Jesus went back to His hometown (in Mark 6) and the people were amazed that this local boy, Who, up to that point hadn't made much of a name for Himself, as He was teaching in the synagogue, performing miracles.
"Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?"
We see evidence here that Mary was not a virgin perpetually (unless all these brothers and sisters were adopted); and we also can make note that His dad, Joseph, is absent from the picture. Perhaps he died. If so, I wonder how that played out. I wonder if Jesus wept then? I wonder how old he was when this happened. Who knows? Maybe Joseph couldn't handle the 'God is your son' concept and he ran away. If that was the case, wouldn't that make an interesting movie? Imagine the man watching from afar when Jesus was crucified.
The hometown folks were offended at Jesus. He said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor." It says, "He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them..." Wow, Sounds like Jesus had a bad day. I wish I could lay hands on a few sick people and heal them on a "bad" day. It says that He was "amazed" at their lack of faith.
Faith is an interesting subject. It's interesting to note that this concept, this act of believing is apparently a necessary ingredient for miracles. I wish we all had more of it.
The rest of the chapter covers a lot more ground. In verse 7 He called the 12 disciples to Him and commissioned them to go out "two by two" and He gave them authority over evil spirits. This is really cool, because He wasn't lording his authority and power over the people. He was sharing it. A lot more work can get done when you have a team on it. This must've been real exciting for the disciples. He gave them instructions to not bring any provisions, save for a walking stick, on this journey. Their needs would get taken care of as they went out. I wonder how long they were gone. Lots of people were set free from demons and sick people were healed.
The story of John the Baptist getting beheaded is sandwiched into the middle of this chapter. This story itself could be another movie, perhaps. Herod had married his brother's sister, Herodias. John pointed out that this was not cool. "It is unlawful for you to have your brother's wife." This caused a great wedge between Herodias and John. You've probably heard the story: One night Herod's daughter is dancing before his guests and she pleases him very much, so he promises her anything, "up to half my kingdom." She confers with her mom and answers back with her request: "right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter." This grieved Herod, because he kinda like this puzzling prophet; but he made an oath in front of his friends and the consequences for backing out of that promise now would have been great. So, he sent an executioner to John and had his head removed. It's a gruesome and very sad story. John's disciples took his headless body and laid it in a tomb.
It would have been cool for Jesus to raise John back from the dead, but this wasn't part of God's plan just yet, I guess. In Matthew 14, we read a description of this same event, which includes the detail that Jesus retreated to a solitary place when He found out. I bet He wept then, too. I imagine it also reinforced to Him and reminded Him that such a fate was His destiny, too.
The miracle of feeding 5,000 people with a limited amount of food is told in this chapter, too. That was such an unusual miracle. It's very unique and odd. Later Jesus sends His disciples on in a boat, while He dismissed the crowd. I bet that "benediction" was eloquent and powerful. If I could go back in time and witness one event in the life of Jesus, this would be a cool one. A discreet, non-descript event like this would make an ideal context to slip in and stay unnoticed, but how wonderful it would be to hear the voice of the Lord speaking to a crowd. With no sound system, I wonder if everyone was able to hear.
The wind kicks up and the disciples have a hard time rowing the boat. But Jesus strolls by on the water and is about to pass them. The disciples kinda freak out, thinking it was a ghost. They cried out. I bet they cried like scared little emo babies. The Word says that their hearts were hardened and they were amazed still about the loaves and fishes miracle. These poor guys were getting blitzed with one supernatural event after another. It's almost way more than the human mind can comprehend. I bet they went to bed each night with their minds racing over all the events that were packed in a day.
When they landed, people recognized Jesus and a rush was on to get their sick loved ones healed. The public ministry of Jesus was now becoming a logistical nightmare to manage. He was like a mega celebrity by this point.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at October 30, 2008 09:58 AM