Proper 9 B                                                                               Ezekiel 2:1-7
July 9, 2006                                                                             Psalm 123
St. Margaret of Scotland Episcopal Church                              2 Corinthians 12:2-10
The Rev. Linda McCloud                                                         Mark 6:1-6  

A Prophet Among Them 

            Jesus had grown up.  He had left his parents’ home in Nazareth in the hill country and moved to Capernaum, a progressive town on the banks of the Sea of Galilee.  Capernaum is about twenty miles northeast of Nazareth as the crow flies.  Capernaum was a crossroads of the world of Jesus’ day.  In Capernaum there was a synagogue for the Jews built by a Roman Centurion – a military leader with a hundred Roman soldiers under his command.  It was at Capernaum that Jesus called five of his twelve disciples – Peter and his brother Andrew; James and his brother John; and Matthew the Tax Collector.  Jesus had brought God’s message of salvation to the Roman world. He even healed the Centurion’s servant from a distance.     

By this time in his ministry, Jesus had appointed all twelve of his disciples.  He had also healed people with unclean spirits, conducted a preaching tour in the Galilee, cleansed a leper, healed a paralytic, stilled a storm on the Sea, and raised a twelve-year-old girl from the dead.  You might think that by this time, Jesus would get a little respect back home in Nazareth. Surely they had heard about his activities.   

            When Jesus returned to Nazareth, the town where he had grown up, he brought with him his retinue of twelve disciples.  He went about his usual business of teaching in their synagogue. Jesus was a different person than the carpenter who had left home.  Jesus astonished his hearers with his wisdom.  If Jesus had expected a hero’s welcome in Nazareth, he did not get it.  “Hometown boy makes good” was not the headline in the Nazareth newspaper.  Jesus’ face was so familiar there.  His family made their livings there. 

It had not been very long since he had left, and it seems that no one had forgotten Jesus’ questionable origins.  They knew his Momma.  They said, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary . . .?”  That’s an interesting – maybe even insulting — way to speak of Jesus’ pedigree.  In those days most men were identified by naming their father.  For example, Jesus calls his disciple Peter “Simon son of John.”  Chances are the people of Nazareth were still whispering behind their hands about that story of Mary going off to Bethlehem great with child.     

Mary and Joseph had taken a chance on moving back to Nazareth.  This was the place where the Angel Gabriel had appeared to Mary.  This was where Mary had said “yes” to God as angels and archangels and all the company of heaven had held their collective breath. For all the right political reasons the Holy Family had come back when Jesus was a young boy.  He would be safer in Nazareth – further away from Herod’s son Archelaus.  Jesus probably had clear recollections of living in Egypt – of moving from place to place in a day when that was uncommon.   For the second time, storm clouds were gathering on the horizon of Jesus’ life.   

            The people who rejected Jesus in Nazareth were “scandalized” at him. They were very offended at him.  They had no faith in him.  Jesus was shocked.  The entire visit turned into a train wreck.  The word “scandalized” has shades of meaning that include “snare” – the stick that holds the trap open until we go for the bait.  Then we are caught when we trip the snare.  The people who were offended at Jesus were caught in the trap of not being able to accept God’s wisdom that came from the lips of Jesus.  Their pride was the snare.  They stumbled over the very One who was “Emmanuel” – God in their midst.  Why would that be?  

Jesus gives us the answer.  On this occasion, Jesus came to his hometown in the role of prophet. Prophets spoke, and still speak, on behalf of God.  Prophets fearlessly spoke the truth regardless of the consequences, knowing that they were sent to a “stubborn and rebellious people.”  Apparently, the people who saw Jesus grow up could not abide his telling them the truth about God.  As we all know, an expert is anyone who is a hundred miles from home.  In this instance Jesus seemed to be an expert about God.  He could do that because he is fully human and fully divine.  We wonder why they could not understand that.  I wonder if any of us understands that.   

Seeing only his humanity, I believe these people were jealous of Jesus’ wisdom.  They wanted to keep him within the control of their opinion of him.  They refused to let Jesus grow beyond them.  To them, he was still the carpenter, or craftsman.  This mindset continues to be a major problem in our world today.  In some cultures in America, it is hard for people to “get above their raising.”  When certain young people try to better themselves through education, they have an uphill battle in their home communities.  Sometimes their families try to pull them back into poverty and ignorance.  It takes a very strong personality to pull beyond that.  It takes the power of God to help them pull beyond that.  Jesus is their example.   

Jesus found the unbelief in his village of Nazareth simply amazing.  But notice – this did not stop Jesus.  Jesus went right on teaching in the other villages.  He had to be about his Father’s business to take God’s message of salvation to the world.  The people in his village had a glorious opportunity to “get on the bandwagon” so to speak.  They could have rallied around Jesus and been supportive of him in his subsequent work. But by and large, they did not.  After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his brother James, but we have no scripture that specifically tells us whether Jesus ever went back to Nazareth. 

The people of Nazareth had to have known there had been a prophet among them.  The question is what impact did that have on their everyday lives.  I wonder if any of them changed their minds and went out seeking Jesus in the other villages.   

Every Sunday, as we gather for Holy Eucharist, we know that Jesus has come among us in a very special and intimate way.  What impact does that have on our lives as we go about our daily business?  Do we filter our lives through our knowledge of the life of Jesus?  Do we try to keep the fire in our hearts going from Sunday to Sunday by praying daily?  Do we measure our words and our treatment of others by the standards of Jesus’ love for us?  When we do that, we give honor to Jesus, who is prophet and priest and king.  When we do that, we give honor and praise to Jesus, this Carpenter, the son of Mary and Son of God.  Amen.