David the Shepherd King
2 Samuel 5: 1-5, 9-10 NRSV text
Psalm 48 NRSV text
2 Corinthians 12: 2-10 NRSV text
Mark 6: 1-13 NRSV text
Jesus’ second call to the disciples
We’re at a key moment in Mark’s discipleship narrative. Mark doesn’t just have Jesus issue a single “call” at the outset of his ministry; there are three stages to it, and represent both the development of the disciples’ relationship to Jesus and a response to events as they unfold. This is the second of the three moments – the involvement of the disciples in Jesus’ mission. The Jesus story is the story of the beginning of it all – “the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”. Disciples are not only followers: they are the ones who receive the Good News as Good News! And if that seems a rather obvious point, just look at the first pericope in today’s gospel reading: Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth. This is Jesus’ home town. The hard fact of the matter is that Jesus’ message of the kingdom – the Good News of liberation from the chains of the Strong Man – doesn’t meet with universal enthusiasm! This is no mere narrative device of Mark’s. The opposition was real. Jesus was crucified. Mark, more starkly than any other of the evangelists, portrays Jesus’ mission ultimately as a failure. Jesus dies in bewildered despair – not only is he abandoned by the disciples, but also by the God whom he calls “Abba Father”.
Jesus before the home crowd
Today’s gospel passage, then, comes at a key point: the close of the initial “campaign” based around the Galilee and including a foray into Gentile territory. Having left the Galilee, Jesus returns to his home town. It’s clearly the first time that he’s gone back since he began his ministry. Now, in the synagogue, he’s in front of the “home crowd”. He teaches on the Sabbath and, as elsewhere, “many who heard him were astounded” (6:2). This is not an English World Cup performance: Jesus does not disappoint – he amazes! His teaching is as powerful as elsewhere. All the things they have heard about him are confirmed. His wisdom is astonishing. And that means that any initial scepticism they must have been feeling about the reports circulating so widely has to be revised.
But look at the reaction in vv 2-3: they’re hardly positive! They come as accusation: “Where did he get all this? Where has he acquired this wisdom from so suddenly? And how on earth can he do these incredible things with his hands?” There’s a wonderful irony, isn’t there, in this last one. They know Jesus as an artisan. He’s “the carpenter”! His hands make things out of wood – they don’t heal and deliver! The point is, they know him – or they think they do. That’s why they rush to “place” him: he’s the son of Mary, brother to James, Joses, Judas and Simon, and he’s got sisters (who of course aren’t important enough to be named!). In other words, they’re saying, “Hey, this guy’s not a mystery! He’s not even particularly special!”
They move to contain Jesus – to control him. Calling him “the son of Mary” is a calculated insult. It reflects the question mark that clearly hung over Jesus’ parentage. It resurrects all those old rumours: “That Jesus? Well, he’s not Joseph’s son, is he? Wonder who his father is?” Now of course, Mark is probably smiling to himself as he writes – we know who his father is, because Mark told us at the outset! But the main point here is that their astonishment is not awe, but outrage: “They took offence at him” (v3b). Jesus’ pronouncement in v4 is not so much a rhetorical move to gain the advantage in an argument as it is a statement of his own realisation of what is happening in his ministry: the Good News will not be universally accepted. Jesus is marking his own rejection. His mission means that he will be rejected by his own hometown, his own kin, and his own family. It is part of the cost he has to bear, and in 10:28-30, will tell the disciples that following him is equally costly. It will take “leaving house, brothers, sisters, father, mother and fields for the sake of the Good News”. [click to continue…]
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