1. Who is it in this passage that fails to trust Jesus? What is the significance of this? (v. 4, cf. 3:21, 31-35)
2. Do you think that Jesus lacked the power to heal faithless people? If yes, does this mean that Jesus is not omnipotent (all-powerful)? If no, then why did Jesus not heal or do miracles there then?
3. Why do you think Jesus sends out the twelve? (Mark 1:15, 38; cf. Matt 9:36-38)
4. Why do you think Jesus gave the disciples specific descriptions about what they should wear and take? (cf. Matt 10:10, which refers to an earlier apostolic mission)
5. Why is it so serious to reject the apostles’ message? (v. 11; cf. Matt 10:40)
6. What was content of the apostles’ message? (vv. 12, 14) What does this mean?
7. Who does king Herod say that Jesus is? Why? (vv. 14, 16)
8. Who do others say that Jesus is?
9. What marked John the Baptist out as a faithful preacher? (vv. 18-19)
10. What sort of listener was Herod? (vv. 20, 27; cf. Ezek 33: 30-32; Mark 8:15; Luke 23:8-12)
For reflection: What thinking or action do I need to change in the light of this part of God's word?
What is life like continually offending people? What is it like wandering around, being the reason people are scandalized? Jesus knows. That was his life. That was his experience. He was a man of sorrows and familiar with grief and suffering.
It is not that Jesus was obnoxious. He didn’t walk around trying to offend people. But Jesus is committed to truth. He speaks reality, not fantasy. And truth hurts. For many of us, the accusation “You can’t handle the truth” is true. And so people are offended by the truth.
We have already seen that Jesus has offended his family. They ask to see him as they wait at the door, and Jesus says, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”
Everywhere Jesus goes, it seems, Jesus takes an offensive smell with him. Yet, the thing that offends is also the thing that attracts.
All this is a bit like parmesan cheese, what I sometimes call ‘stinky cheese’. Yet at home, when we have spaghetti bolagnaise, the chorus around the table is, “pass the parmesan?” Can I have more stinky cheese? Is there any more parmesan? Aw dad, did you finish all the parmesan? Parmesan is stinky cheese. But once you’ve got the taste, you can’t say no. You want more and more and more.
We often say someone has a ‘magnetic personality’. And magnets are powerful attractors. The north pole attracts the south, and the south the north, so that you when the magnetics are big enough, you cannot pull them apart. Yet magnets also repel. When you stick north pole to north pole, or south pole to south pole, they will never come together. In that sense, Jesus has a truly magnetic personality. He both attracts and repels.
We saw in Mark chapter 4 that large crowds are drawn to him. So many people come to him that he has to sit in a boat on the lake. Yet also he tells parables, and the parables keep most people out. Yet they also draw some in. There is something about Jesus, his authority, his integrity, which magnetically attracts some and magnetically repels others.
Our reading today consisted of three stories: one was about Jesus, one about the mission of the 12, and one about John the Baptist. The first one is that Jesus was rejected in his home time. He is repulsive at home. The second one was that Jesus and his disciples conducted a mission. And they are successful, because Jesus is powerful. The third one is about John the Baptist. But even the story about John the Baptist is about Jesus. It shows one of the possible results of telling the truth, and it gives us an idea about what is going to happen to Jesus the truth teller.
Jesus has gone back home to his hometown, his fatherland. They were the streets that he walked, the place he worked as a builder and carpenter with his foster-father, Joseph. He goes back to what probably was his home church, where he went to kids' church and youth group. Probably his mum and step-dad[1] are there. All his brothers and sisters are there. And he is invited to speak at the synagogue. Many then could hear for themselves the home-grown talent, the local kid come good. And the many who heard him were amazed.
Now to be amazed at Jesus is a good start. But it is what you do with it that counts in the long run. And so we see a movement in the reaction of the townspeople. They move from being amazed to being scandalized.
Familiarity breeds contempt. The tall poppy syndrome is not new, is it? Who does he think he is? He grew up in my street. He cannot be anything special.
How dangerous is this sort of passing acquaintance with Jesus! For it hardened the locals again his message. It is the principle of inoculation, to get a little bit of Jesus, or religion, so you don't catch it full-blown. Friends, may we not be innoculated against Jesus by just a passing familiarity. “Oh Jesus! Yes, I know all about him! I heard about him at scripture, I grew up with him at Sunday School. There is nothing special in that, I know all about it.”
And of course, the closer you are to Jesus, the more innoculated you can get! This is the danger of growing up coming to church, or in a Christian family. It is the sad thing when you talk to kids from Christian families who walk away from Jesus. They’ve had wonderful privileges, privileges that we should not want to exchange for anything. But it has a danger as well. My dear friends, if you’ve grown up at church, hearing about Jesus from your infancy, if you’re part of the furniture here, rejoice in that privilege. But remember, familiarity can breed contempt, as well as deep love.
Jesus' hometown's attitude to him is summed up in that one line, "and so they rejected him." Jesus is offensive, even to those close by. People are repulsed by him. This is the repulsive Jesus.
Homecoming for sporting heroes, rock musicians, and film stars might be full of honour. But not for prophets, and especially not for Jesus. His presence is offensive. His claims scandalize. He speaks the truth, so he repels.
Jesus will not honour the unbelief of his hometown with miracles, even if it was his hometown. He is not a traveling freakshow, there to entertain his old church, and even if they are his boyhood friends and cousins. They too have to trust. They too must believe.
The big question at Nazareth is “Who is Jesus?” And unfortunately, his hometown believe they know. Ah, we know him. He is a carpenter. He is Mary’s son. He’s got 4 brothers. He’s got sisters. He’s no one special. Don’t worry, we’ve worked it out. He’s no big deal. And they respond wrongly to Jesus because they are familiar with him.
The next story shows Jesus’ concern to get the message out. Jesus himself has been frequently teaching up until now. But it is time to let his apprentices, his padawan learners, have a go. And so he sends out the twelve, with his authority and commands. And the twelve go out and tell people to turn away from their sins. And in proof of their authority to say such things, as well as in mercy, they drive out demons and heal sick people. They are the arms and legs, the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.
And one reason we know that they were successful was because many people gathered around Jesus. So many people were gathering around Jesus so that they didn’t even have time to eat. Jesus is attractive. He has repelled at home, but they blinded by their familiarity, which bred contempt. He is actually a very attractive figure.
But still we want to know, ‘Who is Jesus?’
And to this key question, we are given yet another wrong answer, the answer of Herod the Tetrarch. Herod thinks he knows who Jesus is. Herod’s worked it out. Jesus is John the Baptist, risen from the dead. This doesn’t tell us much about Jesus. It does, however, tell us a fair bit about Herod. It shows how Herod’s guilty conscience is affecting his thinking.
The story we read is bizarre and grotesque. Herod’s family is an incestuous and dysfunctional mess. It makes the relationships in Home and Away seem straight forward. We have the King, Herod the Tetrarch: paranoid, impetuous, unstable. He wants to kill John because he offends him, but he is afraid, because of the people.
Then we have Herodias, the king’s current wife, who was also by blood his niece, and was also his sister-in law, for she first married Herod’s half-brother, and then Herod persuaded her to get a divorce and marry him. She is presented as the instigator of this macabre request.
And then there is Herodias’ daughter. We know her name is Salome from elsewhere (Edwards, Mark: Pillar, 187). Young, talented, attractive, perhaps she’s 12 or 14, but not much older, she is the pawn in her mother’s plan to be finally rid of John the Baptist.
We are told that John frequently told Herod and his wife that their marriage was unlawful (v. 4). That is, it was displeasing to God, who hates divorce and incest (Lev 18:16, 20:21).
Herod wanted to kill John, but was also afraid. So Herod decided to keep him. Perhaps he was trying to tame the wild preacher, and keep him kind of like a preaching pet.
But this unstable arrangement only lasted until Herod’s birthday party. Herod invited all the right people. His step daughter comes in to dance, probably a sensual dance, maybe a strip tease. And Herod gets a bit carried away with the moment, perhaps a bit excited by what he saw, and probably the wine had a role, and so he makes extravagant promises. So she runs back to mum, mum sees her opportunity, and John loses his head.
So we have a grotesque picture: a little girl, perhaps 12, dressed up in dancing clothes at a family birthday party, and in her hands, a plate, and on the plate, the severed head of her father’s pet preacher.
What does all this say about the cost of being a prophet? Jesus said a prophet goes home, speaks the truth in the synagogue, and is dishonoured. The hometown takes offence at him. John the Baptist goes to the king, speaks the truth in the palace, and is beheaded. The king's court takes offence at him. Both stories tell us the cost of truth. Sometimes people can’t handle the truth.
And when Jesus hears what happens to John, he withdraws. Because in hearing about John, Jesus is hearing about his own future. John went ahead and shows Jesus the way of the prophet, which is death. John’s death as the last Old Testament prophet points Jesus forward to his own death. Jesus brings in a New Testament by his blood. And John the Baptist points Jesus on to his future.
Next we are going to see how attractive Jesus is. He is attractive at dinner time. But for now, let’s make sure we understand that sometimes the people closest to Jesus don’t want him to be their king, and don’t trust him. And sometimes, speaking the truth costs people their lives. It was the case with John the Baptist. It will also be the case with Jesus.
Let’s pray.
[1] John 6:42 suggests that Joseph is still alive.