He went out from there. He came into his own country, and his disciples followed him.
Parallel Translations
-
He went out from there. He came into his own country, and his disciples followed him.
-
And he departed thence and cam into his awne countre and his disciples folowed him.
-
And he departed thence, and came into his owne countrey, and his disciples followed him.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (3)
Passages linked to Mark 6:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Luke 4:16-30 He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. He entered, as was his custom, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All testified about him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will tell me this parable, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done at Capernaum, do also here in your hometown.’ ” He said, “Most certainly I tell you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land. Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, except Naaman, the Syrian.” They were all filled with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things. They rose up, threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff. But he, passing through the middle of them, went his way.
- Matthew 13:54-58 Coming into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom, and these mighty works? Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? Aren’t all of his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all of these things?” They were offended by him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and in his own house.” He didn’t do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
- Matthew 2:23 and came and lived in a city called Nazareth; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets that he will be called a Nazarene.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (30 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The faithless world doth no whit at all diminish…
The faithless world doth no whit at all diminish the virtue of Christ, but wittingly and willingly depriveth itself of the efficacy of it, being offered unto them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1 And he went out from thence, and came…
1 And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.
Ver. 1. {See Trapp on "Mat 13:54"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain We meet with all this in Mat 13:53-58; See…
We meet with all this in Mat 13:53-58; See Poole on "Mat 13:53", and following verses to Mat 13:58. By
his own country, questionless, is meant Nazareth, the place of his education, though Bethlehem were the place of his birth; hence he was usually called Jesus of Nazareth. Luk 4:16, nameth Nazareth; though I cannot be confident that this text mentions the same motion of our Saviour’s. The constant practice of our Saviour on the sabbath days is observable: it is true, he had a liberty there to preach and expound the Scripture; but without doubt many things of a ritual nature were there done which our Lord was far from approving: their assemblies being not idolatrous, he judged it no sin to be present: the main things done there were of his Father’s institution; for other things, we never read our Saviour touched at them. Still the effect of our Saviour’s preaching to the Jews we find to be amazement and astonishment, but no faith. Men may be affected by the word that are not converted by it. That which troubled them was, they could not imagine whence our Saviour had his power to do those mighty works, and to speak things importing such a wisdom given unto him; they could not conceive how one that had never sat at the feet of their doctors, but had been bred up as a mechanic, should have such wisdom and knowledge, or such a power to work miraculous operations.
Read full note →
Is not this the carpenter. This makes it appear probable that our Saviour did, till he was thirty years of age, work with Joseph in his trade, whether of a carpenter or a mason (for τεχνων, signifies either). It is certain he did not begin to appear publicly and to preach till he was thirty years of age, and it is not probable that he lived all these years in idleness.
The son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon; that is, the kinsman, (as most interpret it), supposing Mary the mother of our Lord had no more children: I shall not determine it. They say these four were the children of Mary, sister to the mother of our Lord, and the wife of Cleophas. Mar 15:40; 16:1, we read of James, Joses, and Salome, as the children of that Mary; but of Judas and Simon we read not.
And they were offended at him; that is, although they heard such things from him, and saw such mighty works done by him, as they could not but think required a Divine influence and power, yet because by their reason they could not comprehend how one who had almost thirty years lived as a mechanic amongst them, should come by any such acquaintance with or extraordinary influence from God, their passion quickly went over; and though they were more modest than, with their corrupt teachers, to say he did this by the devil, yet neither would they receive him and believe him, but slighted and despised him; as if God’s influence had been tied to their schools of the prophets.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Our blessed Saviour having in the former chapter wrought…
Our blessed Saviour having in the former chapter wrought two famous miracles, in curing a woman of her bloody issue, and raising Jairus’s daughter from death, we find him here in the beginning of this chapter passing into his own country, that is, the city of Nazareth in Galilee, called his own city and country, because he was there conceived, there brought up; there Joseph and Mary, and his kindred dwelt, and Christ with them, duting his private life, which was till he was thirty years of age.
Now our Saviour being come into his own country; observe, 1. What his employment was: he preached in their synagogues, and held communion with the Jewish church, although she had many corruptions in her.
Read full note →
Teaching us, by his example, not to desert and forsake the communion of such a church, in which there is found neither heretical doctrine nor idolatrous worship, although many things be found in her culpable and blame-worthy. The Jewish church was certainly such, and yet our Saviour maintained not occasional only, but constant communion with her.
Observe, 2. The influence and effect which our Saviour’s preaching had upon his own countrymen, the people of Nazareth: it did work admiration in them, but not faith; they were astonished, but did not believe. Men may be mightily moved and affected by the word, and yet may never be converted by it: the men of Nazareth wondered, and yet were offended: they did not believe in him, but were offended at him.
Observe, 3. The ground and cause of this their offence, and that was, the meanness of his extraction, and the poverty of his condition: Is not this the carpenter?
From whence the ancient fathers, particularly Justin Martyr, concluded, that our Saviour did work at his father Joseph’s trade during his father’s life, and thence was called the carpenter’s son; and when Joseph was dead, (which was before Christ was thirty years old, when he entered upon his public office,) he was then called the carpenter.
The ancients say, he spent his time in making ploughs and yokes, and that thence it was he drew so many similitudes in his preaching from the yoke and the plough. This we are sure of, that our Lord lived not thirty years before his manifestation idly and unprofitably. It is most probable that he followed his father’s calling, and wrought under him it being said, that he was subject to him, Luk 2:15, as a child to a parent and as a servant to his master.
Add to this, that it seems not only true, but requisite, that Christ should be of some trade, because by the Jewish canons all fathers were bound to teach their children some trade: doubtless our Lord, during his private life, did give no example of idleness. Indeed, after he entered upon his prophetic office, he no longer followed Joseph’s calling, but applied himself wholly to the work of the ministry: he made no more ploughs, but one to break up hard hearts; no more yokes, but one for the devil’s neck. However, in regard to our Savior’s low extraction and mean education, his countrymen were offended at him.
Learn hence, That the poverty and meanness of Christ’s condition, was that which multitudes stumbled at, and which kept many, yea most, from believing on him. None but a spiritual eye can discern beauty in a humbled and abased Saviour.
Learn, 2. That it is the property and practice of profane men to take occasion, from the outward quality and condition of God’s ministers, both to despise their persons, and to reject their doctrine.
Observe, 4. The reason assigned by our Saviour why the men of Nazareth despised him and set him at nought, because he was their countryman and acquaintance: their familiarity bred contempt. Teaching us, That very often the faithful ministers of God are most contemned and dishonoured where they are most familiarly known. Sometimes the remembrance of their mean original and extraction, sometimes the poverty of their parents’ condition, sometimes the indecencies of their childhood, sometimes the follies of their youth, are ripped up; all which are occasions of contempt, and gave ground for this proverbial saying, That a prophet is not without honour save in his own country. Which, like other proverbial speeches, holds true in the general, and that for the most part it is so, but it is not universally true in all persons and cases.
However, this good use may be made of our Saviour’s observation, to teach his ministers to be wise in conversing with their people, not to make themselves cheap and common in every company, not too familiar with all sorts of persons, nor to be light and vain in any company; for this will certainly breed contempt, both of their persons and ministry.
Our duty is, by strictness and gravity of deportment, to maintain our esteem in the consciences of our people, and to temper gravity with condescending affability. That minister who prostitutes his authority, frustrates the end of his ministry, and is the occasion of his own contempt.
Observe, 5. How this people’s contempt of Christ’s person, and unbelief of his doctrine, did hinder Christ from working miracles among them: He could do no mighty works there. Not because he was unable, but because they were unwilling. Not as if their infidelity abated his divine power, but they were unprepared to receive any benefit by him; his miracles would have been cast away upon such inconvincible persons. Who will sow upon barren sands, or water dead plants?
It was an act of justice in Christ to deprive the Pharisees of those advantages which they had so long resisted. Christ had a natural ability to do mighty works there, but no moral ability. He could not do it honourably, their unbelief was a moral hinderance; so then this inability proceeded from no deficiency in Christ’s power, but from a defect in their faith. he could not, because he would not; and he would not, because it was not fit for him so to do.
Although Christ be omnipotent, and has all power in his hands, yet unbelief binds his hands, and hinders him in the execution of that power. Unbelief is such a sin, as keeps men from being partakers of the benefits of Christ.
Observe, 6. How the incredulity and unbelief of this people was so great, that Christ wondered at it: He marvelled because of their unbelief. Not because he was ignorant of the cause of it, but because he had used such marvellous means for the curing them of their unbelief.
Learn hence, That unbelief is a great sin at all times; but when marvels are wrought for the cure and healing of it, and it remains uncured, it is a marvellous sin, and justly causes admiration and wonder in Christ himself: He marvelled because of their unbelief.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here, I. Christ makes a visit to his own…
Here, I. Christ makes a visit to his own country, the place not of his birth, but of his education; that was Nazareth; where his relations were. He had been in danger of his life among them (Luk 4:29), and yet he came among them again; so strangely doth he wait to be gracious, and seek the salvation of his enemies. Whither he went, though it was into danger, his disciples followed him (Mar 6:1); for they had left all, to follow him whithersoever he went.
II. There he preached in their synagogue, on the sabbath day, Mar 6:2. It seems, there was not such flocking to him there as in other places, so that he had no opportunity of preaching till they came together on the sabbath day; and then he expounded a portion of scripture with great clearness. In religious assemblies, on sabbath days, the word of God is to be preached according to Christ's example. We give glory to God by receiving instruction from him.
Read full note →
III. They could not but own that which was very honourable concerning him. 1. That he spoke with great wisdom, and that this wisdom was given to him, for they knew he had no learned education. 2. That he did mighty works, did them with his own hands, for the confirming of the doctrine he taught. They acknowledged the two great proofs of the divine original of his gospel - the divine wisdom that appeared in the contrivance of it, and the divine power that was exerted for the ratifying and recommending of it; and yet, though they could not deny the premises, they would not admit the conclusion.
IV. They studied to disparage him, and to raise prejudices in the minds of people against him, notwithstanding. All this wisdom, and all these mighty works, shall be of no account, because he had a home-education, had never travelled, nor been at any university, or bred up at the feet of any of their doctors (Mar 6:3); Is not this the Carpenter? In Matthew, they upbraid him with being the carpenter's son, his supposed father Joseph being of that trade. But, it seems, they could say further, Is not this the Carpenter? our Lord Jesus, it is probable, employing himself in that business with his father, before he entered upon his public ministry, at least, sometimes in journey-work. 1. He would thus humble himself, and make himself of no reputation, as one that had taken upon him the form of a servant, and came to minister. Thus low did our Redeemer stoop, when he came to redeem us out of our low estate. 2. He would thus teach us to abhor idleness, and to find ourselves something to do in this world; and rather to take up with mean and laborious employments, and such as no more is to be got by than a bare livelihood, than indulge ourselves in sloth. Nothing is more pernicious for young people than to get a habit of sauntering. The Jews had a good rule for this - that their young men who were designed for scholars, were yet bred up to some trade, as Paul was a tent-maker, that they might have some business to fill up their time with, and, if need were, to get their bread with. 3. He would thus put an honour upon despised mechanics, and encourage those who eat the labour of their hands, though great men look upon them with contempt.
Another thing they upbraided him with, was, the meanness of his relations; "He is the son of Mary; his brethren and sisters are here with us; we know his family and kindred;" and therefore, though they were astonished at his doctrine (Mar 6:2), yet they were offended at his person (Mar 6:3), were prejudiced against him, and looked upon him with contempt; and for that reason would not receive his doctrine, though ever so well recommended. May we think that if they had not known his pedigree, but he had dropped among them from the clouds, without father, without mother, and without descent, they would have entertained him with any more respect? Truly, no; for in Judea, where this was not know, that was made an objection against him (Joh 9:29); As for this fellow, we know not from whence he is. Obstinate unbelief will never want excuses.
V. Let us see how Christ bore this contempt.
1. He partly excused it, as a common thing, and what might be expected, though not reasonably or justly (Mar 6:4); A prophet is not despised any where but in his own country. Some exceptions there may be to this rule; doubtless many have got over this prejudice, but ordinarily it holds good, that ministers are seldom so acceptable and successful in their own country as among strangers; familiarity in the younger years breeds a contempt, the advancement of one that was an inferior begets envy, and men will hardly set those among the guides of their souls whose fathers they were ready to set with the dogs of their flock; in such a case therefore it must not be thought hard, it is common treatment, it was Christ's, and wisdom is profitable to direct to other soil.
2. He did some good among them, notwithstanding the slights they put upon him, for he is kind even to the evil and unthankful; He laid his hands upon a few sick folks, and healed them. Note, It is generous, and becoming the followers of Christ, to content themselves with the pleasure and satisfaction of doing good, though they be unjustly denied the praise of it.
3. Yet he could there do no such mighty works, at least not so many, as in other places, because of the unbelief that prevailed among the people, by reason of the prejudices which their leaders instilled into them against Christ, Mar 6:5. It is a strange expression, as if unbelief tied the hands of omnipotence itself; he would have done as many miracles there as he had done elsewhere, but he could not, because people would not make application to him, nor sue for his favours; he could have wrought them, but they forfeited the honour of having them wrought for them. Note, By unbelief and contempt of Christ men stop the current of his favours to them, and put a bar in their own door.
4. He marvelled because of their unbelief, Mar 6:6. We never find Christ wondering but at the faith of the Gentiles that were strangers, as the centurion (Mat 8:10), and the woman of Samaria, and at the unbelief of Jews that were his own countrymen. Note, The unbelief of those that enjoy the means of grace, is a most amazing thing.
5. He went round about the village, teaching. If we cannot do good where we would, we must do it where we can, and be glad if we may have any opportunity, though but in the villages, of serving Christ and souls. Sometimes the gospel of Christ finds better entertainment in the country villages, where there is less wealth, and pomp, and mirth, and subtlety, than in the populous cities.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Matt. xiii, 54; Luke iv, 16.
Matt. xiii, 54; Luke iv, 16.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Our Lord's countrymen are astonished at his wisdom and…
CHAPTER VI.
Our Lord's countrymen are astonished at his wisdom and mighty
Read full note →
works, and are offended at him, 1-4.
He works few miracles there, because of their unbelief, 5, 6.
He sends forth his disciples by two and two to preach, &c.,
7-11.
They depart, preach, and work miracles, 12, 13.
Different opinions of Christ, 14-16.
Account of the beheading of John Baptist, 17-29.
The disciples return, and give an account of their mission, 30.
He departs with them to a place of privacy, but the people
follow him, 31-33.
He has compassion on them, and miraculously feeds five thousand
with five loaves and two fishes, 34-44.
He sends the disciples by sea to Bethsaida, and himself goes
into a mountain to pray, 45, 46.
The disciples meet with a storm, and he comes to them walking
upon the water, and appeases the winds and the sea, 47-52.
They come into the land of Gennesaret, and he works many
miracles, 53-56.
NOTES ON CHAP. VI.
Verse 1. And he went out from thence] That is, from Capernaum. See Clarke on Mt 13:54.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Mar 6:1-6. And he came into his own country,…
Mar 6:1-6. And he came into his own country, &c. — For an explanation of this paragraph, see the notes on Mat 13:53-58. Is not this the carpenter’s son? — There can be no doubt that Jesus in his youth wrought with his supposed father Joseph. He could there do no mighty work — Not consistently with his wisdom and goodness; it being inconsistent with his wisdom to work miracles there, where he knew the prejudices of the people would certainly prevent any good effect they might otherwise have had in promoting the great end he had in view in coming into the world; and with his goodness, seeing that he well knew his countrymen would reject whatever evidence could be given them of his being the Messiah, or a divinely-commissioned teacher. And, therefore, to have given them greater evidence would only have increased their guilt and condemnation. And he marvelled because of their unbelief — He wondered at their perverseness in rejecting him upon such unreasonable grounds as the meanness of his parentage. It is justly observed here by Dr. Macknight, that
“the Jews in general seem to have mistaken their own prophecies, when they expected the Messiah would exalt their nation to the highest pitch of wealth and power, for this was an end unworthy of so grand an interposition of Providence. When the eternal Son of God came down from heaven, he had something infinitely more noble in view: namely, that by suffering and dying he might destroy him who had the power of death; that by innumerable benefits he might overcome his enemies; that by the bands of truth he might restrain the rebellious motions of men’s wills; that by the sword of the Spirit he might slay the monsters of their lusts; and that by giving them the spiritual armour he might put them in a condition to fight for the incorruptible inheritance, and exalt them to the joyful possession of the riches and honours of immortality. Wherefore, as these characters of the Messiah were in a great measure unknown to the Jews, he who possessed them was not the object of their expectation. And, though he laid claim to their submission by the most stupendous miracles, instead of convincing them, these miracles made him who performed them obnoxious to the hottest resentment of that proud, covetous, sensual people. It seems they could not bear to see one so low in life as Jesus was, doing things which they fancied were peculiar to that idol of their vanity, a glorious, triumphant, secular Messiah. Our Lord, therefore, having made this second trial with a view to see whether the Nazarenes would endure his ministry, and to show to the world that his not residing with them was owing to their stubbornness and wickedness, he left them, and visited the towns and villages in the neighbourhood where he expected to find a more favourable reception. Thus the unbelief of these Nazarenes obstructed Christ’s miracles, deprived them of his preaching, and caused him to withdraw a second time from their town. In which example the evil and punishment of mis-improving spiritual advantages, is clearly set forth before all who hear the gospel.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain See this passage explained in the notes at Mat…
See this passage explained in the notes at Mat 13:54-58.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain After the miracles that Christ had performed, though he…
After the miracles that Christ had performed, though he was not ignorant how much they despised him, yet that there might be no excuse for their disbelief, he condescended to return to them. (Theophylactus)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain Mark Chapter 6
Mark Chapter 6
In that which follows, the history (properly so called) of His service is resumed (chap. 6). Only we see Him already rejected by a blinded people, in spite of the power which He had manifested, and which bore testimony to the glory of His Person. Nevertheless He pursues His service, and sends forth His disciples in order that no effort might be wanting; but with the testimony of the judgment that awaited those who should be guilty of the rejection of His mission-a rejection that was already taking place. The Lord however continues to give proof in mercy and in goodness that Jehovah, who had compassion on His people, was there; until at length He had to prepare His disciples for the certain result of His work, namely, His death by the hand of the Gentiles, to whom the chief priests would deliver Him.
Read full note →
To the Jews He was the carpenter, the son of Mary. Their unbelief stopped the beneficent hand of God with regard to themselves. Jesus carries on His work elsewhere, and sends forth His disciples-an act which implied the possession of divine power. It was still to Israel that the mission they received from Him directed them, and they were to pronounce judgment upon the land of Emmanuel, the land of Israel, as a polluted land, wherever their testimony should be rejected. They were to go forth resting on the mighty protection of Him who sent them, and they should lack nothing. He was sovereign Lord: all things were at His disposal. Christ can not only communicate blessings as the channel of blessing Himself, but can also confer on His disciples the power of casting out devils. The disciples fulfil their task. This passage shews forth in a remarkable manner the position and glory of Christ. He is the servant-for men, the carpenter’s son. In His new service, He takes no place but the filling up of that which God had given Him to do. He could do no mighty works there, because of their unbelief-ever ready to serve, but shut up, straitened in the exercise of His love, where no door opened to receive its influence; and nature judging according to sight never does. Only where a need was, His love, never tired, works-must work. The few sick folk profit by a love that despises none, because it never seeks itself.
But, in the following verse, He who could not work mighty works (because His service was dependent on divine conditions, on which God could found and carry on His intercourse with men, in order to reveal Himself) now gives power to others over all unclean spirits, a power which is divine. Any can work miracles, if God gives the power; but God alone can give it. They are to lack nothing, for Emmanuel was there; and to announce judgment if their message was rejected. Divine love had made Him entirely a dependent Servant; but the dependent Servant was God present in grace and righteousness.
But the effect of all these manifestations of power is, that the conscience of the king who then reigned in Israel is awakened; and the evangelist opens to us the history of the murderous opposition of the authorities in Israel to the witnesses for the truth. Herod had put John to death, in order to gratify the iniquity of a woman who pleased him-iniquity that he shared with her. A dance was worth the life of the prophet of God. Such was the ruler of Israel.
The apostles return. Jesus withdraws them from the inquisitive and needy crowd, by going into a desert place; but the multitude follow Him. Jesus, rejected as He is by the land He loved, has compassion on the poor of the flock, and manifests in their behalf the power of Jehovah to bless them according to Psa 132:1-18. He satisfies the poor with bread. Having sent the people away, He crosses the sea on foot; and, rejoining His disciples, the wind ceases-a figure, of which we have spoken when meditating on Matthew. Their work was finished. As to themselves, in spite of all His miracles, their hearts at that time were still hard, and forgot the miracles, one after the other. The Lord pursues His work of blessing. It was but to touch Him and be healed.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain 7. The Lord’s Conflict with the envious Unbelief of…
7. The Lord’s Conflict with the envious Unbelief of His own City; His Triumpn over Human Prejudice; His Return to the Mountain-Villages. Mar_6:1-6
(Parallels: Mat_13:54-58; Luk_4:14-30.)
Read full note →
1And he went out from thence, and came1 into his own country; and his disciples follow him. 2And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought2 by his hands? 3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses,3 and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. 4But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. 5And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. 6And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
See the parallels on Matthew and Luke.—As to Nazareth, consult Robinson, 3. 419; Winer, Reallex.; my Leben Jesu, ii. 550. Mark’s narrative is not only identical with Mat_13:54 seq. but also in its leading features with Luk_4:16, as is manifest from the recurrence of the question, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” and the saying, “A prophet,” etc. Notwithstanding, the points of time are so diverse, and have such an interval between them, that we must, following Matthew and Mark, assume a second and later appearance in Nazareth; one, however, which was only transitional and brief, inasmuch as the unbelief of the people of Nazareth remained the same. The special features of the narrative seem to belong mainly to the former of the two occasions. But how can a second visit of our Lord to Nazareth be conceivable, after he had been once rejected there? The first rejection had been no better than a tumult. This time He visits His own city in quietness, and for His own repose, after the decree to kill Him had gone forth from the Galilean Pharisees. But, experiencing the same utter lack of sympathy and regard on the part of His former fellow-citizens, He retreated back into the surrounding mountain-villages. It was the time (in the first year of His ministry) when He had accomplished the itineration of the mountains in the first Galilean journey, as also the second Galilean voyage over the sea to the farther bank; and when He was on the point of travelling over the towns of the valley of Southern Galilee, in the direction of Jerusalem. As He would confirm and corroborate this third and last Galilean preaching-journey by sending out the Twelve, a retreat into the mountains, and especially to a particular mountain, was fixed upon to precede. And He most probably took this occasion of visiting the district of Nazareth.
Mar_6:1. And He went out from thence.—Not merely, that is, “from the house of Jairus.” From this time forward, He ceased to have His abiding residence in Capernaum, although He still assembled His disciples around Him there on passing occasions. After the first conflict in Nazareth, He went down to Capernaum; He now designedly abandons again His permanent abode in Capernaum, without formally giving up His residence there.
Mar_6:2. He began to teach.—This does not mean His first entrance and its result; it rather refers to the interruption that soon followed.—That even such mighty works are wrought by His hands.—The ἵνα is characteristic. They regard the doctrine of Christ merely as a secret doctrine, which was intended to be the medium or instrument for the ultimate end of working miracles. And they enviously assume that this mysterious doctrine must have been entrusted to him by some one in a suspicious manner. Hence the emphasis laid upon the hands (laying on of hands, touching, etc.), as the method of performing the miracle. The working hands of the carpenter, they would say; as appears from what comes next.
Mar_6:3. Is not this the carpenter?—According to the custom of the Jewish people, even the Rabbis learned some handicraft. We have the example of the Apostle Paul: see Lightfoot, Schöttgen. But Justin Martyr (contr. Tryph.) has the tradition, that Jesus made ploughs and the like. “Whether with an ideal allusion, so that they became in His hands symbols, as Lange (Leben Jesu, ii. p. 154) thinks, may very properly be left to fancy.” Meyer. That Jesus regarded with a symbolizing mind and interpretation the toil of the fisherman, the fall of the sparrow from the housetop, the play of the children in the market-place—all this is not matter of mere fancy. But there is a kind of fancy, which men call inductive proof. It is represented, further, as a mere airy and baseless notion, to suppose that the brethren of Jesus would hardly have suffered Him to work much, because they saw in Him the glory of Israel. And yet it is not an airy and baseless notion, that His brethren early sought to deliver Him from the machinations of His enemies. What really deserves to be called fancy in the theological domain, is that aggregation of myth and anecdote which the scholastic learning of the present day so much abounds in.
No dogmatic importance can be attached (with Bauer and others) to the omission of “the carpenter’s son,” which Matthew has; since the expression, “the carpenter,” is only a stronger declaration of the same thing. But the former expression would not occur to the people of Nazareth, since they spoke from recent observation or past remembrances. In this way, the position of Jesus was referred back to, or identified with, Joseph’s. And it is obvious to suppose that Joseph had long before (between the twelfth year and the thirtieth of the Lord’s life) gone off the scene. As τέκτων has primarily a general meaning, and signifies any artisan, some, following Justin, have thought it signified here a maker of carriages, etc.; while others have interpreted into “smith.” But smith in the New Testament is δ χαλκεύς, and τέκτων is specifically a faber lignarius. Whether workmanship in wood was distributed into various kinds of handiwork, is a question not settled.—The brother of James.—As to the brethren of the Lord, comp. on Matthew. The apocryphal tradition adds to the four brethren, two sisters of our Lord: Esther and Tamar or Martha. Romanist expositors have, without reason, or for reasons well known, made these the sisters of His mother. These sisters seem to have been married in Nazareth; and therefore did not accompany the migration of Mary’s family to Capernaum.
Mar_6:4. Among his own kin.—Naturally, the immediate dependants and followers of Jesus stood related in manifold ways to the people of Nazareth. Christ does not say that His own house remained unbelieving, in the common sense of the term. But that there were restrictions of faith to be overcome even in this circle, springing from too great familiarity, is proved not only by the history of the Lord’s brethren, but also by that of His mother.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. See on Matthew.—This narrative exhibits to us the narrow, petty, bigoted, envious unbelief, which was unable to apprehend and understand the Divinely great in its human nearness and familiarity; and this makes the section a most striking example of unbelief, as it confronts and embarrasses the Lord. It is the unconscious self-condemnation and self-contempt of the spirit which, alienated from God, and sunk into the lowest level, cannot appreciate the prophet that has arisen in its own city. In our Lord’s experience of this kind of unbelief,—to which a prophet is nowhere less esteemed than in his own country, and among his own kin,—we have fore-written for us a long chapter of the history of the world and of the Church. The history of Monophysitism, on the one hand, and of Nestorianism and Rationalism, on the other, may be referred to this principle. The prejudice of the base nature, that out of Nazareth, in the immediate neighborhood, from our own home, and finally out of humanity itself, nothing good can come, led to all those systems in succession which, on the one hand, dehumanize the God-man, and, on the other, undeify Him. But when we say that Christ celebrated His triumph over this unbelief of envious prejudice and of human self-depreciation, we do not thereby assert that He removed that unbelief in anything like a magical manner. He triumphed over it rather by leaving it alone, by going on His way, and by performing His miracles in the neighborhood around. He drew round the pestilent prejudice a circle of divine manifestations, like a besieger. The honor paid to the Divine, which from all sides reacts upon this centre of prejudice, and leads back the homeborn, with acclamation and celebrity on all hands, to his home again—that is His final triumph over Nazareth, over Judaism, over humanity.
2. And He could there.—This does not express inability in itself; but, as Theophylact rightly observed, it indicates the absence of the ethical conditions on which the miracles of Jesus depended. His miraculous power was not magical; but an ethical influence which required and presupposed faith. It is true that Christ also creates faith; but then that presupposes the felt need of faith. It is true that He excites that feeling also; but then that presupposes susceptibility, and the capacity of reception. And if this likewise is awakened by Him, it further presupposes sincerity, and a certain devotion which could not become hardened through evil motives into the always evil act of the heart of unbelief. The Evangelist further shows us that Jesus wrought miracles, even in this circle, according to the slender measure of faith there was; for he adds the observation, that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. Thus, he distinguishes from these lower miraculous works, the great manifestations of His wonder-working power; these latter could have and should have no demonstration under such circumstances. The condition on which the miraculous power of Christ was suspended was the reflection and copy of the conditions upon which the divine omnipotence, in love wisdom and righteousness, deals with the freedom of the world of spirits.
3. And He marvelled.—Fritzsche: “ἐθαύμαζον (they wondered at Him, on account of their unbelief), following only two cursive MSS.: manifest error of copyist.” Meyer: Stress has with great propriety been laid upon the contrast between the wondering of our Lord at the faith of the Gentile centurion, and His wondering at the unbelief of His own countrymen, who had so long been witnesses of His divine life. Jesus does not marvel at other human things generally; but He does marvel, on the one hand, at faith, when it overcomes in its grandeur all human traditional hindrances, and, on the other, at unbelief, when it can, in the face of multitudes of divine manifestations, and under the daily view of the opened heavens, harden itself into the pitiful acceptance of dead traditional prejudices. The former wondering might, humanly speaking, elevate and strengthen Himself; the latter, on the other hand, grieve and restrain His divine Spirit. He hastens away from the sphere of such spiritual evils, that He may in the distance unloose those spiritual breezes that shall dissipate them all. The Accusative (διὰ τὴν), “on account of their unbelief,” makes His astonishment all the more emphatic. It was hard for Him to reconcile Himself to this seemingly unconquerable dulness and limitation.
4. The history of Nazareth has been repeated on a large scale in the history of Israel. Israel, as a whole, also made the nearness of Jesus, His external “not being afar off,” an occasion of unbelief and fall. This temptation, resulting from the constant beholding of the Holy One with common eyes, was pointed to in Deu_30:14, according to Paul’s interpretation of it in Rom_10:8. It is the temptation which besets the intimates and fellow-citizens of chosen spirits and great geniuses; which besets theologians in the daily study and service of the truths of revelation, ministers in their commerce with the ordinances of grace, and all the lesser officers of the house of God in their habitual contact with the externals of divine things. It is the temptation also of ancient towns and churches, which have enjoyed exalted privileges, and indeed of the whole Church itself. “When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?”
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
See on the parallel passages of Matthew and Luke.—Jesus was renounced by His own city, both at the beginning and at the end of His Galilean labors: or, the stiffneckedness of prejudice, which is bound to the lower and earthly sense by a thousand bonds (envy, cowardice, indolence, self-delusion, dissipation, slavish sympathies and antipathies, etc.).—How far was Jesus actually of Nazareth, how far not?—No man is altogether of the place where he was born or brought up: 1. He is so in his derivation, but not in his individuality; 2. he is so in his outward lot, but not in his personal endowments; 3. he is so in his external training, but not in his internal education; 4. he is so in his human relationship and acquaintance, but not in his highest relations; 5. he is so in the petty events of life, but not in his greater fortunes; 6. he is so in his immediate calling, not in his highest vocation and destiny.—Christ an alien, and yet at home, in His own city; both in an infinite measure: every man the same in his own degree.—The error of the men of Nazareth concerning the coming of Christ: 1. They forgot that He was of Bethlehem; 2. they did not know that He was from heaven.—The double origin and the double home of Christ: 1. An original contrast in Him; 2. an analogous contrast in every man’s life below.—How Christ victoriously contends with the unbelief of prejudice among His own countrymen: 1. Prejudice everywhere opposes Him; and that, a. in an impure and gross apprehension of His dignity, as of a magical secret doctrine and art; b. in the reckoning up of all His earthly relationships, in order to urge them to the disparagement of His heavenly dignity; c. in a slavish community of envious and low judgment upon His life. 2. How the Lord lays hold of and overcomes this prejudice: a. He refers it all to a universal fact, which they might afterwards reflect upon (a prophet is not without honor, etc.); b. He does not forget, but heals, the few who needed and were susceptible of help among His scorners; c. He gathers up His influences, and withdraws; d. and He causes the light of His presence to shine brightly throughout the whole district around.—How the Lord surrounds the places which exhibit a corrupted prejudice against Him with the fiery circles of His divine deeds, in order to subdue them.—The Lord’s not being able in Nazareth, an expression of the divine freedom as over against the abuse of human freedom.—The Lord’s impotence a testimony to His perfect power and ability: 1. Of the divine power of His love (patience); 2. of the divine skill of His love (wisdom).—The sacred conditionality and free self-limiting power of Christ.—The omnipotence of God is not lessened, but glorified as spiritual power, by the fact that it conditions itself in love, wisdom, and righteousness.—To the man who had lost himself, and become to himself an object of contempt, the Lord brings back again his life.—Christ is both far off and nigh at hand, in order to overcome the stolid, careless minds of those who are bent on this world.—Christ’s retirement among the villages; or, the loftiness of the Gospel in its humility.—Christ’s own city, the old and the new: 1. Poor Nazareth, which rejects Him; 2. the great city of God in heaven and upon earth, in ten thousand places, which glorifies Him.—Nazareth a symbol of multitudes of streets and places rendered desolate by spiritual guilt.—How the Lord’s love with holy tenderness encircles His poor land and people.
Starke:—Majus:—The unreasonableness and wickedness of our countrymen should never restrain us in the performance of our duty, or cause us to forget any of our obligations to them.—Nov. Bibl. Tub.:—Birth, lineage, and descent are far from making a man a Christian; they often rather, on account of prejudices, are the greatest hindrances to Christianity.—Quesnel:—Wicked men often admire and magnify gifted preachers; but they are never without some excuse or other for not obeying their instructions.—It is common enough for those who would defeat the force of a sermon, to exalt themselves above the preacher.—When we entertain ourselves with a thousand strange matters that have no connection with spiritual profit, the power of the divine word is lost.—Canstein:—He who built heaven and earth became, in His humbled condition upon earth, a carpenter.—Christ honored and sanctified all honorable human employments and handiwork.—Quesnel:—Christ’s humiliation has been to many a stone of stumbling and an occasion of falling; while it was most essentially necessary to our external exaltation.—Hedinger:—What is there that can grieve the Christian teacher beyond contempt and evil fruits?—Christ’s example is a most mighty consolation.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Thou complainest that God saves thee not, and dost not reflect that thou thyself hast bound His hands.—Quesnel:—The unbelief of a whole people does not hinder the mercy of God from extending to the small number of the righteous who are found amongst them.—Braune:—Faith, which in its nature is receptive love, alone makes us partakers of the grace of God, which is imparting love.
Schleiermacher:—We find this (that a prophet is without honor in his own country) true among men, even as we sometimes find the contrary of it true. When any one is distinguished beyond others in any particular, his fellow-townsmen take pride in him, their vanity being flattered. Yet the contrary is not arbitrary, but usually dependent on the earlier or later period, and various spiritual or worldly influences. (The prophets killed, and the sepulchres of the prophets garnished.)—Much impressive truth is lost upon men, because they do not so much regard the matter as the source from which it comes.—Christ has as much cause to marvel at the unbelief of the present time, as He had to marvel in His own time.—Gossner, on Mar_6:4 :—A warning to all preachers who do not like to leave their own home, kin, and country.—Nothing more outrages God’s goodness than unbelief or rejection of it.
Footnotes:
[1]Mar_6:1.—Tischendorf, ἔρχεται, after B., C., L., Δ.
[2]Mar_6:2.—Codd. C.*, D., K., ἵνα γίνωνται; B., L., γινόεναι, which Tischendorf adopts.
[3]Mar_6:3.—Codd. B., D., L., Versions, Lachmann, Tischendorf, read ’Ιωσῆτος; the reading ’Ιωσήφ occurs in some cursive MSS.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain § 55. — JESUS’S SECOND VISIT TO NAZARETH, vv.…
§ 55. — JESUS’S SECOND VISIT TO NAZARETH, vv. AND REJECTION THERE, Mar_6:1-6.
(See notes on Mat_13:54-58.)
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain Ch. Mar_6:1-6. Christ is despised at Nazareth
Ch. Mar_6:1-6. Christ is despised at Nazareth
1. his own country] that is, Nazareth. From this time forward He ceased to have His abiding residence at Capernaum, although He still assembled His disciples on passing occasions. This visit to Nazareth is recorded only by St Matthew and St Mark.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1-6) And he went out from thence.—See Notes on…
VI.
(1-6) And he went out from thence.—See Notes on Mat_13:54-58.
Read full note →
His disciples follow him.—St, Matthew does not name this fact. As put by St. Mark it seems to imply that the disciples did not accompany their Master, but came subsequently.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Our Lord now left the neighbourhood of Capernaum, and…
Our Lord now left the neighbourhood of Capernaum, and came into his own country, the district of Nazareth, where he had been, not born indeed, but brought up, and where his kinsfolk after the flesh still lived. Nazareth would be about a day"s journey from Capernaum. This was not the first public exercise of his ministry at Nazareth. Of that and its results St. Luke gives us the account. (Luk_4:16) It would seem reasonable to suppose that, after the fame which he had now acquired, he should again visit the place where he had been brought up. His sisters were still living there. St. Mark here again uses the historical present ercetai , "he cometh," for which there is better authority than for hlyen . His disciples follow him. Only the chosen three had been with him in the house of Jairus. The presence of the whole body of the disciples would be valuable at Nazareth.
Vers. 1-6. Unbelief.
Read full note →
Our Lord may have had two reasons for leaving Capernaum and for visiting Nazareth. One, a personal reason to see his mother and his sisters, who seem to have been married there. The other, a ministerial reason to escape from the busy throngs who resorted to him by the lake, and to take a new center for evangelistic labours on the part of himself and his disciples. It is singular and instructive that Nazareth should have perhaps twice furnished a striking instance of human unbelief and offense with "the Nazarene.
I THE UNREASONABLENESS AND INEXCUSABLENESS OF UNBELIEF IN CHRIST. There were several facts, which took away all excuse from the conduct of the inhabitants of Nazareth.
1. He was well known to them. They had been acquainted with him for many years, and they had seen in him nothing but truth and integrity. His claims, therefore, should have been fairly and candidly considered.
2. He brought with him a great and acknowledged reputation. In the most populous parts of Galilee he had fulfilled a ministry which had excited the deepest interest. His miracles were undeniable and undenied, He was the object of general attention and of widespread faith.
3. He came to Nazareth and taught publicly, thus giving his townsmen an opportunity of judging for themselves of his wisdom and moral authority. They confessed with astonishment the extraordinary character of his teaching. Yet they did not believe. And how many among us, who have even greater opportunity of forming a just judgment concerning Jesus, are found judging falsely, and consequently rejecting the Lord of life and of salvation! They judge against the evidence, and their conclusion-in no way damaging to him is condemnation to themselves.
II THE GROUNDS OF UNBELIEF IN CHRIST. It was unreasonable, but not inexplicable or arbitrary.
1. The Nazarenes were prejudiced against Jesus, because of his origin and circumstances. The son of so lowly a mother, the brother of sisters in so obscure a position, how could Jesus be regarded by his worldly townsmen with reverence? A craftsman himself, and one of a humble family, he was little likely to be received at Nazareth as he had been received elsewhere, even in the metropolis itself.
2. The other ground of prejudice was educational deficiency on the part of Jesus. He was the Prophet of Nazareth, and had not been trained in the rabbinical schools of learning. Whence had he his qualifications? What had been the source of his knowledge, the inspiration of his wisdom, the secret of his power? It was all a mystery to them something at variance with their beliefs, and in contradiction to their prejudices. Very similar are the objections which men still make to Christ. Had he come a king, a conqueror, a philosopher, a scholar, then men might have honored and welcomed him. But he came from God; and to the unspiritual there could be no more serious and fatal ground of offense than this,
III THE REBUKE OF UNBELIEF. "A prophet is not without honor," etc. There was sadness in Christ"s language and tones. Yet what a reproach was hereby conveyed to the unbelieving! They might be offended; there were those who would believe, who would evince gratitude and render honor. When we think how clearly our Lord must have foreseen the stupendous and eternal results of his ministry, we may appreciate the nobility and self-restraint of his attitude and language, and at the same time we may recognize the severity of his rebuke.
IV THE CONSEQUENCES OF UNBELIEF.
1. The impression upon the Saviour"s mind is briefly described: "He marvelled." An expression this, which gives us an insight into his humanity, and which reveals to us the depths of moral obliquity into which the cavillers had fallen.
2. The results to the people of the town were lamentable. The Prophet had come with power to bless, and prepared to heal and help. But he required the co-operation of faith; and, when this was withheld, "he could do no mighty work." A few sick folk were healed, but many forfeited a blessing within their reach.
3. Yet the rejection of Jesus by his fellow-townsmen was the occasion of benefit to others. Finding no congenial soil at Nazareth, Jesus proceeded elsewhere, to labour where labour might be more appreciated. "He went round about the villages teaching." The indifference or contempt of the unspiritual and self-sufficient may be the occasion of enlightenment and consolation to the lowly, the receptive, the needy.
APPLICATION.
1. The coming of Christ to a soul, to a community, is a moral probation, involving the most serious responsibility.
2. It is the most fatal guilt and folly, in considering the claims of Christ, to overlook the wisdom and the grace of his character and ministry, and to regard circumstances at which the superficial and the carnal may take offense.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR Vers. 1-6. Jesus visiting his own country.
By going thither
I HE GRATIFIED A HUMAN YEARNING. In a previous chapter he is reported to have asked, "Who is my mother and my brethren?" He now shows that those broad human relations he had claimed did not imply the neglect of nearer ones, or indifference to them. He sought to benefit his own people in the highest way, oven whilst he would not suffer the narrow claims of his home to interfere with the wider claims of his kingdom. Have we so interpreted home relations, patriotism, local attachment, social ties?
II HE ILLUSTRATED AFRESH AN OLD AND FAMILIAR EXPERIENCE.
1. He was one of many, yet by himself even in this.
2. One of the greatest of griefs to a pious spirit, to be hindered from doing good and conferring benefit.
3. A greater humiliation than his human birth, because a moral one consciously experienced.
III HE EXHIBITED DIVINE MERCY.
1. Past offenses were forgiven.
2. Although conscious of restriction because of their unbelief and indifference, he still persisted in his works of mercy. M.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN Vers. 1-6. The carpenter; or, the dignity of honest labour,
In his own country," "in the synagogue" where he had learned in his youth, he now "began to teach." There were "many" who knew him, who had seen him pass in and out amongst them, talking to them, perhaps like, yet unlike, the other growing youths and the young men working for them, an artisan one of many. These "hearing him were astonished;" and though "the wisdom," of his teaching they could not deny, nor the "mighty works" wrought by his hands, yet, as they knew him and his relatives full well, they were "offended in-him," and believed not. So easily is the poor frail heart led away from blessing by prejudice. How great was the loss of these needy Nazarenes! "He could there do no might work save" (oh, wonderful reserve!) "that he laid his hands on a few sick folk, and healed them." let us leave this unbelief for the present it will arrest our attention again and again and let us see the high tribute paid to the honourableness of lowly labour by this Doer of mighty works this Prophet" robbed of his honor among his own kin, and in his own house. If labour was first imposed as a curse, it as turned truly into a blessing by this example of him who thus helped to cultivate the fields around. Here pride is truly shamed if it looks upon labour as beneath it: it was not beneath him who is above us all. let every son of toil see in this "carpenter" the highest evidence that all handicraft is exalted to a true dignity, and that hard industry, so far from being a degradation, is honorable and honored. Now, since the "prophet is not without honor," let not "the carpenter" be; for in this instance they are one. The occupancy of a sphere of lowly industry by Christ henceforth consecrates it
I A SUITABLE OCCUPATION OF TIME. The responsibility of rightly occupying our time cannot be evaded. Of it, as of all other talents, an account must be rendered.
1. Diligent, honest labour is a profitable employment of time.
2. It is healthful.
3. It saves from the degenerating influence of indolence.
4. It is a source of pure and beneficent enjoyment.
II As AN HONOURABLE MEANS OF MAINTENANCE.
1. There is nothing degrading in honest toil.
2. It has its essential value in the world"s great market. It deserves its fair remuneration; and, inasmuch as it is in a high degree necessary for the wellbeing of society, its claims are everywhere, if not always justly, recognized.
3. In a man"s employment of his strength and skill in procuring what is needful for his own life and for those dependent upon him his independence of character is preserved and his best affections stirred.
III As A WORTHY SERVICE TO OTHERS. By the constitution of human society, it is the plain duty of each to promote to the utmost of his ability the well-being of all others. The products of industrial toil, especially of handicraft, are useful in the highest degree. Without them the comfort of large communities must be greatly impaired. He, therefore, who is called to labour, "working with his hands" the thing that is good, is a useful and honorable servant of his race.
1. In the lowliest spheres, the loftiest powers are not necessarily degraded. The "Christ of God" was a "carpenter.
2. In those spheres the holiest sentiments may be cherished, and the holiest character remain untarnished.
3. Whilst in them the humblest labourer may know that his toil is honored, for it was shared by his Lord. G.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-6. Christ at home.
I THE WONDROUS IN EVERY-DAY LIFE. When they heard him in the synagogue they were "much struck," Mark says. Where did all this wisdom come from? So does the parent wonder at the sayings of the child. "Where did he get such thoughts?" The boy goes from the village, and soon comes back to astonish the gossip, with his broad views of life and his easy and confident manners. Experience is full of these surprises. Nothing is more astonishing now than the empire which the Child of Nazareth sways in the world of thought and conduct.
II THE JEALOUSY OF HOME-GROWN GREATNESS. The people of Nazareth stumbled at Jesus. So are our thoughts under the tyranny of custom. If one should tell us that our little son or brother was great, we should find it hard to believe. "Tis want of faith in the living God, who works wherever, whenever, howsoever he wills. Beware of that narrow egotism which even now may be shutting us out from light and beauty, divinity and blessedness.
III THE MOST INVINCIBLE OF OBSTACLES IS THE WILL OF MAN. How deep was the truth of the saying, that against stupidity even the gods fight in vain! There was sarcasm in the saying of Jesus (ver. 4).
Often has it been repeated. He "wondered at their want of faith." Full of faith and love himself, "twas hard to understand the want of response to it. "He was not able to do any work of power there." Ask, when the business of the kingdom does not seem to be going forward (except on a small scale, ver. 5), whether the cause may not be want of wish, want of will, want of prayer. J.
HOMILIES BY J.J. GIVEN Vers. 1-6. Parallel passage: Mat_13:54-58. The refection at Nazareth.
I Our LORD"S VISIT TO NAZARETH. This chapter commences with our Lord"s removal from the house of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, where he had performed the miracle recorded at the close of the last chapter; or rather from Capernaum, where the synagogue appears to have been situated. In either case he proceeded to visit his fatherland not in the wide sense of that term, but in the narrower meaning of the township where his parents" home had been, and where his own childhood, youth, and early manhood had been spent. It is scarcely necessary to remind our readers that, while Bethlehem was the place of our Lord"s nativity, and while Capernaum is called his own city, as the place of his frequent resort and the scene of so many of his mighty works, Nazareth was the place where he had been brought up. In a beautiful, basin-like valley, enclosed by some fifteen hills, was situated this place of world-wide renown. The town or village of Nazareth seems to sleep among the hills. The hills around this happy valley, as it has been called, have been compared to the petals of a rose, or the edge of a shell, with the little town on the lower slope of the western hill which rises high above, and which, from its elevation of nearly six hundred feet, commands one of the finest prospects in Palestine, with the Great Sea and Carmel on the west, the great plain of Esdraelon two miles to the south, Tabor six miles to the south-east, and Hermon"s snowy summit away to the northward.
II CAUSE OF HIS REJECTION. A previous rejection, if we mistake not, had taken place at Nazareth, and with greater violence than at this time, according to the record of St. Luke. On the previous occasion passion had impelled them; now prejudice blinds them. He had begun to address the congregation; his eloquence and oratory amazed them. He had not gone far, however, without interruption. They admit his superiority; they acknowledge his wisdom; but, in a sinister manner, they question its source and character, asking, "Whence is it? From above or below? What is it? Is it supernal or infernal? And then such mighty works are wrought by his hands! He is the instrument of some superior power not the originating cause or author of them." Such seems to be the insinuation. Envy and jealousy were at the root of this prejudice. They canvassed the humble position of his family, and the lowly occupation of its members. "Is he not," they said, "a carpenter a common carpenter, and the son of a carpenter the village carpenter? Is he not a carpenter himself?" They were ignorant of the dignity of labour, and the nobility of honest toil. They overlooked the fact that Jews were wont to learn a trade, and that, according to Jewish ideas, a parent who did not have his son taught a trade was regarded as guilty of training him to dishonesty. Justin Martyr preserves the tradition of our Lord having made ploughs and yokes and other agricultural implements. But they knew his family and friends knew them so well that familiarity begat contempt. They knew who Mary was, Joseph having in all probability died before this time. They knew his brethren: sons of Joseph and Mary; or possibly his half-brothers sons of Joseph by a previous marriage; if not his cousins, children of Clopas and Mary. They knew his sisters. They could not brook his great and manifest superiority. Verily envy is a green-eyed monster; and so "they were offended in him." Our Lord, no doubt, felt all this acutely, but accounted for it by the principle embodied in the proverb, that a prophet is without honor in three circles his neighbors, relatives, and members of his household. No wonder he could not do mighty works there; not that there was any physical inability in the Saviour himself, but the forth-putting of his power was conditioned by the faithful disposition or otherwise of his hearers. Thus Theophylact makes this want of ability relative and owing to the want of faith in the recipients. "Not," he says, "because he was weak, but because they were faithless." Here there was a want of receptivity to such an extent that he marvelled not at their unbelief, but on account of it. It was not the object, but the cause (dia), of his astonishment. He wondered, as we read, at the faith of some no less than at the unbelief of others. J.J.G.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain And He went out from thence, and came into…
Mar_6:1-6
And He went out from thence, and came into His own country.
Read full note →
Jesus re-visits Nazareth
I. Gracious condescension. Jesus, although He had been cruelly treated at Nazareth, once more turns His steps homewards. Jesus practised what He preached (Mat_18:21-22). Love of home natural to men. Thoughts suggested by visits home. How shall we be received-welcomed or sighted? Have we so passed our time since we left home, that we may deserve a cordial reception; or may even some poor Nazareth be justifiably ashamed of us?
II. Unworthy prejudices. He came to His own and His own received Him not. Neither did His brethren believe in Him (Joh_7:5). Why? Because He was known to them; and was poor and of lowly origin. Some look at religion as children at books, more attracted by the binding than the contents.
III. Fatal rejection. Nazareth turned its back on Jesus. He left never to return. Learn:
I. To do good to those who despitefully use us and persecute us.
II. To guard against evil and ignorant prejudices.
III. To take heed how we reject Jesus.
IV. To beseech Him to return and save us, if we have thoughtlessly or wilfully slighted Him. (J. C. Gray.)
Christs return to Nazareth
Was it not a strange metamorphosis to Him-once a peasant lad; now the Light of the world! And yet here are surroundings unchanged, and natures as narrow and stupid as ever, and He, having moved away from them as the infinite is remote from the finite; He, able to heal the sick and forgive sins by a word, and they helpless and hopeless in both body and soul. As He spoke, authority seemed to voice itself in natural, faultless utterance. He had not gained this gift at the feet of any sage. Public debate could not confer it. The people were astonished. Such wisdom and such deeds are not in the carpenters line, they said.
I. The sinner cannot understand nor endure the saint. Humanity cannot comprehend divinity. Now, no more than then, is there any room for Christ where Satan rules.
II. Gods greatest blessings are often prevented by mans distrust. Unbelief forfeits infinite mercies. So does unauthorized credulity. (De W. S. Clark.)
Unbelief at Nazareth
Our Lord may have had two reasons for leaving Capernaum and for visiting Nazareth. One, a personal reason-to see His mother and His sisters, who seem to have been married there. The other, a ministerial reason-to escape from the busy throngs who resorted to Him by the lake, and to take a new centre for evangelistic labours on the part of Himself and His disciples.
I. The unreasonableness and inexcusableness of unbelief in Christ.
1. He was well-known to them. They had hitherto always found Him true and upright; therefore they ought to have candidly considered His claims.
2. He brought with Him a great and acknowledged reputation.
3. He came to Nazareth and taught publicly, thus giving His townsmen an opportunity of judging for themselves of His wisdom and moral authority.
II. The grounds of unbelief in Christ.
1. Prejudice on account of His origin and circumstances.
2. His educational deficiency. He had not been trained in the rabbinical schools, so they thought nothing of Him.
III. The rebuke of unbelief. A prophet is not without honour, etc. There was sadness in Christs language and tone. Yet what a reproach to the unbelieving! They might be offended; there were others who would believe, evince gratitude, and render honour.
IV. The consequences of unbelief.
1. Christ marvelled.
2. The results to the people of the town were lamentable-He could do no mighty work.
3. Benefit to others-He went round about the villages, teaching. The indifference or contempt of the unspiritual and self-sufficient may be the occasion of enlightenment and consolation to the lowly, receptive, needy. Application:
(a) The coming of Christ to a soul, or community, is a moral probation involving serious responsibility.
(b) It is the most fatal guilt and folly, in considering the claims of Christ, to overlook the wisdom and grace of His character and ministry, and to regard circumstances at which the superficial and carnal may take offence. (J. R. Thomson, M A.)
Jesus visiting His own country
By going thither-
I. He gratified a human yearning.
II. He illustrated afresh an old and familiar experience.
1. He was one of many, yet by Himself even in this.
2. One of the greatest of griefs to a pious spirit, to be hindered from doing good and conferring benefit.
3. A greater humiliation than His human birth, because a moral one consciously experienced.
III. He exhibited Divine mercy.
1. Past offences were forgiven.
2. Although conscious of restriction because of their unbelief and indifference, He still persisted in His works of mercy. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
Rejection of Christ
I. Indifference to Christ sometimes arises from familiarity with His surroundings. Beware of that familiarity with sacred things which deadens spiritual sensibility.
II. Contempt for Christ sometimes springs from association with His friends.
III. The rejection of Christ brings about a withdrawal of His influence-He could not, etc. His power was omnipotent, but, it conditioned itself, as infinite power always does in this world; and by this limitation it was not lessened, but was glorified as moral and spiritual power. If faith, the ethical condition, be absent, we bind the Saviours hands, and He cannot do for us what He would. He does not wish to leave us, but He must; old impressions become feebler, the once sensitive heart waxes dull. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)
Christ at home
I. The wonders in everyday life. Growth of knowledge and experience; change of circumstances, etc.
II. The jealousy of home-grown greatness. Tyranny of custom. Beware of egotism, shutting out from light and beauty, divinity and blessedness.
III. The most invincible obstacle is the will of man. Against stupidity even the gods fight in vain! When the business of the kingdom seems at a standstill, ask whether the cause be not want of wish, will, prayer. (E. Johnson, M. A.)
Detracting from the Divine greatness of Christ
I. How this is done.
1. By attributing Divine effects to secondary causes,
2. Absence of faith and spiritual sympathy.
3. By being offended at the mystery of His humiliation, either in Himself or in His followers.
II. What it produces.
1. Unsatisfied indecision.
2. Hardening of heart.
3. The doubters own loss. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Chapter 6
Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6:1-6 (Mar_6:1-6)
Read full note →
REJECTED IN HIS OWN COUNTRY
"And He went out from thence; and He cometh into His own country; and His disciples follow Him." Mar_6:1-6 (R.V.)
WE have seen how St. Mark, to bring out more vividly the connection between four mighty signs, their ideal completeness as a whole, and that mastery over nature and the spiritual world which they reveal, grouped them resolutely together, excluding even significant incidents which would break in upon their sequence. Bearing this in mind, how profoundly instructive it is that our Evangelist shows us this Master over storm and demons, over too-silent disease, and over death, too clamorously bewailed, in the next place teaching His own countrymen in vain, and an offense to them. How startling to read, at this juncture when legend would surely have thrown all men prostrate at His feet, of His homely family and His trade, and how He Who rebuked the storm "could there do no mighty work."
First of all, it is touching to see Jesus turning once more to "His own country," just at this crisis. They had rejected Him in a frenzy of rage, at the outset of His ministry. And He had very lately repulsed the rude attempt of His immediate relatives to interrupt His mission. But now His heart leads Him thither, once again to appeal to the companions of His youth, with the halo of His recent and surpassing works upon His forehead. He does not abruptly interrupt their vocations, but waits as before for the Sabbath, and the hushed assembly in the sacred place. And as He teaches in the synagogue, they are conscious of His power. Whence could He have these things? His wisdom was an equal wonder with His mighty works, of the reality of which they could not doubt. And what excuse then had they for listening to His wisdom in vain? But they went on to ask, Is not this the carpenter? the Son of Mary? they knew His brothers, and His sisters were living among them. And they were offended in Him, naturally enough. It is hard to believe in the supremacy of one, whom circumstances marked as our equal, and to admit the chieftainship of one who started side by side with us. In Palestine it was not disgraceful to be a tradesman, but yet they could fairly claim equality with "the carpenter." And it is plain enough that they found no impressive or significant difference from their neighbors in the "sisters" of Jesus, nor even in her whom all generations call blessed. Why then should they abase themselves before the claims of Jesus?
It is an instructive incident. First of all, it shows us the perfection of our Lord's abasement. He was not only a carpenter's son, but what this passage only declares to us explicitly, he wrought as an artisan, and consecrated forever a lowly trade, by the toil of those holy limbs whose sufferings should redeem the world.
And we learn the abject folly of judging by mere worldly standards. We are bound to give due honor and precedence to rank and station. Refusing to do this, we virtually undertake to dissolve society, and readjust it upon other principles, or by instincts and intuitions of our own, a grave task, when it is realized. But we are not to be dazzled, much less to be misled, by the advantages of station or of birth. Yet if, as it would seem, Nazareth rejected Christ because He was not a person of quality, this is only the most extreme and ironical exhibition of what happens every day, when a noble character, self-denying, self-controlled and wise, fails to win the respect which is freelly and gladly granted to vice and folly in a coronet.
And yet, to one who reflected, the very objection they put forward was an evidence of His mission. His wisdom was confessed, and His miracles were not denied; were they the less wonderful or more amazing, more supernatural, as the endowments of the carpenter whom they knew? Whence, they asked, had He derived His learning, as if it were not more noble for being original.
Are we sure that men do not still make the same mistake? The perfect and lowly humanity of Jesus is a stumbling block to some who will freely admit His ideal perfections, and the matchless nobility of His moral teaching. They will grant anything but the supernatural origin of Him to Whom they attribute qualities beyond parallel. But whence had He those qualities? What is there in the Galilee of the first century which prepares one for discovering there and then the revolutionizer of the virtues of the world, the most original, profound, and unique of all teachers, Him Whose example is still mightier than His precepts, and only not more perfect, because these also are without a flaw, Him Whom even unbelief would shrink from saluting by so cold a title as that of the most saintly of the saints. To ask with a clear scrutiny, whence the teaching of Jesus came, to realize the isolation from all centers of thought and movement, of this Hebrew, this provincial among Hebrews, this villager in Galilee, this carpenter in a village, and then to observe His mighty works in every quarter of the globe, is enough to satisfy all candid minds that His earthly circumstances have something totally unlike themselves behind them. And the more men give ear to materialism and to materialistic evolution without an evolving mind, so much the more does the problem press upon them, Whence hath this man this wisdom? and what mean these mighty works?
From our Lord's own commentary upon their rejection we learn to beware of the vulgarizing effects of familiarity. They had seen His holy youth, against which no slander was ever breathed. And yet, while His teaching astonished them, He had no honor in His own house. It is the same result which so often seems to follow from a lifelong familiarity with Scripture and the means of grace. We read, almost mechanically, what melts and amazes the pagan to whom it is a new word. We forsake, or submit to the dull routine of, ordinances the most sacred, the most searching, the most invigorating and the most picturesque.
And yet we wonder that the men of Nazareth could not discern the divinity of "the carpenter," whose family lived quiet and unassuming lives in their own village.
It is St. Mark, the historian of the energies of Christ, who tells us that He "could there do no mighty work," with only sufficient exception to prove that neither physical power nor compassion was what failed Him, since "He laid His hands upon a few sick folk and healed them." What then is conveyed by this bold phrase? Surely the fearful power of the human will to resist the will of man's compassionate Redeemer.
He would have gathered Jerusalem under His wing, but she would not; and the temporal results of her disobedience had to follow; siege, massacre and ruin. God had no pleasure in the death of him who dieth, yet death follows, as the inevitable wages of sin. Therefore, as surely as the miracles of Jesus typified His gracious purposes for the souls of men, Who forgiveth all our iniquities, Who healeth all our diseases, so surely the rejection and defeat of those loving purposes paralyzed the arm stretched out to heal their sick.
Does it seem as if the words "He could not," even thus explained, convey a certain affront, throw a shadow upon the glory of our Master? And the words "they mocked, scourged, crucified Him," do these convey no affront? The suffering of Jesus was not only physical: His heart was wounded; His overtures were rejected; His hands were stretched out in vain; His pity and love were crucified.
But now let this be considered, that men who refuse His Spirit continually presume upon His mercy, and expect not to suffer the penalty of their evil deeds. Alas, that is impossible. Where unbelief rejected His teaching, He "could not" work the marvels of His grace. How shall they escape who reject so great salvation?
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 1. Went out from thence. From Capernaum. Came into…
1. Went out from thence. From Capernaum. Came into his own country. Nazareth, where he had been brought up.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Mar_6:1. His own country.—Native place, or town: Nazareth, the…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Mar_6:1. His own country.—Native place, or town: Nazareth, the home of His youth. Rejected at an earlier stage in His ministry (Luk_4:14-30), He now returns in the character of a Rabbi followed by disciples, and makes one more attempt to gain an attentive and intelligent hearing.
Read full note →
Mar_6:3. They were offended.—Scandalised, a graphic word. Christ was to them like a scandal, i.e. a “trap-spring,” or “baited stick in a trap.” Their familiarity with His earthly antecedents blinded them to His Divine character, and hindered them from rejoicing in the liberty of the children of God, which He came to proclaim and to bestow on all who would receive Him.
Mar_6:5. He could there do no mighty work.—The door was barred by their unbelief and moral insensibility, for God never forces an entrance, but always respects man’s free-will.
Mar_6:6. He marvelled.—For besides being “Perfect God,” He is also “Perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting” (Athanasian Symbol).
Mar_6:7. By two and two.—A detail peculiar to Mark, who in his list of names does not group the apostles in pairs as the other Synoptists do—an undesigned coincidence worthy of notice.
Mar_6:11. Verily … that city.—Omit this sentence, probably imported from Mat_10:15.
Mar_6:13. Anointed with oil.—This unction was clearly sacramental—“an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given.” It was both the symbol and the vehicle of blessings for body and soul. See Jas_5:14.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mar_6:1-13
(PARALLELS: Mat_13:54-58; Mat_9:35-38; Mat_10:5-42; Luk_9:1-6.)
The Master rejected: the servants sent forth.—An easy day’s journey would carry Jesus and His followers from Capernaum to Nazareth. What took our Lord back there? Mark seems to wish us to observe the connexion between this visit and the great group of miracles just recorded; and possibly the link may be Christ’s hope that the report of these might have preceded Him and prepared His way. In His patient longsuffering He will give His fellow-villagers another chance. His heart yearns for “His own country,” and “His own kin,” and “His own house.”
I. We have here unbelief born of familiarity, and its effects on Christ—
1. They own Christ’s wisdom in His teaching, and the reality of His miracles; but the fact that He was one of themselves made them angry that He should have such gifts, and suspicious of where He had got them.
(1) We note in their questions, first, the glimpse of Christ’s early life. They bring before us the quiet, undistinguished home and the long years of monotonous labour.
(2) These questions bring out strongly what we too often forget in estimating Christ’s contemporaries, viz. that His presence among them, in the simplicity of His human life, was a positive hindrance to their seeing His true character.
(3) The facts on which the Nazarenes grounded their unbelief are really irrefragable proofs of Christ’s Divinity. His character and work, compared with the circumstances of His origin and environment, are an insoluble riddle, except on the supposition that He was the Word and Power of God.
2. The effects of this unbelief on Christ.
(1) It limited His power. The atmosphere of chill unbelief froze the stream. He “would have gathered,” but “ye would not,” and therefore He “could not.”
(2) He marvelled. All sin is a wonder to eyes that see into the realities of things and read the end; for it is all utterly unreasonable (though it is, alas! not unaccountable) and suicidal. To one who lives ever in the Father’s bosom, what can seem so strange as that men should prefer homeless exposedness and dreary loneliness?
II. The new instrument which Christ fashions to cope with unbelief.—What does Jesus do when thus wounded in the house of His friends? Give way to despondency? No; but meekly betakes Himself to yet obscurer fields of service, and sends out the twelve to prepare His way.
1. The gift of power. Christ gives before He commands, and sends no man into the field without filling his basket with seed-corn.
2. Their equipment. The minimum of outward provision is likeliest to call out the maximum of faith.
3. The disposition of the messengers. It is not to be self-indulgent. If ever a herald of Christ falls under suspicion of caring more about life’s comforts than about his work, goodbye to his usefulness.
4. The messengers’ demeanour to rejecters. Shaking the dust off the sandal is an emblem of solemn renunciation of participation, and perhaps of disclaimer of responsibility.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mar_6:3, a. Does labour block the way to manhood?—I. “Is not this mighty worker and wise teacher a carpenter?” Well! and what then? Skill in handling the plane and driving the saw does not expel wisdom from the speech, love from the heart, and beauty from the life. The artisan may be the conqueror of himself and of his circumstances, a man of clear vision, high and enduring motive, and chivalrous philanthropy, as the sun may warm and fertilise the earth with one set of rays, and paint the “human face Divine” with another. It is undeniable that the Nazareth artisan is the true King of the ages and the rightful Lord of the souls of men.
II. But apart from the obvious and proved compatibility of even menial and monotonous toil with kindly feeling, generous impulse, strict integrity, and large usefulness, these disaffected Nazarenes might have dispelled their passion-fed prejudice by simply recalling the leading names of their typical history. “In the beginning” God had set the stamp of His approval on human labour, and all along had chosen as the chief toilers for the higher and spiritual welfare of Israel and the world those who were devoted to useful handicrafts or pastoral pursuits.
III. But it would be unfair to treat this jaundiced jeer, the outburst of the lowest and rudest thought of Galilee, as though it expressed the prevalent Jewish idea of labour. Far from it. Handicrafts were specially honoured amongst the Jews, and the occupants of the highest posts of learning and tuition were most familiar with the lower forms of human toil. The teacher of that Rabbi Hillel who died only a few years before the birth of Christ was in the habit of saying, “Love labour.” Another Rabbi said, “Great is labour, for she honours the Master.” A third, “When a man teaches his son no trade, it is as if he taught him highway robbery.” And we owe to the family of the far-famed Gamaliel the penetrating saying, “Beautiful is the union of the study of the law with some honest calling, for by the diligent pursuit of both a man is weaned from sin, but all study unaccompanied by work ends in vanity and draws sin in its train.”
IV. Now the strange and inexplicable thing is that this insane prejudice against handicrafts requiring hard muscular work as blocking the way to the higher grades of goodness exists and operates amongst us in this year with a force it never had in Palestine, and produces mischiefs that are positively incalculable. Only lately it was seriously contended that men in the East End of London with a scant cupboard and a life of forced daily toil could not be expected to be Christians, and echoes follow echoes which report nothing but the deeply rooted falsehood that so long as men have to toil to live they cannot live to and for and in God. I do not deny the heart-ache of many a labouring life, the fierce struggle to exist continued in many a home, the unbroken dulness, the leaden monotony, killing aspiration and deadening faith, the brutalising conditions often associated with toil. I know the workshop is infested with corruption, the atmosphere charged with falseness and impurity, and that often the work itself is hard and rough and ill-paid. I admit the worse, but I cannot close my eyes to the evidence of facts, and I dare not be false to God’s revelation of the sublime conquests possible to every man in and through Christ over the dullest circumstance or the most violently antagonistic lot. I am sure that labour is in the main wholesome and helpful, a defence from myriad temptations, a goad to usefulness, a contribution to the progress of the world, and perfectly compatible with the manliest life.
V. We might learn this from the long and thrilling history of toil at the back of us, for we have had apostles of labour like the brave Hollanders, who built their own country out of the sands of the sea, and created themselves into the manliest of men, and the most compact and independent of states by the act; martyrs to trade like Palissy the Potter; confessors and reformers like Richard Cobden, the manufacturer of calicoes; model men of business like the bookseller, Daniel Macmillan, and the “commercial” George Moore; and myriads more amongst the labouring poor, some of whom, I rejoice to say, I have intimately known and warmly loved, who, though they never gained any “social standing,” “wrought righteousness, subdued the kingdoms” of self and of home, “stopped the mouths of the lions” of vice and impurity, “quenched the power of the fires” of intemperance, “from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in power” against domestic and social evils, and helped in turning to flight armies of aliens. Besides, does not everybody think Goethe is right when he says “an idle life is an anticipated death”? And must we not in our best moments admit that in spite of many drawbacks we owe lasting thanks to God for putting us where work is a necessity and a vocation the condition not only of a prolonged existence, but of a prolonged happiness? Labour is a benediction from God. Delitzsch, writing on Jewish Artisan Life, says: “All work worthy of the name is Godlike, for the world is one great whole in which everything acts and reacts. Each separate thing is but a stepping-stone to some higher end, and all things work out together the grand purpose of the whole.”
VI. But it is in the fullest life ever lived—a life unequalled in its sweet dignity and attractive familiarity, tender strength and daring meekness—a life from which moral grandeur never departs—it is from it we get the strongest witness that “labour” does not block the way to manhood. That life is set deep in the forests of human toil. The pattern character is in the pattern condition, to use it, to redeem it, to glorify it, to adjust it to Himself, to exhibit the spirit in which a man may convert his surroundings into a set of “angels on the way of life,” ministers inspiring and educating him, forces enabling him to partake more largely of the Divine nature.
VII. So far as we know Christ left the bench of the carpenter for the post of teacher and reformer. His work was His college. “He learnt obedience by the things He did and suffered,” and acquired fitness for His ministry of brief but measureless energy, tender pathos, broad sympathies, and heroic self-sacrifice. The lowliest tasks well done are the best preparations for helpful ministries to the world. “Labour” is not only not a block to manhood, but it is the best drill for some of its finest services.
1. Read, I beseech you, the handwriting of God on your daily toil. “In all your ways acknowledge God, and He will direct you in your goings” for a subsistence.
2. Breathe into your work the spirit of beneficence. Do not stop your vision at its details, but range in thought over its large issues; and as Daniel Macmillan, when a bookseller’s clerk, found solace from the conviction that he was aiding in the fight against ignorance and falsehood, and thus promoting the welfare of the world, so take care you never lose sight of the really helpful results of even the smallest honest and true work.
3. Be thorough in to-day’s work. Do the thing well that is near you. Carlyle, after he met Arnold at Rugby, said of this model teacher, “He is a hero—a man who knows his work and does it.”
4. Give a definite place to, and find special time and spheres for, the cultivation of your spiritual nature. Receive into your nature the power of Christ, and He will make the work of the bench a discipline for the consolation of the weary, the guidance of the perplexed, the assistance of the needy, and the helping of the world.
VIII. And is it from this religion founded by an artisan, born in poverty, whose apostles were fishermen and tax-gatherers, whom the “common people heard gladly”—is it from it and Him the toiling millions are turning away in indifference or despair? Do you blame the architect for the blunders of the builder? Will you censure the directors for the unknown intemperance of the “guard” that wrecks a train? Nor ought we to blame Christ Jesus for the faults of the Churches. It is not from Him you hear the cry that the weakest must be driven to the wall, the “fittest only must survive.” It is not from Christ you hear approval of the tyranny of capital over labour or of the selfishness of masters in their dealings with men. He bids masters and servants alike be fair and just, and commands a mutual recognition of brotherhood in the kingdoms of toil, and breathes into men the spirit that ameliorates the lot of the wretched, and prepares the way for the widest and most enduring prosperity.
IX. Above all, beware of the strong illusion which resides in the commonplace. Familiarity with Jesus as the Son of Mary and brother of Joses, as playmate and fellow-workmen, closed the eyes of the Nazarenes to the spiritual meaning of His life, and barred their hearts to the entrance of His saving power. A similar danger is before us. Goaded by Strauss and others, men like Robertson of Brighton have compelled us to sit with fixed and profitable gaze on the MAN Christ Jesus. The pulpits and the literature of the Church are full of the blessed reality of Christ’s humanness. Never was He more fully the Brother of men since He left the slopes of Olivet. But let us take “large views.” GOD WAS IN CHRIST, transfiguring menial toil by faithfulness, obedience, and worship; educing from smallest seeds large harvests, and from lowliest deeds grandest issues; reconciling all things in our world to Himself, and to us, by reconciling us to Himself; adjusting all human relations, revealing the brotherhood of all men, penetrating our social life with the spirit of thoroughness and unselfishness, and so making possible a world in which every man does a full man’s work with a clear spiritual aim, and so helps to establish a kingdom of righteousness and truth upon the earth.—J. Clifford, D.D.
Mar_6:3, b. Offended in Him.—
I. The astonishment of prejudice aroused.—
1. The prejudice of calling.
2. The prejudice of birth.
3. The prejudice of relationship.
4. The prejudice of familiarity.
II. The astonishment culminating in bitter jealousy and dislike.—Why should one occupying such a humble position and surroundings claim any pre-eminence over them? They could not deny. the majesty of the life, the greatness of the deed, and the sublimity of the utterance; yet the ever-recurring question was, “Is not this the carpenter?”
III. The protest which their astonishment and unbelief called forth (Mar_6:4).—This was an old proverb with a new application.
IV. The evil wrought by this blind prejudice in limiting the possibilities of Christ’s ministry among them.—Human receptivity is one of the essential conditions of Divine working among men.
V. The painful surprise awakened in Christ by their astonishment and unbelief.
VI. The good accomplished in spite of prejudice and unbelief.—
1. Healing a few sick folk. Poor sufferers were not shut out of His great sympathy, nor placed beyond the reach of His tender healing, by the unbelief of their neighbours.
2. Teaching in the villages. All that prejudice could do was to exclude its owners from the sphere of Divine operations.—D. Davies.
Mar_6:11. Punishments proportionable to sins.—In these words Christ doth not wholly excuse those wicked Gentiles; but neither doth He charge them with so great a degree of guilt as He doth the unbelieving Jews. The Gentiles’ gross ignorance of their duty might in some measure have been avoided by them, and was therefore justly to be imputed to them; but they had not the same opportunities and advantages of improving their knowledge, they had not the same means of conviction, they had not the same motives to reformation and amendment of life, as those men unto whom the gospel had been preached; and therefore, upon this account, our Lord is graciously pleased to make them as it were some sort of allowance and abatement. They are here represented not indeed as entirely blameless, but still as less blamable than others: they are not exempted from those sufferings that were due unto their sins; but these sufferings, we are told, shall be less severe than those which will be inflicted upon greater sinners.
I. In the next world some sinners will be more severely punished than others.—
1. Though this doctrine had not been expressly revealed to us in the Word of God, yet our own reason alone would have inclined us to have believed it; for the same arguments that are brought to prove that any punishments shall hereafter be inflicted upon any sinners, may also be urged to shew that some sinners shall have a greater share in those punishments than others: the same vindictive justice of God which inclines Him to punish the sins of the impenitent disposes Him likewise to observe some proportion in His punishments, and to allot the greatest degrees of misery to the greatest degrees of guilt. And even if the justice of God were not so clearly interested in this matter, yet these future punishments do themselves suggest to us this doctrine; and from the nature of them we may very reasonably infer their inequality. One great part of the punishment of hell consists in the remorse of conscience arising from the sense of guilt; and therefore, where the greatest guilt is, there must be the greatest remorse, that is the greatest punishment, from the sense of it. Another argument to prove the inequality of future torments may be this—namely, that envy, malice, and other vices are not only by the order of God attended with punishments, but in the nature of the thing necessarily create torment; and therefore, where these are in the most eminent degree, they must necessarily create the greatest torment.
2. This truth will appear still more evident if we consider the declarations God has been pleased to make concerning it in His Word. In the Levitical law God commands the magistrate to give the offender a certain number of stripes, according to his fault; and our Saviour hath taught us that He will observe the same method in the distribution and execution of His future punishments (Luk_5:37-38).
II. What those sins are which will expose men to the greatest suffering.—
1. These are, first, such sins as are in their kind most heinous—such as blasphemy, hypocrisy, murder, bloody persecution of God’s saints, unnatural lusts, and the like. These sins are, in the kind of them, so open and so provoking an affront to the great God of heaven and earth, and are besides so shocking to human nature. and to the first conceptions we are used to form of the distinction between good and evil, that a man must have perfectly rooted out of his mind all awe of God, all sense of religion, all regard to goodness, before he can harbour or encourage the least thoughts of them.
2. Those sins also will be most severely punished which are committed against the greatest light. The sins of Christians, of reformed Christians, of those of the best reformed Church, the sins of such who attend continually upon the ordinances of God, and come constantly to be partakers of the Supper of the Lord—such men as these have no pretence for their iniquity, no colour or excuse for their sins.
3. Those men also have just reason to dread the severest judgments of God who allow themselves in such sins as shew the greatest depravity of will—habitual, deliberate, presumptuous sins—sins which they take pleasure in, and love to see practised by others.—Bishop Smalridge.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mar_6:1. Meaning of the word “disciple.”—
I. The school.—
1. They are in the kingdom of God (Joh_3:5).
2. At the feet of Jesus (Luk_10:39; Deu_33:3).
3. The law brings us to Christ (Gal_3:24).
4. To be in school is to be “in Christ” (Eph_4:21).
5. It is in the school that the instruction, training, and discipline take place.
6. “Come unto Me” precedes “Learn of Me” (Mat_11:28-29).
II. The lesson.—
1. The truth to be understood (Joh_16:13-15).
2. The Person to be appropriated (Eph_4:20; Heb_3:14; 2Pe_1:4).
3. The example to be followed (1Pe_2:21; Php_2:5; Mat_11:29; Joh_13:12-17; Luk_14:27).
III. The Teacher.—The Lord Himself (Joh_6:45).
1. His wisdom (Col_2:3).
2. His power (1Co_1:24).
3. His skill (Psa_78:72; Psa_32:8).
4. He can teach the heart (Heb_8:10; Heb_10:16).
5. He teaches us to profit Isa_48:17).
6. What He requires of those whom He teaches (Job_22:22; Psa_25:9; Jer_33:3; Joh_21:22).—E. Hopkins.
Mar_6:2. Christian doctrine.—
1. Christian doctrine applicable to all classes of men.
2. Christian doctrine calculated to excite the profoundest surprise.
3. Christian doctrine always conveying the impression of unique power.
4. Christian doctrine shewing the insignificance of the personality of its teachers. Even Christ Himself, according to the flesh, seemed poor and inadequate when viewed in the light of the wondrous revelations which He made to the world.—J. Parker, D.D.
Individuality of spirit, claim, manner, always provokes criticism. The glory of the highest revelation of Christianity is, that personality is superseded by spirituality. The speaker is to be forgotten in the speech. When both personality and doctrine are to be considered, the danger is that the former may be made to assume undue prominence. Instead of inquiring What is said? the inquiry will be Who said it? Personality is a mere question of detail in comparison with the truths which nourish and save the soul.—Ibid.
Lessons.—
1. Men may acknowledge and wonder at the spiritual gifts and graces which they see to be in others, and yet themselves have never the more grace, but be utterly void of all sanctifying and saving gifts of the spirit.
2. It is the property of carnal men to tie the gifts and graces of God’s Spirit unto outward helps and means, as if the Lord could not bestow such gifts, or work such graces by His Spirit, without such outward helps.
3. So long as any remain hardened in their natural blindness and infidelity, no means will prevail to work faith or repentance in them, and to bring them to God, though the means used be in themselves never so powerful and excellent.—G. Petter.
Unbelief.—In our modern cant phraseology theirs might have been designated agnosticism and philosophic doubt. But philosophic it certainly was not, any more than much that now passes, because it bears that name; at least, if according to modern negative criticism, the inexplicable is also the unthinkable. Nor was it really doubt or agnosticism, any more than much that now covers itself with that garb. It was what Christ designated it—unbelief, since the questions would have been easily answered—indeed, never have arisen—had they believed that He was the Christ. And the same alternative still holds true. If “this One” is what negative criticism declares Him, which is all that it can know of Him by the outside—the Son of Mary, the Carpenter and Son of the carpenter of Nazareth, whose family occupied the humblest position among Galileans—then whence this wisdom which, say of it what you will, underlies all modern thinking, and these mighty works, which have moulded all modern history?—A. Edersheim, D.D.
Mar_6:3. “Is not this the carpenter?”—Certainly; yet that refutes nothing. It only helps to prove the claims of Jesus to be the Son of God. If He had been a learned rabbi or philosopher, it might have been said He had received His wisdom from men; but as He was only a poor village carpenter, He must have been taught of God.
1. This tells us how wisely Jesus spent His youth and early manhood—not in idleness, but in useful toil.
2. It teaches us that there is no disgrace in working at a trade. Marks of toil are brighter insignia of honour than jewelled rings and delicate whiteness.
3. It shows also the condescension of Christ. Though rich, He became poor, and even toiled for His daily bread. It assures us, therefore, of His sympathy now with those who toil. It is a pleasant thought that the hands that now hold the sceptre once wielded the hammer and the saw.—J. R. Miller, D.D.
The history of Nazareth has been repeated on a large scale in the history of Israel.—Israel, as a whole, also made the nearness of Jesus, His “not being afar off,” an occasion of unbelief and fall. This temptation, resulting from the constant beholding of the Holy One with common eyes, was pointed to in Deu_30:14 (cp. Rom_10:8). It is the temptation which besets the intimates and fellow-citizens of chosen spirits and great geniuses; which besets theologians in the daily study and service of the truths of revelation, ministers in their commerce with the ordinances of grace, and all the lesser officers of the house of God in their habitual contact with the externals of Divine things. It is the temptation also of ancient towns and Churches, which have enjoyed exalted privileges, and indeed of the whole Church itself (Luk_18:8).—J. P. Lange, D.D.
The offence of the Nazarenes on account of Christ’s humble origin a picture of all other offences in Him.
1. An offence—
(1) In His terrestrial state and existence.
(2) In His human lowliness.
(3) In His brothers and sisters with their human weakness.
2. Yet an offence which will leave us self-condemned, since it implies an admission of His wisdom and of His deeds.
3. A most fatal offence, since unbelief deprives us of the blessings of Christ’s wondrous works.—Ibid.
Lessons.—
1. This should teach us to be well content to be abased in this world for Christ’s sake, seeing He, for our sakes, and to do us good, refused not to take upon Him so mean and low a condition.
2. It should move us to shew all humility towards our brethren in and for Christ’s sake.
3. It should restrain in us all ambitions and covetous desires of worldly greatness, honour, wealth, etc.—G. Petter.
The message more than the messenger.—If a message be sent to us from some great person, we look not so much at the person that brings it as at the message itself. So when ministers preach the Word of God to us, we must not so much have an eye to the outward quality of the persons that preach as to the doctrine itself which they deliver, the excellency and Divine authority whereof must move us to embrace and yield obedience to it.—Ibid.
Mar_6:4-6. How Christ victoriously contends with the unbelief of prejudice among His own countrymen.—
1. Prejudice everywhere opposes Him.
(1) In an impure and a gross apprehension of His dignity, as of a magical secret doctrine and art.
(2) In the reckoning up of all His earthly relationships, in order to urge them to the disparagement of His heavenly dignity.
(3) In a slavish community of envious and low judgment upon His life.
2. How the Lord lays hold of and overcomes this prejudice.
(1) He refers it all to a universal fact, which they might afterwards reflect upon.
(2) He does not forget, but heals, the few who needed and were susceptible of help among His scorners.
(3) He gathers up His influences, and withdraws.
(4) He causes the light of His presence to shine brightly throughout the whole district.—J. P. Lange, D.D.
Mar_6:4. Lessons.—
1. Good and faithful ministers of God are usually most subject to contempt and dishonour in the places where they are most familiarly known.
(1) Envy and emulation cause men often to repine at the honour and preferment of such as are and have been familiarly known to them, and perhaps also have been heretofore their inferiors or equals.
(2) Where ministers daily live and converse, they cannot but through human frailty discover some infirmities; and so their infirmities being most known in such places, hence it is that they are the more apt there to be despised.
(3) The daily presence and commonness of a benefit are apt to breathe a contempt and loathing of it.
2. Honour and good respect are due unto God’s faithful ministers wherever they live.
(1) They are spiritual fathers (1Co_4:15); therefore to be honoured.
(2) They are God’s messengers and ambassadors (2Co_5:20); therefore to be respected for the Lord’s sake who sends them.
(3) This wins reverence and authority to their ministry, causing it to be the more regarded, and become more profitable and effectual.—G. Petter.
Mar_6:5. The right atmosphere is wanting.—Fire cannot burn in a vacuum. His hands, indeed, were laid upon a few sick folk, and He healed them; but the mightier work of healing diseased minds and troubled hearts could not there be accomplished—that required stronger faith.
Mar_6:6. Jesus wonders at that at which He would have us wonder; and He takes notice of our faults, to the end that we may reflect upon ourselves. How much more strange and surprising are our own infidelity or unsuitable returns, after the instruction and miracles of so many ages!—P. Quesnel.
Nature, causes, and effects of unbelief.—
I. The nature of unbelief.—
1. Practical disregard of God’s Word and Commandments is really infidelity.
2. Afraid to receive the promises of God.
3. Fearing to take comfort from the Word of God.
II. The causes of unbelief.—
1. Voluntary ignorance (Rom_1:19-21).
2. Wilful resistance of conscience (2Th_2:10-12).
3. A deliberate preference for sins (Joh_3:19).
III. The effects of unbelief.—
1. It rejects Christ, the Lord of Glory, and therefore deserves eternal punishment.
2. It leads the sinner further and further away from God.—H. M. Villiers.
The unbelief which comes between us and Christ is that state of heart and feeling which dislikes the strain and trouble of thinking of things out of this present world; which looks away from what is out of sight and to come, and is moved and impressed only by what is just before it—immediate interests, immediate pleasures, common customs. It is the unbelief of carelessness, deadness of soul, lazy, selfish indifference; which cannot understand how any one can be in earnest, so as to take pains and suffer trouble for the sake of things unseen; which cannot bring itself to think that God is in earnest and the work of serving and pleasing Him a real thing. It is the unbelief which comes of wishing to save ourselves trouble, of not thinking it worth while to force ourselves to attend, to think, to remember, to lay to heart. This is the unbelief which comes between us and the power of Christ to improve us, to strengthen us, to comfort us. What we will not have done for us that He cannot do.—Dean Church.
Mar_6:7-11. The sending forth of the twelve apostles, formally commissioned to preach the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, reminds us of that noble and wonderful stream which Ezekiel saw in vision proceeding from under the threshold of the Temple, at first but a small rivulet not more than ankle-deep, but which, as it went on its way, increased to a stream knee-deep, then up to the thighs, and afterward to a great river for a man to swim in, and carrying healing in its blessed waters whithersoever it flowed. Jesus is the True Temple of God, and in Him this stream of life rises, and through His apostles and disciples it flowed forth, at first a very small stream, but it has gone on widening and deepening until its waters have filled the whole earth, and whithersoever it has flowed it has carried life and healing (Eze_47:1-9; Rev_22:1-7; Joh_7:37-39). To-day it is the mightiest moral force in the world, and there are none to sneer at it except fools and knaves (though many still oppose its onward flow), while millions all over the world and among all peoples live to bless God for His love and for His unspeakable gift in Christ Jesus.—G. F. Pentecost, D.D.
A beginning only.—Mark significantly says, “Then Jesus began to send them forth”: for ever since that day He has been giving similar work, and qualifying similar representatives.
1. To go forth from the presence of Jesus.
2. To be willing to work together.
3. To be content with the use of moral influence. Men are to be urged, not forced.
4. To exercise self-denial and cheerful trust in God.—A. Rowland.
Mar_6:7. Two and two is a wise rule for all Christian workers. It checks individual peculiarities and self-will, helps to keep off faults, wholesomely stimulates, strengthens faith by giving another to hear it and to speak it, brings companionship, and admits of division of labour. One and one are morethan twiceone.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Jesus sends out His disciples by twos.—In the line of this need, and for its supply, woman, with her blessed ministries, is granted as a help-meet to man. He is made stronger and enters a larger and better life by her pure companionship. And this, too, outside of the sacred relation of husband and wife. They need each other’s mutual help, and are uplifted in the relation simply of man and woman. They complement and help each other to attain and enjoy higher good. In all this man’s need of going out of himself and the healthfulness of the mutual impact of true natures are recognised.—W. M. Campbell.
Christian friendship.—
I. The power of Christian friendship.—
1. Sympathy: its immense help in enabling one to meet the difficulties, bear the trials, and do the work of Christian life.
2. Counsel: the advice of a wise friend, how valuable when in perplexity!
3. Love: its stimulating power.
II. The beauty of Christian friendship.—
1. Its unselfishness, eachstriving to help and make sacrifices for the other.
2. The common pursuit of noble aims, the common interest of Christian life.
3. The exchange of helpful thoughts on great subjects, the intercourse of minds enlightened by the knowledge of Christ.
III. The responsibility of Christian friendship.—Like all blessings, it has its dangers. It can be misused—
1. By weakly yielding to please a friend, instead of using the privilege of friendship to try to put him right.
2. By flattering a friend’s weakness, instead of pointing out and helping him to eradicate his faults.
3. By that absorption in one another which becomes a hindrance to the real work of life.—A. G. Mortimer, D.D.
Mar_6:8. God’s messengers.—
1. Such as are called of God to performance of great and weighty duties must free themselves from such impediments as will hinder them in those duties.
2. The best Christians may sometimes be called to a mean and poor estate, in which they may be destitute of necessaries for maintenance of this life.
(1) That God’s special providence and fatherly care may more appear in providing for them when outward means fail them.
(2) To try and exercise their faith in depending on His fatherly providence in their wants.
(3) To wean their hearts from love of earthly things, and to stir up in them the greater love and desire of spiritual and heavenly riches.—G. Petter.
Maintenance for ministers.—
1. It is not fit for ministers of the Word to be cumbered and troubled with the affairs of this life.
2. It is the ordinance of God that ministers should receive a sufficient maintenance from the people whom they are called to teach.—Ibid.
Mar_6:11. Lessons.—When we see God dishonoured by great and heinous sins, we ought to testify our utter dislike and detestation of them, some way or other.
(1) By an outward gesture and carriage (Act_13:51; Act_18:6; Neh_5:13; 2Ki_19:1).
(2) By our words, plainly and sharply reproving such sins, and denouncing God’s judgments against them (Eph_5:11).
2. The contempt of God’s ministers, especially of their ministry and doctrine, is an execrable and odious sin in the sight of God.
3. The sins of wicked men pollute the very ground on which they tread.—Ibid.
Severity or patience?—The whole conditions of work now are different. Sometimes, perhaps, a Christian is warranted in solemnly declaring to those who receive not his message that he will have no more to say to them. That may do more than all his other words. But such cases are rare; and the rule that is safest to follow is rather that of love, which despairs of none, and, though often repelled, returns with pleading, and, if it have told often in vain, now tells with tears, the story of the love that never abandons the most obstinate.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mar_6:12. True repentance.—
1. Its nature.
(1) It is represented in Scripture both as the gift of God and as the duty of the sinner.
(2) It is inseparably connected with faith in Christ. It includes—(a) A genuine sorrow for sin. (b) An unreserved and ingenious confession of sin. (c) A firm purpose, through Divine grace, to walk in newness of life—a purpose that is proved to be sincere by the fruits it produces.
2. Its indispensable necessity. This is proved by—
(1) The universality of sin.
(2) The express command of God, and the awful threatenings He has denounced against the finally impenitent.
3. Motives and encouragements to the performance of this duty.
(1) The very call and command to repent may afford encouragement to returning sinners.
(2) The Word of God is full of the most encouraging and express promises to penitent sinners.
(3) The examples recorded in Scripture of sinners who obtained mercy, notwithstanding the peculiar greatness of their guilt.
(4) The unspeakable happiness which awaits the true penitent in a future and eternal world.—D. Black.
Mar_6:13. Miracles.—It was not magic that conquered disease and death. We must not assume that, because powers are beyond our own knowledge and control, they are therefore lawless and irregular. Order is heaven’s first law. Jesus violates no principle in restoring the dead to life, but works according to some higher, unknown, and more heavenly principle. It is the kingdom of heaven overcoming the kingdom of darkness. The apostles, after Christ’s ascension, preached One who had all power in heaven and on earth, who had come to deliver men from the plagues and adversaries tormenting them.
Power in common things.—There is a potency in the commonest things. God has ordered it so. He certainly will not ignore His own arrangement. Every cure wrought without the aid of magical art or imposition and quackery, wrought with the aid of remedies provided in the earth and air, wrought wisely, honestly, scientifically, is a new proof that One who in other times healed the bodies and souls of men is still at work, that He still gives knowledge and insight to those who seek it, enables them to look into the condition of their fellow-men, and to be the ministers to them of His own blessed, healing, life-giving power.
The healing art the gift of God.—We may claim all true powers of the healing art and all honest studies in physical science as the gifts of God, ever intended to be the instruments of extending and proclaiming the Redeemer’s kingdom over the earth.
Credentials of authority.—Throughout all the centuries Christians have been following in the footsteps of Christ in their ministry to the sick, the diseased, the devil-ridden, and the dying: thousands of hospitals for every manner of disease and affliction; nurses everywhere to care for the suffering; the white cross on the battle-fields; remorseless warfare against every form of evil, and successful warfare too. A Christlike life, sympathy, active and tender, with the suffering poor under all conditions, are the credentials of authority which Christ gives to us all now.—G. F. Pentecost, D.D.
The duties of a pastor.—Here is an emblem of the several duties of a pastor—namely, courageously to prosecute incorrigible sinners, to treat the weak with mildness, and to apply himself to all with zeal.—P. Quesnel.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 6
Mar_6:3-4. Ignorant prejudices.—The same blindness and folly appears on a smaller scale in our own day. Some years ago Professor Wilson wrote that “as the northern Highlanders do not admire Waverley, so, I presume, the south Highlanders despise Guy Mannering. The Westmoreland peasants think Wordsworth a fool. In Borrowdale Southey is not known to exist. I met ten men in Hawick who do not think Hogg a poet, and the whole city of Glasgow think me a madman.”
Mar_6:7. The Divine call.—The apostles are the Lord’s “sent ones,” models of Christ’s servants who do His bidding in all the ages. Still, the supreme need of all who engage in Christian work is a sense of the Divine call. We may, therefore, ask how such calls are likely to come to us in these our times. They often come in providential circumstances, which bring altogether unsought work into a man’s hands. In one of his letters Dr. Norman McLeod wrote in this way: “I have tried, at least for the last twenty-five years, to accept of whatever work is offered to me in God’s providence. I have, rightly or wrongly, always believed that a man’s work is given to him, that it is not so much sought as accepted, that it is floated to one’s feet like the infant Moses to Pharaoh’s daughter.” No man will want work who waits on Divine providence with a full purpose of heart to do what is shewn to be God’s will for him. They come in the consciousness of possessing gifts, and such consciousness often comes suddenly to men. A good man, called to reside in a fresh city, visited a Sunday school, and was asked to take charge of the infant class in the absence of the usual teacher. As he had the little folk before him, the thought came to him and possessed him, “Here is your life-work. This is what you have to do.” It was an inward impulse by the Spirit. In that work he has won good success. We limit our realisation of Divine calls by limiting our ideas of Christian work. When an army is going forth to war, what a multitude of great and small preparations are necessary! and how much the success of the expedition will depend on careful attention to the minute details! The credit of the triumph won does not belong to the soldier only; it is in part his who made the soldiers’ weapons and the soldiers’ clothes. In the Arctic Expeditions everything depended on the thorough faithfulness of each member in the things that were least. The cabin-boy had his part in the work as truly as the leader. David acted on this view of the claims of all who take any place in an enterprise, however lowly the place may be, when he insisted on having the spoil divided among those who “tarried by the stuff,” as well as among those who “went forth to battle.” We all need to recognise more fully than we have ever done, that the Divine call to work, and the Divine inspiration and grace for workers, come to givers, and collectors, and sympathisers, and those who pray, quite as truly as to those who preach and teach.
Support by companionship.—A father was walking one day in the fields with his two children. The wind was blowing over a fine field of ripe corn, and making the beautiful golden ears wave like the waves of the sea. “Is it not surprising,” said one of the children, “that the wind does not break the slender stalks of the corn?” “My child,” said the father, “see how flexible the stalks are! They bend before the wind, and rise again when the wind has passed over them. See, too, how they help to support each other. A single stalk would be soon bent to the ground, but so many growing close together help to keep each other up. If we keep together when the troubles of life come upon us like a stormy wind, we shall keep each other up, when one trying to stand alone would fall.”
Mar_6:8. Impediments.—Armies most amply furnished with stores and comforts are most inefficient. The Zulu hordes, with but spear and shield, held long at bay the well-provisioned and disciplined troops of England. Baggage is well termed “impedimenta.” It checks by just so much the quickness, and fosters by hardness. The soul heavily freighted with the luxuries and appliances of this life is at a disadvantage for the sudden movements and missions on which the Great Captain would send it.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain Mat 13:54-58, & Mar 6:1-6. “He went out from…
CHAPTER 30
JESUS AGAIN REJECTED AT NAZARETH
Read full note →
Mat 13:54-58, & Mar 6:1-6. “He went out from thence, and came into His own country [i.e., He went from Capernaum to Nazareth]; and His disciples follow Him; and it being the Sabbath, He began to teach in the synagogue; and many, hearing, were astonished, saying, Whence are these things to Him? and what wisdom is given to Him? Such miracles are performed by His hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary? Is He not the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us? And they became offended in Him. And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his relatives, and in his own house. And He was not able to do any miracle there, except, laying His hands on a few sick people, He healed them. And He was astonished on account of their unbelief.” Matthew says, “He did not many miracles there on account of their unbelief.” You remember, early in our Lord’s ministry, when He first returned to Nazareth, after receiving the Holy Ghost at the Jordan, and the celestial fire flashing from His eyes, radiating from His countenance, and flaming along His words, interpenetrated the deep-seated carnality in the subterranean chambers of their fallen spirits, burning them intolerably; so they not only reject the truth, but determine to kill the Preacher, superinducing the necessity on His part to turn over humanity to the Divinity or become a martyr at that early day. Now that eighteen months have rolled away, and His mighty works and stupendous revelations have not only filled all Galilee and Judea, but aroused the heathen world from the slumber of four thousand years, turning on Him all eyes; again, actuated by the deep and unutterable love of His native land where He spent nine-tenths of His earthly life, — He comes back, and gives them another chance, only to meet such a rebuff and rejection that He never more came back, but left them to settle the matter at the judgment-bar. While they long listened to the wonderful wisdom which flows spontaneously from His mouth, and remember His mighty works at Capernaum, only forty miles distant, and the resurrection of the widow’s son at Nain, only five miles from their own city; while they were astonished, electrified, and even delighted, they can not survive the remembrance, “This is no one but that young carpenter, reared in our midst; the son of a poor mechanic, without education or any extraordinary opportunities; the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon, whom we know so well; and His sisters are living here with us this day.” What was the consequence? They could not brook these facts. And so “they were offended in Him;” i.e., they went back on Him, and could not acquiesce in the conclusion that He is a mighty prophet, sent down from heaven. N.B. He said He “could not do any miracle at Nazareth on account of their unbelief,” involving the legitimate conclusion that human faith is a necessary condition of God’s mighty work, both in the healing of the body and the salvation of the soul. If He had wrought miracles at Nazareth, doubtless His old acquaintances would have believed on Him; and so it is throughout this wicked world, going at race-horse speed to the bottomless pit, but we can not reverse the Divine order. We must believe in order to receive the mighty works of the Omnipotent Christ in behalf of both soul and body. We should not forget our Savior’s maxim, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country.” For this reason we have “go” in the Commission, as well as “preach.” We dare not change the Commission, and stay at home. Myriads of holy men and women, called of God to preach the gospel and save souls, paralyze their energies and bury their talents by staying at home.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Mar 6:1-3
Mar 6:1-3
I. Christian doctrine applicable to all classes of men.
Read full note →
II. Christian doctrine calculated to excite the profoundest surprise.
III. Christian doctrine always conveying the impression of unique power.
IV. Christian doctrine showing the magnificence of the personality of its teachers.
Parker, City Temple, 1871, p. 95.
References: Mar 6:1-6.—Parker, Christian Commonwealth, vol. vii., p. 575; H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man, p. 119.
Mar 6:2-3
Does Labour block the way.
I. "Is not this mighty worker and wise teacher a carpenter?" Well, and what then? Skill in handling the plane and driving the saw does not expel wisdom from the speech, love from the heart and beauty from the life. "Carpenter" though He be, "never man spake like this Man." It is undeniable, that the Nazareth artisan is the true King of the ages, and the rightful Lord of the souls of men.
II. The disaffected Nazarenes might have dispelled their passion-fed prejudice by simply recalling the leading names of their typical history. In the beginning God had set the stamp of His approval on human labour, and all along had chosen as the chief toilers for the higher and spiritual welfare of Israel and the world, those who were devoted to useful handicrafts or pastoral pursuits.
III. It would be unfair to treat this jaundiced jeer, this outburst of the lowest and rudest thought of Galilee, as though it expressed the prevalent Jewish idea of labour. Far from it. Handicrafts were specially honoured amongst the Jews, and the occupants of the highest posts of learning and tuition were most familiar with the lower forms of human toil.
IV. It is from the fullest life ever lived, a life unequalled in its sweet dignity and familiarity, tender strength and daring meekness, a life from which the moral grandeur never departs—it is from it we get the strongest witness that labour does not block the way to manhood. That life is set deep in the forests of human toil. So far as we know, Christ left the bench of the carpenter for the post of Teacher and Reformer. His work was His college. "He learnt obedience by the things which He suffered," and acquired fitness for His ministry of brief but measureless energy, tender pathos, broad sympathies, and heroic self-sacrifice. The lowliest tasks well done are the best preparations for helpful ministries to the world.
V. Let us beware of the strong illusion which resides in the commonplace. Familiarity with Jesus as the son of Mary and brother of Joses, as playmate and fellow-workman, closed the eyes of the Nazarenes to the spiritual meaning of His life. This is the Carpenter indeed, but God is in Him to save the whole life of all men. Trust Him, love Him, and be like Him.
J. Clifford, The Dawn of Manhood, p. 20.
Reference: Mar 6:2, Mar 6:3.—Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 314.
Mar 6:3
The Holiness of Common Life.
I. The holiest of men may to all outward eyes appear exactly like other people. For in what does holiness consist but in a due fulfilment of the relative duties of our state in life, and in spiritual fellowship with God. Now the relative duties of life are universal. Every man has his own. That which makes one man to differ from another is not so much what things he does, as his manner of doing them. Two men, the most opposite in character, may dwell side by side, and do the very same daily acts, but in the sight of God be as far apart as light and darkness.
II. True holiness is not made up of extraordinary acts. For the greater part of men, the most favourable description of holiness will be found exactly to coincide with the ordinary path of duty, and it will be most surely promoted by repressing the wanderings of ambition, in which we frame to ourselves states of mind and habits of devotion remote from our actual lot, and by spending all our strength in those things, great or small, pleasing or unpalatable, which belong to our calling and position.
III. Any man, whatever be his outward circumstances of life, may reach to the highest point of devotion. In all ages the saints of the Church have been mingled in all the duties and toils of life, until age or the events of Providence set them free. There was nothing uncommon about most of them but their holiness. Their very lot in life ministered to them occasions of obedience and humiliation. They sought God fervently in the turmoil of homes and armies and camps and courts; and He revealed Himself to them in love, and became the centre about which they moved, and the rest of all their affections. Let us whose lot is cast in these latter times, when the Church has once more become almost hidden in the world, be of the holy fellowship of Him who to the eyes of men was only the carpenter, but in the eyes of God was the very Christ. Let us look well to our daily duties. The least of them is a wholesome discipline of humiliation; if, indeed, anything can be little which may be done for God.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 220.
References: Mar 6:3.—W. Dorling, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 232; J. Johnston, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 85; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 164.
Mar 6:5-6
The text contains two remarkable instances, in a short space, of the manner in which the feelings and circumstances of men are ascribed to God in the Scriptures. It is said of Him who is Almighty, that He could there do no mighty work; it is said of Him to whom all things were known, that He marvelled because of their unbelief. It is very easy to see that these expressions are mere figures of speech; that Christ did not want the power to do miracles at Nazareth, but that there were some strong reasons for His not doing them, that it was, therefore, impossible for Him to work any; that He did not really marvel at their unbelief, but that it was so strange and unreasonable, that anyone except Him, to whom all hearts are open, might fairly have wondered at it.
I. But it is not on this account that I have chosen for my text this passage of the Scriptures; it contains another and much more important lesson. When it says that Christ could do no mighty work in Nazareth because of the unbelief of the people, it shows us how our sins defeat the gracious purposes of God towards us; how we hinder Him, in a manner, from doing what He wishes for our good; how we make it impossible for Him to avoid punishing us, although He has no pleasure at all in the death of the wicked, but rather that he should turn from his ways and live.
II. What is it that hinders us individually from finding in the Gospel all that we ought to find in it, or from experiencing in life a greater share of those comforts which God has promised to give to His people? What is become of the blessings which Christ has promised upon our hearty prayers; or of His assurance that where two or three are gathered together in His name, there is He in the midst of them? What should become of them, when we come here in a spirit of unbelief, so that our prayers are anything but the prayers of faith? God cannot make His good things plain to us if our hearts are hardened; nor can He show forth in us the mighty works of His grace, if He finds in us nothing but a dull and evil heart of unbelief.
T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. i., p. 75.
Reference: Mar 6:5.—J. Vaughan, Sermons, 7th series, p. 70.
This statement:
I. refutes the notion that where there is a true ministry there will be great success.
II. Shows the tremendous difficulties which the human will can oppose to the purposes of God.
III. Justifies the true worker in leaving the sphere in which he has been unsuccessful, to carry on his work under more favourable circumstances. Parker, City Temple, 1871, p. 95.
Mar 6:6
I. Let us consider the nature of unbelief. What is it? The word, so translated, will be found twelve times in the New Testament, and always in one signification. In its fullest sense, of course, it only exists in lands where men enjoy the light of revelation. Where there is little known there can be little unbelief. It consists in not believing something or other that God has said, some warning that He gave, some promise that He held out, some advice that He offers, some judgment that He threatens, some message that He sends. In short, to refuse to admit the truth of God’s revealed word, and to live as if we did not think that Word was to be depended on, is the essence of unbelief.
II. Let us now inquire why and wherefore unbelief is so wonderful. What is there in it that made even the Lord Jesus the Son of God marvel? (1) For one thing unbelief is a spiritual disease peculiar to Adam’s children, it is a habit of soul entirely confined to man. Angels in heaven above, and fallen spirits in hell beneath, saints waiting for the resurrection in Paradise, lost sinners waiting for the last judgment in that awful place where the worm never dies, and the fire is not quenched, all these have one point, in common, they all believe. Surely a habit of soul, so absolutely, entirely confined to living man, may well be called marvellous. (2) For another thing unbelief is marvellous when you consider its arrogance and presumption. For, after all, how little the wisest of men know, and none are more ready to confess it than themselves. How enormously ignorant the greater part of mankind are if you come to examine the measure of their knowledge. When a man says he is troubled with sceptical and unbelieving feelings about Christianity, while he has probably never studied a dozen pages of Paley, or Butler, or Chalmers, or Bishop Nelson, and never thought deeply about religion at all, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that one of the most curious things in much unbelief is its wonderful self-conceit. (3) For another thing unbelief is marvellous when you consider its unfairness and one-sidedness. Who has not known that some of the minor facts and miracles of the Bible are the ostensible reasons which many assign why they cannot receive the book as true, and make it their rule of faith and practice. And all this time they refuse to look at three great facts:—the historical person Jesus Christ, the Bible itself, and the amazing change which has taken place in the state of the world before Christianity and since Christianity. (4) Unbelief is marvellous when you consider how the vast majority of those who profess it, drop it, and give it up at last. Few of us, perhaps, have the least idea how seldom any man leaves the world an unbeliever. If those who profess to deny revelation generally died happy deaths, and left the world in great peace and joy, holding their opinions to the last, we might well expect them to have followers. But when, on the contrary, it is the rarest thing to see an unbeliever dying calmly in unbelief, and giving no sign of discomfort, while the vast majority of unbelievers throw down their arms at last, and seek for the very religious consolation which they once affected to despise, it is impossible to avoid one broad conclusion. That conclusion is, that of all spiritual diseases by which fallen man is affected, there is none so truly marvellous and unreasonable as unbelief.
Bishop Ryle, Oxford Undergraduates’ Journal, May 27th, 1880.
References: Mar 6:6.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi., No. 935; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 262; Bishop Ryle, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 36; G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 142; Homilist, vol. vi., p. 199. Mar 6:7-13.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 253; H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man, p. 129; A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 99. Mar 6:7-30.—W. Hanna, Our Lord’s Life on Earth, p. 205. Mar 6:12.—Todd, Lectures to Children, p. 9. Mar 6:14.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 41. Mar 6:14-16.—W. Walters, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 42. Mar 6:14-29.—R. S. Candlish, Scripture Characters and Miscellanies, p. 137; H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man, p. 129; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 72. Mar 6:16.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 358; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 534. Mar 6:17.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xi., p. 235. Mar 6:17, Mar 6:18.—Ibid., p. 49.
Mar 6:20
The Peril of playing with Spiritual Convictions.
I. There is no greater peril than that of amusing ourselves with God’s truth, taking pleasure in hearing it, in joining in discussions about religion and objects connected therewith, yet not making it the rule of action, or really doing anything to promote those objects. The story of Herod which the text brings before us contains a remarkable instance of this. We can quite imagine with what emotions of alarm the lewd king may have heard the tale of the wild unearthly man, with his proclamation of a heavenly kingdom at hand, to whom the whole nation flocked. His own looseness of morals and living would predispose him to be struck by the severe, self-mortified life, which the Baptist led. His own violation of Divine and human law stood rebuked by the presence of that man, holy and just. The impure Herod saw in John one whom the shadows of eternity appeared visibly to encircle. To hear of him was as it were to enter into the cloud, and as he entered, he feared.
II. "He did many things." Ah! it is just at this point that the whole history becomes so intensely practical. What those many things were which Herod amended at the bidding of John we vainly surmise. A few of the grosser corruptions of his foul course were perchance removed, or it may be John could hold back the stubborn king in some one occasional act of cruelty, or persuade him to pay some outward attention to the outward worship of God; but he could not, did not turn him to a thorough reformation of his own life. The only voice which had ever stirred the better spirit within him was quenched in blood, and the last state became worse than the first.
III. From Herod’s history we learn (1) how it may happen that a man who has manifested a certain interest in and deference to religion will yet turn against religion when it assails his cherished idol. (2) How religious instruction, when not honestly followed out, becomes itself a snare.
J. R. Woodford, Sermons on Subjects from the New Testament, p. 26.
References: Mar 6:20.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 347 vol. xxvi., No. 1548; Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., p. 136; A. Barry, Cheltenham College Sermons, p. 229. Mar 6:21—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 148. Mar 6:22.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., p. 133. Mar 6:25.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 25; Outline Sermons to Children, p. 143.
Mar 6:26
Let us briefly examine the plea set up by Herod in the case before us. It was twofold.
I. The first was for his oath’s sake. In a moment of hasty excitement he had rashly promised on oath to give the girl whatever she would ask; and therefore he fancied himself bound to do as he had solemnly sworn. Now this would have been a valid plea if he had had any right to make such an oath, or if the thing required of him had been in itself indifferent. But as the case stands, he is only giving one sin as a reason for the commission of another. There is nothing in morals that can be plainer than this: that where there is an obligation of a higher and of a lower kind seeking to oppose each other, the lower must invariably yield to the higher, and not the higher to the lower one. No oath, however solemnly sworn, can bind a man to commit sin.
II. But if this plea will not stand, still less will the other that is alleged, and "for their sakes that were with him." Who was to blame for their being there, and who were they that they should give laws to him, and absolve him from the higher law of God? Morality is not a fluctuating thing, a thing to be regulated like the climate, by the latitude of the place, or to vary with the character of the different companies into which we may chance to be thrown. It is the will of God, and like God, it is unchangeable and eternal. Truth is truth and a lie is a lie, no matter who is within hearing; holiness is holiness, and sin is sin, no matter who beholds it; and the companions by whom we surround ourselves, however much they may change our feelings in the commission of sin, cannot change the nature of the sin itself. We will venture to say that, if the monarch had only declared that it was impossible to grant such a request, there was enough of reverence for God’s law and human right in each of their breasts as at once to approve the deed, and Herod would have stood forth before them all a greater man than they had yet imagined him to be. In conclusion, note a few lessons from this interesting subject. (1)
Beware of the beginning of sin. It was this which so fettered Herod here, and gave such power to his plea of necessity for committing gross sin. (2) Beware of the companions with whom you connect yourselves. Say No. Learn to say it with emphasis, and soon you will rise so high in the esteem, even of sinners, that they will cease to torment you, and leave you to take the course your Saviour has marked out for you. (3) Above all, seek to have a saving interest in Jesus Christ, and the constant indwelling of His Spirit in your hearts.
W. M. Taylor, Life Truths, p. 163.
References: Mar 6:26.—R. S. Candlish, Scripture Characters and Miscellanies, pp. 156, 177.—R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. i., p. 218. Mar 6:26, Mar 6:27.—J. Vaughan, Sermons, 10th series, p. 53.
Mar 6:30
Talking it over with Christ.
They had been for some time separated from Christ. It was necessary in order to their becoming healthy and stalwart Christ’s men, that they should not continue for ever at Christ’s side, but that with something of Him, something of His principles, His Spirit, His wisdom and grace, sown and sunk in them, they should begin to exercise at a distance from Him, clear of the support of His mighty personality.
I. But the Apostles have now returned from the excursion, and are found gathering "together to Him, to tell Him all things, both what they have done and what they have taught." And how beautiful the readiness, the bold unshrinking readiness, they show to rehearse their proceedings at His feet, and to go over the whole story with Him. How suggestive of the patience, the tenderness, the thoughtful forbearance and sympathy, with which he had habitually treated them, and in reliance on which they had learned to be frank and free in exposing themselves before Him—had learned not to be afraid to tell Him everything.
II. A review of our activities—especially when we have been engaged in any earnest serious work, and even at the close of any period of occupation and effort—a review of our activities is always desirable, and often of great importance and value. It reveals points, sometimes of much interest and moment, in connection with them which otherwise would never be observed. We miss the divinely intended lessons and admonitions of our activities unless we review them. They throw off continually indications, revelations of ourselves, which we must look back to see.
III. The Apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus. They brought their activities into the light of His presence; and was not that the very best thing they could do, if they wanted to estimate them rightly and to understand and profit by their teaching? Happy is he whose custom and whose comfort it is to go in to the Lord from time to time, for the purpose of showing Him all things, and reviewing and pondering His life before Him. Let us seek to do this. We shall find the rich help and benefit of it; and our sufficient strength for it will be found in the remembrance that He to whom we are to speak freely is our Father.
S. A. Tipple, Echoes of Spoken Words, p. 43.
Mar 6:30-31
Devotion possible in the Busiest Life.
We may learn from our Lord’s life of toil, that there is nothing in a life of perpetual labour to hinder our attaining to the highest measure of perfection. There was never any one whose life was fuller of endless employments, or more broken by countless interruptions than His. This may show us that the most laborious may be the holiest of saints. There are, however, two objections which may be made against this example. One is that He, being sinless, must needs be independent of the means and conditions on which holiness depends in us, and therefore could suffer no obstruction by the multitude of His employments. The other is, that His work was not secular but sacred. One answer will suffice for both these objections.
I. It is true that He, being sinless, must necessarily be beyond the power of the worldly hindrances which obstruct a life of devotion to us. But is there not something really unsound in the idea that anything which is our duty in life can be an obstruction to any other duty? Surely the truth must be, that whatsoever in our daily life is lawful and right for us to be engaged in, is itself a part of our obedience to God; a part, that is, of our very religion! A life of devotion does not mean a life of separation from active duties, but the discharge of all offices, high or low, from the most sacred and elevated to the most secular and menial, in a devout spirit.
II. But we may go farther, and say not only that the duties of life, be they never so toilsome and distracting, are no obstructions to a life of any degree of inward holiness, but that they are even direct means, when rightly used, to promote our sanctification. The weariness, crosses, disappointments, vexations, which arise in our daily tasks; the early hours and late; the crowding and thronging of the multitude—all these are but as the dust, ashes, and sackcloth of our just humiliation.
III. Another benefit in continual employment is, that it acts as a great check upon the temptations which beset an unoccupied and disengaged man. Next to prayer and a life of devotional habits there is nothing that keeps the heart so pure, and the will so strong and steadfast, as a life of continual duty.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 305.
References: Mar 6:30-32.—A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 107; W. Hanna, Our Lord’s Life on Earth, p. 214. Mar 6:30-34.—H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man, p. 134. Mar 6:30-37.—J. W. Burn, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 36.
Mar 6:30-42
The Marvellous Meal.
I. The disciples had been away from Jesus, on their first missionary tour, journeying on foot from town to town, preaching what He had taught them, and working miracles with the power which He had bestowed. When they returned, they had much to tell and to ask; and the Lord, seeing them in need of quiet and rest, said to them, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile." Jesus must have needed rest as much as they did, for we are told "there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat." But it was not of Himself he thought, but of His disciples. Do you wish to be a real disciple of the Lord Jesus—really like Him? Then there is nothing you must more earnestly seek than this,—to be unselfish. We cannot overcome selfishness in our own strength, but we may in His of whom it is written, "Even Christ pleased not Himself."
II. The hot noon has passed; the afternoon is wearing away; and the mountain shadows point towards us across the lake. Many of the people are sitting or lying on the grass, faint with hunger and fatigue. The disciples at last come to their Master and ask if He will not send the people away, that they may go into the villages and buy food, before the sun sets and night comes on. To their amazement, Jesus answers, "They need not depart; give ye them to eat." The Lord bade them see what they could find. They brought word that there was a lad who had in his basket five cakes of barley bread and two small salted fish. "Bring them (said Jesus) hither to Me." I wonder whether the lad objected to give up his basket, and whether the disciples paid him for it, or whether he gladly gave it as soon as he knew that the Lord asked it. If so, what an honour and happiness for him to supply the provision out of which the Lord fed all that multitude. He was repaid, as money could not have paid him. Doubtless, the Lord Jesus took care he should be no loser by yielding up his little store.
III. "They did all eat and were filled." It was a very plain meal, only barley-cake and salt fish, with a draught of clear water from some cool mountain brook. Yet for the poorest and most friendless among the five thousand on the hillside—healed by the touch, taught by the lips, fed by the hand of Jesus, it would have been a poor exchange to have changed places with king Herod in his palace, or with the great emperor of Rome, Tiberius Cæsar himself.
E. R. Conder, Drops and Rocks, p. 224.
Mar 6:31
Christian Work and Christian Rest.
I. With all our Lord’s constant activity in doing good, let us hear the words of this text, "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while." We know from other places in the Gospels, of what rest our Lord was here speaking, and how He employed these hours of retirement and solitude. No doubt, partaking as He did of the bodily infirmities of our nature, He required rest literally and in the simplest sense of the word; and no doubt also that such periods of rest and entire refreshment are not only allowable, but useful and even necessary. Let Christ show us how we may refresh our bodies and minds without letting our souls suffer; how we may return from such retirement, strengthened alike in body and in mind, for the work that is set before us. These times, which our Lord passed in a desert place, generally among the mountains that rise at some little distance from the shores of the Sea of Galilee, were His favourite times of prayer and meditation. He who as God worked and does work for ever, yet as a man and for our example thought it right to vary His active labours with intervals of religious rest.
II. Here, then, in three parts of the text—in the zeal with which our Lord pursued His work, in the particular nature of it, and in the rest with which He thought fit from time to time to vary it—there is matter of special improvement for three classes of persons. The zeal with which He pursued His work, so that they had no leisure so much as to eat, is an example for that most numerous class who are merely following their pleasure, or who, if obliged to work, yet work unwillingly and grudgingly. The particular nature of Christ’s work is an example and a warning for those who, like the ground choked with thorns, are working indeed, and working zealously, but whose work is never of the same sort as Christ’s: it is worldly in its beginning and worldly also in its end. And in the rest which Christ took from time to time, and the uses which He made of it, even they who are actually labouring in His service may learn how alone their labour may be blessed to themselves as well as to others; how their work may indeed be such as that when they fail in this world they may be received into the everlasting habitations of God.
T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 150.
We learn from the text a lesson of zeal in the discharge of our daily duties. "For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat."
I. There are some dispositions which, from absolute indolence, seem to be zealous about nothing whatever—persons who appear neither to care about business or pleasure, who cannot be roused to take an active interest in anything. These are characters which exist, and which we must all have sometimes met with; but they are not common, neither are they very dangerous, because the general feeling of men is apt to despise them as stupid and insensible. A much more common case is that of persons who like some things exceedingly and are all alive whenever they happen to be engaged in them; but who do not like their common employment, and display about that no interest at all. This is a very common case, for it rarely happens that our employment is the very one which we should most choose, or the one which we most choose at this particular time, or under these particular circumstances.
II. True it is that we cannot do heartily what we dislike; but it is no less true that we may learn if we will to like many things which we at present dislike; and the real guilt of idleness consists in its refusal to go through this discipline. I might speak of the well known force of habit in reconciling us to what is most unwelcome to us; that, by mere perseverance, what was at first very hard becomes first a little less so, then much less so, and at last so easy that, according to a well known law of our faculties, it becomes a pleasure to us to do it. But although perseverance will certainly do this, what is to make us so persevering? If we go through the discipline it will cure us, but what can engage us to give it a fair trial? And here it is that I would bring in the power of Christ’s example; here it is that the grace of God, through Christ, will give us the victory. The Son of God pleased not Himself, and who are we who do not deny ourselves? His creatures, who owe everything to His goodness, and yet day by day are unworthy of it: His creatures, who, offending Him every hour, are yet impatient of anything but pleasure at His hands; who, with so much of that guilt for which He was pleased to be crucified, are yet unwilling to submit to that discipline which His pure and spotless soul endured cheerfully for no need of His own, but for our sakes.
T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 157.
The Religious Life.
I. The life of Christ was a busy life. The great work of redemption was so pre-eminently the work of Christ’s life, that we sometimes lose sight of the enormous and ceaseless work which He accomplished daily in teaching, in healing disease, in travelling from place to place, so that, on some occasions, "He had no time so much as to eat," and was so fatigued at night that amidst a storm He slept soundly in a boat on the Galilean Sea. Thus the life of Christ was a life of earnest and active work. We can well imagine how the spotless holiness of Jesus of Nazareth consecrated every labour and hallowed every social scene. To many this will seem a complete type of the religious life. "Do your work honestly," say they; "enter into the pleasures of life soberly, and there is no need for any special reverence or any extraordinary means of spiritual culture."
II. But if we read our Master’s life carefully we see that there is another side to it. There were periods when He felt that He needed rest, retirement, struggle, prayer. Again and again He goes apart a while to the stillness of the garden, or to the solemn loneliness of the mountain-side. He would retire at intervals from the wear and tear and weariness of public life, and in meditation, and solitude, and prayer, would strengthen His spiritual nature—would deepen that hunger and thirst in His Divine soul for which the meat and drink were the doing of His Father’s will.
III. Our great duty at present is life. It is to live that God gives us energy of mind and body. Every one of us who knows even a little of the internal side of this great mass of human life, amid which our lot is cast, must feel deeply convinced that if all true and honest men, and all true and pure women, were to withdraw themselves from the world, it would be the taking away of the very salt which is preserving it from decay. While we thus go into life, however, let us remember how hard is the battle, how wearing and exhausting to our better nature are the passions and strifes amid which we have to move. Let us remember how this tends to weaken our spiritual strength, to enervate our spiritual life. We need seasons when the Master calls us, as His disciples, to come apart with Him and rest a while.
T. T. Shore, The Life of the World to Come, p. 52.
After Rest.
I. The great horror, which followed upon so base a crime as the murder of John Baptist, might have seemed, perhaps, to us to suggest that his death was the very moment for our Lord and His disciples to step out, to denounce at once the tyrant himself, and the sin and luxury of the upper classes; and, with the blood of the martyr before them, to commence a new cycle of preaching with a new prospect of success. But not so our Lord thought. From what He said and did, which was so very different, even we, in such different times, and in such quiet walks of life as ours, may perhaps learn some lesson for today. He received the news, and His only utterance seems to have been: "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while." The teaching of nature, God’s voice in the beauty of the wilderness—that seems to have been their healing and their strength.
II. The bidding would, while all obeyed it, awake different echoes in different hearts; some, perhaps, would understand it as He meant it, some would be only too willing to hide their sadness and their despair of anything good coming out of a land where the regenerators of society were marked for early doom, some in the sense of strength unused and courage unbroken would think (except that they trusted Him) that they were losing time. Had He not seriously said to them that they must work while it is called day because of the approach of that night in which no work can be done?
III. It is with feelings various as these that we look often on the rest of Death: some seem to reach such fulness of wisdom and sagacity, the rashness of youth gone and yet its courage left, the inexperience to which all seemed easy succeeded by the experience which has learnt that difficulties abound almost impregnable unless approached by the one access to their citadel. They see the moment come for some decisive step, and who so fit as they to take it? And even then, in the wisdom of God, though to our baffling, is the moment when such men are taken from the world. Who can conceive why that is the very hour when God says to them: "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while?" We cannot realise the secret and the mystery of that place whither they go; but they find there Christ and the Apostles still, resting a while until the day of their recompensing work arrive.
Archbishop Benson, Boy Life: Sundays in Wellington College, p. 156.
The Saviour counsels retirement. He addresses the privileged Twelve; and recommends, proposes, will Himself lead and accompany, a withdrawal, a retreat, a seclusion from scenes and engagements and enjoyments too, which were in their own nature harmless, full of advantage to the persons busied in them, and to thousands and tens of thousands beside and beyond themselves. Jesus said to His disciples: "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while." When we compare St. Mark’s with St. Matthew’s narrative of this retirement we shall find three reasons for it.
I. St. Matthew expressly connects it with the tidings of the Baptist’s martyrdom. John’s disciples buried the corpse, and went and told Jesus. And "when Jesus heard of it, He departed thence by ship into a desert place apart." Read in this the Saviour’s warrant for our mourning in the loss of friends. A near kinsman has been cut off by a sudden, a violent death. Was not Christ one with us in feeling it? Was He not here reproving by His example that stoical or that hyper-spiritual view of bereavement which would forbid the tear to flow, or the heart to ache, because it is God’s will, or because death is the gate of life.
II. St. Mark gives us a second reason for the retirement counselled in the text. He connects it with the return of the Apostles from a mission described in earlier verses of the chapter. Christ receives them with an invitation to solitude, as though He saw that the excitement of a special service needed its counteraction; that there was something in them of a spiritual elation akin to self-complacency, if not to self-glorying—requiring, therefore, that discipline not always for the present joyous, of a wilderness sojourn, literal or figurative, by which the soul recovers its juster, healthier estimate of greatness and littleness, of itself and God.
III. There is yet one third reason for this retirement, and St. Mark suggests it in the clause following the text: "For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat." The mere unrest of that busy life created the necessity of retirement. The mere business of a life is reason enough for its resting. The mere coming and going of many who want and seek and would employ this life, is enough in the mind of the holy and compassionate Lord to demand intervals of repose and recreation. How much more when there is taken also into the reckoning what an over-tasked and over-taxed life of necessity must be, in reference to the higher interests—to the well being of the soul.
C. J. Vaughan, Words of Hope, p. 247.
I. The Apostles’ mission was ended. Such special efforts must begin and end. Neither for the worker’s sake, nor for the sake of those worked upon, is it expedient that they should be other than temporary. The kind Saviour saw that the whole mission had been a heavy pull on their energies, both of body and mind. He saw that they were wrought up to a pitch of excitement; He saw they needed rest after toil, and quiet after excitement; He knew where they would get these—not by sitting still and doing nothing for a space amid the throng of men coming and going—not there: they must get apart to the calm seclusion of nature, where green hills and green trees and rippling streams should speak to their heart. Much grass—humblest, commonest, most beautiful of all vegetation—would pour its gentle refreshment into weary eye and aching brain. And so our blessed Redeemer’s words are to the outworn, wrought-up Apostles: "Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while."
II. Far more needful now has the counsel grown which is set forth in my text. Never, in the history of this country, have there been days in which the work of cultured men was so hard, so eager, so exhausting, so perilous, to fagged brain and nerves, to fevered soul and spirit. If Christ were here as of old He would say such words as those of my text. "Come away from this crowd of human beings, come away from this overpressure and hurry of engagements; come away to a desert place, to the silent hills, to the lonely shore; come and rest a while: you need quiet that you may see your way.
III. One wonders how our Redeemer and His Apostles would rest. Probably as other wearied men would. At first pure idleness. To the worn-out that is absolute rest. For a while it would be delightful just to do nothing. But after a little time that will not do. Let every weary mortal, entering on his resting-time, provide some occupation for it. And finally, if you would enjoy rest, if you would come back with a soul set right; wiser, calmer, more hopeful, more charitable; to do your work better and more cheerfully, to bear with less irritation the provocations which all earnest people will know—all who desire to mend things and folk around them, see to it that you make the resting-time a time of distinct religious discipline.
A. K. H. B., Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, 3rd series, p. 1.
Seclusions with Christ.
The world is too much with us. For some purposes it cannot be too much with us. With it, and in it, lies our work. To encourage the activities, to direct the energies, to foster the interests, of a little fragment of our generation—this is one of the highest works given to any man; to go out of the world would be to desert the post assigned, and to do despite to the wisdom which has assigned it. And yet the world may be too much with us.
I. There are some influences of the world which need a strong counteraction. One of these is irritation; it is scarcely possible for a man to go through a long day of business without some trial of temper. (2) Another evil influence is worldliness.
II. Out of these plain and everyday experiences of all springs, as of course, the qualifying and correcting necessity—"Come ye yourselves into a desert place, and rest a while." This seclusion may be either periodical or occasional. (1) By a wise and merciful ordinance of God’s providence, all of us are taken aside, as it were, from the multitude in almost one-half of our earthly being. I speak not now of the ordinances of religion, but of appointments of nature. Think what night is, and then say what we should be without it. Think of its compulsory withdrawal from the exciting contests, the angry recriminations, the fallacious ambitions, the frivolous vanities, which belong to a day and to a multitude! Think of its natural tendency to recall the thought of dependence and of creatureship; to remind us of Him with whom darkness and light are alike, and who Himself neither slumbereth nor sleepeth. Where should we be, the best of us, if nature did not thus play unto the hands of grace?
III. And so we pass from the periodical to the occasional. God’s grace has many sinkings; It despises no method as insignificant, it overlooks, we believe, no person as beneath its notice. Upon one Christ tries His hand of healing thus, and upon another thus—adapting Himself with nicest discrimination to the antecedents, to the circumstances, to the character and to the life. But one thing you will always find—He begins by taking him aside from the multitude, saying, "Come apart for a while with Me." Nothing can be done without that. Go aside with Christ now, and then there shall be no surprise, and no confusion, and no misgiving, if, when He comes for us, He even come suddenly, calling us to arise and follow Him through the pangs of a most suffering or a most startling death.
C. J. Vaughan, Last Words at Doncaster, p. 259.
The Christian Uses of Leisure.
I. One element of rest to be cultivated in leisure is communion with outward nature.
II. Another is intercourse with fellow-Christians.
III. A third is a closer converse with Christ Himself.
J. Ker, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 146.
References: Mar 6:31.—S. Leathes, Truth and Life, p. 134; J. F. Kitto, Church of England Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 129; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 243; E. W. Shalders, Ibid., vol. xiii., p. 195; A. Rowland, Ibid., vol. xxix, p. 332; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 255. Mar 6:31-34.—Ibid., vol. iii., p. 291. Mar 6:33-44.—A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 120.
Mar 6:34
I. The spirit and object of our Lord’s teaching are given in the words of my text. His teaching is the teaching of a merciful Saviour, and its spirit is compassion and tenderness. "When He saw the people, He was moved with compassion toward them." And its object is to save that which was lost; because they were as sheep not having a shepherd; therefore He was moved with compassion toward them, and began to teach them many things. It is not to make the wise wiser, or the good better, but to save those that were lost, to call the sinner to repentance. "The whole," said He, "need not a physician." By which and other such words, our Lord meant to show, that in order to take this teaching rightly, we must know ourselves to be such as we really are, and such as His teaching supposes us to be. That is, in coming to Him, we must not fancy that we have a knowledge and a goodness, imperfect indeed, but yet of some value, and requiring only to be improved and strengthened. We must come to Him as being sheep without a shepherd, sheep gone astray; as sick men needing a physician—these are His own figures; or, without a figure, we must come to Him as having no knowledge as to the great matter of saving our souls; as having no goodness that can abide God’s judgment.
II. Consider what it is to be looked on by Christ, our most merciful Saviour, with compassion. There is an evil about us, then, which we dream not of; a danger which we do not at all suspect. If Christ looks on us with compassion, ought we not to be afraid? Again, Christ looks on us with pity; we have been very ungrateful to Him; very unheeding; He has called, but we would not answer, yet still His look is one of pity. It might well be a look of anger, of judgment, but it is a look of compassion. That is, He still cares for us, He would that we should not perish, He would still be our Saviour. Let any one consider what it is to be so regarded by his Saviour, and then can he help turning to Him? When we turn He is ready to teach us many things; even the whole counsel of God.
T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. v., p. 178.
References: Mar 6:34.—C. Kingsley, Town and Country Sermons, p. 219. Mar 6:35-44.—E. R. Conder, Drops and Rocks, p. 224. Mar 6:38.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 144.
Mar 6:39
Note:—
I. The need which comes to men of simply being fed by God, of ceasing from forth-puttingness and self-assertion, and simply being receptive to the influences which come to them from Divinity.
II. Two lessons come to us out of the scene. (1) Seek your life’s nourishment in your life’s work. (2) Make your most restful contemplation and your most receptive listening at the feet of God, not to be mere spiritual luxuries, but to be forms and modes of action.
Phillips Brooks, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 122.
Mar 6:45-51
The Disciples in the Storm.
The whole of this narrative is historical; all literally took place eighteen centuries ago; but at the same time this page of the Gospel is like a sublime parable whose minutest features comprise a teaching for all ages, and which is wonderfully adapted to sustain the faith of believers today.
I. What is it which so often troubles our faith in the Divine promises? It is the fact that God does not direct events and things for the triumph of His cause, and that that cause seems often to be vanquished by fatality. This is a contradiction which confounds us. God wants truth to prevail; He commands His Church to announce it to the world; His design is here express and manifest; and when, to serve Him, His Church puts itself to the work, God permits circumstances to array themselves against it and hinder it. We forget that Christ overcame the world only by raising against Him all its resistance; that the Cross has been a sign of triumph only because it has been an instrument of punishment, and that in its apparent impotence and ignominy we must at all times seek the secret of its power and of its invincible attraction.
II. History is like a night stretching across the ages; in all times believers are called to wait for God’s intervention, but God delays to come, and that is the supreme trial of faith—greater, perhaps, than the opposition of men and even of persecution. Often Christ appears to humanity as a phantom. That pure and holy image has often awoke in those who beheld Him for the first time, only mistrust, hostility, mockery, and more than one generation has hailed Him with a repellent cry.
III. But in the midst of the gloom which envelops the disciples a voice is heard. Jesus Christ has spoken. He has said, "It is I; be not afraid." The Apostles recognise that voice; in the midst of the storm their hearts are penetrated with a Divine peace. It is the same at all seasons. There is an incomparable emphasis in Christ’s sayings. Yesterday we were in trouble and anguish, today we hear and are subdued. Explain who can this phenomenon. It is a fact for which witnesses would rise today in all parts of the world. Everywhere and in every age there are men who are enlightened, soothed, consoled, by this voice, and to whom it gives an invincible conviction, an immortal hope.
E. Bersier, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 48.
References: Mar 6:45-52.—A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 128; H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man, p. 140. Mar 6:47, Mar 6:48.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 83.
Mar 6:48
Mysterious Passages of Life.
I. The mysterious passages of life are as truly meant for us as when on that melancholy night Jesus decidedly and deliberately left His disciples till "the fourth watch," till the very verge of daybreak, to labour alone with the rough waves, and to weary themselves in rowing in that stormy sea; while a Divine love seemed as if it took advantage of that cruel hour—for the more they strove the more helpless they grew. I do not say that this is life; but I say that every life, at all times, is hard work, and I say that every life has those special passages. They may be, and they are, in their intensity, a parenthesis, but still they are; and while they last they seem very long. It is then that we forget the smooth waters, and the favouring gale, and the sunny wave, and the happy converse, and the ever-lessening distance; and we see nothing but the swellings of our difficulties, and the dying-out of the specks of our ever-departing hope.
II. It is no little thing to have an object steadily in view, to know that that object is right, to labour for it intently, to sigh for it deeply, to pray for it wrestlingly; and yet, despite all the efforts, and all the sighs, and all the prayers, never to near it, but to see it going farther and farther away into the distance from us. And if that object be some high and holy thing, which seems not only for our spiritual good, a very necessity for our souls, but for God’s own glory, yet to toil and toil and weary ourselves upon labours that are nothing worth, is an exercise of faith that becomes extreme. The word of comfort is this, Jesus sees you. Darkness and distance shut out Him from you; but they never shut out you from Him. To be in His eye is life and safety. To please that eye is the one pure joy of human existence.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 187.
The Contrary Currents of Life.
The winds always seem contrary to those who have any high and earnest purpose in life. The stirring of a high and godly purpose is like swinging round with the head to the current. Thenceforth every moment must be an effort, every thought a prayer; or the stream will be sweeping you farther and farther from the longed-for shore.
I. We are able when thinking over this great matter, a life-course and its issues, to remind ourselves of the great life-course to which the winds were ever contrary, which something seemed always to sweep back from its end. Without question, life is a hard matter to the earnest, the night is dark, and the toil hard. Often the main support of faith is to look steadily to Him to whom the night was darker, the toil harder, and Who is seated now a radiant Conqueror at the right hand of the throne of God.
II. Let us look at the broad fact of the contrariness of the currents of life. With some there is a life-long struggle to fulfil the duty of some uncongenial calling, which yields no fair field of activity to the powers which they are conscious of stirring within. They never, in fact, can get fairly entered for the race in which they might have no small chance of winning the prize. There are others who are crossed in their dearest hope; life is one long, sad regret. There are others with a weak and crippled body enshrining a spirit of noblest faculty; with intense ardour pent up within. And most of us find that something is always rising up to cross us; life is never long without some menace or check.
III. Consider the reason and the rightness of this contrariness of the currents of life. It is to keep us always under strain. God sets things against us to teach us to set ourselves against things, that we may master them, and remain their masters for evermore.
IV. The Master is watching how the lesson prospers. Not from on high; not from a safe shore; but there in the midst of the storm He is watching, nay is walking, drawing nigh, in the very crisis of the danger and the strain. The Master, who holds all things in His hand, shares through the night the toil and strain of His pilgrims, and He rules all for their salvation and the world’s.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 353.
In this text we have:—
I. An interesting illustration of the effect of rapid transitions in outward circumstances upon internal religious experience. That day had been a great day to those disciples. In the morning they had returned from their extensive preaching tour, and begun to tell Jesus of their extraordinary success. The enthusiasm was overwhelming and intense, and the fervour of their souls must have kindled to the highest reach. As they joined in with Jesus in the exhausting labours His zeal led Him to undertake, they were quickened to exertions which really wore out their strength in the delight which they awakened. Out here on the chill water the disciples had no cheering alleviation of their work whatsoever; comfortless, wet to the skin with spray, cut to the bone by the raw spring wind, can we wonder that they speedily became fatigued, disgusted, petulant?
II. We see here the close and somewhat humiliating connection between wistful souls and weary bodies which always has to be recognised. Those skilled fishermen evidently had a hard time of it. They needed to put forth the most violent and persistent efforts in order to keep the small boat from being dashed to pieces before the hurricane. And, of course, they became positively tired out, and their faith had something like a melancholy failure.
III. We see that mere frames of desolate feeling give by no means a release from the pressure of diligent duty. That these disciples were impatient, or even unbelieving, offers us no reason to suppose they were so foolish as to imagine they might lay their oars in the bottom of the boat and let everything drift. Their duty and their need was to continue to do for themselves precisely what they knew Christ would wish, and what they remembered He had commanded.
IV. Jesus Christ, even in darkness, knows who has need of Him. "He saw them toiling," so we read, and then we reflect how little reason these men had for being melancholy. Glancing again back over the waves, we see Jesus on His knees for a while, praying, no doubt, for them as well as for others, and anon rising up to begin the peerless walk upon the waters which has made that night historic for the ages. Our vicissitudes toss only ourselves, and overturn only our pride, and that not perilously. Jesus’ care remains steady.
V. We see that Jesus Christ sometimes delays His coming to believers till He is sure of a welcome. "He would have passed by them," so we read again, What can this mean? When walking on the waves He did arrive at the boat-side, did He propose to give those forlorn men the go-by? No; He did it only to call into exercise the longing love which He knew they felt for Him, and so to get their earnest invitation to come into the vessel.
C. S. Robinson, Sermons on Neglected Texts, p. 152.
References: Mar 6:48.—W. M. Statham, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 193; W. H. Jellie, Ibid., vol. vii., p. 216; Church of England Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 193; Homilist, new series, vol. v., p. 154. Mar 6:52.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi., No. 1218.
Mar 6:56
Christ’s Healing Virtue.
I. The Healed. Those here noticed were evidently affected with a variety of diseases of body and mind. From the circumstances, indeed, that all the affected of the surrounding region were assembled around the Redeemer, we may justly imagine that in some the sight was quenched, that in some the hearing was destroyed, that in some the whole frame was enfeebled, and that in some the mind was laid altogether prostrate. But whatever was the variety and inveteracy of their diseases, we are assured that they were made whole. As the material frame of those who were brought to touch even the hem of the Redeemer’s garment was restored to a state of the most perfect soundness, so the moral nature of those who experience spiritual renovation is healed and fitted for immortal life.
II. The Source, or Fountain, of Healing. The cure, whether it was the restoration of sight or of hearing, or active power, or the casting out of devils, was effected simply by the silent but resistless virture which passed from the Redeemer when His person or even the hem of His garment was touched. In this we have a most expressive and beautiful emblem or representation of the great fountain of moral healing essential for the diseased and sin-stricken nature of man. Spiritual soundness and strength, moral freedom and blessedness, are to be derived simply and exclusively from Him who is become the great Physician of souls, the sole Fountain of internal purity and health.
III. The Medium through which the Healing Influence was transmitted. The cures which were effected on the sons and daughters of affliction gathered around the Redeemer were secured in the employment of such means as He sanctioned and approved. It was not the idle gaze of apathy and vulgar astonishment, that looked wonderingly around when the sound of the Redeemer’s fame was heard, or when His approach was announced, without any attempt to touch Him that was blessed with the healing virtue shed around His steps. No; it was the struggle to come near Him—it was the touch of His person, or the hem of His robe, prompted and sustained by the conviction that He was mighty to save, that met with the benediction, "Go in peace, thy faith hath made thee whole."
Preacher’s Lantern, vol. iv., p. 625.
References: Mar 6:56.—J. Menzies, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 374; H. N. Grimley, The Temple of Humanity, p. 175; J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 348. Mark 6-8—Expositor, 1st series, vol. viii., p. 148. Mar 7:1-8; H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man, p. 145. Mar 7:1-23.—A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 79. Mar 7:1-30.—W. Hanna, Our Lord’s Life on Earth, p. 229. Mar 7:3.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. viii., p. 467. Mar 7:9-23.—H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Mam, p. 151. Mar 7:19.—Ibid., vol. iii., p. 308. Mar 7:20-23.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1911. Mar 7:21.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 225.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Subdivision 1. (Mar 6:1-56.)
Subdivision 1. (Mar 6:1-56.)
The unity of opposition and supremacy of divine grace.
Read full note →
With the unity of opposition; the supremacy of divine grace is seen: for, after all, God cannot be thwarted of His purpose of blessing, though His method of victory may be by a cross. Divine fullness pours itself out even in a wilderness, and though with contrary wind upon a stormy sea, Christ walks upon it, coming to them and the wind ceases; and on the farther shore all evil yields to Him and passes away.
1. (1) But first we see Him rejected by His own, to whom He comes with power which they needs must own, yet which though manifest in grace cannot win reception for Him. The pride of the natural heart is always the most stubborn opposer of the salvation of God, and cannot even discern the glory of that self-humiliation in Him who has drawn nigh to them. They stumble over the Stumbling-stone.
Yet in this decisive rejection of God’s message, there is nothing exceptional, except in the greatness of the Messenger. The Lord speaks of it, as only the exemplification of a common rule, that a prophet is not without honor save in his own country and among his own kindred. Human nature is, alas, consistent enough in evil to warrant such general statements: for "as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man."
In the face of this, as Mark above all emphasizes, the Servant of divine love, able to do little because of an unbelief at which He marveled, patiently did this - "laid His hands on a few infirm persons and healed them" - and seeking yet the way to their hearts, "went round about their villages, teaching." How the perfect manhood of the Lord comes out, and is meant to come out, in this account. The divine glory that is His must not obscure the reality of that which appeals so powerfully to us in the tender human fashion in which the Son of God has come down to minister to men.
(2) He sends out now also the twelve, in extension of His personal testimony; two and two, the number of competent witness, and doubtless for mutual help. Mark emphasizes here as elsewhere the power over unclean spirits which is given them, over the dark and dreadful enemy of men; out of whose clutch they have to be rescued. They are sent forth in such a way as shall manifest in all this their absolute dependence upon Himself, - without provision either of food or money. They are to be shod with sandals, not the more luxurious "shoes;" and not to wear two coats. They are to be content also with what accommodation they find in the first house opening its doors to them; while, on the other hand, judgment is denounced on every place that will not receive nor hearken to a testimony accredited by divine power.
With their message, and with this sanction put upon it, they accordingly go forth.
2. We are taken back now to see the death of the Lord’s forerunner, in which His own is not obscurely intimated. Herod, indeed, we are told, alarmed by his guilty conscience, when he hears of the miracles wrought by Jesus, supposes him to be the Baptist, risen from the dead. Thereupon the awful story of lust and hate is given us with very little variation from what we have had in Matthew. It completes the rejection which Nazareth has shown us already, wedding the lusts of the flesh in unholy union with the pride of life. It binds together the world and its rulers in opposition to the throne of heaven; and its claims and grace alike. This is the world in which nevertheless God is to be glorified as nowhere else, and to reap a spiritual harvest which shall show forth the exceeding riches of His grace to the principalities and powers in heavenly places.
3. The Lord retires into the wilderness, the type of the world in the condition to which sin has reduced it, in the Old Testament as well as in the New. Here disciples, hands minister to the need of the multitude out of their own provision multiplying through His blessing on it. Five loaves and two fishes feed, and more than feed, five thousand men. The application is of the easiest, and made by Christians generally; and we have been through it in Matthew already: the fullness of its blessed meaning is as little to be exhausted, as the loaves were at the time here brought before us. It is one of those scenes, exceptional in the evangelic history, to which its four writers all contribute, while in John the Lord Himself develops from it His teaching as to the bread of life.
4. The passage across the sea of Galilee is also connected with the ministry in the wilderness in three of the Gospels, Luke alone omitting it. In each of these the Lord’s walking upon the water is recited, and His coming to the disciples toiling in the contrary wind. The walk of Peter on the water to meet the Lord, characteristic as we have seen it to be in Matthew, is omitted in the other accounts; the numerical change being in harmony with this. The general significance of what is here before us cannot be mistaken. The ascent of Jesus into the mount to pray, leaving His disciples alone upon the sea until His coming again; shows us unmistakably the limits of the trial-time of faith, in which is experienced the opposition of the "course of this world." No doubt, apart from the great and final interference of the Lord on behalf of His people, there are abundance of lesser fulfillments in which He comes in and ends for a time the storm; and some too in which we do not discern for a time the familiar form, and are afraid; until the Voice says, "It is I;" and we wonder we could have failed for a moment to know it; and the storm for the time is over. And yet, how often do we find, when a new trial comes, that we are scarcely more prepared than before to recognize the One who comes afresh with it; and when He makes Himself known it is scarcely less a wonder.
5. But at last the sea is passed, as when He joins us in the end it will be, and then the blessing comes, even for the earth, when it shall "know," like the men of Gennesaret, the One upon whom all blessing depends, and the blight upon the whole frame of things shall pass, with the spiritual sickness it attends and indicates.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Mar 6:1 - Mar 6:13.
Mark
THE MASTER REJECTED: THE SERVANTS SENT FORTH
Read full note →
Mar 6:1 - Mar 6:13.
An easy day’s journey would carry Jesus and His followers from Capernaum, on the lake-side, to Nazareth, among the hills. What took our Lord back there? When last He taught in the synagogue of Nazareth, His life had been in danger; and now He thrusts Himself into the wolf’s den. Why? Mark seems to wish us to observe the connection between this visit and the great group of miracles which he has just recorded; and possibly the link may be our Lord’s hope that the report of these might have preceded Him and prepared His way. In His patient long-suffering He will give His fellow-villagers another chance; and His heart yearns for ‘His own country,’ and ‘His own kin,’ and ‘His own house,’ of which He speaks so pathetically in the context.
I. We have here unbelief born of familiarity, and its effects on Christ {Mar 6:1 - Mar 6:6}.
Observe the characteristic avoidance of display, and the regard for existing means of worship, shown in His waiting till the Sabbath, and then resorting to the synagogue. He and His hearers would both remember His last appearance in it; and He and they would both remember many a time before that, when, as a youth, He had sat there. The rage which had exploded on His first sermon has given place to calmer, but not less bitter, opposition. Mark paints the scene, and represents the hearers as discussing Jesus while He spoke. The decorous silence of the synagogue was broken by a hubbub of mutual questions. ‘Many’ spoke at once, and all had the same thing to say. The state of mind revealed is curious. They own Christ’s wisdom in His teaching, and the reality of His miracles, of which they had evidently heard; but the fact that He was one of themselves made them angry that He should have such gifts, and suspicious of where He had got them. They seem to have had the same opinion as Nathanael-that no ‘good thing’ could ‘come out of Nazareth.’ Their old companion could not be a prophet; that was certain. But He had wisdom and miraculous power; that was as certain. Where had they come from? There was only one other source; and so, with many headshakings, they were preparing to believe that the Jesus whom they had all known, living His quiet life of labour among them, was in league with the devil, rather than believe that He was a messenger from God.
We note in their questions, first, the glimpse of our Lord’s early life. They bring before us the quiet, undistinguished home and the long years of monotonous labour. We owe to Mark alone the notice that Jesus actually wrought at Joseph’s handicraft. Apparently the latter was dead, and, if so, Jesus would be the head of the house, and probably the ‘breadwinner.’ One of the fathers preserves the tradition that He ‘made plows and yokes, by which He taught the symbols of righteousness and an active life.’ That good father seems to think it needful to find symbolical meanings, in order to save Christ’s dignity; but the prose fact that He toiled at the carpenter’s bench, and handled hammer and saw, needs nothing to heighten its value as a sign of His true participation in man’s lot, and as the hallowing of manual toil. How many weary arms have grasped their tools with new vigour and contentment when they thought of Him as their Pattern in their narrow toils! The Nazarenes’ difficulty was but one case of a universal tendency. Nobody finds it easy to believe that some village child, who has grown up beside him, and whose undistinguished outside life he knows, has turned out a genius or a great man. The last people to recognise a prophet are always his kindred and his countrymen. ‘Far-away birds have fine feathers.’ Men resent it as a kind of slight on themselves that the other, who was one of them but yesterday, should be so far above them to-day. They are mostly too blind to look below the surface, and they conclude that, because they saw so much of the external life, they knew the man that lived it. The elders of Nazareth had seen Jesus grow up, and to them He would be ‘the carpenter’s son’ still. The more important people had known the humbleness of His home, and could not adjust themselves to look up to Him, instead of down. His equals in age would find their boyish remembrances too strong for accepting Him as a prophet. All of them did just what the most of us would have done, when they took it for certain that the Man whom they had known so well, as they fancied, could not be a prophet, to say nothing of the Messiah so long looked for. It is easy to blame them; but it is better to learn the warning in their words, and to take care that we are not blind to some true messenger of God just because we have been blessed with close companionship with him. Many a household has had to wait for death to take away the prophet before they discern him. Some of us entertain ‘angels unawares,’ and have bitterly to feel, when too late, that our eyes were holden that we should not know them.
These questions bring out strongly what we too often forget in estimating Christ’s contemporaries-namely, that His presence among them, in the simplicity of His human life, was a positive hindrance to their seeing His true character. We sometimes wish that we had seen Him, and heard His voice. We should have found it more difficult to believe in Him if we had. ‘His flesh’ was a ‘veil’ in other sense than the Epistle to the Hebrews means; for, by reason of men’s difficulty in piercing beneath it, it hid from many what it was meant and fitted to reveal. Only eyes purged beheld the glory of ‘the Word’ become flesh when it ‘dwelt among us’-and even they saw Him more clearly when they saw Him no more. Let us not be too hard on these simple Nazarenes, but recognise our kith and kin.
The facts on which the Nazarenes grounded their unbelief are really irrefragable proof of Christ’s divinity. Whence had this man His wisdom and mighty works? Born in that humble home, reared in that secluded village, shut out from the world’s culture, buried, as it were, among an exclusive and abhorred people, how came He to tower above all teachers, and to sway the world? ‘With whom took He counsel? and who instructed Him, and taught Him?’ The character and work of Christ, compared with the circumstances of His origin and environment, are an insoluble riddle, except on one supposition-that He was the word and power of God.
The effects of this unbelief on our Lord were twofold. It limited His power. Matthew says that ‘He did not many mighty works.’ Mark goes deeper, and boldly days ‘He could not.’ It is mistaken jealousy for Christ’s honour to seek to pare down the strong words. The atmosphere of chill unbelief froze the stream. The power was there, but it required for its exercise some measure of moral susceptibility. His miraculous energy followed, in general, the same law as His higher exercise of saving grace does; that is to say, it could not force itself upon unwilling men. Christ ‘cannot’ save a man who does not trust Him. He was hampered in the outflow of His healing power by unsympathetic disparagement and unbelief. Man can thwart God. Faith opens the door, and unbelief shuts it in His face. He ‘would have gathered,’ but they ‘would not,’ and therefore He ‘could not.’
The second effect of unbelief on Him was that He ‘marvelled.’ He is twice recorded to have wondered-once at a Gentile’s faith, once at His townsmen’s unbelief. He wondered at the first because it showed so unusual a susceptibility; at the second, because it showed so unreasonable a blindness. All sin is a wonder to eyes that see into the realities of things and read the end; for it is all utterly unreasonable {though it is, alas! not unaccountable} and suicidal. ‘Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this.’ Unbelief in Christ is, by Himself, declared to be the very climax of sin, and its most flagrant evidence {Joh 16:9}; and of all the instances of unbelief which saddened His heart, none struck more chill than that of these Nazarenes. They had known His pure youth; He might have reckoned on some touch of sympathy and predisposition to welcome Him. His wonder is the measure of His pain as well as of their sin.
Nor need we wonder that He wondered; for He was true man, and all human emotions were His. To one who lives ever in the Father’s bosom, what can seem so strange as that men should prefer homeless exposedness and dreary loneliness? To one whose eyes ever behold unseen realities, what so marvellous as men’s blindness? To one who knew so assuredly His own mission and rich freightage of blessing, how strange it must have been that He found so few to accept His gifts! Jesus knew that bitter wonder which all men who have a truth to proclaim which the world has not learned, have to experience-the amazement at finding it so hard to get any others to see what they see. In His manhood, He shared the fate of all teachers, who have, in their turn, to marvel at men’s unbelief.
II. The new instrument which Christ fashions to cope with unbelief.
What does Jesus do when thus ‘wounded in the house of His friends’? Give way to despondency? No; but meekly betake Himself to yet obscurer fields of service, and send out the Twelve to prepare His way, as if He thought that they might have success where He would fail. What a lesson for people who are always hankering after conspicuous ‘spheres,’ and lamenting that their gifts are wasted in some obscure corner, is that picture of Jesus, repulsed from Nazareth, patiently turning to the villages! The very summary account of the trial mission of the Twelve here given presents only the salient points of the charge to them, and in its condensation makes these the more emphatic. Note the interesting statement that they were sent out two-and-two. The other Evangelists do not tell us this, but their lists of the Apostles are arranged in pairs. Mark’s list is not so arranged, but he supplies the reason for the arrangement, which he does not follow; and the other Gospels, by their arrangement, confirm his statement, which they do not give. Two-and-two is a wise rule for all Christian workers. It checks individual peculiarities of self-will, helps to keep off faults, wholesomely stimulates, strengthens faith by giving another to hear it and to speak it, brings companionship, and admits of division of labour. One-and-one are more than twice one.
The first point is the gift of power. Unclean spirits are specified, but the subsequent verses show that miracle-working power in its other forms was included. We may call that Christ’s greatest miracle. That He could, by His mere will, endow a dozen men with such power, is more, if degree come into view at all, than that He Himself should exercise it. But there is a lesson in the fact for all ages-even those in which miracles have ceased. Christ gives before He commands, and sends no man into the field without filling his basket with seed-corn. His gifts assimilate the receiver to Himself, and only in the measure in which His servants possess power which is like His own, and drawn from Him, can they proclaim His coming, or prepare hearts for it. The second step is their equipment. The special commands here given were repealed by Jesus when He gave His last commands. In their letter they apply only to that one journey, but in their spirit they are of universal and permanent obligation. The Twelve were to travel light. They might carry a staff to help them along, and wear sandals to save their feet on rough roads; but that was to be all. Food, luggage, and money, the three requisites of a traveller, were to be ‘conspicuous by their absence.’ That was repealed afterwards, and instructions given of an opposite character, because, after His ascension, the Church was to live more and more by ordinary means; but in this journey they were to learn to trust Him without means, that afterwards they might trust Him in the means. He showed them the purpose of these restrictions in the act of abrogating them. ‘When I sent you forth without purse . . . lacked ye anything?’ But the spirit remains unabrogated, and the minimum of outward provision is likeliest to call out the maximum of faith. We are more in danger from having too much baggage than from having too little. And the one indispensable requirement is that, whatever the quantity, it should hinder neither our march nor our trust in Him who alone is wealth and food.
Next comes the disposition of the messengers. It is not to be self-indulgent. They are not to change quarters for the sake of greater comfort. They have not gone out to make a pleasure tour, but to preach, and so are to stay where they are welcomed, and to make the best of it. Delicate regard for kindly hospitality, if offered by ever so poor a house, and scrupulous abstinence from whatever might suggest interested motives, must mark the true servant. That rule is not out of date. If ever a herald of Christ falls under suspicion of caring more about life’s comforts than about his work, good-bye to his usefulness! If ever he does so care, whether he be suspected of it or no, spiritual power will ebb from him.
The next step is the messengers’ demeanour to the rejecters of their message. Shaking the dust off the sandals is an emblem of solemn renunciation of participation, and perhaps of disclaimer of responsibility. It meant certainly, ‘We have no more to do with you,’ and possibly, ‘Your blood be on your own heads.’ This journey of the Twelve was meant to be of short duration, and to cover much ground, and therefore no time was to be spent unnecessarily. Their message was brief, and as well told quickly as slowly. The whole conditions of work now are different. Sometimes, perhaps, a Christian is warranted in solemnly declaring to those who receive not his message, that he will have no more to say to them. That may do more than all his other words. But such cases are rare; and the rule that it is safest to follow is rather that of love which despairs of none, and, though often repelled, returns with pleading, and, if it have told often in vain, now tells with tears, the story of the love that never abandons the most obstinate.
Such were the prominent points of this first Christian mission. They who carry Christ’s banner in the world must be possessed of power, His gift, must be lightly weighted, must care less for comfort than for service, must solemnly warn of the consequences of rejecting the message; and so they will not fail to cast out devils, and to heal many that are sick.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Visit to Nazareth. Mission of the Twelve. Execution of…
Visit to Nazareth. Mission of the Twelve. Execution of the Baptist. Feeding of the Five Thousand. Walking on the Sea
1-6. Visit to Nazareth (Mat_13:54).
Read full note →
3. Is not this the carpenter?] Mt 'Is not this the carpenter's son?' Baur, Bleek, Renan, and Hilgenfeld regard St. Mark's version of this expression as a proof that he was acquainted with the Virgin Birth. 'Mark tolerates not the paternity of Joseph even in the mouth of Nazarenes' (Hilgenfeld). Most scholars dispute the inference.
It is not quite certain whether Jesus was a carpenter or a smith. The Greek word may mean either. According to an ancient tradition He made ploughs and yokes.
Celsus (160 a.d.) derides the mean and servile occupation of Jesus, but manual work was honoured among the Jews. 'It is incumbent,' said the rabbis, 'on the father to circumcise his son, to redeem him, to teach him the Law, and to teach him some occupation.' Rabbi Judah said, 'Whosoever teacheth not his son to do some work, is as if he taught robbery.' Rabbi Meir said, 'Let a man always endeavour to teach his son an honest trade.'
5. He could there do] This expression, as presenting an apparent difficulty to faith, is more original than St. Matthew's 'He did not there many mighty works.' Of course the inability was moral. Jesus required faith in those who were to be healed, or in persons connected with them, and only in a very few cases waived this requirement (Joh_5:13).
7-13. Mission of the Twelve (Mat_10:1; Luk_9:1). See on Mt.
13. Anointed] cp. Jam_5:14.
14-29. Herod and Jesus. Execution of the Baptist (Mat_14:1). See on Mt: cp. Luk_9:7.
20. Observed him] RV 'kept him safe.' He did many things] RV 'he was much perplexed.' Herod's conscience was uneasy.
21. High captains] RM 'or, military tribunes, Gr. chiliarchs.' Chief estates] RV 'the chief men.'
22. The daughter of.. Herodias] Hort, relying upon only five MSS, alters this into 'his daughter Herodias,' a reading which is clearly the blunder of some scribe, since it violates, as Weiss says, 'all history, all grammar, and the context.'
27. An executioner] AVmg. 'one of his guard.' The word is Latin, corresponding either to speculator, 'a watcher,' a soldier of the bodyguard, or spiculator, 'one armed with a javelin,' and so an executioner.
The word often occurs in rabbinical Hebrew in the sense of an executioner.
30-44. Return of the apostles. Feeding the five thousand (Mat_14:13; Luk_9:10; Joh_6:1). See on Mt and Jn. The graphic touches in Mk should be noticed: 'Come ye yourselves apart,' etc.; 'no leisure so much as to eat'; 'as sheep not having a shepherd'; 'the green grass'; 'like garden beds.' These are reminiscences of the eyewitness Peter.
40. Ranks] i.e. groups, lit. 'garden-beds.'
45-52. Walking on the sea (Mat_14:22; Joh_6:15). See on Mt and Jn.
53-56. Miracles in the land of Gennesaret (Mat_14:34). See on Mt.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LX. Jesus Visits…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LX. Jesus Visits Nazareth].
LX. JESUS VISITS NAZARETH AND IS REJECTED. aMATT. XIII. 54-58; bMARK VI. 1-6; cLUKE IV. 16-31.
Read full note →
b1 And he went out from thence [from Capernaum]; and he cometh { aAnd coming binto his own country; and his disciples follow him. c16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up [As to this city, see Mar_1:39, Mar_3:1, Mar_3:2). For comment on this usage of the synagogue see Isa_61:1, Isa_61:2; but the quotation embraces other lines from Isaiah.] where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor [Anointing was the method by which prophets, priests, and kings were consecrated or set apart to their several offices. This prophecy says that the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus because he was appointed to do [358] a work of divine helpfulness]: He hath sent me to preach release to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. [The prophecy set forth in physical terms what Jesus should perform in both the physical and spiritual realms. The prophecy closes with a reference to the jubilee year, which, being a time of liberation, forgiveness, and fresh starts, was a type of Christ's ministry and kingdom.] 20 And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant [This officer corresponded to our sexton. Part of this duty was to take charge of the synagogue rolls], and sat down [Reader and congregation both stood during the reading; then, usually, both sat down to hear the passage explained. They stood out of reverence for God's word]: and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. [They had heard of his miracles, and were curious to see what he would say and do.] 21 And he began to say unto them, To-day hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears. 22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth [The word grace refers rather to the manner than to the matter. The speech of Jesus flowed easily, and gracefully]: a54 And he taught bbegan to teach athem in their bthe synagogue: ainsomuch that bmany hearing him were astonished, aand said, bsaying, Whence hath this man these things? athis wisdom, and these might works? band, What is the wisdom that is given unto this man, and what mean such mighty works wrought by his hands? [They admitted his marvelous teaching and miraculous works, but were at a loss to account for them because their extreme familiarity with his humanity made it hard for them to believe in his divinity, by which alone his actions would be rightly explained. Twice in the early part of his ministry Jesus had been at Cana, within a few miles of Nazareth, and turning away from it had gone down to Capernaum. He did not call upon his townsmen to believe in him or his divine mission until [359] the evidences were so full that they could not deny them.] 3 Is not this the carpenter, cJoseph's son? athe carpenter's son? bthe son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? ais not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas? 56 And his sisters, are they not all bhere with us? [They brought forth every item of trade and relationship by which they could confirm themselves in their conviction that he was simply a human being like themselves. The question as to his identity, however, suggests that he may have been absent from Nazareth some little time. As to Jesus' kindred, see 1Ki_17:8-16, and the second at 2Ki_5:1-14. Palestine was filled with poor people even in times of plenty, so there must have been large numbers of hungry people during the long-continued period of famine. There has always been a large number of lepers in the land, and surely if any disease ought to prompt a man to lay aside his prejudices that he might obtain healing it was leprosy; but as Nazareth was now rejecting Jesus, so their ancestors had despised the two mighty prophets. Not one of all the hungry would have received bread from Elijah by an act of faith, nor did one of all the lepers ask healing from Elisha.] 28 And they were all filled with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things [The Nazarenes were jealous enough of the claims of Jesus when put in their most modest dress; but when Jesus placed himself alongside Elijah and Elisha, and likened his hearers to widows for want, and lepers for uncleanness, they were ready to dash him to pieces]; 29 and they rose up, and cast him forth out of the city, and led him [they evidently had hold of him] unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong. [Near the eastern end of Nazareth there is a cavern in the rock which forms a precipice down which, if a man were hurled, he would be killed. At the western end there is a perpendicular cliff about forty feet high, with a naked floor of rock at the bottom. To which place they led Jesus we can not decide.] 30 But he passing through the midst of them [361] went his way. [A simple statement of a marvelous fact. Miracles are not explained in the Bible.] b5 And he could there do no mighty work, a58 And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. bsave that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. 6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief. [As to this statement that Jesus felt surprised, see page 273. "It should also be borne in mind," says Canon Cook, "that surprise at the obtuseness and unreasonableness of sin is constantly attributed to God by the prophets." The statement, therefore, is perfectly consonant with the divinity of Jesus.] c31 And he came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. [We have followed the chronology of Mark, according to which Jesus had already been living in Capernaum for some time. Luke tells of the rejection early in his narrative, and adds this line to show that from the earlier days of his ministry Jesus made Capernaum his headquarters.]
[FFG 358-362]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Chapter 6
Chapter 6
1. The Servant rejected in Nazareth. (Mar 6:1-6. Mat 13:54-58; Luk 4:16-30)
Read full note →
2. The Servant sends forth the Twelve. (Mar 6:7-13. Mat 10:5-15; Luk 9:1-6)
3. King Herod troubled. (Mar 6:14-16. Mat 14:1-2; Luk 9:7-9)
4. The Martyrdom of John. (Mar 6:17-29. Mat 14:3-12)
5. The Servant’s withdrawal for Rest. (Mar 6:30-31. Luk 9:10-11)
6. The feeding of the Five Thousand. (Mar 6:32-44. Mat 14:13-21; Luk 9:12-17; Joh 6:1-13)
7. The Servant alone and His Return walking on the waters. (Mar 6:45-52. Mat 14:22-32; Joh 6:15-21)
8. New Manifestations of His love and Power. (Mar 6:53-56. Mat 14:34-36.)
1. The Servant rejected at Nazareth. Mar 6:1-6
Once more we find Him in Nazareth. The first thing is teaching, and though they were astonished at His wisdom and power, they did not own Him as the Lord, but called Him the Carpenter and were offended in Him. Such is the heart of man. Unbelief tied His hands, yet in Love He healed a few and marvelled because of their unbelief. But did He abandon them? Oh! the infinite patience and seeking Grace of this perfect Servant! “He went round about the villages teaching,” if perchance faith might yet respond to His willingness and power to heal.
2. The Servant sends forth the Twelve. Mar 6:7-13
Now He sends His Apostles forth and endows them with power. They are to depend in their ministry upon Himself. Thus they were to be His followers for He was ever dependent on God. Blessed principles are here which still hold good, though the sending forth had a special meaning for Israel (see Mat 10:5-15).
3. King Herod troubled. Mar 6:14-16
It is the story of a troubled conscience and fear produces the thought that it is John the Baptist risen from the dead.
4. The Martyrdom of John. Mar 6:17-29
The faithful herald of the Servant suffered martyrdom. In the whole sickening scene of lust and bloodshed the prince of this world, the god of this age is manifested in this awful rule and power. It is a picture of the present age in opposition to God. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life hold sway. And this evil age is not gradually improved and getting better, It is not abandoning its lusts and pride, its hatred of God and His Christ. As long as Satan is the ruler the age must be evil. In such a scene the Holy One came to minister and to give His life.
5. The Servant’s withdrawal for Rest. Mar 6:30-31
We have noticed different withdrawals of the Lord. He withdrew for prayer and to the sea and now when the Apostles gathered unto Him, the One to whom the fellow servants must ever gather, to give a report of what they had done and taught, He withdrew with them into a desert place. The Lord does not say anything about their success (Mar 6:13). There was danger of the self-exaltation of the messengers. The silence of the Lord puts a check upon it. It was His own power, which in goodness and mercy had done all this. Instead we hear Him say, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest awhile.” This again is found nowhere but in Mark. How needful for all servants it is to heed this loving word. How easily in constant service a servant can be lifted up and attribute something to himself. True service only is possible by being occupied with the Lord. And therefore we must ever learn to seek the presence of God. He remembered the need of His messengers and the time of rest with Him gave them new strength.
6. The Feeding of the Five Thousand. Mar 6:32-44
Here we have the compassion of the Servant in remembering the physical need of the people. But before He supplied that need, “He began to teach them many things.” The Word stands always first. He came to serve. The giving of the Word followed by the works of goodness and power is the order maintained in His service. Note the contrast between Him and the request of the disciples. How untiring, loving, gracious He was in all His service for man. May we learn of Him. A comparison of the account of this miracle in the four Gospels will teach us many lessons. He feeds the poor with bread (Psa 132:15) as the true Shepherd of His people. He is the miraculous giver, but He uses His disciples in dispensing His blessing. His power for the good of others is at the believer’s disposal. And the little put into His hands was not only sufficient for all but more was left over than they had given to Him. And still He delights to take the little things and manifest through them His power, if we but trust Him.
7. The Servant alone and His Return walking on the Waters. Mar 6:45-52
All is full of blessed meaning. He is once more alone in the mountain to pray. His disciples are alone on the stormy sea. He is absent now and has sent the people ( Israel ) away. He is in the presence of God as our intercessor. The stormy sea with the contrary wind is a type of this present age. Trouble and perplexity is the lot of His disciples during His absence. About the fourth watch of the night He came unto them walking upon the sea. Mark does not mention Peter going forth to meet Him. They see Him coming, but do not recognize Him, believing Him a spirit. His loving voice soon assures them, “Be of good cheer; it is I, be not afraid.” Thus He will return across the stormy sea to meet and deliver His own. Blessed are we if we ever behold Him as the mighty One, who is above all circumstances and if we hear His words of comfort. How He cares for us. And when He comes the wind will cease.
8. New Manifestations of His Love and Power. Mar 6:53-56
What a scene of toil! What ministry in doing good! Dispensationally it stands for the blessed time, yet in store for this world, when He comes again. Then He who was the Son of Man in humiliation will, as Son of Man, with power and glory, be known to all. Then the earth will be blessed as Gennesaret was.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Jesus at Nazareth.
Jesus at Nazareth.
Another tour of Galilee:
Read full note →
v. 1. And He went out from thence and came into His own country; and His disciples follow Him.
v. 2. And when the Sabbath-day was come, He began to teach in the synagogue; and many hearing Him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto Him, that even such mighty works are wrought by His hands?
v. 3. Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not His sisters here with us? And they were offended at Him.
v. 4. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
From thence, from Capernaum and its vicinity, Jesus went away. The city which He had chosen as His home during His Galilean ministry had had ample opportunity of hearing Him and of knowing and accepting Him as the Savior of the world. Till now the success of His preaching had not been unqualified. The people were willing enough to see the Prophet perform miracles, but took little or no interest in the Word of eternal life. And so He removed the mercy of His presence from them, returning there only at the end of His labors in the North. He went to His fatherland, to His home town, Nazareth. It was the city in which He had grown up, from which He hailed, in which He naturally took a great interest, chapter 1:9-24. His disciples, especially the Twelve that were now enrolled under that name, followed Him. Their theological training was being carried forward with all speed, for the time was short. When it was Sabbath, Jesus went to the synagogue. Note: Throughout the gospels, the attendance of Jesus at services is related as a matter of course; it was self-evident for Him to be in the place where the Word of God was taught, at the time set apart for that purpose. Here the usual courtesy shown to a visiting teacher was extended to Him: He began to teach. It was not merely that He started His discourse, but He wanted the people of His home town to be the beneficiaries of the Gospel-message; for since the beginning of His ministry He had not been in this neighborhood. The address, or talk, as He delivered it that morning, was of a nature and of a content such as to provoke the greatest surprise and astonishment among His hearers. The comments were many and varied, and Mark records them faithfully: Whence did all this come to this man, this ability to speak, the wonderful content of His address, the power to perform such mighty works of which we have been told? Such speech, such wisdom, such powers in such a well-known person? How is it possible? What can it mean? But this eagerness for information, which might well have served as a type of curiosity for saving knowledge, was soon replaced by jealousy and contempt, the spirit of opposition. Some sneering remarks are heard: Is not this the carpenter, the worker in wood? the trades of the carpenter, the joiner, and the cabinetmaker being united in one person. A Christian writer of the second century who had been born in Samaria relates that Jesus during His early manhood made plows and yokes. The people of Nazareth thought they were thoroughly familiar with His family and antecedents. The son of Mary He is to them, Joseph having died, according to tradition, when Jesus was eighteen years old. His brothers (half-brothers, cousins) James and Joses and Judas and Simon were well known to the townspeople, as were the sisters of Christ (half-sisters, cousins). They thought that these facts precluded the possibility of His having learned anything worthwhile, not realizing that they were thereby passing judgment upon their own town and upon themselves, just as is done today, in similar situations. The upshot of the whole matter was that they were offended at Him, that is, they took offense wrongfully. Note: Even today people take offense at the lowliness of the Gospel and its preaching. If it came to them in the guise of something new, a new philosophical system, they would think it worth their while; but the simplicity of the Gospel, and the fact that they have been familiar with its teaching, as they foolishly think, from their youth, sets them against its glorious tidings and shuts them out from the glories of heaven. Jesus, among other things, Mat 13:54-57, reminded them of a proverbial saying which fitted the case perfectly: Not is a prophet without honor except in his fatherland and among his kinsmen. This is a truth which is universally accepted. Instead of rejoicing over the fact that God has given one of their own family, out of their own midst, gifts and abilities to accomplish something for His honor, the kinsmen and former fellow-citizens will do everything in their power to discredit him. That was Christ’s experience.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus returns to his hometown, where he is not accepted.
Read full note →
his hometown
This refers to the town of Nazareth, where Jesus grew up and where his family lived. This does not mean that he owned land there.
What is this wisdom that has been given to him?
This question, which contains passive construction, can be asked in active form. AT: "What is this wisdom that he has gained?"
that he does with his hands
This phrase emphasizes that Jesus himself does the miracles. AT: "that he himself works"
Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are his sisters not here with us?
These questions can be written as a statement. AT: "He is just an ordinary carpenter! We know him and his family. We know Mary his mother. We know his younger brothers James, Joses, Judas and Simon. And his younger sisters also live here with us." (See: Rhetorical Question and How to Translate Names)
translationWords
Jesus
disciple
Sabbath
synagogue
amazed
wise
miracle
Mary
James (brother of Jesus)
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 6:1-6 Nazareth’s rejection of Jesus contrasts ironically with the…
6:1-6 Nazareth’s rejection of Jesus contrasts ironically with the faith displayed by others, and the miracles he couldn’t do contrasts with the power displayed elsewhere.
6:1-2 The people’s amazement at Jesus’ teaching was due to the wisdom of his teaching and his power to heal and cast out demons. • Where did he get: His quiet years in Nazareth had not prepared them to accept him as an authoritative teacher and healer.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.