Mark 6:5

(ubi sup.) Not as if He Who knows all things before they are done, wonders at what He did not expect or look forward to, but knowing the hidden things of the heart, and wishing to intimate to men that it was wonderful, He openly shows that He wonders. And indeed the blindness of the Jews is wonderful, for they neither believed what their prophets said of Christ, nor would in their own persons believe on Christ, Who was born amongst them. Mystically again; Christ is despised in His own house and country, that is, amongst the people of the Jews, and therefore He worked few miracles there, lest they should become altogether inexcusable. But He performs greater miracles every day amongst the Gentiles, not so much in the healing of their bodies, as in the salvation of their souls.

The Lord could not perform miracles there not because He was powerless, but because those people were unbelieving. Sparing them, He does not perform miracles, lest they serve for the greater condemnation of those people as unbelievers even in the presence of miracles. On the …

Note, By unbelief and contempt of Christ men stop the current of his favours to them, and put a bar in their own door. He marvelled because of their unbelief,

And he could there do no mighty work,....

This passage shows us our Lord Jesus Christ in "his hometown," at Nazareth. It is a melancholy illustration of the wickedness of man's heart, and deserves special attention. We see, in the first place, how apt men are to undervalue things with which they are familiar . The men of Nazareth "were offended" at our Lord. They could not think it possible that one who had lived so many years among themselves, and whose brethren and sisters they knew, could deserve to be followed as a public teacher. Never had any place on earth such privileges as Nazareth.

This passage shows us our Lord Jesus Christ in "his hometown," at Nazareth. It is a melancholy illustration of the wickedness of man's heart, and deserves special attention. We see, in the first place, how apt men are to undervalue things with which they are familiar . The men of Nazareth "were offended" at our Lord. They could not think it possible that one who had lived so many years among themselves, and whose brethren and sisters they knew, could deserve to be followed as a public teacher. Never had any place on earth such privileges as Nazareth. For thirty years the Son of God resided in this town, and went to and fro in its streets. For thirty years He walked with God before the eyes of its inhabitants, living a blameless, perfect life. But it was all lost upon them. They were not ready to believe the Gospel, when the Lord came among them and taught in their synagogue. They would not believe that one whose face they knew so well, and who had lived so long, eating, and drinking, and dressing like one of themselves, had any right to claim their attention. They were "offended at Him." There is nothing in all this that need surprise us. The same thing is going on around us every day, in our own land. The holy Scriptures, the preaching of the Gospel, the public ordinances of religion, the abundant means of grace that England enjoys, are continually undervalued by English people. They are so accustomed to them, that they do not know their privileges. It is a solemn truth, that in religion, more than in anything else, familiarity breeds contempt. There is comfort in this part of our Lord's experience, for some of the Lord's people. There is comfort for faithful ministers of the Gospel, who are cast down by the unbelief of their parishioners or regular hearers.