Mark 6:1-6--Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

Mark 6:1-6
English Standard Version

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
6 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief.

​And he went about among the villages teaching.

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Jesus has spent a lot of time away from home.  It's not clear if anything in particular brought Him back to Nazareth at this time other than the fact that Jesus was visiting all the towns and villages and would eventually make it back to His hometown.  Like in the other places He visited, Jesus was honored with the privilege given to a visiting Rabbi of getting to read from the scroll and then sit down and teach the people.  This passage in Mark doesn't focus on what He read, but we know from the other gospels that He read from the book of Isaiah to proclaim to them that He was the Messiah.

Instead, Mark skips to the end of the conversation where the people at first were excited about Jesus reading one of their favorite passages and saying it was being fulfilled in their midst, but then they wanted to see the same signs that had been done elsewhere, yet they lacked any faith that allow them to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, so there was really no point in Jesus doing any signs to validate His identity.

Look at how they talk about Him. They do not even call Him "Rabbi" or "Teacher," but they say that He is "The carpenter's son."  (Meaning that they were denying in their hearts that He could be The Son of God, because they thought they knew for sure that Joseph was Jesus' father).  They were also pretty certain that Mary and Joseph's other children were Jesus' full siblings (they were really half-siblings who had the same mother, but a different father.  They even name Mary the mother of Jesus, and Jesus' brothers James (the author of the book of James), Joses, Judas (the author of the book of Jude), and Simon.  They don't name any of Jesus' sisters, but that's not unusual for the time.  Though they say He is Joseph's son, they do not claim that Joseph is with them, so it's possible that Joseph had died at this point and that could be the reason why Jesus' family came looking for Him back in Mark 3 when Jesus' mother and brothers come looking for Him, but He will not go with them--it seems He did not go home to bury His father, take care of His mother, and lead the family as the oldest son in a family usually did--He said that the apostles and the other disciples were His family (we know for sure that none of Jesus' brothers believed in Him until after his Resurrection).

Jesus then quotes a proverb to them that, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.”  Jesus is calling them out because they are disrespecting Him and He knows it.  They don't want Him to teach them because they remember Him growing up among them, so they think He has nothing to teach them.  Because of their lack of faith, Jesus could not do many mighty works there and if we read parallel passages, we'll see that they even tried to throw Him off a cliff to kill Him.  The fact that Jesus went to the "other towns and villages" I think makes a point that Jesus did not return there (or at least did not make it a priority to return there).  That place would no longer be called "home" for Him and He would instead have Peter's hometown of Capernaum as His base of operation (though the people of Capernaum would also reject Him).