Mark 6:1-6
Jesus left there and went to his home town, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
“Where
did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that
has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? 3 Isn’t
this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James,
Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took
offence at him.
4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith. (NIV)
As
I'm on sabbatical, I thought I would take the opportunity to visit
other churches over the next few weeks. My first outing was to
Proclaimers Church at the Novotel in Ipswich.
I
got a great welcome, so thanks to them. The sermon was based on the
passage from Mark above. I've read it lots of times before but never
preached on it. And my attention was drawn to something I'd not
noticed previously. It's in verse 5. Such was the lack of faith of
people in His home town, that Jesus was only able to do a few miracles.
His blessings to them were limited by this lack of faith. We don't know
if this was the same incident as in Luke 4 but either way, Jesus was
driven away by their lack of faith and He went elsewhere and others
received the blessings.
Jesus wants us to receive His
blessings, but our lack of faith often means we miss out as we are not
ready to receive. We may even witness one or two miracles or answered
prayers, but our lack of faith means that we can in effect push Him away
from us. Because we have experienced a few things Jesus has done, we
think we are OK and don't examine the areas in our life where we aren't
faithful, full of doubts or unbelieving.
Yet Jesus
wants to bless us so much more. He wants to see us have victory in
overcoming the difficulties in our lives, to find strength to face the
future, and most of all, to see the blessings He wants us to have as we
believe. As we pray in the Spirit we will see His work in the lives of
those we pray for and in ourselves.
From Mark's Sabbatical Blog May 2015
