Mark 6:1-6-- Seeing God At Work

Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?" And they took offense at Him. Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household." And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He wondered at their lack of faith. And He was going around the villages teaching.

Jesus then travels to his hometown, Nazareth, which is a small community in the middle of Galilee. He does the same actions there as he did in other places—taught in the synagogue, and healed the sick. Nevertheless, the response was different. Jesus was seen as too common, and his waving about of authority was strange to those whom he had grown up with—it was as if they didn’t even recognize him. In their response, we get more information about Jesus’ pre-ministry life than anywhere else in Mark. He is called “son of Mary”, not by his father’s name, which probably indicate that he was considered illegitimate—not worthy of his father’s name. It is said that he has four brothers who are all named, and sisters who are not. They say that he was a skilled worker, probably a carpenter, but possibly also a maker of bricks, or other skilled labor. But they used their knowledge of his past to indicate that he could not have the authority he seemed to have. They felt that he could not be commanding spirits or be having such wisdom, because they knew how he was raised and who raised him. Jesus’ teaching fell on deaf ears—like the soil by the path. Jesus’ commentary was a general commentary on prophets being unable to be seen as anything special in one’s home—the contempt for the familiar. Mark’s commentary on the event is that their faith prevented Jesus from fully displaying his authority over their illnesses—most of them didn’t recognize his authority, and so they didn’t ask for it.

Why is a prophet not accepted in his own hometown? First of all, because everyone there knows your weaknesses-- or thinks they know them. They all assumed that Jesus was an illegitimate child. They called him "bastard" every time they named him by his mother Mary. Secondly, he is too familiar, and familiarity breeds contempt-- at least if someone is trying to say that they are more important than you. "Jesus, you aren't really important. You're one of us!"

The real problem is that when God is working in our lives we often can't see Him because the tools are too familiar. The important thing about a miracle is its uniqueness, the strangeness of it. But Jesus wasn't unique at all, and often the miracles in our lives are so common we don't even notice them.

The proper response to God's salvation is gratitude. But we can't show our gratitude if we never see the work done.

The Woman Touching Jesus

This is one of the oldest portraits of Jesus. Note how his appearance is different than we usually see: Curly, short hair, young face, no beard.

And note how he glances back-- he is in motion, in the midst of noticing the woman who is touching him. He looks back with compassion, as if his first response was welcome and love. This is a wonderful early piece of art about Jesus.

Mark 5:21-43-- The Fear of Death Rules Our Minds

When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He stayed by the seashore. One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up, and on seeing Him, fell at His feet and implored Him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live." And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.

A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse-- after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, "If I just touch His garments, I will get well." Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My garments?" And His disciples said to Him, "You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?'" And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace and be healed of your affliction."

While He was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, "Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?" But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid any longer, only have faith." And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the synagogue official; and He saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing. And entering in, He said to them, "Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep." They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He took along the child's father and mother and His own companions, and entered the room where the child was. Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, "Talitha kum!" (which translated means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded. And He gave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that something should be given her to eat.

Jairus implored Jesus, falling at Jesus’ feet, which recognized Jesus’ authority over him. He then humbly requested that Jesus heal his daughter, who was sick at home. So Jesus agreed to follow him home.

On the way was a woman who had suffered with bleeding for many years. Beside the physical infirmity, the bleeding also made the woman a social outcast, in which she could not be married, nor could she be touched by anyone. She was as outcast as a leper. Instead of approaching Jesus and making public her shame, she decided to just touch Jesus, and that would be enough to heal her. And it was as she believed—even as those who endured in Jesus’ word would be multiplied in the story of the soils. Jesus, though, felt that the Spirit’s power/authority he used had left him. Not wanting the healing to be a secret, he stopped and asked who touched him. The disciple’s response showed their ignorance of what he was speaking. Then the woman, thinking she was really in trouble, but unable to hide admitted what she did. Although she expected rebuke, Jesus did nothing of the kind. Jesus instead recognized her faith—her recognition that Jesus had the power of God, and her desperation that caused her to access that power impolitely. Jesus often recognized improper behavior as faith (Mark 10:46-52).

Before they were on their way to Jairus’ house again, one of Jairus’ companions came to Jairus and announced to him that his daughter had died, as Jesus was coming to heal. His limited faith was indicated when he said that there was no point to bother “the teacher” anymore—Jesus could heal the sick, but he could do nothing about the dead. This would make sense in the world system of the ancient Near East—a person who was sick was being attacked by an evil spirit in is world. Once a person was dead, then they crossed over to the realm of the dead, and no one returned once they crossed over. Jesus, however, recommended faith to Jairus, not fear. Fear, in this context, would be recognition that nothing could be done to help his daughter. Faith would be recognition that Jesus could still revive his daughter.

Jesus then limited the witnesses to the event that was about to happen. Many have seen him heal the sick, but if they saw him raise the dead, they would realize that God had given him full authority over even the realm of the dead—and he was not ready to announce this authority. So Jesus sent everyone away except for his closest disciples who, he felt, were ready to see his full power. When Jesus saw the many at Jairus’ house mourning, he made a mysterious statement—that the girl was not in the realm of the dead, but simply asleep. Their mocking of him made sense, for he had not seen the girl and did not recognize that she was fully dead, but (like the soil near the path), they had no faith in seeing the truth in what he said. Perhaps Jesus was saying that she had not arrived in the realm of the dead, so she was under the authority of the powers of this realm, and so possible to revive. Nevertheless, Jesus went to the room where the girl lay and commanded her to arise. Mark has the words in Aramaic first, and then a Greek translation. The Greek word used could mean to get out of bed, to be healed, or to be raised from the dead. So there is some vagueness—did Jesus raise her from the dead, or did he just “wake her up” from her illness? Nevertheless, this is a deeper healing than a simple rebuke to an illness.

Mark continues to show us Jesus' power. First, Jesus is more powerful than the Spirit of the Sea. Then he is more powerful than thousands of demons. Now, Jesus is not only more powerful than a long-term illness, but He is more powerful than Death!

We still have difficulty imagining that Jesus is more powerful than Death. Death, in our minds, is more powerful than God-- or at least we trust that it is more predictable than God. When someone is dead, they don't come back. We all know that.

Yet, Jesus' whole teaching is based on one premise: that God can and will resurrect the dead. Death is not an ultimate end, but it is a temporary state. If this is so, then God can resurrect the dead anytime.

A magnificent movie is called Ordet (1955-- check it out!) about a family full of religious people, all of whom have one struggle or another. One member is crazy, another is doubting, another is judgmental. Yet we see that if they just were able to believe in the basic premise of Jesus' belief-- that we will be resurrected from the dead-- then our struggles and separations and doubts and hungers and desires seem very small and unimportant.

The next time we fret about anything, let's compare it to an eternity of living with God in love and a community of justice. As important as it seemed to us at the time, if we set aside our fear of death, then we honestly have nothing to be afraid of.

Mark 5:1-20-- Nothing is Too Difficult

They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; and shouting with a loud voice, he said, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!" For He had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" And He was asking him, "What is your name?" And he said to Him, "My name is Legion; for we are many." And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. The demons implored Him, saying, "Send us into the swine so that we may enter them." Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea. Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened. They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demonized sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the "legion"; and they became frightened. Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine. And they began to implore Him to leave their region. As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demonized was imploring Him that he might accompany Him. And He did not let him, but He said to him, "Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you." And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.


The region of the Gerasenes was in the country of Decapolis (“ten cities”), which was literally made up of ten Greek cities, mostly inhabited by non-worshippers of Yahweh. The first person Jesus meets there who is a worshipper of Yahweh is attacked by an unclean spirit. Jesus is rebuking the spirit, but unsuccessfully until he finds that it was not just one spirit, but a whole crowd of them. A “legion” is a garrison of soldiers of three to six thousand, but could also just mean a very large crowd. The spirits approached Jesus first, giving him the honor of a ruler—bowing before him and calling him the slave of the Most High God, which is an exalted rank. They recognize they Jesus has the authority to command them to go wherever he wants, and so they request that he send them, the unclean spirits, into unclean animals, pigs (Deuteronomy 14:8). Jesus agrees, and so they depart from the man into the crowd of pigs, which then go mad and run over a cliff. The man is no longer mentally ill. The inhabitants of the region—especially the ones who owned the pigs—were not impressed, however, and they asked Jesus to leave their area. Jesus, seeing that he was dealing with non-believers in Yahweh, agreed. The man wanted to depart with him. In only this place, however, Jesus commands the man to not follow him. Rather, he told him to stay in his own town and to give honor to Yahweh in the region, which was greatly lacking in the word of Yahweh. The man went further than Jesus’ command—he traveled through the whole larger region and spoke of Yahweh’s greatness in his life.

In the story just before, Jesus has shown his authority over a very powerful spirit-- the spirit of the Sea. Here, Jesus shows that his single authority can overcome literally thousands of spirits. Jesus is trying to show his disciples not just how powerful He is, but what kind of power he is granting to them.

There is no limit to God's power, nothing is too big. Isaiah 40 claims, "If you put all the governments of the world together, compared to God all their power amount to nothing-- they are the dust on a scale that you need not brush off to get an accurate measurement."

If we are dependent on God's power, we lack nothing except our own faith and obedience.

Mark 4: 35-41-- A Paltry Storm

On that day, when evening came, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Hush, be still!" And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They became very much afraid and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"


In ancient times, the sea was not just a body of water, nor was the wind just moving air. They were realms of authority that was ultimately controlled by the Most High God, Yahweh, but these realms were controlled by other spirit-beings that were powerful and frighteningly dangerous. The sea was controlled by a huge spirit-monster called Yom, who in turn was under the authority of a spirit-dragon called Leviathan. Both Yom and Leviathan were destroyers of humans, barely kept under check by Yahweh, the Most High God. The winds were instruments of judgement as well, controlled by angelic spirit-beings who are appointed to destroy the earth and humanity. (Exodus 14:21-22; Isaiah 27:1; Isaiah 59:19; Jeremiah 5:22; Amos 9:6)

Thus, when the winds and sea rose up against the boat, the disciples did not see it as a force of nature—they understood the storm as spiritual warfare attacking them. They were not afraid of wind and water, they were afraid of the spirits and monsters that were attacking them. Jesus also saw the storm as being spiritual powers attacking them. But he saw this as just one large exorcism. He rebuked the wind, just as he would rebuke an unclean spirit. He told the sea to shut up just like he told an unclean spirit to be quiet (Mark 1:25). The disciples felt that because the spirits of the sea and the wind were so much more important that Jesus could not command them. Their faith was lacking because they did not understand that Jesus has authority, no matter what the size of the situation or the authority of the spirits. If Jesus has authority in what is small, then he has authority in what is big. Yet the disciples were still amazed that Jesus had so much authority. They felt that casting out personal demons is one thing, but to know that Jesus has authority over the great spirits of the world is almost unbelievable.

Jesus did not rebuke his disciples for giving the spirit world too much power. He didn't tell them, "Don't you know that it's just sea and waves? All you have to do is figure out the rhythms of the waves and winds and we'll make it through." Instead, Jesus rebuked the disciples for not giving the spirit world more power than they realized.

The disciples could see the power of the Sea, but they couldn't look past it to see the Creator of the Sea. God's power is so mighty, so magnificent that a paltry lake is nothing to him. And if God's power can overcome a lake, certainly He can overcome a government, a bank, a parent or a grumpy official. Why do we fear such paltry things as armies and guns and finances? God owns all of that, and if we remain on God' side, doing His work, then what need we be fearful of anything?

Instead, as Jesus said, let's have faith and entrust ourselves to God's power, God's guidance, God's wisdom. Let nothing stand in our way.