The Disbelief of Some Will Not Preclude the Healing of Many

Mark 6:1-6; Psalm 48

Communion Sunday

Psalm 48

¹ Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain,

² beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.

³ Within its citadels God has shown himself a sure defense.

⁴ Then the kings assembled, they came on together.

⁵ As soon as they saw it, they were astounded; they were in panic, they took to flight;

⁶ trembling took hold of them there, pains as of a woman in labor,

⁷ as when an east wind shatters the ships of Tarshish.

⁸ As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, which God establishes forever. Selah

⁹ We ponder your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.

¹⁰ Your name, O God, like your praise, reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with victory.

¹¹ Let Mount Zion be glad, let the towns of Judah rejoice because of your judgments.

¹² Walk about Zion, go all around it, count its towers,

¹³ consider well its ramparts; go through its citadels, that you may tell the next generation

¹⁴ that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will be our guide forever.

Mark 6:1-6

He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. ² On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! ³ Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”

And they took offense at him.

⁴ Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” ⁵ And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. ⁶ And he was amazed at their unbelief.

Then he went about among the villages teaching.

The Meditation

How much do you think it bugs Mark to have to spit out the sentence, “And he could do no deed of power there”?

Mark, the lion, is all about Jesus’ power. Even the way Mark talks to us is about Jesus’ power—short, staccato bursts of sentences that roar like a lion.

Matthew and Luke are mellifluous, and John is at times downright elegant, but Mark steps up to the mike like a boxer about to trash-talk his opponent.

“Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded.” Boom!

Normally, just those two sentences would be the complete story for Mark.

But sometimes the word “astounded” does not mean being accepting or supportive. Sometimes amazement is just incomprehension and bafflement.

And most people are not comfortable with incomprehension and bafflement.

They were astounded when they heard Jesus, not just because of the content of his message, but because of the humble, and unassuming, and frankly puzzling origins of the speaker. The Almighty Son of the Most Holy Everlasting Creator God is supposed to appear in a cloud of glory over Jerusalem, and all of a sudden it’s like this guy just came out of Burgaw and started working miracles of healing and power.

They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands!

“Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”

And they took offense at him.

And it would seem Jesus took some offense at them in return. First Mark gives us kind of a snitty sort of comment: Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.”

But then there’s this line that I think must just drive Mark up the wall; you can just see him forcing himself to write these nine words out:

And he could do no deed of power there.

And he was amazed at their unbelief.

Does Jesus need the support and affirmation of the people in order to do his will? Well, I don’t know. I would have said no.

All I know is, when the people scoffed, when they balked at the idea that this guy could do the things he was doing, and so for whatever reason, deeds of power were just not going to be able to be done there, Mark says: he laid his hands on a few sick people, and cured them.

No mass miracle feedings here; no crowds gathering around to spread the news excitedly among each other and out into the country, just a few sick people, touched by his hands and healed.

Do you ever feel like you can’t get the deeds of power done that you mean to, or want to?

I’ve often told the story of my childhood friend Steve Kibler. We were back in our hometown sitting at the same table at the wedding reception of one of our circle of friends, and this was kind of in that time in your mid-20s when people are starting to find their place in life. Having scattered to the four winds after high school, all the old gang had graduated college or done whatever they were going to do in the way of career preparation, and were moving a little more purposefully toward our various callings.

Steve, I knew, was going into architecture. He had no idea what I was gong to do, as I myself hadn’t really known all the way through college; I certainly had no clue when we were in school together.

And Steve said, “Grogg, what are you doing now?”

And I said, “I’m in seminary.”

He said, “Seminary?”

And I said, “Yeah, seminary.”

And he said, “What, you mean, to be a minister?”

And I said, “Yeah.”

And he said, and I quote: “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”

And I could do no deed of power there.

But even when the people around you know who you are, and accept you, and affirm you, sometimes circumstances conspire and, try as you might, plan and prepare and pray and focus as you might, you can’t seem to get it done.

And even Mark himself may be behind you, going, “Come on, man! Let’s do this! Let’s just get in there and just, BOOM!, just make it happen!”

But it doesn’t happen.

When Jesus was in his hometown, and it just wasn’t going to happen, and he was amazed at their unbelief, he did what seems to have come so naturally to him.

He laid hands on a few sick people, and cured them.

Quietly, with determination but without fanfare, you can still bring some healing to the people around you who need it.

Sometimes we won’t come marching into Zion. Sometimes that shining city with its majestic ramparts will be a long way away from the everyday world that surrounds you.

But you can still be who you are, who God created you to be; and you can still do what God put you here to do.

You can bring some healing. You can teach what you know about the God who never gives up on you or on the world.

The fact that there are those who will not believe does not need to have any bearing on your determination to bring light into dark places, to bring reconciliation where differences seem irreconcilable, to love those who will fail to love you in return, to live for peace and hope and justice in the face of a world that wants to revel in violence and domination and death.

You can tell the people of Nazareth, and you can remember it yourself, when you begin to wonder why in the world you keep doing what you do to demonstrate what life is supposed to be like in the kingdom of God:

the disbelief of some will not preclude the healing of many. And it starts with the people around you who need your ministry of love and kindness in the name of Jesus Christ now more than ever.

At this table, we find our nourishment.