Rev Dr Quek Suan Yew

Why People Dishonour Christ!

Mark 6:1-6

INTRODUCTION – There are two kinds of people who would dishonour God. The first is the unbelievers who reject the gospel. They do not believe that Christ is the Son of God and the Saviour sent by God to save the world from sin. The second kind calls themselves believers who do not obey every jot and tittle of God’s inerrant and infallible Word. They pick and choose what they like to believe according to their itching ears. Both groups are charged by the Word of God here for not honouring Christ. The first group is charged for not believing that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ to save the world. They will hold on to their sin till they die in their sin and find themselves in hell forever. The second group comprises professing believers who tarnish the image of Christ that they bear everywhere they go because their lives will not reflect the image of Christ and they do not live according to God’s Truth. They stumble others especially unbelievers who will reject Christ because of their sinful behaviour. They stumble believers who will probably use them as an excuse to also live a life of disobedience! Both these groups are guilty, and they are without excuse! Both have different but dire consequences.

We know that the Word of God is powerful. How then can sinners still reject Christ or believers dishonour Him? The Word of God is sharper than any double edged sword, so why does it not cut through the hardness within the sinner’s heart as well as the hearts of disobedient believers? There is the perspective of God whereby unless God gives the faith to believe, no man can. Then there is salvation from the perspective of Man whereby man is responsible to accept or reject the truth about Christ when he is presented with the gospel. Both of these truths are taught in holy Scriptures. We know that man is a sinner, for he is born in sin. He has the original sin of Adam in him the moment he is conceived in his mother’s womb. That is why babies can die inside their mothers’ wombs even before they speak a word or breathe or did anything. Romans 5:12 (KJV) teaches this very clearly, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Man is born full of sins and when he grows up he adds more sins into his life when he wilfully sins exponentially against God.

Both groups fall into the same category when it comes to the reasons for dishonouring Christ. They might dishonour Him in different ways, but they dishonour Him nevertheless! The following are some of the ways in which Christ is dishonoured.

I. Failure to See Christ (6:1-3) – Many non-Christians throughout the ages say that Christ is one of the best teachers, if not the best, the world has ever seen, or who has ever lived! Others would not mind calling him a great prophet if not arguably the greatest prophet who ever lived! If these accolades were given to a man, that man would be extremely pleased and would be grateful for such high praise from others. But not so Jesus of Nazareth.

When Jesus of Nazareth was on earth, He went back to His own country. He was born in Bethlehem but grew up in Nazareth. That is why He is called Jesus of Nazareth instead of Jesus of Bethlehem. His family business was carpentry located in Nazareth. His half brothers and sisters also lived in Nazareth. On this day, Jesus came to His own country with His disciples who followed Him. When the Sabbath day came, Jesus went to the synagogue to teach the Word of God. This became the custom of the Apostles in the book of Acts whenever they arrived at a city to evangelize. They followed in the footsteps of their Master to bring the gospel first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. As Jesus taught from the Word of God (OT only), those who heard Him were astonished, i.e. amazed. Their comments were: "From hence hath this man these things? And what wisdom is this which is given unto Him, that even such mighty works are wrought by His hands?" The teaching and deeds of Jesus were unlike anything these Galilean Jews had seen. They were stupefied by Jesus. They recognized that His works were mighty which means miraculous. They saw His miracles.

They knew that Jesus was "one" of them, for they recognized Him. They said, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?" They knew Jesus’ family. They probably saw Him grow up in the region of Galilee. They knew about His father’s trade as a carpenter and that He was a carpenter, a trade that He learned from His adopted earthy father Joseph. They knew Jesus’ earthly mother, that she was Mary. They even knew the names of His half brothers and wondered why they were not here with Christ. Their conclusion was tragic. They thought His brothers were offended at Him, that they were scandalized or "tripped up" by Christ and could not accept the obvious. The obvious was that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Christ, i.e. the Messiah in Hebrew. The teaching and the miracles by Jesus point to the Christ. Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the anointed by God to be the Saviour of the world.

Throughout the ministry of Christ, He did miracles to reveal to them that He is the Son of God, which means that Jesus is fully God. Jesus’ home in Nazareth, His earthly family, His parentage with Mary as His mother all point to Jesus’ humanity, that He is fully Man, the Son of Man. Combined together, we have Jesus Christ who is fully God and fully Man living and breathing in the midst of the people of Israel in His own country. They saw Him but they did not "see" Him for who He really is. They accepted His humanity but could not accept His deity! The humanity of Christ was by sight. They saw Him and touched Him and His history of growing up in Nazareth and His family life all point to the fact that Jesus was truly man. How then could He be fully God? This was the dilemma. The deity of Christ was not by sight. For by their sight they saw only a Man. They failed to see Christ for who He really was, God incarnate! Emmanuel, i.e. God with us!

Jesus Christ has to be the Son of God and the Son of Man to die for the sins of the whole world. It was the God Man who died. That is why His blood on the cross where He died is of infinite value and is able to wash away all the sins of the whole world. To see Him as a man only or as the greatest teacher or the greatest prophet is not wrong because Jesus was all of these. However, to not see Jesus and accept Him as the Christ and the Son of God will make believing the other truths a lie. Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God chosen by God to be the anointed Saviour of the world.

II. Familiarity Breeds Contempt (6:4) – The Israelites who failed to see Jesus as the Christ included His own kin and His own house, i.e. His half brothers and half sisters. They saw Jesus grew up from infancy to a young toddler who grew up to become a man. They saw Him being carried by Mary. He was a weak baby in His mother’s arms. He played and learned a skill of carpentry like all His siblings. They played with Him and regarded Him as the oldest brother. They touched Him and saw Him tired, hungry and thirsty. These are all human weaknesses that Jesus experienced. Jesus was perfect in all His ways as He grew up. Being fully God from the beginning of His earthly existence, i.e. from the moment He existed inside the virgin Mary’s womb, Jesus did not do any miracles to relieve Himself of His weaknesses as the Son of Man.

Living with Christ on earth and seeing Him grow up resulted in a rejection of His deity. They were not able to see through the web that their lives together had woven throughout Christ’s growing up years. They saw the Son of Man but not the Son of God even after Christ demonstrated by His teaching and miracles that He was indeed who He said He was, God incarnate! His siblings had experienced thirty years of growing up with Him before Jesus began His ministry after being baptized by John the Baptist. Thirty years of perfect witness by the Son of Man and Son of God should have resulted in an amazing acceptance, but the opposite was true. Familiarity breeds contempt. They were too familiar with His humanity, and when He revealed to them His deity, they found it too impossible to believe. The more they remembered His humanity the greater the difficulty in accepting His deity. Thus Christ concluded that if He preached the Word of God and did the miracles anywhere else, they would have believed Him as fully God and fully Man. Sadly, not in His own country!

The dual approach to accepting Christ was too hard for His own to accept. They accepted His humanity by sight but they were not able to accept His deity by faith! Today’s believers face a similar situation. Those who were brought up in church since infancy become familiar with the written Word just as Christ’s siblings were too familiar with the living Word. When they grow up they find the world to be desirous, and they do not want Christ. They reject the gospel because they have heard it too many times. They know the Bible and its contents. Familiarity bred contempt when Jesus walked on earth, and it is so today in the hearts of many who know the written Word but reject the living Word.

III. Faithlessness the Death Nail (6:5-6) – With His own people, including His own family dishonouring Him, Christ did not do many miracles in their midst. Note that many and most of the miracles done by Christ were done when the sick and the diseased came to Him for healing. The phrase that Christ did "no mighty work" does not mean that Christ’s power was dependent upon the faith and responses of the people. The phrase simply means that very few brought their sick and diseased to Christ for healing because they saw Him only as a human being and not as God. However, the Jews from other parts of Israel, who did not see Jesus grow up and were not offended by His claim to be God, brought many of their sick and infirmed to Him to be healed. This phrase "He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them" supports this understanding. Few brought their sick to Christ to be healed.

The Bible says that Christ "marvelled", i.e. was amazed or wondered at their unbelief or faithlessness. One would think that the Lord Jesus Christ’s own people and family would be the first to throng round Him to be healed and to be saved, for they had been "exposed" to Him the most compared to the rest of Israel. They witnessed His perfect life from infancy. Instead of responding in faith when Christ came to His own country after He began His ministry, they responded in unbelief. They lived in a time and place where millions of believers now dream of seeing the baby Jesus grow up into adulthood and then to receive Him as their Lord and Saviour. His people had all these and yet they rejected Him! Therefore Christ went around the villages only teaching. He continued to teach the Word of God regardless of their failure to bring their sick to Him to be healed. He did not give up on them even when they gave up on Him!

Faithlessness is still the problem of many sinners today. This problem is exacerbated by the many false believers spawned by Roman Catholicism, Charismatism and the neo-evangelicals in the 21st century. Sinners would prefer to live in sin than to accept Christ, having witnessed the testimony of these false believers. True believers do not fare any better. Genuine believers struggle with holiness, and loving the world seems to occupy their heart and mind more than God’s Word. Many prefer a peripheral relationship with Christ to an intimate one. They do the barest minimum in obeying God, not so much to please Him, but to soothe their carnal conscience. This is a form of faithlessness that stems from a weak faith where faith is not exercised in the circumstances of the believer’s life.

CONCLUSION – Today’s generation definitely does not fare well compared to the generation during Christ’s first coming. When the gospel is presented to a sinner, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God as well as the Son of Man, he has to believe by faith. Sadly he does not. He holds on to his sin and refuses to accept Christ for one or two of the same reasons stated above. He fails to see Christ as God and demonstrates no faith. If the person is still an unbeliever even though he was brought up in the church, then all three "F’s" apply to him. These unbelievers will remain in their sin and when they die in their sin they will end up in hell! How tragic. So close and yet so far from heaven! These dishonour Christ by their rejection of Him and His love for them. All they need to do is to believe.

In the case of true believers who are wayward or lacklustre in their relationship with God, they are in the same boat as the sinners but for different reasons with a different consequence. They also fail to see that Christ is truly God who is able to protect and care for them just as he promised in Matthew 28:18-20. These believers live their lives as if there is no trust in God because they hardly pray. They live a life of doing what is right in their own eyes. They do not pray and trust in God’s Word. They also fall into the sin of "familiarity breeds contempt" because they have been believers for some time and have taken God for granted. They go through the motions when they worship, with little or no heart preparation. The fact that they do not even feel guilty of bad anymore speaks volumes about their sin of taking God for granted. Their faithlessness and poor testimony for Christ stumble everyone in their lives. They have become an excuse to their families and friends to reject Christ. These believers dishonour Christ and lead many to hell because of it.

Are you guilty of dishonouring Christ?!