In Mark chapter four something appears amiss. It seems that Jesus had become dissatisfied with the results of his teaching during his first year of ministry. He was rejected in his hometown (Mark 6:1-6), where some thought to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:28-29; cp. 4:9-11). He was demonized by the rulers of Judaism (Mark 3:22-30), and thought to be mad by his own family (Mark 4:21, 31-35). Considering all the multitudes who gathered around Jesus, even coming from Judea and foreign cities (Mark 2:13; 3:7-8, 20-21; 4:1; Luke 8:4), one would think his ministry was extremely successful, but this wasn’t so. The appearance of success was superficial, because no one, except the Twelve and perhaps a few dozen other disciples actually believed in him. Why? What might the reason be for such a thing?
A question that immediately comes to my mind, as Jesus begins his second year of ministry, is why isn’t he teaching in the synagogues, as he had done a year ago (cp. Mark 1:21, 39; 3:1)? The only place in Mark from this point onward where Jesus taught in any synagogue is in Mark 6:2 (cp. 6:1-6). However, this event in Nazareth appears at the very beginning of Luke’s narrative (cp. Luke 4:16-30), and appears to be out of place in Mark. Therefore, if Mark 6:1-6 records an event that occurred during the first month of Jesus’ public ministry, rather than in the second year of his ministry, Mark doesn’t ever record Jesus being in a synagogue after the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God (cp. Mark 1:1).
John 6:59 records Jesus was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum, and this was during the Passover season (cp. John 6:4) and in Jesus’ second year of his public ministry, and just after John was beheaded by Herod Antipas. Yet, none of the rulers are mentioned in John chapter six. John’s death is placed in the context of the feeding of the 5000. Many of these folks were the disciples of John the Baptist who had just buried his body, and came and told Jesus (Matthew 14:10-12). When Jesus heard it, he and his disciples went to a desert place out of Herod Antipas’ territory to Bethsaida, which was in Herod Philip’s territory (Luke 9:10), but John’s disciples followed him there as well (Matthew 14:13-14). When Jesus saw them, he was moved with compassion, seeing John’s disciples as sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:34). This is the context of the feeding of the 5000. The point is that Jesus performed the miracle, and then, perhaps due to the mighty work, he was able to teach the same folks in the synagogue at Capernaum (John 6:59). At the end of the day, however, everyone except the Twelve abandoned Jesus, because his Gospel offended everyone (John 6:61, 66). Thus, following the example of the Jewish authorities who claimed Jesus had a demon (Mark 3:22-30), John’s disciples and nearly everyone else abandoned him (John 6:66).
The third and last time Jesus is recorded to have been in a synagogue after the first year of his public ministry is in Luke 13:10. It was here that Jesus healed a woman on the Sabbath. The ruler of the synagogue never addressed Jesus or confronted him over his act of healing on the Sabbath. Instead, he ignored him and told the people they should not come to be healed on the Sabbath (Luke 13:14). It was as though the rulers had ostracized Jesus, ignoring him at public gatherings, such as a Sabbath service. One has to wonder if Jesus had been excommunicated from the synagogues very early in his public ministry[1] and was no longer considered a Jew by the Jewish leaders (cp. John 12:42)? Whatever the reason, Jesus’ appearances in the synagogues don’t seem to be as frequent in the second and third year of his public ministry, as they were in the first few months of that ministry.
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[1] See my earlier study in the Gospel of Luke: Was Jesus Excommunicated?
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