Present Mark 1-3 dramatically, by memory if possible.
First Encounter with Jesus
I’ve been spending time with the Lord in Mark’s gospel this week and I can’t wait to tell you what he has shown me. But let me warn you up front, it hasn’t been easy. We’ve been in a hurry. I’ve never seen such a flurry of activity and intense interest in anyone like this. It all started with a strange voice in the wilderness, a prophet named John, who came on the scene and did his business of getting people ready for God’s Son. He dressed like he ate; he was all about the great wilderness and the mystery of God’s work of calling Israel to repentance in the waters of baptism. It was a call to change. People came to him from all over. He could draw a crowd of expectant followers, but he pointed beyond himself to another! One greater! One who instead of baptizing in water would baptize in the Holy Spirit of God! He echoed the voices of the old prophets, stirring up hope for the coming Messiah. Get ready! He’s coming! Repent!
Why didn’t John work in Jerusalem? I don’t know. Maybe there wasn’t enough water there for baptism. But why did he seem so separated from the people. They had to go to him. I don’t know. But the people came. Many came from all over. As the numbers grew, so did the expectations and hopes of the crowds that came.
Then it happened! He came! Jesus! Joined right in with us sinners in the waters of baptism at the hands of John! It was like he was sent here to be one of us, one with us, but oh, so much more! One to save us! He went into the wilderness too. He was lead by the Spirit, but was tempted by the devil. He knows what all that is like. He’s been there, done that. From there he emerged and entered his ministry full blast, preaching, teaching, revealing divine powers at work within himself by healing sick, forgiving sins, calling specific followers to work with him and watch him work. And oh, did the people come! Word travels fast among hurting people who are looking for hope. Word got out before you could blink! Before long Jesus had to tell the ones he healed, warn them sternly! Don’t tell anyone about this! He couldn’t get any rest or find any room or any peace, even for a place to eat! Had to stay outside of the towns and villages because the crowds wouldn’t leave him alone! His only escape was the sea.
That Galilee sea was such a blessing. Jesus often got in a boat, just to get some room to breathe or a little space from the crowds to speak from. It’s no wonder his first disciples were fishermen. These men of the sea, men with businesses and families who depended on the sea, they connected with Jesus in deep bonds of loyalty. They left their nets and came into their ministry; from a sea of fish they entered into a sea of humanity. Jesus completely transformed their careers just as he redeemed their hearts and lives. Oh, it was a process. But his presence has a powerful persuasive way about it. There is an amazing attraction about this man, Jesus. And yet, there is a lot about him that is terrifyingly unsettling.
Instead of simply looking to see what Mark says about Jesus, I hope we will walk with Jesus in Mark’s gospel and experience Jesus through Mark’s inspired message. I hope you will join me in this. Let’s drop our nets for a bit and just witness afresh this strangely disturbing Messiah, yet one who is so familiar that we may be tempted to avoid fresh contact with him. Jesus will surprise you! I’ve seen it. Let me just say: if you think you’ve figured him out, think again!
What kind of person are you? Do you just hate it when someone comes along and upsets your world? Are you one of those who’d just like the world to slow down and take a break? Do you want life to be simple and uncomplicated? Are you unimpressed with wild unpredictable Messiahs who show up and upset everything you know and hold dear? Have you finally figured out what life is about and where we are supposed to stand and what we’re supposed to do and you’d appreciate it if everyone else would follow suit, thank-you very much? For you, religious faith is probably like a rock that stands immutable, stable and sacred. It has a kind of comforting assurance that is predictable and familiar. What troubles you most are all these change agents who are working to destroy the church! Jesus will challenge that. Just walk with him and see.
On the other hand, perhaps you are an adventuresome spirit among us who loves risk and dares danger to catch up with you. Perhaps you’re one who can’t stand the status quo but lives for change and rearranging the furniture all the time. Perhaps in you there’s a hunger for something new, something fresh, something alive with novelty. For you, religious faith might be stagnant and stale. You might see it as a necessary boring aspect of life that you must endure. Or perhaps you are an activist to renew what you see as a church stuck in the past. In fact, you’re one of those change agents that some people fear. You want a religious faith that is as wild as you are with adventure of fresh wind and fresh fire, one that satisfies the passions of your restless heart. Jesus will challenge you too, just wait and see.
Jesus bursts through all our illusions about religious faith. He redeems us by the sacred immutability of God who does not change, but then he himself changes everything around us and claims it for the kingdom. He identifies with us in our world of sin and sickness and sadness, but he maintains his identity as the divine Son of God and, in fact, redeems us as he gives us a new identity. Jesus is both mysteriously other and yet amazingly familiar at the same time. He is both unchanging and yet ever new. Jesus meets us where we are and touches us at our greatest need, and he never leaves us without changing us, shaping us, causing us to evaluate ourselves. Sometimes shattering the very things we hold dear, but must let go.
Consider those who first encountered Jesus. What did they hear and see that attracted them? Why would they leave their jobs, drop what they were doing and follow him? What was it? Who is this man?
Mark cuts the chase! Jesus simply walks along the sea, calls to some fishermen, tells them to follow him and they do it. They do it! Maybe it’s just for today… no, maybe for just a few weeks, no, maybe just till next fishing season, no! This is a call that, if answered, will completely change the course of their lives, forever. Literally. I can’t believe that they had any idea how this would all turn out. They couldn’t have! But as they listened to him teach and as they witnessed his power through miracles, they were changed and challenged and connected until they couldn’t leave him. Can you? I can’t!
I’ll never forget when Jesus became real to me. Oh, I’d heard about Jesus all my life. My parents took me to church from infancy. I’m a lifer. Always there, three times a week, I’ve never missed a church meeting in my life unless I was sick. The church was my net. It was safe, comfortable, familiar, predictable, and often boring… but it was mine and I was its. Me and church, we were tight! I knew all the unwritten rules and could maneuver the hidden land mines of correct language and stuff. As for legalistic rightness, I could hold my ground with the best. As for the issues, my answers had the backing of book, chapter and verse. As for the necessary inferences, I took my counsel from the “better safe than sorry” groups. We knew we were right! How could we be wrong? Only the foolish who twisted the scriptures to their own destruction would even consider us wrong. I was with the few who strived to enter the narrow gate and I was proud of it!
Then, it happened. As real as I’m standing here. I actually encountered Jesus. Jesus appeared to me in the pages of the gospels. It wasn’t a vision, it was a verse by verse visitation. I saw him. Real and amazingly living, breathing, talking, commanding, speaking with an authority that only God had, calling men to follow him who simply dropped what they were doing and obeyed. He was telling demons where to go, touching an unclean leper, forgiving sins as if he were God, hanging out with all the wrong kinds of people, breaking church rules about fasting and about eating, acting like our worship day was like any other day, stirring up opposition even as he gained a huge following, defending the Holy Spirit while offending church leaders, saying extremist statements about his own mother and brothers… I saw Jesus! It hit me hard! He’s not really like the people I’ve tried to become like all my life. He doesn’t dress or talk or act like anyone I know in my church!
Could it be that I’ve been blind all my life from the very one my church is named after? Could it be that Jesus is more, or less, or different, or unlike us? If Jesus were to come to earth and look for a church in my neighborhood that represented him, would he come to my church? If he did, what on earth would he say to us?
I’ve see Jesus. In some ways he’s a lot more terrifying than I ever dreamed. He’s broken out of all the nice coloring pictures and Hana Barbara cartoon films and felt board cut outs that I’ve seen him depicted in. Jesus is way off the charts of where I have put him in the past. His power is, well, scary. His words about his own mother and brothers are…. are illogical! Where is the nice, gentle, soft and easy, sweet Jesus I’ve grown comfortable with since childhood? You know, the one we sing about. The one who softly and tenderly calls us. The one who sweetly Lord have we heard thee calling. The one who knocketh softly at the door. Where is the Jesus of my church song book? Where is the Jesus of my youth? Where is that Jesus?
This Jesus… the one in Mark… the real Jesus… he’s turning my religious world upside down and inside out! He is showing no mercy to my comfort zones! He is devastating my predictable view of God! Jesus is wrenching the church from my mental grip and breaking my priorities and boundaries. I always thought it was my church! Now Jesus is forcing me to let go. He’s laying claim, telling me that the church is his. He’s speaking to me… wait! He’s calling me! Can I drop my nets and follow? Can you?
