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.