“And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.”
He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them — the could not is one of the most startling statements in Mark. Jesus could not do miracles in Nazareth — not would not but could not. The constraint is the absence of faith: miracles are not coercive displays of divine power independent of human response but require the cooperation of faith. This does not mean that faith generates the miracle's power; it means that faith is the necessary channel through which the kingdom's power is received. The few healings that do occur (those who brought themselves to Jesus, presumably with some faith) confirm that the constraint is not absolute inability but the absence of the faith that receives healing.
Church Fathers on Mark 6:5
After the miracles which have been related, the Lord returns into His own country, not that He was ignorant that they would despise Him, but that they might have no reason to say, If Thou hadst come, we had believed Thee.
He means by His country, Nazareth, in which He was brought up. But how great the blindness of the Nazarenes! they despise Him, Who by His words and deeds they might know to be the Christ, solely on account of His kindred.
Matthew indeed says that He was called the son of a carpenter; nor are we to wonder, since both might have been said, for they believed Him to be a carpenter, because He was the son of a carpenter.
Read all 8 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!