The Circuit Rider

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.