Mark 6:1 And He went out from there and came into His own country, and His disciples followed Him. 2 And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue; and many hearing were astounded, saying, Where did this man get these things? And what is this wisdom given to this man, and how is it that such works of power take place through His hands? 3 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 stumbled in Him. 4 And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and among his own relatives and in his own house. 5 And He could not do any work of power there, except to lay His hands upon a few of the sick and heal them. 6 And He marveled because of their unbelief; and He went around the villages in a circuit, teaching.
Verses 2 and 3 indicate that He was despised and rejected by the Nazarenes [His own countrymen] . Here we see that the Nazarenes knew the Slave-Savior according to the flesh, not according to the Spirit. They were blinded by their natural knowledge. Verse 4 indicates that probably even some of the Lord's own household joined in with the others to despise and reject Him. The word of the blind despisers here may be considered a fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the Slave-Savior in Isaiah 53:2 and 3: "As a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men." This was to know Him according to the flesh in His humanity, not according to the Spirit in His deity (Rom. 1:4). In His humanity He was a root out of dry ground, a shoot out of the stump of Jesse, and a Branch out of his roots (Isa. 11:1)…. In His deity He was the Branch of Jehovah for beauty and glory (Isa. 4:2), the Son of God marked out in power according to the Spirit (Rom. 1:4). Those who rejected Him asked, "Is not this the carpenter?" They used the word "carpenter" in a despising manner. They were astounded by His teaching, by His wisdom, and by His works of power. But they regarded Him as a person of low status. In today's terms, they might have wondered what qualifications He had, what kind of degree He had. The word "stumbled" in 6:3 indicates that the Nazarenes rejected the Slave-Savior. Why were they stumbled in Him? They were stumbled in Him because, on the one hand, they heard wonderful words out of His mouth and saw some of His marvelous deeds, and yet, on the other hand, they considered that He did not have a high status or degree. They saw Him as one who was merely a carpenter. Therefore, they were stumbled in Him, and they despised Him. (c) Living Stream Ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Mark, pp. 163-164. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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