This sermon was preached while providing “Sunday Supply” (relief) at Newport Anglican Church on 17/04/2016.
Mark 6:1–29 — Rejection
Preached at Newport Anglican — 17 April 2016
Mark 6 is a hard chapter, but a clarifying one. It shows that rejection isn’t an accident in the Christian life — it’s baked into the story from the moment Jesus walks into his hometown.
The passage gives us three “rejection moments”, each one tightening the screws:
• Rejection in Nazareth (6:1–6) — Jesus is not assessed on truth, but on familiarity. They know his family, his trade, his normality — and so they refuse his authority. The question isn’t “Is he wise?” but “Who does he think he is?” It’s the scandal of the ordinary Christ: God’s king comes without the costume.
• Rejection on mission (6:7–13) — Jesus sends the Twelve out, not as celebrities but as dependent messengers. They will be received in some places and refused in others, and Jesus prepares them for both. Shaking the dust is not spite; it’s clarity. The kingdom is offered genuinely — but it won’t be negotiated.
• Rejection at court (6:14–29) — John the Baptist is silenced by a toxic mix of fear, pride, and people-pleasing. Herod knows John is righteous, yet he won’t repent. He prefers the applause of dinner guests to the voice of God. The result is bloody, cowardly, and tragic.
Taken together, these scenes work like previews. If this is what happens to the forerunner (John), and if this is how people treat Jesus up close (Nazareth), then we should not be surprised where the road goes next: toward the cross. Mark is training us early — rejection is not proof Jesus is false; it’s evidence we’re watching the true King collide with a world that wants a king on its own terms.
And yet the chapter is not despair. Notice what keeps happening: Jesus keeps teaching, keeps sending, keeps giving authority, keeps advancing the kingdom through ordinary people. The gospel is not fragile. It doesn’t depend on being liked.
If you’ve been dismissed, misunderstood, or quietly shut down for speaking plainly as a Christian, Mark 6 gives you categories: you’re not abnormal; you’re in the stream of the story. And it gives you comfort: the rejected Christ is still Lord, and his mission still moves.
Bible Reading:
Mark 6:1–29
Bible Study Material
Complementary Bible Study material consisting of a leader’s guide – the ‘answers’ are not ‘canonical, only-correct, answers’ but to assist the the problem every Bible Study leader has ever had: “what was the Bible Study writer actually asking here”