I. Theme – The Struggle of Prophecy – God’s presence turns weakness into strength.
"Appearence on the Mountain in Galilee" – Duccio di Buoninsegna (1308-11)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Ezekiel 2:1-5
Psalm – Psalm 123
Epistle –2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Gospel – Mark 6:1-13
The message in today’s scripture readings is that God works through the flesh, all human frailty and weakness notwithstanding. Ours is an incarnational faith, and if we could but grasp the dynamic implications of this reality, each professing Christian could become a powerhouse of God’s activity in the world.
The prophets who became spokespersons for God all felt inadequate to the call and protested their incompetence before God. In one way or another, God stood them on their feet. Ezekiel said, “The spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet.” Paul’s very weakness served the purpose of allowing the Holy Spirit to be the power that made him God’s messenger.
Jesus, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt, emptied himself to become fully human. As faithful people of God, we have also found that as we empty ourselves, the Holy Spirit fills us and dwells in us. Our lives become channels of God’s grace and power. However, self-emptying is neither a popular nor a well-understood idea. The buzzwords of our time are self-fulfillment and self-attainment, and self-seeking impulses often dominate our activities. Few realize that the spiritual world also abhors a vacuum, and that God, bidden to do so, will fill any offered space with the heavenly grace, life and power to work miracles of redemption in our lives.
Even so, we are not to expect all to understand or to be receptive to our incarnational experience. Jesus fared no better than the prophets before him. Their descendants jeered and suspected him. Satan is always present, throwing up barriers to faith. Even in the wilderness, Satan tempted Jesus to doubt his calling: “If you are the Son of God…”
Likewise, the devil sabotages faith in Nazareth. Jesus came to his own home and his own people said, “Who does he think he is?” God’s enemy pulls the same trick on us when we are about to dare something for the lord. Satan whispers in our ears, “Who do you think you are?” After all, people know where we come from too, and our credentials are not all that great. So our adventure for the lord is too often aborted by our lack of trust in God’s sufficiency.
The Nazarene villagers knew Jesus as a working man, a carpenter, and gave no credence to his authority on religious matters. We, on the other hand, are inclined to regard him as a religious teacher, doubting his relevance to the modern world of business, politics and international affairs. When we hesitate to apply his teachings to practical issues, we forfeit the experience of his sufficiency to work wonders through us.
II. Summary
Old Testament – Ezekiel 2:1-5
This passage is part of the call narrative of Ezekiel, specifically the moment when God commissions Ezekiel to be God’s prophet.
Ezekiel was a priest (1:3) who was taken away to Babylon at the time of the first capture of Jerusalem in 597 BCE. In exile, he was cut off from the presence of God in the temple and from his priestly role as mediator between God and God’s people. In today’s reading, however, after a vision of God’s glory appearing on a movable throne outside of the temple, Ezekiel is commissioned as a prophet and given a set of instructions (1:28b–3:27). He is to announce the lord’s will to “the people of Israel” (meaning the exiles of Judah not those in the former northern kingdom which no longer existed) whether they listen or not.
The “spirit” (v. 2) who entered Ezekiel is the Spirit of the lord. In the times of the early prophets, the action of the Spirit was associated with ecstatic prophesy among the bands of prophets (1 Samuel 10:5, 19:20-24). This style of prophecy became associated with the cult of Baal, and thus, mention of the Spirit seems to have been avoided by the eighth-century prophets who speak instead of hearing the word of the lord. Ezekiel (11:5, 37:1) and later writings of the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 61:1) reintroduce the role of the Spirit to prophetic literature. Ezekiel’s success is not dependent upon the response of the people. The words of the lord have an independent existence that will provide a framework of interpretation so that coming events will be seen as the acts of the lord.
Psalm – Psalm 123
The psalm may have been chosen to reflect the position of Ezekiel over against the “rebellious house,” where Ezekiel is presumed to lift his eyes to God “enthroned in the heavens” while enduring “contempt” and “scorn” and “derision” from the people. The psalm’s original purpose is the appeal of an oppressed individual or people for divine aid against their oppressors.
This psalm is a lament in which the psalmist expresses confidence in God by the analogy of an attentive servant watching a master and hoping for a favor to be given. The psalmist hopes for an end to the contempt and humiliating insults that the arrogant now heap on them.
This psalm recognizes that the people have gone astray, and that the people are being oppressed at this time, and need God more than ever. The psalmist recognizes dependence upon God instead of upon earthly warriors and kings.
Epistle – 2 Corinthians 12:2-10
The severe tone of the last chapters of 2 Corinthians (chaps. 10–13) differs so sharply from the peaceful theme of chapters 1–9, which speak of conflicts now resolved, that most scholars believe that chapters 10–13 originally were separate. Many suggest that they may be all or part of the earlier letter written “out of much distress” (2:4) between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. Or these chapters may have been the body of a later letter, sent after receiving discouraging news of the Corinthian congregation.
In chapters 10–13, Paul defends himself with bitter irony against certain “super-apostles” (11:5) who ridicule his unimpressive physical appearance and speaking style (10:10) and his refusal to take money (11:7-11, 12:13-18). They prove their authority by their Jewish descent (11:22), their signs (12:12), and their “visions and revelations” (12:1). For them, authority equals power (11:20).
Paul is being very candid here. He had learned by trial and error that he couldn’t preach the gospel on the basis of his own strength and talent. Rather, the weaker he became, the more room he left for the Spirit of God to work through him.
2 Corinthians 12:2-10 is Paul’s story of a divine vision he received. The purpose of this vision is to remind us that even in our weakness, our frailty, our human faultiness, God will be present in us. Through our stumbles and falls, God will be made known to us and we will know we can rely on God. Paul declares that he shares this vision not to boast, but to show that he is not perfect, and that God continues to be with him, and with us.
Although Paul can and does make equivalent claims, as in today’s reading, to do so is to speak “as a fool” (11:21, 12:11). By describing his revelation in the third person, Paul distances himself from this experience—it is a personal matter, not the basis for his apostolic authority. Instead, as a counterpart, he is afflicted with “a thorn…in the flesh” (v. 7). The exact nature of the thorn is not specified. It may have been a physical or emotional illness or an external affliction such as the opposition of his fellow Jews. But Paul’s authority as a true apostle is revealed through such weakness. The end Paul seeks, that is, the evidence of his authority, is revealed by the lord paradoxically by means Paul does not at first recognize.
Gospel – Mark 6:1-13
The account of Jesus’ rejection by his relatives and townspeople in Nazareth in his home town comes near the end of the Galilean ministry, and signals an extension of his kingdom ministry beyond the narrow confines of Galilee. The story echoes the Markan pattern found earlier in Capernaum where Jesus’ teaching first evokes astonishment (1:22) and ends on a note of hostility (3:6) because he does not conform to their limited stereotypes of who he is and what he can and ought to be. This pattern will later appear in Jerusalem and his rejection there will end in his death (chaps. 12–14).
Verse 4 ("Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.”) expresses a common idea in the literature of the time and occurs in several non-biblical writings. Mark has not yet explicitly identified Jesus as a prophet, but it certainly would have been a popular way to identify him and his teaching, as it was of John the Baptist (6:15, 8:27-28). How could someone they know such as him be a prophet, nevertheless a messiah? What he was saying was scandalous, outrageous. It was too much for them to handle
The hometown people’s narrow view of Jesus and inability to see him in this prophetic role cuts them off from the new way of salvation that Jesus offers. Mighty deeds, which serve as pointers revealing the power with which this new way changes lives, are irrelevant when faith is absent.
For the early Church this story helped explain the mystery of Jesus’ rejection by his people, the Jews, and his acceptance by the Gentiles. The refusal to recognize the Messiah because he did not conform to their narrowly constructed stereotypes blinds them to the awareness that God is doing something new here in the person and ministry of Jesus. Jesus ends up leaving Nazareth and sending the disciples out to the surrounding villages to minister to those in need. Jesus warns them that some will reject them
The commissioning and instruction of the Twelve is paralleled by Matthew (Matthew 10:1, 9-14) and Luke (Luke 9:1-5). But each account is adapted in a way reflecting each evangelist’s particular emphasis. Mark uses the account of the commission of the Twelve to bracket the story of John the Baptist’s death. The disciples, so often negatively portrayed by Mark, here are shown as participating in Jesus’ own mission as set forth in 1:14-15, 32-39. The warnings about what should be taken indicate the urgency and sacred nature of their work. Jesus “began to send them out” (Greek, apostellein) as heralds, in word and deed, of the coming kingdom. In Mark, instead of taking nothing, the disciples are allowed staff and sandals. Perhaps he has modified the list for the more arduous non-Palestinian terrain familiar to his audience.
Verses 10-11 reflect the importance of hospitality in the mission of the early Church, for which Jesus’ words set the standard. Pious Jews, when returning to the Holy Land, shook off alien dust before entering, lest they defile the land. Thus the ‘shaking off of dust’ symbolically marks a place as heathen, not part of the true Israel. It is acted out, not as a curse against, but as a solemn warning for, those who reject the disciples. The “apostles” report on their mission in 6:30. As Jesus’ rejection in Nazareth (6:1-6) foreshadows the final repudiation in Jerusalem, so the sending forth of the disciples points toward the later mission of the Church.
III. Articles for this week in WorkingPreacher:
Old Testament – Ezekiel 2:1-5
Psalm – Psalm 123
Epistle – 2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Gospel – Mark 6:1-13