Mark 6:1-13.  Today’s reading seems to continue the idea of faith or believing from yesterday.  Yesterday we saw the results of believing in Jesus.  Today we will see what happens when you don’t.  Our reading starts out with Jesus returning to his home town.  On the day of worship (the Sabbath, Saturday) he went into the local synagogue (sort of a Jewish church) and began to teach.  He was a recognized rabbi or teacher and this was a normal thing to do.  He was evidently quite good at teaching (as I would expect God to be) because the people were amazed at what he was saying.  They recognized that his words were wise.  The Greek word for wisdom has the idea that what he is saying is the best and most useful idea.  Remember that Mark’s history of Jesus has moved “immediately” from one story to the next and that word, “immediately”, also has the idea of the best or most direct path.  So we see that Jesus’ plan and actions are the best.

And Jesus backed up what he was saying with miracles.  The people recognized that he was doing actual miracles (the girl really was dead in yesterday’s story) and they even say it was “by his hands”.  No accusations of using the Devil for power here.  So theses people saw and knew that Jesus was very very special.  In Matthew 1:20-23 Matthew tells us the story of when Joseph (Jesus step-day) finds out that Mary is pregnant (remember they were engaged at the time and had not been together yet).  An angel appeared to him in a dream and informed him that Mary had not been unfaithful but that God had cased this baby to exist in her.  The angel then told him that the baby should be named Jesus, which means “Yahweh saves” because that is what Jesus would do and then Matthew informs us that this is a fulfillment of a prediction by Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14).  In that prediction Isaiah tells us that the child will be called Immanuel which means “God with us”.  Some how in the Jewish mind they were able to link what Jesus would do with who he was, “God with them”.  But then in our story we see the people resisting what is obvious to them; “Hey wait a minute, this is that carpenter!”  “Yea, this is Mary’s son!”  “His brothers and sister live right here in town!”  The people were offended by him.  The Greek word for “offend” used here is the same word that we get our English word “scandal” from.  The word means to “trip up” or “cause to stumble”.  In this case they were tripped up by their unwillingness to believe in this “carpenter”.  The evidence was there but they didn’t want to believe it.

Jesus first responds by quoting a common proverb of his day about a person not being honored by those in his own hometown.  This proverb is not found in the Bible but the idea is similar to what Jeremiah talks about in Jeremiah 11:21, 12:6.  Jeremiah was certainly a prophet who received very little honor in his home country of Judah.  Then Mark tells us that he couldn’t do very many miracles there and that Jesus was astounded by their unbelief.  The word used for his reaction has the idea of staring at something, it’s kind of like our saying, “He couldn’t believe his eyes!”  In this case Jesus couldn’t believe that they would not believe; that they had no faith in him.

The last half of verse 6 really starts a new paragraph.  If you have been reading along in Mark you might remember that Jesus told his followers that he was here to teach or preach (tell people the good news about him)(Mark 1:38) and that is just what Jesus did.  He left his home town and went other places to tell other people.  In verses 7-13 we see Jesus sending his twelve closest followers to do the same thing, tell others about “God’s salvation” (remember the meaning of “Jesus”).  He also gives his followers authority to do miracles, specifically to command demons to leave people.  Don’t miss the fact that Jesus gives them the authority to do this, Jesus had the authority in himself and passed it to them.  Remember what Matthew said?  Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prediction that “God” would be “with us”.

Jesus also gave the twelve instructions not to take money or even a jacket with them.  Theses guys were supposed to let the people in the towns where they went take care of their needs and provide a place to stay for them.  It was common in Jesus day for travelers to be taken in and cared for and the Law of Moses commanded the Israelites to care for the poor and needy (Deuteronomy 15:7-8).  Jesus was using this as a way of testing the belief of the places that his followers would be going to.  If the people of a town would not do what was right with respect to these visitors then after sharing about Jesus in the town they were to leave and “shake the dust of that town off their sandals”.  That was a way of showing disapproval of the place, they didn’t even want a little dust from there on them.  In Matthew 22:34-40 Jesus linked how we treat others with what we believe about God.  Jesus was using this test in a practical way in the towns that his followers were going to, remember that in his home town he had just faces unbelief.  In this case the results must have been pretty good because the followers were doing many miracles.

Although it is Jesus who does miracles and it is Jesus who saves us from our sins (deals with the consequences of our disobedience and rebellion toward God) our response is important too.  Paul told the church in Ephesus that salvation is a free gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9, “grace” means favor and Paul links it with the idea of a gift from God in these verses).  But notice that the way the “gift” gets to us is through faith.  We need to believe in what God is offering us through Jesus and take it (John 1:12, believing in “his name” (Jesus=God saves) means believing in who Jesus is (God) and what he is doing (paying for our sins and making Heaven available to us) (Romans 5:8., John 14:6)).  In our story today we see that unbelief results in losing the benefits of what Jesus is offering.  In his town he could not do many miracles because the miracles were there to prove that Jesus had the authority to deal with sin (remember Mark 2:8-11?).  The most important thing was the temporary physical healing (all those people eventually died as do all of us) the most important thing was getting right with God, being made spiritually alive.  Interestingly enough when we get things in the right order like that we get what we really need, not temporary healing, but the promise of eternal healing.  Paul told the believers that our hope is not in just this life but in a new life in eternity, new forever bodies and a forever relationship with God (1 Corinthians 15).  We need to not let our ideas of how life ought to be or of who Jesus is get in the way, we need to see Jesus as Immanuel (God with us) and let him save us for now and eternity.

God help me trust in you.  Help me believe.  Let my actions show that I really believe.  Help me accept your word.  Heal me with your power, inside and out.  Thank you for saving me.  Help me proclaim you to those around me.  Let them see and accept.  Let them believe and be saved.