Mark: A Contrast In Faith
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A Contrast in Faith
A Contrast in Faith
He left there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. “Where did this man get these things?” they said. “What is this wisdom that has been given to him, and how are these miracles performed by his hands? Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they were offended by him.
Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his household.” He was not able to do a miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. He was going around the villages teaching.
He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the road except a staff—no bread, no traveling bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on an extra shirt. He said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place. If any place does not welcome you or listen to you, when you leave there, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons, anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
Parallel Passages: Matthew 9:35-11:1, 13:54-58; Luke 9:1-6
Thesis: Our reaction to rejection exposes our faith’s focus.
Introduction:
Over the past few weeks now we’ve looked extensively at faith - Saving, Biblical faith in the last couple of messages from Mark 5.
Faith is vital to the Christian.
Having faith means to trust, or believe - to relinquish trust in ourselves and transfer that trust to someone or something else.
The Hebrew word, such as we see in Psalm 20:7
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
it’s the word “Kaw-Saw”, and it means that we take refuge in it, some translators take it to mean we find our identity in it, or take pride in it.
But the Christian, the follower of Christ, puts our trust in Him, and our identity is found in Him. Because that’s where our faith is.
How do we react when our faith is challenged? When its outright rejected? Or we are rejected because of Christ? What did Jesus do when He was rejected?
The passage today makes it clear, rejection does happen - “If they rejected Jesus, they’ll reject His followers”. But how we react to that rejection, and how we refocus as we move forward makes a world of difference.
Rejection
Rejection
He left there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.
This ties us back to what happened previously in chapter 5. Last week we tied up what had happened as Jesus went to a synagogue leader’s house, a man named Jairus.
On the way, a woman with an issue of blood quietly worked her way through the crowd to just touch the edge of Jesus’ robes in order, she believed, to be made whole - to be saved.
The Greek root word being Sozo, not just physically saved, but saved completely.
Jesus stopped the crowd, as the woman had been healed, and He said to her,
“Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed from your affliction.”
The word Jesus uses in that instance, in the Greek, is “pistis”, it’s faith, it’s true, saving, Biblical belief. This woman believed Jesus could not only heal her physically, but He told her that her faith saved her eternally.
Then Jesus encounters the crowd of professional mourners at Jairus’ house, if you remember, and He kicked them out, raised the girl from the dead, and told them not to tell anyone about it.
Jairus, all throughout this narrative, exhibiting humility, consistent, courageous faith as he watched and waited for Jesus to do something - and at one point being encouraged by Jesus to not fear, but to continue believing as he had at first.
So this is the scene Jesus has just left, and he travels to His hometown of Nazareth, taking the disciples with Him.
The text seems to indicate that some time must have passed both as they travelled and as they came into Nazareth.
So it’s possible Jesus stopped in to visit his siblings, perhaps see His little nieces and nephews, visit with His mother - we don’t know. But the text does seem to indicate Jesus did not teach publicly until the Sabbath.
When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. “Where did this man get these things?” they said. “What is this wisdom that has been given to him, and how are these miracles performed by his hands? Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they were offended by him.
On that Sabbath as he began to teach, many who heard him were “astonished”. This is the same word used back in Chapter 1, when Jesus began teaching in the Synagogue at Capernaum.
But the attitude that follows is much different here. In Capernaum, it was:
They were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not like the scribes.
Here, they are astonished, and begin to question Him.
The Greek word is (ἐξεπλήσσοντο) exeplessonto - meaning they’re amazed! They’re astounded! They’re shocked.
But in one region, they’re amazed and impressed, in His hometown, they’re amazed and resent Him.
“Where did this man get these things? What is this wisdom that has been given to him, how are these miracles performed by his hands?”
Here’s the mistake so many people make when they see your faith at work. They think it’s something you’ve picked up, you’ve been taught, something you do - and they’re not completely wrong.
We do receive power, when the Holy Spirit comes upon us - as Acts 1:8 makes clear.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
We are to be taught - we are to be disciples as much as we are to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). Again, Acts 1:8 also makes this clear because we receive the power AND we are His witnesses.
And we have been changed - a real miracle has taken place in your life and I’m not just referring to a healing of the body, I’m talking about the healing of your heart! Performed by Christ. When He did what He said in Ezekiel 36:26
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
There is no greater miracle than that. There is no greater change that can be made than that. Anyone who says differently hasn’t truly experienced it.
Because we were sinners, we were destined to a place called hell, but we heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it changed us, and it shaped us, and it CONTINUES to shape us as the Holy Spirit does His work within us, and people will reject that because it confronts the lack of Jesus in their life.
That’s not the words of Pastor Jeff, that’s what the Bible tells us.
“If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.
Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
You will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.
There is a contrast in faith when it comes to the follower of Jesus and those who want to be friendly with the world.
It doesn’t make sense to them. Especially when they think they’ve got it but they never had - and that’s the problem in the Midwest today, the same as it was in Nazareth.
They think they know Jesus, but they only know their own idea of Him, they only have their own memory of Him.
They’ve been spoon fed the “you’re saved because you went to church as a kid” message, they’ve been told because they said a prayer at church camp once they were saved, but I hope you understand different. The Holy Spirit must continue His work within you or You don’t belong to Him.
The people of Nazareth were never going to accept this adult Jesus. He’s blowing their minds with teaching and healings, and they can’t tolerate that idea.
He was always going to be Joe the Carpenter’s kid that lived down on Elm Street. He was always going to be that church kid, that synagogue kid, that guy that was a bit different.
Wait, wait, wasn’t He a carpenter, Himself? Who made Him some rabbi to teach us? Where’d He get His education? What makes Him better than all of us?
Isn’t His mom that girl who got pregnant in High School? Isn’t he a brother of James, Jude, and Simon? Didn’t some of our crowd marry His sisters? So who does He think He is???
In fact, the passage goes on to say they were offended by Him.
The English word “scandalize” comes from the Greek word used, eskandalizonto (ἐσκανδαλίζοντο). It essentially means they were caused to stumble, or become ensnared and fell into sin.
The people of Nazareth were offended by Jesus, as if He was just posturing Himself as some great teacher, but they knew - they knew His secret! OR SO THEY THOUGHT… that He was just some guy with an ordinary background, He was nothing special.
Not to them. Because they couldn’t get past who they thought He was.
Church, I can’t say it enough. Your life imitates your theology. What you think, what you know, what you believe about Jesus will impact the rest of your life.
If people didn’t accept Jesus then people won’t always accept you if Jesus is in you.
Jesus was meant to be rejected, He was meant to be unaccepted, Isaiah tells us
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.
He was like someone people turned away from;
he was despised, and we didn’t value him.
And as goes the Disciple Maker, so goes the disciples, and if we are truly disciples of Jesus we can expect nothing less.
As a note, while His brothers are separate, still at this point in the story, they will come around. James being the one who writes the epistles of James and was an early leader in the church (we see this in Acts 12:17, 15:13, 21:18…)
Judas, or Judah, or simply “Jude” will go on to write the epistle that bears his name. We don’t know much about Joses or Simon, they’re lost to history and Scripture tells us nothing of Jesus’s 1/2 sisters who married these men of Nazareth.
It’s quite possible they continued to reject Jesus, thought their other two brothers were nuts, and went back to their life - still upset their brother Jesus had to go off and get Himself killed by the Romans… never having faith in Him or His message.
But the fact two of His brothers were willing to die for His message tells us all we need to know.
If our faith is in Him, we will face rejection as well, but our reaction will expose our faith’s focus.
Reaction
Reaction
Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his household.”
Jesus addresses those who who have scorned Him. But notice how He does it. He doesn’t berate them, call them names, or flip over tables.
Instead, He focuses on the truth of who He is. He refers to Himself as a prophet.
This aligns with one of His roles. Later in this chapter He will be referred to as a prophet, or perhaps John the Baptist, back from the dead. (Mark 6:15)
He was often considered a prophet, if only just that, though.
When He comes riding into Jerusalem, the week He died,
When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in an uproar, saying, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
In John 6, when He feeds the 5,000,
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
His being so similar to a prophet will at times cause confusion to the people. We see this in John 7,
On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he?
And so Jesus identifies with such a person, the role of prophet and priest, and King are all titles ascribed to Him.
The only place, He says, a prophet is without honor, is among those who are closest to such a person. The people in his home town, his relatives - and as we saw earlier, they weren’t on board with Him yet, either - and even in his own household.
Why might this be?
We see it in the Old Testament, Lot’s son-in-laws laugh at him when he warns them of the destruction of Sodom (Genesis 19:14), we see it even earlier than that as Noah preached to those around him yet they didn’t listen as he built the ark and preached (1 Peter 3:19-20).
We see many examples of the Jewish people not listening to Moses, even at one point, at the waters of Meribah wanting to stone him - and in so doing, stone God by proxy in Exodus 17.
And Jesus knows these stories, and here he aligns Himself with them.
But there’s something about the honor, the complete derision the people have shown him. I want to back up a second. Look at verse 3 again.
Mark 6:3 (CSB)
Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary...
This is the real ridicule. This is not just a jab at Jesus, this is a jab at His mother.
We’ve all heard the jokes, I’m sure. “Your mama is so fat if she bought a fur coat the whole species would become extinct.”
Your mom’s so ugly they have to feed her with a slingshot.
Your mom’s so poor the Prince of Nigeria wired her money.
The list goes on. But those are usually just intended to be funny jabs, lighthearted verbal smacks to taunt someone or tease. Nobody really thinks your mom is so ugly that her birth certificate is an apology letter, or she’s so old she walked out a museum and the burglar alarm went off.
Nobody really thinks those things. But this thing they say about Jesus could very well be a real slap in His face.
He’s Mary’s Son. Not Joseph’s. Nowhere else in all of the New Testament do we see Him described this way. In fact, even in Matthew’s account, it goes like
Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother called Mary, and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
But Mark writes it like he does, as if the crowd is pointing to the birth of Jesus, twisting a knife about His birth being illegitimate.
Which lets us know they had married His sisters, they had talked to his brothers, they did know the family’s deep dark secret about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem…
They’d had the time to say, “Wait, Jesus your birthday is in December but your mom and dad didn’t get married until February...”
They are being vicious here. Now, some speculate that this just confirms Joseph had, at this point, passed away. But Matthew has no problem mentioning the carpenter, Joseph, Mark - I believe - dwells on this to emphasis the disrespect Jesus was shown here.
So Jesus says, “Well, they did the same things to the prophets.”
And...
He was not able to do a miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. He was going around the villages teaching.
He was not able to do a miracle there.
Again, Matthew words it slightly different. He says:
And he did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.
This does not, and I hope you understand this, it does not mean that Jesus’s power was somehow limited by their unbelief.
Instead, what likely happened, was that nobody really came to Him for a miracle - except a few people who thought, “Well, what’ll it hurt?”
It could also have been an act of mercy. Had He done more miracles, they would have been even more illuminated as to who He was, and thus hardening their own hearts more toward Him, subjecting them to even more condemnation.
Or, it could have been a judgment due to their unbelief.
He clearly still had the power to do miracles, but likely chose not to because of their rejection.
Miracles belong to those who are ready to believe. Miracles are meant to draw us closer to Him. They are not meant to be an exhibition of magic or power, but a tool for showing the divine attributes of God.
As one writer said, “Unbelief makes a miracle not so much impossible as meaningless, and therefore in most cases futile.” (Glockner, 1979)
And He was amazed at their unbelief.
Jesus is just as amazed at their unbelief, as they had been at His teaching. That’s what we may initially read here.
Now, He’s not surprised they don’t believe, Jesus has faced that multiple times already, in fact we saw that clearly with the Gerasenes who ran Him out of their region.
But the fact these people claimed to know Him so well, and still didn’t believe? That’s what Jesus finds amazing.
You see, when they’re “astonished”, it’s exeplessonto, they’re amazed! They’re astounded! They’re shocked.
When Jesus is “amazed”, it’s the Greek (ἐθαύμαζεν) ethaumazen, which usually is used, within the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, to describe someone’s amazement at God’s supernatural activity.
Mark flips that around and has God amazed at the faithlessness of the people.
Yet Jesus presses on, and He goes about teaching in the other villages, where He will be accepted.
His reaction to their rejection has shaped His focus - you see? He goes back to doing what He came for. Teaching.
In the same way - Our reaction to rejection may cause us to refocus our faith.
Refocus
Refocus
He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the road except a staff—no bread, no traveling bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on an extra shirt.
Jesus goes about teaching in other villages, but now He begins doing something else. He’s about to do something we have not witnessed Him do in the Gospel of Mark.
He’s been equipping His disciples, giving them teaching after teaching - they’ve been with Him, they’ve seen Him pray, they’ve seen Him heal, they’ve surely got an idea that He’s no ordinary guy.
So He begins to send them out - not one by one, but in pairs.
There is wisdom in this.
Please hear me this morning, write this down, There is no such thing as a “lone wolf” Christian.
The “Loner Christian” dies alone.
We are not meant to do this by ourselves, this is a team sport, we are are all ONE BODY. We are meant to be together, to work together, to love one another.
Indeed, the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body.
and Paul will go on and on to make his point.
Illustration, The “Simpson” Family. (The Orrs and Kearns and Isaacs) - Church Hoppers
For them it was like deciding to join a different country club, or begin shopping at Target after years of going to Wal-Mart, or going across town to eat at the “Other” pizza place.
For the church, with each family, it was like losing a kidney, losing a foot, or having an arm amputated.
Church membership - we have a class wrapping up within the next week.
It’s not about loyalty to the pastor, it’s about loyalty to the truth. Loyal to the church. When you say this is my church, you’re saying this is my family. I will teach what they teach, I will worship as they worship, this is my home.
There is a procedure for how we are to operate if we have a problem with one another, Jesus gives it to us in Matthew 18.
“If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother.
And if he doesn’t listen, get a neutral third party, and if he still won’t listen it has to be brought before the whole church - if it’s still an issue, that’s when church discipline happens.
It’s not easy, it’s painful at times, but if the body is to be rid of cancer, it may have to go through chemotherapy.
And when Jesus sends those men out 2 at a time, He knows He is setting them up for success because the loner won’t make it by his or herself.
Solomon wrote
Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts.
The same is true of the church, the same is true of the disciples. We are given the advantage of companionship, because Jesus understands the power of discouragement.
We build each other up so that we may continue the Good Work together.
It’s no wonder then, why in the Marine Corps, they’re taught to dig a hole big enough for two - because in the thick of battle - fellow warriors bear the duties of fighting the enemy.
When the battle falls suspiciously quiet, and imaginations begin to run wild, survival depends on our mutual encouragement.
The Marines understand the same thing Jesus knew - we need one another if we’re to win the battle.
He doesn’t tell them where to go, He lets them decide where they will head to preach and teach the good news. The Gospel of Luke tells us
So they went out and traveled from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing everywhere.
They went everywhere! Now, Matthew says it a little different
Jesus sent out these twelve after giving them instructions: “Don’t take the road that leads to the Gentiles, and don’t enter any Samaritan town. Instead, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
So they could go anywhere except Samaria, but they went everywhere throughout Israel.
And He gave them authority over unclean spirits. How did He do this? Did He just give them a badge, and say “I deputize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”? No.
To get a better grasp of what’s going on here in Mark, we need to look at how Luke describes this:
Summoning the Twelve, he gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.
He delegated His authority over evil, which included—but was not limited to—the authority to command demons to release individuals from bondage. The word for this authority is exousian (ἐξουσίαν), which refers to more than mere power.
Unlike Luke (Luke 9:1), Mark doesn’t use dynamin (δύναμιν) from the dialogue to focus on the Lord’s delegated authority. The distinction between exousia and dynamis is subtle but very important.
Exousia is an intrinsic influence that comes from another source. The other source, for instance, in the case of a police officer standing in an intersection directing traffic is a government agency. A city or state government stands behind the officer, who uses this authority to stop traffic by holding up a hand.
The officer cannot possibly stop a two-ton vehicle using his own physical “power” (dynamin). But he will depend on the authority given to him by the court system, by the local and state governemnts.
Mark makes it clear to us, it’s not our power, but Christ’s authority He has given us that casts demons out.
Then Jesus instructs them to travel very light. Take a staff, but no bread, no backpack, no money, just the shoes on their feet and the shirt on their back - not even an extra shirt.
So, if they eat at Pizza Ranch after service like I do, and end up wearing more food than they ate, they’re out of luck.
Taking the staff, of course, was their means of protecting themselves from wild animals or muggers on the road, but really nothing much else.
What Jesus is teaching them is to rely on God for His supplying all of their needs - even lodging. He did not want them to be distracted or burdened by anything else - just focused on their mission.
He said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place. If any place does not welcome you or listen to you, when you leave there, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
Jesus kind of sounds like Yogi Berra “Wherever you are, stay ‘til you leave.”
But really what He is doing here, is telling them “Don’t move from house to house, just receive the hospitality that’s given and don’t abuse it.”
When your work is done, move on, and don’t be a freeloader.
Of course, they’ve been instructed - with the parable of the Sower - not to waste time on those who won’t want to receive their message.
There’s an apologist named Frank Turek, and he usually says something like, “I ask atheists all the time, ‘if I can prove to you Jesus is really who He said He was, that God exists, would you accept it?’ and often they say ‘No!’ because it’s not an issue of the message, or the truth, it’s a heart issue.”
Jesus says to the disciples, if you come across someone with such a heart issue, keep moving.
He says it in such a fascinating way, though. Basically, He tells them, “If the whole town is like that, kick the dust off your feet.”
It’s a simple act that says they don’t even want to take the dirt from such a place with them.
Now, you may notice a small footnote at the bottom of your Bible that reads: “Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom or Gomorrah on judgment day than for that town.”
For people who reject Christ’s grace, who reject the Gospel, they will face a worse judgment than those pagans who were killed by God’s judgment on those two cities in Genesis 19.
And that say something because
Then out of the sky the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah burning sulfur from the Lord.
That area is now believed to be beneath the south end of the Dead Sea. There are large sulfur and salt deposits all in that region.
So they went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons, anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
They go out and preach the same message that Jesus preached:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
They drive out demons, they anoint the sick with oil, and they healed them. This all points those who hear them and see the miracles back to the One who sent them.
It is all about taking the people to Jesus.
As they anoint with oil, it represents the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and is symbolic of supernatural healing. It was likely olive oil, the same thing they used in lamps.
James will mention this in his epistle
James 5:14–16 (CSB)
Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.
The oil then would have been not just a healing agent, but also an appropriate symbol the people could identify as the disciples ministered to the sick among them.
Again, all in an effort to give them the good news about Jesus.
It is always about Jesus.
When our faith in Him is reject by those around us, we must always react by refocusing, by putting our eyes on Jesus.
Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Conclusion:
I’m going to move to close in a moment, I know we have so much more going on this afternoon - the potluck and the annual business meeting.
But we see a great Contrast in Faith within this text. Those who reject Jesus, because they think they know Him, and those who are able to - under His authority - do miraculous things.
Maybe this morning, maybe you feel rejected, maybe you haven’t reacted well, maybe you are in a time of refocusing right now.
Maybe you are one who has rejected Christ, and you’re feeling this tug, this pull within your heart to give up the life you’ve lived for yourself, and being to live for Him.
Maybe you don’t feel like you fit in, or you’re needing someone to come alongside, to go out two by two, in a sense. Someone else to jump in the foxhole with you.
Whatever the case may be, don’t leave here today trying to be the lone Christian. Don’t leave here today feeling rejected.
Refocus your heart today on Him.
We get so zeroed in, so focused on all the anxieties of the world around us. Still He tells us,
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Stand with me today as we close in prayer
PRAY