"Without Honor"

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph, and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” And 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. And he went about among the villages teaching.”(Mark 6:3-6 ESV)

Sometimes, when we read a passage of Scripture, we forget to look at what came just before it, as in this passage in Mark. Remember back in chapter 4, where Jesus stilled the storm on the Sea of Galilee with three little words, “Hush, Be Still!”, showing His complete control over everything. He demonstrated His authority on earth by controlling that which He had created. Then in chapter 5 we saw the woman with the issue of blood being healed by “her faith” simply by allowing her faith (being persuaded) to seek the only one who could heal (both physically and spiritually), and then Jesus continue to the house of Jairus to raise his daughter from the dead, all of this was in his home region of Nazareth, where he grew up, where His brothers and sisters lived, where the community knew Him since He was a child. These people knew the human side of Jesus but refused to be “persuaded” concerning His deity.

We continually see the dual nature of our Savior, 100% human and 100% God. I cannot explain the dual nature of Jesus in human terms; I have chosen to be persuaded that it is true because that is what we read in the Scriptures. Remember what the Apostle John wrote in his gospel account of the ministries of Jesus in John 20:31, “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” God has given us the accounts of Jesus’ life and teachings recorded in the Bible to persuade us that Jesus is the Son of God and that by having this faith (being persuaded) in Him, we may have eternal life.

Jesus performed physical miracles so that people would believe His message of repentance and faith. The message about how they could be forgiven by God the Father. These people grew up trying to follow the teachings God had given them in the Torah (the Law), and they had gotten it completely wrong. The religious leaders of the time were telling people that their outward actions would secure God’s favor, mercy, and forgiveness. If they kept the 613 Laws that God had given to Moses, along with their thousands of oral traditions, they would be justified before God. Jesus taught just the opposite. Remember when Jesus said in Matthew 5, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” [Emphasis mine]. Jesus taught that the religious leaders’ teaching was all wrong. Instead of looking at the outward appearance of a person, God looks at their heart, not what they show to the world, but what they show to God alone. 

This verse in Mark 6 breaks my heart, where it says that “… he marveled because of their unbelief.” In the Greek the word that is translated ‘amazed or marveled’, could also be translated “astonished”, and I think that is the view we should take here. Jesus was astonished that these people refused to believe in Him as the promised Messiah.  Honestly, what else could He have done to prove to them that His words were true? What other miracles, besides controlling nature itself, healing a woman who no one else could heal, bringing Jairius’ daughter back to life, what would it take to persuade these people that there is eternal life in no other but Jesus, the Son of God?

Did you notice in verse 5 we also read, “And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.” Jesus wanted to continue performing miracles to convince as many as possible that His words were directly from God and to prove that He and the Father were one. But their disbelief prevented Him from doing other miracles there. Jesus was “astonished” at the level of their unbelief. It broke his heart; many times, Jesus wept over the nation of Israel and the level of their unbelief that was keeping them from eternal life.

Now, my friend, let me shift the focus a bit from “those” people to “us” and ask: what’s changed? These people saw Jesus demonstrate His deity and that everything is under His control, but refused to believe His message. For many years, some of you have heard of the works and miracles Jesus did, but you refuse to believe His message of Salvation by grace through faith in the living Son of God. What else will it take for you to be convinced? Are you waiting for God to perform some physical miracle just for you? Are you waiting for God to bend to your demands, for God to answer every possible objection that your human mind can imagine?

Remember, verse 5 states, “And he could do no mighty work there,” because of their unbelief. God has given all of us ample rock-solid evidence that believing in Jesus is the only way to life eternal; He is the only way to the Father. Please don’t put yourself in the place of these people who knew all about Jesus but refused to be persuaded that His words of life were true. Open your mind, open your heart, receive the gift that God is offering. Scripture tells us, “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Don’t let it be said of you, ‘That Jesus is marveled at your unbelief!’

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"