The Gospel According to Mark
– 2018.07.08
Faith and Power
The
gospel reading for today suggests that there are limits to Jesus’ power.
“He
could work no miracles there,” the people in his home town would not accept
him.
He
left feeing despised, by most if not all.
Of
course we know that his mother, Mary, followed him, She was with him when he
was crucified. And we know that James, his brother was one of the twelve, as
well as being the first bishop of Jerusalem.
Whatever
resistance he met and the beginning of his ministry, at least in relation to
his family, it was overcome.
Ultimately,
that is less interesting than the revelation that the healing and miracle work
Jesus was noted for, could not take place in the absence of faith.
Which
corresponds to other passages we have read, where the faith of the individual
is instrumental in the healing of their loved ones, drawing on Jesus’ power
without his knowledge of it.
This
is instructive, for us, because Mark’s gospel is the earliest of them, and it
represents a less nuanced apology for the “miracle-making” Jesus was engaged
in.
'A
Prophet is Only Despised in His Own Country'
Jesus
went to his home town and his disciples accompanied him. With the coming of the
sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue and most of them were astonished
when they heard him. They said, ‘Where did the man get all this? What is this
wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through
him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and
Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’ And
they would not accept him. And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised
in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house’; and he could
work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on
them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
14th Sunday in
Ordinary Time
