Our text for this week records a sudden change of context. Jesus had just been at the home of Jairus, a synagogue ruler, and raised his twelve-year-old girl from death. Now, suddenly, he has come to his own country; he has come to Nazareth. It is not just the scene that shifts. In his own home country people take offense at his very presence. "Where did this man get all this?" the hometown folk wonder aloud. "What is this wisdom that has been given to him?" (Mark 6:2).

This is a striking shift in the story. At the end of Mark 4 the disciples asked a crucial question about Jesus' identity. "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:41). This question is answered in dramatic form in Mark 5. Mark 5 records the greatest miraculous deeds of Jesus' earthly ministry. He…