#DailyDevotion Is Jesus Amazed At Your Faith Or Unbelief?
Mark 6:1–6 Leaving that place, Jesus went to His hometown, and His disciples went with Him. 2When the Sabbath came, He taught in the synagogue. Many who heard Him were amazed. “Where did he get this?” they asked. “What is this wisdom given to him?” and, “Such miracles his hands are doing! 3Isn’t he the carpenter, Mary’s son, and a brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they turned against Him.4But Jesus told them, “A prophet is without honor only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his family.” 5He couldn’t do any miracle there except to lay His hands on a few sick people and make them well. 6Their unbelief amazed Him. Then He went around in the villages and taught.
Jesus kept the Law. He kept it perfectly. As such, he went to Church on the Sabbath. On this particular Sabbath Jesus went to the Church he did growing up in his home town. He apparently had not taught there before. The were amazed at his teaching. They were struck with astonishment. “Where did he get this? What is this wisdom given to him? Such miracles his hands are doing!” Jesus had grown up among them and worked among them. He had never said or done such things before. Yet it could clearly be seen the hand of God was with him. The amazement they had was amazement of unbelief.
Their unbelief because of his person caused them to turn against him. Jesus’ response to their unbelief in him was to quote the prophet, “A prophet is without honor only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his family.” Indeed, we will see in the Gospels this is so. Even Jesus’ mother and brothers thought at one time or another that Jesus had gone out of his mind. The false Gospels which have made a reoccurance in the last 1800 years don’t paint such a picture of Jesus. He was always doing miracles as a kid demonstrating his power. The true Gospels show us a Jesus that was very human up to his baptism when he began his ministry. Ever since then, Jesus began demonstrating the power of God in him through preaching and miracles.
While there in Nazareth, Mark notes, “He couldn’t do any miracle there except to lay His hands on a few sick people and make them well.” Could Jesus really not do any miracles there because of their unbelief? Well that is what it says now doesn’t it. Well, why not? It wasn’t because Jesus was not able to because the power in him couldn’t be activated without faith. Jesus is truly God and filled with the Holy Spirit. He could create whole universes with a word at that time. Then why couldn’t Jesus do miracles there? Because, particularly in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke), miracles confirmed a persons faith. They didn’t create faith. If Jesus had performed miracles there it would have hardened their hearts in unbelief.
Their unbelief amazed Jesus. The word for amazed here is different in the Greek than in verse 2. Jesus would later be amazed at a Gentile’s faith in him. There’s a sense of wonder in the Greek word here. Perhaps a bit more contemplative wonder. There apparently two things that amazed Jesus, faith and unbelief. When Jesus looks at you which one is going to amaze him? Put you faith in Jesus and you will experience the miracle of a changed life, mind, and spirit for the good.
Heavenly, give us your Holy Spirit that we may put our faith in Jesus so we may experience the miracle of being a new life, eternal life within ourselves. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.