Sunday July
5, 2015
A
Reflection on Mark 6:1-6 N.A.B.
By: Larry T
By: Larry T
In
the Gospel reading for this Sunday we read about Jesus’ preaching experience in
his hometown synagogue. At first the people were fascinated and spellbound as they
heard Jesus interpret the law in a new and astonishing way, but when they
remembered that he had been their neighbor and was a simple carpenter at that,
they turned their back on him and his message. What went wrong?
1 He departed from there and came to his
native place, accompanied by his disciples.
2 When the sabbath came he began to teach in
the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. They said, “Where did
this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds
are wrought by his hands!
3 Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters
here with us?” And they took offense at him.
4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not
without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own
house.”
5 So he was not able to perform any mighty
deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
6 He was amazed at their lack of faith. He
went around to the villages in the vicinity teaching.
How much time does a professional speaker have to gain an audience’s trust? Is
it two, five, ten, or fifteen minutes? The answer is less than five, and sometimes
as little as two minutes. In view of this professional speakers are trained to
use a variety of time-proven techniques aimed at earning an audience’s trust in
the first critical minutes of their speech.
For
example, men are told to wear white shirts and women advised to wear white
blouses because white implies purity. Married male speakers are instructed to
wear plain gold wedding bands because an audience is more comfortable with a man
who wears a simple gold wedding ring. Politicians consistently follow this recommendation;
even politicians who are multimillionaires typically wear plain gold wedding
rings when making speeches. Some speakers have meeting rooms set up with
ninety percent of the seating required for the anticipated audience
size; then they have additional seating brought in at the very last minute. This
is so that seated audience members might think, Wow! Look at all the people
coming in at the last minute, this speaker must really be good! These simple
tricks-of-the-trade are all designed to help build credibility with the
audience. Since Jesus had been invited by the synagogue officials to address
the meeting he didn’t have much of a credibility obstacle to overcome.
What
was the audience expecting from Jesus? After all, He was just one of them, and
a common tradesman at that. At best His reading of the scroll could be a little
better than average. Since Jesus didn’t have a formal education in Mosaic Law, his
interpretations couldn’t possibly equal those of the Pharisees and scribes. All
things considered their expectations of Jesus’ preaching might have been pretty
low; some onlookers probably steeled themselves to simply suffer through it.
How
good a preacher was the Lord? He astonished them! He stunned them by explaining
Mosaic Law in ways that they had never heard before, in ways that they were
not ready to accept. Every word that Jesus spoke and every act that he
performed was a divine act in human form. This synagogue audience was simply
unwilling to accept the Word of God. They rationalized that a simple carpenter
could not possess the wisdom to speak as He did, so they rejected Him. Jesus
was amazed at their lack to faith.
For two-thousand years all humanity has been Jesus’ audience; he continues to preach to us through Holy Scripture and his Church. Like the synagogue audience we have two choices: we can receive Jesus and live out his message, or we can reject him. The greatest fear that professional speakers have is that their audience will get up and walk out on them. This Sunday we might reflect on the Lord’s dismay as he sees members of his audience get up and walk out and his joy over those who stay.
For two-thousand years all humanity has been Jesus’ audience; he continues to preach to us through Holy Scripture and his Church. Like the synagogue audience we have two choices: we can receive Jesus and live out his message, or we can reject him. The greatest fear that professional speakers have is that their audience will get up and walk out on them. This Sunday we might reflect on the Lord’s dismay as he sees members of his audience get up and walk out and his joy over those who stay.
