#64 Jesus Rejected Again at Nazareth
Please first read: Matthew 13:54-58 & Mark 6:1-6
Our
Lord of the Gospels
President
J. Reuben Clark Jr.
“Jesus returns to Nazareth and
teaches in the synagogue; the people marvel at him, his preaching, his works,
they refer to the fact that his mother, his brothers, and sisters are still
among them; he tells them a prophet is not without honor save in his own
country, but he can there do no great works; “he laid his hands upon a few sick
folk, and healed them;” he marvels because of their unbelief.”
Jesus
the Christ
Apostle
James E. Talmage
“It will be remembered that, in the
early days of His public ministry, Jesus had been rejected by the people of
Nazareth, who thrust Him out from their synagog and tried to kill Him. It
appears that subsequent to the events noted in our last chapter, He returned to
the town of His youth, and again raised His voice in the synagog, thus
mercifully affording the people another opportunity to learn and accept the
truth. The Nazarenes, as they had done before, now again openly expressed their
astonishment at the words He spoke, and at the many miraculous works He had
wrought; never the less they rejected Him anew, for He came not as they
expected the Messiah to come; and they refused to know Him save as “the
carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and Simon;” all of
whom were common folk as were also His sisters. “And they were offended at
him.” Jesus reminded them of the proverb then current among the people, “A
prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin,
and in his own house.” Their unbelief was so dense as to cause Him to marvel;
and because of their lack of faith He was unable to accomplish any great work
except to heal a few exceptional believers upon whom He laid His hands. Leaving
Nazareth, He entered upon His third tour of the Galilean towns and villages,
preaching and teaching as He went.”
Doctrinal
New Testament Commentary Volume 1
Apostle
Bruce R. McConkie
Mark 5 “He could there do no mighty
work. According to the eternal laws which Jesus himself ordained in eternity,
miracles are the fruit of faith. Where there is faith, there will be signs,
miracles, and gifts of the Spirit. Where there is no faith, these things cannot
occur. (Mormon Doctrine, pp. 242-248, 459-461) The Master could not and would
not violate his own law, and therefore most of his own townsmen were denied the
blessings of his healing ministry. On the same basis men cannot be saved in
their sins; (Alma 11:37) the Lord has ordained the laws by which salvation and
all good things come, and until obedience prepares the way, the promised
blessings are withheld. (D & C 88:21-24; 130:20-21; 132:5) Men can no more
be saved without obedience than they can be healed without faith. All things
operate by law; blessings result from obedience to law and are withheld when
there is no obedience.”
A
Companion to Your Study of the New Testament: The Four Gospels
Daniel
H. Ludlow
Matthew 13:54 “Whence hath this man
this wisdom, and these mighty works?” could have been translated, “Where did
this man get this wisdom and these powerful works?”
“By acknowledging that Jesus and his
teachings and works were far beyond anything they had witnessed or imagined,
the Nazarenes were witnesses against themselves when they failed to accept him
as the Messiah and rejected his teachings.”
The
Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Volume 1
Alfred
Edersheim
“It almost seems, as if the
departure of Jesus from Capernaum marked a crisis in the history of that town.
From henceforth it ceases to be the centre of His activity, and is only
occasionally, and in passing, visited. Indeed, the concentration and growing
power of Pharisaic opposition, and the proximity of Herod’s residence at
Tiberias would have rendered a permanent stay there impossible at this stage of
our Lord’s history. Henceforth, His Life is, indeed, not purely missionary, but
He has no certain dwelling-place: in the sublime pathos of His own language,
‘He hath not where to lay His Head.’
“The circumstances of the present
visit, as well as the tone of His countrymen at this time, are entirely
different from what is recorded of His former sojourn at Nazareth. (Luke
4:16-3) The tenacious narrowness, and the prejudices, so characteristic of such
a town, with its cliques and petty family pride, all the more self-asserting
that the gradation would be almost imperceptible to an outsider, are, of
course, the same as on the former visit of Jesus. Nazareth would have ceased to
be Nazareth, had its people felt or spoken otherwise than nine or ten months
before. That His fame had so grown in the interval, would only stimulate the
conceit of the village-town to try, as it were, to construct the great Prophet
out of its own building materials, with this additional gratification that He
was thoroughly their own, and they possessed even better materials in their
Nazareth. All this is so quite according to life, that the substantial
repetition of the former scene in the Synagogue, so far from surprising us,
seems only natural. What surprises us is, what He marvelled at: the unbelief of
Nazareth, which lay at the foundation of its estimate and treatment of Jesus.
Upon their own showing their unbelief was most unwarrantable. If ever men had
the means of testing the claims of Jesus, the Nazarenes possessed them.”
The
One Bible Commentary
J.R.
Dummelow
Mark
6:5 Faith was lacking on the part of the people involved. Their inability was
moral. “He did not there many mighty works.” Only in a very few cases did Jesus
waive this requirement.
Plutarch
says, “You will find that few of the most prudent and wisest of mankind have
been appreciated in their own country.”
Glenn
R. McGettigan
June
2019
References
“Our Lord of the Gospels.” Clark
“Your
Companion Study of New Testament: The Four Gospels.” Ludlow
“The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.” Volume 1.
Edersheim
“One Volume Bible Commentary.”
Dummelow
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