G – Gospel: Mark 6:1-6
It seems to me that there are 4 different types of attitudes toward knowing Jesus. The first is the group that doesn’t know Jesus and definitely doesn’t want to. I would lump the Pharisees and Sadducees from Jesus time in this group. The ones who were always seeking a way to catch Jesus out and discredit or dispose of Him didn’t really know who He was. The only thing they knew is that He was discrediting them in the eyes of the rest of the people. He was bringing them down to the common level. Anything or anyone that did that had to go.
The second attitude is of those who know of Jesus and only want to know Him for what He gives them. There were lots of people who sought Jesus out purely because they heard He could heal them physically. While I have a feeling that Jesus loved helping people in any way He could, physical healing was not what He came to earth for. He had a much deeper and more lasting message that these kinds of people didn’t really care to hear.
The third type is the true follower. Jesus inner circle of 12 disciples along with anyone else who craned their head just to hear any word He spoke were the people who knew Him the best. Though it took a long while for the actual meaning of His arrival as Messiah to sink in – three years worth of time – these people were the ones who eventually got it. And once they had it, they never forgot.
The fourth type are the ones in this passage. These are the people who know Jesus so well that they can’t imagine Him being anything beyond what is in front of their eyes and between their own ears. They just couldn’t imagine that the Jesus they watched grow up playing with His siblings and following Mary and Joseph around town was anything more than a man from a decent family in a small town.
I kind of get that, but I also know that the people we love most can surprise us with things we never knew about them. My mom recently told me about a movie she watched in which a baby was born with severe handicaps and his family was told that he would never improve and pretty much had no capacity to learn anything. He only had real control over moving one foot. He spent quite a few years with no one really teaching him to talk or read or anything. He simply sat in a chair in the family home and watched things around him. One day, a piece of chalk was lying near his foot, and he astonished his family by picking it up with his toes and writing on the floor. He had learned to read and write while watching his siblings with their school work. He eventually became a celebrated artist and writer.
What if Christy Brown’s family had said that what he wrote on the floor was just a fluke or he was merely mimicking something he had seen with no real understanding of what it meant? I doubt he would have achieved the things he did without his family looking past what they were told and had experienced about his level of ability. I wonder if this was the kind of thing Jesus was thinking when He was amazed at the unbelief of the people of Nazareth.
E – Encourage: Titus 2: 11-14
This passage is a wonderful expression of Jesus true mission on earth, the very thing that only one of the groups above understood. A gracious and forgiving God sent His own Son to rescue as many people as He could so we could all be together as the family we were meant to be.
R – Reflect: What does this mean for me?
I don’t mean to brag when I say that I would be in the 3rd group above. In fact, I can only say that I am in that group, but I’m certainly not up there rubbing shoulders with Peter and Matthew. There are a lot of things that Jesus said and is still saying and doing that I miss because I’m walking along toward the back of the group. I need to learn to pick up my pace and move closer to Jesus.
M – Meet
Today I want to pray specifically for some people I know who are kind of in the 4th group. Through talking with them or hearing of their beliefs, it seems like they know what they believe about Jesus and about God and they won’t listen to any different ideas or new information. I want them to get to know the real Jesus, not because I want to be right, but because I want them to get right with God before they’re left saying, “Hey, isn’t that Mary’s son?”
Passages for tomorrow: Matthew 10: 26-31 and Esther 4
The Rest 