'Home Ground Advantage'? A Sermon on Mark 6:1-6

This passage before us deals with Jesus being rejected and how he reacted to that rejection. In thinking through some of the implications of this passage, we are caused to see that the coin which has the world’s rejection on one side has God’s acceptance on the other. Can we also reassess where our ‘home ground advantage’ might lie?

1. The Negative Impact of Rejection

We are taught in the book of Hebrews that Jesus suffered much like we do, and therefore understands all of what we face in life. Hebrews 2:18 reads: “Because [Jesus] himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested”.

One of those things we can experience in life is the feeling of being rejected. Here in our text from Mark, Jesus certainly experienced rejection – from the people of his own hometown. Jesus had already been rejected by the religious authorities (Mark 3) and members of his family (in terms of not recognising who he really was). Jesus was being doubted – people were denying the possibility that he was who he claimed to be; his word or truthfulness was being called into question. How hurtful is this! Just because he was a manual labourer, doesn’t mean that he couldn’t be gifted in other ways. A person can’t be categorised so simply … yet Jesus was being limited to the carpenter’s shop. Just because you have grown up with a person and known them in a certain way, doesn’t mean that they can’t later excel in ways never before dreamed of. Jesus was being seen in purely human terms.

Sometimes our abilities are doubted. Sometimes our word or truthfulness is called into question. Sometimes people doubt our motives. This all leads to feelings of rejection and isolation. We may be rejected because we don’t seem to live up to other people’s expectations (or even because we surpass them). We may feel rejected because the other people around us are too wrapped up in themselves to notice our needs. We can be rejected when others just don’t get us, or don’t seem to have the time to listen and get to know us. We think we’re doing alright, but others just find faults … to the point that we ourselves start focussing on the faults (rather than our potential). We should always remember the scriptural encouragement here: “Because [Jesus] himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”

We might have been rejected because of what we stand for, as against what most other people build their life around. People tend to push away what they can’t understand. Jesus was rejected because people of his hometown could not cope with the notion that he was truly the Son of God. Jesus was leading a mission to Gentile peoples and bringing healing to outcasts (Mark 5), and people from Jesus’ hometown wanted nothing of it. Salvation and healing were worthy pursuits, but not the way Jesus was going about it, so they thought! These townspeople had watched Jesus grow up, and probably saw his occasional naughtiness. They knew his mother Mary as a neighbour. They were not prepared to entertain the idea that God was working mightily through Jesus.

Prophets, who speak the words of God to the people, are not usually without honour, but are revered … that is, unless they are taken for granted. Those who have had Jesus right before their faces are the first to reject him. Why – because Jesus was not acting or speaking the way they wanted him too. They would’ve wanted to hear that Gentiles were evil, that the Romans would be overthrown, that God would again elevate Israel, that those who worked hard would be regarded most important, that they could live as they liked under God’s blessing. But this was not what Jesus taught. Jesus taught that people needed to exercise faith … that this was the most important thing, and what mattered most to God. And thus Jesus was rejected, shunned, and sent away packing – just like the errant teenager who has pushed his parents just a little too far!

You would have thought that Jesus would have had a ‘home ground advantage’ in Nazareth … that this would have been worth quite a few goals. Not to be! I can remember the days when Carlton won 20 odd consecutive games at their home ground of Princes Park – you would go there absolutely expecting to win, and be thoroughly dejected if you didn’t. When Jesus entered Nazareth and started teaching in the synagogue, he may have had high expectations for the outcome. Yet, so indifferent was the response to Jesus there in Nazareth, that despite what had happened everywhere else Jesus had gone, nothing seemed to happen there. Jesus’ power still could not be denied, a few people were touched and cured, the potential of miracles was still open; but there seemed to be a spiritual void there in Nazareth … and we know the reason! There was a complete lack of real faith. Jesus is not a showman with a varied bag of tricks, but a redeeming God looking for faith orientated people to work through. Jesus was “amazed” (I think we can read ‘devastated’) at the lack of belief in Nazareth; Jesus needed to move on (even though this would be personally painful).

2. Dealing Positively with Rejection

Jesus was ready for this – he had put a new supportive community together … not based on neighbourhood or family connections, but rather based on the commonality of faith in God. Jesus had said that: “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35). Jesus had called disciples who he would spend most of his time with; this was not a sure bet, and these disciples had their shortcomings, but at least they seemed to be committed to something beyond themselves. Jesus left Nazareth with his disciples and went about among the villages teaching. Jesus was not deterred – he was living out faith.

Back in the previous chapter, when faced with the news of the death of Jairus’ daughter, Jesus said to Jairus, as he says to us … “Do not fear, only believe”. The person of faith only has to touch Jesus’ cloak, and something dramatic and transforming will happen. We might be rejected by some because of what we stand for; there might be derogatory whispers behind our back; we might not get invited to the places everyone else does; but this could be the greatest compliment we are ever paid … at least our lives stand for something. And eventually those who start searching for and discovering the light will be able to ask us questions about the hope we seem to possess.

In the meantime, we will have to live with rejection, but such rejection may help us to focus on the most important things in life. And then we discover the places that we are called to be, and the company that we are intended to keep. We discover the utter indispensability of the Church community … as the place where God brings all the gifts together (for the common good), and builds the basis for relevant and practical mission enterprise. Some will try to go it alone – but they’re not going to make it … this is working against nature (how we have been created relationally). Discipleship is all about comradeship and a shared journey. One person can’t make much of a difference by themselves – but people can as they work together! Jesus was about to send out his disciples two by two to see who would gratefully receive the good news and embrace faith.

It will be an excited surety about God’s power to transform that will see change for the better. It will be recognising God’s presence and participating in God’s plans that will see people’s lives changed. Faith is about no longer seeing things just from a human viewpoint (which is oh so limited), but beginning to see all the wonderful possibilities from God’s angle or viewpoint. People can change – neighbourhoods and communities can change – the world can change. Through Jesus, people have regained their sight, their mobility, their well-being, and their right mind; so the possibilities are endless.

3. Receiving God’s Acceptance

It is ironic that the One who suffered so much rejection, is the same One who represents God’s acceptance of us … if we would just trust in that. This is a reflection of God’s acceptance and commendation of Jesus (at his baptism) in anticipation of the world’s rejection: “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”. When others get down on us … God loves and accepts us. When we get down on ourselves … God loves and accepts us. When we feel disconnected or sad or weary … God loves and accepts us. We can find a new home in the heart of God, just like Jesus found his home among those who did his Father’s will. God no longer looks at our misdeeds, but rather at Jesus on the cross, bringing reconciliation between us and God. Naturally there is a penalty for our sinful deeds, but so much does God love us, that God pays that price on our behalf through Jesus – and we are set free.

The way out of our feelings of rejection or sadness or hurt is … to throw ourselves wholly into the worship of Jesus, learning about him, and following him thoroughly. Those that lose their lives (into the worship and service of Jesus) will actually save their lives and truly find themselves (Mark 8)! We have discovered a whole new ‘home ground advantage’. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God. This is like when refugees, politically excluded from their countries of birth, come to live in Australia as their new home (and experience a whole new realm of freedom and possibility). As followers of Jesus, although (gratefully) living in the neighbourhoods we live in, our first and foremost allegiance is to God’s Kingdom – the place where God’s will is done mediated by grace. We then bless our community through our own experience of acceptance by God and knowledge of Jesus.

So where are we in this story? Telling Jesus to go away – he doesn’t count for anything, or, allowing Jesus to come alongside our feelings of rejection or alienation and offer us a new acceptance into God? The witness of Mark’s Gospel (and the Scriptures generally) is that Jesus is the Son of God. Can we respond to this in faith, and get ready to follow him wherever he leads? Are we truly taking up our new ‘home ground advantage’? Can we see that God is at work here now? Jesus embraces any feelings of rejection we may have, because he has been there! Yet as Son of God, Jesus can also present us with God’s acceptance, which really flips the coin over, and helps us to choose to kick with the wind right behind us.