Thursday - Offended

Day 14

I do a good amount of marriage counseling in my work as a biblical counselor. While I love when couples want to engage in marriage counseling for preventative care and maintenance, that is rarely the case. Most often, couples have tried everything before coming to see me and nothing has worked. Emotions are high and they are easily offended by the other, assuming selfish motives. These couples didn’t start their marriages convinced that the other couldn’t be trusted and was out to get them, but over time they began to take offense. In today’s passage from Mark’s gospel, we witness several groups of people who, over time, become offended - by the unexplainable, the substitutes, and the convicting truth - but at the root, they are actually offended by Jesus. 

Read Mark 6:1-29

Offended by the Unexplainable

Jesus is in His hometown of Nazareth, His first visit since starting His public ministry. On the Sabbath, Jesus went to synagogue and began to teach. I think it is safe to assume that prior to this, Jesus had not taught in the synagogue, so this was His neighbors and extended family’s first opportunity to hear Him teach. As He spoke, many who heard Him were astonished and needed to make sense of it. “Is this really Jesus? Mary and Joseph’s boy?” “Where does this wisdom come from? How are these miracles performed by His hands? Someone, please explain this to me!” “He’s just a carpenter, a good carpenter, mind you, but not a rabbi. Who does He think He is?” None of this made any sense to those who had watched Jesus grow up in their small village, “so they were offended by him.” (Mk. 6:3) 

This Jesus was breaking out of the presumptive role everyone in Nazareth expected Him to remain in. Their logical conclusion? Jesus had gotten too big for His britches! And then Jesus confirms their judgments when He refers to Himself as a prophet and states that a prophet goes without honor in his hometown and among his people. Jesus was amazed at their unbelief, which resulted in very few healings and no miracles. As far as forgiveness and repentance was concerned, the locals certainly didn’t need the carpenter’s son to forgive them!

Offended by the Substitutes?

Next Jesus sent out His disciples in pairs, to multiply the work and impact of His ministry. He gave them authority over unclean spirits, as well as unique and specific instructions for the journey. They were not to carry food, extra clothes or money with them, but instead travel in full dependency on the Lord to provide for their needs. If they entered a town where there were doubters of their authority, the disciples were not to force miracles upon them. Just as Jesus would not force his miracles on the hostile, skeptical audience He experienced in Nazareth, neither would His emissaries. But this was not the case for the disciples’ first missionary journey. People responded to their preaching of repentance and they were able to drive out demons and heal the sick.

Offended by Convicting Truth

Word about Jesus was traveling exponentially fast as His disciples went out in different directions to proclaim the good news. When the news reached King Herod about all that Jesus had done, he began making ridiculous connections, convincing himself that “it’s the Baptizer come back to life!” John the Baptist had greatly offended Herod and his queen, Herodias, when he spoke out against their adulterous relationship. Herodias wanted to kill John and be rid of the judgmental loudmouth (plus he was just a weirdo!). Herod feared Herodias, so he had John arrested and imprisoned, but he also feared John as a prophet and holy man. He also was fascinated by the Baptizer, perplexing for sure, but an interesting oddity. Herod enjoyed a position of authority that could have been used to care for and lead the Jewish people; instead he used it to satisfy his insatiable lusts and desires. He enjoyed listening to John but didn’t have eyes to see the truth because of his refusal to confess his sin of adultery.

So when his birthday rolled around and he was entertaining all of the important people in the land, the opportunity for Herodias to get her revenge on John presented itself. Herod was pridefully, foolishly showing off his step-daughter’s dancing and body and fell right into a trap, resulting in him having the prophet beheaded. I imagine this wasn’t the first time John the Baptist had appeared in Herod’s nightmares.

A Rock of Offense

In his first letter to the early Christians, Peter wrote of the tension that Jesus elicits and the choice He forces. He quotes from Isaiah, “For it stands in scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,’ and, ‘A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.” (1 Peter 2:6-8, ESV) Jesus demands a response from all of us. He will either be our cornerstone and firm foundation or He will be a stumbling block and rock of offense.

Big Picture Questions for Today:

• Are you easily offended? Who gets under your skin the quickest? 

• Is there someone, or a group of someones, who you seem to easily anger and offend? 

• Is Jesus your cornerstone or is He a rock of offense in your life?

Pray from 1 Peter 3:8, that God would give you faith to be like-minded and sympathetic with your believing brothers and sisters, loving one another, with compassion and humility. That you would not pay back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, give a blessing, since you were called for this.

Blessings,

Gay B Brown