He went away from 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 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.
Then Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his household.” So He was not able to do any miracles there, except that He laid hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He was amazed at their unbelief. – Mark 6:1-6
Those folks from Nazareth have kin all over the world. Some of my ancestors might have come from there.
After all, I wonder, what do we expect?
What I don’t expect is for the commonplace to suddenly take on the transcendent and for the profane to become sacred. I don’t expect “Holy unto the LORD” to be inscribed on my milk cow’s bell. The mockers will often speak of Moses and his encounter with a talking plant, as though a talking animal were any less fantastic. At least the Scripture is clear in the case of the burning bush that it was not the vegetation speaking, but God Himself through it. With primates the source is less certain.
People just don’t like the common to get out of hand. As in the case of Jesus whom the Nazarenes thought they knew, we can be offended when someone or something around us takes on attributes of the divine. I don’t know if it so much that familiarity breeds contempt. It is more like we just stop looking at the things that are most familiar.
What intrigues me most about this passage, though, is that Jesus’ homies do not really question the wisdom of what He is saying or the miraculous power attributed to Him. They seem to acknowledge this, and, in fact, it is this very fact that offends them.
Who are YOU to have wisdom and divine power? The fact that God may be able to speak or operate in this world through some people is not the issue. It is when God begins to speak and operate through someone I know that I have a problem.
You don’t have to empty hospital rooms or break up funerals to cause offense – though I am pretty sure if you did the AMA, the AHA, and the National Association of Funeral Directors, not to mention the ACLU and CAIR, would be on your tail for practicing medicine without a license, unfair trade practices, violating the civil rights of the dead and making a mockery of Mohammed. Much less dramatic demonstrations cause more than enough offense, as the folks that voted for Proposition 8 in California found out. The fact that a person believes in Christ, thinks Global Warming is a scam, opposes Islamic fascism, same-sex marriage, socialism, or one of the left’s other causes du jour is quite sufficient.
Merely living a decent life is enough to make one offensive to many. After all, if there are people who do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God that means it is possible. Some of us may be a little more comfortable thinking that holiness is a nice concept, but not very practical -- which brings me to the point that has been nagging me for the last few days. As 2 Peter 3:10 and 11 puts it:
But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people should you be…[?]
Or, how should we then live?
You and I may not have the same set of questions. Mine go something like this:
Do I really believe that I am a child of God in Christ?
Do I really believe God is my Father and cares for me more than any earthly parent possible could? And the corollary to that – do I believe God cares more about my loved ones than I do?
Do I really believe this world is not all there is, and that life, therefore, has a purpose beyond the futility of animal existence?
Can God really be trusted?
Is God able to work His will in the lives of those who trust Him?
Is my obedience really more important than my comfort, my reputation, my status, and my possessions?
Those are a few of my questions, and, like I said, other people may have different ones. The bad thing is that after all these years my answers are still pretty weak and tentative, and sometime inconsistent. I guess the good thing is I do know the right answer.
5 comments:
...do I believe God cares more about my loved ones than I do?
That's a great one. I think that it's easy to focus on our own relationship with God, but it's tougher to think about God's relationship with other people (especially those who don't seem to think much about it themselves). The answer is "Yes, of course!" but it's one of those things that is extremely easy to overlook if you don't draw attention to it.
Of course, I think most people pretty much know the right answer to your questions, but we often don't really internalize it and make it real within ourselves. We haven't properly metabolized it so that it is a part of our living structure. That's the hard part, but like regular digestion it's something beyond our conscious control, once we've chewed, chewed, chewed and swallowed. Dense nutrients can be slow to digest, but in the long term they often do us the most good.
Great post, Mushroom.
I have to say the most intriguing thing to me about that passage, when I first read it, and mostly still, is how Jesus was “amazed at their unbelief.”
I believe this happens to Him one other time in the NT. I guess I just don’t know what to do with it :-) I mean, Jesus is surprised?!
I suppose the point was to illustrate the magnitude of their unbelief; so great it was that even Jesus couldn’t believe it :-)
I forgot to mention this... you said: “The mockers will often speak of Moses and his encounter with a talking plant, as though a talking animal were any less fantastic.” Which reminds of a line in OCUG that says something similar to, “…the scientist who forgets to take account of himself.”
Can you search for miracles with nothing less than a miracle at your disposal? I’m afraid it’s the only way.
I have the tendency to miss the miraculous. The coon-0-sphere is part of the cure for that, whether it is Bob unsaturating terms or Julie and Robin showing it to us in pictures, or seeing with new eyes in The War, etc.
It's kind of disturbing, though. We like predictability, and it just does not exist.
It's been a long time since I read Asimov's Foundation trilogy. As best I recall his premise is that human behavior in the aggregate, over time is statistically predictable. It's good SF, but probably a false premise because it fails to take into account an essential element of Asimov's own belief system -- evolution. (Again, I may be wrong since it has been literally decades since I read it -- but the point is the same.)
If humans are evolving, then you can only make accurate predictions if you know the Omega point to which they are evolving. A naturalist like Asimov would deny the existence of such a concept; therefore, any prediction that covered a significant time period would be no more than a wild guess.
Without an Omega point giving direction, human evolution could just as likely reverse itself, stagnant, or move laterally. We are watching a reversal in societal evolution take place in America before our very eyes, and when America goes down, it will take the rest of the world with it. Europe is dying. India and China are dependent on us. We could soon all meet at the bottom.
Excellent post, Mushroom!
I can relate with the amazement Jesus has over unbelief, although it's most uncomfortable to look at mine.
It's easy to point out the unbelief of others, and not just in religion, but in belief's that crossover into every realm, such as liberty.
I'm amazed that so many folks in America don't believe that socialism will erode our liberties and enslave us.
I'm also quite aware of my own unbelief's regarding God's love for me, and my own struggle to trust Him in all things.
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