When rejected at home, Jesus expands His outreach

Mark 6:01-13

 

          Last week we talked about faith – faith expressed in two different ways.  To the woman who touched the garment of Jesus He said, “your faith has made you whole.”  To Jairus, at the news that his daughter had died, He said, “don’t fear, keep believing.”

          This week we meet an entirely opposite quality – lack of faith.  And it appears in one of the strangest places, Jesus’ hometown.  You would expect that if anyone would want to believe in Him, it would be His neighbors and friends.  But they are part of what we are going to see growing – a national swing to unbelief.  This passage contains three counts of rejection, not only Jesus going back to Nazareth and being dismissed as nothing more than a carpenter with false Messianic pretentions, but His disciples going to city after city and being rejected, and even His predecessor, John the Baptist, finally receiving what the leadership thought his due, beheading.

          I want to treat the first two counts of rejection today, and I want us to approach it from the perspective of “how does God treat rejection?”  By “God” here I mean Jesus on earth, not God as the final judge in heaven.  How did God on earth respond to rejection?  Here are three statements that I think Jesus would make, that come out of His actions.

 

I.  “Forgive them and give them another chance.”

1 Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. 2 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! 3 "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?" And they were offended at Him. 4 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."

          A.  Jesus had been rejected at Nazareth before.  Do you remember His first recorded trip to Nazareth?  It’s in Luke 4.  He enters the Synagogue at the beginning of His ministry, stands up to read, and is handed the scroll of Isaiah.  He reads Isaiah 61:1-2 and then says, “today this Scripture is being fulfilled.”  He then says a few other things that don’t sit well with the established leadership, and by the end of His sermon they try to kill Him.  They take Him to a cliff and try to push Him over.  How’s that for community relations?  How’s that for a quick eviction notice?

          Now a year later, He comes back to the same Synagogue.  And what happens?  His teaching produces a high level of astonishment because the attenders can’t get over two things, what He has done, and the  wisdom with which He spoke.  Yet their response is still negative.  “Isn’t this the carpenter?”  They couldn’t seem to move Him out of the category of “carpenter.”  “Carpenter” is a slam – when you are God.  It’s as if they are saying, “you’re trying to tell us by your wisdom and works that you are a prophet.”  “But we have you figured out; you ain’t nothing but a carpenter.  You may have learned a few sound bites so that you can speak in ways that look like wisdom, but you have never been to divinity school, and you may be able to pull off healings that look pretty impressive, but you ain’t nothing but a carpenter. 

          Besides we know your family.  We know your brothers and sisters, and mother and dad.  And your dad wasn’t a prophet, nor your brothers or sisters.  You are not the son of a prophet.  You’re the son of a carpenter, and you ain’t nothing but a carpenter.

          Rejection.  Unwillingness to acknowledge Who He is.  Have you ever felt the pain of rejection?  It is hard to swallow.  Some people never get over it.  But imagine rejecting GOD!  Even as a carpenter He must have been awesome.  In order to reject Him you have to ignore almost everything He said and did.

 

          B.  Jesus forgave them for attempted murder.  How do you deal with rejection?  The worst thing you can say is, “I can’t forgive that person, or those people.”  Why?  Because of what lack of forgiveness does to you.  It affects you.  The truth is that we need the forgiveness as much as the person who offended us does. 

          Tom was a husky 22-year-old husband and father with a serious problem.  He had an angry manner that affected his job, he would brood for long periods of time, he was short-tempered with his two small children.  He went to a psychotherapist who got nowhere after 8 months.  He realized that Tom’s problem had started with his alcoholic father who had belittled him in front of family and friends.  One night Tom spoke with his pastor who suggested he try to forgive his father.  Together they knelt and prayed.  The next day he went to see his father and said, “Dad, last night I asked God to help me forgive you.  It think maybe it worked.”  His father began to cry and embraced him.

          The transformation that occurred over the next several months was amazing.  He enrolled in a computer class and got the highest grades.  He became a gentle, caring father.  What had happened?  He obeyed God instead of his feelings.  And he was released from his feelings by his forgiveness.  Forgiveness is a paradox, because it feels contradictory to our self-interest to let go of wrongs.  But the only way to get free from the power of those wrongs is to forgive. 

          That is the only way Jesus could have come back to Nazareth – after having forgiven them.  Think about how He could honestly face people He knew had tried to push Him over the cliff.  Don’t you think that as He looked out at brother Benjamin over there in the Synagogue, and He knew that it was Benjamin’s hands He felt trying to get Him over the cliff last year, He would have experienced some kind of emotional anger?  The only way you and I can get free from anger and bitterness is to forgive.  You “send it away.”  That’s the definition of forgiveness – to send the infraction away. 

          When you forgive someone you look them in the eyes, if you are close enough, you list the infraction/s they are guilty of, and then you say “I forgive you; I send it all away; you are free.”  If you are not close enough, write down all the things they have done, all the things you wake up at night thinking about, and then forgiven them by ripping up the paper and burning it.  And any time you start thinking about it again, remind yourself that you have forgiven them, and send it away again.

          That’s the way Jesus came back.  He had forgiven them, and in His love for them He returns seeking their repentance that He might forgive them for every one of their sins.  Think of the attitude displayed in Jesus’ response, when He speaks “to them” in verse 4.  “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house."  He is not speaking to them in anger.  It’s not, “you bunch of rebellious snakes.  You tried to kill Me last time I was here.”  It’s almost as if Jesus is suggesting a reason for their rejection, even a partial excuse for their behavior.  The statement suggests that He understands the difficulty of accepting one of your own, the difficulty of acknowledging the God-chosen specialness of someone you have grown up with.  That doesn’t excuse them for their sin, but it does acknowledge that the stakes were higher, probably because of their greater privilege of growing up with Him.

          The point here is that they, for the second time, in spite of His forgiveness, judged Him unworthy of their fair city.  What does that say about Jesus?  Nothing.  But it says much about the people of Nazareth.  Warren Wiersbe tells the story of the tourist, eager to see everything in the famous art gallery to almost ran from picture to picture, scarcely noticing what was in the frames.  “I didn’t see anything very special here,” he said to one of the guards as he left.  “Sir,” the guard replied, “it is not the pictures that are on trial here – it is the visitors” (Mark, 59).  It wasn’t Jesus on trial as He came back to Nazareth, even though they thought it was.  Nazareth was on trial.

          Why forgive and give them another chance?  Because of what it does for us as well as them.  God is teaching us something through this difficulty.

 

          C.  We should expect misunderstanding.  When someone is filled with the Holy Spirit and living and working whole heartedly for Jesus Christ, not even nominal Christians understand him, much less unbelievers.  As someone has said, “we’ve had the sub-normal for so long pictured as the normal, that when we see the normal we mistake it for the abnormal.”  If our Master was misunderstood, and we want to be like Him, guess what the implications are.  It was in John 15:20 that our Master said, “remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”

          We’ve been blessed to live in a country where Christianity is somewhat respected.  But that’s not true in much of the world.  Naming the Name of Christ marks you, sometimes for death.

          Think about how many prophets and apostles were rejected in the Bible.  The Apostle Paul was rejected by the church at Corinth.  He had led them to the Lord, they were the product of his sacrifice, and they turned against him!  Joseph was rejected by his own brothers.  King David was rejected by his people and had to leave Jerusalem.  The Bible is filled with examples of people who are rejected for the very reason that they are doing right.

          If you are doing right and are rejected, the command in Scripture is to rejoice!  Get happy.  Get excited because you are being rejected for the right reasons! 

          Matthew 5:11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (NIV). 

          If you are being insulted because you are doing something wrong, then don’t get happy about it, get your act together.  Any insult, any rejection is an opportunity to go to the Lord and ask Him whether you have in any way caused what you have received.  If you have caused it, you need to confess that. 

          What do you do when you apologize for doing wrong?  (1) you look the person in the eyes; (2) you tell them exactly what you did.  Don’t say, “if I have offended you.” That’s a weasel phrase.  (3) admit you were wrong; (4) ask them to forgive you, and (5) thank them. 

          On the other hand, if you have not caused the rejection, rejoice in the fact that you are doing right.  I Peter 4:14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.

          So what have I said?  (1) Jesus went back to the very people who had tried to kill Him for the purpose of helping them repent and get right with God; (2) the only way He could have honestly returned is if He had forgiven them for their previous deeds; and (3) God wants to teach us to expect misunderstanding, because it is good for us.  We are in fact to rejoice in it.

          Chuck Colson tells the amazing story of Cathleen Crowell Webb, who was picked up by the police as a frightened, confused 16-year-old.  Her blouse was ripped, her face smudged with tears as she sobbed out her story.  She had been raped.

          Police later arrested Gary Dotson, a young man who matched Cathleen’s description.  Primarily on the basis of her testimony he was convicted and sentenced to 20 to 25 years in prison.

          Six years later Cathleen came back to a Chicago courtroom to recant her testimony, admitting that she had made up the rape story because of fear that she was pregnant by a boyfriend and she didn’t want her foster parents to find out.  As a result, Dotson was released on bond and a new hearing was scheduled.

          At the hearing, however, the judge announced that the original conviction would stand.  He didn’t believe Cathleen’s new testimony.  Her testimony had clearly stated that she had found Christ as her Savior and the Lord had convicted her that she needed to make this false conviction right.

          Colson asks why it is that people don’t believe that others have changed.  Why is it that people see religion as a way out of a problem?  His answer is, “because they have never seen or experienced that kind of change.”  He states, “for those who have not experienced the One who transforms lives, what happened to Cathleen Webb is inexplicable.  One cannot believe in conversion without also believing in the Converter” (Moody Monthly, 9/85, 14).

          Have you ever accepted the fact that you will be misunderstood for trying to do right as a Christian?  Why should we as Christ’s disciples receive treatment that is any better than that of our Leader?

 

The second statement God would make about rejection:

II.  “Keep loving and serving others.”

5 Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.

 

          A.  There are two levels of love and service.  The fact that Nazareth rejected Him did not mean that everyone rejected Him.  The fact that your boss rejects you does not mean that your ministry is gone.  There are still needy individuals all around you.  And Jesus kept going about His work, traveling to different villages in a circuit.

          God always uses you on two levels.  Your job is always on two levels, your neighborhood is always on two levels, your church is always on two levels – the community, and the individual; the organization, and the individual; the church as a whole, and the individual; the leadership, and the individual. 

          Sometimes you would like to influence the larger group, but you can only do that through individuals.  Sometimes the larger group repents.  Jonah experienced that with Nineveh.  Not so in Nazareth.  But in spite of the city-wide rejection, there were individuals who responded.  The two levels gave opposite responses.  But Jesus’ ministry didn’t change.  He continued ministering, healing, casting out demons and preaching repentance.

 

          B.  There are some things you can’t do.  Do what you can and don’t worry about the other.  You can’t make people repent or love you.  That’s the Holy Spirit’s job.  But notice Mark’s remark that even Jesus “could do no mighty work there!”  Isn’t that striking?  Didn’t He do mighty works because of His own power and initiative?  He could do whatever He wanted to do.  How could anyone hinder the mighty progress of the kingdom of God?  How could the response of people have an effect on what He could do?

          “It is a strange expression, as if unbelief tied the hands of omnipotence itself; he would have done as many miracles there as he had done elsewhere, but he could not, because people would not make application to him, nor sue for his favours; he could have wrought them, but they forfeited the honor of having them wrought for them” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, 484).

          I’m sure you have heard the charge, “if your God is almighty, he isn’t good.”  If He is all powerful, how come the bombs, and murderers, and child abusers, and rats and wars, and suffering the world over?  The converse is, “if God is good, then He obviously isn’t almighty.”  He hasn’t made this world good; He hasn’t succeeded in His good plan.  We seem to face a dilemma; we either have to “rescue” God’s power a the expense of His love, or we have to ”rescue” His love at the expense of His power.” 

          That’s sort of the same dilemma the Jews faced in the presence of Christ.  They were waiting for a Messiah full of power, and they could take pure power that may be lacking in love.  But they could not tolerate love that was lacking in power.  As they nailed Him to the cross, the charges surrounded the cross scorn His apparent weakness.  ‘If thou be the Son of God, come down!’  And one of the criminals shouted to him, ‘If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us.’  And the scribes called out their conclusion, “He saved others, himself he cannot save.”  So true.  Love appears so weak at times (Scherer, 172). 

          And yet it is that love in all its weakness that can get in where power is barred at the door.  It’s the mother who can’t force her teenage son, who moves him by her love.  It’s the child who influences others by his love and sacrifice.  Paul Scherer says, “It is not God’s might we need to ponder.  We need to ponder his weakness.” (Scherer, 173-174).  How could God be weak?  How could Jesus do no mighty works?

          Think about the quiet, almost weak kinds of responses that have influenced you.  Last year I mentioned an experience I had in 1992 when traveling through Romania on a train.  I had gotten off at the wrong station, three hours early.  I was trying to call my friend and couldn’t get the phone to work.  A young girl came up to me and offered to help.  She called her Korean boy friend and they got the phone to work, and then listened in to my conversation and told me that I was not where I thought I was.  I thought I was in Oradea.  They said, “no, you are in Klug, 3 hours away.”  They helped me call back.  They had my ticket changed so I could leave the next morning; they wouldn’t let me stay in the station because of thieves; they invited me to stay in their dorm room, they secured a hotel room for me across the street.  All done for a stranger in need.  That was 15 years ago now.  I can still see the girl and her boyfriend standing there. 

          Last week we were in Williamsburg eating breakfast.  Our waiter had an Eastern European accent and I asked him where he came from.  He said, Romania.  So we talked awhile, and then I asked him what city, and he said, “Klug.”  I told him my story and then left him a $10 tip.  I thought it was time to pay back my unknown friends who did what they could do.  They were busy medical students.  But they chose to stop. I will never forget their graciousness to me.

          Love can always find someone who needs help.

 

III.  Make the issue as clear as possible.

          When the world rejects the gospel, what the world needs more than anything else – is the gospel.  Rejection of one Christ brings about the opportunity to reject 12 “christs,” or 6 pairs of “christs.”  Why send out 12 disciples?  To make the issue of national repentance as clear as possible.  Nazareth is a microcosm of the entire nation.  There is the chance that the cities have misunderstood what the issue is, what the kingdom of God means, what Messiah is here for.  Let’s send out six more groups to repeat the message.

          7 And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. 8 He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts – 9 but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics. 10 Also He said to them, "In whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place. 11 "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!" 12 So they went out and preached that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.

 

          Jesus sent His disciples to do what He was doing.  And what was He doing?  What was involved in making the issue clear?  What did Israel need to know to make a wise choice? 

 

          A.  Authority.  They needed to see the authority of the Kingdom of God.  Jesus gave His disciples power over unclean spirits, the very same power He possessed, to free humans from demoniacal possession and to heal them from all ailments.  He alone possessed that power, and the fact that He could grant it to His disciples, demonstrated His deity.  Jesus GRANTS them authority.  It didn’t come because they requested it or prayed for long hours.  This was a necessary component of their ministry.  They had to have this kind of authority in order to make the issue clear.  Because of this power Jesus could say to them in Matthew 10:40, “the way people respond to you is identical to the way they respond to Me.”  They were to use their power to clean out the hospitals, clean out the funeral homes, clean out the psychiatrists offices, and announce that the Kingdom of God had arrived, and people had to prepare by repenting.

 

          B.  Participation.  People in the cities had to reach out and help these disciples.  The interesting thing is that these men with omnipotent power came with obvious needs.  Jesus commands them to travel light.  He says, in verse 8, to “take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts – 9 but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics.”  “No bag” for extra things; “no bread” or extra food, “no copper” means no money, “sandals” means basic transportation shoes, and only one tunic means no change of clothes.  “Take nothing for the journey” means, “go unprepared.” 

          Why?  To place a responsibility on the people in the cities.  They were required by the condition of the disciples, to care for them.  The directions limited the disciples, so that rather than entering the city as the “know-it-all,” “have-it-all,” “solution-to-all” fix-it guys, they could only minister as they were being ministered to. They couldn’t sell their power; they gave it out wherever they were wanted.

 

          C.  Accountability.  They weren’t there just to improve the infrastructure of the cities.  They were there to get a response.  Their message was a command to repent.  The King was here, and He was here to rule.  But His rule was going to be over those who voluntarily submitted.  And they did not have forever.