Big Healing Book - Mark 6:1-6

Mark 6:1-6:

And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.
And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?
Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.
But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.
And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.

Notes on Mark 6:1-6:

People fuss over why the people at Nazareth were not healed, but Matthew’s account (Matthew 13:54-58) tells you plainly that it was because of their unbelief. That there was unbelief in Nazareth should be no surprise; that is where they had tried to kill Him during His first visit as a preacher! Jesus was just as much anointed and just as much the Son of God at Nazareth as elsewhere. Because He subjected Himself to human limitations and ministered as a man anointed by the Holy Spirit, He COULD NOT heal the sick there. If Jesus healed to prove His deity, He proved He wasn’t deity at Nazareth. (Of course, Jesus did not heal to prove His deity. This is proved elsewhere.) The servant is not above his master. If Jesus could not heal the sick in such a place, neither can you. There are churches like this! He COULD NOT do it because God requires our cooperation in such matters. He does not force healing on the sick any more than He forces forgiveness on sinners. God’s power must be mixed with our faith. The problem at Nazareth is that they saw the preacher from only a human perspective instead of honoring His office. This same mistake today can stop God’s power from flowing in a service. Respect the anointing on the minister! Don’t disrespect him by gabbing with your neighbors, making non-emergency bathroom runs, going out to get coffee in the foyer, or otherwise showing that you really don’t care that much about what he’s doing. Don’t regard him from a simply natural perspective as the people in Nazareth did to Jesus. Respect the fact that the Holy Spirit – the third member of the Trinity – is manifesting Himself through the man (or woman!).

That is one reason why we would never turn our church into a modern “café church.” If you encourage people to divide their attention by getting coffee or snacks in the middle of the message, you’re just teaching people to disrespect the Holy Spirit as well as the speaker. If the President of your country called you in for a personal meeting, what would he think if you said, “Excuse me, Sir, you can keep talking while I go grab a coffee and a pastry?” If you wouldn’t treat the President like that, why would you treat JESUS or one of His anointed representatives like that?

How did Jesus respond to the people’s unbelief? Did He cast a “ruling principality of unbelief” out of the city? NO. He just left and went to other villages and taught. While it would be tempting to say that He taught to try to get rid of their unbelief, He didn’t teach the people at Nazareth to get rid of their unbelief! Instead, He went and taught in other villages instead. He had ALREADY taught at Nazareth before He tried to minister to the sick and only healed a few sick people (Matthew 13:54-58 as well as the second verse in the passage in Mark). There are times you have to just dust off your feet and go somewhere else where people are more receptive. Jesus gave instructions about that (Matthew 10:14, Mark 6:11, Luke 9:5). Paul and Barnabas followed that advice, too (Acts 13:51). The solution in such cases is not trying to stay and teach people in the hardened city, but rather to take your teaching somewhere else.

The reason why preachers sometimes preach that Jesus tried to “teach away their unbelief” is that they’re confusing unbelief with ignorance. Jesus had already proclaimed who He was and what He was doing at Nazareth (whereupon they tried to kill Him), so the people there KNEW that He was claiming to be the Messiah (the Anointed One). He had just preached in their synagogue, so they were not ignorant of His teaching. You don’t even qualify for unbelief if you’re ignorant; you have to hear something first that you can unbelieve! So the solution was not to try to teach them to overcome their ignorance. Jesus didn’t marvel at their ignorance; He marveled at their unbelief. Their issue was unbelief. Teaching doesn’t fix that because it’s a matter of the heart.