Rejected Mark 6:1-6

Have you ever felt taken for granted? How about underappreciated or left out? Maybe there was a time you didn’t get picked for a team, or invited to a party, or received the promotion you felt you deserved. But being overlooked isn’t on par with being told to get lost. The real question for the day, is have you ever felt rejected, unwelcomed, unloved?

If you have felt any of those three things, you’re in good company. Our Lord understands rejection; including what it means to given the cold shoulder by those who should be your friends. And this morning we’re going to read a few verses in Mark that tell us how Jesus was scorned by the people of own His hometown and how He responded when He was given the heave-ho. It’s quite an example for us to follow. Let’s read Mark 6:1-6 and you will see what I mean.

Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed Him. 2 When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him. 4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” 5 And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He wondered at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching.

Jesus is back where he was raised. Mark doesn’t tell us, but it’s the town of Nazareth. When Philip told his buddy, Nathaniel, that he’d found the Messiah and it was Jesus of Nazareth, Nate replied, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” I heard something similar from a couple of my 7th -12th teachers. “Can anything good come out of Hiawatha?” Hiawatha, Iowa was kind of the boondocks in the 1960’s. I never took much offense at the question because I knew they were kidding, and because my friends and I were fairly talented at goofing off in school and may have earned a reputation. I’m not sure Nathaniel knew the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem or if he thought Nazareth was Hicksville.

But Jesus wasn’t born in Nazareth, He was raised there. He was born in Bethlehem, as Micah prophesied and Matthew and Luke tell us. Joseph and Mary were from Nazareth.

God has a way of getting people to the right spot at the right time. God gets Joseph to Egypt to ensure his brothers and their families stay alive during a famine. God gets Ruth the Moabitess into the field of Boaz so that they would eventually marry and King David would be their great grandson. God gets Esther into Artaxerxes’ beauty pageant and to become his queen so the lives of the Jewish people in ancient Persia might be spared.

Caesar called for a tax which called for a census, which God used to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem at just the right time to fulfill the prophecy of Micah. Now Jesus is back in Nazareth at just the right time. It’s the Sabbath, He’s in the synagogue. He is teaching. And though we are not told here, we can make a good guess that it includes something from Isaiah. I’ll come back to that. The people are listening to Him and are filled with wonder; not just at His wisdom in teaching the Scriptures, but the miracles that He’s done in their neck of the woods. Their response is, “Where did He get such wisdom and power?” Let’s bypass Jesus’ miracles for a bit and consider His wisdom in teaching.

What comes to mind when you think about the teaching ministry of our Lord Jesus?

He taught us the Golden Rule (treating others as you wish to be treated) Matthew 7:12. He taught us how to pray: “Our Father who art in heaven …” He taught us we cannot serve two masters. We can’t serve God and riches. He taught us that serving God means serving others. He taught us that humility in serving others top the list of important traits in God’s kingdom. He taught us to take the log out of our eye before we take the speck out of another’s eye. He taught us to lay aside revenge, love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. He taught us to beware of hypocrisy; being outwardly religious and inwardly reprehensible. He taught us what it means to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. And then … He taught us to love one another as He has loved us.

Anyone can admire such teaching, and even honor it by agreeing to order their life by it. And if we’re able to do so, our relationships with others will be better for it. But, listen to some other things that Jesus taught us about Himself.

He taught, “I’m the resurrection and the life, he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.” He taught, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He taught, “This cup is the New Covenant in My blood, which is shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.” He taught, “I’m the way the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” He taught, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus didn’t just teach us how to live. He taught us how to have life; eternal life.

We pick and choose what we like and what we don’t like from what politicians, athletes, news reporters, actors and activists say. It’s like going through a buffet line. I’ll take the prime rib and fried chicken, but pass on the lima beans and fried okra (actually I would take a big serving of okra as long as it is deep fat fried).

I am not the first one to say this, nor will I be the last: We are not given the freedom to pick and choose which words of Jesus they want to enjoy or wish to scrap. That is the first lesson of the day, and here is what Jesus has to say about the importance of His words.

Jesus say this: Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.” Luke 6:46-49. Unfortunately, some just want 10¢ worth of Jesus, and they miss out on the rest that He has to offer – and the rest of what He has to offer is the best part – forgiveness of sin, peace with God, the help of the Holy Spirit, and the assurance of eternal life.

The folks of Nazareth are not just curious about Jesus wisdom, but also His power to work miracles. Casting out demons, healing the sick, the paralyzed, the leprous. The grapevine had been busy. They knew Jesus has been working miracles and it cause them to wonder.

So, give credit to where credit is due. The people are asking good questions, but as they begin to answer their own questions they draw the wrong conclusions because they can only see Jesus in light of what they knew about Him growing up. Look at verse 3. “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him.”

I told our small group on Wednesday, the way this verse is written reminds me of the early version of the Gilligan’s Island theme song. “With Gilligan, the Skipper too, the millionaire and his wife, the movie star, and the rest.” The “rest” were only the professor and Mary Ann, whose names got left out of the song – just like Jesus’ sister’s name got left out here.

I can imagine the conversations taking place in the synagogue. “This guy works with wood. He helped frame my house, fixed my door when it was falling off the hinges, made a comfy rocking chair for the nursery. We know his family. His mom is a nice lady, his brothers are fairly decent ball players and his sisters like to play their music loud. I think one of them threw a rock through my kitchen window. What are the girls’ names again?”

Their answers to, “Where did He get such wisdom/power?” receives an F on their spiritual report card. This brings me to a second lesson: Good questions followed by short sighed answers never lead anyone to the truth about anything, including the identity of Jesus.

Asking the right questions is a good start. Searching for the rights answers is a good habit. Nicodemus, the Pharisee, told Jesus, “No one can do these signs unless God is with Him.”

There is well-known promise from God in Jeremiah 29:13. “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” Jesus says it this way in Matthew 7. “Ask, and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.”

But that is not what they do. And it causes Jesus issue the well-known statement: “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” Jesus understands human nature so well.

We have a similar expression: Familiarity breeds contempt. It means that over time, people tend to lose their respect or appreciation for what they have, where they work or who they live with. We devalue the things and people God has put in our lives.

Last Sunday I said that Jesus was and still is a lightning rod. You become a lightning rod when you are the focus of other’s criticism and anger. We see that once again. You’d think the hometown crowd would give Him the key to the city, name a street after Him, have a parade. But instead they take offense. Look at verse 3 again. “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him.”

People get offended all the time. I’m not talking about irritated; lots of things can irk us. I am talking about getting so angry or upset that you want nothing to do with another person or group. We see it in the news quite often, but it happens in the context of the church and between Christians. We seem to forget that we are responsible walk worthy of our calling in Christ and that means we are to forebear with one another in love.

I relate this passage in Mark 6 with the events of Luke 4:16-30. You are welcome to turn there. I am just going to summarize what Luke records. While He is teaching in the synagogue, Jesus applies the prophecy of Isaiah 61 to Himself. It is a Messianic prophecy. “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 and proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

The people of Nazareth did not want to hear a kid from their town, a carpenter by trade, someone from an average family, applying the prophecy of Isaiah 61 to Himself. They get so riled up they try to push Him off a cliff. He is rejected, unwelcomed, unloved.

According to Mark, the community of Nazareth gets a teaspoon full of Jesus’ miraculous power because they dismiss His divine nature. Verse 5: “And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.” They missed out. The sad reality is that all those who take offense at Jesus and want nothing to do with Him, receive very little in return. And our Lord wants to give each of us so much.

We are just about done. Verse 6 tells us, “And He wondered at their unbelief.” In verse 2, the people wondered where Jesus got His wisdom and power. Now Mark says Jesus wonders about their unbelief. Isn’t that interesting? Why people would choose not to trust in Jesus’ offer of eternal life doesn’t just make us wonder; it makes our Lord wonder also.

The rejection of Jesus as the Messiah was foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures. Psalm 118 tells us, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone.” 118:22. Isaiah prophesied of Jesus rejection as well when He writes, “He was despised and rejected by men.” 53:3. The apostle John tells us in one sentence what Mark writes about here. “He came to His own people and even they rejected Him,” John 1:11

Jesus says it this way: “People love darkness rather than light.” The light of Jesus’ truth and His love, exposes our sin and we don’t like being confronted with character defects, or flawed standards of what we call right and wrong.

So far in his gospel, Mark has been ping pong balling us back and forth between those who trust in Jesus as the promised One, and those who will not trust in Him at all. The rule of thumb that we either live by faith in the Lord or we don’t. There is no middle ground.

But Mark 6:6 doesn’t end with, “And He wondered at their unbelief.” It ends like this: “And He was going around the villages teaching.” Think about the significance of that statement They scorned Him, but Jesus continued teaching. That brings me to my final point: Though our Lord was rejected by those who knew Him firsthand, it didn’t deter Him from His ministry.

I am so thankful for the last sentence in Mark 6:6. The rejection of Jesus by His own community, does not hinder Him from His ministry. And there is His example for all who follow Him. Rejection shouldn’t discourage us from any ministry God has entrusted to us.

When we are faithful to do God’s will, it truly doesn’t matter what others think of us or say about us. Let’s follow Jesus example, and keep doing what God has called us to do.

Wouldn’t it be nice (that sounds like the opening words to a Beach Boy’s song) … Wouldn’t it be nice if every time we talked with others about Jesus and His offer of eternal life that they welcomed us and Him into their lives? As we share the gospel, and I hope we do, we need to keep in mind that as Christians, we are following the One whose very presence offended people. We are following someone who was crucified.

The contact point of this passage is that we may experience similar rejection by friends and family members when we follow Christ. But like our Lord, we are never to quit, give up, tap out, throw in the towel in sharing the gospel or serving others in His name.

I don’t know the number one reason that Christians are hesitant to talk to others about Jesus, but I would guess, fear of rejection ranks right up there. But the ironic thing is that quite often the very ones who appear the most offended by the gospel are the ones who when they finally see Jesus for who He truly is – they follow Him with all their heart. I think that may describe some of us in this room this morning or watching on livestream.

So keep Mark 6:1-6 in mind the next time you talk with someone about Jesus and they tell you they want nothing to do with Him or with you and walk away. Remember that our Lord was rejected by even those who knew Him firsthand. It didn’t deter Him from His ministry. It should not slow us down either.