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Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – July 7, 2024
Mark 6:1-13
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oftentimes homecomings are wonderful occasions. Think of kids coming home from college for the summer. Think of those joyful reunions on the tarmac at NAS Whidbey when a squadron returns and a family is reunited. Think of those times when you’ve been away from home and how good it feels to sleep once again in your own bed.
Oftentimes homecomings are wonderful occasions – but not always.
Jesus returned to Nazareth from a productive road trip where total strangers believed in him. There was the hemorrhaging woman we met last week who said, “If only I touch his clothes, I will be made well.” Now that’s faith in Jesus, and Jesus told her that her faith made her well. There was Jairus, the leader of the synagogue in Capernaum, who sought out Jesus when his daughter was so desperately ill. He trusted that he could help them. That’s faith too! These and many other total strangers believed in Jesus. They had faith in him. They trusted him.
Then Jesus went home to Nazareth, the village where he grew up. Jesus might have looked forward to his mother’s home cooking. He might have lingered in his father’s carpentry shop, smelling the wood, remembering working alongside Joseph, learning his trade. As we heard, in Nazareth Jesus was surrounded by relatives. Perhaps they were literal brothers and sisters, perhaps they were half-brothers and half-sisters from Joseph’s side, perhaps they were what we would call cousins. The nature of these relationships isn’t entirely clear, and the witness of the church varies. But regardless of precisely how they were related to Jesus, this was family. These were the people he grew up with.
Jesus would have known this little village of Nazareth like the back of his hand – every corner, every tree, every person. But they did not know him. Oh, they thought they knew him. When Jesus taught in his hometown synagogue they asked, “Is this not the carpenter? Is this not Mary’s son?” They thought they knew him. But they didn’t know him. Not really. Unlike the total strangers he had met out on the road, Jesus’ hometown crowd did not believe in him. They did not have faith in him. They did not put their trust in him. In fact, they were offended by him. “They took offense at him,” the scriptures tell us.
It is hard to know exactly what the people of Nazareth found so offensive about Jesus. Mark, the gospel writer, doesn’t tell us anything about what Jesus said when he taught in the synagogue that day. But we can make some fairly safe assumptions based on what Jesus had said and done leading up to this homecoming. Jesus had been saying and doing things that only God himself could say and do. Jesus announced the forgiveness of sins. He announced the coming of the kingdom of God. Jesus cast out demons. He healed the sick and raised the dead. He called people to repent and believe the good news, to repent and believe in him. Out on the road, many did. But here in his hometown of Nazareth, they didn’t.
Jesus lamented this disappointing homecoming with a proverb: “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And, as the scriptures poignantly note, Jesus was amazed at their unbelief.
This wasn’t a joyful homecoming, to be sure, but this homecoming is instructive for the church today.
First of all, Jesus’ return to Nazareth reminds us that the gospel is indeed offensive to many people. The forgiveness of sin is only good news to those who first recognize and accept that they are sinners. Forgiveness is only received as good news by those who know they need it. Many people, then and now, want affirmation, not forgiveness. They want their behavior excused rather than forgiven. To announce forgiveness is to presume there is something to be forgiven for, which not everyone accepts, and which many people find very offensive.
To make matters even more challenging, we live in a time where people are easily offended. We live in a culture which seems to actually incentivize being offended. It gets you attention. It makes you seem righteous. It gives you a certain amount of cultural power. Comedians in particular have been noting this recently. Even someone as innocuous and mainstream as Jerry Seinfeld has recently noted that there are very few new sitcoms being made, and he attributes this to networks and advertisers being afraid of a hypersensitive culture. He has said he won’t perform on college campuses for the same reason. So many are just looking for reasons to be offended.
We can’t expect to be immune to this as the church. We will offend people. No matter how winsome and kind and gentle and loving we try to be – and we should try to be all of those things! – there are people who will take offense at us and the gospel we bear. If Jesus himself experienced this, how can we expect anything less? Do we think we can do those things better than him?
We not only live in a time of offense, but of unbelief. I have been encouraged recently to see some studies and commentators here and there starting to suggest that the steep decline of Christianity in the United States in recent decades looks like it has leveled off, with Christianity showing more resilience than many expected. But it is still true that a large percentage of our neighbors do not believe in Jesus. They do not have faith in him. They have not placed their trust in him. This is particularly painful for those of us with loved ones who do not believe, especially when they are people close to us who, like the people of Nazareth, have grown up with Jesus their whole life, but no longer seem to know him.
Jesus’ homecoming in Nazareth reminds us that even those who have grown up with Jesus may not always recognize him as their Lord. They may not always believe and trust in him as their savior. They may think of him as that guy they grew up with, but they don’t see how he can be who he says he is. Again, if Jesus himself experienced this, how can we not? It is entirely possible to do everything right in raising your kids with Jesus and still have them not seem to know him when they grow up.
So what does Jesus do in the face of offense and unbelief? Well, he doesn’t give up, that’s for sure! He doesn’t react with anger or despair. He doesn’t call for fire and brimstone to rain down on his hometown. Instead, Jesus went about among the villages teaching. He kept at it. With patience and determination, he continued on with his ministry. He did not give up.
Not only did Jesus not give up, he multiplied his efforts as he sent out the disciples. He sent them out in pairs. He gave them authority over unclean spirits, equipping them with the same authoritative word by which to forgive sins and cast out demons and bring healing and new life. Jesus instructed them to travel light and to trust him. And when they faced rejection, he told them to shake it off and move on.
When Jesus faced offense and unbelief, he did not retreat. Instead, he patiently taught. He also commissioned others to bring his word to people, to patiently and diligently teach and preach and bear witness to the gospel.
As the church today, we have been commissioned into this task. As disciples of Jesus today, this is our calling. This is no time for the church to abandon its mission. Yes, people will be offended. Yes, there will be unbelief. But the world needs Jesus, even if it doesn’t always realize it. The world needs us to bear witness to the gospel, even if people often reject us. People need Christ’s forgiveness, even if they are initially offended by it. People need his healing love, his saving grace. They need the new life he brings. They need his kingdom. We who have received all these blessings of the gospel have also been called to share them with others.
The homecoming at Nazareth was a disappointment for Jesus, to be sure. Jesus was amazed at their unbelief. But this was not the end of the story. Some of those in Nazareth who didn’t believe in Jesus then came to believe in him later. James, for instance, the brother of the Lord mentioned in this reading today, became a believer after the resurrection. He even became an important leader in the church in Jerusalem.
So don’t give up on that stubborn neighbor you’ve been inviting to worship. Don’t give up on those loved ones who do not seem to believe anymore. Jesus isn’t done with them, and you shouldn’t be either.
There is a homecoming our Lord Jesus has in store which will be a much more wonderful occasion than the one in Nazareth was. As important as our calling is to bear witness to the gospel, we entrust this final homecoming to him.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church