CARPENTER’S APPRENTICE
Opening Prayer
Lord, open my eyes to your glory. Deliver me from distraction and overfamiliarity. Clean the lens of my spiritual vision.
Read MARK 6:1–13
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
A Prophet Without Honor
6 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,[a] 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.
Footnotes
- Mark 6:3 Greek Joses, a variant of Joseph
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘When I survey the wondrous cross / on which the Prince of glory died, / my richest gains I count but loss, / and pour contempt on all my pride.’1
In rural Nazareth, Jesus Ben-Joseph, the young carpenter’s apprentice, learned his trade from his father. Then he left Nazareth, left his father and mother, left his siblings, left his trade, and disappeared from recorded history. How long he was away is unknown, but it was long enough for the people of Nazareth to need a few moments to work out who he was. It makes sense that between learning his trade and starting his ministry of teaching and healing, there was a necessary period of dedicated spiritual growth. The most logical context for that would have been in a desert community, perhaps with his cousin, John.
That Jesus is not immediately recognized is testament to his humanity, to a normal, unremarkable upbringing. This is not the fanciful childhood of the fictional ‘gospels’ outside the canon of Scripture. In these he makes birds of clay that fly, or miraculously stretches timber to fit the bed-frame Joseph was making.2 It is the very ordinariness of Jesus’ life in Nazareth that deters people from seeking healing. The faith of the receiver is as important as the faith of the healer.
Soon, Jesus decides that it is time to risk sending the disciples out on their own. They go only with Jesus’ authority and are never independent of Jesus’ mission. The church today is in danger of prioritizing its own institutional survival. We see some leaders whose ministry seems to be a way of fulfilling personal desires for power, prestige, or even material gain. The disciples will be sent out again but, in this first mission, they are to take nothing with them. They are to learn dependence on God and that their ministry must never be a means of personal gain.
Apply
May Jesus forgive our desire for prestige or wealth. He calls us, seeking to renew and send us out again to continue his real mission in the world.
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for all you were willing to sacrifice so that the treasures you offer could be mine forever. Make me willing to put aside the things this world values to share who you are so others might know you.
1 Isaac Watts, 1674–1748 2 Infancy Gospel of Thomas, 2:4; 13:1,2
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