Mark 6.1-6

The Apostle Paul, who is responsible for writing most of the New Testament part of our Bible, once said that he had many personal accomplishments to boast about.

To boast is to brag, or to talk with excessive pride about personal achievements, possessions, and abilities.

In the words and likes of the Apostle Paul, I, Frederick Reid Scragg V, also have many reasons to be confident and to boast.

I am the Pastor of Bethel Lutheran Brethren Church, baptizing, confirming, counseling, discipling, and ushering God’s saints into glory for almost 18 years.

I am a Board of Education Trustee in South Huntington, running the entire public school system with 6 of my peers.

I am a Trustee on The Town of Huntington’s Public Art Advisory Committee, securing artists and artwork to beautify our public spaces.

I am a Trustee on South Huntington Educational Foundation’s Executive Board, raising money to build art galleries, recording studios, and outdoor performing venues in our school district.

I received a full academic scholarship to college.

I am a recording and touring musician.

I am a cancer survivor.

I am a grateful recovered alcoholic.

I am a published author.

And, the list goes on.

But, when I go away from all of those places and positions, when I walk through the doors of my home, I am husband and father.  

And, in my home, all that is cared about is what I will be cooking for dinner, and where I obviously “maliciously” hid the newest super tiny video game cartridge.

To the people outside my home, I am often told how amazing I am for all I do for them and our community.

To the people closest to me, those in my home, I am amazing at being annoying.

There is often a huge difference in how the people close to us think about us and how people who don’t know us as well think about us. 

In this morning’s text, chosen for us, once again, by the lectionary, we return to the Good News according to Mark.  

In this morning’s Biblical text, we are told about the time when Jesus returns to his hometown, after teaching amazing things and doing amazing miracles, to share about the grace and mercy of God.

However, Jesus, in his hometown, is met with rejection from those who knew him closely.

Mark 6:1–6 tells us this:

[1] He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. [2] 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? [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] And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” [5] And 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.

And he went about among the villages teaching. (ESV)

At this point in Jesus’ life, Jesus had been traveling around the Mediterranean region preaching about the need to repent of one’s Sin and the need to believe and receive the good news of God’s forgiveness, righteousness, and life, through faith in His life, coming death, and coming resurrection.  

Jesus was also teaching what God’s Law, revealed throughout history (in what we  now call the Old Testament), truly meant for life and love on a daily basis.

And, in addition to that teaching and preaching with Heavenly authority, Jesus was also healing the sick and raising the dead to demonstrate that He truly is God in the flesh, 100 percent fully God and 100 percent fully man at the same exact time.

We are told over and over again that people followed Jesus from town to town to hear him speak and to experience His healing touch.  Up to this point, the crowds outside of his hometown experienced God’s grace when they came into contract with Jesus.  And, the news about the things that Jesus said and did outside of his hometown certainly made their way back to his relatives and friends at home.

However, when Jesus returned to His hometown, the place where He grew up, those that were overly familiar with Him before His ministry days, laughed at him, mocked him, questioned him, and rejected the fact that He was God in flesh who came to help them, teach them, heal them, and save them.

After all, how could this rambunctious toddler, moody teenager, and unmarried and childless adult from their small and nowhere town, that grew up before their eyes, be someone great or do something great?

The people outside of His hometown often told Jesus how amazing He was for all that He did and was doing for them.

To the people closest to Jesus, those in his hometown, He was amazing at being arrogant, annoying, and overstepping His humanity.

Their initial amazement at Jesus’ words and actions, that Mark tells us about, quickly turns to skepticism.

They would immediately ask:

Where did Jesus get this teaching?

What is this wisdom given to him?

How are these miracles performed by his hands?

Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon?

Are not his sisters here with us now?

Two weeks ago, at the beginning of my piano lesson, my teacher asked me, “How close are you with Jesus?”

To his question, I replied, “So close that we are united.  Everything that He has is completely mine.”

He sat back in his chair after I answered and thought quietly.  He then spoke up and said, “I have never heard an answer like that before.”

He asked me that question because he has a Catholic and Franciscan background and is no longer connected to a church or religious institution.  I think he is trying to figure out how a guy like me, his age, with a love for music and black heavy metal t-shirts, operates in daily life as a pastor.

If we asked the people in front of Jesus in this morning’s Biblical text the same question, “How close are you with Jesus?,” we would get a bunch of different answers.

Some would say, “We are so close that I babysat for him and changed his diapers when he was a toddler.”

Some would say, “We are so close that he built the table in my house with his father, Joseph, during his carpentry apprenticeship days.”

Some would say, “We are so close that our kids played games with him out in the field when they were teenagers.”

So, when Jesus attempted to teach them about the promise fulfillments from God’s Word in his presence with them that day, they had a hard time believing that this Jesus that they knew so closely was something other than the guy they could see at face value. 

This visit to his hometown was actually his second and final visit.  On his first visit, those that were relationally close with Jesus accused him of overstepping his bounds and attempted to kill him.

But, Jesus, having a heart of compassion for everyone and a desire and will that all men and women be saved from their sin, returns to those who tried to kill him, to once again give them the opportunity to repent, believe, and receive forgiveness for sin and  eternal life.

What we see and hear in this text should lead us to consider and answer three questions.

The first question is, “When Jesus is before you, are you only amazed?”

What we learn from Jesus’ hometown acquaintances is that being astonished by Jesus’ teaching is not enough, being captivated by Jesus’ miracles is not enough and Jesus’ unimpressive background is no big deal.

Like Jesus’ hometown acquaintances, do you find yourself only amazed at Jesus this morning?  Or, do you have faith in Him as God’s Savior sent to you?

The second question is, “When Jesus is before you, are you offended?”

What we learn from Jesus’ hometown acquaintances is that in spite of clear evidence, we may reject him, and in spite of being in close proximity to Jesus, we may dishonor him.

Like Jesus’ hometown acquaintances, are you offended by Jesus this morning?  Or, do you have faith in Him as God’s Savior sent to you?

And, the third question is, “When Jesus is before you, are you guilty of unbelief?”

What we learn from Jesus’ hometown acquaintances is that unbelief limits Jesus’ work in your life, and unbelief is one thing that amazes Jesus.

Like Jesus’ hometown acquaintances, are you guilty of not believing in Jesus this morning?  Or, do you have faith in Him as God’s Savior sent to you?

I can guarantee that those that rejected Jesus on this day in his hometown would no doubt attempt to use their physical closeness to Jesus when they stood before God’s throne.

Caught by God apart from faith in Jesus, they would say:

“God you have to love me, I changed Jesus’ diapers.”

“God you have to love me, I hired Jesus and his poor father to make furniture for my house.”

“God you have to love me, I fed Jesus dinner when he came in tired after playing games with my boys.”

And, I can guarantee that those who reject Jesus today, will do the same.

“God, you have to love me, I went to church most Sundays.”

“God, you have to love me, I gave money into the collection every time I went to church.”

“God, you have to love me, I sat through the boring Confirmation class for 2 whole years!”

“God, you have to love me, I took sermon notes and reviewed them when I got home.”

“God, you have to love me, I helped with VBS every single summer.”

Although those things are all good things, they are not things that make you lovable and acceptable to God.

The apostle Paul, who I mentioned at the outset of this message, knew that the things of this life, regardless of how good they seem, do not matter and do not earn you anything when standing before God’s throne in Heaven.

The apostle Paul said this in his letter to the church in the city of Philippi during the 1st Century:

[4] …I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: [5] circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; [6] as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. [7] But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. [8] Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ [9] and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—[10] that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, [11] that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:4–11, ESV)

Oseola McCarty, 87, did one thing all her life: laundry.

Now she’s famous for it–or at least for what she did with $150,000 of the $250,000 she saved by washing the dirty clothes of wealthy bankers and merchants in her hometown of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. For decades she earned 50 cents per load (a week’s worth of one family’s laundry). But when she finally laid down her old-fashioned washboard–which she always preferred over new-fangled electric washing machines–McCarty decided to ask her banker how much money she had stowed away.

The figure astounded her. Then it set her to thinking. “I had more than what I could use in the bank,” she explained to Christian Reader, “and I can’t carry anything away from here with me, so I thought it was best to give it to some child to get an education.”

To the astonishment of school officials, the soft-spoken, never-married laundry woman from a not-so-posh part of town gave $150,000 to the nearby University of Southern Mississippi to help African-American young people attend college. 

The first recipient is 18-year-old Stephanie Bullock, a freshman at USM, who has already immediately invited Miss McCarty to her college graduation ceremony which was 4 years away.

To date, McCarty has been interviewed by Barbara Walters, each of the major network news programs, CNN, People magazine … and the list goes on. Though she had never traveled out of the South before, McCarty visited the White House, where President Clinton awarded her the Presidential Citizenship Award.

McCarty attends Friendship Baptist Church and reads her Bible every morning and prays on her knees every evening. 

Discounting the publicity, she says she is simply grateful for the chance to help others gain what she lost: in the sixth grade she was pulled out of school to care for an ailing family member and to help her mother with the laundry.

“It’s more blessed to give than to receive,” she tells reporters when they ask why she didn’t use the money on herself. “I’ve tried it.”¹

Jesus returned to his hometown to help people gain what they lost—a connection to God, their Father in Heaven, because of the Sin that so easily entangles.

Jesus returns to you time and time again in your baptism, in the Word, and in the Sacrament of Communion, to help you gain what you lost— connection to God, your Father in Heaven, because of the Sin that so easily entangles.

In all instances, Jesus knows God’s promise that He is more blessed to give—to give His life over to death on the cross to provide you and me with forgiveness for our sin—than to receive the temporal rewards and fading glory that this world would give him.

The people of Jesus hometown were hard hearted and rejected Jesus because of their past experiences with Him and His people.

This morning, do not be like those that were physically close to Jesus but spiritually separated from him.  

Repent of your sin of being hard hearted when it comes to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection of you.

Repent and confess that you have been amazed by what you heard about Jesus and from Jesus, but never believed in what you heard about Him or from Him.

Repent and confess that you have dishonored and rejected  Jesus because you were offended by the evidence of your Sin and need for a Savior.

And, repent of your sin of unbelief.  

When I stand before God, He will not care that I spent my time in this life a pastor, or a Trustee on the Board of Education, Huntington’s Public Art Advisory Committee, and South Huntington’s Education Foundation.

When I stand before God, He will not care that I received a full scholarship to college, that I am a cancer survivor, a published author, and that I had been a recording and touring musician.

The only question God will have for me and you is, “How close are you to Jesus?”  

And, the only answer that matters comes from having in faith in Jesus and Lord and Savior.  

The answer that God wants to hear is, “I am so close with Jesus that we are united.  All that He has is mine today, tomorrow, and forever.  His perfect and righteous life is mine, His atoning and sin forgiving death is mine, and His resurrection life is mine.”

Go into the villages of your world this week—your home, your office, your camp, your school—and teach this good news of rescue to all that you come into contact with.  

The Apostle Paul tells you how to teach that Good News in 2 Corinthians 12:9–10 when he says:

[9] [Jesus] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [10] For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (ESV)

I leave you with Jesus’ words from the Good News according to Matthew:

[32] So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, [33] but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32–33, ESV)

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

July 14, 2024.

1. Kevin Dale Miller, Christian Reader, “Ordinary Heroes.” ↩︎