The Carpenter's Son: Mark 6:1-6

He came home.

The synagogue in Nazareth was small—nothing like the grand buildings in Capernaum or Jerusalem. Jesus had grown up walking these streets, playing with these children, learning Torah from these teachers. Everyone knew him. Everyone thought they knew him.

When he stood to teach on the Sabbath, the congregation leaned forward. They had heard rumors. Miracles in Capernaum. Exorcisms. Crowds following him across Galilee. Now their boy had returned, and they would see for themselves.

His wisdom stunned them. The words that came from his mouth were unlike anything they had heard—deep, authoritative, piercing. For a moment, wonder flickered in their eyes.

Then familiarity smothered it.

"Where did this man get these things?" they muttered. "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?"

The carpenter. They remembered him building tables, repairing plows, his hands rough with sawdust and calluses. They remembered Mary's pregnancy, the whispered scandal, the questions about his father. They knew his brothers—ordinary men, unremarkable men. His sisters still lived in town.

Who did he think he was?

"A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home," Jesus said. The words were quiet, almost sad.

Mark records what happened next with devastating simplicity: "He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them."

Could not. Not would not—could not. Their unbelief was a wall even Jesus' power would not breach. He had raised the dead. He had cast out legions. He had stilled storms with a word. But in Nazareth, faced with the contempt of those who had watched him grow up, he was limited to healing a few.

"He was amazed at their lack of faith."

They were amazed at his wisdom. He was amazed at their unbelief. And so he left, village by village, teaching elsewhere, leaving Nazareth to its small certainties and missed opportunities.

The carpenter's son would not be back.