Perfected in Weakness
“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.”
It is hard to find images depicting what we see today in Mark 6: Jesus’s rejection in his hometown. What is unclear to me is whether that is because it is a difficult scene to depict, or because it is a scene we’d generally rather not meditate on. The reality that Jesus is rejected — not just by the Romans (the Powers that Be), the Scribes and Pharisees (some religious “other”), or the majority of his countrymen and co-religionists, but by his relatives and friends — rightly provokes some discomfort in us. Is it possible that we who are cultivating depth of spirituality and relationship with Jesus are in fact preparing our hearts not to receive, but to reject him?
The illuminations above capture this dynamic deliciously. I didn’t know that medieval illustrators knew how to depict heckling, but somehow that’s clearly what’s going on in the image on the left. There’s Jesus, the Word open before him and heaven open around him and the Spirit hovering above him, and the people are saying, “Pffft.” One guy even seems to be mocking him, donning the red inner and blue outer robes, and outfit usually reserved for Jesus. Jesus, meanwhile, seems a bit blue about the whole scenario … he’s wearing the purple of royalty, which becomes also — in his crucifixion — the purple of mockery and humiliation.
The other image is simpler, but perhaps sadder for its simplicity. The silent gestures of the people here say, “Off you go, Jesus!” and sure enough, there goes Jesus, taking the Word with him, acquiescing to their unbelief. Lord, have mercy!
A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown…
— Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Mark 6:4)
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Texts for This Week
Prayer
Grant us, O Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who can do no good thing apart from you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Inspired by Love and Anger
This 2015 hymn is a gem from the ecumenical and semi-monastic, peace and justice oriented Iona Community. It is, admittedly, a little stilted as a hymn, especially at first glance: the lyrics are oddly self-reflexive, and encourage us to dwell in our prophetic indignation and frustration rather than on the glory of God; they seem a little out of sync with the old Irish melody Salley’s Garden, to which they are set.
And yet, the delicious twist at the end of the song causes the whole to fit together beautifully. While we beat our breasts and tear our clothing and cry out, “How long?” God’s answer is “Already!” and he gestures to his Son, who he sent to save us, and whose salvation comes to us in ways we could not have expected or imagine.
Amused in someone's kitchen, asleep in someone's boat,
Attuned to what the ancients exposed, proclaimed and wrote,
A saviour without safety, a tradesman without tools
Has come to tip the balance with fishermen and fools.
Jesus subverts our frustration with the brokenness of our own lives, and our righteous indignation at the brokenness of the world, and brings to us a salvation that we were not expecting or looking for: in fact, a salvation we might even resent for its felt-disjuncture from our felt-needs. But thanks be to God: our rejection of Jesus neither disrupts his work of salvation, nor his love for us.
