Mark 6:5

Mar_6:5-6

And He could there do no mighty work.

The unbelief of the Nazarenes

Our plan will be to give you in the first place certain reasons, where the unbelief was strongest, the miracles were few; and then in the second place, to examine the particular terms in which St. Mark speaks of our Lords conduct at Nazareth. Now the first thing to be observed is, that, though our Lord wrought not many miracles among His countrymen, He wrought some: so that they were not wholly without the means of conviction. Undoubtedly it is altogether a mistake to imagine that miracles give evidence in proportion as they are multiplied; it would not be difficult to prove, that the reverse of this is nearer the matter of fact. But if more and greater miracles would have made them believers, why did He not work more and greater? Do you not know that God deals with men as with rational creatures; and that if He were to make proof irresistible, men would virtually cease to be accountable. It is Gods course to do what is sufficient to assist you, but not what will compel you to be saved. But we do not see any reason to suppose that it was exclusively in judgment, and in order to punish the obstinacy of His countrymen, that our Lord refrained from working miracles in Nazareth. Christ, in virtue of His omniscience, saw that He should be rejected, even if He wrought many wonders. He would determine, in virtue of His benevolence, to work only few. You cannot but see that individuals are often favoured for a time with spiritual advantages, and then placed in circumstances where those advantages are wanting. But we shall let you more thoroughly into an understanding of the conduct of our Lord, if we now examine, in the second place, more particularly, the terms in which that conduct is described in our text. You observe that St. Mark represents it as not having been altogether optional with Christ, whether or no He would work many mighty miracles in Nazareth; he rather speaks of actual inability: He could there do no mighty works. He was unable, is the original, to do there any mighty work. In what sense, then, are we to suppose that He was unable? We are sure He was not unable in the sense of deficiency, so that the inability must be interpreted as meaning, not that our Lord was actually unable, but unable consistently with certain fixed principles, with what was due to His own character and mission. You may find, indeed, some few exceptions to this rule in the narratives of the evangelists; but ordinarily you will perceive that our Lord inquired into the faith of the party before He made that party the subject of a miracle; as though, unless two things concurred-power on one side, and belief on the other-there was to be no supernatural working. But still, when we have shown that our Lords rule throws no suspicion on His miracles, it will naturally be inquired why such a rule was prescribed and enforced. Say what we will, the miracle would have been more striking if wrought on an unbeliever; and it seems strange to ask that faith as a preliminary, which you are accustomed to look for as a consequence. On this we have to observe, that a miracle, though it required faith in its actual subject, did not require faith in the bystanders, and might, therefore, be instrumental in subduing their unbelief. But, if what Christ did for a diseased body were emblematic of what He would do for a diseased soul, how natural, how necessary, that He should require faith in those who sought to be healed. Otherwise, as you may all have remarked, it might have been thought that Christ would heal unconditionally as a spiritual physician. If faith be surprising from what its possession can effect, it is yet more surprising from what its non-possession can effect. And shall we doubt, men and brethren, that there is much the same baneful energy in our own unbelief, as in that of the Nazarenes? The Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. So that even as the want of faith in the men of Nazareth prevented Christ from showing Himself as a worker of miracles, so may want of faith in ourselves, prevent Him from showing Himself as the Healer of souls. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

The power of unbelief

What an idea it gives us of the wonder-working power of Jesus-that to lay His hands on a few sick folk, and heal them, was not accounted as any very mighty thing. And how irrepressible must be that grace which, even where it was restrained, must go forth, and go forth savingly, to some. Happy some! who in the midst of that wilderness of faithlessness, retained their faith, and carried off faiths reward. A type of that little, blessed band in every age whom the Lord chooses, and the Lord heals-as if to show in them what all life had been, if only all life had had faith. Great and many are the things which God has done for every one of us, they are but as nothing in comparison with what He might have done, and would have done, if only we had let Him. Now remember that the place was Nazareth-the most privileged spot of the whole earth; for there, of thirty-three years, Jesus spent nearly thirty. There, His holy boyhood, and the piety of His early manhood, had shed their lustre. And now, mark this, brethren-true to nature, true to the experience of the Church-true to the convictions of every heart-in the minds of the men of Nazareth there was an unholy familiarity with holy things-with the name, and the person, and the work, and the truth of Jesus Christ. Therefore, in the minds of the men of Nazareth, there was the usual consequence of that kind of familiarity-they looked at the external, till they were absorbed in the external. They had no faith-the material view destroyed the spiritual. They grovelled in the confidence of an outside knowledge till they became steeped in unbelief. Am I wrong in my fear that the more light, the less love; and that faith has retired as knowledge has advanced? There are two great truths which we must always lay down as fundamental principles. One is, that the love and beneficence of God are always welling and waiting, like some gushing fountain, to pour themselves out to all His creatures. And the other, that there must be a certain state of mind to contain it-a preparation of the heart to receive the gift-both, indeed, of grace, but the one the moral condition of the soul previous and absolutely necessary to the other. Before you can have the gift, you must believe the Giver. Continually God is communicating the power to believe, in order that afterwards He may fill the vessel of your belief with every possible good. But then, all depends on the way in which you welcome and cherish that first imparting of the grace of the Spirit. Without it, not another drop will flow. You go to your knees in prayer, and, within the range of the promises, there is no limit to the answers which God has covenanted to that prayer. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Unbelief preventing the mighty works of Christ

I. The mighty works wrought by Christ.

II. The reason these mighty works have not been wrought on a larger scale.

1. Is it because God is unwilling to save sinners? His nature, etc., forbid such an idea.

2. Is it that God is unable to save?

3. Is it that the benefits of the atonement are limited to a few?

4. Is it that there is some defect in the Gospel? Man is the cause-unbelief.

Conclusion:

1. Unbelief is absurd and unreasonable. God has ever kept His word.

2. Unbelief is absolutely criminal. Implies forgetfulness of past favours, etc.

3. Unbelief is ruinous. It prevents mans salvation, etc.

4. The great importance of faith. (A. Weston.)

Unbelief a Wonder

I. It is irrational.

1. Unlimited and perfect knowledge belong to God alone.

2. Absolute uncertainty and doubt can be attributed to no intelligence whatever. Faith is a necessary condition in the spiritual life and prayers of all finite intelligences.

II. It is inconsistent.

1. We are constantly exercising faith in inferior matters.

2. The evidence of the gospel is of the highest and most satisfactory kind.

III. It is criminal.

1. If it is the result of non-examination of evidence, there is sin of neglect.

2. If he has examined, and still does not believe, there must be mental inaptitude or moral resistance. (Anon.)

Christs wonder

The unbelief of the Nazarenes was a wonder to our Lord. The wonder was real, says Cardinal Cajetan, being caused by the Saviours experimental inaquaintance with such an unreasonable state of mind. It was real on another account. Unbelief in such circumstances as those of the Nazarenes was actually a most remarkable thing. It had a cause indeed; it had occasions; but it had no reason for its existence. Far less had it a sufficient reason; it was, that is to say, utterly unreasonable. It should not have been; it was an utter anomaly. So is all sin (see Jer_2:12)

. It is an exceedingly strange phenomenon in the universe of God, and may well be wondered at. If wonder indeed were always the daughter of ignorance, one might wonder at Christs wonder. Schleusner and Kuinol wondered, and rendered the word, not wondered, but was angry. Fritzsche, too, wondered, and while too precise a scholar to admit that the word could mean was angry, he proposed that we should correct the text and read it thus, and, because of their unbelief, they wondered (viz., at Jesus). But one may most reasonably wonder at such feats and freaks of exegesis. There is nothing really wonderful in Christs wonder. While it is the case that there is a vulgar wonder, which is the daughter of ignorance and dies when knowledge is attained, it is also the case that there is another wonder, of noble origin, the daughter of knowledge. This wonder dwells in the loftiest minds, and is immortal. (J. Morison, D. D.)

The astonishment of Christ

What men marvel at indicates their character. It shows what manner of spirit they are of, on what level they are moving, how high they have risen, or how low they have sunk on the scale of being. And I do not know that we ever feel the immense interval between ourselves and the Son of Man more keenly than when we compare that which astonishes us with that which astonished Him. To us, as a rule, the word miracles denotes more physical wonders; and these are so wonderful to us as to be well-nigh incredible. But in Him they awake no astonishment. He never speaks of them with the faintest accent of surprise. He set so little store by them that He often seemed reluctant to work them, and openly expressed His wish that those on or for whom they had been wrought would tell no man of them … What does astonish Him is not these outward wonders so surprising to us, but chat inward wonder, the mystery of mans soul, the miraculous power which we often exercise without a thought of surprise, the power of shutting and opening that door or window of the soul which looks heavenward, and through which alone the glories of the spiritual world can stream in upon us. Only twice are we told that He marvelled to whom all the secrets of Nature and Life lay open-once at the unbelief of men, and once at their faith (Mat_8:10; Luk_7:9). (S. Cox, D. D.)

The possibility of unbelief

Gods plan of impressing spiritual truths is not by demonstration. Christianity has no irresistible proof. If it had, there would be neither unbelievers nor Christians, for in such a case there would be no such thing as faith, but only knowledge, and a Christian is a man who has knowledge but who also lives by faith. Religion would be pursued and practised as mathematics are, or as science is when mathematics are applied to it. But observe under what system we should then be placed. Man would not be capable of moral freedom in conducting his life and forming his character. He would think of God and of his soul and its interests in the way in which a man builds up the propositions of geometry; his convictions would be the theorems, and his actions the problems which were fastened to one another by iron links. Man would be a creature of mind, but where would there be room for his heart and its loving surrender to God, for his will and its resolve to listen to the Divine voice and obey it? These can only exist where man has power to give himself away, i.e., where he has moral freedom. And if we take away freedom and love and will in mans relation to God, there would be no meaning in them as between man and man. If we destroy the source there can be no streams, and sympathy and love and gratitude, the feelings which unite men in families and friendships, cease to exist; these have their life, not in necessary chains of reasoning, but in the free exchange of the soul. In such a world God might be a supreme architect and mechanician, building up a universe by fixed physical laws; He might even be an author of scientific thought leading forth intellects into higher and wider investigations in the track of His own creations; but He could not be a Father and Friend, drawing to Him the love of children for the glimpses they have of the supreme beauty of His purity, and the pulsations that come throbbing from the love of His heart. The universe might be a temple, but where would be the worshippers with songs of love and joy and self-devotion?…God could not make spiritual truths subject to the laws of mental demonstration, without making them no more spiritual-without depriving man of his freedom, and leaving him no room for his heart and conscience and spirit. If there are to be ties of sympathy between man and God, and an immortality which has in its bosom an eternal life, man must be dealt with as capable, not only of knowledge, but of the choice of love. God has made man capable of faith, but therefore also of unbelief; the kind of proof He gives him may persuade, but will not constrain. God does not force His own existence upon men. (John Ker, D. D.)

The character of unbelief

We begin, then-

I. With speculative unbelief; that unbelief which shapes itself into a creed, denying either the being of a God or the inspiration of the Bible. And we say it is a marvel, whether regarded as a matter of taste or of judgment, as a matter of taste, or preference, or choice. We are astonished that any man should be willing to disbelieve these great facts. Take atheism. Even if there be no God, still we should suppose that any intelligent being would wish there were one. The simple idea of living in a world, sustained and managed by no almighty and benevolent intelligence, and which the next hour some tremendous brute and blind force might shatter and send back to the old primordial chaos, this very thought is so dreadful that our very instincts recoil from it. Even if atheism were a logical belief, we should expect every man to argue against it-that men of philosophy and science would go abroad through creation, climbing every mountain, traversing every desert, sounding every ocean, descending into all the spectral caverns of geology, ascending all the sublime heights of astronomy, questioning all phenomena, or forces, or forms of nature, in the intensest agony of a desire to find evidences for a God, crying in the words and accents of a child searching for an absent father, O tell me, tell me! have you not seen Him? have you not heard Him? In all these broad realms is there no print of His footsteps? no trace of His handiwork? Am I, indeed, a poor, wretched, forlorn orphan? O tell me, tell me! is there not a God? Now, I repeat it, all this is simply marvellous. It is marvellous that a man should choose rather to be a creature of chance than child of Jehovah; and more marvellous that he should take testimony rather of pulsating spawn than of soaring seraphim, and choose rather to follow a reptiles trail in the mire to Gods awful grave, than mount exultingly in the glorious track of an archangel to Gods everlasting throne.

II. That practical unbelief which consists in a personal rejection of the gospel of Christ, as manifest in the man who, believing in God, and accepting the Bible as His inspired Word, yet goes on, from day to day, putting his eternity away from him as carelessly-yea, as resolutely as if he stood boldly forth with the infidel, professing to believe that God is but a phantom, and the Bible a lie. We say the attitude of this man is even more wonderful than the other. We are less astonished at an intellectual mistake than at a great practical blunder. We are not so profoundly shocked when a blind man walks off a precipice as when a man does the thing when possessed of all his senses, and with his eyes wide open. To believe that in this world of probation we are positively working out our own salvation, absolutely settling the question whether we are to be saved or whether we are to be lost; that there is a heaven of inconceivable and everlasting happiness and glory, and yet turn madly away when its gates are lifted up to our immortal footsteps-is to make exhibition of a folly immeasurable, and all the angels of heaven must stand astonished at the spectacle, and the omniscient Son of God marvels at our unbelief. (C. Wadsworth, D. D.)

Jesus wondering at mans unbelief

I. Who marvelled? The Son of God. He did not marvel amiss.

II. At whom did He marvel? At the men of Galilee. He had been brought up among them.

III. At what did He marvel? Why, at their unbelief.

1. Because it was so unreasonable. He had done everything to prevent it.

2. It was so unkind. He had yearned over them.

3. It was so sinful.

4. It was so unprofitable.

5. It was so dangerous.

6. It was so wilful.

1. Sinner, Jesus marvels at your unbelief.

2. Anxious soul, Jesus marvels at your unbelief.

3. Backslider, Jesus marvels at your unbelief.

4. Believer, Jesus marvels at your unbelief. (H. Bonar, D. D.)

The sad wonder

I. To the people of God.

1. The wonderful forms of unbelief that are found among the professed people of God.

(a) At times they doubt the wisdom of providence.

(b) Mistrust of the Divine faithfulness.

(c) The efficacy of prayer is doubted.

(d) The power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(e) The efficacy of the precious blood of Christ.

2. Why they are so wonderful.

(a) Because of believers relationship to the Father and the Lord Jesus.

(b) Because faith is backed up by such wonderful historical facts.

(c) The personal experience of the present.

(d) It is wonderful when we consider our own beliefs.

II. To the unconverted.

1. You have no saving trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

2. Some are afraid theirs is an exceptional case.

3. Such unbelief is marvellous because-

(a) The cause is inexcusable.

(b) With some of you it is little more than a mere whim.

(c) It causes you so much grief,

(d) It has existed so long. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Marvellous unbelief

Unbelief, as regards Jesus Christ, is surprising because of-

I. Mans proneness to exercise faith.

II. The number and power of the evidences which encourage faith in him. The people whose unbelief amazed Jesus had many and weighty reasons for faith.

1. His holy life.

2. His wise teaching (verse 2; Luk_4:22).

3. His mighty works (verse 2).

4. The agreement of these things with the Messianic predictions (Luk_4:18-21).

III. The dread consequences of such unbelief. By unbelief man-

1. Foregoes the most precious blessings.

2. Incurs the most terrible condemnation (Joh_3:16-19; Joh_8:24). (W. Joules.)

Unbelief

I. Unbelief restrains Christ. His beneficence was restrained by the lack of faith. While Jesus never defined faith, He did not demand great faith before He blessed men, but responded to the weakest. But the absence of faith restrained Him. The reason of this. Sceptics sometimes object that Christs miracles were a matter of faith … There was no real cure … They use the word faith as if synonymous with imagination, excitement, etc. But a lame man cannot possibly imagine himself able to walk, etc. It is not the faith of a frenzied, heated imagination, but the faith that gave up to Christ to do as He pleased, etc. This was essential. Is often illustrated in common life. You cannot know the skill of your physician until you trust him. You cannot know the full benefit of friendship until you trust your friend. A regiment cannot prove the military skill and courage of their captain until they trust him.

II. Unbelief astonishes Christ. He has shown His power in manifold ways. He has promised His grace and strength, and He is astonished that we still refuse to trust Him. The argument for trusting Christ gathers strength every day. The reproach of unbelief gathers strength every day. (Colmer B. Symes, B. A.)

Unbelief

I. The evil of unbelief.

1. Unbelief undervalues all the perfections of Deity.

2. Unbelief insults all the persons of the Godhead.

3. Unbelief renders the all-important work of salvation impossible.

II. The causes of unbelief.

1. There is the natural depravity of the heart (Heb_3:12).

2. There is ignorance, or blindness, of mind.

3. There is love of sin.

4. There is satanic influence (2Co_4:14).

5. There is the pride of human nature.

III. The effects of unbelief.

1. It keeps us in a state of condemnation before God.

2. It renders useless all the provisions of the gospel.

3. It is a sin for which there can be no remedy.

4. It is a sin peculiar to those favoured with the light of the gospel.

5. A sin which, if not abandoned, must consign to eternal remediless perdition.

1. Your responsibility. God calls upon you to believe.

2. However feeble faith is, if exercised, it shall be increased.

3. Let it be exercised now. The word is nigh thee, etc. (Rom_10:8-17). (J. Burns, LL. D.)

The sin of unbelief

There are three general forms of unbelief.

1. That of scepticism, either doubting or rejecting the truths of religion and morals in general, or the Divine origin and authority of the Bible in particular.

2. Want of faith and confidence in God, in His promises and providence, which may and often does co-exist with a speculative belief of the Scriptures.

3. The rejection or failure to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as He is revealed and offered in the Bible. These several forms of unbelief, although they have their common source in an evil heart, have, nevertheless, their specific causes and their peculiar form of guilt.

I. Scepticism. This arises-

1. From pride of intellect; assuming to know what is beyond our reach, and refusing to receive what we cannot understand; setting ourselves up as capable of discerning and proving all truth.

2. From the neglect of our moral nature and giving up ourselves to the guidance of the speculative reason.

3. From the enmity of the heart to the things of God; or opposition in our tastes, feelings, desires, and purposes, to the truths and requirements of the things of religion.

4. From frivolous vanity, or the desire to be thought independent, or upon a par with the illuminate. The sinfulness of this form of unbelief is manifest.

(1) As pride, self-exaltation is sinful and offensive in such a feeble insignificant creature as man.

(2) As the habitude of the moral nature which makes it possible to believe a lie, is evidence of moral degradation.

(3) As opposition to the truth is opposition to the God of truth, it is alienation from Him, in which all sin consists. Hence unbelief is the generic form of sin. It is the general expression of aberration, and the opposition of our nature to His. It is, therefore, the source of all other sins.

II. Unbelief, or want of confidence in the doctrines, the promises, and providences of God. This may exist in even the hearts of believers. It is a matter of degree. It arises either-

1. From the entire absence, or from the low state, of religious life.

2. Or from the habit of looking at ourselves, and on difficulties about, us rather than at God.

3. Or from refusing to believe what we do not see.

If God does not manifest His care, does not at once fulfil His promise, then our faith fails. The sinfulness of this state of mind is apparent.

1. Because it evinces a low state of Divine life.

2. Because it dishonours God, refusing to Him the confidence due to an earthly friend and parent, which is a very heinous offence, considering His greatness and goodness, and the evidences which He has given of His fidelity and trustworthiness.

3. Because it is a manifestation of the same spirit which dominates in the open infidel. It is unbelief in a form which it assumes in a mind in which it has not absolute control. But it is in all its manifestations hateful to God.

III. Unbelief in reference to Christ. This is a refusing to recognize and receive Him as being what He claims to be.

1. As God manifest in the flesh.

2. As the messenger and teacher sent from God.

3. As our atoning sacrifice and priest.

4. As having rightfully absolute proprietorship in us and authority over us.

This is the greatest of sins. It is the condemning sin. Its heinousness consists-

1. In its opposition to the clearest light. He who cannot see the sun must be stone blind.

2. It is the rejection of the clearest external evidence which evinces the opposition of the heart.

3. It is the rejection of infinite love, and the disregard of the greatest obligation.

4. It is the deliberate preference of the kingdom of Satan before that of Christ-of Belial to Christ. (C. Hodge, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mark

THE MASTER REJECTED: THE SERVANTS SENT FORTH

CHRIST THWARTED

Mar 6:5 - Mar 6:6.

It is possible to live too near a man to see him. Familiarity with the small details blinds most people to the essential greatness of any life. So these fellow-villagers of Jesus in Nazareth knew Him too well to know Him rightly as they talked Him over; they recognised His wisdom and His mighty works; but all the impression that these would have made was neutralised by their acquaintance with His former life, and they said, ‘Why, we have known Him ever since He was a boy. We used to take our ploughs and yokes to Him to mend in the carpenter’s shop. His brothers and sisters are here with us. Where did He get His wisdom?’ So they said; and so it has been ever since. ‘A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country.’

Surrounded thus by unsympathetic carpers, Jesus Christ did not exercise His full miraculous power. Other Evangelists tell us of these limitations, but Mark is alone in the strength of his expression. The others say ‘did no mighty works’; Mark says ‘could do no mighty works.’ Startling as the expression is, it is not to be weakened down because it is startling, and if it does not fit in with your conceptions of Christ’s nature, so much the worse for the conceptions. Matthew states the reason for this limitation more directly than Mark does, for he says, ‘He did no mighty works because of their unbelief.’ But Mark suggests the reason clearly enough in his next clause, when he says: ‘He marvelled because of their unbelief.’ There is another limitation of Christ’s nature, He wondered as at an astonishing and unexpected thing, We read that He ‘marvelled’ twice: once at great faith, once at great unbelief. The centurion’s faith was marvellous; the Nazarenes’ unbelief was as marvellous. The ‘wild grapes’ bore clusters more precious than the tended ‘vines’ in the ‘vineyard.’ Faith and unbelief do not depend upon opportunity, but upon the bent of the will and the sense of need.

But I have chosen these words now because they put in its strongest shape a truth of large importance, and of manifold applications-viz., that man’s unbelief hampers and hinders Christ’s power. Now let me apply that principle in two or three directions.

I. Let us look at this principle in connection with the case before us in the text.

You will find that, as a rule and in the general, our Lord’s miracles require faith, either on the part of the persons helped, or on the part of those who interceded for them. But whilst that is the rule there are distinct exceptions, as for instance, in the case of the feeding of the thousands, and in the case of the raising of the widow’s son of Nain, as well as in other examples. And here we find that, though the prevalent unbelief hindered the flow of our Lord’s miraculous power, it did not so hinder it as to stop some little trickle of the stream. ‘He laid His hands on a few sick folk, and healed them.’ The brook was shrunken as compared with the abundance of the flood recorded in the previous chapter.

Now, why was that? There is no such natural connection between faith and the working of a miracle as that the latter is only possible in conjunction with the former. And the exceptions show us that Jesus Christ was not so limited as that men’s unbelief could wholly prevent the flow of His love and His power. But still there was a restriction. And what sort of a ‘could not’ was it that thus hampered Him in His work? We know far too little about the conditions of miracle-working to entitle us to dogmatise on such a matter, but I suppose that we may venture to say this, that the working of the miracles was ‘impossible’ in the absence of faith and the presence of its opposite, regard being had to the purposes of the miracle and of Christ’s whole work. It was not congruous, it was not morally possible, that He should force His benefits upon unwilling recipients.

Now, I need not do more than just in a sentence call attention to the bearing of this fact upon the true notion of the purpose of Christ’s miraculous works. A superficial, and, as I think, very vulgar, estimate, says that Christ’s miracles were chiefly designed to produce faith in Him and in His mission. If that had been their purpose, the very place for the most abundant exhibition of them would have been the place where unbelief was most pronounced. The atmosphere of non-receptiveness and non-sympathy would have been the very one that ought to have evoked them most. Where the darkness was the deepest, there should the torch have flared. Where the stupor was most complete, there should the rousing shock have been administered. But the very opposite is the case. Where faith is present already, the miracle comes. Where faith is absent, miracles fail. Therefore, though a subsidiary purpose of our Lord’s miracles was, no doubt, to evoke faith in His mission, their chief purpose is not to be found in that direction. It was a condescension to men’s weakness and obstinacy when He said, ‘If ye believe not Me, believe the works.’ But the works were signs, symbols, manifestations on the lower material platform of what lie would be and do for men in the higher, and they were the outcome of His own loving heart and ever-flowing compassion, and only secondarily were they taken, and have they ever been taken, when Christian faith has been robust and intelligent, as being evidences of His Messiahship and Divinity.

But there is another consideration that I would like to suggest in reference to this limitation of our Lord’s power, by reason of the prevalence of an atmosphere of unbelief, and that is that it is a pathetic proof of His manhood’s being influenced by all the emotions and circumstances that influence us. We all know how hearts expand in the warm atmosphere of affection and sympathy, and shut themselves up like tender flowerets when the cold east wind blows. And just as a great orator subtly feels the sympathy of his audience, and is buoyed up by it to higher flights, while in the presence of cold and indifferent and critical hearers his tongue stammers, and he falls beneath himself, so we may reverently say Jesus Christ could not put forth His mightiest and most abundant miraculous powers when the cold wind of unbelieving criticism blew in His face.

If that is true, what a glimpse it gives us of the conditions of His earthly life, and how wonderful it makes that love which, though it was hampered, was never stifled by the presence of scorn and malice and of hatred. He is our Brother, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh; and even when the divinity within was in possession of the power of working the miracle, the humanity in which it dwelt felt the presence of the cold frost and closed its petals. ‘He could do no mighty works,’ and it was ‘because of their unbelief.’

II. But now, secondly, let us apply this principle in regard to Christ’s working on ourselves.

I have said that there was no such natural connection between faith and miracle as that miracle was absolutely impossible in the absence of faith. But when we lift the thought into the higher region of our religious and spiritual life, we do come across an absolute impossibility. There, in regard to all that appertains to the inward life of a soul, Christ can do no mighty works, in the absence of our faith. By faith, I mean, of course, not the mere intellectual reception of the Christian narratives or of the Christian doctrines as true, but I mean what the Bible means by it always, a process subsequent to that intellectual reception-viz., the motion of the will and of the heart towards Christ. Faith is belief, but belief is not faith. Faith is belief plus trust. And it is that which is the condition of all Christ’s gifts being received by any of us.

Now, a great many people seem to think that what Jesus Christ brings to the world, and offers to each of us, is simply the escape from the penal consequences of our past transgressions. If you conceive salvation to be nothing else than shutting the doors of an outward hell, and opening the doors of an outward Heaven, I can quite understand why you should boggle at the thought that faith is a condition of these. For if salvation is such a material, external, and forensic matter as that, then I do not see why God should not have given it to everybody, without any conditions at all. But if you will understand rightly what Christ’s gifts are, you will see that they cannot be bestowed upon men irrespective of the condition of their wills, desires, and hearts.

For what is salvation? What are the blessings that Jesus Christ bestows? A new life, a new love, new desires, a new direction of the whole being, a new spirit within us. These are the gifts; and how can these be given to a man if he has not trust in the Giver? Salvation is at bottom that a man’s will shall be harmonised with the will of God. But if a man has not faith, his will is discordant with the will of God, and how can it be harmonised and discordant at the same time? What are the powers by which Christ works upon men’s hearts? His truth, His love, His Spirit. How can a truth operate if it is not believed? How can love bless and cherish if it is not trusted? How can the Spirit hallow and cleanse if it is not yielded to? The condition is inherent in the nature of God the Giver, of man the receiver, and of the gifts bestowed.

And so we understand the metaphors that put that inevitable connection in various forms. Faith is ‘a door.’ How can you enter if the door be fast closed? He knocks; if any man opens He comes in. If a man does not open,

‘He can but listen at the gate,

And hear the household jar within.’

Faith is the connection between the fountain and the reservoir. If there be no such connection, how can the reservoir be filled? Faith is the hand with stretched-out empty palms, and widespread fingers for the reception of the gifts. How can the gifts be put into it if it hangs listless by the side, or in obstinately closed and pushed behind the back? He ‘can do no mighty works’ on an unbelieving soul.

Now, brethren, let me insist, in one sentence, on this solemn truth; God would save every man if He could, faith or no faith. But the condition which brings faith into connection with salvation as its necessary prerequisite is no arbitrary condition. The love of God cannot alter it. In the nature of things it must be so. ‘He that believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be condemned.’ That is no result of an artificial scheme, but of the necessities of the case.

Again, let me remind you that the measure of our faith is the measure of our possession of these gifts. Our Lord more than once put the whole doctrine of this matter, in regard, however, to the lower plane of miracle, when He said, ‘According to your faith be it unto you,’ ‘Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.’ We have an inheritance like that of men who get a piece of land in some mining district: so much as we peg out and claim is ours, and no more.

Let me narrate a parable of my own making. There was once a king who told all his people that on a given day the fountain in the market-place in the centre of the city would flow with wine and other precious liquors, and that every man was free to bring his vessel and carry away as much as he would. The man that brought a tiny wineglass got a glassful; the man that brought a gallon pitcher got that full. The measure of your desires is the measure of your possessions of Christ’s power. Our faith determines the amount of His cleansing, healing, vivifying energy which will reside in us. The width of the bore of the water-pipe that is laid down settles the amount of water that will come into your cistern. The water may be high outside the lock. If the lock-gate be kept fast closed, the height of the water outside produces no raising of the low level of that within, If you open a chink of the gate a trickle will pass through, and if you fling the gates wide the levels will be the same on both sides. The only limit of our possession of God is our faith and desire. The true limit is His own boundlessness. It is possible that a man may be ‘filled with all the fulness of God; but the real working limit for each of us is our own faith. So, brethren, endless progress is possible for us, on condition of continual trust.

III. Lastly, let us apply this principle in regard to Christ’s working through His people.

Jesus Christ cannot work mightily through a feebly believing Church. And here is the reason why Christianity has taken so long to do so little in this world of ours; and why nineteen centuries after the Cross and Pentecost there remaineth yet so much land to be possessed. ‘Ye are not straitened in Me, ye are straitened in your own selves.’ We hinder Christ from doing His work through us by reason of our own unbelief. The men that have done most for the Lord Jesus, and for their fellows in this world, have been of all sorts, of all conditions, of all grades of intellectual ability and acquirement; some of them scholars, some of them tinkers, some of them philosophers, some of them next door to fools. They have belonged to different communions and have held different ecclesiastical and theological dogmas, and sometimes, alas! they have not been able to discern each other’s Christlike lineaments. But there is one thing in which they have all been alike, and that is that they have been men of faith, intense, operative, perpetual. And that is why they have succeeded. If we were what we might be, ‘full of faith.’ we should, as the Acts of the Apostles teaches us, by its collocation in the description of one of its characters, be ‘full of the Holy Spirit and of power.’

Brethren, you hear a great deal to-day about new ways of Christian working, about the necessity of adapting the forms of setting forth Christ’s truth to the spirit of the age, and new ideas. Adopt new methods if you like; methods are not sacred. Fashion new forms of presenting Christian truths if you please; our forms are only forms. But you may alter your methods and you may modify your dogmas as you like, and you will do nothing to move the world unless the Church is again baptized with the Divine Spirit, which will only be the case if the Church again puts forth a far mightier faith than it exercises to-day. If only we will trust Jesus Christ absolutely, and live near Him by our faith, His power will flow into us, and of us, too, it will be said, ‘through faith they wrought righteousness . . . subdued kingdoms . . . waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.’ But if the low level of average Christian faith in all the churches is not elevated, then the attempts to conquer the world by half-believing Christians will meet with the old fate, and the man in whom the evil spirit was will leap upon them and overcome them, and say, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?’ ‘Why could we not cast him out?’ And He answered and said unto them, ‘Because of your unbelief.’

Brethren, we may starve in the midst of plenty, if we lock our lips. We can be like some obstinate black rock, washed over for ever by the Atlantic surges, and yet so close-grained that only the surface is moistened, and, an inch within, it is dry. ‘Neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, is able to separate you from the love and power of God which are in Christ Jesus our Lord,’ But you can separate yourselves, and you do separate yourselves, by your unbelief. The all-sufficiency of Christ’s redemption, and the yearning of His love to bless each of us individually, will be nothing to us if we lift up between Him and us the black barrier of unbelief, and so dam back the stream that was meant to give life to all the world and life to us. Christ infinitely desires to bless us, but He cannot unless we trust Him. I beseech you, do not let this be the epitaph on your tombstone:-’Christ could there do no mighty work because of his unbelief.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6:5-6 Faith and healing are frequently connected in Mark (2:5; 5:34, 36; 9:23-24; 10:52). Jesus’ miracles were not performances but the partial realization of God’s Kingdom; entrance to that Kingdom and its benefits require repentance and faith (1:15). • A few sick people were healed, but the unbelief that Jesus encountered in his own village amazed him, a unique occurrence. • This section of Mark (3:7–6:6a) speaks of Jesus’ rejection by his family (3:21, 31-35), the scribes (3:22), and the people of Gerasa (5:17); it ends with rejection by people in his hometown (6:1-6a). Along the way, a few people believed and were healed. This ending is similar to the ending of the previous section (1:14–3:6).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mar 6:5. Οὐκ ἠδύνατο, He could not) That is, mighty works could not be done, because the men were incapacitated [for the benefit through unbelief].—ὀλίγοις, a few) implying the quantity.—ἀῤῥώστοις, infirm) implying the quality.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 6:5 . οὐκ ἠδύνατο , etc., He was not able to do any mighty work, which is qualified by the added clause, that He placed His hands on a few ailing persons ( ἀρρώστοις ); quite minor cures, not to be compared with those reported in the previous chapter. For this statement Mt. substitutes: He did not there many mighty works.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That is, he would not: for we must needs have faith, if we will receive the works of God.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 5. See Clarke on Mr 6:4.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(5) He laid his hands.—St. Matthew says simply, “not many miracles.” The fuller description is peculiar to St. Mark.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. no mighty work] Literally, no power. He performed some miracles, but not all He would have done, because of their deep-seated unbelief. His miraculous power was not magical. It was an influence which required and presupposed faith.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he could there do no mighty work,.... Or miracle; not that Christ had no power in himself to work miracles, though their unbelief and contempt of him were very great; but it was not fit and proper that he should do any there, since such were their prejudices against him: it is an usual way of speaking with the Hebrews, when either it is not "fit" and proper that a thing should be done, or they "will" not do it, to say it cannot be done; see Gen 19:22; and even it is said of God himself, "So that the Lord could no longer bear, because of your evil doings", Jer 44:22. Not but that he could if he would, but he would not; nor was it fit and proper that he should; the same is the sense here: besides, in Mat 13:58 it is said, "he did not many mighty works there"; and so the Arabic version here, "and he did not many mighty works there"; he did not think it proper to do any of any great consequence, nor did he. Wherefore the Jew (u) has no reason to object this to the divinity of Christ, as if there was a want of power in him. Christ is omnipotent, and he has given proof of his almighty power, by the miracles which he has wrought; and though he wrought no mighty work "there", yet he wrought many elsewhere, which sufficiently attest the truth of his proper deity: the emphasis lies upon the word there; though he did not work any considerable miracle in that place, he did in others; which shows, that it was not a defect of power in him, that was the reason of it, but something else; and Matthew gives the reason of it, and says, it was "because of their unbelief": not that their unbelief was an over match for his power; he could have removed that, if he had thought fit, but he did not do it; he, who is the author and finisher of faith, could have took away their unbelief, as the man that brought his dumb child to Christ, concluded he could; and therefore said to him, "Lord, help my unbelief", Mar 9:24. Christ sometimes required of the persons he was about to heal, faith in him, that he could heal them; and so did his apostles, Mat 9:28. Not that faith contributed any thing to the cure, but it was the way and means in which Christ was pleased to communicate his healing virtue: besides, when persons applied to him for healing, and expressed their faith in him, it gave him an opportunity of working a miracle for that purpose; but now these people did not so much as ask such a favour of him, and so gave him no occasion of doing any mighty work; for which reason it may be said, he could not, no opportunity offering: and moreover, seeing they disbelieved him, and rejected him as the Messiah, they were unworthy of having any wrought among them; and it was but just and right, to do none: nay, it was rather an instance of kindness not to do any among them; since had he, and they had remained impenitent and unbelieving, as he knew they would, these would have been aggravations of their condemnation.

Save that he laid his hands upon a sick folk, and healed them. There were some few sick people that had faith in him, and came to him, beseeching him to heal them; and accordingly he did lay his hands on them, and cured them, which was a way he sometimes used: and these cures he wrought, to show his power, what he could do, and what benefits they might have enjoyed by him, and to leave them inexcusable.

(u) MS. Lusit. N. 83. apud Kidder, Demonstr. of the Messiah, par. 2. p. 59.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.

Ver. 5. He could do there no mighty work] He could not, because he would not. Note here the venomous nature of infidelity, that transfuseth, as it were, a dead palsy into the hands of omnipotence, disabling Christ, in a sort, to do such a man good. Christ by his absolute power can do all things: by his actual power he can do no more than he will do.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he could not[1] do any miracle there.]

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

in Scripture, is divers times the same as nolle. So Genesis xxxvii, it is said of Joseph’s brothers, they could not, (non poterant) i.e. would not, speak to him peaceably. See John xii. 39, &c.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Vers. 5, 6. And he could there do no mighty work. This is a remarkable expression. He could do no mighty work there. The words imply want of power that in some sense or other he was unable to do it. He did indeed perform some miracles. He laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them; but he wrought none of his greater miracles there. Of course, even these less striking miracles ought to have sufficed. in a miracle there must be the suspension of some known law of nature; and one clear instance of such suspension ought to be as conclusive as a hundred. Then it must be remembered that it is not God"s method in his dealings with his creatures to force conviction upon them when the ordinary means prove insufficient. For men"s actions must be free if they are to be made the test of judgment, and they would not be free if God constrained men to obey his will. The men of Nazareth had sufficient evidence had they not chosen to be blinded, and a greater amount of evidence would only have increased their condemnation. So their unbelief thwarted his purposes of mercy, and he went in and out amongst them like one hampered and disabled, marvelling at their unbelief, or rather marveling because of their unbelief (dia than autwn). The condition of mind of these Nazarenes was what caused amazement to the Saviour. At length he turned away from Nazareth, never, so far as we know, to visit it again; for this was their second opportunity, and the second occasion which they deliberately rejected him. What, however, they refused he immediately offered to others. He was not discouraged. He went round about the villages teaching.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He could do no miracle there - Not consistently with his wisdom and goodness. It being inconsistent with his wisdom to work them there, where it could not promote his great end; and with his goodness, seeing he well knew his countrymen would reject whatever evidence could be given them. And therefore to have given them more evidence, would only have increased their damnation.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The result of the opposition:

v. 5. And He could there do no mighty work, save that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk and healed them.

v. 6a. And He marveled because of their unbelief.

Jesus had come with an open hand to distribute from His own bounty and that of His Father. The reception accorded Him shut off the people from the gifts of His mercy. Unbelief hindered the exhibition of the Lord’s miraculous power. Unbelief always stops the hand of God when He extends it to shower His benefits upon mankind. Unbelief is, therefore, the sin of sins, since it rejects what God is so willing to give in and through Christ. Jesus indeed, in a quiet way, performed a few miracles in laying His hands upon a few sick persons, but these were exceptions. The community as such received no benefit from the visit of Jesus. Their unbelief was such that it caused even Jesus to wonder. To us, of course, it is an even greater mystery that men should reject Jesus and the Word of their salvation. But that should not cause us to become disheartened in our work for Him; the result of our labors is in His hands.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. He could do there no mighty work. Matthew states the reason: “Because of their unbelief.” It was not from want of power, but of the conditions that he required. Those in need of help must either have faith enough to seek his help, or their friends must have faith. As faith is the condition of the salvation of the soul, so Christ required it as a condition of the salvation of the body from disease or death.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

5. οὐκ ἐδύνατο … δύναμιν. The verbal play is perhaps intentional; “He had no power to do any work of power” (McLaren). Mt. does not like οὐκ ἐδύνατο of Christ and says οὐκ ἐποίησεν. Origen points out that Mk does not say οὐκ ἤθελεν: the defect was on their side not His. Faith was necessary on both sides, where faith was possible. Christ always believed that He had the ἐξουσία to heal, but faith on the part of the afflicted (or those who were responsible for them) might be wanting; then, οὐκ ἐδύνατο· ἐνεπόδιζε γὰρ αὐτῷ ἡ ἀπιστία. οὐκ ἔδει βιαίως εὐεργετεῖν αὐτούς (Euthym.). He was not ἀσθενής, but they were ἄπιστοι (Theoph.). Jerome needlessly remarks that He could do much good even to those who did not believe; but the good in question was healing of body, not of soul: and Bede introduces an idea foreign to the passage when he suggests that it was in mercy that Christ did few mighty works, for, had He done many, the guilt of their unbelief would have been increased. Dr Abbott thinks that Jn (Mar 5:19; Mar 5:30) may be covering Mk’s statement, which was disliked by some, when he quotes Christ as saying “The Son can do nothing of Himself” (The Fourfold Gospel, Introd. p. 23).

ποιῆσαι. Aor. infin. after δύναμαι. See on Mar 1:40.

οὐκ … εἰ μὴ. Cf. Mar 8:14; and for ἐπιθεὶς τ. χεῖρας, Mar 5:23.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. οὐκ ἐδύνατο] The want of ability spoken of is not absolute, but relative: οὐχ ὅτι αὐτὸς ἀσθενὴς ἦν, ἀλλʼ ὅτι ἐκεῖνοι ἄπιστοι ἦσαν. Thl. The same voice, which could still the tempests, could any where and under any circumstances have commanded diseases to obey; but in most cases of human infirmity, it was our Lord’s practice to require faith in the recipient of aid: and that being wanting, the help could not be given. However, from what follows, we find that in a few instances it did exist, and the help was given accordingly.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. οὐκ ἐδύνατο—he could not. Of course, this was a moral inability. Jesus required faith for the performance of his miracles, and that was wanting here; nay, there was a positive disbelief, no mere doubt. He found elsewhere a poor wavering faith, but not enough lack to hinder his work of physical healing, though it kept him out of men’s souls. But here the general unbelief of the nation reached its climax, and prevented even this one good that his countrymen generally permitted him to do them.

εἰ μὴ ἐθεράπευσε—except that he healed.1 ἀρῥώστοις—sick folk EV.2

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Sick [αρρωστοις] . From aj, not, and rJwnnumi, to strengthen. Sickness regarded as constitutional weakness.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.