Teaching on the Sabbath

Covenant with God

Signs of God's Covenant

Sabbath Observance

Mark 6:1-6 The Message

Just a Carpenter

6 1-2 He left there and returned to his hometown. His disciples came along. On the Sabbath, he gave a lecture in the meeting place. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. “We had no idea he was this good!” they said. “How did he get so wise all of a sudden, get such ability?”
3 But in the next breath they were cutting him down: “He’s just a carpenter—Mary’s boy. We’ve known him since he was a kid. We know his brothers, James, Justus, Jude, and Simon, and his sisters. Who does he think he is?” They tripped over what little they knew about him and fell, sprawling. And they never got any further.
4-6 Jesus told them, “A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child.” Jesus wasn’t able to do much of anything there—he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that’s all. He couldn’t get over their stubbornness. He left and made a circuit of the other villages, teaching.

For Reflection

I started my teaching career at the high school from which I graduated.  I then worked along side with some of the teachers who knew me as a very immature teen. That they accepted me at all was a measure of God's grace. Perhaps they spoke of me as the people talked about Christ.  I understand Jesus's reaction.

As much as the Pharisees tried to undermine Christ with their constant attempts to demonize him, Christ knew that the religious law was insufficient to speak to all forms of worship.  Christ healing on the Sabbath was prayer, not work. The Pharisees would not have been capable of seeing the act of healing as it was because they were too invested in the law and oral traditions to be open to such a concept.  They were blinded by the desire to destroy the threat rather than to be changed by the truth.

Pray

Pray for those who are so blinded by their perceptions that the Holy Spirit cannot move them forward into enhanced Christian maturity. Pray that your understanding of an authentic Christian will enable you to meet challenges as opportunities to grow in grace.