From the Lectionary for 7 July 2024 (Proper 9B)

Mark 6:1-6 (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[1] 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.

[1] Gr. skandalizō : to cause to stumble; to offend, shock, excite feeling of repugnance

~

"The hometown crowd recognize his wisdom and miraculous power but are unable to believe it because of their preconceptions. [...] They know his family and therefore it is impossible that he could be what he appears to be. Their ambivalence is well-described as “scandal” (6:3), because the dynamics of scandal are the dynamics of [...] the model that both attracts and repels. [...] Mark tells us it is the state of the hometown crowd in Nazareth with respect to Jesus. The proverb that a prophet is honored everywhere except in his own home sums up the scandal. Envy is the power of the model/obstacle to attract and repel at the same time. The crowd wants to be like the other and to destroy him, because he is so pleasing.

"The scandal of the hometown crowd makes it impossible for Jesus to work a miracle there. A miracle requires faith and he could find no faith in Nazareth. There is a progression in the treatment of faith — from the bleeding woman, who exemplifies it as the act of the single individual called out from the crowd, to the family of Jairus, which emerges from the crowd, to the crowd at Nazareth, which absorbs Jesus into itself and refuses to recognize any power outside itself. “And he marveled at their lack of faith” (6:6). [...] The social role of Jesus makes it impossible that he could be anyone other than the son of their neighbors, despite the fact of his wisdom and power. This is the scandal of violence, which substitutes false distinctions for true."

- Robert Hamerton-Kelly, The Gospel and the Sacred, pp. 95-97

~

"These are his hometown folks. They'd obviously heard of him, his reputation had gone around. And they're astounded to hear him teach. But is there astounding in the sense of “gosh, this is amazing” or is it astounding in the sense of “what on earth is this?” It's not at all clear, the verb is not clear. They're clearly astounded. Later we're told they were scandalized and that's going to be a key word.

"But then it is said, “Where to this man all these things? Whence” - rather - “from this man all these things?” So the great question: Whence? “What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power from his hands are becoming?” So they want to know more, they're expecting something from him. But interesting each one of these words run them in reverse: whence all these things? This is the way of referring to the Lord. Where is the wisdom that he gives? It's the Lord who gives wisdom. What deeds of power are ... are becoming from his hands? It is the Lord whose deeds of power come from the Lord's hands. And of course, this is the language - of wisdom and the power - are very definitely the words referring to God. It's God's wisdom and God's power. [...]

"So, if you like, here we have the family completely misreading who is in their midst. It's the reverse of a sign, they've reinterpreted everything backwards, so that “whence does he get this?” - they're imagining him as the object rather than as the subject, one who is bringing all things into being. Who gave him this wisdom that he is the source of wisdom making it available to us? What about these works of power from his hands? It is the one whose power brings things into being that is amongst them. Of course, none of them can see that.

[...]

"And it says, “and they took offence to him” - “and they were scandalized by him” - “they were caused to stumble by him.” So this is of course, at the centre of this, this is what is the psychological dynamic that causes the understanding of God to be completely reversed. Well, it's that obsessive relationship of wanting  to be close to and wanting to be far from, imitating and being in rivalry with at the same time, being locked into imitative rivalry with somebody. That's the 'scandalon', that's what it's like when you're too close and therefore you can't see. In Matthew's Gospel Jesus actually gives the phrase: blessed is he who is not scandalized by me, meaning: who is able to take sufficient distance from me that the relationship is not all screwed up by this mixture of imitation and rivalry because then you never get to see who I am. All you get to see is the person you need to bring down in order to think of yourself as okay and you're permanently locked into that. So that's to be avoided here.

[...]

“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.”

"That's a very strange, very striking phrase, the Lord in his visitation come for the third and final time [in Mark's Gospel] to the synagogue, to the house of Israel, longing to see if the faith was alive - the faith of Abraham, of Moses, of Jeremiah, of Isaiah [...] - if that faith was alive. And seeing, no, they just got bogged down in petty family squabbles and were unable to see the big picture.

"And of course, this is us. How easy it is for us far to prefer the squabble of our jealousies, our obsessions - political, social, religious - and not see the One who is in our midst, who is wanting to work signs. You can do very little signs, especially on those who are vulnerable and not important and not relative like he does with the cured here. But then he has to move on and find others who will hear his word and do it. And so, that is what's going to happen from now on, this is his, if you like, sad farewell.

"Would it be the same if he turned up in one of our churches? What must we do to undergo having our scandal removed, so that we're able to hear the wisdom and see the signs by which the Creator is bringing people, groups, things, to life in our midst, and understand by whom we have been visited?"

- James Alison, from video "Homily for Sunday 14 in Ordinary Time 2021" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqblllhpQAs)

[Source of Robert Hamerton-Kelly quote, and for further discussion and reflections on all this week's lectionary texts: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/proper_9b/]