Mark 6:1-3 - They took offence at Him

6:1,2

Jesus went with His disciples to His “home town”, this was Nazareth (Matt 2:23, 21:11; Lk 2:51). The Sabbath came and He began to teach in the Synagogue. We are not told here what He taught them, but we are told that “many who heard Him were amazed”. It is important to note that it was not just the miracles, but also His teaching that attracted (and repelled) people. With Jesus the signs and the teaching went together, they were a package. They asked “where did this man get these things?” This applied to both the teaching and to the miracles. Too often today we tend to separate them, possibly even relegating one or the other.

6:3

They thought they knew who Jesus was. They did know that He was a carpenter. If we think about it, it is quite amazing that Jesus, the Son of God, and the One who taught all these amazing things, and performed all sorts of miracles, spent a good number of years working as a carpenter. Just because you have a “normal” job right now, does not mean that you will not do something very different at some point in the future. But this is not in any way to denigrate having a “normal” job. They also knew who His mother and His siblings were. The absence of any mention of Joseph is often taken as an indication that Joseph is dead at this point, which may well be true.

“And they took offence at Him”. What Jesus was doing and teaching presented a challenge to the people, it forced them to reassess themselves. Or at least, that is what it should have done. Instead the people “took offence”. They objected to being challenged, thinking “who is he to do this?”