Hometown Time Machine

Have You Seen a TARDIS?

My hometown has a time machine. I’ve never seen it, but I’m totally convinced it’s around. I’ve never noticed a TARDIS, a souped up DeLorean, any Flux Capacitors, or a WABAC machine. But I know it’s there somewhere.

Why? Because every time I go home, I travel back in time. I suddenly become twelve years old again. Instead of being a husband, dad, and grandfather, I believe the lie that I’m still an underachieving, awkward middle schooler.

Who Says You Can’t Go Home?

Let me put it another way. Jon Bon Jovi asks the musical question, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home?” In many ways, author Thomas Wolfe seems to have the most appropriate answer. “You Can’t Go Home Again.”

In Mark’s bio of our Savior, Jesus apparently has a similar problem. We read about the time the Lord comes back home only to be dismissed by the people who watched Him grow up. Prophet? Messiah? Are you kidding me?!? He’s just Joe and Mary’s Boy.

Who Is Jesus?

It’s a key moment in Mark’s account of Christ. The mega-theme of the first eight chapters focuses on His identity. Who is Jesus? The author provides story after story where people wrestle with this question. As a result, Mark drops it all at our feet and forces us to decide for ourselves.

Here in Mark 6:1-6, we see our Savior heading back to His hometown after some very crazy days. It all begins with Jesus’ weird, bug-eating cousin baptizing Him and the other two Members of the Trinity show up to fully endorse Him as the Son of God (Mk 1:4-11).

A Rapid-Fire Pace

With the rapid-fire pace of an action movie, Christ stares down the devil (Mk 1:14-15), assembles His ragtag team (Mk 1:16-20; 2:13-14; 3:13-19), performs one miracle after another (Mk 1:23-34, 40-45; 2:1-12; 3:1-7, 10-12; 4:35-41; 5:1-43), and teaches like nobody before or since (Mk 1:21-22; 4:1-34).

While Jesus draws huge crowds, He also draws the attention of Jewish religious leaders. According to them, He’s preaching and teaching without a license (Mk 2:6-7, 16, 24-26; 3:2-6, 22). Even His own family has serious doubts, not just about His identity but His sanity (Mk 3:21, 31)!

No Garden Variety Teacher

If you’re scoring along at home at this point in Mark’s Gospel, it’s becoming pretty stinking obvious that this radical Rabbi/Carpenter from Nazareth is no garden variety traveling teacher. Could He be divine? Could He be the long awaited Hero God promised to send?

As Jesus rolls back into Nazareth, He’s stepping back into the hometown time machine. The folks living there just can’t see Him as anything but Joe and Mary’s oldest Boy. The carpenter’s kid. And who can forget the local scandal her pregnancy caused?

Heading Home

Mark picks up the story with Christ and His team hitting the road from Capernaum, which was just the scene of doubleheader of healing (Mk 5:21-43). “Jesus left that part of the country and returned with His disciples to Nazareth, His hometown” (v1).

He’s heading home. Ah yes, Nazareth. These days, just about every person on the planet knows it as the city where Jesus grew up. It’s a destination vacation. To this day, the local chamber of commerce leverages their hometown Boy made good. Don’t forget to visit the gift shop on your way out!

A Hick Town in the Boondocks

But a couple of thousand years ago, Nazareth is anything but famous. It’s a hick town in the boondocks of Galilee. The population of this bump in the road is a couple of hundred if you’re being generous.

If you want to confirmation of its image as a hillbilly hamlet, check out what one of Jesus’ own disciples had to say about it when found out that’s where He’s from. ‘“Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. ‘Can anything good come from there?’” (Jn 1:46).

A Second Chance

This isn’t Jesus’ first homecoming after beginning His ministry. Luke tells the story of a previous visit to the local synagogue when our Savior reads from Isaiah 61 and basically announces that He’s Messiah (Lk 4:16-31). Take about a mic drop moment.

Yeah, that didn’t end well. Local yokels not only aren’t buying it. They just see Him as Joe’s Boy, NOT the Anointed One. Next thing you know, they run the Lord out the synagogue and try to throw Him off a cliff.

While some much smarter Bible experts think Mark tells the same story Luke describes, I tend to agree with A.T. Robertson. He believes Jesus is giving Nazareth a second chance. And why not? It’s where His mom and the rest of His family lives.

Our Savior on the Sabbath

When the next weekend rolls around, we see Jesus making His return to the local house of worship. “The next Sabbath He began teaching in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were amazed. They asked, ‘Where did He get all this wisdom and the power to perform such miracles?’” (v2).

No surprise to finding Him teaching in the local synagogue. If it’s a Saturday, chances are you’ll probably find Jesus teaching God’s Word at a worship service somewhere (Mt 4:23; 9:35; 13:54; Mk 1:21; Lk 4:15, 31; 6:6; 13:10; Jn 18:20).

A Sucker Punch

When Jesus teaches, you can count on people being blown away. Some things just go together. Peanut butter and jelly. Bacon and eggs. Batman and Robin. Anytime you see Christ on the platform, you’ll find an audience in the palm of His holy hand (Mt 7:28; 13:54; 19:25; 22:33; Mk 1:22; 7:37; 10:26; 11:18; Lk 2:48; 4:32; 9:43).

Mark’s word choice that the NLT translates as “amazed” is interesting. It’s the Greek verb εκπλησσω/ekplesso. It literally means to punch unexpectedly, like a surprise attack or a sucker punch. It’s being shocked almost to the point of panic and fear.

Jesus teaches in a way that catches us off guard. He shocks. He astounds. He overwhelms. He bewilders. That’s exactly what happens this particular Saturday at the synagogue in Nazareth.

The Crowd Turns Ugly

But without warning, the crowd turns ugly. That’s when the time machine does it’s magic. They suddenly don’t see Him as the Teacher of God’s Truth. Wait a minute! That’s Joe and Mary’s oldest Boy.

“Then they scoffed, ‘He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And His sisters live right here among us.’ They were deeply offended and refused to believe in Him” (v3).

Christ the Craftsman

First of all, did you know this is the only time Jesus is called a carpenter in the entire Bible. Yup. You’re looking at it. As a matter of fact, the only time someone refers to Christ as “just the carpenter’s Son” in Matthew’s version of this same event (Mt 13:55).

Actually the word we translate as “carpenter” (Gr. τεκτων/tekton) actually means craftsman, artisan, builder, or maker. It describes someone skilled in using a variety of hard materials like wood, stone, and metal (possibly all three).

Swinging a Hammer

If you’ve ever been to Israel, you know there’s not exactly a lot of lumber. Stone was and is the predominant building material in the land. I’m not saying Jesus and His adoptive dad weren’t carpenters. But chances are, they weren’t simply carpenters.

For instance, there was a massive construction project in Caesarea Philippi at the time. It’s just 38 miles from Nazareth. Did Joseph and even Jesus work there as craftsmen, carpenters, and masons?

It does seem clear that the Lord clearly carried on the family business, swinging a hammer just like His earthly dad. The Son of God isn’t some squeaky clean holy man afraid to get his hands dirty. He’s a blue collar laborer who knows what it means to put in a hard day’s work.

Building and Restoring

So what does being a carpenter have to do with being our Savior? I love how David Naugle puts it. A craftsman makes what is needed and restores what is broken. In very simple terms, he creates and redeems. That’s EXACTLY what Christ does. For us. For His creation.

Jesus is the Master Craftsman. He’s making something special in each one of His followers. No matter what you’re like now, He guarantees to complete the project (Phil 1:6). You can bet we’ll all be His masterpiece (Eph 2:10).

Dredging up an Old Scandal

Mark points out how the locals refer to Him as the “son of Mary” (v3). Either Joe has already died or they’re dredging up the old scandal of being conceived before His parents were married. Probably both. In other words, they see His status as Messiah and prophet as well as His birth as all illegitimate.

NOT an Only Child

Check out the size of Jesus’ family! He’s got at least seven siblings. Some religious traditions try to say Christ was an only Child. There’s just one little problem with that. The Bible. Kinda difficult to work around that.

Jesus is the first born and the oldest of five boys. While His brothers and sisters didn’t believe their big Brother was Messiah at first, that all changes when He came walking out of the cemetery three days after His funeral.

James not only ended up believing in His big Brother, but went on to lead the church in Jerusalem (Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18; 1Cor 15:7; Gal 1:19; 2:1, 12), and write a book of the Bible called, what else, but “James.”

Kid brother Judas, also known as Jude (you DO understand why he would shorten his name, don’t you?) also wrote a letter to the followers that’s in the NT.

Triggering Trouble

The naysayers mention Jesus’ family as a way of dismissing Him. So much so that they’re “deeply offended” (v3). This is a powerful word in the original language (Gr. σκανδαλιζω/skandalizo). It’s where we get our word “scandal.”

It means to totally reject someone or something while at the same time becoming angry and indignant. It comes from the Greek word σκανδαλον/skandalon which describes the trigger or trip wire in a trap.

Who Do You Think You Are?!?

What Jesus says and does in the synagogue that Saturday triggers trouble among the people of His hometown. They’re memory of Him trips them up. They didn’t just blow Him off. They blow up.

Can’t you just hear them? I can’t believe You would do such a thing!  How dare you!! Who do You think You are?!?!? Spoiler alert: He’s EXACTLY who He thinks and says He is…the one and only Son of God.

Powdered Butt Syndrome

When the hometown crowd turns ugly, it’s almost like Christ saw it coming. “Then Jesus told them, ‘A prophet is honored everywhere except in his hometown and among his relatives and his own family’” (v4). This is apparently a common saying back in the day.

It’s sorta like what financial guru Dave Ramsey likes to call the “powdered butt syndrome.” That’s when people have a hard time taking guidance from whose diaper they’ve changed.

Naugle says sometimes we’re just too close to people and too big for our own britches to recognize the true greatness of others, even if they’re standing right in front of us! Jesus experiences that first hand in His hometown.

The Hero from Nazareth

A couple of interesting points when Jesus uses proverb. Our Savior clearly sees Himself as a prophet. This would be a fulfillment of a prediction Moses made a few thousand years before (Dt 18:15; Acts 3:22; 7:37).

But the locals can’t swallow that Jesus is Messiah, much less a prophet. Ironically, previous prophets had predicted that the Hero whom God promised to send would be actually be a Nazarene, which comes from one of the Hebrew words for “Branch” (Is 11:1; Mt 2:23).

Christ’s Kryptonite?

We then read one of the saddest verses in the New Testament. “And because of their unbelief, He couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place His hands on a few sick people and heal them” (v5).

If you’re like me, this has me scratching my head. Did their unbelief limit His divine power? Is their rejection some sort of divine Kryptonite to Christ?

Get into Position

Well, we can be sure of one thing. Jesus didn’t stop being God! I think John MacArthur nails this one. This verse suggests that because the locals don’t believe Him, folks don’t come to Him for healing like they do down the road in places like Capernaum.

Their disbelief put serious limits on their ability to receive God’s blessing. It’s a powerful warning that we need to do everything possible to place ourselves in position to be on the receiving end of His grace!

Knocking Jesus’ Socks off

As God in the flesh, few things catch Jesus off guard. The great Nazarene rejection is one of them. Mark writes, “And He was amazed at their unbelief” (v6). He doesn’t lose His cool. He doesn’t blow His stack. He feels sorry for them.

There’s only one other time when something knocks Jesus’ socks off (well, I guess He probably wasn’t wearing socks, but if He did, they would be off!). That’s when a Roman army officer trusts in Christ’s heavenly authority to heal one of his employees (Mt 8:10).

When People Don’t WANT to Believe

A.T. Robertson finds an interesting contrast between these two events. With the Roman soldier, Jesus marvels at finding faith where you might not expect it. With His own hometown, He marvels at the lack of faith where you might expect it…and that includes His own family!

Here’s the bottom line, the very sad bottom line. Some people just don’t want to believe. There’s nothing you can do, nothing you can say, no evidence you can provide that will change their mind. Jesus is staring back at a synagogue full of those very people.

Nazareth in the Rearview Mirror

And with that, our Savior packs it up and puts Nazareth in His rearview mirror. “Then Jesus went from village to village, teaching the people” (v6). Mark literally says Jesus went in a circle visiting the other small towns.

A truckload of NT scholars think the last half of verse six probably belongs in verse seven. But take just a moment to consider the emotion of that moment. This is where Jesus grew up. These are the people Jesus He’s known the best and longest. Neighbors. Friends. Family. How it must have broken His heart to get the cold shoulder to the greatest news ever offered.

When You Go Home

What’s it like when you go home? If you’re like many people, you’ve changed a lot since you left. You’ve grown up. If you’re a follower of Jesus, God is changing you from the inside out. He’s making you more like His Son.

As a result, you may think there’s a time machine hidden in your hometown too. When you head back home, the folks who knew you may have a hard time seeing you as anything but that goofy teenager who left town a couple of decades ago.

A Divine Appointment

Maybe you’ve tried to explain the change. Maybe you’ve attempted to share the story of what Jesus has done in your life since you left. Don’t believe the lie that you’re still the same kid they remember.

Take advantage of those opportunities. God is providing a divine appointment to tell them about the One who’s turned your life right-side up. It’s an open door to share the Good News and personally introduce them to your Savior.

Give God the Benefit of the Doubt

And don’t forget to turn that around. Ever run into someone years later and figured they were the same person you knew back in the day? They mention their faith in Christ but you have serious doubts.

Give God the benefit of the doubt. As Jesus says a little later in Mark, “Everything is possible with God” (Mk 10:27). Don’t forget there are a lot of people who aren’t buying what He’s done in your life!

In the meantime, I’ll keep looking for that hometown time machine.

Objects in Mirror

“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (Philippians 3:13).

My rearview mirror makes a horrible windshield. I’m not saying I should ignore that handy dandy little reflective gizmo. But I become a horrible driver the moment I become more concerned about what’s behind me than what’s in front of me. That’s when folks in front of me probably start need to check their own mirrors. From a spiritual sense, Paul says a key to his journey with Jesus came when he ripped his rearview and never looked at it again. “Brother, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (v13). He realizes there’s SO much more to be experienced in his relationship with Christ and he needs to stop worrying about what’s off his back bumper. His rearview mirror makes a horrible windshield.

The apostle writes to his friends in Philippi from a jail cell in Rome (Phil 1:1314). He got tossed in the slammer for telling fellow Jews that Jesus was the Messiah they’ve been waiting for and that God is now inviting non-Jews into His kingdom. He had devoted himself to telling everyone who will listen about the crazy good grace we have in the resurrected Rabbi/Carpenter from Galilee. Jesus has done for us what we could never ever dream of doing for ourselves. He followed all of God’s rules and regs because we couldn’t. He took the full brunt of God’s punishment for our disobedience in our place. He walked out of the cemetery after being dead for three days just to prove He is the Son of God and that all His promises are true. 

As a result, Paul wants his readers to avoid the same potholes he hit. He spent much of his life piling up accomplishments and awards in order to impress God with his religious resume (Phil 3:4-6). But once he met the risen Christ, he suddenly realized all of his achievements weren’t worth a hill of beans (Phil 3:7-8). It’s who Jesus is and what He’s done that really matters. Religion no. Relationship yes. From that point on, the apostle puts the hammer down to tell others about Jesus and does everything possible to truly know his Savior as his closest Friend. Maybe you’ve made the same mistake as our buddy Paul. You’ve tried to dazzle God with your own religious resume. I’ve got some very bad news for you. No matter what you’ve done, it’s never going to be good enough. You can’t go to church enough. You can’t read your Bible enough. You can’t be good. You can’t save yourself. But I’ve also got some VERY Good News. Jesus and His accomplishments are available to you. Toss your trophies in the trash. Trust in what who He is. Trust in what He’s done for you. Take it from Paul. Stop driving with your eyes fixed on the rearview mirror of your so-called goodness. You’re going to get yourself killed.

The apostle tells his Philippian friends that his journey is far from over. “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own” (v13). First of all, he doesn’t set himself above his fellow Christ followers. He refers to them with a Greek term (Gr. adelphos) which is easily translated as “brothers and sisters.” No arrogance here. Not a hint of “Do this because I’m in charge.” He’s writing to his spiritual siblings. When it comes to knowing Jesus, Paul is just their brother from another mother. This doesn’t mean we don’t have spiritual fathers and children. The Bible is chock-full of them. Those are incredibly important relationships. However most of our connections with fellow believers are as brother and sister. 

The man from Tarsus tells the Philippians that he’s not there yet. “I do not consider that I have made it my own” (v13). Paul drops a verb (Gr. katalambano) in the original text which means to grasp completely, seize firmly, or take full possession of something. Looking back at the previous verse, he’s giving it all he has even though what he wants is still just out of reach. “But I press on to make it my own (Gr. katalambano), because Christ Jesus has made me His own (Gr. katalambano)” (Phil 3:12). Our Savior has His kung fu grip on us. We can be sure of that. Because of that, I make it my mission in life to grasp Jesus completely. We’re getting closer but we’re not there yet. You could say this is the first century version of the classic rock song “Radar Love” by Golden Earring. 

No more speed, I’m almost there.

Gotta keep cool now, gotta take care.

Last car to pass, here I go!

And the line of cars drove down real slow.

What’s up ahead has Paul’s total attention. He’s not worried that the objects in mirror are closer than they appear. He’s not headed in that direction. He’s speeding toward Jesus. He knows his rearview mirror makes a horrible windshield.

Because I haven’t reached my final destination, the apostle gives me important yet very simple driving instructions. Here’s the “one thing I do” (v13). The Greek literally just reads “but one” (v13). Have a singular focus. Don’t worry about anything else. Your driver’s ed instructor may tell you to keep an eye on your gauges and frequently check your mirrors. That’s certainly important when I’m driving up the interstate. Not on the ultimate road trip toward Jesus. There’s just one thing that matters. There’s a lone focus. “One thing” (v13). If I have more on my list than a single item, I’m doing it wrong. Here’s a little secret. When Jesus is your “one thing,” you don’t have to worry about anything else. No more frantic plate-spinning like some sort of crazy act from “America’s Got Talent.” When Jesus is your “one thing,” He takes care of everything else. When I’ve got my eyes locked on Christ, He watches my gauges.

Just in case something in my mirror has caught my attention, Paul reminds me to not pay it any mind. “Forgetting what lies behind” (v13). He uses a verb, epilanthanomai, which means to neglect, overlook, no longer caring for, or even keep secret. My favorite translation is probably to overlook something. Matt writes about the time he and his buddies road in a boat across the lake and overlooked bringing lunch along. “When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten (Gr. epilanthanomai) to bring any bread” (Mt 16:5). Over in Luke, Jesus tells His posse about the value of even the most insignificant of birds and how “not one of them is forgotten (Gr. epilanthanomai) before God” (Lk 12:6). The writer of Hebrews warns, “Do not neglect (Gr. epilanthanomai) to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13:2). Don’t miss out on rolling out the red carpet for strangers who might be angels. Hmm, does that make them “strangels”? No, I didn’t think so.

But there IS one thing we should ALWAYS overlook. And that, dear friends, is “what lies behind” (v13). Stop living in the past. The rearview mirror of life features two distinct distractions. The first is our glory days. Bruce Springsteen sang all about it. “Glory days, well they pass you by. Glory days, in the wink of a young girl’s eye.” Don’t believe the Boss and me? Just ask Napoleon Dynamite’s Uncle Rico? He was so obsessed with his memories of being a backup quarterback in high school that he couldn’t function as an adult. Maybe he could throw a football over those mountains back in the day, but who gives a hot hoot about that now? Two thousand years before, Paul piled up the awards when he was younger and couldn’t put them down (Phil 3:4-6). He was like the dude who keeps wearing his high school letter jacket years after graduation. Talk about faded glory. On top of that, you look like a dork. Take off the jacket and ignore what’s behind.

The other distraction in life’s rearview is regret. There’s not a person you’ll meet who’s past isn’t loaded with pain. You can’t forget the time you were the victim of a hit-and-run. Someone plowed right over you and left you bleeding on the side of the road. You’re still wearing the tire tracks of your spouse’s betrayal. Bulldozed by a bad boss. A so-called friend left you swinging in the breeze. The hurt seems fresh. But the greatest treatment for my wounds is forgiveness. I can’t do it on my own but that’s where Christ does what He does best. At His lowest moment of betrayal and pain, He pleaded with His Dad, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). For most of us, one glance back makes it clear that our pain is self-inflicted. My mirror is full of bad decisions I wish I could take back. Relationships I’ve ruined. Lies I’ve told. Time I’ve wasted. Kids I’ve ignored. Dreams I’ve let die. I simply want to make a u-turn and try to fix it. But since I’m not driving Doc Brown’s DeLorean powered by a flux capacitor, that’s not possible. Don’t think Paul had big problems with his past? Before Jesus got ahold of him, he’s job was terrorizing and killing Christ’s followers. Or in his words, “as to zeal, a persecutor of the church” (Phil 3:6). If the Lord can forgive the rap sheet like that, He can certainly handle the regret in your rearview.

Now that we know what NOT to do, the apostle tells us he’s “straining forward to what lies ahead” (v13). The key here is the Greek verb eketeinomai, which describes reaching out toward the goal, stretching way out for something, or giving everything you’ve got to get your hands on something. It literally means “stretch out.” This is no casual reach where you give up easily. Picture a sprinter leaning forward and overextending themselves at the tape. Paul is a lot like Scottie from Star Trek. He’s giving it everything he’s got, Captain! We’re talking intense effort and determined purpose. For the man from Tarsus, he’s absolutely consumed with experiencing more of Christ. More of His love. More of His mercy. More of His grace. He hasn’t gotten there yet. But he’s floored the accelerator to get there as fast as he can. Jesus told one prospective follower not to be worried one bit about what’s off the back bumper. “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Lk 9:62). Paul has ripped the mirror off. He’s only concerned about one thing: exploring and experiencing more of his relationship with Jesus. He’s figured out that when it comes to following Christ, his rearview mirror makes a terrible windshield.