“Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And He could there do no mighty work, save that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them” — Mark 6:4, 54But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. 5And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. (Mark 6:4‑5).
HOW strange, it seems, at first, to read that “He could there do no mighty work,” and that because of their unbelief. There is a sense in which man’s lack of faith shackles divine omnipotence. God has chosen to do for those who believe what, in the very nature of things, He cannot do consistently for those who spurn His Word. The people of Nazareth shut the door of blessing in their own faces by refusing to trust the Carpenter as the Anointed of Jehovah. His very lowliness proved a stumbling-block to their pride. His holiness was a rebuke to their carnality, and by rejecting His testimony they put up a barrier between Paradise and themselves.
“With the lowly is wisdom” (Prov. 11:22When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom. (Proverbs 11:2)). Had they been humble enough to sit at His feet as learners, what lessons of grace and power would have been unfolded to them, and what mighty works would have been wrought in their midst! But they were so self-contented and self-satisfied that His message found no response in their unbelieving hearts, and so they lost the greatest opportunity that they would ever know.
“What will it profit, when life here is o’er
Though earth’s fleeting love has been mine,
If, seeking its gifts—I fail to secure
The riches of God’s love divine?
What will it profit? My soul, stop and think!
What balance that day will declare!
Life’s record laid bare, will gain turn to loss,
And leave me at last to despair!”
―Grace E. Troy.