WEEKLY
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An
international Sunday school lesson commentary
For
Sunday July 19, 2020
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THE WISDOM OF JESUS
(JESUS’ rejection at Nazareth)
(Mark 6:1-6)
Mark chapter 6 contains
five of the most familiar events of JESUS’ thirty-three year-long earthly residency
and ministry, and this perhaps makes it the most dramatic chapter in all of the
New Testament Scriptures. Here in this chapter we see:
·
“JESUS’ rejection in HIS OWN hometown of Nazareth”
(Vs.1-6).
·
In verses 7-13 we see “JESUS sending
out HIS disciples to preach and teach and cast out demons by themselves for the
very first time”.
·
And then taking up at verse 14 we see
John Mark’s account of “the death of John the Baptist”, the renowned “forerunner”
for CHRIST JESUS, our LORD (14-29).
·
In verses 30-44 we see John Mark’s
account of how JESUS famously and miraculously “fed 5000 men, along with their
women and children, with only five barley loaves, and two fish”.
·
And then finally, we see this chapter,
being brought to a close, with John Mark’s vivid description of JESUS’, now
legendary, “Walk on Water”.
This week, however, we’ll zoom our focus in
on the first of those five events, “JESUS’ rejection at HIS hometown of
Nazareth. When JESUS returned to Nazareth, after picking up some steam
preaching, teaching, healing, and casting out demons around the Palestinian countryside,
HE was setting HIMSELF up for a very severe test. In fact, there is never a
more severe critic of anyone, than those of one’s hometown, who have known you all
of your life.
However, this visit by JESUS was not meant
to be a private one. It was, instead, a very wise decision by JESUS that would
definitively show HIS disciples how they were to “handle rejection”. Here JESUS
is returning to Nazareth as a Rabbi, and HE immediately went into the synagogue to
teach the Word of GOD. Unfortunately for the Nazarenes, they greeted JESUS and
HIS teaching with contempt, and actually took offense to HIM even returning
there, in such a capacity.
“Familiarity” quite often breeds “contempt”,
and that was surely the case when JESUS returned home with “the Good News of
the Gospel” on HIS lips. They refused to listen to HIM, perhaps, for two very
human and unGODly reasons. First of all,
in their minds, JESUS was just a carpenter, a working man, just like them. And secondly,
JESUS had grown up there in Nazareth, right before their very eyes, and so they
couldn’t make the leap, that HE could be anybody even remotely special, and
that is pretty much the way we view people today, in our churches, and, in our
society. We tend to see only those “celebrities” who are created to serve the “world”
in a meaningless capacity, such as entertainment, etc.
However, we must be forever careful not to
evaluate people in the Christian Church by worldly, external, or incidental
standards, but rather, we should evaluate them by their native worth, that is
motivated by their desire to do what is right by the biblical standards of GOD.
This passage shows us that there can be no effective
preaching or teaching in “the wrong atmosphere”, and in those days, Nazareth was
clearly “the wrong atmosphere”. A person can never be healed spiritually,
physically, or otherwise, if they refuse to accept the treatment necessary to
make them whole again. One must, first and foremost, be receptive to education
and treatment, and the job of that person who can cure them, can only be done
if the person who needs the treatment will open the door to him, instead of
slamming it in his face.
Here JESUS wisely sought to prepare HIS
disciples for “rejection while ministering”, and to show them how they should
handle it, before sending them out into the world “as sheep among wolves”. HE
would later instruct them, that, if any place would not offer hospitality, or
listen to their message, they were to leave and “shake the very dust of that
place, off of their feet”. JESUS goes on to tell them that, “Verily I say
unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in “the Day of
Judgment”, than for that city” (KJV).
This passage also serves to remind us,
that, sometimes we can be too close to a person to see their greatness. When we
look at people, we should remember too, that, “no one is outside the purpose of
GOD”. GOD can and does, to some extent, use all human beings, and indeed, all
of HIS Creation, for HIS OWN intents and purpose.
One never knows who GOD may be using in
their life to advance HIS mighty purpose, but it can help us to see and discern
who those people are, by strengthening ourselves in the Word of GOD, and
thereby arming ourselves with the knowledge and wisdom that will allow us to recognize
the things of GOD when we see and hear them. We can then make the wise
decisions that will “help”, rather than “hinder”, the work that has long
ago been started, by CHRIST JESUS, our LORD.
A
Sunday school lesson by,
Larry
D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
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