Welcome to this week’s episode, a special rerun from our Speaking of Life archive. We hope you find its timeless message as meaningful today as it was when it was first shared.
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Program Transcript
Speaking Of Life 3032 | Watching and Waiting
Michelle Fleming
If you’ve ever had the chance to eat at a fine restaurant, you may have noticed the wait staff is very particular about how your food is brought to you and how the empty dishes are taken away. Most formal restaurants train their wait staff how to serve, which includes never reaching across in front of a guest. Servers are taught to serve the food from the guest’s left side, making sure the part of the plate with the protein is facing the guest. Plates are removed from the right side of a guest. Your server may have even taken a moment to remove breadcrumbs from the table in between courses. The wait staff stands and watches, alert to when a guest might need another beverage or something to make their experience more enjoyable.
Most of us don’t observe other people that closely. Unless we’re a server at a fine restaurant, we don’t often pick up on subtle cues that other people give us. It’s easy to miss out on the feedback and wisdom others might give to help us navigate life better. Sometimes we miss out on opportunities to do good to others. This pattern of not paying attention can also carry over into our relationship with God. But Psalm 123 gives us a solution:
To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
until he has mercy upon us.
Psalm 123:1-2 (NRSV)
Paying attention to what God is doing and where God is working is much like developing the attention of a fine restaurant’s wait staff. Our antennae are up, and we’re noticing the opportunities and difficulties that come across our paths. We’re in constant conversation with God about what’s happening around us, ready to participate with what he is doing.
When the Psalmist says “our eyes look to the Lord,” he is not talking about always looking heavenward, but looking around so we can see what God is doing in the lives of people around us. When we see those around us, we can join God in loving them as he does. That’s what Jesus did. He didn’t have to go looking for people to heal or sinners to encourage; he lived his life with full awareness, paying attention to the needs around him and responding with love when the opportunity arose.
Jesus invites us to join him by learning to pay attention to others. Like a fine restaurant’s wait staff, when we are in tune with the needs of others, we find ways to share God’s love with them. By figuring out how we can best love those God brings across our paths, we develop the attention and awareness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at work in our lives.
May you be ever watchful, looking for those opportunities to do good to someone else and showing the love of the Triune God.
I’m Michelle Fleming, Speaking of Life.
Program Transcript
Speaking Of Life 3032 | Watching and Waiting
Michelle Fleming
If you’ve ever had the chance to eat at a fine restaurant, you may have noticed the wait staff is very particular about how your food is brought to you and how the empty dishes are taken away. Most formal restaurants train their wait staff how to serve, which includes never reaching across in front of a guest. Servers are taught to serve the food from the guest’s left side, making sure the part of the plate with the protein is facing the guest. Plates are removed from the right side of a guest. Your server may have even taken a moment to remove breadcrumbs from the table in between courses. The wait staff stands and watches, alert to when a guest might need another beverage or something to make their experience more enjoyable.
Most of us don’t observe other people that closely. Unless we’re a server at a fine restaurant, we don’t often pick up on subtle cues that other people give us. It’s easy to miss out on the feedback and wisdom others might give to help us navigate life better. Sometimes we miss out on opportunities to do good to others. This pattern of not paying attention can also carry over into our relationship with God. But Psalm 123 gives us a solution:
To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
until he has mercy upon us.
Psalm 123:1-2 (NRSV)
Paying attention to what God is doing and where God is working is much like developing the attention of a fine restaurant’s wait staff. Our antennae are up, and we’re noticing the opportunities and difficulties that come across our paths. We’re in constant conversation with God about what’s happening around us, ready to participate with what he is doing.
When the Psalmist says “our eyes look to the Lord,” he is not talking about always looking heavenward, but looking around so we can see what God is doing in the lives of people around us. When we see those around us, we can join God in loving them as he does. That’s what Jesus did. He didn’t have to go looking for people to heal or sinners to encourage; he lived his life with full awareness, paying attention to the needs around him and responding with love when the opportunity arose.
Jesus invites us to join him by learning to pay attention to others. Like a fine restaurant’s wait staff, when we are in tune with the needs of others, we find ways to share God’s love with them. By figuring out how we can best love those God brings across our paths, we develop the attention and awareness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at work in our lives.
May you be ever watchful, looking for those opportunities to do good to someone else and showing the love of the Triune God.
I’m Michelle Fleming, Speaking of Life.
Psalm 48:1-14 • 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 • 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 • Mark 6:1-13
This week’s theme is when God comes near. In our call to worship Psalm, praise is given to the God who dwells in Zion. 2 Samuel recounts David’s anointing as king and links his greatness to the God of hosts presence with him. In our reading from 2 Corinthians, Paul learns of the sufficiency of God’s grace where Christ’s strength comes to dwell in our weaknesses. The Gospel reading from Mark recounts Jesus’ rejection from his hometown, followed by Jesus sending out his disciples to find a receptive hearing of the gospel.
At Home with Jesus
Mark 6:1-13 ESV
Today we have two sections of scripture that at first glance may seem to have nothing to do with each other. Some may argue that we should have two sermons, one for each. But that is not how Mark has structured it, so we are tasked to find how they fit together. As we do, what will emerge is how we are to be at home with Jesus. In other words, we are looking to see what is a fitting posture of being in Jesus’ presence. If he is who he says he is, we cannot relate to him in the same way we relate to anyone else. So, towards this end, we will cover each section in turn, and in the end, note the overall connection they have.
Let’s start with the first section as a whole:
He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 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. 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 6:1-6 ESV)
In this section, we find that Jesus is back at home with his relatives, but clearly his relatives are not at home with Jesus. Surprisingly, those we would assume would be the most receptive of Jesus’ words are the ones who reject him. They were “astonished” not at his words or works, but that they came from Jesus, the one who grew up in the neighborhood. It seems the obstacle for them receiving Jesus’ teaching was the fact that they thought they knew who he was. In their “astonished” state, they asked a “where,” a “what,” and a “how” question, but never honestly asked a “who” question. For them, that question was settled. Jesus was one of them. Moreover, the way the folks of his hometown asked, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary” is an especially derogatory remark.
To exclude any reference to Joseph would have been an intentional slight and insult in Jewish society. It may be that this is a reference to Jesus’ apparent “illegitimate” conception. (The other gospel writers asked if Jesus was the son of the carpenter, Joseph (Matthew 13:55 and Luke 4:22), but Mark chose to include this question about Jesus’ lineage from his mother to fit Mark’s purpose of his gospel of describing Jesus as fully human with all the humiliating innuendos incurred by his chosen humanity.) It seems that the ears of these town folk are more attuned to the local gossip than the words of Jesus. Like being fixated on current news outlets, some would rather hear bad news over good news, whether they know it’s true or not. These folks would rather hold to their own conclusions about who Jesus was rather than trust Jesus’ own words to them.
One observation in two of their questions may shed some light on their hesitancy to accept Jesus for who he is. They ask, “Where did this man get these things?” and “What is the wisdom given to him?” Both questions are aimed at the source of Jesus’ teachings. They know Jesus is getting his words from somewhere, but they don’t know where. But since they are so astonished at his teaching it is safe to say they know where he didn’t get his teachings. He clearly didn’t get it from his hometown. There is no claim the locals can make on Jesus’ rise to fame. They can’t sit back and say, “That’s my boy, I taught him everything he knows.”
Since Jesus didn’t receive his teachings from them, they were not about to receive anything from Jesus. It seems they were not in a posture to receive. In fact, Mark lets us know that they “took offense at him.” It seems their pride is offended. And is that not what keeps us from receiving Jesus’ words also? Do we also get offended when Jesus teaches something that is foreign to anything we would teach? Who does Jesus think he is, God or something? Maybe we think Jesus should check with us before he opens his mouth. After all, we know what’s really true. We got the nitty gritty down at the water cooler.
While we are at it, we should analyze their third question, “How are such mighty works done by his hands?” This is a question of challenge. If we don’t know “how” mighty works are done, then our trust in him remains questionable. This question seems to claim that Jesus needs to prove or explain himself to his hometown. “How” questions give us a sense of control. If we know how something works, then we can control it. In this way, his hometown does not have to trust in Jesus’ works. They can remain as judge over him, regardless of what he does. Ultimately, all three questions serve as a rejection of who Jesus is as the Word of God. They can’t receive anything he has to offer.
As a result of their rejection of Jesus, on his return trip home, Jesus only has a few descriptive words to share with them. Basically, know-it-alls can’t receive what they don’t know. Also, Mark lets us know that Jesus “could do no mighty work there,” except for a few healings of sick people. That may be a clue also to what was hindering everyone else. Sickness has a way of making you more receptive to the words of another than does vibrant health. It’s the “healthy” that see no need to rely on another. Sickness is usually a guard against self-sufficiency.
In the end, Jesus’ lack of “mighty work” in his hometown is not Jesus rejecting Nazareth, it is a consequence of Nazareth rejecting Jesus. Their rejection was on account of their unbelief. Jesus even “marveled” at their unbelief. Jesus’ hometown could not trust Jesus was who he said he was. They couldn’t trust in his words or his works. That is an unbelief that handcuffs you from receiving from the Lord. You won’t receive from one you don’t trust. However, Jesus is the one who receives all things from his Father—his words and his works. He does nothing on his own. He trusts the Father in all things, and therefore, receives all things from him.
In this way, Jesus shows us in his own posture with the Father how we are to be at home with Jesus. We are to be receivers of his grace. We are to trust him and thereby receive his words and work in our lives. The best way to be at home with a giver is to be a receiver. The best way to be at home with someone who is trustworthy is to trust. When Jesus’ hometown rejected Jesus, they were in a very real way rejecting home. Jesus is where we belong and in him there is healing and words of life. We reject him at our own peril. Notice that Nazareth’s rejection did not prevent Jesus from continuing to teach. Mark concludes the episode with, “And he went about among the villages teaching.” He is among the village you find yourself in today, in this moment, hearing his teaching. He is seeking those who will receive him. He is calling you to trust him. In this trust, you too can receive the healing words of life he gives.
Now that we have established the posture that is fitting to be at home with Jesus and his Father, we can probably more readily see why Mark connects this second section of our reading.
Let’s take a look:
And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. (Mark 6:7-13 ESV)
Jesus is sending out the twelve to do the very thing he has been doing, proclaiming the gospel in word and deed. And they are not to go out and do this in their own power. Jesus gives them authority to do so. So, the first thing Jesus does is to give the twelve something to receive. That’s the posture that launches them into ministry. And so it is with us. We can only give what we first receive. Today we are reading from Mark’s Gospel because he was one of the twelve who received the words of Christ and passed them on to us to receive as well. This story certainly alludes to that future ministry of the early church.
Notice how the posture of trusting and receiving is echoed in Jesus’ charge to the disciples. They are to take nothing except a staff. They are not to rely on providing their own food or money or bags to carry such things. This puts them in a posture of receiving every step of the way of their journey. Interestingly, the one thing he does allow them to take is a staff. Perhaps that serves to remind them every step of the way that they are to lean on something other than their own strength. The Lord will be their staff.
Also, the twelve are told to respond in much the same way Jesus did in his hometown upon being rejected. Jesus tells them that if any “will not receive you,” move on and don’t even take the weight of their dust with you. Don’t let your own pride turn their rejection into a hindrance to sharing the good news. Go search for those who are in a posture to receive. Otherwise, you are simply wasting your time. As a result of receiving Jesus’ charge, “they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.” I think Mark worked in the word “many” twice on purpose. There are many the Father has made ready to receive the gospel. It is to those whom we go, not the ones who are not yet ready to hear the gospel. As we go, we go as receivers of God’s grace, trusting him all the way. If we are rejected, oh well, that is the one thing we don’t have to receive.
Simon Dent—Year B Proper 9
July 7, 2024
Mark 6:1-13, “Shake It Off”
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Program Transcript
The Fullness of God w/ Simon Dent W1
Anthony: The first passage of the month is Mark 6:1-13. I’ll be reading from the New Revised Standard Version, the updated edition. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 9 in Ordinary Time, July 7.
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. 7 He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff: no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, 9 but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10 He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11 If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13 They cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Simon, Jesus was on his home turf in Nazareth, and the thought process is that the locals will receive their homegrown prophet, right? And yet, they found him offensive, and as a result, they didn’t experience his power full on.
What should we know and learn from this?
Simon Dent: I think one of the main things we need to know and learn from this is we just take Jesus on his own terms and not just to look at him through the lens of our own weakness. There’s a phrase we will know: familiarity breeds contempt.
And I think I’m particularly challenged by verse 5, which says, Jesus could not do a deed of power there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and cured them. Man, if we were doing that, we would be pretty amazed, wouldn’t we?
But he was amazed at their unbelief. I think they had such a low expectation of Jesus because they saw him through their own shame. And they desperately needed him not to show up their own weakness. He was one of them. We have this idea that we know what people from Nazareth are like and what they should do.
And to have a guy who stands before them doing these amazing deeds of power with the anointing of the Holy Spirit (as Luke picks up in his version of this story), to proclaim the good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, setting the oppressed free. Oh, absolutely amazing!
But guys from Nazareth don’t do that. And so, his glory, his humanity really showed them up. We probably understand this from my cultural context in Australia. We have a very high value on egalitarianism, but we also have this phenomenon called the tall poppy syndrome. And we basically can tend to criticize or cut down people if they’re too successful, primarily because they show the rest of us up.
We don’t like being shown up by their success. I went to high school, and we had a nine-year-old who was doing year 12 maths. And he was this amazing guy. And man, did I look dumb next to him in terms of maths ability.
So, I think the beauty of Jesus’ humanity here really showed the ugliness of theirs, and they had a real problem with that. And they couldn’t see that, like all of us, they’ve got two choices. They can either give themselves to his beauty, to his grace, by him taking them in all of their brokenness. Or they could just push Jesus away. And they either see Jesus through the lens of their own failure, or they try and take him from his own word as to who he is.
The apostle Paul talks about the offense of the cross. I think the similar thing is going on here. If we live in the denial of our corruption or our need for God to remake humanity in Jesus’ death, then his death is going to be an offense and a good reason, ultimately, for us to reject Jesus. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 2 says, “He had to become like us, his brothers and sisters, in every respect, so that he might become the merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of people.” [verse 17]
So yes, we can see familiarity can breed contempt, but familiarity saves us. And thank God that Christ has become one with us. And his kindness and his knowledge of our humanity, his familiarity, what it meant to be human and his death on the cross — in all of that, leads us to repentance and a change of mind about who Jesus is.
Romans 2 also says, “Do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” [verse 4] What might we hear in this? I think we need to hear something in terms of our expectations of what Jesus can do amongst us.
That we take Jesus on his own terms and not just look at him through the lens of our own powerless humanity. And in many ways, just start seeing him as he is. And allow our expectations to rise as what Jesus might actually do through us and in the world as we just see him, rather than just see him through the lens of our own human brokenness.
Anthony Mullins: Well said. Can anything good come out of Nazareth, right? The very best thing can. And I can remember feeling as a young kid, because I came from a small town in the hills of Kentucky, feeling less than. But what matters is the power and presence of God at work in the lives of people, regardless of where we’re from.
And I tell you what, it’s a sport over here, Simon, where we love to build people up, but we love just as much, maybe even more lustily, to tear them down. And you’ve pointed out that was at work here in this passage.
Simon, Jesus told his disciples to shake off the dust as a way of showing that their testimony, the good news wasn’t received. And as I was thinking about this, I thought of the contrast of Jesus, who is the embodiment, the fullness of good news, when he spoke the words of forgiveness from the cross, he wasn’t received by his own. So, in thinking of that, help us understand and maybe reconcile, as it were, the difference and how it impacts our participation in God’s mission to the world.
Simon Dent: Yeah. Because the question behind that is, will Jesus dust off his feet to me, in a sense, if someone’s not [inaudible]. And so, I think we really need to make a distinction between who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for the whole world in his death and resurrection, and ultimately what the disciples are called to do as witnesses and proclaimers of what Jesus has done.
I don’t think we are saying here that Jesus is going to see anybody in the world and say, you are the ones that I’ll accept, and you are the ones I won’t, because before the foundation of the world he died for us. None of us are worthy of God’s mercy and grace. It was just his pure unadulterated love for all sinners in the world.
So that Jesus’ own reality to the people, those who receive him, those who reject him is not a sign necessarily of his love or what he’s done for them on the cross.
So, I think what Jesus is ultimately saying in that phrase (if they don’t receive you, dust wipe the dust off your feet), he’s basically saying to the disciples, just this is a warning for them. It’s, in some ways, a symbol for them that they’ve got to put their faith and their hope in Christ because they can’t save themselves according to their own efforts.
But it’s also to the disciples to recognize your own responsibility and what is actually possible for you. What are the limits of what you can actually achieve?
I was really helped some years ago by a book by Andrew Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry. You may have read it. One of the things that’s so profound from there is as soon as I take up my ministry as my ministry Jesus will gladly crucify us on that. It’s a mercy where he says, no, it all belongs to me.
And sometimes we can look at our friends and we can — even every Sunday when I get up and I start preaching the gospel, I think this is amazing. Everybody’s just going to bow down and worship God and hear this. And often there’s just dull faces where, yeah, we heard this before.
And I sometimes think, man, if I know I could take the power of the Spirit that is in Christ and allow people to see these things and their lives is suddenly going to change. And I just realized there are limits as to what I ultimately can do.
I think what Jesus is saying here. When you’re going into a town and you’re sharing the good news of the gospel, and people are not responding. And it might even be a close friend of ours, that we’re just sharing about Jesus, and they’re just not responding. We have no reason why they are not responding, reacting in the way that we’ve reacted to that. So, Jesus is actually saying move on.
There are other people who do actually welcome that, and don’t spend all of your time and your energy in some ways, trying to do something which in your own strength are not going to be able to do, but turn around. There’s maybe somebody else in that town or that community that’s really going to respond to the gospel.
And Luke calls these people the persons of, the people of peace, people in some ways who God has already prepared to receive the gospel. Bring that word to them. And ultimately, we’ll leave everybody in the hands of God here. God is a God of mercy and grace, but for those of us who are called to bear witness to the gospel amongst our friends and in our families, realize that we can’t raise the dead. But we’re called to proclaim the wonders of Christ.
And if some people are closing their eyes to that, it doesn’t mean we stop loving them, or we stop praying for them. But it does mean don’t get so uptight as though somehow, it’s up to us to try and bring salvation to these people. Move on to others who may actually be more responsive to the gospel.
Anthony Mullins: Yeah. Go with those that want to go with you. And likewise, and I love what you said about the book from Purves, Crucifixion of Ministry. And another way I see that at work, you mentioned when you preach a good one, you think everybody’s going to receive this.
But on the flip side of that, I’ve given some real stinkers of sermons thinking, oh, I’ve just let everyone down. And that’s when people respond. It’s just an extraordinarily humiliating, but in the most positive way, thing to realize it’s Christ’s ministry. It’s not mine. His good purposes are going to prevail with or without me, but he chooses to do it with me.
Hallelujah. Praise God.
Simon Dent: That’s brilliant. So good to know that Jesus is the one in control of his ministry and his love. And he invites us into that amazing gift of what he’s actually already doing. And just to put our trust and our hope in that means you can have a dud of a sermon or an amazing sermon, that ultimately doesn’t really matter because Christ is at work.
Anthony Mullins: Yes, Simon, it allows you to exhale. And just be like, ah the pressure’s off. There is a response ability by the Spirit, if you will, we can respond to what God is doing, but that’s it. He’s already at work. So, Lord, give us eyes to see what you’re doing and the courage just to join in with our whole hearts.
Program Transcript
The Fullness of God w/ Simon Dent W1
Anthony: The first passage of the month is Mark 6:1-13. I’ll be reading from the New Revised Standard Version, the updated edition. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 9 in Ordinary Time, July 7.
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. 7 He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff: no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, 9 but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10 He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11 If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13 They cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Simon, Jesus was on his home turf in Nazareth, and the thought process is that the locals will receive their homegrown prophet, right? And yet, they found him offensive, and as a result, they didn’t experience his power full on.
What should we know and learn from this?
Simon Dent: I think one of the main things we need to know and learn from this is we just take Jesus on his own terms and not just to look at him through the lens of our own weakness. There’s a phrase we will know: familiarity breeds contempt.
And I think I’m particularly challenged by verse 5, which says, Jesus could not do a deed of power there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and cured them. Man, if we were doing that, we would be pretty amazed, wouldn’t we?
But he was amazed at their unbelief. I think they had such a low expectation of Jesus because they saw him through their own shame. And they desperately needed him not to show up their own weakness. He was one of them. We have this idea that we know what people from Nazareth are like and what they should do.
And to have a guy who stands before them doing these amazing deeds of power with the anointing of the Holy Spirit (as Luke picks up in his version of this story), to proclaim the good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, setting the oppressed free. Oh, absolutely amazing!
But guys from Nazareth don’t do that. And so, his glory, his humanity really showed them up. We probably understand this from my cultural context in Australia. We have a very high value on egalitarianism, but we also have this phenomenon called the tall poppy syndrome. And we basically can tend to criticize or cut down people if they’re too successful, primarily because they show the rest of us up.
We don’t like being shown up by their success. I went to high school, and we had a nine-year-old who was doing year 12 maths. And he was this amazing guy. And man, did I look dumb next to him in terms of maths ability.
So, I think the beauty of Jesus’ humanity here really showed the ugliness of theirs, and they had a real problem with that. And they couldn’t see that, like all of us, they’ve got two choices. They can either give themselves to his beauty, to his grace, by him taking them in all of their brokenness. Or they could just push Jesus away. And they either see Jesus through the lens of their own failure, or they try and take him from his own word as to who he is.
The apostle Paul talks about the offense of the cross. I think the similar thing is going on here. If we live in the denial of our corruption or our need for God to remake humanity in Jesus’ death, then his death is going to be an offense and a good reason, ultimately, for us to reject Jesus. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 2 says, “He had to become like us, his brothers and sisters, in every respect, so that he might become the merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of people.” [verse 17]
So yes, we can see familiarity can breed contempt, but familiarity saves us. And thank God that Christ has become one with us. And his kindness and his knowledge of our humanity, his familiarity, what it meant to be human and his death on the cross — in all of that, leads us to repentance and a change of mind about who Jesus is.
Romans 2 also says, “Do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” [verse 4] What might we hear in this? I think we need to hear something in terms of our expectations of what Jesus can do amongst us.
That we take Jesus on his own terms and not just look at him through the lens of our own powerless humanity. And in many ways, just start seeing him as he is. And allow our expectations to rise as what Jesus might actually do through us and in the world as we just see him, rather than just see him through the lens of our own human brokenness.
Anthony Mullins: Well said. Can anything good come out of Nazareth, right? The very best thing can. And I can remember feeling as a young kid, because I came from a small town in the hills of Kentucky, feeling less than. But what matters is the power and presence of God at work in the lives of people, regardless of where we’re from.
And I tell you what, it’s a sport over here, Simon, where we love to build people up, but we love just as much, maybe even more lustily, to tear them down. And you’ve pointed out that was at work here in this passage.
Simon, Jesus told his disciples to shake off the dust as a way of showing that their testimony, the good news wasn’t received. And as I was thinking about this, I thought of the contrast of Jesus, who is the embodiment, the fullness of good news, when he spoke the words of forgiveness from the cross, he wasn’t received by his own. So, in thinking of that, help us understand and maybe reconcile, as it were, the difference and how it impacts our participation in God’s mission to the world.
Simon Dent: Yeah. Because the question behind that is, will Jesus dust off his feet to me, in a sense, if someone’s not [inaudible]. And so, I think we really need to make a distinction between who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for the whole world in his death and resurrection, and ultimately what the disciples are called to do as witnesses and proclaimers of what Jesus has done.
I don’t think we are saying here that Jesus is going to see anybody in the world and say, you are the ones that I’ll accept, and you are the ones I won’t, because before the foundation of the world he died for us. None of us are worthy of God’s mercy and grace. It was just his pure unadulterated love for all sinners in the world.
So that Jesus’ own reality to the people, those who receive him, those who reject him is not a sign necessarily of his love or what he’s done for them on the cross.
So, I think what Jesus is ultimately saying in that phrase (if they don’t receive you, dust wipe the dust off your feet), he’s basically saying to the disciples, just this is a warning for them. It’s, in some ways, a symbol for them that they’ve got to put their faith and their hope in Christ because they can’t save themselves according to their own efforts.
But it’s also to the disciples to recognize your own responsibility and what is actually possible for you. What are the limits of what you can actually achieve?
I was really helped some years ago by a book by Andrew Purves, The Crucifixion of Ministry. You may have read it. One of the things that’s so profound from there is as soon as I take up my ministry as my ministry Jesus will gladly crucify us on that. It’s a mercy where he says, no, it all belongs to me.
And sometimes we can look at our friends and we can — even every Sunday when I get up and I start preaching the gospel, I think this is amazing. Everybody’s just going to bow down and worship God and hear this. And often there’s just dull faces where, yeah, we heard this before.
And I sometimes think, man, if I know I could take the power of the Spirit that is in Christ and allow people to see these things and their lives is suddenly going to change. And I just realized there are limits as to what I ultimately can do.
I think what Jesus is saying here. When you’re going into a town and you’re sharing the good news of the gospel, and people are not responding. And it might even be a close friend of ours, that we’re just sharing about Jesus, and they’re just not responding. We have no reason why they are not responding, reacting in the way that we’ve reacted to that. So, Jesus is actually saying move on.
There are other people who do actually welcome that, and don’t spend all of your time and your energy in some ways, trying to do something which in your own strength are not going to be able to do, but turn around. There’s maybe somebody else in that town or that community that’s really going to respond to the gospel.
And Luke calls these people the persons of, the people of peace, people in some ways who God has already prepared to receive the gospel. Bring that word to them. And ultimately, we’ll leave everybody in the hands of God here. God is a God of mercy and grace, but for those of us who are called to bear witness to the gospel amongst our friends and in our families, realize that we can’t raise the dead. But we’re called to proclaim the wonders of Christ.
And if some people are closing their eyes to that, it doesn’t mean we stop loving them, or we stop praying for them. But it does mean don’t get so uptight as though somehow, it’s up to us to try and bring salvation to these people. Move on to others who may actually be more responsive to the gospel.
Anthony Mullins: Yeah. Go with those that want to go with you. And likewise, and I love what you said about the book from Purves, Crucifixion of Ministry. And another way I see that at work, you mentioned when you preach a good one, you think everybody’s going to receive this.
But on the flip side of that, I’ve given some real stinkers of sermons thinking, oh, I’ve just let everyone down. And that’s when people respond. It’s just an extraordinarily humiliating, but in the most positive way, thing to realize it’s Christ’s ministry. It’s not mine. His good purposes are going to prevail with or without me, but he chooses to do it with me.
Hallelujah. Praise God.
Simon Dent: That’s brilliant. So good to know that Jesus is the one in control of his ministry and his love. And he invites us into that amazing gift of what he’s actually already doing. And just to put our trust and our hope in that means you can have a dud of a sermon or an amazing sermon, that ultimately doesn’t really matter because Christ is at work.
Anthony Mullins: Yes, Simon, it allows you to exhale. And just be like, ah the pressure’s off. There is a response ability by the Spirit, if you will, we can respond to what God is doing, but that’s it. He’s already at work. So, Lord, give us eyes to see what you’re doing and the courage just to join in with our whole hearts.
Small Group Discussion Questions
- What are some of the reasons that Jesus’ hometown rejected him? Can you think of ways we can do this today in our relationship with Jesus?
- Why was Jesus not able to perform a mighty work in his hometown? Can you think of times this applies to you?
- What does it say about Jesus that he continued teaching in other villages after being rejected by his own?
- How would you describe the posture of being at home with Jesus?
- Discuss the connections between the two sections of the reading in Mark? Was there anything in the sermon that stood out to you? Were there any additional connections you saw that the sermon didn’t cover?
- Why does Jesus tell his disciples to shake off the dust from their feet when they are not received?
- Do you have any lingering questions you would like to discuss from the passage?
