Jesus in Nazareth
Sermon Preached by Reverend Stuart Langshaw on Sunday, 7 July 2024.
Mark 6:1-6
There’s a song by John Denver that was first recorded in the 1970s. “Country Roads, lead me home to the place where I belong. West Virginia, mountain mama, take me home country roads.” It’s the song of a man who wants to go home, realising that wherever he was at the moment, it wasn’t home. It could have been the song of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. And for all of us who are away from the place where we grew up – the place we regard as “home,” there is a special feeling as we remember all the wonderful things about Yorkshire, or about The Netherlands, or about Perth. Somehow we think of ourselves as belonging there, and with a fair chunk of that place in our hearts and lives. “Home is where the heart is,” and the heart is often where we were born.
A house is made of bricks and stone. A home is made of love alone.
A house is made of sticks and beams. A home is made of hopes and dreams.
In our gospel reading this morning, Jesus had started his ministry as a wandering teacher – and with him he had his band of disciples. Mark chapter 2 has Jesus in Capernaum, way up on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, 195 kilometres from Jerusalem. The religious authorities are keeping their eye on him, just as they would for anyone who was showing the signs of being a teacher and rabbi. Then in Mark chapter 6 we have this casual comment, “Jesus went away from there and came to his own country.” That was a mere 60 kms or so from Capernaum. But there was no public transport at all. They walked. It would have taken a few days and nights. But walk they did. Tanunda to Adelaide. And they walked.
I’m sure they weren’t singing along with Johnny Denver as they walked, and came closer and closer to Jesus’ home country. But I wonder if Jesus was wondering – wondering what sort of reception he would receive as he was greeted by the people who knew him. It wasn’t long before he found out.
Come the Sabbath Day, as usual Jesus was in the synagogue – the Jewish place of worship. He had his disciples with him – a sure sign that he was now fulfilling the role of a rabbi or teacher. Rabbis went everywhere with a number of companions who were learning from their rabbis. The Sabbath Day service proceeded as usual, and as usual they had their readings from the scrolls of the Torah – the Law, and from the scrolls of the Haftarah – selected passages of the Old Testament prophets. So far, so good. And then, being recognised as a teacher, Jesus was given the opportunity to expound on and explain the portions that had been read.
There was no surprise there- it was a Jewish custom that any recognised teacher could be invited to say a few words. It’s as if, sitting in the congregation here at St Andrew’s, there was a man or woman wearing a clergy collar, and the Rector invited that visiting ordained person to say something about the reading. That would be unusual in the way our services are structured, but at least the person so invited was recognised as someone who had the background and training to be able to say a few words.
Jesus spoke. Everyone listened. No-one interrupted Jesus in the synagogue – that would not have done at all. But afterwards, over Morning Tea, the rhubarb started. Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb, mutter, mutter, mutter. “How the heck did this bloke get all this knowledge?” they rhubarbed among themselves. “How did someone like him come by all this wisdom he’s been speaking,” they muttered to one another. “He’s a carpenter! He’s a chippy. He deals with wood and tools. He does construction and repairs. We know exactly who he us and where he’s from. There’s his mum, Mary. There are his sisters over there, still living here – as you’d expect good country Jewish women to do. And we remember his brothers, the three Jays, … James, and Joses and Judas … Jimmy, Joey and Jude.” What the Nazarethians had to say was very close to contempt.
In his gospel Mark uses six very telling words … “And they took offence at him.” Maybe they thought that Jesus had got too big for his sandals – a carpenter parading as a rabbi. Indeed! Maybe they thought that Jesus was flaunting some sort of superiority, turning up with disciples in tow, and speaking like that at Morning Prayer in the Synagogue. Maybe they thought Jesus was saying, “Look at me. Look at me. Look where I’ve got now. I’m no Nazareth country bumpkin any more … I’m a rabbi!”
“And they took offence at him.”
Frankly, because of their attitude, there was nothing Jesus could do there. He helped a few sick people – and that was it. No parables … no teaching … no conversations … no teasing out the meanings of passages of the Law. The Nazarethians’ offence at him was a barrier to their hearing Jesus. Their offence at him was a barrier to receiving anything at all from Jesus. Their offence at him erected an insuperable barrier between them and Jesus.
It’s very instructive to put those two statements from Mark 6 side by side – “They took offence at him.” “He could do no mighty work there.”
It’s tempting to think that, as Jesus left his own country with his disciples, and moved on to other villages teaching, that the stalwart citizens of Nazareth thought, “Well, we taught him a thing or two.” When the truth was that they had prevented themselves from learning a thing or two from Jesus, because he could do nothing there. Jesus had had to learn that for him, Nazareth was now not the place where he belonged, in the terms of Johhny Denver’s song.
There’s a principle to be learned here. God will not force his message into the life of anyone who does not wish to hear it. The people who say that, for them, faith in God “does not work” need to come to God ready to hear what God has to say to them. They can’t stand aside from Jesus as spectators and expect to enter into the joy and wonders of faith. They need to get involved, they need to have their minds revved up, they need to come with some reverence and humility into the presence of God, and be ready to appreciate what happens. If they stand aside “and take offence at him,” they will derive no benefit at all from worship, from learning, from fellowship.
We all know from those times when we have been having a tough spiritual time, that we have an attitude that almost sees us fold our arms, and sort of dare God to speak. God may well speak, but we may well not hear because of our attitude. It may be that we are in a disagreement with the preacher over another matter, and we almost challenge the preacher to say something, anything that will stir us. There is a whole raft of personal relationship dynamics that can get in the way of hearing what God has to say to us.
Many sorts of worries can also be a barrier to our hearing the message of God for us today. Worries about health. Worries about friendships. Worries about family. Worries about the future. Such worries are absolutely understandable, and such worries are inevitable. All of us are living in worrying international times in this world of ours at the moment. Some of us are living in worrying personal times at the moment. For Christians, the thing to do with worrying times is to bring them into the presence of God in our prayers. But if we sit and let these times fester within us, if “we take offence at them,” we are creating a barrier to hearing what God is saying.
We have, each and every one of us, ordained and lay, come to worship this morning. One of the temptations for a priest is to say, “I have to work hard and concentrate on getting this service right today.” And that can create a barrier to hearing what God is saying to that priest in the service. You may not recognise it, but some Sundays the priest sits or stands in Church, dressed in the vestments, and God reveals a truth to the priest in the well-known words of the liturgy. What the priest is bursting to say is “Stagger me!’ But the Prayer Book restricts him to saying, “The Lord be with you.”
Each and every one of us, ordained and lay, needs to come to worship with the prayer of the child Samuel from the Old Testament on our lips and in our hearts – “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” (I Samuel 3:9-10). Or we need to use the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 85:8 , “I will hear what the Lord God will speak.”
“And they took offence at him”. “He could do no mighty work there.” May we be among those who do not take offence at Jesus so that we may receive Jesus’ work for us. May we be among those who pray the prayer of Samuel, so that we may hear Jesus’ words to us.