Jesus is Coming Home: Three Types of People Who Will Block Your Blessings!

The pericope in Mark 6 narrates Jesus returning home to Nazareth and discovering that He could do "no great work" there due to the unbelief which pervaded. We may learn some theological lessons from Christ's encounter at home.

In the text, Jesus had launched a major crusade in the regions of Galilee, healing the sick, raising the dead and preaching and teaching. His success was so spectacular it reached the "Oval office" of his day - that of Herod the Tetrarch.

Perhaps for a little rest and relaxation, Jesus goes home to Nazareth, home to family and friends, home to mama's house.

Nazareth was economically depressed, due primarily to it being a low-hanging fruit in the vast Roman empire. Rome's imperial treasury failed to lift Nazareth from economic deprivation. Therefore, it remained a slum.

But Jesus is coming home! He endeavors to work miracles. Sadly, though, home does not come to Jesus.

For, Christ runs into three types of people in Nazareth, each of which represent three types of people who will block your blessings as you seek to do great work.

One, Christ runs into the stiff opposition from those closest to him: "Is not this the carpenter? Do we not know his sister?" (Mark 6:3a) Those closest to us are usually the biggest blocker of our blessings. You are the sum total of your five closest friends!

Second, Christ confronts a segment of his community who were entrenched in their own belief systems and who, thusly, resist his authority "And they were offended at him". (Mark 6:3b)

In Second Corinthians 10:4, Paul writes of "the tearing down of strongholds". Strongholds often represent any deeply rooted obstacle-ideologies, attitudes, or habits-that resists the knowledge of God. They are the mental and spiritual fortresses we build to protect our sense of identity.

Jesus encounters people at home who, like many people we know, were ingrained in their own silos and who opposed the knowledge of God.

The third type that Christ runs into at home were those who were suffering from, not the wounds of living, but rather the spiritual callousness resulting as a result of said wounds. This condition stemmed from their entrenched attitudes.

They had not been healed, and so therefore their wounds had hardened, forming a callous in their very hearts, causing them to become insensitive, indifferent and unsympathetic to the prophetic office of Christ: "A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” (Mark 6:4)

If you are not careful, those closest to you; those fixed in their belief systems and those suffering from spiritual indifference may block your blessings.

Because of this paralyzing spiritual condition in Nazareth - the home of Jesus! - the narrator pens twenty-seven of the most pitiful words in all of Scripture: "He could do no miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them and he was amazed at their lack of faith."

Jesus is coming home to you. In what condition will he find you?

Reach Pastor C. at: info@pastorwericcroomes.com