Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Mark 6:1-6
Pastor: Pastor Horton
Sermon Date:  July 7, 2024

I hope you’ve had a marvelous few days filled with good gatherings.  Whether it be this past week or weekend (or a combination of both), I hope you were able to make it home or get together with friends and family.  And just maybe you took at moment to marvel at: how loud those fire trucks were in the parade, or marvel at the fire cracking bombs bursting in air through the night sky, or marvel at the sizzling brats on the grill, or marvel at the campfire movement, or marvel at how wonderful your freedom is.  I hope you had a chance to get together at a good gathering and marvel at God’s blessings showered upon you this weekend.

In our reading for today, Jesus returned home to the small town of Nazareth.  But instead of this being a “good gathering” for Jesus and fellow Nazarenes, it turned into a reason for him to shake his head and say, “good grief.”  They marveled at him for the wrong reasons.  He marveled at them for disappointing reasons.  May we not miss our moment to hear and believe the Marvelous Message of the Messiah.

It is worth a moment of marveling, for us to first pause and reflect on the timing of Jesus’ trip.  Up until this point as Mark records in his gospel, Jesus had been preaching and teaching and performing miracles all around and (even) upon the Sea of Galilee.  He did not use Nazareth, his hometown, as the base of his ministry.  He did, however, allow for word of mouth to spread to the people of Nazareth before his work brought him back to where he grew up.  And being true God, he knew what kind of rejection was waiting for him, and yet he graciously went forward with his marvelous message to the souls there anyways.

We pick up with Jesus on the holy day, in their house of worship, “When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue.  Many who heard him were amazed.  They asked, ‘Where did this man learn these things? What is this wisdom that has been given to this man?  How is it that miracles such as these are performed by his hands?’”  As so often happens in Jesus’ life, even his enemies have to admit that he can say and do things that must involve the help and blessing of the living God – there is no other explanation.  They marveled at him, but missed the truth that he was the Messiah sent to pay for their sins.

There doesn’t seem to be much working knowledge there amongst the Nazareth community of Jesus having fulfilled prophecies.  The people in his hometown may not have known about his virgin birth or about all the Old Testament prophecies that were checked off in his young life.  Certainly, the words of Moses didn’t ring any bells for them when he records back in Deuteronomy 18 the message that, ^“I The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brother Israelites…. and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them everything that I command him….Listen to him.”   Nope, none of that was recognized.  Marveling at the wisdom and the miracles, yes.  Recognizing Jesus as the Messiah?  No.  In fact, there is contempt in the community as they discuss “this man.”  You can almost hear them: “Who this guy?  Oh, and what is he suddenly supposed to be some prophet?  Oh, the Son of God?  Yeah, right!”

“In fact, just who does he think he is?”  Our verse: “Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon?  And aren’t his sisters here with us?”  And they took offense at him.”  Familiarity breeds contempt.  They knew Jesus.  They had often said “hi” regularly to his folks, Mary, and Joseph (though many believe he had long since passed at this point in Jesus’ life.)  But this is Joe’s boy who took on the carpentry shop.  They may have owned furniture made by a young Jesus.  His brothers and sisters had most likely stayed and married into the community.

Now they had in front of them every proof that their reason could need in Jesus’ wise words and miraculous deeds, but instead they took offense in their unbelief.  The Greek pictures a “trap” or being “tripped up.”  They had a clear and logical path in front of them that this Jesus was the Savior, but their human reasoning caused them to stumble.  It’s like the phrase, “if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, chances are it’s a duck.”  Only their reasoning kicked in and they said “wait a minute – we seen it for years – it can’t be a duck.”  We’ve seen Jesus for years – he can’t be the Messiah.”  And they countered the marvelous message of gospel truth with scoffing, sarcasm, and scorn.   Jesus wasn’t going to tell them anything.  And we know how bad it got there.  The hometown people who should have welcomed him with open arms instead were all too willing to try to push him with those arms off of the cliffside for his message.  Isaiah in 53:3, had well before this time predicted that the Messiah and his marvelous message, would be “despised and rejected by men,” as they “thought nothing of him.”  We see it here in the friends and family he knew on a personal level.  We will see it again as he trudges towards the cross.

It was Jesus who then marveled at them. “Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own house.’  He could not do any miracles there except to lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.  He was amazed at their unbelief.  Then he went around the villages teaching.”  Only a few heard and believed and sought out Jesus for help and healing.  Only a few received rest for their souls in Christ.  What a sad day for our Savior, but he had more work still to do and more souls to get his saving message to and he pressed forward for us.

Marvel for a moment at a few things about today’s message.  1) This message belongs to the Messiah.  That makes it according to Scripture: unbreakable, certain, and eternal.  It is the word of God in which God tells us the truth about our sins and inability to save ourselves, and the truth about how he has saved us through the work of Jesus.  And because this message belongs to God it has and maintains its priceless value.

Our sinful flesh likes to devalue God’s message.  No human minister will be perfect, and yet a pastor’s inabilities does not devalue God’s message.  A church may not seem to be keeping up with the times – especially when it comes to challenging doctrine or cultural changes – even to the point of a church’s teachings being offensive to the modern ear.  Yet that does not devalue God’s message.  A young person may know about Jesus from infancy and be brought up in the faith and end up hearing the very same Bible stories over and over again and have that “familiarity breeds contempt” set in where the church feels like their parent’s church.  Yet that does not devalue God’s message.

This message matters because: 2) This message is all about the marvelous Messiah.  We can fall into the same trap as the local Nazarenes.  We can miss the promised Messiah standing right in front of our eyes.  We can be tempted to devalue him or what he has to say.  It’s sort of like taking a road trip to a national park this summer and gazing up at the Yosemite waterfalls or taking a moment under giant arches or peering across the Grand Canyon at sunset and instead of being excited, grateful, or willing to take in the marvelous sight – you are offended that you have to be there.

Let’s not do that with our marvelous Jesus.  Left to our own devices we’d be stuck in unbelief.  We were born into sin and born hostile to the Messiah and his message.  Your sinful flesh is proof: today even it insists and persists to act against God in spite of knowing his marvelous message.  That is scary.  Who can save us from our sin that would sweep us away us to hell?

Christ Jesus our Lord.  He knew the ingratitude he would face, and yet he went forward and would stop at nothing to bring you safely home to his side in heaven.  He lived for you.  He died for you.  He continues to use everything in this world to draw you closer to him.  He sends out the Holy Spirit who works through the gospel message to covert your hearts and strengthen your faith – even wrestling unbelief from our minds.  God helps us to believe his marvelous saving message about the Messiah, Jesus.

And also remember that 3) This marvelous message of the Messiah is now yours to share.  I know it’s hard when those we know and love don’t want to hear about that Jesus.  Your Savior knows what that feels like – he lived it as those familiar faces in Nazareth looked back at him and took offense at him.  But that means he also knows how best to encourage you and help you prepare to share his message of forgiveness and life.  Remember that at the end of our reading: Jesus kept going.   And he helps us keep going because with him we are ultimately going home to heaven.

I hope this weekend you had a good gathering with friends or family.  I hope you had a moment to marvel at the blessings God gives to us in this country.  But even if you spent the week alone or behind a desk at work, you have this moment this morning, to be reminded of the marvelous Message of the Messiah.  Let this be your good gathering around God’s truth that Jesus has saved you from your sins.  And our prayer is: “Lord help us hear and believe and share your marvelous message of my salvation.”  Amen.