MrsDrPoe: The Offense of Familiarity

It's another Theology Thursday on the blog, and I'd like to once again invite you to open your Bibles with me as we look at a portion of God's word.

In Mark 6:1-6, Jesus goes to His hometown of Nazareth to continue His earthly teaching ministry.  We see Him in v. 2 preaching in the Synagogue on the Sabbath as was His typical M.O.  The folks in the city regard the fact that He is teaching "wisdom" and performing "mighty works"; however, instead of heeding the wisdom of His word, they are offended at Him because they knew Him as "the carpenter" and desire to kill Him (Luke 4:29).  Because of their unbelief, Jesus provides them with no further signs of His person but instead continues teaching in other villages.

It seems so ironic to read of people who basically say, "Jesus has so much wisdom!  But lets totally ignore it."  But isn't that what we do sometimes?  Jesus says in v. 4, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house."  Examining the prophets in the old testament, nearly all were ill-received and mistreated by the very people they were trying to warn.  Again I ask, isn't that what we do sometimes?

If your mom or brother or friend tells you that you should be going to Bible study, you have been very unkind lately, you have a lot of anger, the people you are hanging around with are not helping you spiritually, or any number of other things, don't we often get offended?  But if someone we didn't know quite so well told us the same thing, would we be more inclined to listen?  Just like the people of Nazareth were so familiar with Jesus the carpenter whose family they knew, they were offended by the things that he taught and did.

Not wanting to listen to advice is a pride issue that we all must struggle against.  Although every piece of advice we are given (solicited or not) may not be the best course of action to take, we must humble ourselves to truthfully examine what we are told- especially from those who know us best and truly have our best spiritual interests at heart.  And we must also humble ourselves before the word of God.  While we read the teachings of Jesus, we must examine ourselves and try to correct where we are lacking.  We must be careful not to be offended by or take lightly the instruction of "the Carpenter" or the godly wisdom of those who follow Him.