What Did You Expect?
Good Morning Friends,
For most of us, the most powerful negative feeling we will ever experience is the feeling of rejection. People are rejected by their parents, children, spouses, co-workers, friends, peers, and even fellow church members. In our scripture for today, Jesus visits his hometown, where he is rejected!
Today’s scripture tells of a homecoming, a reunion of sorts, which ends on a bad note. Jesus, a local boy, has come home. But he has come home as a prophet, not as the “carpenter” who left town. In the eyes of the town, he is not a prophet. He does not fit their expectations. They are too familiar with him, know him to well, to accept the “new” Jesus. Still others reject him today who are not familiar with him at all. I wonder how Jesus felt then and even now. Perhaps it hinges on what we anticipate to be outcome. Then again maybe something else altogether is at work. Maybe Jesus is using the situation as a learning experience for the disciples and us today so we might carry out the Gospel message to others more effectively. Certainly our emotions depend on our perspective. Our ultimate success depends on God. What Did You Expect?
Scripture: 6He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. 2On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary* and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence* at him. 4Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honor, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ 5And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching. 7He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; 9but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ 12So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Mark 6:1-13 (NRSV)
46Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’
John 1:46 (NRSV)
Message: Today we see how familiarity breeds contempt…how we too can be blinded by knowledge and our own baggage. Today we realize the importance that we can bring nothing to our experience of God and we cannot take anything with us into the Kingdom to come but a relationship. So do you see a Messiah or a Carpenter in today’s scripture? Can you imagine God in the flesh, standing right there in front of them teaching the disciples and they have no clue? Would you be joining those saying Jesus is just Mary’s kid? Would you reject Jesus because he was a carpenter? Would you reject Jesus because he says to take and eat? Would you reject Jesus because he tells you, you cannot take anything with you but a relationship. Maybe we are the same today as those people were back then… missing the point of the Kingdom in Jesus. We are all caught up in whether Jesus is serving his heavenly Father while he worked in the shop…if he was just killing time until he could get out and really begin his ministry…If we are just killing time until we die. We have these notions that vocational work is work with no spiritual content and sacred work is work that is spiritual in nature. We could say that a preacher’s work is sacred and a carpenter’s work is vocational. One works for God and the other pounds nails into wood. We could say that. But that is not the nature of things sacred. It is not the nature of the Messiah. Things sacred and profane are determined by one’s attitude and expectations…what we believe. If, in whatever we do in life, we do it to the glory of God, then our work is every bit as sacred as that of a full-time minister of the gospel. Every one of us is a minister and every one of us has a ministry. But we are instructed in today’s scripture that we are not to do it alone. And if you keep that in mind throughout your daily living, when others look down at you or discount your ministry or the sacredness of your work, you can answer their disbelief by asking them, “What did you expect?”
Pray we see the contrasts and teachings in today’s scripture. Pray we realize that even though we might be rejected for being Christian we will never be rejected by the one who matters most. Pray we believe in Jesus’ love. Pray we rejoice in local boys and girls that make good. Pray we do not miss the Messiah when he shows up. Pray we have a relationship with Jesus. Pray we have a relationship with other disciples. Pray we are fit and proper and unencumbered. Pray we expect a miracle.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 