What if … ?

Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.  And He marvelled because of their unbelief. (Mark 6:5-6a, NKJV.)

UNBELIEF PREVENTS EVEN GOD from performing mighty works.

The people who had seen Jesus of Nazareth grow up could not accept the fact that He could teach, not to speak of the signs and wonders that He had yet to perform in their midst. They could not fathom where He received the truth that He taught, the wisdom He revealed in His teaching, and the mighty works they had heard He performed in other places. They simply recognised Him as one of them. Hence, they were offended. The fact that Jesus could teach with such authority and wisdom and perform such wonders caused them displeasure: the fact that He could do it, but not them. At the bottom of their being offended then was their pride, and probably a large dose of jealousy.

But what if …? What if they had welcomed Jesus as the prophet in their own hometown? I believe that there would have been a revival in that city! The teachings of Jesus would open up their dull hearts, and their faith would be stirred, and the Lord then could do mighty works in their midst!

However, before we criticise their unbelief, let us also be quick to examine our own response to our own local prophets in our midst, and in our churches. How often we are more welcoming of prophets who come from overseas, especially the West, than those God has been raising in our own backyard in our hometown. We might be quicker to give the local ones the brush-off, and for all kinds of reasons. “Where did He get these teachings? He did not go to bible school or seminary! Then how did he suddenly get all those marvellous (ahem, sorry), those strange and maybe even deviant insights? He was just like one of us! Must be something suspicious! Must be stopped!”

Then, we wonder, and continue to ask God, “Why revival tarries?”!

Familiarity, they say, breeds contempt; that is because it is sown with seeds of pride and jealousy. But familiarity nurtured in love can breed respect instead. 

Let us pay attention to nurturing our own “prophets” so that in the fullness of time when their ministry is launched, we know and trust them enough to celebrate what God will do through them.

The Rev Dr Wee Boon Hup is the President of Trinity Annual Conference (TRAC).