Billy lived in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. She was born in a sod shack to pioneer parents, had less than a high school education and spent her entire life in the local area, she hated to travel – yet at least twice every year, a team from Gourmet magazine and Bon Appetit magazine would arrive at her home to cook a fantastic feast with her and talk about cooking. Billy was an unbelievably phenomenal cook. Her lamb roasts: tender, succulent, delicious – oh they were good; Her soups and stews: Irresistible; Her desserts: Something to savor. She could take the most ordinary everyday item and make it extraordinary. Billy had this innate understanding of how to take simple everyday flavors and make them, pop.
I remember arriving on a pastoral visit. We sat in the living room to talk and there was this plate in front of me, piled high with chocolate chip cookies. We were chatting and at some point I took one of those cookies and…wow! This cookie was…breath taking, I was stunned. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember what in the world we were even talking about. I had never tasted a chocolate chip cookie like this before, and have not since. Billy was just laughing, “I always get the same reaction with those cookies”. The cookies were the tip of the iceberg, his woman was pure genius.
What I found so curious was this: She was very well known in town; Many had tasted her fabulous food – and no one seemed to care. Why was it that experts in gourmet cooking would travel over one thousand miles just for the opportunity to cook with her, but to a neighbor down the street, she was just, Billy? Was it cluelessness, jealousy, familiarity? Maybe a little of each, but I can tell you this: No matter what any of her neighbors thought of her, Billy was by far, the best cook in town, and possibly the state.
When we look at our Scripture this morning we see that Jesus is rejected by those in his hometown. They grew up with him and as we read this passage it is obvious to us that their familiarity was a roadblock to their faith in Him; because they thought they knew all about Jesus, they had difficulty believing in Him – we’ll take a look at this, how familiarity with God can cause us unbelief - but, that is only the first level of understanding in this passage, there is something more, there is something deeper, something that stopped their faith cold, something that literally stopped the blessings of God from entering their life – and unfortunately, the thing that cursed the people in Jesus hometown, curses us as well today.
Let us look into our Scripture today and then take a serious look at our own lives – could it be that we are living just like the people in Jesus day, could it be that we are so familiar with Jesus that we dismiss his authority and perpetuate the dominance of evil in our lives? The short answer is yes, absolutely, and without a doubt, we can.
We all know the old saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt”, Mark Twain had some additional insight on this, he said, “Familiarity breeds contempt; and children.”
As we look at the first part of our Scripture it is very hard for us as Americans to understand the full impact of what is being said here. Our reading in English gives the impression that the people in Jesus home town are amazed at Jesus’ words, but since he is a friend and neighbor, the guy down the street, it is hard for them to get past the fact that he was, to them, an ordinary guy. When we read this in the English text it may sound like the people of Nazareth are scratching their heads, mulling over things, not really able to put two and two together– but this is far from the case. Looking at the Greek with the Hebrew culture behind it we see something very, very different - the people of the town are out right hostel and disparaging to Jesus.
By the way, this is a good point in the sermon to have your bible open, if you don’t have it open already, so you can follow along and catch the nuances of what Mark is trying to communicate to us this morning.
So, when we look at the first part of this passage we see the contempt that the local folks have of Jesus. Right there in verse 2 we see that the people were amazed at his teaching. This in itself is nothing out of the ordinary, we read in John 7:46 that the temple guards were impressed with Jesus teaching, ‘“No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards declared”’ and you can be sure that those guards had heard a lot of teaching, you can be sure they heard the best and brightest speakers of the day. But here the amazement spoken of is not of wonder in the sense that the guards were talking about: This is great stuff, no, it is of shocked disbelief.
For the people f the town it is a surreal moment. They are thinking: Can these words be coming out of this man’s mouth? There is no possible way this Jesus could come up with this on his own, it had to be given to him. So they start discussing among themselves, “Where did this man get these things?” “What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles!” They feel his wisdom had to be given to him because they see Jesus as a simpleton, we see this in verse 3. Now we read in the Greek with the Hebrew culture behind it, two slurs against Jesus: Verse three: First insult: 3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Now, this is not descriptive, it is derogatory, it means this: Is Jesus not a common laborer? Is he not an uneducated low level worker – where in the world does he get the gall, to pretend to teach us the meaning of the Scriptures? Who does he think he is? The people are filled with contempt, they see Jesus as attempting to know more than they do, and in their minds, there is absolutely no way this is possible, no way possible. Because Jesus doesn’t have the proper education and because he is clearly of the low working class, His teaching, they feel, does not have authority over them.
Second insult: Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” Now it is contrary usage for a Hebrew to describe a man as the son of his mother. This was only said when one was insinuating the illegitimacy of a person’s birth. By speaking in this way of Jesus, they are in effect, claiming that Jesus was an illegitimate child, and since he is an illegitimate child, there is no possible way that Jesus has the authority to teach them, because, in their minds, God would never use a person who had an illegitimate birth.
See this conversation they are having isn’t a conversation about a local boy making good, rather, it is a conversation about the audacity of a local boy. Really, they are saying the exact same thing we saw the teachers of the law say a couple of chapters ago, Jesus is in league with the devil. This is how their logic flows: Since Jesus was a working class guy, without a formal theological education, he had to get his wisdom from someplace, since he couldn’t have made it up on his own. He couldn’t have received his wisdom from God because he had an illegitimate birth, God wouldn’t work through an illegitimate birth, so where else could he receive his wisdom……Maybe, Satan!
When Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas was judge of the Appeals Court in Washington, he drove his car one morning out of the courthouse parking lot. As judge Thomas was waiting for an opening in the traffic a man open the back door of the car and climb in. He gave the judge an address and asked him to hurry. See, this guy saw a black driver in a luxury automobile, and assumed the car to be a limousine available for hire. This man knew how his world worked, he saw a black man in a nice car and assumed he was a working class Joe, when in reality Clarence Thomas was one of the most powerful men in the country. This is the same way, here in this passage, the people of Nazareth see Jesus, as a working class hack, but in reality, Jesus is the God of the universe.
All I can say is, I bet Thomas locked his doors after that experience.
Though the people of the town see the evidence right before them in Jesus’ teaching and in Jesus’ mighty works, there was a line that they could not cross. It is the same for us, we know about Jesus, we know of his greatness, we know without a doubt, that there is something special about him, maybe we have even seen Jesus work impossible things in our lives, but, for all of us there is a line that is very difficult for us to cross – and that line is the authority of Jesus in our lives. The underlying issue that is driving these people toward unbelief is, what is the authority in their lives?
Notice, they do not question Jesus’ words, they do not question his wisdom, nor do they question his works, what they question is the source. They question his authority. They have a “Question Authority” bumper sticker on their oxcart, and they are offended. They are not puzzled, scratching their heads – they are ticked off. They are offended not because he wasn’t right, but because they did not trust his authority. You know what they say, an expert is anyone who lives more than 50 miles away. Jesus puts it this way in verse 4, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.”
In Seminary we had the privilege of working under a professor who was considered one of the world’s greatest authorities on the book of Psalms. Our professor was a wonderful teacher with amazing insight into the Scriptures, he was quite impressive. Well, one year we had a new neighbor move in next door to us and this guy was from the professor’s hometown and was best friends with the professor’s son. Well, before you know it, the professor is spending a great amount of time next door with our neighbor. Steve and his family would cook BBQ with the professor, play video games, watch a lot of NASCAR and wrestling on the TV. (they were Southerners) they seemed to always be doing something together. We were over our neighbors next door a lot and fairly soon the professor, became Jim. We became so familiar with this professor, that when we were in class with him, it was difficult to remember that Jim was the professor. It was difficult to remember that he was this great authority standing before us.
Here is our Scripture this morning, we see that the disapproval Jesus from the people of the town leads them to unbelief, a strong unbelief. Because the people of the town are not able to see that Jesus is the authority they place a curse upon themselves. Remember we have seen in the book of Mark that Jesus is the authority, period, when it comes to matters in our lives – when Jesus tells the woman who is committing adultery to stop committing adultery, He is not only speaking to her, He is speaking to us as well, and as Christians, Jesus is the final authority. It doesn’t matter what anyone else tells us on the issue of adultery, it doesn’t matter what unusual circumstances we find ourselves in – a loveless marriage, passionate urge that overwhelms us, an old friend that shows up, things just falling into place; It doesn’t matter what Oprah says; It doesn’t matter if Cosmo says adultery is the new hip thing; And it doesn’t even matter if a team of prominent scientists conclude that adultery is a healthy alternative lifestyle to monogamous marriage, so go for it; it doesn’t matter what anyone else says, anywhere, anytime….because Jesus is the, the authority, period. Jesus says, adultery is not something Christians should do, end of argument. Because as Christians we have placed ourselves under the authority of Jesus and Jesus demands that we respect that authority. Here, the people of the town do not respect the authority of Jesus, they will not even consider his teaching, and so they have no faith.
But that is not the end of it. Because they do not respect the authority of Jesus, the power of God is not effective in their lives. Now we have to be very careful here and not gloss over this issue, because if we are not careful, we can come to the wrong conclusion. We might come to the conclusion that my lack of faith will cause the power of God to cease in my life. But that is not what Mark is trying to tell us here. This is an issue of authority. We see in verse 5 that Jesus could not do any miracles….except heal a few people. Notice, it does not say that Jesus was unable, that the power of God was made void, no Jesus still had power didn’t He? I don’t know how your week has gone, but in my week, I have not been able to heal a few people here and there as it says in verse 5 – Jesus has the power doesn’t he! Here is the fact: God is the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; God is all powerful, all present and all knowing, awesomely beyond anything we can ever become – we cannot hinder the power of God. That is not what is being said here, that we can somehow through doubts or denial stop the power of God. God never changes, Jesus being God, can not have His power removed nor diminished. Their lack of faith did not reduce the power of God, their lack of faith prevented them from receiving the blessings of God. Now this is not just semantics here, this is how God operates consistently throughout the Scriptures, God is always, always, always able, but we can refuse to receive.
Here we see that their refusal to believe results in missing out on phenomenal guidance in their lives, healing and who knows what else. You can bet that the townspeople continued to complain to the Lord about the difficulties in their lives in their prayers that evening, asking God why he wasn’t acting in their lives. And nothing was going to happen, why, because they insisted on receiving God’s grace on their own terms and flat out refused to receive God’s grace on God’s terms – and God’s terms were, and still are today this: Jesus Christ is the authority, period – receive this understanding in your life, and then watch out, God will start to act in your life.
There are areas in your life where you know that Jesus teaching tells you to live one way, and you are living another way. If this is happening in your life the result, let me be frank, the result will be this: Refusal to accept the authority of Jesus in your life will block you from receiving what God can do in your life. Some of you have been wondering to yourselves, “Why isn’t God acting in my life?”….perhaps you are not placing yourself under the authority of Jesus.
Let me just say a few words about verses 7-12. Some folks look at these verses and try to build some sort of a manual on how to do mission work, they see it as a kind of minimalist missionary, but that is not what Jesus is getting at here. These instructions are time limited, the wording shows that these are Jesus’ instructions to his disciples for only this specific trip and this specific trip is about judgment. Remember back in chapter one we learned that the specific purpose of Jesus ministry was one of judgment, judgment of sin. We see that Jesus gives them his authority, (which is what this chapter is all about) which the disciples receive, and then they go out to be effective. They don’t take anything because all they need is: the authority of Jesus. It turns out that the authority if Jesus is so powerful, they don’t need all the stuff mentioned in verse 8. He sends then out by two because in Hebrew culture the truthfulness of a testimony is established by two witnesses. He tells them to shake the dust off of their feet, because this is a sign of judgment, that the unbelief of a village will cause calamity to fall upon them, because they refuse to acknowledge the authority of God in their lives.
Years ago I lead this bible study for a group of men, it was a great to study with these guys. We had this one guy who every time he saw something in a passage that did not correspond to his philosophy of life he would say, “That’s not my god, he would never do that, my God would never act that way”. I would always respond, “Your right Tom, your god would never act that way, but that is because your god is not the God of the bible, it is the god of your own imagination. All Tom was doing was refusing the authority of the Scriptures over his life, so he could continue to justify the sin in his life.
As a Christian, do you take the authority of Jesus seriously, or only seriously when it is convenient?
