The text contains two remarkable instances, in a short space, of the manner in which the feelings and circumstances of men are ascribed to God in the Scriptures. It is said of Him who is Almighty, that He could there do no mighty work; it is said of Him to whom all things were known, that He marvelled because of their unbelief. It is very easy to see that these expressions are mere figures of speech; that Christ did not want the power to do miracles at Nazareth, but that there were some strong reasons for His not doing them, that it was, therefore, impossible for Him to work any; that He did not really marvel at their unbelief, but that it was so strange and unreasonable, that anyone except Him, to whom all hearts are open, might fairly have wondered at it.
I. But it is not on this account that I have chosen for my text this passage of the Scriptures; it contains another and much more important lesson. When it says that Christ could do no mighty work in Nazareth because of the unbelief of the people, it shows us how our sins defeat the gracious purposes of God towards us; how we hinder Him, in a manner, from doing what He wishes for our good; how we make it impossible for Him to avoid punishing us, although He has no pleasure at all in the death of the wicked, but rather that he should turn from his ways and live.
II. What is it that hinders us individually from finding in the Gospel all that we ought to find in it, or from experiencing in life a greater share of those comforts which God has promised to give to His people? What is become of the blessings which Christ has promised upon our hearty prayers; or of His assurance that where two or three are gathered together in His name, there is He in the midst of them? What should become of them, when we come here in a spirit of unbelief, so that our prayers are anything but the prayers of faith? God cannot make His good things plain to us if our hearts are hardened; nor can He show forth in us the mighty works of His grace, if He finds in us nothing but a dull and evil heart of unbelief.
T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. i., p. 75.
Reference: Mark 6:5. J. Vaughan, Sermons,7th series, p. 70.
This statement:
I. refutes the notion that where there is a true ministry there will be great success.
II. Shows the tremendous difficulties which the human will can oppose to the purposes of God.
III. Justifies the true worker in leaving the sphere in which he has been unsuccessful, to carry on his work under more favourable circumstances. Parker, City Temple,1871, p. 95.