“THE DANGERS OF FAMILIARITY AND A LACK OF FAITH”
When it comes to our faith in God, there are two big enemies: familiarity and a lack of faith. Today, I am going to show you through the life of Jesus Christ, why looking at human circumstances voids of God is dangerous to our faith and walk with Jesus Christ.
In Mark, Chapter 6, verses 1-6, Mark tells us about Jesus returning to his hometown or more literally “His native place” or “HOME COUNTRY” in the Greek which was the area around Nazareth. Jesus returned to his hometown Nazareth to preach, teach and share the truth and love of God in his hometown. His twelve disciples were with Him, and on the Sabbath, Jesus began to teach in the synagogue there. As a result, many who heard Jesus’ teachings were “ASTONISHED”, but starting in verse two, the religious leaders and many of the people in His home began asking some very arrogant and rhetorical questions. Let’s take a look.
THREE RHETORICAL-CHALLENGING QUESTIONS SHOWING THEIR LACK OF FAITH
FIRST: “Where did this man get these things?” (Vs.2)
SECOND: “What is the wisdom given to Him? (V.2)
THIRD: “How are such mighty works done by His hands?” (V.2)
These three rhetorical questions were more indicative of a larger issues, which was their lack of belief and faith in Jesus as the Messiah. The people of his home town or home country readily acknowledged both Jesus’ “WISOM” and His “MIGHTY WORKS”, but they rejected Jesus’ “MESSAGE” which simply that He was the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies of the OT. In Luke 4:16-21, when Jesus read in the Synagogue he ended with verse 21, asserting that He was God Himself, fulfilling that prophetic Scripture, saying: “And He began to say unto them, This day this scripture fulfilled your ears”. To much FAMILIARITY can lead to a LACK of FAITH.
THE DANGER OF FAMILIARITY
After asking three arrogant rhetorical questions, the people of Jesus’ hometown made two additional statements which were more of a statement than a question. This was due to their familiarity of Jesus as a human being void of His being God in the flesh. Their familiarity superseding their faith. This is what they said:
FAMILIARITY ONE STATEMENT: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?” (V.3).
FAMILIARITY TWO STATEMENT: “And are not his sisters here with us?” (Vs.3).
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN V.3?
What happened is that the people readily acknowledged both Jesus’ “WISDOM” and His “MIGHTY WORKS”, but they “REJECTED” Jesus’ “MESSAGE”. Jesus taught that He was the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies of the OT, again, (I.e. Luke 4:16-21). The bottom line is that the people of Jesus’ own home town did not have faith, resulting their rejecting King Jesus in His own hometown.
THE CONSEQUENCE OF FAMILIARITY AND LACK OF FAITH
As a consequence of their familiarity often materializes in a lack of faith. In verse 3b, Mark writes, “AND THEY TOOK OFFENSE AT HIM”. The offense means that something stood in the way of their believing in Him (Jesus) as the Son of God. That “something” was their familiarity and misunderstanding with Jesus as the son of Joseph and Mary as opposed to the Son of God.
JESUS’ RESPONSE TO HIS HOMETOWN AND THE DANGER OF FAMILIARITY
Jesus was no wall flower and told them outright in verses 4b-5 what their issues was: And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” Without going into further detail, the people experienced the consequences of their lack of faith and over familiarity with having Jesus come from their hometown. Before me move on, I want to note that had Jesus been a famous SECULAR character from his home town, I believe strongly that he would have been received with open arms. The world knows and welcomes their own and God’s people know God and welcome their own.
The FINAL CONSEQUENCE is made evident
And as a RESULT or CONSEQUENCE, “And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief” (v.5). In the verse next verse (vs.6) Jesus abruptly moves on “And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits” (v.6).
IN CONCLUSION:
The people of Jesus’ home country were “ASTONISHED” by his miracles and teaching but didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah God, despite the few miracles He was able to do. They had seen Him work with wood as their carpenter for many years and even acknowledged Him as the son of Mary, brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon-but NOT THE SON OF GOD. Instead, they said: “WE KNOW THIS JESUS (FAMILIARITY). HE IS COMMON. HE IS ONE OF US.”
Tragically, Jesus’ own family disbelieved Jesus’ messianic claims. Yet some of His family later became His followers: Remember-James became the leaders of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 15:13), and was the author of the epistle that bears his name. James’ brother also wrote the book of Jude (Jude 1). As a consequence of FAMILIARITY the people of Nazareth did not have faith. As a result of LACK OF FAITH resulted in His only “HEALING A FEW SICK PEOPLE” who came to Him.
IN APPLICATION: There are a number of lessons for us in this passage. We as humans beings tend to nest when we get comfortable and familiar with our setting and circumstances. This is one of the main reasons if not THE main reason that Christianity is suffering in the United States and in the West in particular.
FIRST: “ICONIC FAMILIARITY” With all of our cathedrals and religious sites, we have gotten too familiar with the iconic infrastructure of Christianity as the default religious norm.
SECOND: “FREEDOM OF RELIGION FAMILIARITY” We can and do have more Bibles than we can read but most of the country do not read them. We have the FREEDOM to read them as well, but still fail to read the Bible and go to church regularity.
THIRD: “OVER-FAMILIARITY WITH JESUS HIMSELF” We as Christians tend to get too comfortable with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. As such, we stray from spending time in prayer and in His powerful word and check the box of “religiosity” instead of taking the time to be with and better know Him daily. Remember, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). If the Word of God (the Bible) IS literally God, then being in the Word (Bible) is being with God.
For you and I today is still the same in that how much does our FAMILIARITY with the BIBLE and JESUS HIMSELF increase our disbelief? Ask yourself this one question: How much has our affluence, recreation, comfort and religious freedom led to our familiarity-ultimately developing into disbelief? Do we make the time to read our Bible, to pray and proactively go to God in Jesus to seek His face?
When it comes to our faith in God, there are two big enemies: familiarity and a lack of faith. “A PROPHET IS NOT WITHOUT HONOR EXCEPT IN HIS TOWN COUNTRY”. Perhaps this is THE PROBLEM plaguing America and the church in the West in general. Perhaps we have gotten too comfortable and taken our Christian faith for granted. I would assert that this is exactly what has happened to America and perhaps some of us reading this today. I believe that Jesus has taken His hand of protection, provision and order of America and the West in order to draw us back to HIM. 1 John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. That’s EXACTLY what I think. Please pray on that and think about how you can help us at Reason For Truth and in your circles turn this around.
