Jesus the Rejected Prophet: Our Own Familiarity Can Destroy Our Faith and Reject Christ but Christ’s Grace Can Remedy – Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

 Following his baptism by the John the Baptist in the Jordan River, Jesus spent 40 days and nights fasting and fending off Satan’s temptation attacks (Mark 1:9-13). Then he began his public ministry and found his operation base in Capernaum, after John the Baptist was arrested (Mark 1:14-34). With his disciples, Jesus ministered around the coasts of the Sea of Galilee on the side of Capernaum for a while (Mark 1:35-4:34). Then, he and the disciples crossed the Sea of Galilee and reached out to the other side, the territory of Gerasenes in the Golan Heights area, where Jesus was less known at that time (Mark 4:35-5:20). After healing a demonic man there (Mark 5:1-20), Jesus and the disciples crossed the Sean of Galilee again and returned to Galilee, and he healed a woman with hemorrhage and raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Mark 5:21-43). Then, with his disciples, Jesus came back to Nazareth, where he grew up, and began to teach on Sabbath in the local synagogue (Mark 6:1-2).

The Gospel Reading of the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, Mark 6:1-6, describes how people of Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus, reacted to him as he taught in the synagogue.

At first, they were astonished and said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! (Mark 6:2). But then, realizing that this amazing teacher with mighty power, who came to Nazareth, was a man they were so familiar with, the carpenter and Mary’s son, they became indignant (Mark 6:3). 

Up to this point, since he began his ministry, people Jesus met welcomed him, and they rather kept following him to hear his teaching and to be healed by his mighty deeds. Up to his return to Nazareth, Jesus had never had such a rejecting response. 

So Jesus said:

A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house (Mark 6:4).

These words of Jesus rather juxtapose to this from the Gospel of Thomas (4:31):

No prophet is acceptable in his village, no physician heals those who know him.

In fact, the angry reaction to Jesus by people of Nazareth made it impossible for Jesus to perform his mighty deeds for them, except for healing a few sick people (Mark 6:5). And Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith (Mark 6:6).

After being absent for some time, Jesus finally returned to his hometown. When he left there, he was seen as the carpenter and Mary’s son. But when he returned, accompanied by his disciples, at first, he was an astonishing teacher in the synagogue, to them, and they also learned about his mighty deeds. Perhaps, they wondered if this amazing man who just came to Nazareth could be the Messiah, whose coming they had long waited. But, as soon as they recognized him as just the carpenter and Mary’s son, they knew, they took offense at him. And this resulted in great difficulty for Jesus to minister there. Then, he regarded himself as a rejected prophet at his hometown and saw the problem as his hometown people’s lack of faith.

Their familiarity with Jesus, as their fellow town folks, whose mother and siblings they even knew, made it impossible to accept Jesus as a messianic person with astonishing wisdom and mighty power. They probably wonder how it could be for an ordinary man, just like them, in Nazareth, to become such an extraordinary teacher with powerful deeds. Their view of Jesus as their fellow ordinary neighborhood carpenter and Mary’s son just could not match a powerful messianic figure. So they must have thought that Jesus was out of his mind. In rejecting him, they were probably thinking, “Jesus, we know you! Stop fooling us by acting as if you were an astonishing messianic figure!”.

It was their familiarity with Jesus and fixation to their view of him as the carpenter and Mary’s son. This prevent their small minds to accept that this man of their town, Nazareth, was also the Messiah. And this, Jesus called a lack of faith.

One lesson that we take from this Gospel narrative (Mark 6:1-6) is to examine how our biases and stereotypical preconception can become obstacles to faith.

This Gospel story of Jesus being rejected by his hometown folks also foreshadows the fact that he was eventually rejected primarily by his people, Jews. The high priest, the most powerful man among the Jews, took offense at Jesus as self-claimed Messiah (i.e. Mark 14:60-65). He and his council, the Sanhedrin, just could not accept Jesus as the Messiah. Then, he was alleged to be the man who identified himself as the king of Jew in the court of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, though Jesus had never identified himself as such, to have the Roman authorities execute him (i.e. Mark 15:1-39). Indeed, Jesus become the rejected stone (Psalm 118:22a).

We see how human stereotype and preconception can not only prevent us from believing but also lead to our destructive denial of Christ. And it can all begin with our own familiarity, as the Gospel Reading (Mark 6:1-6) describes.

Let us remember that there can be a potential factor to destroy our faith in our own familiarity. And we must find out what it is in what we are familiar with and overcome it.

But, it is not possible to eradicate this problem, as Paul humbly reminds us in the Second Reading (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). What Paul metaphorically describes as “a thorn in the flesh”(v.7) may be understood as what can potentially impede and even destroy our faith in Christ. This cannot be taken away but its effect can be sufficiently overcome by Christ’s grace as we let his power dwell in us (v.9). This is a really good news!

With Christ’s grace, having his power in us (2 Corinthians 12:9), we can be sent to those who are rebellious to God, as Ezekiel was, as reflected in the First Reading (Ezekiel 2:2-5). We may be greeted with rejection as we are sent to evangelize people who know us so well, as Jesus was not welcomed by his hometown people, as soon as they recognized him as the carpenter and Mary’s son, whom they knew so well (Mark 6:1-6). But we must go on as sent on our mission, because we are the apostolic Church, while we overcome the potential problem to destroy our faith hidden in our own familiarity. For this let us keep these words of Paul in mind:

I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:10)

And this is made possible because of Christ’s grace (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Yes, Jesus, your grace is enough! 

A Story Behind the Independence of the United States of America: Oliver Branch Declaration to George III in 1775, Declaration of Independence in 1776, Treaty of Paris in 1783

The day of July 4, 1776, has been known as the independence day of the United States of America. And it is a national holiday in the United States. In light of international law and international conventions, however, July 4, 1776, is not really the independence day of the United States. It is the day when the Continental Congress, representing the 13 British colonies of America, declared their independence, having voted to approve Virginia’s motion to break away from Britain on July 2, 1776. As of July 4, 1776, the fight, known as the American Revolutionary War, which started on April 19, 1775, in Lexington, Massachusetts, kept raging on, while the Continental Congress declared the independence of the 13 colonies as the United States of America, as drafted by Thomas Jefferson.

This war did not officially end until September 3, 1783, when the Treaty of Paris was signed by John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, from the United States, and David Hartley of Britain. On this peace treaty, Britain officially acknowledged the sovereignty of the United States with these words:

His Brittanic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz., New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free sovereign and Independent States; that he treats with them as such, and for himself his Heirs & Successors, relinquishes all claims to the Government, Propriety, and Territorial Rights of the same and every Part thereof  (Article 1, the Treaty of Paris, September 3, 1783).

There shall be a firm and perpetual Peace between his Britanic Majesty and the said States, and between the Subjects of the one and the Citizens of the other, wherefore all Hostilities both by Sea and Land shall from henceforth cease:  All prisoners on both Sides shall be set at Liberty, and his Britanic Majesty shall with all convenient speed, and without causing any Destruction, or carrying away any Negroes or other Property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his Armies, Garrisons & Fleets from the said United States, and from every Post, Place and Harbour within the same; leaving in all Fortifications, the American Artillery that may be therein: And shall also Order & cause all Archives, Records, Deeds & Papers belonging to any of the said States, or their Citizens, which in the Course of the War may have fallen into the hands of his Officers, to be forthwith restored and delivered to the proper States and Persons to whom they belong (Article 7, ibid.).

One interesting fact about the independence of the United States is that John Jay, who is recognized as one of the founding fathers of the United States, did not sign the Declaration of the Independence on July 4, 1776. He was not really in favor of fighting a war against Britain. Rather, he preferred to have a reconciliation with the British government. This is why he supported the Oliver Branch Petition, drafted by John Dickinson, adopted by the Continental Congress on July 5, 1775. This petition was sent to George III of Great Britain, to appeal to him to ease Britain’s oppressive rule of the colonies, for reconciliation. But, the British king did not accept it. This is why the Continental Congress voted to declare independence of the 13 colonies, with their explanation to rebel against George III’s tyranny. In a way, it is the 13 colonies’ formal “declaration of war” against the British oppressive rule over the 13 colonies.

Had George III ever accepted the Oliver Branch Petition in 1775, resulted in reconciliation between the 13 colonies and the British government had achieved, as John Jay had desired, it would have been less blood being shed. But it would mean that the colonies would have remained under the British colonial rule.

Britain could have kept these 13 American colonies if its king, George III, accepted the Oliver Branch Petition, and the war could have ended rather quickly. It would not have given a chance for the Continental Congress to declare the 13 colonies’ secession from Britain. But British refusal to honor the Oliver Branch Petition in 1775 resulted in more blood shed and loss of its American colonies.

Following the Treaty of Paris, on September 3, 1783, to formally end the American Revolutionary War, which began on April 19, 1775, the independence of the United States, was official, in light of international law and international conventions. And Continental Congress ratified this on January 14, 1784. Thus the United States of America was established.

In 1794, George Washington, the general of the Continental Army, who became the first President of the United States in 1789, sent John Jay, who became the first chief justice of the US Supreme Court in 1789, a man who prefer a peaceful settlement to settling through a war, to Britain in order to prevent a resurgence of war, as British grievances remained strong even after the Treaty of Paris.  The year 1794 was when the tension between the nascent United States and Britain was heightened because of these nation's stances to France, upon the French Revolution in 1789, edges these two nations toward a war. However, thanks to what is known as the Jay Treaty in 1794, the United States and Britain were able to remain peaceful upon the Treaty of Paris in 1783. However, in the United States, the Jay Treaty triggered to intensify the Federalists, who were pro-Jay-Treaty with Britain, and anti-Federalists, who were not in favor of a central federal government, debates. So, this was how the United States history began as a sovereign nation.