Hidden Strength

Title: Hidden Strength By Pastor Lohn Johnson

Text: Mark 6:3-5   3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary…?" 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.

INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, I’ve always wondered about the reaction of Jesus’ home town people to Him as described here.  He came into town looking so ordinary—and that didn’t seem to go over well.

I. What if He had done it differently?  Maybe like this: As in the Star Trek scene where Picard has been captured and made a “Borg” the Borg Queen says “Resistance is futile.”  There’s two things I’ve got to note about this:

A. First that confrontation is quite frightening.

1. As you may know I’m a Trekkie, but every time I hear that “resistance is futile” stuff it makes my skin crawl.  It’s quite frightening.  Of all the villains I’ve ever seen the Borg are the most frightening to me.

2. Now don’t get me wrong God could come this way.  And Jesus could even come this way too.  Just look back in the Scriptures at Mt. Sinai.  The People of Israel were invited to the edge of that mountain where God was.  It was covered with smoke and thunder.  The people were terrified of being even close to God.

a. And God even said to Moses, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” b. Then the prophet Isaiah saw a mere vision of God and responded in abject fear. c. And you can find various other examples of the same thing happening whenever someone even comes close to God.

3. But if God only came this way, this would have made God a monster much like the Borg Queen and leave us frightened to death.

B. But let’s look at the results of this type of contact.

1. If God were to come and say “resistance if futile” and convert us by overwhelming force, what would that be like?

a. Maybe you’re not a “Trekkie” like me and don’t know about the Borg.  When they are assimilated they become worse than slaves.  b. They become like a member of a hive or an ant hill—mechanically serving the Borg collective.  All individuality is gone; That’s not a pleasant prospect.

2. I guess God could overwhelm us with his power and blast us into His kingdom.  But nothing of us would be left – we would be mechanical slaves like the Borg.  This is not what God wants at all.

a. Maybe an example of this would be Saul on the road to Damascus.  Jesus comes to him in glory.  And Saul ends up blind and unable to eat.  NO thank you.  Maybe the Borg give me the creeps because I think that God could have done that to us.  And we would deserve it.  Fortunately for Saul, Jesus did not leave him like that. b. it certainly would have been easier for God to do it the Borg way.  But it wouldn’t be very pleasant for us.

II. The problem is that because of sin those Nazarenes and us also tend to look for this type of contact from God.  But when you know the facts you realize that’s not what we should want at all. But that’s just what the Nazarenes wanted when Jesus came to town.  Jesus is the local boy made good, a rising star on the rabbinical circuits and all around wonder worker, the synagogue is packed to the rafters. Expectations are high. What’s He going to say? Will He do some miracles? He’s in front of the home crowd now, and they’re excited.

A. But there’s a strange undertow in this excitement, something not quite right. A murmur of discontent is trickling through the dense crowd. They’re hearing Jesus teach with great authority, but some are whispering in the back rows, “Hey, wait a minute! Who does this guy think he is, anyway?”  So they took offense at Him.

1. Think about it; nothing really stands out except His wisdom and His ability to work a few miracles.

a. He didn’t glow. He didn’t have a shiny gold nimbus hovering over his head that said “Jesus the Christ” like you see in the icons. b. He was just plain old ordinary Jesus. Mary’s boy. The carpenter. And that offended the hometown crowd. They were scandalized.  There is no powerful Borg confrontation saying “Resistance is futile.”

2. The incarnation of God is scandalous

a. It just doesn’t meet our ideas or expectations of a respectable God. God shouldn’t enter this world as the child of a Virgin, work in obscurity as a carpenter up in Nazareth of all places, be baptized by His cousin John and then announce to the world that He’s the messiah, the Son of God. b. And if that’s not already enough, His messianic victory, his moment of glory, his hour of power comes when He hangs in the darkness on a cross one very good Friday and rises from the dead one very good Sunday. c. And if that isn’t enough, He comes to deliver the gifts of His sacrificial life and death in, with, and under the humble, lowly, almost ridiculous forms of water, words, bread, and wine.

B. Do you see a pattern here? Can you connect the dots? God hides His power.  He’s nothing like a Borg Queen – quite the opposite.

1. The power of God to overcome Sin, Death, devil, the darkness, the power of God to save you is cloaked under the cover of weakness.

a. That’s why Jesus could do no mighty work there in His hometown. It’s not that He wasn’t able, as though Nazareth had messed with His divine mojo or something. It would have been contrary to orders, it’s contrary to the mission. Jesus is not a wonder working circus side-show. He knows that faith in miracles is no faith at all. Instead, he went among the villages teaching. They needed to be taught not entertained or not crushed to be like Borg drones. b. God’s works are turned upside down and inside out. No displays of power, no coercion.  He doesn’t use miracles to coerce people.  Jesus doesn’t put on a show. He’s not into celebrity.

2. And even His Word is vulnerable and rejectable.

a. The Scriptures don’t impress the skeptic looking for the spectacular. No golden plates delivered by angels, no obviously supernatural origins other than the general editorship of the Holy Spirit. Not even a radioactive glow or something to make you go “Oooooo.” Like Jesus in the hometown synagogue, the Scriptures are easily dismissed by those seeking “something more.” b. It is simply a cobbled collection of sixty-six books assembled over 1500 or so years all revolving around one theme – God’s grace in His Son. Their glory is hidden under weakness. c. Yes God  to us in weakness – Scripture’s words, baptismal water, Eucharistic bread and wine. The strength is hidden. The glory muted. The gift is rejectable. d. It comes in weakness like this: Steven was a young man who felt the call of God on his life. He came from a really close family. He finished college and then went off to seminary.  After finishing seminary he came back home before going to his first church. He visited with all of his relatives for about a week. He stopped by the church and talked to his hometown pastor. The pastor asked him if he would like to preach that upcoming  Sunday. Steven felt honored and took the pastor up on the invitation.  Sunday morning came and after hours, yes, even days, of preparation he stepped up behind the pulpit, looked out at the congregation of friends and relatives and started to expound the knowledge that he had learned.   Well, he had hardly begun, when his young niece, Kathleen, about six years old, stepped out into the aisle and put her hands on her hips, her left foot out in front of the other, her head cocked to one side. Then she said in a very loud and clear voice for her age, "Uncle Steven, you don't know what you are talking about!" (1)  I don't know how Uncle Steven finished that message. But undoubtedly it was an experience he will never forget.   Yes God’s Word comes through weak preachers too.

3. Yes, Jesus hides both His divine and human natures to visit you in His means of grace. This is how God has chosen to deal with us – hidden, quietly, gently, humbly, rejectably.

a. By means of Baptism,  Absolution and Communion, the Lord Jesus Christ is present with you here. b. Furthermore, He is present for your good: He speaks His Word of grace and life to you. He forgives your sins.  He desires that you have eternal life with Him in heaven. That is why He died on the cross. That is why He comes to you in His means of grace. And that is why He is present here: To save your life. Forever. The Son of God is here. To save you

B. But all over, as people got up for church this morning, their sinful side got up with them.

1. Among the discouragements that sinful side whispered were these: "It's going to be really, really hot in there”, and “the sermon is going to seem to take a long time”. Plus, if we go to the Communion service, it's going to take even longer.

a. And we'll be singing the same old stuff that we do every week. It's just the same worship, nothing special. The sinful side whispers all of these things to all of us--maybe not this Sunday, but then some Sunday soon. He does so for a reason: the sinful side doesn't want us to rejoice that Jesus is here. b. Because, you see, Jesus is here. He is present in these things. As we sing His Word in the liturgy, He is working through that Word to give you grace. As you hear His Word proclaimed, He showers you with forgiveness and life. As you receive His Supper, He shares Himself with you. And in Holy Baptism, He places His name upon you, and writes your name in the book of those who are saved.

CONCLUSION: You will be tempted every day to believe these things are far too familiar and ordinary to do any good.  But in spite of this, rejoice! Jesus comes to you. He comes to you with forgiveness and life and salvation. Forget little miracles like curing your body of some sickness... He comes to cure your soul of sin, so that He might raise you up, body and all, on the Last Day to everlasting life. The Lord Jesus comes to you, in means both humble and familiar, so as not to terrify you like the Borg might and drive you away, but so as to draw near to you with mercy and grace—to draw near to you and say, “I forgive you all of your sins.”

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