Does Jesus Hold Your Attention?

Whenever things hold our attention, they also start to direct where our effort goes. Throughout the gospel of Mark, Jesus directed His effort toward the Jews by going somewhere to teach and heal those who needed or requested healing. In Mark 6:1-6 Jesus heads to his hometown and starts to teach in the synagogue and holds their attention. His teachings bring them to a few questions: (1) “Where did this man get these things?” (2) “What is the wisdom given to Him?” (3) “How are such mighty works done by His hand?” (Mark 6:2). These questions contained more attitude than curiosity of faith.
A tense attitude usually comes from the spirit of comparison. Comparison can be a part of the process of becoming better. Still, when motivated by pride and lacking humility in wanting to improve, the idea of becoming better is met with resistance or entitlement.
Entitlement will keep us from asking the right questions as well as asking questions in the right way. There’s one more question they present concerning His family origin: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” Inside the context of the cultural time, asking if Jesus was the son of Mary was not them acknowledging the virgin birth, but rather a claim to not know Jesus’ father “thereby accusing him of being illegitimate.” 1 The questions we bring to Jesus need to be genuine and honest but need to come from a motivation to start faith or build faith. Otherwise, we will limit the experience of the power of God in life, possibly causing us to question the power of Jesus like His townspeople did, claiming to know Him, but not believing Him.