Discouragement and Weakness

Jesus in today’s Gospel returns back to Nazareth. But, this is not a social visit he is there to preach the Kingdom of God. We find that the people are astonished about the wisdom. Maybe they remember what he was like as a child maybe it is easier to have a carpenter in the town rather than a prophet. So, once a carpenter always a carpenter: they by their reaction keep Jesus at a safe distance.

Jesus’ rejection in his own town means that he cannot work any miracles there. In Mark’s Gospel this rejection is complete when even his own relations believe him to be out of his mind.

Through this mistrust and rejection we find that Jesus could do no miracle there. It makes him powerless by people’s reaction. We see that he is not a robot switched on to do flawless performances, indifferent to the people around him. The distrust disables him. He cannot reach out to his own people and so never returns to Nazareth again.

Jesus has to cope with disappointment and failure. But through this he points beyond himself to his Father. The cross of Jesus becomes the most striking symbol of weakness pointing beyond brokenness to the glory of the resurrection.

What we can learn from this episode is something very important about ourselves.  We first of all have to learn and accept our limitations. Often we are frightened of this and struggle against it. But, learning to embrace and learn from what we can’t do is very important it helps us to grow and become more authentic and human. The other thing that we must learn is to cope with failure and disappointment. These are bound to come along in our lives they can either control us or we can learn through them. So many people let their failures and disappointments rule their lives.

The other thing that we must realise is that through these limitations, weakness we actually become stronger.  Becoming more reflective and praying through our weakness helps us to better understand who we are and what we are about. This enables us to say with Paul that our power is our weakness. There is a wonderful phrase that came up in the common of Martyrs in the Old translation it read “You chose the weak to make them strong in bearing witness to you.” We are not super human we are the weak who can bear witness to Christ by learning about ourselves and our weakness. Understanding the experiences of the past and working through these we become strong and authentic preachers of the Gospel.