Six Teams and a Homecoming

Great crowds were coming to Jesus in the towns around the Sea of Galilee. But the reaction was quite different when Jesus and his disciples traveled about 25 miles southwest to his "home town" of Nazareth. When he spoke in the synagogue the response of the people was "Is not this the tekton (builder), the Son of Mary, the brother of James, Joses, Simon and Judas, and are not his sisters here with us?" The Scripture says they were "offended at him." They saw him only as a man who worked with his hands, mending their yokes and building their ladders. At this point, even his brothers did not believe in him. After preaching in several nearby villages, Jesus called The Twelve to him and sent them out on a preaching mission. Their message, like that of the prophets, John the Baptist and Jesus himself, was "Repent." This message drives home truth about Mary, about repentance, and about rejecting God's revealed truth. Russ believes the Spirit was moving through this sermon, but what does he know? Was he even listening?