Mark 6: 1 – 6
Truth Or Consequences
Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. 2 And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! 3 Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him. 4 But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” 5 Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.
In counseling sessions I usually ask the person or couple if they would like my honest truthful interpretation of what they are experiencing in their difficulties, or should I sugar coat my answer to make it more pleasing to them? What would you answer to this question of mine? Do you want the truth or would you like to hear a bunch of garbage that sounds good but in reality is really not true? If you do not want the truth then you might not like the ultimate consequences.
Why would I start off by making this point? It is because of this reason. I grew up in a so called ‘Christian’ church who fed me lies, one major one being, that our Lord Jesus Christ was the only child of Mary and Joseph. Have I got your attention now?
We will see from the Word of God that our Lord Jesus was born of a virgin but after Mary had given birth to the Son of God, she had marital relationship with her earthly husband Joseph.
Besides the information that Mark has given us here from the knowledge of the apostle Peter, we also find that the apostle Matthew has also commented on this truth.
Matthew 13:53-58, “53 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. 54 When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” 57 So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” 58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
This is not the first time our Lord had visited the town that He grew up in, we read about His first visit in Luke’s Gospel in chapter 4, “16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” 20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’” 24 Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; 26 but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. 30 Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.’
You see the last time the people were so angry at Him that they wanted to kill Him because He who had grown up in their town was now proclaiming that He was the Promised Messiah.
I do not know about you but I see again how Great our Master Is. He Is persistent. Even though the people He had known since His childhood, He still wanted to reach them. Did He not do the same thing for you and me. How many times did He call to you and ask you to respond to His love and turn to Him as your Lord and Savior? Thank you Lord Jesus for not giving up on us.
Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him.
Word had gotten out at the amazing things the Lord Jesus was doing throughout Israel. Perhaps now some of His townsfolk would soften up and begin to think that He Is exactly Who He had claimed He Was when He taught from the scroll of Isaiah.
2 And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands!
Today I am amazed at how blind we are as sinful humans. I have come to realize that there are two types of sight – spiritual and physical. I rehash over and over in my mind the incident when our Lord Jesus opened the eyes of the blind man in which the apostle John wrote about in chapter 9 of his Gospel, “9 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. 7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing. 8 Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind[b] said, “Is not this he who sat and begged?” 9 Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.” He said, “I am he.” 10 Therefore they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered and said, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.” 12 Then they said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.” The Pharisees Excommunicate the Healed Man 13 They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 They said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” 18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. 19 And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” 24 So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.” 25 He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 Then they said to him again, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?” 28 Then they reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. 29 We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.” 30 The man answered and said to them, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! 31 Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. 32 Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. 33 If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.” 34 They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” 36 He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” 37 And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” 38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him. 39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” 40 Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.”
What great words that was said by the blind man – ‘I was blind, but now I see.’ The sad part is that we do not know that we cannot see. It isn’t until our Lord opens our eyes that we see things differently. Think about yourselves, do you see things differently now than before you asked Jesus into your heart? If you don’t, then I would suggest you examine yourselves whether you really have Christ Jesus in your hearts. There are many people who profess that they are Christians but do not ‘possess’ the Lord in their lives. I say this not to hurt your feelings but to help you do your own inventory, because your eternity is at stake here.
Can you not see now how blind the people of Nazareth are? They recognize that there is something very unique about the results of the Lord’s ministry but based on their bias thinking they refuse to consider that He Is actually the Messiah.
3 Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him.
Boy, I tell you what, Mary and Joseph really became affectionate toward one another after our Lord was born. I give a lot of credit to Joseph. He had a beautiful young wife but was obedient to our Holy Spirits command not to touch Mary until after the Lord was born. After the birth of our Righteous King and receiving the okay from The Holy Ghost, well, you can see they were very active.
Mary and Joseph had four sons and as you can see at least two daughters.
We read this in chapter 7 regarding how all the brothers didn’t believe in their Wonderful older brother, “5 For even His brothers did not believe in Him.”
Two brother stand out in turning from unbelievers to followers – James and Judas. James gave our Lord a hard time with his unbelief. In the Gospel of John we read how he to a large extent mocked the Lord. He along with his brothers gave the Lord a hard time about His claim as being the Messiah. In chapter 7 of John we read, “7 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. 2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. 3 His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” 5 For even His brothers did not believe in Him. 6 Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come.” 9 When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.”
We read that James later became a believer when our Lord personally visited him after his resurrection as we learn;
Acts 1:14, “14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.”
1 Corinthians 15:7, “7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.”
Now for another truth that might shock you. You see Peter was not the first Pope nor was he the first church leader. In fact we read that James became the first leader of the church as we read about.
Acts 15:13, “13 And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, “Men and brethren, listen to me.”
Galatians 1:19, “19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother”
Judas later changed his name and I am sure if you had the same name as the ‘traitor’, you would also. He was the one who wrote the little book of Jude.
4 But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.”
My heart really goes out to the prophets. Boy did they go through difficult times in the service to El Shaddai – Almighty God. We read of the prophet Jeremiah rejection by his family in chapter 12 of his book, 5 “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,
Then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, In which you trusted, they wearied you, Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan? 6 For even your brothers, the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; Yes, they have called a multitude after you. Do not believe them, even though they speak smooth words to you.”
5 Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.
In the book of Hebrews we read this in chapter 11, “6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Please seek Him while you still have the chance.
