Notice, they don’t call him a wonder worker. They ignore that he has just raised a little girl from the dead. They still see him as he was when he left – a blue-collar worker, a big brother, Mary’s boy.
![[1] Nazareth as depicted on Byzantine mosaic. Photograph by Meister der Kahriye-Cami-Kirche in Istanbul. Public Domain](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ff6591_eddce9f165404c2eb081090a247ca92f~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_830,h_575,al_c,q_85,enc_auto/ff6591_eddce9f165404c2eb081090a247ca92f~mv2.jpg)
Mark 6:1-13
August 18, 2024
Dr. Todd R. Wright
In his poem “The Death of the Hired Man”, Robert Frost writes, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”
We take his simple words to be a sparse description of the laws of life in community, a spoonful of homespun wisdom, a summary of classic hospitality. So when Mark begins this part of his tale, “Jesus left that place and came to his hometown …” we harbor certain expectations.
In the wake of the Olympics there have been no shortage of stories about athletes returning home to parades and parties, visits to their old schools and gyms, pools and fields, courts and tracks that are now marked as places where champions are formed!
We like such stories!
But that is not what happens in Mark’s gospel. He has been cataloging the difficult start to Jesus’ ministry – how the one who preaches with authority, and heals, and casts out demons is opposed by the scribes and suspected by his family of being crazy.
Today he comes home, perhaps to catch his breath, perhaps to lick his wounds, perhaps to enjoy the restorative power of home cooking or a sleep in his own bed.
Alyce McKenzie imagines the scene this way:
“I picture Jesus' hometown family and friends squirming in their synagogue seats and craning their necks to see if he's coming. The hometown boy is coming to bring the morning message. As his former neighbors sit waiting, I bet they were preparing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they were saying to each other, ‘Even if he's not that good a speaker, we need to encourage him, because he's just getting started.’
His home townies don't know who they're waiting for. They think they're waiting for the boy who knows how to make the best shelves in town. They think they're waiting for the familiar sibling of James, Joses, Judas, Simon, and his (unnamed!) sisters. They think they're waiting for the obedient son of Mary. [So] they're prepared to excuse the shortcomings of someone safe and familiar.”[2]
I like McKenzie’s version better than Mark’s. It makes Nazareth sound supportive.
Mark remembers it differently.
He never tells us what Jesus taught, like Luke does. He does not describe how things got tense. He does not record what Jesus did to offend them, only that their astonishment sours because they think they know him and the person who shows up doesn’t match their expectations.
Notice, they don’t call him a wonder worker. They ignore that he has just raised a little girl from the dead. They still see him as he was when he left – a blue-collar worker, a big brother, Mary’s boy.
Scholars wonder if that last descriptor – son of Mary – was tinged with sympathy or a dig. Did it indicate that Joseph had died years ago and Jesus was the product of a single parent home, barely surviving, hand-to-mouth? Or does it imply that the neighbors never believed the story about an angel’s visit, so their words were poking at the scab of an old scandal?
Either way, it must have bruised Jesus’ heart.
We’d all rather be welcomed like the prodigal son, but that was not to be.
Jesus could have stormed out, slamming doors and shouting curses!
He could have run off to hide … his embarrassment and tears.
He could have questioned his call and doubted whether his ministry had any future.
But Jesus took a different tack.
Mark tells us he went on teaching in other villages – presumably places where they welcomed his words and healing touch!
But even more importantly, rather than stopping, or scaling back, he commissioned his disciples to go out and expand his ministry! It is a turning point in Mark’s gospel!
Much ink has been spilled about his instructions that they take nothing with them – no bread, no bag, no money in their belts. Not even an extra tunic!
They are to be vulnerable, trusting God’s grace and the hospitality of strangers!
Others have focused on the instruction to shake the dust off their feet if they are not welcomed in a place.
They are not to protest or linger or brood; just move on to more promising spots.
And some have wondered about the details of how they were paired up.
One of the best Sunday school teachers I’ve ever known once asked us, would you have put the brothers together or separated them? Would you have dared to pair Matthew, the ex-tax collector, and Simon the zealot? Who would you pair with Peter … or Judas?
Dallas Jenkins makes a guess. When he imagines this scene in the third season of “The Chosen”, he has Jesus pair up particular disciples and send them to specific towns or regions. That includes pairing Matthew and Simon the zealot. In his version, the disciples go silent at this pairing. Peter (it’s always Peter) eventually speaks up to ask, “Rabbi, are you sure about that?” Jenkins has Jesus explain that “None of you is what you were. Remember that, all of you!”[3]
They are no longer zealot and tax collector; they are disciples of the Messiah, proclaimers of good news, healers of the broken, living signs of hope!
We could talk more about any of these points, but I want to focus on something else today.
What if Jesus’ choice to send out the 12 wasn’t just a response to his rejection in Nazareth?
What if we have it backwards?
What if he went to his hometown so that his disciples could see him rejected and have that memory burned into their hearts when they went out to speak and act like him?
Presbyterian pastor Moffett Churn observes, “Jesus has a deep reservoir of resources to draw from for this lesson. The prophets are well stocked with warnings about the wall of resistance that awaits any would-be message bearer.”[4]
In fact, Ezekiel has a memorable exchange with God that goes like this:
“[God] said, “Son of man, stand up. I have something to say to you.”
“I’m sending you to the family of Israel, a rebellious nation if there ever was one. They and their ancestors have fomented rebellion right up to the present. They’re a hard case, these people to whom I’m sending you — hardened in their sin.
Tell them, ‘This is the Message of God, the Master.’ They are a defiant bunch. Whether or not they listen, at least they’ll know that a prophet’s been here.
But don’t be afraid of them, son of man, and don’t be afraid of anything they say. Don’t be afraid when living among them is like stepping on thorns or finding scorpions in your bed. Don’t be afraid of their mean words or their hard looks. They’re a bunch of rebels. Your job is to speak to them. Whether they listen is not your concern.”[5]
Thinking of that passage and other, Churn continues, “Jesus [brings] the disciples along to observe his own drumming down at the hands of his hometown community. Perhaps if they see Jesus survive a fall from the heights of the rock star bandwagon, the Twelve will learn to take their lumps and get back in the ring.”
I wonder if that is the lesson Mark is trying to teach his community with this whole story – that they need to learn how to be rejected and keep going, to fall and get back up, to fail and not give up. And ultimately, to trust that every bit of their ministry is in God’s hands.
And I wonder about the implications for us, a church that follows in their footsteps. Amen
[1] Nazareth as depicted on Byzantine mosaic. Photograph by Meister der Kahriye-Cami-Kirche in Istanbul. Public Domain
[2] From “Following a Hometown Boy”, a reflection on the text, 7/2/12
[4] Here and following, from his reflection on the text for Christian Century, 6/20/18
[5] From The Message, Ezekiel 2:1, 3-7
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