A former army
drill sergeant took a new job as a school teacher; but just before the school
year started he injured his back. He was required to wear a plaster cast around
the upper part of his body. Fortunately, the cast fit under his shirt and
wasn't noticeable.
On the first day of class, he found himself assigned to the toughest students in the school. The smart-alecky punks, having already heard the new teacher was a former drill sergeant, were leery of him. They decided to see how tough he really was, before trying any pranks.
Walking confidently into the rowdy classroom, the new teacher opened the window wide and sat down at his desk. When a strong breeze made the teacher's tie flap, he picked up a stapler and promptly stapled the tie to his chest.
He had no trouble with discipline that year.
On the first day of class, he found himself assigned to the toughest students in the school. The smart-alecky punks, having already heard the new teacher was a former drill sergeant, were leery of him. They decided to see how tough he really was, before trying any pranks.
Walking confidently into the rowdy classroom, the new teacher opened the window wide and sat down at his desk. When a strong breeze made the teacher's tie flap, he picked up a stapler and promptly stapled the tie to his chest.
He had no trouble with discipline that year.
The
Gospel reading from Mark 6:1-13 occurs just after the healing of the woman with
a hemorrhage and the raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead. It is two
different stories about faith, and that’s where the similarity ends. Unlike the
two miracles that we heard about in last week’s Gospel reading, which
demonstrate faith in Jesus, the first parable we heard in this passage is about
the lack of faith.
By
the time Jesus returned to his home town of Nazareth, the stories of his
healings and miracles had spread far and wide. Even the people in his home town
had heard of his popularity, so you would expect that he would have been
accepted by the hometown crowd and welcomed with open arms. Unfortunately that
was not the case. He was seen as the son of a carpenter or the son of Mary and
Joseph, and not as the Son of God.
It
would be like me being called by God to be an evangelist like Billy Graham,
complete with worldwide crusades and thousands of people coming to Christ in
faith. If I then returned home and conducted a crusade here, would I be seen as
a man of God or as just the son of Fred the school principal and Marilyn the
pharmacist?
Jesus
was surprised by the unbelief of the crowd, and not because he was expecting to
be welcomed as a hometown hero. The lack of faith always caused Jesus to be
amazed because he is all-knowing, almighty, all-present and all-loving. Why would
someone not trust him? If you consider the population of Nazareth at
the time of Jesus, you can understand why he was not accepted.
For
starters, most of the people were poorly educated if they had any education at
all. They could not read the precious scrolls in the synagogue, so the only way
they could learn their religious heritage was to listen to the rabbis, who were educated. Jesus did not have the
formal training required for rabbis, so in the eyes of the people, he was just
a local boy who was “putting on airs”. To make matters worse, the scribes in
Jerusalem had been spreading rumours about Jesus—rumours which had also reached
Nazareth. For example, in Mark 3:23 Jesus was accused of working with the
devil.
A
son was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps but not go beyond them. If
a boy’s father was a carpenter, then the son was to be a carpenter as well-but
nothing more. When the people heard Jesus teach in the synagogue, they were on
the verge of applauding him, but they didn’t because they saw him as just a
carpenter.
What
they failed to see was that Jesus was
following in his father’s footsteps-his heavenly
father’s. Jesus really upset them when he told them that it takes outsiders
to see what the locals refuse to see. In this area, we are the same. For
example, how many of the local business were started or purchased by people who
“came from away”?
So
why couldn’t Jesus perform many miracles in Nazareth? It was because of a lack of faith. We know that unbelievers, like the people
of Nazareth, often fail to tap into God’s power. If they had put faith in
Jesus’ wisdom they would have heard God’s guidance and encouragement. If they
had looked deeper into Jesus’ cures, they would have seen God reaching out to
rescue them. Instead, they missed out on the greatest miracles of all.
Jesus
took the rejection in stride and continued his ministry be sending out the
twelve disciples. He sent them out with only the barest of essentials-one cloak
and a staff. He wanted them to trust God to provide for their needs. They were
to concentrate on their mission. Plus, Jewish custom at that time was to offer
hospitality to travelers. Jesus wanted the disciples to stay at the first house
that offered them a place to stay in each city or town that they visited,
rather than moving from house to house.
Warnings
about the trappings of affluence need to be heard again today, especially when
we hear stories of millions of dollars flowing into Christian
ministries-dollars that are used to finance the leaders’ lifestyles instead of
being used to do God’s work in the world. They need to be more like Roman
Catholic priests in that functional simplicity is better. For example, many of
you have heard that the local Roman Catholic priest is retiring and moving away
from the area in a few weeks. He has to buy a lot of furniture and other items
for his new apartment. That is because just as the twelve disciples travelled
lightly and depended on the hospitality of the people in the towns and cities
they visited, Roman Catholic priests also have very few possessions of their
own and have to rely on their parishes for housing, furnishings and
hospitality.
God
calls us to let go of some of the assumptions and rules we have about how we
have always done things. The rules can be more of an obstacle than an aid in
our spiritual journey. He calls us to leave behind our pride and ego. He strips
these things from us so that we might travel light again and rely on God’s
power alone to guide us and trust His grace to support and sustain us.
So
why did Jesus send the twelve out in pairs? He had three main reasons. First, a
partner provides strength, protection and companionship. Second, a partner also
provides credibility. Deuteronomy 15:19 required two or three witnesses in
order to convict a person of a crime, because a single witness was likely to
make a mistake. For the same reason, one witness had less credibility than two
(and perhaps that is why Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses always come knocking
on our doors in pairs today). Finally, a partner holds people accountable. A
person is less likely to succumb to temptation when accompanied by a partner.
Jesus
wanted the disciples to know that they would travel the open roads of Palestine
penniless and expecting to be welcomed with open arms, especially in their own
home towns. He also wanted them to know that the Gospel message was a hard one
to preach and a hard one to hear-not popular, not easy, and not automatically
earning respect, especially at home.
Those
who refused to show proper hospitality, or those who refused to listen to the
disciples’ message, were to be treated as pagans. As such, the disciples were
to do what the Jews did after they walked through Gentile lands-namely, shake
the dust off of their feet as they left. Not only did this warn the offenders,
it freed the disciples to move to more fertile territory-just like Jesus did
after the people of Nazareth rejected him.
Jesus
and the disciples always challenged the status quo, and we need more people
like them today. We need people who will speak the truth and shake us out of
our comfortable lives, just like many of us were shaken out of our comfortable lives
when the paper mill was closed recently. We need people who will comfort the
afflicted and afflict the comfortable, just like people in our community are
prepared to help those who have been affected by the mill’s closure. We need
people who will cooperate with God’s plan for their lives. In other words, we
need people of faith.
Just
like the people of Nazareth did not really know Jesus, it is possible for us to
not really know Jesus. We can understand him and what he can do for us, but we
often play it safe and refuse to take risks. More important, we might not know
him personally. God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things in our
world. Jesus was just an ordinary man in the eyes of the people of Nazareth,
but he was God in human form and could do extraordinary things. Every Christian
has a part to play in God’s master plan.
This
story represents one of the few failures in Jesus’ ministry, but it also shows
his human side. Like Jesus, we will all face failure at some point in our
lives. Some of you might be feeling a sense of failure now as a result of the
mill’s closure. It might be a sense of failure as a provider, or a sense of
failure in life, or a sense of some other form of failure. Failure is hard
because society has conditioned us for success, but it has not adequately
prepared us for failure. We look at people such as Tiger Woods or Sidney Crosby
and see only success. The only time we really see failure is when it involves
someone famous such as Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Amy Winehouse, Whitney
Houston or even evangelists such as Jimmy Swaggart or Jim Bakker.
Those
who accept God’s call to follow him will face rejection in its many
forms-persecutions, insults, hostility, contempt, scorn, etc. They are the
common situation for those who accept the call. Just like Christ rejected the
way of glory and found glory in obedience and death, we must also reject the
way of the world and accept the way of the cross. Christianity is not a
religion for those who want success or power in the traditional worldly sense.
Jesus
faced failure, but he kept on going. We can face failure and keep on going if
we have the faith, courage, wisdom and strength that come with both believing in
Jesus and fellowship with fellow believers. When Jesus sent the twelve disciples
out, he prepared them to handle failure. He constantly prepares us for failure
through his word and our faith. If we want to do something for the Gospel or
for God, we have to believe them and behave according to their teachings. We
must have faith and let our actions match our faith. When we do, Christ will do
deeds of power thought us, and the world will be blessed by our having been
here.
Bibliography
1. Stanley, C.F.: The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles
Bible, NASB (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.; 2009)
4. Jude Siciliano, O.P., “First Impressions, 14th
Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)”. Retrieved from www.preacherexcchange.org
8. MacArthur, J.: The MacArthur Study Bible, NASB
(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers: 2006;2008)
9. McKenna, D.L., & Ogilvie, L.J.: The Preacher’s
Commentary Series, Volume 25:Mark (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.: 1982)
10. ESV Study Bible. Part of Lessonmaker 8 Bible software
package
11. Commentary on Matthew & Mark. Part of Lessonmaker
8 Bible software package
12. Matthew Henry Concise Commentary. Part of Lessonmaker
8 Bible software package
13. Wycliffe Bible Commentary. Part of Lessonmaker 8 Bible
software package
14. The Rev. David Shearman, “Hometown Celebrities”.
Retrieved from http://seemslikegod.org/articles/hometown-celebrities/
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