Scripture: Mark 6:1-13; Psalm 48:1-3; Jeremiah 18:1-4; John 3:16 Series: After Pentecost
Drawing on Mark 6:1-13, Pruitt argues that real learning means embodying a truth, not just being told it, and that our expectations of people and of Jesus get ‘baked’ and hardened like fired clay. The Nazarenes saw only their preconceptions of Jesus, so he could do no deed of power there and was amazed at their unbelief. Using Jeremiah’s Potter’s House, Pruitt insists God can still reshape us. He presses a stark binary: are we citizens of Nazareth who expect something small from Jesus, or citizens of heaven ready to be transformed? He closes with repeated calls to receive Christ anew, to let go of living for self, and to expect Jesus to turn everything around.
Illustrations: chewing-mouth-closed, texas-school-testing-expectations, potters-house-jeremiah, hot-stove-burn
July 7
Subterranean Hometown Blues
Psalm 48:1-3
Mark 6:1-13
“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King. Within its citadels God has shown himself a sure defense.” Psalms 48:1-3 NRSV
“He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.” Mark 6:1-13 NRSV
There is a difference between being told something and learning something to the point of embodying the idea or the thought. The most basic forms of this I find often when I look back on my own childhood or I look at my the childhood of my children. Being told to chew with your mouth closed only goes so far. Being told to close the door. Being told to not touch the stove. Directness doesn’t necessarily lead to learning.
Seeing someone chewing with their mouth wide open and seeing the food dribbling out. Also need to look and where it’s like, wait a minute. This idea, this simple idea of chewing with your mouth closed, a simple manner, is not about me, but about how my actions affect the people around me. Holding the door open for a person, not touching hot stove, all these ideas, they need to be learned and embodied or else it doesn’t matter.
Jesus rarely teaches directly. Paul does. Peter does, but Jesus doesn’t. Jesus teaches mostly in parables. Or he teaches in ways like the Sermon on the Mount that challenge and convict people towards faithfulness. Jesus explains the parables in private to his disciples. When people are really with him, Jesus speaks directly.
In our gospel passage today, Jesus goes home. He ends up in his home town and tries to speak to the people but it doesn’t work. The people didn’t hear him. They saw their preconceived notions of Jesus.
And this, my brothers and sisters, is life. We often don’t listen to people. We often don’t see people. We see what we expect almost all the time. We see what we expect of people. We see what we expect when we meet someone for the first time. We see what we expect in our children, our neighbors, our friends. Your expectations live within status quo of our life in the world. It happens for grown ups. It happens for kids. This is why teaching and education is such a challenge. The child who is open and eager to learn, is well supported, well fed, hydrated, well slept, wants to learn. Teaching can be an absolute delight until we get to the level of administration of bureaucracy. That’s a different sermon.
Or is it? It’s really not. It comes back to the same thing because the frustrating world of administration and bureaucracy. It comes back to the way humans see our expectations. Administrators see what they expect out of teachers and out of kids. It is all about their expectations. When administrators in Texas public schools or any schools, structure everything around testing, categorize all the kids based on their expectations of testing results, the pie has already been baked. You can’t bake it again. Or to use a more biblical metaphor, the clay has already been baked.
But this, my brothers and sisters, is the point. We’ve all been baked. We’ve all been shaped by our circumstances and our surroundings. You already see the world a certain way. You already see the people around you a certain way. I do, as well. No matter what age we are, we have been fixed in our ways and it is hard to see what we don’t expect to see. And yet there is hope for us.
In Chapter 18 of Jeremiah, we see a vision of the Potter’s House.
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
God reshapes us. There’s hope for you even when you have already been baked. God is not finished with you yet.
Jesus went to his hometown, And their expectations of Jesus were already baked. Jesus reverses the process. So often, people read the Bible looking for what the Bible can do for them. They’re told the Bible can do something for them. They’re told that they can receive something from this book. They’re told directly Jesus will save your life. Jesus loves you. Jesus does these things.
I tell people directly. I try to preach this message, and yet our expectations of Jesus get baked and fixed, and they’re hard to move. They’re literally hardened. Our expectations can be shaped in such a way that when God does something, we react like the villagers of Nazareth.
Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that he has been given? Is not this the carpenter?
Jesus replies and shows us the stakes involved in our expectations. Sometimes we think it doesn’t matter what we do, and Jesus will just help us whenever we’re ready for it. But then Jesus says here, prophets are not without honor except in their hometown, and among their own kin and in their own house, and then Mark writes that Jesus could do no deed of power there. The villagers in Nazareth expected something small. And they got something small. Jesus laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. At other times in the Gospel, people are amazed by Jesus, but here, Jesus is amazed by the people. Jesus is amazed by the people of Nazareth. Jesus is amazed by their unbelief. Are we amazed by Jesus and what he can do or is Jesus amazed by us and what we don’t believe?
What is our expectation of Jesus? What is your expectation of Jesus? If Jesus is a stranger to you, it’s probably pretty low. It’s based on your experiences of his followers. Many times, it could be very negative. Christians have often been poor examples of Christ. People grow up in the church and are told one thing about God and then they see another thing in the lives of Christians. They see unbelief. They see hypocrisy.
When you look at yourself, what do you see? Are you a citizen of Nazareth? A citizen of heaven. This is the stark binary Jesus offers us. Where is your home? It’s not about other people. It’s not about what they do. It’s not about people on TV. It’s not about politics or debates or the future of this country or this world right now. What are your expectations of Jesus? What are your desires of Jesus? What are your desires for your life? Do you want God to do something small so there’s not much disruption going on. Do you want a few things healed but not much else to change.
Or are you ready for the son of God to enter your life and to turn everything around? Are you ready to be a new person? Because that’s what Jesus does when he enters a place, when he enters a town, when he enters a heart, he transforms it.
I mean, the people aren’t ready for it. He is amazed by their unbelief. It can seem like they had one shot at Jesus, and they missed it. It can seem kind of deterministic in this.
What about the people of Nazareth? Sure. They rejected Jesus, but doesn’t he, in turn, reject them? Are they punished eternally for one mistake?
I think it’s fitting in Mark how we have this passage about Jesus going to his hometown and being rejected immediately followed by sending the missionaries out, the disciples are sent out in pairs. I imagine that Jesus sent a pair to Nazareth. In all of this, is our sympathy with the folks of Nazareth who rejected Jesus or with the disciples? Is our expectation of ourselves in this story that we are the rejectors of Jesus that want another chance to accept him again and again and again? Is Jesus amazed by our unbelief? If God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but everlasting life. Why are we making such a small space for God in our life? As the psalmist says, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. You are loved. Jesus has come to your house and to your town. Even if you grew up with Jesus, even if you grew up in the faith, Don’t let those expectations limit what God can do in your life. God can do more. You are worthy of more. You are worthy of mercy, of forgiveness, of transformation, of a life lived for others, of a comfort radically shifted from the expectations of the world. You’re worthy of a life where you are not comfortable unless you are serving, unless you’re giving, unless you are offering. You are not comfortable unless you are sacrificing. You are not surprised by Jesus transforming people. You expect it, you offer it, and you receive it. Receive it this day. Don’t let the dust of the angels of God be kicked off in your doorstep. Receive it this day. Don’t look for another way. Don’t stick your hand on the pot and get burned in order to learn that there’s danger. Receive it this day. You are loved. God is love. Let go of living for yourself. Let go of it. It is unnecessary. Hold fast to the god who is love, who offers himself to you. He has come to you. Receive him anew this day. Receive him afresh this day. Receive him in such a way that you can be changed. Let us do that together. Let us encounter our lord. Let us receive his word. Let us go forth afresh, anew, a fire ablaze, and a heart. That God is love, and in him, there is no darkness at all.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.