Day 14 – How do we relate to Jesus?
Mark 6:1-13
Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits. These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
Bern Leckie writes:
Have you ever been somewhere you don’t feel like you can be yourself? Some people get nervous around strangers or take a while to adjust to new situations before they feel they can participate. Not Jesus.
I think I might relate a bit too, because the situations that made me feel most unlike myself when I was a young adult were family times. That was where people thought they knew me but didn’t. They might have spent time with me as a child, and maybe more time talking about me as I was growing up, forming expectations, putting the idea of me into a box shaped by what they wanted or anticipated or thought they knew. Family gatherings started to feel very hard as gaps grew between their versions of me and my own.
If you’ve ever experienced that, as a young adult or a frustrated older relative, can you relate to Jesus not getting on with his relatives here? When you think about how you form your image of Jesus, how much is based on talking about him and how he fits into your life, and how much from walking with him and having him change your life? Can you know?
I love how the people who walked with Jesus ended up empowered by him to do things they would never dare to plan by themselves. Is that a clue to knowing Jesus’ role in our lives? You can talk with him about it. When you’re open to taking an instruction from him that challenges or changes you, you’ll know.