Do you really know Him?

We all have our own ideas about who God is.

Maybe those ideas are shaped by our experiences, or by what we think we know about Him. Or maybe we’ve decided it’s all just a fairytale and that He doesn’t exist at all.

In Mark 6, Jesus returns to His hometown and begins teaching in the synagogue, surrounded by people who thought they knew Him.

“When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.

‘Where did this man get these things?’ they asked.

‘What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing?

Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?’

And they took offense at him.”

(Mark 6:2–3)

They recognised Him as a man but they couldn’t accept that He was the Messiah. Their familiarity blinded them. They thought they knew Him, and that very assumption became a stumbling block to faith.

Let look at this a little deeper.

The word offense here comes from the Greek skandalizō, which means to trip up or to stumble. It comes from skandalon, the part of a trap that causes it to snap shut.

So they weren’t simply “offended” - they were tripped up by who Jesus really was. Their preconceived ideas about Him became the very thing that kept them from believing.

Because of their unbelief, Jesus could do only a few miracles there (v.5).

Time and time again, we see that Jesus healed all who came to Him. He is constant. His power and will never changes. It’s our lack of knowledge and unbelief that’s the problem.

The world will tell you there’s no God.

That He doesn’t care.

That He allows suffering.

And so, people write Him off.

But if only we really knew Him. Really knew Him. We would never doubt His goodness, His mercy, or His love.