Christ's Wonder
Mark 6:5-6
And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands on a few sick folk, and healed them.…


The unbelief of the Nazarenes was a wonder to our Lord. The wonder was "real," says Cardinal Cajetan, being "caused" by the Saviour's "experimental inaquaintance" with such an unreasonable state of mind. It was "real" on another account. Unbelief in such circumstances as those of the Nazarenes was actually a most remarkable thing. It had a cause indeed; it had occasions; but it had no reason for its existence. Far less had it a sufficient reason; it was, that is to say, utterly unreasonable. It should not have been; it was an utter anomaly. So is all sin (see Jeremiah 2:12). It is an exceedingly strange phenomenon in the universe of God, and may well be wondered at. If wonder indeed were always the daughter of ignorance, one might wonder at Christ's wonder. Schleusner and Kuinol wondered, and rendered the word, not wondered, but was angry. Fritzsche, too, wondered, and while too precise a scholar to admit that the word could mean was angry, he proposed that we should correct the text and read it thus, and, because of their unbelief, they wondered (viz., at Jesus). But one may most reasonably wonder at such feats and freaks of exegesis. There is nothing really wonderful in Christ's wonder. While it is the case that there is a vulgar wonder, which is the daughter of ignorance and dies when knowledge is attained, it is also the case that there is another wonder, of noble origin, the daughter of knowledge. This wonder dwells in the loftiest minds, and is immortal.

(J. Morison, D. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.

WEB: He could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people, and healed them.




Christ Thwarted
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