BIBLE READING: MARK 6
1 And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.
2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?
3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.
4 But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
5 And he could there do no mighty work,
“He came into his own country”. There’s nothing like going home. After all that Jesus had already accomplished in the miracles that he did in the lives that he changed, how exciting to come back to familiar people with his disciples with Him. As we all know, things did not go well. it would be bad enough if they just were not excited to see him. It would be bad enough if they just grew tired of His visit and wanted Him to move on so that they could get a guestroom back. The worst thing about this is that the Bible says they were “offended” at Him. They were literally angry, and embarrassed, and agitated with Jesus. They even went so far as to ridicule Him.
First, imagine how much this hurt Jesus. Jesus, being all God and all man, may have as God knew it was coming, but as man how much it must’ve hurt. Second, imagine how potential he embarrassing this might have been for Jesus in front of his disciples. He may have spoken of how wonderful His hometown was, and His hometown people, and even His own family. I’m sure He spoke fondly of all of them. And then the men who have given their lives to follow Jesus have to stand there and watch those who had known Jesus the longest reject Him.
This passage says that Jesus “could there do no mighty work”. Could you imagine with me how mighty a work I’m sure Jesus wanted to do there. The Bible does not say that He could not do a “good” work, or a “wonderful” work. The Bible says He could not do a mighty work. This means that is what Jesus was wanting to do. If there’s anywhere that Jesus would have done amazing miracles, it would be for His family and hometown. He loved them. But because of their attitude and because of the hardness of their hearts, they missed out on mighty miracles.
What are we to learn? We are to learn that sometimes in life, those who you love the most, hurt you the most. It’s part of life and we have to accept it. We are also to learn that we need to keep our hearts tender and receptive to the Lord today, because we do not want to miss out on a “mighty work” that He may have planned in our lives today.