Did Jesus have all power, when there was a place where he could do no mighty work?

Mark’s ‘could not’ is best read as describing what was fitting, not what was possible. Mark adds at once that Jesus healed “a few sick folk” there and “marvelled because of their unbelief” (Mark 6:5–6), and Matthew tells the same visit as “he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58). Jesus’ miracles were signs given to faith, not shows for people who had already rejected him, and Luke tells how the people of Nazareth once tried to throw him from a cliff (Luke 4:29). The Bible often says ‘cannot’ of what one will not rightly do, as when the angel tells Lot, “I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither” (Genesis 19:22), and John Gill explains Mark 6:5 in just this way.

In Matthew 20:23 the words ‘it shall be given to them’ are not in the Greek (the KJV prints them in italics); Jesus says the places are “not mine to give; but it is for whom it has been prepared by my Father” (WEB). John Gill took this to mean that Jesus does give them, but only to those for whom the Father has prepared them. Either way, the places are settled by the Father’s plan. Throughout his ministry the Son acts in step with the Father’s will (John 5:19, 30), which is not a lack of power but the way he uses it.

Authority given to the risen Christ

Some note that Matthew 28:18 speaks of authority (Greek exousia) given to the risen Christ after his humbling (Philippians 2:7–9), while Mark 6 belongs to the time when he lived in dependence on the Father as a servant.