Mark 6:1-13 - Jesus Rejected, Sends Out the Twelve

In the preceding section of Mark's gospel we were left almost breathless. We saw Jesus exercise supernatural power in increasing fashion over wind and wave, demonic oppression, terminal illness, and even death. We saw him undaunted in the face of the most frightening of human circumstances. The witnesses of those events were left in awe and fear. 

In listening to the stories as recounted by Mark we were also struck by the faith, first of the man out of whom Jesus cast the demons, then of the woman with the hemorrhage, and lastly of the ruler of the synagogue. "Do not fear, only believe," are the words left in our minds. Words to live by. Keys to the kingdom. Christ has come to bring in the kingdom, the new age, the world to come, and those are his words to us: "Do not fear, only believe." Those words are the lesson we are to take away from those stories.

But lest we begin to think that nothing could possibly go wrong now, that in the face of this awe-inspiring display of power, this command over all things, both natural and supernatural, faith in Jesus will be embraced by everyone, we are reminded again of the hardness of the human heart. We are reminded of the deceitfulness of sin. We are reminded of unbelief.

Jesus is going home, back to hill country, back to the place where he was raised. Although Mark is not going to call Nazareth by name, we know from the other gospels which town this is. And Jesus is going back now, but he is not the same person they thought they knew when he first left months or years ago. Jesus is going to return as someone who is now famous.

We've already seen where Jesus' family thought he was mad and at one point tried to rescue him from himself. Remember that? Now we're going to see that the people in his hometown reject him, and how Jesus responds.

This is the sermon I preached from this section, my twenty-first from Mark's Gospel. I hope you will take the time to listen to it. Just click the link below and another window will open in your browser where you can stream the audio or download it for later listening. I hope it will be a blessing.

Click here: Mark 6:1-13 - Jesus Rejected, Sends Out the Twelve


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