Evendays

Familiarity can kill faith. Hold it. Let’s try again. Expectations that have not been formed by God can kill faith.

Jesus goes to mom’s for the weekend and heads to the synagogue on Saturday. Mark tells us there’s a big crowd come to hear the Rabbi.

They are surprised. “Where did he get his wisdom? Where does his power come from?” Then, murmured truths smother their astonishment. Ungodly expectations undermine the plan of God.

“He’s the carpenter! He’s Mary’s son. We know his brothers. We’ve seen his sisters grow up…”

Behind the statements of truth is the prideful rejection of the humble servant and the heart-breaking fact that if they could not accept this elementary humbleness, they could never accept a bleeding, crushed, hanged-on-the-tree Messiah.

Mark is addressing a weary church, Christians familiar with the story they’d heard a 1000 times. He’s not fighting unbelief, but rather bland, sterile, already-been-there belief.

As teachers, Mark surprises us, for the evangelist does not meet our expectations. ("Tell us something new, Preacher! Put a new spin on it.") Rather, he recounts the “Beginning of the Gospel of… the Son of God.” He reforms expectations by retelling the story with conviction that expectant faith in the Servant will, once again, take hold of the children of God.