7th Sunday after Pentecost
July 27, 2003
Mark 6:1-6

^6:1He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. ²On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "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! ³Is 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. ⁴Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." ⁵And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. ⁶And he was amazed at their unbelief. (NRS).

Amazing Unbelief!

  When you walk into a grocery store, or the beer store, and you see a person handing out free samples of food or drink, do you run over to get some? Or do you try to go around the person hoping she won’t see you? If she does see you and offers you a taste, do you greedily grab it up, like the lady on the Chubby Chicken commercial, or do you politely refuse? What do you think your reaction would be if you were the person handing out the samples? Say you’re passing out samples of gourmet pizza or a fine white wine. Would you consider it perfectly normal for people to turn you down? Wouldn’t you be surprised that people did not want a free taste of something so good? Maybe you have tried to give something away and found few takers. Weren’t you surprised? People may have very good reasons why they don’t take such samples. Still, when you think about it, most of the time, aren’t we surprised, even amazed, when people turn down something truly free, no obligations or strings attached?

  In the same way, Jesus is amazed when people reject him and refuse what he offers. He offers us what we most need, reconciliation with God, and what we most want, eternal life. But for some reason we turn him down! That which we should greedily receive with open arms, we, offended at the offer, reject. And so, instead of us marvelling at his gift, Jesus marvels at our amazing unbelief.

  There may be many valid reasons for turning down a food or drink sample: you’re on a diet; allergies; you already know you hate it; whatever. But why would we turn down Jesus? The reason the people of Nazareth did it was because they knew him! 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. This was the carpenter they all knew. Jesus was not the sort of person from whom one would expect wisdom and miracles. In their case, the saying was true: "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." To put that in our idiom, "Familiarity breeds contempt!" Who did Jesus think he was?

  Yet, they recognize that he had extraordinary wisdom and powers. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "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! How bizarre that they see and hear Jesus’ wisdom and power and yet get upset because they cannot explain it. Why should they be offended that he has this wisdom and power? Were they just jealous?

  Whatever the reason, they were offended. In fact, it became a scandal. Literally, Mark says that they were scandalized! They were outraged and offended by Jesus. They completely rejected him and wanted to get rid of him. There was no way they could think of him as the promised Saviour. Their contempt for this familiar home town boy lead to unbelief and rejection.

  The same sort of thing happens today. Some people just plain don’t like Jesus. They make a similar objection, "How could this man really do miracles and rise from the dead. There is no such thing as a miracle. There are only unexplained, natural phenomena. How could he be the Son of God. There is no God! That’s just old superstition and a primitive way of explaining the universe. We know better than that now." And yet, for all this rhetoric, no one can explain the universe or life. We have fine sounding theories that we treat like fact, but we can prove and reproduce nothing. To then confidently reject Jesus is an amazing thing, amazing unbelief!

  But there’s something yet more amazing and closer to what the people of Nazareth did. Within the church, familiarity breeds contempt. It’s not that we don’t like Jesus, it’s that we don’t like the way he works. We get tired of the ordinary: Bible reading, sermons, hymns, Baptism, Communion. We’ve done all that! Is that all there is? We like excitement and change. We begin to look for an exciting experience or person to supercharge our faith. We start looking beyond Jesus and God’s Word for other forms of spirituality, something to tickle our itching ears. We turn to New Age spiritualism, Eastern mysticism, Islam or whatever, something exotic! That seems more powerful to us, at least for a while. Or maybe we would like to go back to the way things were under Moses: thunder and lightening and earthquakes; plagues, parting the sea, the ground opening up and swallowing people, holy war. That was exciting! Jesus is, well, boring.

  What was it Paul wrote to Timothy? Oh yes, In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. (2 Timothy 4:1-4).

  What a contrast between us or the people of Nazareth and others whom Jesus met! The woman with the 12 year haemorrhage didn’t care what town Jesus came from or who his parents were. All she cared about was that he had the power to heal even if she only touched his clothes and he never said a word to her! That’s amazing faith! There is one other time that the Scriptures say that Jesus was amazed. That was when a foreigner, a Roman centurion, sent men to Jesus to ask him to come heal his servant. You remember, Jesus agreed to go, but the man said that he was not worthy for Jesus to go to his house. All Jesus had to do was give the command and his servant would be healed. At that, Jesus was amazed and said, Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. The people of Nazareth had seen and heard of such things. And yet they were scandalized because they knew Jesus. No wonder Jesus was amazed at their unbelief! Some of us get bored with the way God deals with us-his Word, the Sacraments, prayer-because they’re too ordinary and simple. Again, is it any wonder that Jesus would be amazed at us?

  This scandal in Nazareth had consequences. And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Jesus could hardly do any miracles because the people wouldn’t let him. Whereas others like Jairus came to Jesus looking for help, these people were offended by him. They criticized and rejected him. They didn’t ask him for help and healing, so they got nothing! Jesus wanted to do deeds of power for them as much as for anyone else but they wouldn’t have it. They forfeited the gift of God because they didn’t like the packaging! That amazed Jesus!

  Jesus’ brother James will later reproach Christians, like you and me, for a similar neglect and abuse of prayer. You do not have, because you do not ask. Paul had to rebuke the Corinthians because they were ruining the Lord’s Supper. Rather than receiving its blessing, they were under God’s discipline. Still today, people think little of God’s word or the Sacraments. They refuse to use them and so lose the blessing that God gives through them. Does this make sense? It is one thing to turn down a sample of pizza or wine. It’s quite another thing to turn down miracles and forgiveness!

  And so Jesus was amazed at their unbelief. The NIV translation says that he was amazed at their lack of faith. That could give the impression that it was a quantitative thing, that, as some will say, they didn’t have enough faith to be healed. But it wasn’t a question of quantity; it was a matter of no faith at all. They did not believe in Jesus; they were scandalized at him! In the same way, many today have grown so tired of plain old Jesus and plain old church that they have abandoned them. They too have been scandalized. If you would like proof, the next time someone tells you that he doesn’t have to go to church to be a Christian, tell him that’s not true. You’ll get an earful! Amazing unbelief!

  That’s a heavy, negative load. What are we to do? Strip away our concerns about the packaging and focus on what Jesus offers us. Jesus offers us a whole list of things, a new existence, now and in the age to come. Perhaps we can simply say that he brings God to us. He spoke to the people of Nazareth as a prophet. A prophet is a person through whom God speaks to the rest of us. He did that in Christ as never before, for Christ is the very Word of God in the flesh. He therefore speaks truth to us. He says that he forgives us of all things we have ever done or ever will do wrong. Every failure to be perfect is forgiven. He has made us acceptable to God. He is right now preparing a place for each of us to be with him. There we will be free from the constraints of bodies that get sick, break down and wear out, from minds that fear and conceive evil thoughts. Right now, he gives his Spirit, not so we can have the power to play X-men, but to guide and comfort us, to teach us the truth so that we do not live in a fantasy world or the lie-world of the devil. Right now, he is present to hear and answer our prayers for help and healing and salvation.

  All this, and much more, he offers to us simply, in an ordinary manner, accessible to us all: through his Word, the Sacraments and prayer, you know, the things we have right here in plain old ordinary church. You don’t have to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. You don’t have to sit in an uncomfortable position for hours and empty your mind. All you have to do is listen, ask, open your mouth to receive bread and wine, or bow your head over a bowl of water. That’s easy! That’s amazing! Yet it’s more amazing that someone would reject it all! We are the one’s who should be amazed, not Jesus.

  Let me close with a short story I’m sure you’ve all heard. One spring the Mississippi River flooded and began to engulf a man’s farm. Soon the water rose and flooded the only access road to his home. After a while a heavy military transport drives up the road to rescue the farmer. But, with a sincere thank you for their concern, he turned them away saying, "I’m staying right here. I have faith that God will save me." As the day went on, the water rose over the porch and was flowing several feet deep into the first floor of the old farmhouse. The farmer retreated to the second floor. Soon a boat came along to rescue the farmer. Again he turned them away waiting for God to save him. The water continued to rise and near dusk the farmer had to climb out on his roof. As the water reached nearly to the top of the roof and the sun was about to set, the farmer heard the sound of a helicopter. The army had come back one more time. They lowered a harness for lifting the farmer off his roof, but he waved them off. That night he drowned. Moments later, surprised and confused, he found himself in heaven standing face to face with God. He said, "What happened? Why didn’t you save me?" And God said, "What did you expect? I sent a truck, a boat, and a helicopter for you. What more did you want?"

  God sent his Son for us and gave us his Word and the Sacraments. What more do we want? Therefore, today, make it your goal to amaze God, not with unbelief, but with your trust in Christ.