by Deacon Rowland The people of Nazareth are outraged. Jesus has returned home with some of his new friends and has been invited to speak to the congregation and “they took offence at him”. Some scripture scholars use the word scandal. The good and devout people of Nazareth are scandalized by what Jesus has to say. Mark does not tell us what Jesus said that day, but we can assume that it is the same thing that Jesus has been saying so far in this Gospel. Jesus has touched dead people, healed women that have been bleeding for years, casts out demons and generally has been pulling into the centre those people who are generally on the margins or are excluded from society – this is not appropriate behavior for a good and devout Jew. Jesus is a local boy – we can hear that from the questions and statements of the people. Who is this guy? Who does he think he is? Isn’t he the son of Mary? And what is this stuff that we hear? This is the crux of the matter. These people know Jesus. He grew up with them. But he does not meet their expectations. He is out of line. He is bringing shame on his family. The people only see the Jesus that they grew up with. They cannot see who Jesus really is. They cannot tell where he gets is power from. And their inability to see the bigger picture, to be bigger people cuts them out of the loop – “So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people.” Why does their lack of faith constrain the power of Jesus? The answer has nothing to do with respect for prophets, but everything to do with their lack of faith. In Mark’s Gospel, faith presupposes great works. Jesus was constrained by their lack of faith because he cannot force belief, he cannot compel acceptance of his message. Do not make the mistake of believing that Jesus message was verbal only. His message is contained in his deeds and actions. His message is contained in his choice of companions, but most of all Jesus message is contained in who he chose to reach out too – a synagogue official’s dead daughter, a woman with bleeding hemorrhages, a possessed man from outside Israel. Mark’s Gospel reads like an honor parade for the most marginalized, dirty, sick and unclean people. These are all people from outside the fold. These are the kind of people not welcome in any polite company, and especially not welcome into the worshipping community at the synagogue. Jesus is amazed at their lack of faith because they cannot see past the flesh and blood reality of his presence. They do not see the divine entity as we do. But what about us, what about our lack of faith? Has the coin been reversed so that in seeing the divinity of Jesus, we do not see his humanity? Does the outreach of Jesus challenge us, does it scare us? It should – perhaps not individually – but it should scare us as a society. A casual look at our streets and society will provide the answer. Look at all the people, poor misfortunes that we see on the bread line, literally begging for work to pay for food to support their families. Look at the people that have been excluded from our community because they are different. Look at the people who are overlooked because they have contracted deadly diseases. The people we politely ignore outside the Church because they are not our type of people. All of these people are the types that Jesus would have had dinner with, he would have given them personal strength to pick up their lives and he would have healed their wounds and illnesses. These are all people that Jesus would have made whole again and have brought back into the fold and back into the community. It can be tough to live with and believe in such a Jesus, because as people who believe in such a Jesus we are obliged to do as Jesus does. We have to go to the marginalized, visit the poor, solace the grieving and rehabilitate the outcast. We have to leave the warm bosom of our community and seek out the stray, bandage the wounded and make welcome the stranger. These are the mighty works that Jesus is able to do in the presence of faith. These are the mighty works that we as faith filled people can do. But do we? Has our faith saved us to such a degree that we need not do more? Are our works of charity so streamlined and automatic that we no longer think about them? Is our life of faith restricted to ninety minutes every Sunday? St James in his letter says ‘show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith’. The Church has always challenged us to continue the ministry of Jesus, but sometimes we have allowed it to become more ritual than ministry, more token than real. Every time we attend the Eucharist we are challenged to bring the reality of Jesus love for all people, his sacrifice of himself for all people, the joy of his resurrection and the forgiveness of all sins to all people. Not just to those people that we like, or think that deserve it, but to all. This cannot be left as ritual – we have to make it real. Being disciples of Jesus, being members of the Church is a call to conversion and redemption. Does Jesus challenge us? Are we bigger people because of Jesus? Is our small community big enough to seek out the marginalized and welcome them in? Or is Jesus amazed at our lack of faith?
(Mark 6:1-6)