Would you cause Jesus to marvel?

This is like freshly baked bread, hot off the spiritual oven of heaven in that I hadn't put the 2 events together of when people had actually caused Jesus to marvel. It's like having butter on toast and now its butter-and-kaya on toast.

It was my Senior Pastor, Kong Hee, City Harvest Church, who touched on these 2 occasions in his sermon on 3 November 2012. One would have thought that Jesus had seen it all and nothing would surprise Him.

In the first account from Mark 6:1-6 (NKJV), familiarity bred contempt for Jesus and He marveled at the unbelief of the people at Nazareth who rejected Him:-

"Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him.  And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands!  Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching."

The second account is from Matthew 8:5-13 (NKJV), where Jesus saw the incredible faith of a centurion at Capernaum:-

"Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour."

Unbelief could stem from ignorance due to a lack of head knowledge and/or heart knowledge (i.e., revelation). But, even if we know, we may still find it difficult to believe or act in disobedience to God's word. On a wiser note, we can choose to believe that God's word, i.e., the sword of the Spirit,  in our mouth is as powerful as God's word in His mouth. 

The bottom line is: Will we cause Jesus to marvel at our faith or our unbelief? Let's not be proud and think that we are smarter than God. Do we not know that disobedience is actually camouflaged pride? God has said it; that settles it. Let God, let go and let's go!