Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, January 31, 2024

Mark 6, 1-6

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And 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 native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

“Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.”  St. Mark’s account of the Lord’s return to Nazareth follows his account of the raising of the daughter of Jairus, the synagogue leader, which evidently took place in Capernaum.  On a map, Capernaum and Nazareth are separated by about thirty miles.  It probably would have taken the Lord two days to walk there.  He seems to have made the journey alone since none of the three records we have of his time in Nazareth mention them.  On the other hand, St. Luke’s placement of this visit before the Lord’s settling in Nazareth makes more sense and explains at least in part why Jesus moved from there.  In this case, he returned to Nazareth after he had begun preaching and performing miracles in other places in Galilee and before he called his Apostles.

“When the Sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished.”  When the Lord came to a town, he began teaching not in the streets or marketplaces but in the local synagogue.  After astonishing the congregation with his wisdom and authority, crowds would seek him out so that he would teach them within the town, if there was room, or outside on the hills or at the seashore.  The people of Nazareth “were astonished”: the tense is imperfect so we should understand: “they were being thunderstruck”.  They were “overwhelmed” and almost “driven out of their minds”.  There is an element of surprise or shock as well.  “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!”  Mark gives us a picture of the synagogue congregation convulsing.  Mark described a different reaction at the synagogue in Capernaum: “They were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (Mark 1, 22).  Those also knew that he was a carpenter from the negligible town of Nazareth and that he had no education, but his teaching amazed them; it did not throw them into a crisis.  Perhaps the differences in the reactions comes from those in Nazareth remembering him growing up amongst them.  Perhaps he had kept to himself and said little to anyone so that his neighbors had thought of him as slow of mind.  Or perhaps this merely reflected how dull they were, which might be confirmed by Nathanael’s saying, “Can anything could come out of Nazareth?” which sounds like a commonly quoted proverb.  “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?”  It is, of course, curious that they said “son of Mary” and not “son of Joseph”.  This could reflect the fact that Joseph had been dead for a time while Mary still lived among them.  The two pairs of brothers, James and Joseph, and, Judas and Simon, were of other mothers.  A woman also named Mary is given as the mother of the first two (cf. Mark 15, 40).  Judas and Simon were either of this same mother or of another woman again named Mary.  The first Mary was married to a man named Alpheus and the second was probably the wife of Cleopas, one of the two men the Risen Christ met on the way to Emmaus.

“And they took offense at him.”  The Greek text has, “This was causing them to stumble”.  “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.”  This saying has the flavor of a proverb.  St. Luke adds here that the Lord remonstrated with the crowd, addressing the question of why he had not done any mighty works in Nazareth as he had elsewhere, and quoting another proverb, “Physician, heal yourself”.

“So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.”  Mark does not recount, as Matthew and Luke do, how the townspeople rose up, seized him, and attempted to throw him off the slope of the hill on which their town was built.  This may be that for Mark the great climax to the incident was the confusion into which the people were thrown because of their lack of faith, their crass obstinacy.  The unruly mob at Nazareth stands compared to the enormous and enthusiastic crowds of people who come to listen to Jesus throughout Mark’s telling of the Gospel.  Mark says that Jesus healed only a few sick people while there.  Probably he healed them in the days before the Sabbath meeting.  Jesus offers health and salvation to all, but few respond with faith.