In Jesus Holy Name June 10, 2012
Text: Mark 1:1; 3:20-30 Pentecost II Redeemer
Who Is Jesus?
(read the text)
Who is Jesus? That is the question that must be answered if you have heard his name. Who is Jesus? That was the question in the first century when he lived and it is still valid today.
Generations ago, most people inherited rather than chose their religious faith. The great majority of people belonged to one of the historic mainline Protestant denominations or Roman Catholic Church. Today many people are opting for a non-religious life, a non-institutional, but personally constructing and creating their own form of spirituality. So our culture is growing both more religious and less religious at the same time. It is a paradox.
Last week the question asked was: “Who can be saved?” The answer was a choice: “self-salvation” based on what you do to earn God’s blessings now and the hereafter. Or. Jesus, based on his death and resurrection.
This question: Who is Jesus? This is the question that the ordinary man on the street, including the disciples had to answer. The religious Jewish scholars had to answer this question. That is why in the Gospels we read about the Sadducees and Pharisees always watching and listening and questioning Jesus.
So let’s open the Gospel of Mark and see how this question plays out.
The first thing we need to know is that there are six major issues in the Jewish religious world in the first century.
1. How are sins forgiven?
2. Acceptance or non-acceptance of people who have dubious jobs, dubious behaviors, certain diseases having various requirements, or people who are non-Jewish.
3. Food regulations preparing food on the Sabbath, etc.
4. Table fellowship (Luke 19:7 – Zacchaeus) (Acts 10 where Peter states: “It is against our law for a Jew to enter the house of a Gentile.” We had laws like that here too… drinking fountains for whites only etc.
5. Pious practices: prayer, fasting, Sabbath rules (we have them here too… blue laws, stores closed on Sunday, Christmas, Easter, Good Friday. Even my father and other mid-west farmers struggled with whether or not it was permissible to work on Sunday.
6. Table fellowship with outcasts…. Rules for people with specific diseases like leprosy.
Who is Jesus? This is how the great Indian teacher Gandhi answered this question: “I could accept Jesus as a martyr, and embodiment of sacrifice, and a divine teacher. His death on the cross was a great example to the world, but that there was anything like a mysterious or miraculous virtue in it, my heart could not accept.”
Walk with me. Mark 1:1 Christ is not his last name. In the Jewish world… Christ = anointed one… messiah.
A. Son of God…. Exodus 4 & Hosea 11:1 Every Jew knew that the “Jewish nation” for 1000 years was considered “The son of God” this is a change….Mark…read the rest of the story and tell me what you think.
B. V 9-11 at the baptism…. The voice from heaven verifies who the “son of God” is.
C. V 14 Jesus calls a few men to be disciples…they too will have to answer the question… after watching Jesus perform miracles… they find themselves in a little storm. (Matthew 8:23-27)
D. The teaching of Jesus….Mark 1:21 and note the response of the demons. Did they know who Jesus was!
E. Healing of a man with Leprosy
F. Now the BIG Question: “Who can forgive sins?” For over 1000 years where and how are sins forgiven? Exodus; Leviticus 17:11; the tabernacle; the temple in Jerusalem, “for without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”. So… who are you Jesus? You have no right!!!!!!
G. Questions about Sabbath laws and fasting! Mark 2:18ff
H. Who is Lord of the Sabbath?
I. Mark 3:1 Healing on the Sabbath would be work!
What was the result? “The Pharisees went out and plot to kill Jesus!
J. The Pharisees seek to “discredit Jesus before the people” Mark 3:20-29
He is not the Messiah… he is tricking you… he is casting out demons by the power of Satan, not God.
The earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus was surrounded by constant controversy. Nearly everyone He met misunderstood Him and what He came to this world to do. Nearly everyone was guilty of misrepresenting His words and His works. The things He did and said in love were used to attack Him in hate!
The scribes and Pharisees cannot deny what Jesus is doing; too many people have experienced it, too many people have been helped. So their strategy is to turn the people against Jesus by saying that He is ministering by the power of an evil spirit.
But it’s not just a smear campaign that the Teachers of the Law are engaging in; they actually believe it. They are convinced that Jesus is in league with the devil because they can’t see how it lines up with how God has worked in Israel in the past and how they understood the Law.
Anyone here like criticism?
How do you respond to criticism?
Does being criticized bring you down or fire you up?
Do you want to hunker in your bunker or lob your own volley of vitriol back at your critics?
Learning how to respond to criticism is a lifetime journey. That’s because critics will be accompanying you from cradle to grave!
Since 2012 is a big election year there is no shortage of negative, critical remarks flying around the airwaves. Of course all politicians virtuously claim they hate “negative” ads. And, of course, every candidate uses them. The justification for both sides is “Negative ads work.” Surveys allegedly show that those nasty, negative, often highly personal attacks are the most effective way of swaying public opinion. Negativity, bad-mouthing, accusatory honking profoundly changes the way we think and the way we act.
In a Charlie Brown cartoon, little brother Linus, looking very forlorn, asks big sister Lucy, “Why are you always so anxious to criticize me?” Lucy, looking very self-righteous, replies, “I just think I have a knack for seeing other people’s faults.” Linus turns indignant. “What about your own faults?” he asks. “I have a knack for overlooking them,” says Lucy.
Unfortunately, those best at hurting and critiquing us are those closest to us. In today’s gospel text Jesus is beset by critics. The first in line? His own family members…
Have you ever been misunderstood? Have you ever been misrepresented? Has anyone ever taken your words and motives and twisted them around and used them against you? If you live long enough in this world you are going to face that kind of a personal attack.
In Mark 3:28-29 Jesus spoke of an unforgivable sin, not because any act is unforgivable, but to warn us that our own hardness of heart can close the channels through which God's forgiveness flows and, as a consequence, leave us feeling alienated. Let us, therefore, affirm the good that is in others, so that our own hearts become generous and accepting of others, even as God is generous and accepting of us. In other words…. “love and accept your neighbor as you love yourself.” For “God has accepted and loved us for the sake of Christ.
Some of you will recall the dwarves as depicted by C.S. Lewis in the last book of the Narnia series. The dwarves had been brought by Aslan the Lion into the glories of the New Narnia, which stood for heaven or the kingdom of God. These stubborn dwarves sat smack in the middle of a sunlit meadow full of wildflowers and were being fed fruit and vegetables more exquisitely flavorful and fresh than anyone had ever before imagined was possible.
Yet their minds were darkened, their hearts were cold. And so they were convinced they were sitting in the middle of a stinky old stable being fed moldy bread and cow manure. When one of the other characters asks Aslan what can be done for these hapless figures, the answer comes back that nothing can be done. When black becomes white and white becomes black, when evil is good and good is evil, people are gone. God can’t get through to them.
The reason the unpardonable sin can never be forgiven is because it will never, ever be recognized as a sin. Even if God came to such people bearing the sweet fragrance of his grace, all these people would smell would be the stink of a rotting corpse. They won’t be forgiven because they cannot be forgiven and they cannot be forgiven because they have come to believe that the gospel’s elixir of life is strychnine: pure poison. They have rejected the work of the Holy Spirit.
Mark has given us the answer to the question: “Who is Jesus”? Will you, will others who hear His name accept his death on the cross as the “mode of forgiveness” for sin, and His resurrection as the guarantee of one’s eternal destiny? Only you can answer that question.
May God grant us the ability to “keep in step with His Spirit” as we seek to know His word and imitate Him.
