Mark 6:2-3

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When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “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?” And they took offense at him.
 He was just a regular dude. He walked with us. He talked with us. He cried. He smiled. He had brothers and sisters. So, I guess it's no wonder that so many people, especially near the area around Capernaum where Jesus grew up, had trouble believing that he was the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God who would save them, rescue them from tyranny, without a fight.

But why? Weren't the miracles enough? Can you imagine seeing Jesus casting out demons, healing the blind, the lame, those with leprosy, the crippled? Can you imagine seeing Jesus walk on stormy seas? Can you imagine the wind and the rain ceasing at his command? Can you imagine seeing people rise from the dead? Can you imagine the awe and not believe that Jesus was the Messiah? If you heard a voice coming out of the air, declaring that the guy standing in the river was God's Son, wouldn't you believe it? Wouldn't you tell your friends about what you saw or heard?

And yet many of those people didn't believe! Many of those people didn't tell their friends. Many of those people didn't share the good news. How did this man do these things, the people wondered. What made him so wise?

There is only one answer: Jesus is Immanuel: God with us. Jesus is the great "I Am."

Not even the apostles always recognized that, even as Jesus was walking on water (Mark 6:48-52). “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid,” he declared. As Michael Middendorf describes in "Called by the Gospel," Jesus walking on water recalls the God who "hovered over the face of the waters" at creation (Gen. 1:2), who "makes a path in the mighty waters" (Isaiah 43:16), and who "trampled the waves of the sea" (Job 9:8). ... Jesus' declaration that "It is I" uses the same formula (in Greek) with which God revealed his divine name to Moses (Exodus 3:14). ... Jesus' call "Do not be afraid" is the same one God uses throughout the Old Testament when God and God's messengers speaks to Moses and the prophets and the people.

It's no wonder we who haven't seen or heard struggle so to believe that Jesus is our Savior, the only Savior, the only guide to heaven. Hear his words: I am the way, the truth and the life. Hear his words: Believe.




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