The Circuit Rider
Mark 6:1–13 NKJV
Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. 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! 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.
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.” Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.
And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts—but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics.
Also He said to them, “In whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place. And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”
So they went out and preached that people should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.
Having served in the United Methodist church before my retirement, I am aware of the Methodist tradition of the circuit rider, where the preacher is the pastor of several churches and goes from church to church on Sunday morning, I have had as many as six churches at one time. But this modern idea of the circuit rider has changed from the original. In the frontier of East Tennessee, a minister often had a much larger territory to cover, mostly on horseback. It was very dangerous work. Often it meant sleeping under the stars or the rain in the long journeys between churches. There were wild animals, and at times very wild people. When the preached got to a settlement, he might lodge in someone’s house or a barn. He would stay a few days. preaching and training a leader to sustain the work after he left. He would baptize, marry, and offer communion. Then it was off to the next settlement. If there was no church there, he might take time to try and start one. The preacher never had a proper home, rarely was married, and had to deal with loneliness. But these preachers were fervent in the Lord, and many churches were established. We have much reason to thank soldiers of the Lord like Francis Asbury as well as John Wesley.
But circuit riding did not start with Wesley. We can see this from the study of this morning’s passage. Jesus Himself was the first circuit rider, In fact the word “circuit” even appears in the text. Jesus went in a circuit to the villages of Galilee preaching and teaching the Kingdom of God. Sometimes, Jesus and His disciples may have been offered lodging. At other times, Jesus, talking to a would-be disciple said that He had no place to lay His head. I use the word “circuit rider”, but perhaps it would be better said “circuit walker as He probably did not have a donkey or horse to ride. He had to deal with the elements as well as the dangers posed by highwaymen. I speak this in a human manner, as Jesus who is the Son of God could have changed the weather at will. At times He did so for the sake of teaching the disciples who He is. The remarkable thing about Jesus is that He chose to endure our hardships.
The text tells us that He was rejected, by His own town, in Nazareth. I say “Nazareth” even though the text does not explicitly say so. There is a possibility that after the death of Joseph that Jesus and His earthly family moved to Capernaum. When he was “at home” in Capernaum, the men with the invalid man dug through the roof of His house. however, the mention of Mary and His brothers and sister fits better with the idea that the mentioned settlement was Nazareth where Jesus had been raised.
We are presented with a problem here in that Luke’s account of Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth seems to occur early in His ministry and this seems in Mark’s context to occur later. How do we reconcile this? I have talked about his before, but it is important to know that there are two different ways to organize narrative, The one is temporal and the second logical. We tend to look at the gospels like we do history in that one event follows another in sequence of time. But there is good reason to believe that logical arrangement is also used where two events separated by time are brought together as the one explains the other. The clearest example of this is the anointing of Jesus for burial. John seems to use temporal arrangement whereas Matthew uses logical because He brings it in conjunction by the plot of Judas to betray Judas, which seems to have occured on Wednesday of Holy Week, But John places the anointing on the evening before the triumphal entry. John connects the anointing of Jesus with the betrayal of Judas be explicitly naming him as the one who was offended. It also says that Judas was a thief. The Lord led Matthew to logically place the anointing next to the act of Judas’ betrayal. Once we understand the two ways that accounts can be arranged, there does not seem to be any difficulty harmonizing the accounts between Luke and Mark.
With a logical arrangement, then the logical connection to be made is with the sending of the disciples on a preaching mission. Jesus’s rejection at Nazareth had come earlier and led Him, so to speak, to shake the dust of Nazareth off His feet. He went out and continued His preaching mission in the other villages of Galilee in a circuit. The example of Jesus’ ministry was to be the example of the disciples’ ministry.
Jesus has said that a prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among His own relatives, and in his own house.” This is all too true for many who become followers of Jesus. They cannot explain the change in the new Christian’s behavior and why that person no longer parties with them. There is also a tendency towards mediocrity in the crown. One who excels above one’s peers often faces ridicule and rejection. Jesus knew of this rejection personally. The words “isn’t he just the son of Mary and the brother to James, Jude, Joses and the other brethren? The framing of the question in Greek expects a negative answer. Of course, there is nothing special about Jesus! He is just a home boy, as we say here in Tennessee. We don’t know where he got all that learnin’ from or why He is doing such miracles. Because they could not believe, they saw almost none of the signs and wonders which he had done in the other villages.
Jesus sent the disciples out by twos so that no one would have to be alone in the mission he was sending them on. This mission was to be a type of mentored ministry in which He would reflect with them after their return. In Matthew’s gospel. Jesus gives a long commissioning address in which he details the trials and persecutions they would face. What we saw from the reflection afterwards was that this trial mission went well. They were amazed at the power they had over demons. Jesus gently corrected their attitude. The most important thing was that their names were written in the book of life. The first mission did produce real events. People repented. Demons were driven out. People were anointed with oil and healed. So, I am not downplaying the importance of this trial mission at all. But what I am saying is that it would not always be so easy. The commissioning address in Matthew and its dangers would come to pass in due time. One should notice that Matthew places the sending of the twelve in context to the death of John the Baptist who was imprisoned and then beheaded for his testimony of Jesus. Mark also mentions the death of John the Baptist afterward but also emphasizes Jesus’ own rejection. The disciples could remember that the inhabitants of Nazareth wanted to cast Jesus off a bluff and then to stone Him.
Mark’s account is considerably shorter than Matthew or Luke, as he often is. But he still mentions that there would be both acceptance as well as rejection. Some villages would receive them and accept the gospel. Others would reject them, and they were to shake off the dust from their feet as a testimony against them.
The words Jesus told the disciples He also tells us. Not everyone is called to the itinerant ministry of the church. There are evangelists, and there are pastor/teachers. The evangelists follow in the tradition of the Apostles in going from village to village, city to city, and country to country. The idea of a circuit is that the gospel is to be proclaimed in a thorough manner. Everyone is to be evangelized. We are to plant new churches, win converts, and provide for their nourishment by establishing local leaders (pastors) to teach others. The pastor/teacher is a nurturer to help teach the local church and care for the local flock. In the old Methodist tradition, this was often done by the Sunday School superintendent. It is this co-operation between the travelling evangelists and local leadership. This passage we are studying this morning is aimed at the work of evangelism and church planters and what they should expect for good or ill. But those who spend their entire lives in a single church are also important to fulfill the Great Commission. This does not mean that ministering in the local community does not pose risks. Jesus’ reception at Nazareth tells us this.
To sum things up, we saw that Jesus is the consummate model for the circuit riding ministry. He came from heaven to earth, as John puts it: “He came unto His own.” The home He left was not Nazareth or Capernaum, although in the flesh He did so. His home was in Heaven and He came to earth, We saw in His ministry that many people received Him gladly. Others rejected Him. In fact, John records the words “His own people accepted Him not. the disciples would go on and see Jesus hung on a cross. But Jesus was fully accepted by the Father. He was raised on the third day and is now at the right hand of the Father. His circuit-riding mission on earth is complete, and He is back home, a home to which we are invited to belong forever when our work on earth is done.
We wait for Jesus’ return and to be clothed in immortality. It is because we have the assurance that our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life that motivates us to undertake the rigors and dangers of ministry. We know that if we lose our earthly lives on earth for the Gospel, that we have a heavenly home awaiting us. We all came from some place on earth. For a season, we called this place “home.” But our true home is reserved for us. We have not seen it other than we glimpse it with the eyes of faith.
May the Lord lead us in our labor and calling. We pray that people will repent, and if it be your will that many mighty works might be done. Grant us boldness and wisdom in our ministry. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
