We are going through the book of Mark; specifically this morning we went through Mark 6. This morning Mark 6:1-6 jumped out off the page and did a little dance on my heart. This is a passage that talks about familiarity with Jesus. Like hometown, watched Him grow up and work hard with His earthly father as a carpenter across the street from your parent's bake shop familiar. Jesus went back there; to a place where everyone still saw that timid, well-behaved, listen to His parents, kid. They did not have the image of a man who calms a storm, heals the sick, and sends demons into a herd of pigs that then runs over a cliff and drowns. They are so familiar with Him that they couldn't come to terms with who He really was/is. They were so familiar with Him that they missed Him. Y'all he marveled at their unbelief. MARVELED. They scoffed at this Man; the one they had watched grow up who was now proclaiming to be the Messiah they'd been preparing for. The Messiah that had been proclaimed in Isaiah; He was there right in front of them. Yet He marveled because they did not believe Him to be who He said.
I don't want to be those hometown people but too often I am. I grew up with Jesus everywhere; in my books, on my t-shirts, on my pencils and on my wrists. I got gold stars and awards at camp because I "memorized" the most Bible verses. I "knew" Jesus; He was familiar to me.
I don't want to know Him anymore. I want to learn Him, continuously. I don't want to be familiar with Jesus. Familiar in this particular context meaning complacent, meaning never seeking truth, meaning making my Jesus marvel.
I don't want Jesus to marvel at me in the way He did the people of His hometown. So, if it takes me not "knowing" my Jesus then so be it.
