Of All the People in the Whole World . . .

Pentecost 7

July 12, 2015

Mark 6:1-6

Of All the People in the Whole World . . .

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Of all the people in the whole world, they should have listened to Him. They had known Him their whole lives. He was a good son. He obeyed Mary and Joseph. He was a good man, respected and favored by those who knew Him. Luke tells us exactly that after the twelve-year old Jesus came home with Joseph and Mary:

Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:51-52)

Of all the people in the whole world, they should have listened to Him. But they did the opposite: they were offended by Him and rejected Him. Why?

Because they only looked at the outside. They only looked at the things they could count and record and observe. He was a carpenter. He was from an ordinary family, perhaps even a poor lowly family. (His cousin was John the Forerunner, but he was far away and probably in jail by this time. And if people did know about John, they perhaps viewed him as a troublemaker.)

And this is all the mattered to them. They observed His wise words and said that He was wise. They acknowledged this. But that didn't matter. Just what was on the outside.

We look back and are offended by their collective rejection of Jesus. But consider that Jesus knew them all by name. He grew up with them and cared for them. Of all the people in the whole world, they should have listened to Him. But they plugged their ears instead.

And Jesus, who is truly and fully a man, is astonished at their unbelief.

We share His astonishment when those who should know Jesus best, plug up their ears. We know many who have grown up going to church and praying with their parents at home, who now abandon what Christ has given them.

And then there are the young people who walk away from Christ and His body and blood.

And then there is us, who all too often doubt Jesus and His promises. In our lives we all too often focus on the outward appearance of things. Astonishing, after all the gifts that Jesus gives us.

So where does this leave us? Well, He doesn't. It's almost funny how Mark concludes this incident by saying that Jesus didn't do any miracles there. But He did.

He could not do any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them. (Mark 6:5)

All our doubt. All our unbelief. All our trust in what we can see. Jesus has compassion on us and remains with us. Where does He leave us? He leaves us with His Word.

He refused to do lots of miracles there, because His hometown crowd would have missed the point. They would have trusted in the power that they could see, and still refuse to trust Christ at His Word. So He refused to do miracles there (but in His mercy still healed some).

Of all the people in the whole world, the Nazarenes should have listened to Jesus and ignored what they could see, because they grew up with Him.

We grew up with Jesus, too. And like the Nazarenes, we are often ignore what He says to us and fixate only on what we can see. It is only by His grace through the Gospel Sacraments that we don't drive Him away. It is only by His grace that we are drawn again and again to receive His Word. Of all the people in the whole world, we are truly blessed.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. Alleluia! Amen!