Read Mark 6
A Prophet Without Honor
1 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.6 He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve
Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. 7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.
8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
John the Baptist Beheaded
14 King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”
15 Others said, “He is Elijah.”
And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.”
16 But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”
17 For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. 18 For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19 So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, 20 because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him.
21 Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. 22 When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.
The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” 23 And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”
24 She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”
“The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.
25 At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
26 The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. 27 So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, 28 and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. 29 On hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”
38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”
When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”
39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
Jesus Walks on the Water
45 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.
47 Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. 48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified.
Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.
53 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.
Go Deeper
Chapter 6 begins and ends with amazement: verse 6 says Jesus was amazed at the lack of faith shown by the people in his hometown, and verse 51 says that the disciples were amazed at Jesus’ ability to walk on water (even though they had just seen him feed 5,000 people a few hours previously). Jesus was amazed at the lack of faith He saw and His disciples were amazed at Jesus because of the lack of faith they had in Him. Does it ever make you feel a bit hopeless that the people who actually witnessed Jesus heal the sick and blind still doubted his power? If they doubted, what hope is there for the rest of us to still believe in him 2000+ years later? But look what happened to those doubting disciples a few books later in Acts.
In our reading today, verse 56 says that they would place the sick in the marketplaces and beg just to touch the edge of Jesus’ cloak to be healed. Jumping ahead to Acts 5:15-16, we see something similar: “People brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by… All of them were healed.” These same disciples who had such little faith when they were standing face to face with Jesus were the same disciples that would one day be described in similar ways as Jesus himself! The difference between the disciples we see in Mark and the ones we see in Acts can be summed up by this: the Holy Spirit. God gave His Spirit to the disciples so that they could amaze the world around them with the power of Jesus at work in them. The best part is that the same power is available to us believers today!
Questions
What was the first thing that stood out to you about the character of Jesus in today’s reading?
In chapter 6, we see times when the disciples had faith (like when Jesus sent them out in pairs to preach the gospel) and times when they didn’t (as seen in the feeding of the 5,000). Is that true in your life? When do you most often doubt God? When is it easiest for you to have faith?
In the midst of hard times, it often seems impossible to have faith. How can we, as Christ-followers, amaze those around us with the faith we have in Jesus?
Did You Know?
Five loaves doesn’t sound like a lot to begin with, but it gets even better. The loaves of bread that Jesus multiplied were pretty small – in fact, people would often eat several in one meal.
2 thoughts on “Mark 6”
How is it that a demon possessed man can give witness and share the good news of his healing and people believed based on his past history. Yet Jesus who was considered a ‘common’ person in his own community but, as we know through the Scriptures was a righteous sinless man, how could his community not believe in Him and His (now) amazing teaching, wisdom and miracles? The lack of faith in his own neighborhood amongst his own people who believed in God (supposedly), limited the ability of his community to believe in the good news of the One right before them, this is amazing! The harvest and growth are God’s gift alone to give, it can’t come via man’s own ‘reasoning’.
Days after tying the wedding knot in Toronto, my parents set off for the mission field. They traveled with what they could carry on their backs, first on a Greyhound coach, then hitch-hiking and walking across Central America until they reached the Colombian jungle to which they had been called. Like the disciples in this chapter, and later Paul in his missionary journeys, being unencumbered by possessions gave them the freedom to travel unhampered, a freedom they continued to enjoy fifty years later when it was time to return to England.
It is interesting to note that Jesus trained the disciples from the outset to travel light. Had he not done so, I can only imagine the palaver had a caravan of twelve disciples and their sundry belongings descended on unsuspecting hosts as Jesus and his coterie traveled around Judaea and beyond.