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Gospel: Mark 6:1-6
Jesus departed from there and came to his native place,
accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, “Where did this man get all this?
What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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This will be the final time Jesus’ visits his hometown in Mark’s Gospel. As we know, the Lord wasn’t greeted with welcome signs and open arms; it was complicated.
On the one hand, Jesus returns with a following. This group of outsiders, from the Twelve Apostles to the ordinary strangers who witnessed him perform miracles, gives credence to the idea that he’s more than a carpenter.
As his neighbors question, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him?”
On the other hand, the people of Nazareth must’ve looked at Jesus with a crooked eye. To them, he abandoned his family, particularly his mother. Joseph likely died during Jesus’ teenage years, leaving Mary dependent upon him.
The fact that Jesus left her to pursue his own path would’ve made him, at least to the locals, a type of persona non grata. Or, as we say in the South, a man who thinks he’s too big for his britches.
Why did Jesus leave her?
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With hindsight, we know that Jesus had to begin his public ministry. But according to Jewish culture, it was only honorable to leave one’s work and family to study the Torah. Thus, Jesus returns to his hometown as a man who claims to have dedicated his life to God.
One would think that this might’ve made his kinsfolk more receptive to his return, but anyone who has left their family and their future behind in order to study for the priesthood or religious life may have experienced this same family tension.
While many parents teach their children to put God first, when the rubber meets the road, in their heart of hearts, some actually feel, “Family first. God, a close second.”
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For their lack of faith, Jesus was unable to do much good. Those who knew him in the flesh saw him as an ordinary, blue-collar worker from a small, hilltop town.
Faith would’ve been the one thing that allowed them so see that Jesus was both ordinary and extraordinary.
The son of Mary and the Son of God.
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Image credits: (1) Grace+Truth (2) Psephizo (3) Corpuschristiphx.org