Rejection and Commission: Mark 6:1-13
By Phil Higley | May 3, 2010
Mark 6:1-13 (ESV)
He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works 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 offense at him. 4And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.
7And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8He charged 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 put on two tunics. 10And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
Rejected at Homecoming (6.1-6a)
The themes of faith, and the growing opposition faced by Jesus, are continued in the story of the rejection of Jesus in his hometown. Jesus has come into conflict with the authorities (2.1-3.6) and with his own family (3.21-35). Now the opposition seems to spread to the town where he grew up. As in 1.22-23, the occasion of Jesus’ arrival in his hometown is not for a family visit, but for ministry and teaching (v. 2); and again Mark seems more interested in the negative reaction this provokes than in the actual contents of the teaching. This reaction is articulated in the rhetorical questions about Jesus’ origins and family (v. 3). At one level, all that is said is that Jesus’ origins imply that he is a very ordinary person. Whether anything more is implied is not very clear, but it’s possible to take the rhetorical questions as somewhat offensive. For example, it was very unusual to refer to a Jewish man as the son of his mother, rather than his father. Various possible interpretations have been suggested by scholars: is this hint of doubt about the legitimacy of Jesus’ birth (Joseph was not really his father)? Is this a hint that Jesus has no human father because he is the Son of God? It is doubtful though if Mark sees any great significance in the words here: any hints of the type suggested are at most extremely allusive. That said, it’s possible that Jesus’ audience was recalling the rumors about his illegitimate birth (see John 8.41; 9.29)—a man was sometimes called the son of his mother in ancient society if his father was unknown—which may indicate that the audience was purposely insulating him with this title as a reference to illegitimacy.
Likewise the mention of Jesus’ brothers and sisters is probably taken at face value and poses problems on a theological level to the Roman Catholic doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary, which actually comes at a much later period in Christian history. But perhaps more importantly, Mark here shows us that Jesus’ reply in v. 4 implicitly compared his own position with that of a prophet. But nowhere else in this gospel does Mark make much of the idea of Jesus as a prophet.
The story concludes with the note about Jesus’ inability or possibly unwillingness to do any miracle because of the unbelief of the people. This is the negative side of the positive correlation between faith and miracles seen already in Mark: miracles can and do take place in a context of faith. Conversely, where there is no faith, miracles cannot occur. Did Jesus not have the power to do miracles? No. He had the power to do miracles, but not the will, because they rejected him. Again, miracles belonged among those who were ready to believe.
Men on a Mission (6.6b-13)
This section consists of a preliminary commission where Jesus calls the Twelve and sends them out two by two so that they can (1) depend fully on God for all their needs, (2) proclaim a message of repentance, and (3) heal people. All of these acts were also associated with Jesus’ ministry. By these activities they were demonstrating that the kingdom of God had come with power. But the mission of the Twelve is a mere extension of the ministry of Jesus that completely overshadows it. Their independent mission waits till after Jesus’ resurrection of course.
The call and sending of the disciples is paramount in this version of the story. Jesus had carefully prepared his disciples for this mission. He had called them with the promise “I will make you fishers of men” (1.17). He had withdrawn on several occasions to give them special attention (3.7, 13; 4.10). And, all the while they had been with him, they had witnessed his mighty acts and had listened to his wise words. Now it was time for them to be sent out (e.g., 3.14-15: “that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons”). The sending of the disciples in pairs was so that the truthfulness of their testimony about Jesus might be established “on the testimony of two or three witnesses” (Deut 17.6).
Jesus says in v. 11 that if anyone doesn’t welcome the disciples or listen to them in a given region, they are to shake off the dust from under their feet as a witness to them. But what does this symbolic gesture mean? We know that it was customary for Jews to shake foreign dust off their clothes when they had been traveling outside the Holy Land. Thus perhaps the point is to treat such inhospitable people as foreigners, subject ultimately to God’s judgment (see Acts 13.51; 18.6).
Lastly, notice that in v. 12 it says the apostles preach so that people would repent. Jesus’ disciples, like their Master and the Baptist, seem to be involved in the same sort of eschatological preaching that requires repentance and turning back to God. Repentance is part of the Gospel message. They are also said to cure many sick and cast out demons. As pointed out earlier in our Mark series, demon possession and sickness are oftentimes distinguished; and that is the case here because notice that they require different sorts of remedies. Mark, it would appear, does not see demon possession as just another form of physical or even mental illness.
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Notes from:
The Oxford Bible Commentary, Edited by Barton and Muddiman, 2001.
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol 8, Edited by Gaebelein, 1984.
The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, Witherington III, 2001.
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I think you have something on the “son of Mary” analysis. Have to think about that. In my initial reading it seems Christ is revealing the difficulty of his own ministry then he sends out the apostles to experience similar difficulties in being rejected.
Is that the emphasis of “prophet without honor in his own country?” Why is this phrase used and what is is supposed to say to the original audience?
Something to dialogue around.
Brent, upon reading this passage over and over, it does seem that the second sentence of your first point is indeed the emphasis of the passage. Jesus is rejected and the apostles will also be rejected, but in the midst of that rejection the gospel is still being proclaimed, and not all is rejected by the hearers of the word.
When we are rejected over and over, we can look to the example of Jesus and even the sent out twelve and know that they too were rejected based on the message that they proclaimed. Of course we may also want to ask ourselves if the message that we’re proclaiming corresponds to Jesus and the gospel that he preached. Maybe we fool ourselves into thinking that we’re being persecuted for preaching the gospel but it’s not really the gospel, but our own perspective. I guess that I mean that it’s easy to put ourselves in the position of the twelve and say, “hey, ya, I proclaim the gospel all the time and I’m persecuted like Jesus and the twelve.” If we’re being persecuted, we always need to ask ourselves whether or not we’re being true witnesses to the true gospel. My point here is not to be self righteous based on being persecuted because it’s easy to make this text apply directly to ourselves.
As for the “prophet without honor in his own country?” Here are a couple of thoughts: One thought is that the people in the story were viewing Jesus too closely to themselves because they knew him from their own community while he was growing up. However, their own pride got in the way of appreciating his teaching. Mark doesn’t even mention what Jesus was teaching but does mention the people’s response. Their response is indicative of royally missing the point! Jesus was there teaching the Word of God, but the peoples arrogance prohibited their ability to actually listen and digest what Jesus was saying. This type of situation happens all too often in life. I mean, a person is converted to Christ and changes his or her life, and then starts proclaiming the truth, and then someone responds and says, “BUT, we know your past and know who you are and what you’ve done.” Sure, they may, but that doesn’t necessarily invalidate the truth of what the person is saying or the transformation in that person’s heart. This is even more evident in Jesus’ own life because he was without sin and the people are disrespecting him because they think he can’t say such things because of who his mother and who his brothers and sisters are…
I think what I’m trying to say is summed up in the proverb: “Familiarity breeds contempt.” The people knew Jesus well as a boy and a young man from their town, and therefore since they knew him they automatically thought he was nothing special. How sad is it that we do this all the time!!! We think we know God and we therefore view him as nothing special. We think we know Jesus so well and have “followed him” for long long that he is nothing special. We think that we’re so old and wise and aged that we know God and he’s nothing special. We think we’ve been to church so many times that it’s nothing special? We think we know our wives or husbands or sisters or brothers or friends so well that they’re no longer anything special. WE FORGET. How much more with the story of the Christ? If these people could have only seen into the future they would have swallowed their own tongues!
Tim Keller mentioned that people think they know the gospel message but they’ve forgotten it. Not mentally forgotten it, but forgotten it in their own hearts. Their hearts need to be awakened!
Good stuff, Phil. I was asking a similar question to your comments at the end. I wonder if Jesus becomes so familiar to us he is unable to awe us anymore? To change us.
Jesus is my homeboy…
Jesus is my LORD…