I need to begin this devotional with an apology. Last week, I

sent this, my 10\08, devotional late Sunday evening, and I sent

it out in WP6.0 format which was too late and perhaps impossible

for you to decode. Here it is - sorry!









Greetings in the name of Jesus!

     I love to travel, to see new places and leave behind my

everyday life and its troubles and get lost in new experiences.

But always, I reach a point when I get restless and long to go

back to the people I love and the life that God has given me.

In this week's lesson, we will return home with Jesus. He left

Nazareth a carpenter, he returns as The Messiah of God.

     Open your Bibles to Mark 6:1-6, and begin your devotional

time with prayer remembering to thank the Lord that he knows the

pain of being rejected by family and friends.



Verses 1-2a

     Jesus may have left his busy and successful ministry at

Capernaum, to find a quiet place to rest with his disciples and

visit his family and friends in Nazareth, the little town where

he lived as a child and grew to be a man.

     Nazareth was so small and insignificant that a proverb had

grown up around it quoted in John 1:46 by Nathanael. Here

is a small village where everyone knew everyone else, more like

an extended family than a town. Can you imagine the hope and

excitement that Jesus felt as he journeyed home with the Gospel

of God to share with the people whom he knew better than any one

else? 

     Anyone who has been converted to Christ away from family and

friends and then returned home "Born Again," knows the excitement

and anticipation of sharing their testimony with the people they

grew up with and known all their lives. They also know the gut

wrenching despair of being rejected and misunderstood, and the

sadness and disappointment when they realize they have become

estranged from the people they want to share Christ with the

most.

     Jesus probably had the entire village buzzing by the time

Sabbath arrived. Everyone must have turned out to hear him speak

his message publicly at the Synagogue. This may have been one of

Jesus' darkest hours. How he must have yearned to have the Gospel

accepted by the people of Nazareth.



Verses 2b-4

     Jesus' message was so filled with passion and wisdom as he

taught that morning, that the people of Nazareth reeled at what

they heard. Then, Satan began to work, and the people became

skeptical and began to question both the message, the man, and

the miracles. 

     The force of their statements is this, 

          "Would God give His wisdom and power to common         

          laborer?!!" "Besides, we know him, He's just Mary's     

          illegitimate son, (not Joseph's son), and all his       

          brothers and sisters are just common small town        

          people."



     They reject his message, and they reject Him. Jesus' heart

breaks as he realizes that neither he nor his message will be

received by his own family and friends. Has this happened in your

life? Take heart, Scripture shows us that both Mary and James

came to realize the true nature of Jesus as Christ. 

Through prayer, the witness of a Holy life, and the help of other

Christians it is possible to win our family and friends to Christ

even when our verbal testimony is rejected.



Verse 5-6

     Since even Jesus's miracles were rejected, no one brought

their severely sick loved ones for Jesus to heal. No MIGHTY WORKS

could be done. All Jesus had an opportunity to do was to

strengthen a few people were weak and sickly. Jesus

disappointment must have been devastating. He simply left and

taught in the villages surrounding Nazareth, perhaps there is a

lesson here too, that it is possible for an indirect approach to

succeed where a direct approach fails. Jesus didn't let his

disappointment interfere with his service to God. Remember this

when the Church or your family fail you and you feel like

quitting. Jesus has been there and he knows the feeling and in

Him we can find strength to carry on with Joy.



                                   Love in Christ



                                   Greg Spencer



                              gspencer@omnifest.uwm.edu