Mark 6:1-6

CONTENTS.

The LORD JESUS is here, spoken of with contempt by his countrymen. He sends forth his Disciples. Herod hears of CHRIST, and is alarmed. JESUS feeds the Multitude. He is seen walking on the Sea. He heals the Sick.

AND he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. (2) And when the sabbath-day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? (3) Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Judah, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. (4) But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. (5) And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. (6) And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.

I detain the Reader on those verses to remark, that what became in the view of the enemies of CHRIST matter reproach, is, to the friends and followers of the Lamb, subject of heartfelt joy. Is not this the carpenter, say they? Yes! say I; and blessed be my LORD, for his grace and condescension, in being so. For I would have the Reader understand, that in CHRIST becoming a curse for his redeemed, it behoved him, to undergo that curse in all its branches. The tenor of the curse pronounced at the fall, ran in those words: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread; meaning toil and labor. Had not JESUS therefore toiled and labored for his bread, this part of the curse would not have lighted upon him, neither could he then have been said to have borne it. But by laboring with his hands for his daily bread, he literally fulfilled that part of the curse. And though he might have fed himself as he fed others, by working a miracle; yet then could he not have come up, in this point, to the object intended. So far therefore is CHRIST's labor in the employment of a carpenter, from lessening the authority of his mission, that without it he would not have answered the character of our Redeemer, in redeeming us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. Galatians 3:13 .

Reader! hath it pleased the LORD in his providence, to place you in a low estate. Look to him who when on earth had not where to lay his head; and though the LORD, Creator and proprietor of all things, lived and toiled, for his daily bread! See observations on Luke 2:51-52 .