Read Mark 6:1–6. Why did Jesus’ hometown people reject Him?

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Usually when a small-town person becomes popular, people back home

bask in the attention. Not Nazareth. They were offended and surprised at

Jesus’ success as a teacher and healer. His shift from being a builder to a

teacher seemed hard for them to accept. There also may have been some

animosity that He did most of His miracles in Capernaum (see Luke 4:23).

And He had already had a disagreement with His family (Mark 3:31–35).

Read Mark 6:7–30. How does the mission of the Twelve Apostles contrast with the beheading of John the Baptist?

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

This is the third sandwich story in Mark (see lesson 3). The mission of

the Twelve Apostles in taking the message of Jesus everywhere stands in

sharp contrast with the imprisonment and silencing of the Baptist. The

disciples are told to travel light and depend on others for support. This

strategy actually makes missionaries dependent on the people they serve,

which helps bond them to those who need their message.

But the Baptist had no such bond with Herod and his family. John’s

death is told in shocking detail as the plotting Herodias takes advantage

of Herod’s ambivalence and lust. Herodias’s daughter seems to add to

the scandalous plan by the grotesque request that the Baptist’s head be

delivered on a platter.

The silencing of the clarion voice of the Baptist occurs at the same

time as the Twelve Apostles proclaim repentance, just as the Baptist

did. John’s death foreshadows Jesus’. John is put to death, buried, and

reported as risen from the dead (Mark 6:14–16, 29), as Jesus would be

(Mark 15 and 16). These parallel stories point toward a coming crisis

for Jesus and His followers.

Have you ever been rejected like Jesus was or experienced some

hard-to-understand crisis? What did you learn from those experiences that could perhaps help you the next time something like

that happens?