Title [7.8] Let's Live by the Law of Faith
Let's buy content
(Mark 6:1-6)
There is a saying that ‘knowledge is power’. However, when you do not know what you ‘know’ properly, it can become a disease. This also applies to our religious life. Sometimes our knowledge is wrong and it is a hindrance to our faith in God. For example, we can see that faith grows rapidly when a person who has no knowledge of God lives a life of faith. However, people who grew up in the mother's faith and are accustomed to church life or attended mission school do not live a proper life of faith. This is because they do not know God well and believe in God.
The people of Nazareth 2000 years ago exemplify this.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth. It was the hometown where Jesus ran and was brought up. Later, shortly after Jesus left his hometown and began his public ministry, he visited Nazareth. Although he preached the word in his hometown of Nazareth, the people of his hometown rejected Jesus' teachings and even tried to drive him out of town and drop him down a cliff. The reason why Jesus went to Nazareth cannot be known from the text. However, it can be assumed that Jesus wanted to spread the gospel and be saved to the people of his hometown where he grew up. In verse 2, Jesus taught about the kingdom of heaven and salvation in the synagogue, healed the sick, and performed miracles. Seeing this, the people of my hometown were amazed. However, they did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah who would save mankind. Why?
First, because of jealousy.
Jealousy makes it difficult to evaluate a person properly, and when it gets worse, it leads to terrifying sins. Saloby, a psychology professor at Yale University in the United States, has argued that 20% of crime in the United States is caused by jealousy. However, the nature of this jealousy is that although he does not react to people who have nothing to do with him, he feels jealous of those close to him.
The people of Nazareth were jealous of Jesus. The Jesus we knew was not like this, but he suddenly appeared one day, taught and performed miracles, and he felt jealous.
The second is because of prejudice.
Through verse 3, the people of Nazareth only remembered Jesus as a child when he was raised as a carpenter, and they rejected the divinity of Jesus, the Son of God, and even called Jesus “the carpenter, son of Mary.” This is an extremely disgraceful expression. This is because, in Jewish tradition, the son is traditionally associated with the father.
In this way, the people of Nazareth did not see Jesus with the eyes of faith, but with the eyes of prejudice. This bias arises for two reasons. First, prejudice arises from ignorance. Knowing the person with certainty and accuracy creates no bias, but because you don't know the person very well. And prejudice arises because we are used to it. Because they think they know the person well just because they are close.
However, we should not judge people based on wrong prejudice, and we should forget about the past and have the eyes to see the changed image of the present. I hope you see people through the eyes of faith.
Third, because of disbelief.
In verses 4 and 5, we can see that unlike in other places, Jesus healed only a few sick people in his hometown and did not perform great miracles.
There are two things we cannot do without faith. First, without faith we cannot please God. Second, without faith, we cannot see the glory of God. In other words, without faith, you cannot experience any work of God.
God wants and is looking for people who have faith. A person of faith is a person who gives thanks and praise even when things are difficult, speaks positive words even in difficulties, and moves forward with faith even when faced with impossible things. God is working through such people.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will become victorious through faith, remembering that where there is faith there are miracles and history.