Mark 6:1-6
“It Can Be Hard When Everybody Knows You”
“It Can Be Hard When Everybody Knows You”
Consider how you might react if your son or daughter was called to be the pastor of the church where you are a member and serve after they had been away for college and perhaps seminary.
There is an unwritten "rule" that exists in ministry. Its origin is unknown, but it is a rule most ministers recognize. The rule says that a preacher should never return to his or her childhood church as the pastor. Folks in your childhood church know you too well ever to accept you as their pastor. In the seventeenth century, a writer commented: "Ministers are seldom so acceptable and successful in their own country as among strangers, familiarity in the younger years breeds a contempt and the advancement of one felt an inferior begets envy." It can be hard when everyone knows you.
After a year in public ministry, Jesus returned as a Rabbi in Galilee. There are several issues we might consider in the scriptural account of Jesus' return to Nazareth.
Why go back home? It had been about a year since he left. Some months earlier, before his reputation spread, his home folk had tried to explain away his supernatural claims and protect their reputation of the family and community by suggesting "He is beside himself!" I think that Jesus went back home because he would not give up. The people of Nazareth were his people, and Jesus loved them. Maybe now they would believe. So, he went home!
Why did his disciples go with him? Jesus did not need them to go with him. I think that Jesus allowed them because the disciples needed him. They now needed the fellowship of his teaching and support. They needed to witness how Jesus dealt with rejection, as a pattern for reacting to the rejection they later would face.
On the Sabbath, Jesus preached in the synagogue! Jesus always "as his custom was" went to worship. Jesus met the people where they were and shared who he was. And "Many who heard him were astonished!" They thought they knew who he was. They knew his background and family. "And they took offense at him" because of the name he made for himself and his willingness to share his good news. (There is probably a whole sermon or message that could be preached from the text "And they took offense at him" as well.) The people of Nazareth felt that they knew Jesus, but they were wrong. There is a story about Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas, told by him, when he was judge on the Appeals Court in Washington. One morning as he drove his car from the court parking lot, a stranger opened the back door and climbed in. He gave Judge Thomas an address, and asked him to hurry. Seeing a black driver in a luxury automobile, the stranger assumed the car to be a limousine available for hire, but he was wrong.
Jesus could not accomplish much in Nazareth. Jesus healed a few. But there was so much more he would have done for the people, if they had believed in him.
By any human criteria, Jesus failed in his effort. I think when Jesus left that Sabbath afternoon those who were with him thought the trip was a waste of time. But through the window of history I think that Nazareth becomes a part of God's victorious plan. There is a message here in this Scripture for our lives.
God says: Don't give up on others! We may appear to fail in our effort. But many successes begin as failure. We fell down the first time we tried to walk. I almost drowned the first time I tried to swim and I am still not an accomplished swimmer. To hit his 714 home runs, Babe Ruth stuck out 1,330 times. We need to remember the example of Jesus and never give up. Jesus did not give up.
God encourages fellowship with other believers. In the book of Acts when people accepted Jesus as the Lord, the first thing they would do is bond into a church. Suffering would come and they needed each other's support and help. And so do we!
What others say must not deter us. Reputation and ridicule did not stop Jesus. Have we ever had a reputation we did not deserve? We may in our life have to live it down or live with it. But claims and rumors of others must never obstruct our faithfulness to Christ. Sometimes after one leaves an area to go to another to live, one hears about incredible rumors that swirled around while one was in that area.
God wishes us to come to him, but if we do not he will continue to seek us. Remember Jesus' story of the shepherd who lost a lamb? He left the 99 alone and went to look for the one that was lost. You and I can "know" Jesus. But what he wants is "more than knowing." Jesus wants us to open the door of our hearts and let him come in. The message of these verses in Mark 6 is the assurance that Jesus will come back again and again, knocking on the door of our life just like he went back to Nazareth.
God says: Don't give up on others!
God encourages fellowship with other believers.
What others say must not deter us.
God wishes us to come to him, but if we do not he will continue to seek us.
God says that we are to be a "light to the world."
Did you celebrate 4th of July three Sabbaths ago? What were some of the things you did? One of the things I like to do is go to a fireworks display. We have noticed some fireworks in the skyline the last few years. We have attended some down the street from our home in the park when Salem had celebrations; however this year there wasn't enough money in the city coffers to have a city fireworks display. It seems like the whole sky will light up when some of the rockets explode.
I have not had a sparkler for several years. Have you ever seen a sparkler? Well, sparklers are very bright! One can light up everything around it in the nighttime. It can almost act like a flashlight at night.
Jesus asks each of us to be a light for everyone around us. The children and adults we play with, the children and adults we invite to Sabbath Worship, Sabbath School and/or Bible School, and the grownups and children that live around us.
In Matthew (5:16) we read "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." And what is your light but your life! I think of a Vacation Bible School and camp chorus: "This little light of mine."
"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine (2x) … let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
"Shine all over Raritan Valley, I'm gonna let it shine (2x) … let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
"Don't let Satan whoof it out, I'm gonna let it shine (2x) … let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
"Let it shine till Jesus comes, I'm gonna let it shine (2x) … let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."
It can be hard when everybody knows you!
