And he went out thence and came to his own country, and his disciples follow him.
Jesus walks back to the town where He grew up, and His disciples come with Him. Mark gives the visit no build-up, which leaves two questions: why go back there, and what are the disciples meant to see?
The word Mark uses points to Nazareth, and its reputation is part of the story.
Nazareth was His country, His fatherland (patris), and is so called elsewhere in the Gospels (Matt. 13:54, 57; Luke 4:23-24; John 4:44). And Nazareth was a despised town or village in the despised province of Galilee. It was far from Jerusalem and Judah. It lay in the far north, among those tribal districts of Israel that revolted from the rule of David's royal line in the days of idol-worshipping Jeroboam.
He had already refused to let family claims steer His service. That makes this return striking.
On that occasion the Lord publicly refused to let family ties interfere with Him. He was the Servant of Jehovah, doing the will of the One who sent Him. Now He visits the place where He grew up, and His disciples come with Him... This visit shows the Lord keeping to His own instruction to the man He had freed from demons in Gadara: "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you" (Mark 5:19).
Mark 6 opens with a Servant already refused. Set His reaction beside our own.
It begins with Him rejected, and yet, as I have already said, unwearied. He is a contrast in that way to every other servant that was ever known in this world. When people are refused in their service, a feeling of humiliation comes over them. It is a spirit natural to us as fallen creatures, with the taint and nature of Adam in us. So we shrink back into our own littleness whenever we think someone has slighted us.
The detail that His disciples follow Him is not filler. It marks where the twelve disciples are in their training.
The chosen twelve were to be with Him first. Then, when their time of instruction and preparation was complete, He would send them out. The period of their training lasts until verse 6 of Mark 6. In verse 7 of that chapter we begin the account of their actual sending out.
Nazareth is their last classroom. Their final lesson comes from the way the town receives Him.
They had rejected Him before (Luke 4:28-30). How would they treat Him now? Most of them had not changed, and the Lord had to leave them. So the disciples were to learn that faith can draw down blessing, but unbelief holds it back.
His lowly way among ordinary people shows what is in the human heart — then and now.
He comes among them with divine wisdom and divine power. He ministers the truth among the poor of the land and heals some sick folk. But in no way does He cater to the vanity of human nature that loves display, and rejects men because of their humble origin... So in our day, are we not in danger at times, even as Christians, of hindering the work of God? The pride and vanity of the flesh slights the ministry of a servant of God because of his humble origin.
The town's bad name became His public name — and it did not stay a term of shame.
But if this title is one of dishonour and disrepute among men, angels are not ashamed to use it. The angel at the tomb said to Mary Magdalene, "Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him" (Mark 16:6)... More striking still, the exalted One Himself used that name of reproach. Speaking from the glory to Saul of Tarsus, He said, "I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting" (Acts 22:8).
- His own place. His hometown is Nazareth — a despised village in a despised province, far from Jerusalem.
- His own initiative. He goes back to the town that had already turned on Him, doing Himself what He told the healed man of Gadara to do: go home and tell your own people.
- His own manner. Refused once, He returns unwearied — the opposite of the servant who withdraws into himself the moment he feels slighted.
- His own learners. The disciples follow Him into this rejection as the last stage of their training. From verse 7 He sends them out.
- His own name. The reproach of Nazareth followed Him to the cross — and the angel at the tomb and the risen Lord Himself still use that name.
And when sabbath was come he began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing were amazed, saying, Whence [has] this [man] these things? and what [is] the wisdom that is given to him, and such works of power are done by his hands?
Mark's account brings Jesus back to the town where He grew up, and on the Sabbath He stands to teach in the synagogue. The room fills with astonishment. But their questions about His wisdom and mighty works never turn into faith. That gap, between admiring Him and trusting Him, is the point of the scene.
The scene opens among poor and ordinary people, not the great. He brings them full divine power, and He never dresses it up.
In the first scene we see the Lord in His lowly service of love. He is among the humble people of "His own country," "His own kin," and "His own house". He comes to them with divine wisdom and divine power. He teaches the truth among the poor of the land, and heals some sick people. But He never panders to the vanity of human nature, which loves show and display, and rejects people because of their humble origin.
Their question was not idle. He had never been to school, and their own astonishment is the proof.
A stupendous fact of the Lord's life on earth is that He had no education in the ordinary sense... Indeed, "there is no evidence," writes Fairbairn, "that in the time of Jesus any schools existed in Nazareth. The wonder at Nazareth (Mark 6:2) and at Jerusalem (John 7:15) at how He knew His letters proves that He never went to any school."
Their amazement covered what He said and how He said it. It also raised a question: who gave Him the right to teach?
The amazement seems to have been not only at what the Lord Jesus taught but also at the way He taught it. He was "teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes"... They had observed Jesus as He grew from boyhood to manhood. And they would not allow one they knew so well to teach them. Where was His authority? Who made Him a teacher?
The crowd's own wording — wisdom given to Him — fits this Gospel's picture of Jesus. He takes a servant's place, and even there His words carry authority.
But whenever He did speak, surely He spoke "with authority" (Mark 1:27; Mark 2:10; Mark 4:41; Mark 6:2; Mark 11:18). So even as a dependent man, a perfect servant, all He said was "with authority."
So where does a servant get such wisdom?
In Mark, the Lord is being portrayed as the dependent, humble Servant. His resources come from God, and He publicly acknowledges this.
Admiration cost them nothing. They granted the wisdom. They granted the power. And they came no closer to Him.
They clearly recognised the wisdom of His teachings and the might of His acts. Yet all this produced no conviction or faith in their hearts. They knew Him, and those related to Him according to the flesh, and this only blinded their eyes as to who He really was.
What settled the matter for Nazareth was not evidence but status. No class of people is free from that blindness.
They admitted the power of His teaching, and the mighty works done by His hands. Yet even the despised people of Nazareth stumbled at the lowly Lord — the lowly Servant — of all. The lowest of mankind is not free from the same spirit of the world which blinds the highest. In truth, the god of this world blinds all who are lost... That the true heir to the throne of David should be a "carpenter" was and is too much for flesh and blood. And yet, when it is believed, the grace of His humiliation is as striking as the need for it was urgent and absolute.
The same danger reaches into ordinary church life today.
The flesh is always the same. So are we not in danger today, even as Christians, of hindering the work of God by the pride and vanity of the flesh? That pride slights the ministry of a servant of God because of his humble origin. Or, as servants, we may fail by trying to gain a hearing on the ground of wealth or social position.
- Given — their own phrase, wisdom given to Him, fits Mark's dependent Servant. His resources come from God, and He says so.
- Ungiven — He had no schooling. The wonder at Nazareth and at Jerusalem is itself the proof that He never sat in any classroom.
- Granted — they admitted the wisdom. They admitted the mighty works. None of it produced faith.
- Refused — familiarity blinded them. A carpenter as heir to David's throne was too much for flesh and blood.
- Applied — the same pride still slights God's servants for their humble origin. It still tempts servants to seek a hearing through wealth or position.
Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended in him.
Nazareth had known Jesus all His life. They could not deny His wisdom or His works, so they pointed to His trade and His family instead — and took offense at Him.
In Mark the townspeople call Jesus the carpenter, not the carpenter's son. What they said was true. But a true label is not the same as knowing who He is.
In Mark 6 we have our Lord again — now thoroughly despised. Here He is "the carpenter." It was true; but was this all? Was it "the truth?" Such was man's estimate of the Lord of glory; not merely the carpenter's son, but here, and here only, He is Himself the carpenter.
This was no rumour to explain away. It tells us what He did with His own hands.
It is of interest to the Christian that the Lord was called not only 'the carpenter's son' but also 'the carpenter' (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3). This implies that He worked as a craftsman before He began His heavenly Father's 'business,' the very work He came into the world to do. It shows the real manhood He had taken in grace.
We know almost nothing about the long years before His public ministry. This one word from His neighbours is our window into them.
For thirty years He had lived quietly at Nazareth, out of public view, and men had seen nothing of Him... All we know of that period is this, that when He came out men said, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?" (Mark 6:3). So I conclude that this blessed Son of God, here in human form on earth, worked with His hands. Let no one think then that service or toil is a menial thing to be avoided. Toil has been made noble by the pathway of Christ.
One writer finds it fitting that Mark, the Gospel of the Servant, is the one to keep this detail.
How fitting that Mark's Gospel is the one to tell us that the servant Son of God worked with His own hands! In doing so He made all human service holy, and no doubt He supported a widowed mother.
The verse names four brothers and mentions sisters too. One writer takes the word "brother" at face value.
Take Mark 6:3 for instance. Speaking of our Lord, it says, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother" (not the cousin, you see) "of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?" We do not know what place God gave to Joses and Simon. But we do know that James and Judas, or Jude (it is the same name), were both called to an important service.
His own family gave the townspeople no help toward faith. Nazareth turned that into an argument.
On this occasion the men of Nazareth seem to have used the lack of interest shown by Mary and her household as evidence against the divine claims of the Master... Scripture tells us plainly elsewhere that His brothers, whose names all recall the fathers of Israel, did not believe in Him (John 7:5). So the wisdom of the Lord's words in the synagogue amazed His hearers, but His lowly origin and His poor relatives left them baffled.
This pride was not limited to Nazareth.
The flesh is always the same. Are we not in danger today, even as Christians, of hindering the work of God by the pride and vanity of the flesh? Such pride slights the ministry of a servant of God because of his humble origin. Or, as servants, we may fail by trying to win a hearing on the ground of wealth or social position... They failed to see the glory of His Person and the grace of His heart. Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He had become poor, so that we through His poverty might become rich.
Yet the same fact that repels unbelief is what faith treasures most.
The true heir to the throne of David — to speak of His royal glory — was a "carpenter." That was, and still is, too much for flesh and blood. Yet once a person believes it, the grace of His humiliation is as striking as the need for it was urgent and absolute. Nothing less could glorify God and deliver man according to His mind.
- True — "The carpenter" was a correct description. It was not the whole truth about the Lord of glory.
- Real — The title shows He worked with His own hands, which proves the real manhood He took in grace.
- Noble — Because Christ walked that path, no one should look down on honest work.
- Family — Mark names four brothers — James, Joses, Judas and Simon — and His sisters lived in the town. John 7:5 says His brothers did not believe in Him.
- Offended — Nazareth stumbled over His lowly origin, and the same pride still slights God's servants today. Faith sees what they missed: He was rich, yet became poor to make us rich.
But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not despised save in his own country, and among [his] kinsmen, and in his own house.
Jesus returns to the town where He grew up, and the people who know Him best trip over Him. His answer is a proverb about honour, and it names the three circles where a prophet finds none.
Luke records this saying too. The other two Gospels give it in a fuller form.
Matthew and Mark record the proverb with the added reference to His relatives and to His house.
Older translations word the saying more bluntly. It puts the Lord alongside everyone who has served God among people who knew them growing up.
Here, though, they reject Him even as a prophet, and Jesus bows to it. It is the common lot of those who work for God in a world that knows them too well to honour them, and yet does not know them, just as it did not know Him. "A prophet," He said, "is not despised, except in his own country, and among his relatives, and in his own house."
Being known is the problem. One writer asks whether the real reason lies in the hearer's conscience.
The Lord, however, does not strike back with the same kind of offended pride. He calmly points out that a prophet is not without honour except in his own country and in his own house. Can this be because, in knowing him well, people's consciences fear that he will also know them well?
They did not reject Him for any failure of His own. Their pride tripped over where He came from, and that instinct did not stop at Nazareth.
Human nature is always the same. So in our day are we not in danger, at times, even as Christians, of hindering the work of God by the pride and vanity of that nature, which slights the ministry of a servant of God because of his humble origin? Or, as servants, we may fail by trying to win a hearing on the ground of wealth or social position... This does not mean that they rejected the Lord in His own country, as people might reject us, because of known weakness or failure. It means they used their everyday familiarity with Him to discount His divine mission from God.
The middle circle is not decoration. The men of Nazareth turned His own family into an argument against Him.
It seems the men of Nazareth pointed to the lack of interest shown by Mary and her household as evidence against the divine claims of the Master... And elsewhere we learn plainly that His brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:5). So the Lord's words in the synagogue amazed His hearers by their wisdom, but His lowly origin and His poor relations left them confused.
The insult came from people close to Him. Notice where He turned with it.
This belittling did not come from strangers. It came from those who might count as "familiar friends." Yet our Lord bore the pain of it with the greatest patience, and He never struck back. He did not look to men, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.
What happened in one synagogue was a preview of something far larger.
So the unbelief at Nazareth came first, and then came the unbelief of the nation that handed Him over to the Gentiles to be crucified. The builders thought they knew the Stone well. It did not please them, so they rejected it.
He did not answer their unbelief with a display of power. That was restraint, not inability.
Notice, too, how beautiful this is. Where there was such unbelief, our Lord would not remove it by dazzling displays of power. A result produced that way would have had no moral worth. He had already given plenty of signs to unbelief, but people had gained nothing from them... Of course, this was no question of His own power. His saving arm had not grown short in any way.
- Known — the saying names three rings: hometown, relatives, household. The closer the circle, the colder the welcome.
- Not known — those who knew Him too well to honour Him did not really know Him. One writer asks whether the conscience fears a prophet who knows us just as well.
- Offended — they stumbled over His humble origin, not His teaching. The same pride can still make Christians dismiss a servant of God for his background.
- Foreshadowed — one town's unbelief came before the nation's. The builders thought they knew the Stone, so they rejected it.
- Unwearied — He did not strike back, and He did not force belief with displays of power. He committed Himself to God who judges righteously.
And he could not do any work of power there, save that laying his hands on a few infirm persons he healed [them].
Nazareth knew Jesus too well to receive Him. They had filed Him away as the carpenter from their own town. Mark then says something startling: in one place the Lord could do no mighty work, and the reason lay not in Him but in them.
One writer notes that Mark alone calls Him not the carpenter's son but the carpenter Himself:
In Mark 6 we have our Lord again — now thoroughly despised. Here He is "the carpenter." It was true; but was that all? Was it "the truth?" This was man's estimate of the Lord of glory. He is not merely the carpenter's son. Here, and here only, He is Himself the carpenter — "the son of Mary, and the brother of James, and Joses, and Judah, and Simon. Are not His sisters here with us? And they were offended at Him."
Another writer weighs the lowly form He took against the glory people wanted:
However great His divine power, He appeared in a form that could lend nothing to the pride and vanity of human nature… If man is to receive God, he must receive what God is; but this is just what his fallen nature will not do. The humiliation of Jesus showed the divine character far more fully than if He had come as a glorious King. But He was not what man's heart desired. He was the carpenter's son, and that was enough to cause His rejection.
The word "could" has troubled readers, since nothing had ever proved difficult to Him. Commentators are agreed that the limit was not on His strength:
Therefore this blessed One could there do no mighty work. It is needless to say that it was no question of power as far as He Himself was concerned. It was not in any way that His saving arm was shortened — not that there was no virtue in Him any longer, but there was the lovely blending of the moral glorifying of God with everything that was done for man.
Another writer states the same restraint as a rule that runs through Scripture, and explains what miracles were for:
It does seem in Scripture that when unbelief rises to the height of mockery, the testimony stops — see Jeremiah 15:17; Acts 13:41; Acts 17:32 — Acts 18:1. It is also clear that "Jesus of Nazareth" was "approved of God… by miracles and wonders and signs" (Acts 2:22). Yet the main object was not to convince stubborn unbelief. It was to encourage and confirm weak faith… So He did no great works in the Nazareth district. He "could" not do them. Moral considerations limited Him, not physical ones. Miracles were not suitable to the occasion, according to God's ways: and He was the Servant of God's will.
Matthew reports the same scene in different words. One writer sets the two accounts side by side:
In Matthew, where Christ appears as the Messiah, His power to do the mighty works is not the question. What stands out is the state of the people: through unbelief they could not profit by His presence among them. So the record there is, "And He did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief." In Mark, where Christ is seen as the Servant, our attention goes to how unbelief limited His activity. There He was seeking to bless; His heart yearning over His people; but their unbelief raised up a barrier.
Set Nazareth beside the sick woman who touched His clothes:
Notice what an obstacle unbelief is to the exercise of the power of God. The faith of the sick woman who touches His garment draws His power out. The unbelief of the people of His own country holds it back. We read, "He could not do any mighty work there." May God grant that we put no obstacle in the way of His grace, which is always ready to act.
The verse does not end in loss. There is an "except," and mercy fills it:
His mercy was astonished and driven back by them, yet it was driven back only so that it might flow out, pent up in this way, over a wider area. Still, as we have seen all through this Gospel, He kept that great object in view and went on teaching. Nothing hindered His mercy toward the Jews, even in His own country — toward those who were glad to find His mercy and power, and who felt their need of it. He healed a few sick people, not leaving Himself anywhere without witness.
If unbelief could limit the Lord Himself, it can limit those He sends:
If the unbelief of those around Him hindered the blessed Lord in His labours, how much more does it hinder His servants? Nothing can be sadder than this: those to whom preachers of the word are sent may receive them almost without any faith or expectation.
- Familiarity. Nazareth measured Christ by His trade and His relatives. He came in a form that gave nothing to human pride, so they took offence.
- Limitation. "Could not" says nothing against His power. Moral considerations limited Him, not physical ones, for He was the Servant of God's will.
- Contrast. In Matthew the focus falls on the people and their unbelief. In Mark it falls on the Servant, whose work that unbelief limited.
- Channel. One woman's faith drew power out of Him. A whole town's unbelief held it back.
- Remnant. Even so, He laid hands on a few sick people and kept teaching, so He never left Himself anywhere without witness.
And he wondered because of their unbelief. And he went round the villages in a circuit, teaching.
This verse closes Jesus' visit to Nazareth, the town where He grew up. It raises two questions: what could surprise the Son of God, and why did rejection not stop His work?
Here Jesus is the one who marvels. One writer sets His wonder at Nazareth beside His wonder at the faith of a Roman officer:
But Jesus had come to bless men, and unbelief could not completely stop that work... The unbelief of Nazareth was as remarkable in its nature as the faith of the Roman centurion, and Jesus marvelled at both (Matt. 8:10).
That wonder cost Him something. One writer links it to the pain He carried through years of unbelief, from the world and from His own disciples:
He deeply felt the pain of enduring their faithlessness. On another occasion we read, "He marveled because of their unbelief" (Mk. 6:6). What a trial to Him were those years of His bearing with the unbelief both of the world and of His own disciples.
The verse before this one says He could do no mighty work there. One writer draws the contrast with the sick woman of the chapter before, then turns it on the reader:
It is a solemn thought how much, in our day, unbelief may hinder the work of God. If faith, as in the case of the sick woman of the last chapter, draws out the blessing, it is equally true that unbelief hinders its outflow. Still, His grace, rising above our pride and unbelief, healed some "sick folk" even though the blessing is limited to "a few"... Sadly, do we not at times give Him occasion to marvel at our unbelief?
He worked miracles elsewhere. So why not break the unbelief at home with a show of power? The answer is a moral one:
These men of Nazareth were full of unbelief. Where there was this unbelief, our Lord would not remove it by dazzling feats of power. There would have been no moral worth in a result produced that way. He had already given plenty of signs to unbelief. But men had gained nothing from them, and those who heard His word did not mix it with faith. So He "could do no mighty work there." This is the only place where such a thing is recorded — of the Man before whom no power of Satan, no disease, nothing above or around or beneath could prove the smallest difficulty.
A Man who made everything held back. One writer finds Him more glorious in that weakness than in His power:
"He could do no mighty work there." Yes, He, the Creator of all, the Sustainer of all, could do nothing mighty there. He was the ever-dependent and obedient man who had come to do, not His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him... yet He could do no mighty work there. Blessed Lord! greater are You to me in Your weakness like this than in Your strength, by which all things hold together.
Rejection did not stop His service; it redirected it. The second half of the verse is where His patience shows:
But did He abandon them? Oh, the endless patience and seeking grace of this perfect Servant! "He went about among the villages teaching," in case faith might yet respond to His willingness and power to heal.
And teaching was not a lesser substitute for miracles. It was the fitting thing to do in that place:
A great display of miracles might have produced a sudden swing of feeling and intellectual conviction. That would not have been worth having. The steady teaching of the Word meant sowing the seed, and there would be some worthwhile fruit from that.
- Marvel. Jesus marvelled at two things: the faith of a Roman centurion, and the unbelief of the people who knew Him best. That unbelief was a real trial to His heart.
- Hindrance. Faith draws out blessing; unbelief holds it back. The limit at Nazareth was not in His arm but in their hearts.
- Restraint. He would not batter down their unbelief with a show of power. Conviction forced that way has no moral worth.
- Perfection. The Creator of all "could do no mighty work." His weakness there was obedience. That shows His glory as much as His strength does.
- Persistence. He answered rejection by walking on to the next villages and teaching. Where a spectacle would have won only excitement, sowing the seed of the Word would bear real fruit.