Today's Gospel

February 5, 2025


Check Jesus’ Credentials

4 min

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Gospel

Mk 6:1-6


He went away from there and came to his own country; and his disciples followed him. And on the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue; and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him? What mighty works are wrought by his hands! 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?” And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.” And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.

Readings are from Dynamic Catholic’s New Testament Bible: RSV Catholic Edition


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Transcript


Check Jesus’ Credentials

Welcome back to Radical & Relevant, where each day we spend a few minutes with the Gospel, explore the genius of Jesus, the genius of His teachings, the genius of Catholicism. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Mark 6: 1-6. Jesus went away from there and came to his own country, and His disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue. Many who heard him were astonished saying, "Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him? What mighty works are wrought by his hands? Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house." And he could do no mighty works there except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villagers teaching.

What jumps out at you today? There's so much. There's so many words, so many phrases, so many ideas. The people here, they're astonished. They're listening to Jesus teach, and they're astonished. And they acknowledge that there's great wisdom. But then they're like, "Okay, but who is this guy? And what are his credentials?" And actually, "We don't like his credentials. He's just a carpenter. And he's the son of Mary. And we used to know him when he was running around the street, kicking the ball, and playing with his friends." But what happened to the wisdom? They're astonished by the wisdom, but now they're tearing him down, tearing him down. And finally, they get to the point where they took offense at him. So we've gone from astonished by his wisdom to taking offense at him because he doesn't have the right credentials or pedigree or worldly whatever. And of course, this happens all the time, right? It happens in your life. It happens in my life. It happens at church. It happens at school. It happens at work. People always judging people by, "Oh, do they have the right dis or do they do the right dad?" or this sort of thing.

But the phrase that I love, I just love this phrase. This is my phrase for the day. And he could do no mighty works there, okay? That's the phrase. So he's got all these haters, he's got all these doubters. So he could do no mighty works there, but listen for it, except that he laid his hands on a few people and healed them. [laughter] I love that. Laying His hands on a few people and healing them. This is not mighty works. And it just points to the astounding reality of Jesus, what he was capable of, what he did actually do, that when he lays hands on people and heals people, that's not even considered a mighty work. We need to get to know this man Jesus. We need to get to know this god-man Jesus a little bit more. Have a great day. Remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

February 5, 2025