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July 5, 2009—Proper 9

Lectionary Texts: 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 or Ezekiel 2:1-5
Psalm 48 or Psalm 123
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13

Sermon Text: Mark 6:1-6

Don’t Let It Get You Down: Jesus’ Rejection at Nazareth

I recently reconnected with eight first cousins on Facebook. Close in age, we all lived in the same Detroit suburb until I was nine. No one looks like I remember. Most of them remember me as the kid with dark unruly curls who climbed trees, played with dolls, and smacked snowballs into windows. None of them perceive me as a thirty something college professor and pastor.

When Jesus walks into Nazareth, fresh from moving demons out of Legion into a swimming herd of pigs, raising a little girl from the dead, and healing a woman with a twelve year hemorrhage, He seems to expect the same awed response He got other places. Instead He gets a door slammed in His face and an attempted control-alt-delete. Not because He does not do “signs and wonders,” but because He does! The people in His hometown take offense at His power and wisdom. They cannot deny He has either, for they see and hear, but instead of bursting their prideful buttons at their hometown hero like Oklahomans embraced Sam Bradford, Oklahoma Sooner Football player and Heisman trophy winner this year, they “take offense at him.”

Nothing like being voted off the island, huh? In the parallel passage in Luke 4:16-30, they run Him out of town and try to shove Him headlong off a cliff. In Mark there is no attempted murder, but Jesus is “amazed at their unbelief.”

As Jesus’ cousin reminds Him of the time He hit His finger with a hammer, and His aunt Rebekah remarks about changing His diaper, He recalls Ezekiel 2:3-5, “He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.”

Did Jesus get angry and call fire from heaven down on Nazareth? No. Did He give up because he could not get one community to believe him? Negative. He simply healed a few who needed His touch and hopped the train to the next village where people would most likely listen and believe.

In the next scene when Jesus informs the disciples to shake the rejection dust from their feet, He is probably illustrating by wiping tainted Nazareth dust particles off His sandals. Not only is He telling them to go, but He is telling them they will be rejected. It is a given. It is not a warning; it is a fact. Guess what? If you follow Jesus, people are not going to like it. They might do more than fling insults. They might throw stones. They might deny you, or even sell you for thirty pieces of silver. If you keep following after that, they might even crucify you.

Why send the disciples out immediately following this rejection? Why not send them out after raising the girl from the dead or casting out demons? Why not send them out after feeding the five thousand or calming the storm? Perhaps Jesus strategically wishes the twelve to accept that they will be rejected before they hit the road. The authority is over the unclean spirits, not the religious leaders who oppose them. The preparation is minimal, for they must depend on God and the community to provide. The accommodations might be less than the Hilton, but they must accept what is humbly offered.

Participating in a traveling ministry group while in college, we relied on the churches we visited to provide lodging. Sometimes we stayed in lovely homes with comfortable beds, gleaming showers, and steak dinners. Sometimes we slept on church fellowship hall floors. Sometimes we slept in the van. Once we stayed in a house in huge Mexican city with the windows thrown wide open so we could breathe in the heat, mouse-sized roaches crawling up the walls, and violence sounding in the streets around us. For squeamish parents having sparse phone calls (no cell phones or Internet in those days) it was a worry. For a few young college students, it was a great adventure. For those former young college students looking back, it was teaching us what it meant to be disciples.

What we did have was each other. The other day one of my former teammates dragged out an ancient dusty VHS tape of one of our services. We laughed together at our antics, but most of all we were grateful for our continued friendship. Jesus did command the disciples not to take any extra stuff. He also commanded them to go two by two. No one had to go alone. Unlike Jesus when He trudged up the hill called Golgotha. Yet when He gives the command to “go” again in Acts 1:8, He tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit. Not only are they not alone physically, but they are with the Spirit and will never serve solo again.

You are not meant to serve alone. Sometimes Jesus sends you out two by two, but He always sends you out one with the Spirit. There may be trouble. No. There will be trouble. If you are doing the work Jesus sent you to do, someone will get mad. Someone will get offended. When it does happen, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:12).