Unbelief At Nazareth
UNBELIEF AT NAZARETH
MARK 6:1-6
May God strengthen our faith in him.
Mark’s picture of the ministry of Jesus contains sharp contrasts between success and failure, acceptance and opposition, understanding and misunderstanding; it is a reminder to the church not to expect a path of uninterrupted, smooth progress. Of all places, Nazareth, where Jesus was brought up, might have been expected to give a warm welcome to its son, just as a modern country town might celebrate the return of some distinguished man who has won a reputation in the wider world. But when Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath and accepted an invitation to teach, the mood of the audience was sceptical; they were surprised, but not impressed. There was nothing that Jesus could do beyond healing a few sick.
That he could do no mighty work there means that to have worked miracles in the absence of faith or potential faith would have been contrary to his purpose. All that he could tell the people was the proverbial comment that great men are not appreciated at home. lt is a proverb which has many exceptions, but it applies especially to prophets whose words are unwelcome. Note how Jesus tacitly assumes the rank of a prophet (Luke 13:33).
The brothers and sisters of Jesus (cf. 3:31-35) were almost certainly the children of Mary and Joseph born after Jesus. Two other theories about them arose in the early church. One view, associated with Jerome, is that they were cousins of Jesus, but this is an unsupported and unlikely supposition. The other view is that they were Joseph’s children by a previous marriage. This is, to say the least, improbable in view of Luke 2:7 and Matthew 1:25 which imply that Mary had other children.
The fact that Joseph is not mentioned here or elsewhere very probably means that he was now dead, and it has been conjectured that the reason why Jesus did not begin his work until the age of thirty was that he had to be the breadwinner while his brothers were still young. There may, however, be a deeper significance in this verse (6:3). To describe a person’s parentage without naming his father was tantamount to hinting at illegitimacy. If so, the language of the people contained a calculated insult—and the knowledge that there was something unusual about the birth of Jesus.