LESSON FOR JUNIORS
STUDY SCRIPTURE: MARK 6
Key Verse
And when the Sabbath 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 to him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hand?
Is not thus the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.
Mark 6:2-3
INTRODUCTION
One of the most difficult things that we will ever face is understanding people. Even older people sometimes have difficulty knowing how to analyze things and to see the truth, to see what is right and what is wrong. We don’t really know sometimes what to believe and what not to believe.
Even when we see important things happening we sometimes find it difficult to really analyze what the things that we are seeing mean. That is a general human weakness.
Now there is a way to overcome many of these weaknesses that we have and that is to acquire wisdom and understanding. The best kind of wisdom and understanding comes from God. He knows everything and He is infinitely wise, wise even past the maximum, and so when He speaks to us we know that we are on solid ground.
Jesus came to show us what true wisdom is and so we, and especially young people, should listen to Him very carefully.
Young people and children have a right to hear and to listen carefully and not hide away from obtaining knowledge of things happening around them. When you do that you will learn about who Jesus was and what He can do for you.
In our Lesson today we see that there were some people in Jesus’ hometown who heard about the great things that He had done. They heard that He had healed the sick, straightened the minds of people who were mentally destroyed by demons, and even raised back to life a young 12-year-old girl who had died. Her father’s name was Jairus and he was a ruler of the synagogue, a very high official.
Even though the people in Jesus’ hometown knew about all of these mighty miracles that Jesus had done they were surprised and astonished and couldn’t believe all that they had heard. They talked among themselves that Jesus had grown up among them and was only a carpenter or builder. They knew that He did not go to a fancy university and so they asked themselves the question when Jesus spoke to them and showed great wisdom in what He was saying, “Where did this man get all of this ability?”
Because Jesus came from a family that was not rich they could not believe that Jesus could do all the great things that He had done and could teach them about how to be wise and live life successfully.
They listened to Jesus but they did not want to face up to the truth that Jesus was the Messiah. The Scriptures had prophesied that the Messiah when He came would do all kinds of great things, the things exactly like what Jesus was doing.
They listened to Him when He preached in the synagogue or the church and they asked themselves the question as to where Jesus’ wisdom and power came from. But they should have known where Jesus’ wisdom and power came from. It was right there before them in the Bible that they had. They should have known that Jesus got all of this ability to do great miracles and to teach great things of wisdom from God the Father.
But clearly their minds were not in good shape. They should have known where all the great good things came from. We know they all come from God. Nobody else can do what God the Father and Jesus did.
So the Lesson for us is that we must learn to listen. Then we must learn to read our Bibles. Then we will learn what true wisdom is for it will show us what Jesus did and how He behaved.
When Jesus visited His hometown and the people did not behave toward Him very well, did not show respect, or treated Him very well Jesus did not use His power to slap them down.
He was too wise, kind and merciful for that. So instead of walking away from these stubborn and foolish people Jesus simply healed some of those who believed that He was Messiah. He left the other people alone to think what they wanted to think.
Jesus was not troubled at what they thought for He knew that His Father in heaven loved Him and was satisfied and pleased that He was doing all the right things to help human beings. We too must learn that no matter what people say about us we must be confident that as children of God, our God will always be with us and will be pleased with us. That is the most important thing in life.
So we learn that we must listen to Jesus and behave as He behaved. We must be kind and generous to other people even when they were making bad mistakes and were not listening to God.
So the warning is that we are not to jump to make quick conclusions about people for when we do that we might very well end up making wrong conclusions about people. We must look at what they have done and what they can do and try to get to know them better before we condemn them.
We must pay special attention to those who will listen to the word of God that we have to tell them about. When we do that God would be pleased with us. He will give us power to do the work that He wants us to do for Him.
Jesus wants us to get to know Him better and better. When we do that He will show us that life with Him will be much easier and better than life following the things in the world that people do. Then He will give us great rewards and will look after us as we journey through life.