Mark 6:1-6  Jesus comes to His hometown.  Here are the people that know His family.  People that have known Him since before the beginning of His ministry.   His mother and brothers and sisters are here.  When Jesus goes into the synagogue on the Sabbath, He begins to teach.  They are astonished and offended.   On one hand, they recognize that His teaching is great and wonderful.  They have heard of the miracles.  They see what He does.   But on the other hand, they "took offense".  They were "scandalized".  They stumbled over the fact that this common carpenter was now teaching in the synagogue, doing miracles, and proclaiming the coming of God's Kingdom.  They wouldn't even give Him the honor of calling Him a prophet.  "And He wondered at their unbelief."

Unbelief.  Faith -less-ness.  These people looked to their own opinions and experiences as the measure by which to judge Jesus.  In their opinions, He was not worthy of being called a prophet, let alone the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior.   Hadn't they known His family?  Hadn't they seen Him working in the carpenter's shop?  Who was He, to think He could be anything more than that?

There are many stumbling blocks that people use to keep from believing in Jesus. Maybe this is the biggest one...
We are all guilty of trusting in our own opinions and experiences.... instead of taking a step of faith towards a God Who is so much greater than us.

Oh how thankful we are that God is infinitely patient!  He lovingly removes those stumbling blocks.
He digs out the stones from our rock-filled hearts.  He tends to the thorns and thistles that want to choke out our weak and fruitless faith.  He is the master gardener and we are His vine.   He prunes away the dead and worthless branches.  He brings us into His Kingdom by His Grace and we thrive there.

Father in heaven,  there are people that I love, members of my family... that are offended by Jesus.  They have stubbornly held on their own opinions and experiences and refuse to believe that Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Lord.  The only way to true life.  The only Hope of the world.  Oh Father, I plead with You to open their eyes and hearts to believe.  May they recognize their sin of unbelief.  May they confess and repent and believe in Jesus.  I ask this in Your Name, Jesus.  Amen