Jesus Couldn't

Mark 6:1-13

The Gospel today is a difficult one to process. we hear that Jesus "could do not deed of power there, except He laid His hands on a few sick people and cured them. And He was amazed at their unbelief." Mark's story has a parallel in Matthew 13:53-58. One wonders if this scandalized Christians so that later Matthew wrote Jesus 'did not do' many mighty works there (along with a couple other interesting edits). Did the later Gospels worry that Mark might be misunderstood and that the wrong conclusions might be drawn about Jesus?

The Scriptures are the revelation of God to us, but God uses human authors. How much autonomy they had is a matter of debate. What we do know is they are not always in complete agreement. The assumptions we bring to this collection of ancient books will dictate how we understand and interpret them. Mark clearly states that Jesus is amazed by their unbelief. What exactly does this mean? No one knows. We do not know the exact psychology of Jesus. We do not fully understand the flow of power from Jesus into others, what this power is, exactly. We do not know how human unbelief was a barrier to Jesus' ministry (after all He raised the dead and no one expected that). It seems important because it gives me reason to believe that not believing may well continue to thwart the saving ministry of Jesus in and through His church today.

The "God can do anything" assumption from which many of us operate, is not be the whole story. It appears that unbelief can block God's power. Perhaps, unbelief is sufficient to insure suffering and death are untouched by His healing love. It often seems to be the case in my life and ministry. I think this sheds light on the meaning of "saved by faith."

It is interesting that the crowds are amazed at Jesus, and He is amazed at unbelief in His home town. Jesus could be amazed, an important datum for understanding His humanity. The Gospel also reminds us that we cannot assume we totally know "the familiar." Jesus was familiar to them, but they did not know Him. The same is true of us. Sometimes the world is not what we think it is. There is a mystery at work in our ordinary lives. Believe and unbelief present God with opportunities to do mighty works, or thwart His efforts to save.

Mark 6 is not the whole story. There are other angles on this, for example in Matthew, but we do well to process all the information. All of it. Especially the parts of revelation which do not neatly fit into our theologies. And the Gospel raises the question: Are people amazed that the power of Jesus is manifest in me to heal, deliver and instruct them? Or is Jesus amazed at my lack of belief?