Mark 6:1-6

Nick Welford comments on the need to be teachable and humble

Nick Welford

'Jesus left there and went to his home town, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.

Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honour except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home." He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few people who were ill and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.' Mark 6:1-6

I have a confession to make. There is a certain type of reality television that fascinates me. Shows like Hotel Inspector, or Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. Now I appreciate there is an element of dramatisation in these shows, but I can't help being intrigued. Particularly in Kitchen Nightmares.

The premise if you aren't familiar is that famous chef Gordon Ramsey, visits an ailing restaurant to turn their fortunes around and show them where they have been going wrong. This show has had at least 8 series in the UK and 5 in the US. What gets me, is despite this rich history, despite this depository of information, despite all these previous programmes being available to watch on demand, the current restaurant owner makes all the same mistakes as the previous ones. You only have to watch two or three episodes to know the areas Gordon is going to be checking on - is the place clean? Does the food taste good? Yet despite knowing this, owners are seemingly shocked when Gordon pulls dead rodents from their pantry; they were apparently never taught that you don't store raw and cooked meat in the same container. They spend most of the show arguing with Gordon about how their warmed up Heinz beans are better than homemade fare, they fight him at every turn, before eventually toeing the line. I find it incredulous that these people have called in an expert, but not paid attention to how he has worked in the past.

I mean we'd listen to an expert right? We'd be humble enough to listen to someone who excelled in their field? The world is in a mess, there's no bones about it. We need an expert to come and show us how to live, and in the person of Jesus we have just that. An expert at life and love, and yet it strikes me that much like those restaurant owners we spend much of our lives disagreeing, and ignoring him. Much like the people of his hometown, we decide that we know his boundaries. That we can do better than what he is offering.

I think one of the reasons is we are scared of what he might ask us to do, that to really serve God will involve laying aside our comfort and travelling to a far flung corner of the globe. God cares less about your comfort than you think. He is interested in you growing and living the best you can. Some will do this in great material comfort and others in none, but to make comfort the priority we miss the truth - the expert is with us, unlike Gordon he will not leave us with some vague promise to visit. He is here and not going away.

The aspect of the reality shows that I am most interested in is the end of the show when you hear how the business has carried on without the experts. Whether they have carried on in their new ways. It is the most satisfying and frustrating part of the programme. The worse case, though, is the rare occasion when there is no update. When you have no idea if they have stuck to the programme or not, and the cynical side of you proclaims that it all went horribly wrong. When the credits of our lives roll, what will the final update be? That we reverted to our old way of living and forgot the one true experts advice? That we listened and went from strength to strength? Or that strange and telling silence of no update to give. I pray that we will be people who follow the expert in the field of life and light.