Mark 6:1-13 A Prophet Without Honor
1 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, 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 offense at him.
4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor 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.
It amazes me the difference between Luke and Mark. In Luke if you know who Jesus is you know the account of His birth, you know He was born of a virgin, that the wise men came bearing gifts, that He had to flee to Egypt because they sought to kill Him. Surely you know about the kids who were murdered but that was 30 years ago, and you never connected that with the prophecies in the Old Testament. So yes, this is Jesus’ “hometown” but that is the hometown after they returned from Egypt. They were still keeping everything on the down low because they didn’t want another assassination attempt. Jesus is amazed at their lack of faith but look what accompanies that, a sense that you know it all. They know absolutely nothing and yet they feel they know it all.
For example the story is that at 12 years old Jesus astounded the leading scholars with his understanding of scripture. That was when he was living in Nazareth. If you actually knew Jesus how could you not know that? But they don’t they say “isn’t this the carpenter”. They don’t know Him, they know of Him. They know His family, they know He is “the carpenter” but they don’t know Him. Imagine this is you, there are those close to you who are raptured, you know of them, you know their family members, but you never knew them, you only knew “of them”.
Now compare that with those people who actually did know Him. Think about Peter, John and James. Think about His cousins, His mom, and all the disciples. Surely all that was going on right under their noses, they were oblivious.
If you want to have faith you must spend time with the Lord, read the word, pray, worship. If you do that then you will recognize those who are also close to the Lord.
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve
Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. 7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.
8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
It seems to me that very few Christians have read this. Why do I say that? Well what do they do if Facebook suspends them, if Facebook does not welcome them or does not listen to them? Do they shake the dust off their feet and move on? When I heard that Apple, Amazon and Google all deplatformed Parler, treating them reprehensibly I shook the dust off and vowed not to have anything more to do with them. I used to spend $500 a month with Amazon, I haven’t bought anything from them since and cancelled all my subscriptions. I stopped using Google and began using DuckDuckgo, I stopped using Chrome (as much as possible, I have to use it for work) and began using Dissenter. This is what the Lord says, leave the place and shake off the dust. I hear many going on and on about the censorship. Why? Because they refuse to leave that place and shake off the dust. I got suspended on Facebook, they said someone was offended by one of my posts. They didn’t tell me which post, they didn’t say what I had said that was offensive, so there was no way for me to adjust my behavior or apologize if there was truly something offensive. Instead they suspended me for 30 days. I said no, you are not welcoming me, you are not listening to me, fine, I will leave and go elsewhere. I had to do a search of the internet to learn how to delete my Facebook account, but I did that very same day. Imagine if every time Facebook suspended someone for speaking the truth or the gospel they did that. Stop crying and whining about these tech giants, if they do not welcome you, if they refuse to listen to you, take that as your cue to move on. Make sure you shake off the dust. Recently DeBlasio announced that on August 16th in NYC you would have to have a vaccine certificate to go to the gym or restaurant. I went that day to my Gym and cancelled my membership and told them it was because of DeBlasio’s announcement. I understand that 60% of the people going to these gyms are not vaccinated in NYC, suppose on that same day 60% of gym memberships were cancelled! That would have sent a powerful message to DeBlasio. Stop whining, just leave, there are other people to bring the message to, other places. Shake off the dust, do not support these businesses, don’t even let them count you in their metrics.