A Prophet Without Honor

Mark is the shortest Gospel chapter-wise, and I finished reading through it yesterday and today. But before I got to Mark, I read through Matthew. Jesus visits His home town, Nazareth, and is rejected by His own people. They take offense at what He says and are astonished at his teaching. And Jesus says this, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household."

But He didn't just meet resistance and unbelief in Nazareth, for many people, homes, and towns refused to acknowledge who He really was. And as I read through Mark with that quote in mind, many of the accounts of Jesus ministry stood out to me as the Israelites rejected Him. He truly was a Man without apparent honor. He came to earth in a way that seemed dishonorable, and He died in earthly humiliation.

Perhaps the most forceful resistance came from the Pharisees, as they were the ones who ultimately rejected Christ and crucified Him. In Mark the scribes question Jesus' motives for healing the paralyzed man, and the scribes and Pharisees doubt Jesus when He goes to eat with the sinners and tax collectors. They accuse Jesus and his disciples of unlawful activity when they eat corn on the Sabbath, and they watch Christ to hope to accuse Him when He heals a man on the Sabbath. Other people beg Jesus to leave after he frees a man from the hold of demons. The Pharsees critisize Jesus disciples for not following man-made traditions, and though many are astonished by His teaching, their hearts are hardened to the truth. Those He ministers to can't decide if He's the resurrected John the Baptist, Elijah, or another of the prophets. And those who are so close to the truth turn away because it could cost them their material possessions.  His disciples consist of a bunch of men who don't understand His teaching and who fight for greatness among themselves. Men who betray and deny Him. And who leave His side at the moment they are needed most, even though they pledged their loyalty to Him. His forerunner, John the Baptist, is killed because of Herod's foolish oath. The most religious men of the time continue to defy the heart of the Gospel by selling and buying in His holy temple, and Jesus drives them out. He weeps when a friend dies and also when He looks out over the city He would have welcomed into His arms, but they would not believe. His brothers and sisters don't even believe in Him. He's captured by the people He will die to save. He's betrayed by one who had first-hand experience in the the love of the Son. He's denied by the man who proclaimed Him to be the Messiah. A ruler condemns Christ to death in order to please the Jewish leaders. He's dressed up in a robe and mocked. He's bears the curse of sin as He hangs on a cross. He's forsaken of God.

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom mend hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted...[he] was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many. 

(Isaiah 53:3, 7, 12) 

But the Son of Man who endured so much dishonor from His own creation, received complete and lasting honor when He was taken up into glory and seated at the right hand of the Father. His dishonor here was finished, and He now shares in the majesty of God. 

But there were some who honored the Lord and loved Him. There were the disciples that, for all their unloveliness, did follow Him in His ministry and carried on His message. There were those in the crowds who gave glory to God when they saw the sick healed. Two of His brothers write of Christ and are included in our Canon today. The wind and the sea honor and obey Him when He commands them to be still. The woman whose great faith prompts her to just touch Jesus clothing in order to be healed. The disciple that Jesus loved. The Syropheonician woman's faith. The disciple to whom it is revealed that Jesus is the Christ. The father who says "I believe; help my unbelief!" The blind man who receives sight and follows Jesus. The widow who probably didn't even know that Jesus was watching her give all that she had.  Mary who anoints Christ's feet in silent worship. And the women who loved Him enough to watch His death and then prepare His body for burial. And the disciple who admits "My Lord, and my God!"

The Prophet who came with a message for His own people was ultimately rejected. And though He was without honor in His home, He isn't anymore--that's why we have salvation. And so, too, it is with us. Jesus' followers were all without honor in their living and dying here on earth, but they were received into glory, and the shame of a temporary life compares nothing to the glory which shall come.

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.

Hebrews 2:9-11a