A Prophet Without Honour Sunday Week 14 Year B (Mark 6: 1-6)

Jesus’ fellow citizens are astonished at his teaching, his wisdom, his miracles, such as last Sunday’s calming of the storm.  Jesus, on the other hand, is amazed at their lack of faith. Many of you, I know, are amazed, perhaps saddened, at this country’s newly-founded militant atheism. Many of our contemporaries, on the other hand, would be astonished at the group gathered here: young and old, some local, others from distant lands. “Yes, we are gathered here because we value our faith?”

Rejection must have hit Jesus hard.  Himself a prophet, he remembered the fate of Israel’s prophets.  They suffered.  Ezekiel was sent to Israelites, described by God as rebels, defiant and obstinate.  His thankless task was to denounce them; to be God’s spokesman.  What perhaps hit Jesus hardest was rejection in his own country, among his own relations, even in his own house.  They trashed his wisdom, his teaching, his mighty works with malicious gossip.  He is only the village carpenter.  This localised rejection expanded until Calvary: “He came unto his own and his own received him not”.

Rejection, unjust, unexpected, illogical, aggressive can hit us hard. It will be most difficult when closest to home.  Our initial reaction should be to defend ourselves.  Jesus did.  He preached the truth, he spoke the truth in love; he dialogued with the Pharisees.  But there may come a time when it is all too much; when nothing can be done in the immediate future.  Jesus carried on tirelessly, healing and preaching, but he couldn’t avoid Calvary.

Saint Paul experienced rejection, along with “a thorn in the flesh”, insults, hardships, persecutions.  None of these does he want but faith leads him to link them with Christ and Christ’s suffering on Calvary. “When I am weak, then I am strong”.  Rejection, weaknesses, lived out in union with Christ in faith, can make us strong in Christ and become seeds of faith, bringing new life and fresh hope to us and our world.

Jesus “could work no miracles” in Nazareth, his home town, because of their lack of faith.  Previously, in faith filled Capernaum, miracles and mighty works abounded.  

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