleeds into our faith.

And again, more and more is being revealed about the scheming and abuses in the church, which only make us more jaded.

I’ll be totally candid, my experience in church leadership has, at times, caused my cynicism to go off the charts and I work really hard to not pass that on to others but I know sometimes it still breaks through.

This fallen world simply breeds cynicism.

And the enemy loves it, because cynicism impacts how we experience God.

Cynicism impacts how we see God at work in our midst.

Look at verses 5 and 6 : 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 And he was amazed at their lack of faith.

Is it that Jesus couldn’t do any miracles or chose not to do any miracles?

The text says he “couldn’t”, but either way, the net result is that less happened than might have happened otherwise.

This is an overt statement about something that’s demonstrated all over scripture: there is a relationship between the condition of our hearts and how we see God work in our midst.

We can look at a number of passages that show this relationship.

Last week I referenced a passage from Matt 13:15 - For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

They’re not being healed BECAUSE their hearts have become calloused.

We also saw last week how Jesus told the woman who had been bleeding that her faith, her distinct lack of cynicism, has made her well.

Now, some cautions here, in saying there’s a relationship between the condition of our hearts and how we see God work:

We’re NOT saying the our faith is where the power really likes

We can’t just conjure miracles from God if we believe hard enough

That’s prosperity gospel stuff that turns God into a miracles vending machine

And that also means that its not your fault when the miracle you are praying for doesn’t happen.

There are still times when we are open and pleading with God and don’t see the miracle we were hoping for and there isn’t an easy answer to why.

But don’t let anyone grabbing for easy answers blame you for just not believing hard enough for that child to be healed or that cancer to disappear. Don’t carry that guilt.

No, the issue here is not that the people wanted to see God move but didn’t believe hard enough, it’s that they weren’t open to God at all.

The people in Jesus’s hometown were scoffing at the very idea that God could be working in THIS GUY at THIS TIME in THIS WAY.

They were closed off to him and, you know what, Jesus wasn’t going to force his grace on them.

Because God is not coercive.

God loves and gives and invites but he does not force himself on us.

And so at the end of the day what we have is a community that might have seen God move in incredible ways in their midst if not for their cynicism.

And even as Jesus did perform miracles, chances are they wrote them off or explained them away.

So Jesus moved on, and told the disciples to do the same when they encounter similar attitudes.

Wise as serpents, gentle as doves, faith like children.

So how do we choose a different path? How do we avoid succumbing to the cynicism of our world and missing out on God’s work in our midst?

In Matthew’s gospel when Jesus sends out the twelve he gives them this additional instruction about how to engage a complex, competitive, cynicism-inducing world.

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. ' Matthew 10:16

Or as the KJV famously phrases it, “be wise as serpents and gentle (or harmless) as doves”

The disciples of Jesus are sheep in the flock of the good shepherd.

But sheep are in danger of getting lost and being devoured.

So in addition to staying close to the shepherd, the sheep should be on guard themselves.

But what’s tricky is that being constantly on guard in a messed up world can breed cynicism REAL FAST if we aren’t careful.

Cynicism often masquerades as wisdom

It sounds like, “I know how the world really works.”

“I know the church is hypocritical and its all a game.”

“I’ve seen this before, here we go again, I know how this ends...”

We might think of ourselves as wise, but we’ve lost our gentleness, our tenderness, our openness.

The trick is keeping them both.

There’s a line in a Wendell Berry poem where he says “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”

I think the tension here is captured beautifully by Jesus calling the hardened, wounded, cynical people in the crowds to have faith like a child.

“But we aren’t children,” they might say, “we can’t unlearn everything we’ve seen.”

True. So how can we maintain the open, expectant, joyful faith of a child though we have considered all the facts?

Questions

What is the root of your cynicism? Are there specific events or relationships?

Are there things that are increasing your cynicism?

Is there anything the Spirit might be calling you to do in response?