Sunday Sermon: Jesus Makes a Humble Entrance

English: Category:Maps of Jerusalem (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Scripture Passage – Mark 11:1-11

Description – The Thirteenth Sermon in the series through Mark’s Gospel

(Slide 1) As I begin today I must confess that I was pleasantly surprised with how some passages from the book of Mark came into focus the past couple of weeks in the Advent sermons I shared with you. I really should not be surprised because the Holy Spirit, when we ask Him to, guides us in the directions He would have us go.

Today and next Sunday, I bring to a conclusion our walk through the book of Mark that we began on Labor Day Sunday. I hope that it was been helpful to you and for you these past four months.

(Slide 2)To set some important context for this morning here is a map which shows the journeys of Jesus as recorded by Mark.

Most of what we have read and studied so far has taken place here, in the Sea of Galilee region. Two weeks ago, I shared the encounter of Jesus and the Greek woman seeking to have Jesus deliver her daughter from as Mark writes “an unclean spirit.” That took place here, along the Mediterranean coast.

Now notice that Jesus journeys further north to Sidon after this encounter (and did you notice that he went to Tyre not wanting anyone to know where He was staying?) and as we read in chapter 7 and verse 32 returned, “down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.”

He is in this region when He encounters the Pharisees again who seek a “sign from heaven” as we noted last week in the sermon about who we expect during advent and throughout our lives.

Then Jesus begins His final journey to Jerusalem during which as we read in the latter part of chapter eight He asks the disciples, as they traveled to here, Caesarea Philippi, “Who do people say I am?” And Peter makes his historic statement, “You are the Messiah!” Then He makes the statement on the heels of Peter’s great affirmation about His impending death to which Peter reprimands Him for saying such a thing and is, in turn, sharply reprimanded.

Moving into chapter nine, we find Jesus making some final rounds in the Galilee region and then at the beginning of chapter 10 we read “Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan.” Now He is moving this way, toward Jerusalem.

And we finally come to our text for this morning:

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”

They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna!^”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

As we are in the final days of 2012, despite all the hub-bub about a certain calendar, I want us to consider this passage and how Jesus entered what was the final week of His life before His crucifixion. Jesus came into Jerusalem from the east and entered through what is known as the Eastern Gate or Golden Gate. In fact this gate was one of nine gates that people entered through the walls of Jerusalem over the centuries.

Jerusalem, a place that is still a place of controversy today is divided among what some call Jewish and Muslim and others call Israeli and Palestinian. But when we study scripture and think of Jerusalem we are concerned with a part of it that is only one square kilometer The Old City.  The Old City, as it is called, is divided into four quarters – Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. There are eight gates that have or currently provide entrance into the old city:

The New Gate is just that the newest gate in Jerusalem built in the 1889 to provide direct access to the Christian quarter.

The Damascus gate (also called the Shechem Gate) is a gate that is the busiest of the gates into old Jerusalem and is on the northern wall. One comment I read in research said that is contained “one large center gate originally intended for use by persons of high station, and two smaller side entrances for commoners.” (Notice that the two pictures one in 2011 and the other in the 1890’s show the gate as pretty much the same.)

Herod’s Gate, so called because that Herod Antipas, who was ruler of the area during Jesus’ ministry and was involved in Jesus’ trial, had a home that had been built near the gate.

The Lion’s Gate, has some very important history as it is the gate which leads to the Via Delarosa, the path Jesus is said to have taken to His crucifixion.

There is also the Dung gate, through which trash has been hauled out of the city and through which vehicles can pass.  Also in use is the Zion gate. Cars can exit here but not enter. It is called the Zion Gate because it is believed that King David’s tomb is near here.

The westernmost gate is the Jaffa gate which scholars believed is positioned in such a manner to align it with Highway 1 that goes from Jerusalem to Jaffa, a suburb of Tel Aviv, on the coast. Some of the sources I studied for this message indicated that it is the busiest of all the gates and is the main gate into the Old City.

There is one more gate to present.  It is a sealed gate. It is the Eastern or Golden Gate.

The reason that it is sealed up is that in the 1500’s the Sultan Suleiman, the  ruler of Jerusalem at the time, heard this was the gate through which the Jewish Messiah would come. So, he had it sealed off to keep him from coming through.

This gate also  faces the Mount of Olives that is to the east of Jerusalem. This gate allowed for the closest access to the Temple and our text for this morning says, “Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.” This is most likely the gate through which Jesus passed in triumphal entry on the back of young colt or donkey. The Messiah had already passed through the gate.

As I studied the history of these gates I learned that Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany rode through the Jaffa gate, expanded just for him, on a white horse in 1898. I did find a photo of him on a white horse no less alongside his entourage!

It was a picture of power and prestige. I would wager that Jesus did not have all of this pomp and privilege. He came, I think, in the back door not the front door of Jerusalem.

He was not about power except the power to change a person into the kind of person God that Father wanted. He was not about influence except to influence a person to follow God the Father.

He was born in very humble circumstances and He entered the last week of His life in a humble way.

Someone wrote,  ”Humility is not thinking less of yourself it is thinking of yourself less.”

So what does this mean for us today and this week, a week of transitioning from one year to another?

I suggest that we resolve to following the example of Christ and make a humble exit from 2012 and a humble entrance into 2013 and keep following Jesus.

Amen.

(Main Source:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/geo/gates.html
)

Sunday Sermon: Who Are You Looking For?

Scripture Passage – Mark 8:11-13, Isaiah 52:2-3

Description – 2012 Advent Sermon for December 23, 2012

Last week I asked the question “What are we looking for?” this advent season and suggested that people are ultimately looking for hope, peace, joy, and love not just during advent but every day of the year. We spent time in Mark 7:24-30 and the episode involving Jesus and the Greek woman whose daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit and I suggested that this was a story of hope, peace, joy, and love because the women believed that Jesus could and would deliver her daughter.

Today we address the second question I shared with you last week about the issue of expectations this Advent season, “Who are you looking for?” We are going to be traveling around the Bible this morning as we consider three persons I believe we all look for. But there are two texts that serve as the base for what I share with you today. The first is from, <drum roll please> the gospel of Mark!

Specifically, it is Mark 8:11-13:

“The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.”  Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.”

The second passage is from Isaiah 53:2-3:

 

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

In both these passages someone was being looked for. Someone important. Someone powerful. For the Pharisees, to see if Jesus was that someone important, they asked for a sign from heaven. But Jesus refused and why not?

He had been doing miracles right before them and they were livid with Him! He had healed numerous people from serious illness and also delivered some from demon oppression and possession! What else could you ask for? If they were not miraculous things, signs from heaven, then what else were they?

In Isaiah, someone recognizable, someone important, strong, and vigilant, not someone plain looking was being looked for. Why look for God’s servant among the bruised and broken instead of the powerful and well tanned?

In both cases what those involved were ultimately looking for…

… was the Messiah Himself! The Messiah, the Holy One of Israel. The promised one!

The Pharisees rejected Jesus as the Messiah because He was not Messiah material to them. And a ‘tender shoot” or “man of sorrows” as the Messiah? No way!

I will come back to this theme in a few moments but now I want us to travel to Exodus 2 and verses 15-24 and consider the first of three kinds of people others search for:

“…Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.  Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.

 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”

They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”

 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”

During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

Moses, a man on the run from Pharaoh, in whose palace he had been raised, describes the first of the three kinds of people we seek (Slide four) – a rescuer.

He rescues Zipporah and her sisters from being shooed away at the well so that their father’s flock could have water. Who knows how many shepherds there were compared to the seven, probably girls, who were trying to do their duty? They need someone who had the strength and the will to help them to overcome in a situation they were losing.

But God was also aware of the suffering of the Israelites in the background of this rescue. He “remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.”

Eventually God would call on Moses to rescue an entire group; an entire nation of people who were in need of rescuing.

Can you recall a rescuer in your life? Perhaps you recall a parent or a family member getting you out of a big fix that was not necessarily of your own misdeeds or maybe it was?

I recall miscalculating a departure time after a wedding over thirty years ago and scrambling to get from my missed flight at Midway airport to a different one at O’Hare! One of my professor’s wives and kids drove me from Wheaton to Midway back to Wheaton and then on to O’Hare where I ran the concourse to get to my plane. And the groom’s family rescued me by allowing me to pay for my tuxedo later and using that money to buy my plane ticket! (Airfare was very cheap back then!)

People are looking for a Messiah who can rescue them out of a difficult situation. They cannot rescue themselves.

Who are you looking to as a rescuer these days?

Now let’s go to the book of Ruth and chapter two beginning with verse 14:

At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”

When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”

 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.

Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”

Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.

“The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.”

Ruth has returned with her widowed mother-in-law Naomi to live in Israel. Ruth is from another country and she too, is widowed. A famine had driven Naomi and her husband from the town of Bethlehem across the Jordan River and into the nation of Moab which is now part of the nation of Jordan.

But the famine is gone and so Naomi plans to return to Israel to live and she bids her daughters-in-law farewell. But Ruth refuses to leave and pledges herself to be there for her mother-in-law.

So they went to Israel. But what now? What were they going to do? How would they eat? Who would help them?

Eventually Ruth met one of Naomi’s relatives, Boaz, who showed them kindness and allowed Ruth to glean the fields for food. Naomi hears of this and calls Boaz “one of our guardian-redeemers.”

What’s that Pastor Jim?

Simply put, very simply put, Boaz takes the place of the next line to marry Ruth since her husband died and redeems her. In other words, Boaz provides her with a home and eventually a family.

And eventually Ruth becomes the great-grandmother to King David.

Ruth, and Naomi, needed someone to redeem them because if they life they faced alone would have been a hard one. Boaz redeems them from a life of potential hardship.

People are seeking someone who seeks to redeem or deliver us from difficult circumstances. We all seek, and need, someone to help us move forward in life by redeeming us somehow and freeing us.

Those in recovery groups speak of sponsors and other persons in recovery as redeemers. Some of us have had a person in our working life who redeemed us from ourselves and helped us stay employed or helped us grow in our professional life. My mother speaks gratefully of some NCO’s early in my father’s civilian career in the military who helped him navigate the office politics, that he refused to play, and kept him employed.

Are you looking for a redeemer today?

In his ministry to proclaim the gospel, Charles found himself being pursued by a group of men who wished to do him harm because they did not like his teachings. Finding refuge at local farm house in the Irish country side, he was told to enter the milk house and then go out the back window and hide in the hedges along a small stream.

As he hid and heard the voices of those who wished to do him harm, it is said that he wrote these words:

Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last.

Charles Wesley was in a tight spot and he cried out to Jesus the lover of his soul to rescue and redeem him!

Notice that Wesley called Jesus the lover of his soul. Interesting. Would we call Jesus the lover of our soul in such a situation?

But He is the lover of our soul!

Love is such a vital aspect of this Advent season. We give gifts, usually, out of love because we believe that this season is a season about God’s love for the world in sending His one and only son to earth to rescue and redeem us.

Mother Teresa once wrote, “There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.”

We all want a lover. We all want to be loved. It is our greatest need.

And Jesus makes clear that the greatest commandment was to love God and others.

So what does all of this mean for us this week, especially this week?

I suggest that the Messiah, the one the Old Testament Prophets pointed to, the one who was being expected by many that Jesus came in contact with, and the one who was rejected as the Messiah by the religious professionals of the day, is our only true

lover…

…and rescuer

… and redeemer.

And I believe that Jesus was and is the Messiah and hence our lover, rescuer, and redeemer.

The question is do we believe Him to be this for us?

I believe that the Lord uses us to help one another experience God’s love, rescue, and redemption. This is a key part of the church’s mission and ministry. He used Moses and Boaz and a host of other people to work out His plan of salvation and forgiveness that unfolds throughout the Bible.

But ultimately it is through what Christ has done for us- His birth, His arrest and crucifixion and His resurrection from the dead – that makes the truest difference in our hearts and lives!

So, what and who are you looking for this Advent season? Are you looking for hope, joy, peace, and love? Are you looking for rescue, redemption and love? These things, I believe can be expressed in the giving of gifts. But ultimately they are expressed in and through Jesus Christ.

What are you expecting this Advent season? Who are you expecting this Advent season?

May it be the Messiah who rescues, redeems, and love us.

May it be Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Sunday Sermon: What Are We Waiting For?

Scripture Passage – Mark 7:24-30

Description – December 16, 2012 Advent Sermon

If there is one word that characterizes this season of advent it is waiting. Joan Chittister has written  “Advent is about learning to wait.”

Today, and in the days, and even years ahead, there is a group of deeply grieving people who are waiting. They are waiting for answers. They are waiting for some kind of resolution to an unspeakable tragedy. They are asking the question that waiting people ask the most, “Why?”

As I prayed and thought early last week about what I was to share with you today I discovered that where I left off in our study of Mark last month, Mark 7:24, this issue of waiting and the allied issue of expecting was present in an encounter Jesus had with a mother who was desperate for her daughter. Here is Mark 7:24-30

Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

“Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Two questions have been in my thinking this advent season and they form the basis of today’s message and next Sunday’s message as well. They are questions that people daily ask but I think that they are asked more often during the holidays for one major reason –expectations.

 What Are We Waiting For? And the second one, which we will address next week, Who Are We Waiting For?

 Kids are expecting certain things on December 25^th. They have had their lists ready for awhile. Some have even bent Santa’s ear not just once but twice!

 I think that people are expecting more than gifts however. Some are expecting some things that are not contained in boxes under the Christmas tree or at the office party or a dinner table.

 These gifts, if you will, are intangibles. But they are vital for a meaningful life.

Our text is a text about expectations. Jesus is on the move again and He is now in northwestern Israel and he encounters a woman who is a Gentile, a Greek, a non-Jewish person and He has what might seem to be a harsh conversation with her as He initially rejects her request for Him to deliver her demon possessed daughter. She is expecting a healing; a deliverance. Jesus is not so quick to oblige her.

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

Another translation of this passage says, “Jesus told her, “First I should feed the children—my own family, the Jews.It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”

Notice that He uses the word ‘dogs’ in reference to her background! And to add insult to injury He makes clear that His own family should come first!

This passage reminds me of Luke 16 about a beggar named Lazarus who lay near the gate of a rich man’s home and [longed] “to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.” In other words he competed with the dogs for the scraps!

What’s Jesus up to here? What is He looking for? What does He expect from this woman?

Jesus, I think, is testing her and the audience that has probably gathered around them, including the local religious leaders. He wants to see how not just she will react to His words but how the religious leaders will react as well.

She does not back off. She is insistent about Jesus healing her daughter. “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”  She has a very strong expectation that Jesus can, and will, deliver her daughter. There is a level of faith in this woman which Jesus finally acknowledges and it moves Him to heal her daughter.

Expectation abounds in this passage.

What do we expect this Advent season? What do we want from someone else? What do we want from God?

 There are four candles in the advent wreath this morning and I want to use these four candles to represent four things that we expect and seek not just during Advent but throughout the year. Here they are: hope, peace, joy, and love.

One of the most frequently made statements, especially by children this season, is “I hope I get _________ for Christmas!” I remember one year when I was probably about ten or so years of age I fervently requested of, actually prayed to, God a bike. I really went at it in prayer. I believe I asked God at least once a day for a week for a bike.

I did not get one that year but my hope was high that I would. I was expecting one!

Hope is one thing that I believe we expect this season and every season. Hope is often mentioned in scripture like these passages:

Psalm 42:5 “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

Psalm 119:114 “You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.”

John Ray who wrote a compilation of English proverbs in the 1700’s included this one on hope in his writing “If it were not for hope the heart would break.”

This Greek mother had hope that Jesus would deliver her daughter. And He did!

 For what are you hoping this advent season?

One of the things that strikes me about this woman is her resoluteness in not backing down from her request of Jesus. She is resolute because she is seeking peace for her daughter who, as we have seen in others dealing with possession, has no peace.

Again the Bible has much to say about peace:

Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

I just finished reading Condoleezza Rice’s memoirs of her time as first the national security advisor and then as Secretary of State in the second Bush administration.  The fast paced intensity of her writing matched the fast pace speed of the life she lived while going from hot spot to hot spot both literally and in the course of her days.  I think that she felt that she was playing a game of “whack-a-mole” at times when it came to some near breakthroughs in foreign diplomacy only to have something pop up at the last minute and thwart the peace process. Peace was a goal but it seemed to be out of her reach.

Franklin Roosevelt said, “Peace, like charity, begins at home.”

And Jesus honored early in his ministry those who sought to be peacemakers as we read in Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

We also sing about peace a great deal this time of year.

Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.”

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in Thee.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day/Their old familiar carols play,/And wild and sweet the words repeat/Of peace on earth, good will to men.

There are many different kinds of peace – political, military, relational, and spiritual. And, as we have been so tragically remind this weekend, it is an often a very fragile peace.

What kind of peace do you want this advent season?

Our text concludes on a note of joy and not despair. She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Healing has come! Deliverance has come to this daughter and this household.

We read much about joy in the Bible:

Isaiah 12:6 “Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

Matthew 28:8 “So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.”

Luke 2:10 “But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.’”

We sing this time of year “Joy to the World, the Lord is come!”

And then there is Richard Wagner’s insightful thought about joy, very suitable for this season; “Joy is not in things; it is in us.”

I think that joy is like happiness in that they are byproducts of hope, peace, and love for when we are peace with God, others, and ourselves and when our hope is rooted in God and His good purposes and when we love and allow God to love in and through us joy is very close by.

What kind of joy are you expecting this advent season?

And speaking of love, it is there in our text for today as well. It is the motivation for which the mother seeks deliverance for her daughter. A good parent, who loves, truly loves their child or children, will push themselves to make sacrifices on their kids’ behalf.

Scripture is, of course, full of references to love:

Leviticus 18:9 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”

Isaiah 63:9 “In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.”

Matthew 22:37 “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”

Love matters to us. To be loved and to know that we are loved, in the right way for the right reasons is a truly liberating thing.

And the kind of love that matters the most to each of us is not a love of mere words splashed over greeting cards and through various sentiments this advent season but one of action in everyday living.

What kind of love are you expecting this advent season?

So what does all of this mean for us this week? This week in which unspeakable tragedy has come to innocent children.

I call attention to the Advent wreath one final time. The outer four candles serve as reminders this morning for hope, peace, joy, and love. But they also surround the center candle that represents – Jesus Christ. And herein lies an important lesson – for our hope, peace, joy, and love to be real and deep Jesus must be at the center of them all. Jesus Christ came to give us real hope, peace, joy, and love and it is my prayer for each of us here today that this Advent season and everyday as well, we will have these things in our lives this season and every season.

Amen.

 

Sunday Sermon: An Inside Out Job

Scripture Passage – Mark 7:1-23

Description – The Twelfth Sermon in the series through Mark’s Gospel, Fall 2012

Well, here we are not quite to the middle of Mark in the middle of November. I had planned to be farther along in our study by this point. I will be wrapping up this series on the last Sunday of December and first Sunday of January because I want to have appropriate closure to this series.

Now before we address the text for this morning, I want to step back and recount where we have come from.

 

Mark, if you have done some parallel study with the other gospel accounts during this study, is often short on the details that at least Matthew and Luke, and sometimes John, bring into their accounts. Mark is focused on Jesus’ ministry and actions and, with little introduction, he jumps right into a narrative of His ministry beginning with being baptized by John the Baptist and then into a healing and deliverance ministry which gets Him attention from those who are desperate for healing, resistance from demons who are cast out of people, and resistance and strong opposition from those threatened by His actions and proclamations – the Pharisees, scribes, and Sanhedrin.

Now we have not heard from the Pharisees and scribes in the past several chapters but this morning… they’re back, at least some of them are back as we will note in the opening verse of our main text. And the issue, which is raised by the Pharisees and scribes who are visiting Jesus from Jerusalem, has to do with ritual and ceremony. But Jesus takes it, as he has already done, past the outward actions and focuses on the motivations and attitudes of their very human, and flawed, hearts.

Let us hear God’s word this morning, Mark 7:1-23:

“The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders.  When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)

            So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

            He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’

 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observeyour own traditions!  For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother.  Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” 

 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.  “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them?  For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them.  For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

 

Now there are several segments in this passage that are worth pursuing this morning. For example, the two parenthetical statements are worth taking a look at because they contain some important background information. Then there is the statement in which Jesus calls them hypocrites. But, I suggest this morning that this passage is a critical passage in understanding the vast differences between Jesus and the religious leaders; differences that will grow larger and deeper in the chapters ahead.

One of the things that we need to understand about this passage is that the washing referred to in the opening had to do with ceremony and ritual. By this point in the history of Judaism, a whole body of rituals had been proscribed as essential and necessary in the practice of the faith. This is something that Jesus is getting at in verses 9-13 when he says

“You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observeyour own traditions! And then goes onto say “Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

Now we read about the washing of hands and we think, “We are supposed to wash our hands before we eat!” That’s not what Jesus is getting at here.

He is talking about a rigid set of rules that have been put in place which have to be followed so that others are declared acceptable to God. It is a control issue and it makes Jesus angry because they are driving a wedge between God and humanity and Jesus is there to close the gap once and for all and make a bridge back to God!

So it is not a matter of clean hands. It is a matter of a clean heart.

 

The proof of faith, Jesus is saying, is in our character and actions not just in our words and rituals and he is making it clear that they are focusing on the wrong thing. They are focusing on traditions instead of the commandments of God and he makes that clear in verses 9 through 13 by what Moses said to do to not what they say to do., “For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

Listen to original context of this commandment to honor your father and mother found in Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” When Moses was given these ten commandments it was because God was shaping a group of people to be different than the other people around them, to be His people, and the honoring of parents was to be a key characteristic of this group of people. And now Jesus is standing before the inheritors of this, and the other commandments, and He tells them, “You have broken them.”

“You have broken them because your rituals and your traditions have allowed you to say “that if I designate this amount of money, this amount of time, or this household item to God (the corban), then it belongs to God and I cannot use it to help mom and dad.”

What do we say about people who have the ability and the resources to help their parents but do not do so?

That is what Jesus is telling these visiting dignitaries from Jerusalem!

They have got it all wrong.

And there is more.

Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” 

Into, out of. They are two, okay three, words that describe two different views, two different approaches to God and being a faithful believer.

Don’t read that. Don’t look at that. Don’t let yourself think that. Don’t taste that.

There is wisdom and truth to saying ‘don’t “do that”

But there are Christians who are struggling with addictions to drugs, alcohol, porn, money, work and the like. There are Christian households where domestic violence is a reality.

And while ‘don’t’ can be a helpful thing to say, once we already ‘do’ all the ‘don’ts’ in the world cannot help us.

Can you imagine the Pharisees meeting up with the demon possessed man back in Mark 5?

“Uh sir, sir, don’t do that. Uh sir, don’t say that. Uh, sir don’t throw that uh… sir, sir, SIR!! that’s not allowed.”

“Sir, if you are going to keep doing that, we are going to kick you out of the synagogue.”

“WHO ARE YOU?”

“Philel, yes Jacob, I think we need to leave. He is not going to listen to us.”

Real change is an inside job. As one of my dear friends said to me several years ago, “God’s grace is rooted in the reality of the human heart.”

“What comes out of a person is what defiles them.  For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

 

So what does all of this mean for us this week and especially this week, a week of giving thanks?

 

What makes us unacceptable to God? It is not a list of do’s and don’ts. It is our own darkened and warped hearts. It is that part of us, deep, deep down inside our soul that needs to be changed. We need a good cleansing inside of us.

God must be allowed to get inside our hearts and change us for the better. His power His grace His mercy His salvation – it has to get inside of us and we have to let it get inside of us, and keep getting inside of us, for us to change and to be acceptable to Him.

The people who came to Jesus were desperate for His touch, His healing, and His deliverance. They needed His grace and they needed it now!

And gratitude was expressed by these people when they experienced Jesus’ healing and redemptive touch. In chapter one the man who was healed of leprosy could not keep quiet about what had happen to him. And in chapter five the possessed man wanted to go with Jesus but Jesus told him to go and tell what happened to him. Gratitude, thanksgiving was an automatic response to Jesus’ healing.

Do we not having something to be grateful for this day and this week? Yes we have concerns about a lot of things. But are we not to have a grateful heart? Is not gratitude something that comes from a heart which has been cleansed by the blood of Christ?

As we conclude this morning, we are going to conclude not with a hymn as originally planned but with moments of spoken gratitude. I invite each of us to thank God for as many things as we can today because we do have much to be thankful for.

You may wish to pray out loud. That is fine. You may wish to pray quietly to yourself. That is fine as well.

But let us close with gratitude in our hearts, hearts that are clean but we have allow Christ to make us clean. Amen.

Sunday Sermon: “Boots on the Ground”

Since the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq commenced 11 and 9 years ago, respectively, a phrase that has a long history, according to some sources, we have frequently heard in reference to military operations requiring ground troops.

“Boots on the ground.”

And today we remember not just boots on the ground, but at sea, in the air, and beneath the sea. We are grateful and thankful for all of them.

Last Sunday we stopped at and studied, Mark 5:1-20 where Jesus comes face to face with a demon possessed man and in a remarkable conversation tells the demons they can possess a herd of pigs. Now this is not the first time that Jesus has encountered a possessed person. There was an account of such an encounter in chapter 1 in, of all places, a synagogue! But unlike that one in which Jesus shushed the demon from talking, in last week’s passage the demons spoke openly of Jesus’ identity.

Now to continue to be aware of the context of our main passage let’s be aware of the subjects and actions from the end of last week’s passage to this week’s passage. In chapter five verses 21 – 40 we have two moving stories about the faith of two people who believe that Jesus can heal.

One is a local synagogue leader, Jarius whose little girl is deathly sick and dies before Jesus can get to their home. The other is one that Jesus encounters on the way to Jarius’ house – a woman who had a serious medical issue and who had “spent everything she had” on cures for it. In both situations the daughter and the woman are healed even though Jesus was mocked by the friends and family who had gathered at Jarius’ home to mourn her death and held up by the woman who simply touched His garment.

Then at the beginning of chapter six, Jesus returns home to Nazareth and finds more rejection because there were those who could and would only see Him as Mary’s son and a carpenter. Luke’s account in chapter four and verses 14 to 30 has a fuller description of this rejection which includes, among other things, the townspeople trying to push Jesus off a cliff!

And then we come to our main text and what I call a ‘boots on the ground’ experience. Let us hear God’s word this morning. Mark 6:7-13

Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.

These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.  Wear sandals but not an extra shirt.  Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.  And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”                                                           

They went out and preached that people should repent.  They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

Last week I said that I thought that the trip across the Sea of Galilee was like a missions trip because Jesus and the twelve entered an area in which Jesus was probably not known. Today, I think that what we have is a ministry experience.

How soon after the Nazareth experience this ministry experience took place we cannot say for sure. But the important thing is that Jesus sends out the twelve to do some important work. Work that they, and others they empower in cooperation with the Holy Spirit later on after Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came, will be directed and commissioned to do.

I think that Jesus’ instructions are very interesting and important to study, understand, and appropriately put into practice:

We first notice that he began to send them out two by two. 

Ask any military person who has been on a patrol and I think that they will tell you having a buddy is very, very important for both safety and morale.  Fighter pilots are usually paired up for protection and greater effectiveness.

Jesus does not send these twelve men out alone. And I have learned over the years that to do ministry alone is a hard thing to do. To have a partner is very helpful. Ministry is often done alone but as we read through the New Testament we find that Paul and other leaders were part of a team of people.

He then also gave them authority over impure spirits.

I have always found it fascinating to read accounts of battlefield strategy, in other words, how commanders in the field commanded and directed the troops under their command. Clear and well written orders granting authority to act have always been necessary. One of the things that Ulysses Grant was known for was his ability to write clear orders to his unit commanders.

Jesus gave the authority upfront and before they left to do something that I think they never thought they would or could do – cast out unclean spirits. Jesus had done it and they had seen Jesus do it. But I do not think they ever dreamed that they would be doing it themselves.

When I came back from an internship that I did during my sophomore year of college at church in Maryland, I vowed that I would never become a pastor. I could not understand how someone could go to another person’s home and ask them all sorts of questions about God and faith and life. I have since understood and experienced that God’s authority and power was essential and necessary in ministry. We don’t go out in our name, we go in Jesus’ name!

Next we read that Jesus said to them, “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.  Wear sandals but not an extra shirt.”

Ask a foot soldier you know and they will tell you that all that extra weight can hold you down and make it difficult to do the job. Travelling lightly and with the bare essentials is what is required. Some missions, a veteran will tell you, brought little sleep and little food over a period of days. The mission objective had to be achieved at all costs.

Now at the end of Luke’s account of this sending we read in chapter 9:6, “So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.” And in the New Living Translation it reads “So they began their circuit of the villages, preaching the Good News and healing the sick.”

But I also think that Jesus was making another statement. Travel unencumbered by things. When I think about the simplicity of their ministry compared to the sophistication and complexity of today’s ministry, I personally think that we would have trouble functioning that way today. But the mission was the main thing. Not the accouterments of the position of being one of the twelve.

And then something about hospitality and receptivity is said. “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.  And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

Welcoming and being hospitable to strangers and travelers is a very, very important cultural trait for many societies. We read of this in the gospels at various points, especially when the Pharisees and others complain about who Jesus is eating with.

But then Jesus makes a statement that speaks about receptivity. Has anybody here ever done door-to-door sales? I have too and they were primarily magazine sales primarily for school. I remember being taught not to say, “You wouldn’t like to buy some magazines would you?”

Quite frankly we find door-to-door sales a nuisance and usually don’t answer the door. (I don’t) But if we have sold anything for a living we have usually come to the place where we know that our best efforts are not going to make a sale and we move on.

According to one source I read that to ‘shake the dust off your feet’ was a statement of “you are making a wrong choice.” But Jesus already knew about this rejection, we have seen it several times in our study so far. And he knew that the twelve would be rejected as well. We need to be reminded that our faith, and sometimes us as well, are going to be rejected.

So what does all of this mean for us this week?

I think that it means this. We are on a mission and we cannot be held down by distractions. The mission is to go and tell what Christ has done for us and if people reject that message and us, we move on. We still love and care and respect people but we don’t keep badgering them.

But, we need to remember that the power to go on this mission is given to us by the Lord. We do not go in our name. We go in the name of Jesus.

This morning I simply want to call us back to the simplicity of our mission. And our mission is to love and proclaim this Good News of God’s love for us through Christ.I also want to remind us that the power and strength of the Holy Spirit is ours to help us go and tell what Jesus Christ can do for others. For we are God’s “boots on the ground.”

Amen.

Sunday Sermon: A Trip to the Dark Side

As a result of our journey since the beginning of September and last week’s tumultuous journey across the Sea of Galilee, we now arrive at the fifth chapter of Mark and a passage that is to me one of the most spiritually and emotionally intense encounters prior to Jesus’ death and resurrection with evil.

Let us first hear the word of God this morning, Mark 5:1-20:

They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.  This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain.  For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him.  He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!”  For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”

Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.”  And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside.  The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.”  He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened.  When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well.  Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him.  Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”  So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolishow much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

Does this passage raise lots of questions in your mind? It does in mine.

But let us be reminded of the context of this passage first. Last week we studied the end of chapter four in which Jesus has the disciples take him across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee after a period of teaching a large crowd from a boat off shore at Capernaum. As they go across, as part of a flotilla of other boats, a quick and substantial storm comes up and in their desperate fear they ask Jesus, “Don’t you care if we drown?”

Well Jesus calms the storm and the wind and there is shock, awe even, in the twelve as they process what has just happened and ask themselves, “Who is this?” And Jesus uses this to challenge them about their level of faith in Him.

Now, after a long night with probably little sleep they arrive, based on locations mentioned in verses 1 and 20 from here to down here. Here’s why this is probably the area where they landed.

The mention of the word Gerasenes (or in some translations Gadarenes) is believed to refer to this region of Israel once known as Gadara, a Greek city that contains some well known and long visited mineral springs. Today the city is called Hamat-Gedar and is located on the Israeli-Jordanian border.  It is a resort town and is known for its hot springs.

And then there is the word Decapolis in verse 20 that is also translated as “The Ten Cities.” These were outposts and centers of Greek and Roman culture founded centuries before by the Greeks and then occupied by the Romans when they came to power. Hence, it was primarily a Gentile and not a Jewish area which may partially help to explain their response to Jesus.

But in our passage, Jesus barely is on the beach, or in a port, when a demon possessed man makes himself known. I wondered what this man looked like.

Was he disheveled? Was he clothed? Probably and probably not. But we do know that this man was being tortured by not just one but many demons.

I have never been in the presence of a demon possessed person. I believe that they exist. I have experienced the presence of a demon that attacked me in my sleep one night. (I have told you this story before.)

But I have never seen or heard such a person.

His appearance cannot be pleasant to look at. He probably smells as well as looks offensive. By the description of his physical strength, people probably keep a distance and avoid him as much as possible.

His life is sheer terror. He is uncontrolled and undisciplined.

His body is marked by cuts made from stones. I would not be surprised that dried blood is a constant presence on his body.

His mind, his body, his life is not owned by him. He is ruled by evil.

 

And he stands face to face with Jesus. Make that he falls to the feet of Jesus. He recognizes someone who is God and who is more powerful than he is (or they are).

Snarling, and I think, getting more and more afraid, he angrily and fearfully asks, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!”  And the reason for this response is For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”

A dialogue, perhaps unseen and unheard by the people around them because Mark does not give any indication of prior dialogue, had taken been taking place. Spirit and spirit in conversation, perhaps more a shouting match, had been going on from a distance. And now they are face to face and audible in a way that all can hear.

What is Jesus going to do?

All around these two stand at least the disciples and perhaps several others, wide eyed and fearful.

Perhaps the few people that are there (it seems to be a somewhat remote location) knows this mad man but this man fresh out of the boat, perhaps still dripping wet from the soaking on the lake, is unknown. But the demons know Him. “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

Why did Jesus go there? Why didn’t He go someplace else?

There is so much behind this passage we simply do not know. There is another layer of reality that does make itself known to the audience then and to us today. But there are other things that we have no knowledge of.

But what is Jesus going to do?

Evil, perhaps in the most powerful configuration and confrontation since His desert temptations, is facing Him and asking Him what He is going to do.

Jesus does what He came to earth to do – redeem a human being from bondage. But this redemption is not without a struggle.

“What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.”  And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

Talk about a horror film plot!

But this is no horror film, this is reality. This is a walk on the dark side.

Evil is making an appearance front and center right before Jesus Himself. And Jesus pushes back!

And it is interesting to note that the demons say to Jesus, “not to send them out of the area.” Why? Is this their territory? Why didn’t Jesus say ‘leave the area and don’t come back here?”

And then Mark says, “He gave them permission,” permission to enter into the pigs.

Friends, we are getting a glimpse of a world that exists but usually we cannot see! But the pig tenders certainly saw what was going on! And they took off after their source of employment created a large pile of bacon, ham, and pork tenderloin in the lake!

The news travels fast and so a large crowd gathers and are shocked no, scared to death, to find themselves facing a man they recognize but sane and sitting there “in his right mind.” Whoa.

But who was this other guy?

Based on this account (and Matthew and Luke who also include this episode in their accounts) I really do not think that the people who came to see what had happened knew who Jesus was. I think that if He was known that Mark (and the other writers) would have revealed that in their writing.

Maybe they were afraid for two reasons: 1. The man had changed so much it scared them and 2. If this man had been so changed so quickly by this other man (Jesus) then who was this other man?

But they are so scared of what is before their eyes, they ask Jesus to leave and leave now. And He does.

Why? Why doesn’t He stay? There is certainly more work for Him to do in that region. But He doesn’t stay. He leaves. No reason is given for His willingness to leave except perhaps it is out of respect for them. Or he refuses to get pushy with them.

But He leaves a witness, a witness of mercy.

“Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”

Jesus uses the word ‘Lord’ in his response to the now delivered man. The ancient word is Kurios and it means, among other things, “he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord; the possessor and disposer of a thing.” I think that the audiences to which this man would speak would understand exactly what this term meant.

I really think that was this trip was a missionary trip. Jesus goes into an area where the Jewish faith is apparently not as strong as it is in Capernaum or elsewhere. He is showing the disciples what He is eventually going to have them doing. He is illustrating, in an early, very early way, Acts 1:8 “… you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

And, in preparation for next week’s message, He is preparing them, I think, for doing what He has just done for this man.

The Gospel accounts are about Christ and His ministry and mission of forgiveness and salvation for all of humanity. We can get interested in this aspect or action in a passage from the gospels but we can miss the main point – Jesus and what He is doing to redeem humanity. This man, wracked with inner torture and pain, was perhaps not even Jewish but Gentile. And Jesus delivered him as He did Jews who were possessed.

 

So as we prepare for communion this morning, I remind us that God’s grace, His Amazing Grace, His Amazing compassion and mercy, is for everyone. Everyone.

Amen.

Sunday Sermon: Somebody Bigger Than You and I

Scripture Passage – Mark 4:21-41

Description – The ninth in a series through the Gospel of Mark, Fall 2012

 

 In our continuing journey through Mark, we are going to spend time with the final third of the passage stated in your bulletin, verses 35 – 41 of chapter four:

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.”  Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

 

In July 2007 six persons from our community traveled to Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi a town of about 8,000 persons and is east of New Orleans about 60 miles. The eye of Hurricane Katrina, entered the coastline at the mouth of the Pearl River just west of BSL, in August 2005. The six of us went there to help Habitat for Humanity build a home in Waveland, a community just west of BSL and close to where the eye hit.

We stayed at a Catholic retreat center on the east side of BSL near the bay. A bridge over the bay, part of US 90 along the coast line, linked BSL and points west with Pass Christian and points east.

When we arrived to work, less than two years after Katrina hit, one side of the bridge was open to traffic in both directions. Now, over five years later the bridge is fully open.

Interstate 10 is about 10 miles north of BSL and we were told that the storm surge, the wall of high water that according to published reports was 20 feet high, made it all the way to I-10. The devastation was tremendous.

Jesus and the disciples have spent several hours in a boat, on the Sea of Galilee as Jesus talked the large crowd using symbolic stories, called parables, primarily about the Kingdom of God. The audience was clue less as to their meanings but, as we are told in verse 34 “when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.”

 Now it is getting dark and Jesus is done with his teaching for the day. They are part of a small flotilla of other boats that leave the western side of what is now called the Lake Tiberias and travel, based on where they end up at the beginning of the next chapter, to the opposite side of the lake. But a storm, “a furious squall” comes up swamping the boat with water.

And the disciples become slightly anxious.

No, they become frantic and fearful.

Now knowing that some of them are fishermen, it would be easy to think that Peter and the other fishermen would know what to do and calm the others down. They were aware of the sudden changes in weather due to the air currents and geography. No doubt part of the training and experience in the local fishing industry would be learning to discern the weather.

Our passage says it is night and so the ability to discern the clouds would be obscured but not the waves and the wind. But apparently it does not happen. They are all afraid.

We do not know how long they had been in the boat when the storm came up. My sense of the text is that perhaps several hours went by and based on their destination in the next chapter they would have traveled       One of things that I learned in my research this week was that this body of water was a well traveled body of water especially for commerce. So perhaps, and I think that any Great Lakes merchant sailor would tell you, travelling in a smaller body of water with little room to maneuver in a storm would create a great deal of anxiety. A collision with another boat would be a high probability event.

But the increasing levels of water are what Mark points out in his writing. “Nearly swamped.”

And in their desperation, they turn to Jesus, asleep in the boat, sleeping on a cushion. “Don’t you care if we drown?”

Don’t you care?

“Don’t you care” comes from our lips as well!

Don’t you care God that he is dying? Don’t you care God that our nation is a mess?

Don’t you care God that my marriage is difficult? Don’t you care God that I have lost my job?

Don’t you care God that I hate my life? Don’t you care God that I am very depressed?

Don’t you care God that she is dying?

Don’t you care God?

Don’t you care…

Some of us have been on boats and felt the queasiness that comes with motion sickness. I have… on cruise ship!

But we know exactly how these twelve men were feeling while securely sitting in our seats this morning.

For what we have is a clear word picture of the inner turbulence of our souls. The sudden storms of fear and doubt come out of nowhere and we are paddling for a secure beach as fast as we can. We think we have everything covered but we suddenly realize that don’t. We think it is all under control but it isn’t.

 

And finally in desperation, we cry to God, “Don’t you care we are perishing?”

 

And Jesus, aroused from sleep, sits up, maybe He stands up, and He says, “Quiet! Be still!”

And.it.is.

 

Now what comes next has struck me in a new way this week because of our study of what has come before this point. These men have seen people healed of illness that no one had a cure for. They have seen demons cast out of people. They were getting the inside information about the Kingdom of God.

But here they are, and here Jesus is, soaking wet, in the dark on a lake with other boats and other human beings, all of whom were wondering “What just happened here?”

And Jesus’ words pointedly ask them a question that goes deep within their hearts, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

Jesus was expecting some higher, greater, more mature (you pick the word) level of faith. And He was not seeing it in them.

And then they reveal a great lack of comprehension when Mark records what is said next: They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

They had seen people healed and demons cast out and they were still wondering “Who is this?” They saw Him give hope to people who had no hope and all they can ask is “Who is this?”

 

Ah, but we cannot get angry with the twelve because we, too, have shown the same lack of faith and understanding over the years. After all the Lord has done for us, we still have moments when we say, “Who is this?”

 

Now, there is a word in this final verse that has some dynamic meaning to it. Terrifed. They were terrified.

Just a moment ago, they were deathly afraid. Now they, after Jesus commands the storm to stop, they are merely terrified.

Wouldn’t you be glad that the water was still and you were not going to perish? Happy? Dancing in the boat with total abandon and utter disregard for going overboard and causing twelve others to go with you?

 

But this word terrified is from the ancient Greek word, fobeo, which means both fear and awe. So what if instead of saying these twelve were terrified, what if they were simply awe stuck at what Jesus had just done.

It is easy to assume that Jesus was rebuking them for their lack of faith. But if their response was one of awe and not being fearfully terrified, then what would we think of them now?

 

 So what does all of this mean for us this day and week?

 

What if Jesus’ question about faith was not a rebuke but a hint that their belief in Him needed to go deeper and become stronger?

Many of us know that when someone we admire and trust challenges or questions our commitment to something of value to us, it can hurt. But it hurts in a good way. It makes us dig deeper for the next time. We value the input and we want to succeed and move forward.

 

But if we see Jesus’ words as an angry rebuke, then what does it do to us? And how do we respond to angry rebukes.

Maybe Jesus was irritated with them. I would be too if my sleep was disturbed in the middle of the night with a bunch of screaming people in my bedroom! (It was in college when it was common for a group of men to come running into a room and yell “buck-buck” and jump on top of you while you slept soundly!)

If what we hear in Jesus’ voice is anger and disappointment then perhaps we are going to struggle with a greater faith. But if we hear a voice that is a spur, a challenge to greater growth, maybe then we might just walk on water the next time!

There is somebody bigger than you and I.

Jesus Christ.

There is somebody who can still the waves and wind in our souls.

Jesus Christ

There is somebody who can take us through the storm as well.

Jesus Christ

 

Finally, some of you may be asking, ‘What if Jesus does not calm the storm I am in right now?’ What if illness wins? What if debt wins? What if failure wins?

Does God still care?

Yes, He does.

I cannot tell you, and I know better having lived a while, that everything turns out well in life. Death comes unexpectedly. Debt continues to mount. An unexpected job hunt begins. A decision to leave a marriage is made.

But I will tell you this Jesus is in the boat with you riding the waves with you. He feels the fear in your heart and sees the terror on your face. You are NOT alone!

One day everything will be made right. Peace will be the norm and not the exception.

But for now, we get in the boat with Jesus. And we set sail with Him. And He with us.

(I concluded by quoting the words to the song “Somebody Bigger Than You and I” written by Johnny Lange, Hy Heath, and Sonny Burke)

Amen.

 

Sunday Sermon: A Picture of Our Work

Scripture Passage – Mark 4:1-20

Description – The eighth sermon in a series through Mark, Fall 2012

A familiar looking sight around our town in the spring and summer is that of growing corn and other crops, especially soybeans. Of course this year the drought took its toll on the crops. But this image of corn growing is one that is familiar and understandable to us. There are scientific explanations for this process but what we see tells us much.

As we enter the fourth chapter of Mark, he turns now to the teachings of Jesus which are referred to as parables. And a parable is a form of speech in which like or as, simile and metaphor, are used to make point about something of great importance. They are different from a fable as a fable will use animals or nature to make a point whereas parables use humans to make a point.

And the parable which Jesus uses at the beginning of this chapter, that of the Sower, I believe is one of the two most important parables in the gospels – the other being The Prodigal Son. Let us hear the word of the Lord this morning, Mark 4:1-20:

“Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.  He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said:  “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables.  He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,

“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?  The farmer sows the word.  Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy.  But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.  Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word;  but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.  Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

This is a story about a farmer who sows his seed so that it will take root with the result being a productive crop. So ‘seed’ and ‘soil’ are key words to pay attention to here as the action of sowing and the interaction between seed and soil is the primary action of this parable.

Now what does the seed represent?

It represents two things – the word, which in this context is Jesus’ message AND the people who hear Jesus’ message. Make that the response of the people who hear Jesus’ message.

…The farmer sows the word… 

…Some people are like seed along the path…

…Others, like seed sown on rocky places…

       …Still others, like seed sown among thorns…

… Others, like seed sown on good soil…

So there is a mixing of meaning in the word seed… it represents Jesus’ message, the word, and the people who receive the word. What then, is the meaning of ‘soil?’ Notice the various locations, representing the various kinds of soil conditions and situations, in our text:

along the path

on rocky places

       among thorns

       on good soil

 

The soil represents the heart conditions of the people who hear Jesus’ message. And not every condition is a good one.

Give me one word to describe the condition of the soil on the path.

How about ‘hard?’ The seed here is exposed and it is vulnerable to being snatched away.

Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 

I think that we can call such people hard hearted people who will, and already have, rejected Jesus’ message. The scribes and other religious groups have rejected Jesus and His message. Their hearts are hard. They will get harder. Maybe these are the people spoken about in verses 11 and 12:

But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,

“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

 

The next group is another common group that Jesus encounters “Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy.  But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.”

In the latter part of John 6 Jesus says some hard to swallow things about His upcoming death. After He does, we read in verse 66, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”

Following Christ is hard work. It is difficult at times. We slip, we stumble, fall. We do not do it perfectly. The thorns of life which grab at us and on to us are always present.

And sometimes we give up, too quickly, when the going gets tough. And personally I think that people give up when their emotions change. They profess faith in Christ and a wonderful and profound change comes over them. There is a high.

But after a while the high wears off. And they think “I don’t feel like a Christian, anymore.” While we have been given feelings we cannot use them as a guide to the certainty of our faith. The certainty of our faith must be based on the truth of what we read and believe in the Bible and in the active work of God in our hearts and souls.

Then there is the final group of people. “Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

We love to see a good crop and not a stunted one. We seek out people whose faith in Christ thrives because their growth and spiritual productivity in Him is something that motivates us to desire a similar kind of faith and life.

And there are some key words in this passage that distinguish this group of people from the other groups:

Good

Hear

Accept

Produce

 

Good describes the soil. The root word here for soil means, among other things, useful. We know what good soil looks like around here. It is receptive to the seed. The quality and conditions of such soil make it useful and productive.

But the seed must then hear, accept, and produce.

In this last group the hearing and acceptance leads to production.

In John 15 Jesus talks about bearing fruit with the image of a vineyard. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” A productive vine then, a productive follower of Jesus, is productive (read: faithful) as they stay linked to Christ. This final group of seeds or people, yield to the good soil and their faith and life in Christ grows and becomes productive and fruitful.

Now if you have lots of questions right now about this text that have not been answered, I acknowledge this.

“How is some of the soil shallow and other soil rich?”

“Why can’t the sower get some of the soil in better condition?”

“Didn’t the sower (farmer) till the ground good enough before he planted?”

These are good questions to ask! I encourage you to think on them, write them down and study this passage this week and write out your answers to them.

 

So then what does all of this mean for us this week?

Jesus is teaching them a very important point about human nature and human choices right up front and it will be proven true as they continue on their journey with Him. What He is saying to the disciples with His secret debriefing is, ‘this is picture of our work.’

“The people who you saw today and will see in the future are just like the various soils. Some are hard hearted and will resist, others are shallow and lose interest at the first sign of trouble, still others are troubled and easily distracted, and others are rich and receptive. These are the conditions under which you will work in My name.”

What is the condition of your soul today? What is the condition of the soil of your soul today?

Will you allow the Holy Spirit to till the soil of your soul so that He can plant what needs to be planted within you at this point in time?

 

Let us respond to God as we need to this morning. Amen.

 

Sunday Sermon: What A Group!

Scripture Passage – Mark 3:13-35

Description – The Seventh sermon in a series through Mark, Fall 2012

I recently finished reading a couple of biographies about the life and contributions of the late Lamar Hunt. Hunt was the founder of the American Football League back in 1960 as well as that of Dallas Texans who are now known as the Kansas City Chiefs. When he decided to start the AFL in the late fifties, Hunt was not yet 30 years old. His daddy was the legendary Texas oil man, HL Hunt and so there was money for him to have. But his love of sports was the motivational factor throughout his life. Not only did he win a Super Bowl he also won several MLS titles as owner of the Columbus Crew.

Hunt had been rebuffed by the late George Halas and the NFL in bringing a team to back to Dallas and so he began a network of potential owners in places like Minneapolis-St. Paul (who would switch to the NFL and begin play in 1961 as the Vikings), as well as Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and Boston. Together this group of owners would challenge the NFL throughout the early 60’s with the result that in 1966 he would help to initiate a merger with the senior league with one result being the largest American sporting event every year – The Super Bowl. What a group of men who took on an established and coming of age league and shaped the sport of football in ways large and small to make it what it is today.

Margaret Mead once said “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

And as we continue to walk through the gospel of Mark, we are going to pay close attention to three different groups of people this morning. They are three groups that have and will consistently pop up in our study of Mark. Our text is the remainder of chapter 3, verses 13-35 that we will read and refer to in segments. Let us hear, now and throughout this message, the word of the Lord:

Mark 3:13-19:

“Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelvethat they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.”

This past week I spent a day at Anderson University hearing Dr. Adolfo Roitman, curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls and head of the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The Scrolls, considered one of the, if not the greatest archeological find in the 20^th century, contain the entire Hebrew Bible except for the book of Esther. Composed over 2000 years ago, they have offered both Jewish and Christian scholars a vast wealth of information that is still unfolding.

Hearing him reminded me that Jesus walked this earth as part of specific culture in a specific time and place. He stood outside of that culture but He also was a part of it.

We read in verse 13, “Jesus… called to him those he wanted…”

What He was doing in naming twelve men was common in that day in first century Judaism. David Bivin writes “Apparently, Jesus’ replies [to those who asked to finish something first before following Him] were directed towards persons whom he had invited to leave home and serve a full-time apprenticeship with him. This form of discipleship was a unique feature of ancient Jewish society.”  And this form Bivin goes on to say such a call required sacrifice and commitment to the teacher/rabbi.

And Karen Kogler in a study of discipleship in the First Century writes, “Jesus was not the only one in the Gospels to have disciples. John the Baptist and the Pharisees had disciples (Mark 2:18) and Jesus’ opponents at one point called themselves “disciples of Moses” (John 9:28). Jesus’ ministry takes place in the context of well-known organized groups, particularly the Pharisees, scribes (usually translated “teachers of the law” in the New International Version) and Sadducees, all represented in the Sanhedrin. The Gospels present these organized groups, rather than specific individuals, as the primary people who investigate and oppose Jesus, and eventually arrest Him and demand his crucifixion.”

So what Jesus does is common…

And what a group they turned out to be…

We know of at least four fishermen and one tax collector in the group. Not much is known about many of them and for some the only mentions of them are in this segment of scripture. Some are reportedly buried in Spain, Rome, Greece, Turkey, and India. But for the others we had no idea where they are buried or how they died.

They argued. They were clueless at times. They fled in fear after Jesus’ death. They returned afraid and stunned that He had risen from the dead.

But they were a group Christ called to go into “all the world” and preach the gospel. And because they went, this good and gracious news of forgiveness came eventually to each of us. And we are to pass it on to others!

Probably the best known of them, Peter disappears into the early history of the church within 20 years of Christ’s resurrection and return to heaven. Paul, who is converted in a dramatic way on the Damascus road, perhaps one of the roads that Jesus is travelling on at this point in time, takes center stage and more is said about his missionary journeys and less about what is going on in Jerusalem as we traverse the book of Acts.

A second group we find in the next segment of chapter three, verses 20-30, is a group we have already encounter and they have issues, lots of issues with Jesus. “Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”

He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.”

 

What a group!

The level of conflict that we have seen building in the last chapter now crosses a line.

This time it is the scribes who go on the attack. “And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” Jesus is drawing a crowd… of critics who have lots of intelligence and understanding but who are missing the point. They are concerned about power, control, and influence. Jesus is concerned about redemption.

And this time the scribes cross a line from which they do not turn back. “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

Who on earth is Beelzebul? It means ‘lord of the house’ and is another name for Satan. And who on earth is Satan? He is the prince, the leader of the evil spirits and he is the Devil, the adversary.

So what the scribes are saying is that Jesus is possessed by Satan which is noted in verse 30, “He has an impure spirit.”  And it provides Jesus then to do two things: First, he uses a parable, the first recorded in Mark, to make a point. And a parable is not a pair of bubbles but a form of speech designed to make a point about something important.

“How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. Some of these words we remember were used by Abraham Lincoln in his unsuccessful US Senate race in 1858. The point Jesus is making is that this is impossible! “How can Satan do what I have done (the driving out of evil spirits)? It does not make sense. If Satan could drive out evil spirits he would be weakening himself.”

Second, Jesus makes a statement that has been studied and discussed and argued for a long time:

Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”

He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.”

The statement “eternal sin” has been called the “unpardonable sin.” And it has raised the question, “What is the unpardonable sin?”

I remember many years ago a young woman asking me if pre-marital sex was the unpardonable sin. I don’t think that it is nor do I think there is support for that thought in the Bible.

The issue here is blasphemy. To blaspheme someone is to slander them. It is an assault on the character of someone. The scribes have assaulted the character of the very God they claim to serve and follow. But it is too late. They have rejected Jesus. Their hearts have grown hard and cold and will continue to do so.

What a group…

 

Finally there is Jesus’ family. Verses 20 and 21 says, “Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.  When his familyheard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

Then on to verse 31 and through the end of the chapter we read:

Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him.  A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

 

Now it appears from this passage that Mary and Jesus’ brothers were nearby when word reached them that there was a commotion and Jesus was in the middle of it. So they decide to get Him out of there and after the conversation between the scribes and the Jesus they show up.

What a group…

 

The words used imply insanity. In other words, ‘he’s crazy!’ Now it is not clear who said “He is out of his mind.” It could have been someone in the crowd. It could have been one of the twelve. The context of the passage could be interpreted to indicate that the family said this. We really don’t know.

The point is, they show up and they ask for Jesus to come outside. (Can’t you imagine Mary right now? Oh.my.goodness. “Who does He think He is? This is madness. Enough! I am going to take Him by the ear and get Him back to Nazareth!”)

But Jesus doesn’t go outside to them.

To quote Scooby Doo, “Rut-roh!”  He points to I think, the disciples and says “Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

What does He mean Pastor? Does Jesus mean we are to reject our families and forget about them? No.

It is about priorities. Who is to come first in our lives? Family or God?

God is to come first!

Jesus Christ came to earth to redeem the human race. He died on the cross to save us from our sins. His focus is on people doing God’s will unconditionally. He wants and He demands our total obedience – first and foremost!

Well I remember a seminary classmate who rejected his pastor/father’s help when it came to his ministerial ‘career.’ He said that his father encouraged him to go to ‘that’ seminary and it would guarantee him a position in that denomination. My classmate said no I am going ‘here’ to this seminary for this is where God wants me to go.

Where hear a lot of talk today, especially this year about values. Vote for your values. Vote for Christian values!

I have no problem with that perspective.

I want my kids to have Christian values now and in the future.

But more than that I want my boys to have a solid, committed, and sold out to Christ faith. I want them to walk with Jesus even if it means they move to the other side of the world because that is where Jesus tells them to go.

Jesus asks for more than our values. He asks us for our very lives, in service to Him, as He leads us!

Which of these groups do you see yourself in this morning? I choose again this morning to get in the boat with Jesus. I choose all over again to follow Jesus where ever and how ever it leads me.

What about you?

Obediently respond to Christ this morning. The altar is open. Amen.

Bivin article:

http://www.torahclass.com/archived-articles/954-featured-article

Kogler article:

http://theequipper.org/downloads/PDFs/Disciples.pdf

 

 

Sunday Sermon: Who does this guy think he is?

Scripture Passage – Mark 3:1-19

Description – The sixth sermon in the series through the Gospel of Mark, Fall 2012

 

When William Henry Harrison died a month after taking the oath of office as our ninth President (the first to die in office), way back in 1841, John Tyler, Harrison’s Vice President took the oath of office and assumed the Presidency for the remainder of the term. This was the age in American Politics of Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and Daniel Webster all of whom were strong leaders and most of whom wanted to be President. Many expected Tyler to step down after Harrison’s death, namely Clay. But Tyler did not and well… the rest is history.

John Tyler’s resoluteness to be the President of the United States on the heels of an unprecedented Presidential death in office was, I believe, a defining one for the office of the President. It would be over 120 years later before the 25^th amendment that outlined the order of succession would be fully ratified. And I have no doubt that someone probably said at some point, “Who does this guy think he is?”

 As we come to the beginning of Mark chapter 3 in our fall series through the book of Mark, I think that the same question is being asked about Jesus, “Who does he think he is?”

 

Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”

Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.

He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.  Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

Who is this guy? And who does he think he is?

 

The agenda that Jesus lays out in chapter 2, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners,” continues to gain momentum as we enter chapter three and this time the growing opposition, namely the Pharisees and their allies the Herodians, becomes an intentional plot to murder Jesus and silence Him.

Why?

He is challenging and threatening their agenda and more specifically their power and their control. So, as the text says, “some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.”

I have to ask, “Accuse him of what?” Of healing on the Sabbath! He has already done it once after He forgave a crippled man his sins, and it got this group upset. And then He ‘worked’ on the Sabbath by taking some grain out of the fields and eating them right then and there!

Who does this guy think he is?

 

And so the issue of what constitutes the keeping of the Sabbath has become an issue between the religious establishment and Jesus. If you remember from last week I shared that the scribes who saw Jesus heal the man on the mat were known for adding to the requirements of faith. Jesus would eventually call them out on it in the final days before His arrest and crucifixion as we read in Matthew 23:1-4 “Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:  “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”

Notice that Jesus tells his audience here “be careful to do everything they tell you, but do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” It is not the essence of the faith Jesus is telling His audience to reject, it is the leadership’s practices, or lack of practices, He is telling them to avoid. And more precisely, based on verse 5 in our main text it, was their stubborn hearts which deeply distressed Him that was source of the conflict.

The issue then is the attitude of the heart Jesus observes in these men…

… and…

…in us…

I do not and I cannot stand here and determine what is in your heart today. But God can and He does. He knows what you are thinking and feeling this morning. He has complete clarity regarding your disposition.

And mine too!

 

Now, let’s briefly contrast this segment with the next segment, verses 7 -12:

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.

What a contrast this is from the scene and attitudes within the synagogue!

The people are running after Jesus because they know that He can help them, He can heal them, He can deliver them!

And now the word is out…

many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon.

Idumea is in the extreme southern end of Israel, Tyre and Sidon were seaports to the west of Capernaum. So there were people coming from other parts of Israel to not just hear Jesus but to seek and experience His healing power. This is a scene that is repeated throughout Mark and the other gospel accounts of Christ’s ministry.  And again, as we have already read, there were those demons being cast out who recognized Jesus for who He truly was and being ordered to remain quiet.

So what do we do with this segment of scripture? As we prepare for communion where must our focus be?

First and foremost it must be drawn to Christ because as we partake of the elements this morning we are remembering His death and resurrection on our behalf. However I think that we get a very important look at Christ’s heart in verse five as He was “deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts.”

Sometimes our anger comes out because we care about somebody. Jesus loved these educated and passionate men. But He hated their stubborn attitudes that caused them to reject Him and His message.

How dangerous it is for our heart and our soul to grow hard when we think that God, as these men did, only works in certain ways. Jesus came, and as we continue our journey through Mark we will see this more and more clearly, to help spiritually sick people get well. He was not there to uphold traditions and practices that made it hard for people to follow God. He was there to liberate people and simplify the way to God. We dare not stand in His way. He will bypass us.

As we prepare for communion, let us admit the truth about what is in our hearts. And let us allow Christ to come in, clean it, and dwell within it. Amen.