Mark 6:1–6
1 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.
parallel passages Matthew 13:54-58; Luke 4:16-30
As the Luke parallel passage indicates Jesus' hometown was Nazareth. This was about 25 miles to the southwest of Capernaum, where he did most of his Galilean ministry. The purple line below indicates the route. This was a small town to say the least. It isn't mentioned in hardly any of the ancient writings. Excavations of the region have found it capable of hosting about 500 people at the most—a small town even in Jesus’ day. Yet, growing up in this region, Jesus would have had a lot of exposure to Gentile culture since it was largely populated by Gentiles after the Assyrian conquest in 722 BC.
It's a bit of bizarro world in Jesus' hometown. One would expect him to find a reprieve from the rejection and skepticism he has faced in much of his ministry thus far. Instead, he finds more of the same, even to a greater degree—they are offended by him. "Isn't this the carpenter" they say. Whereas not an intrinsically offensive assertion, they are confused at how he acquired this learning and power.
Interestingly they call Jesus the "son of Mary". In a patriarchal culture such as first century Judaism this is certainly rare and unexpected. One would expect them to say, "son of Joseph". There are a few possible explanations for this: 1. Joseph, his father, has died. It is widely thought that Joseph dies at some point in Jesus' life and ministry since he is nowhere mentioned to be alive directly apart from the birth narrative whereas Mary appears often. 2. This could have been meant as an insult insinuating the seemingly scandalous nature of Jesus birth. Later Jewish arguments against Jesus will insinuate that he was an illegitimate child of Mary's. (John 8:41) 3. This is a veiled reference to the virgin birth. This would be the only reference to the virgin birth in Mark's gospel. For the only reference to be this cryptic would be highly unlikely.
It is likely that both options 1 and 2 are in play here to some degree.
Jesus' brothers and sisters are also mentioned here. The Catholic tradition teaches that these are Jesus' step brothers and sisters from a former marriage of Joseph, or they were Jesus' cousins, which is lexically possible based on a loose understanding of words for "brother" and "sister". However, this understanding seems to come more from tradition than it does from a plain reading of the text. The most natural reading is that they are his biological brothers and sisters from Mary (see also 3:31). In the second century the high esteem and veneration of Mary led to the theology that Mary was ever virgin. Without diving too much into that theology and how it came about, in my opinion and the opinion of most Protestants, it is unnecessarily dependent on a sharp Greek dualism (a philosophy which separates the physical as corrupt and evil from the spirit which is good) and unwarranted extreme veneration of Mary. The most natural reading of this passage and others in the NT suggests that Jesus was the oldest of five brothers and at least two sisters.
Mark indicates that they were "offended" by him. The word "offended" here is a derivative of the Greek word skandalon, a stumbling stone. Here, their proximity to Jesus and his family is what causes them to be offended by him. They can't imagine that the guy they know, whose family they've lived next to for decades could possibly be the Messiah.
In response to their offense Jesus says a common word of wisdom in his day, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown...". Strangely, relational proximity to Jesus is a barrier to faith. Among Jesus' brothers and sisters we know only of James (and maybe Jude) as coming to faith in him. They have a hard time seeing him as more than the little boy running around playing in the dusty ground with his friends. His neighbors have a hard time seeing him as more than Mary's son and more than a carpenter. When we think about it, this is a common occurrence. It's often in our family relationships (especially if you’re a younger sibling) and oldest friendships that we are the least respected.
It is the profound mystery of the incarnation that strikes us in this passage. God became flesh in a Nazarene who grew up in a relatively normal family, normal community, doing manual labor. When we put ourselves in the place of his family and community in Nazareth it is certainly understandable that they would have a hard time accepting him as the Messiah—God in flesh. If my brother claimed to be the Messiah, I'd laugh then, if he were serious, I'd probably think he is out of his mind as well (3:21). But he doesn't have any evidence to back up such a claim whereas Jesus did. Our distance from Jesus' context allows us to look upon his humble beginnings with fondness, but in his immediate context it is a stumbling block for many.
It is this lack of faith which causes Jesus to only do a few "mighty works" there. As we've discussed previously we see yet again the mysterious tension between faith and divine action.