Introduction
Mark takes a break from confrontation stories between Jesus and his critics to give us an overview of Jesus’ ministry. It can be easy to lose sight of what actually is going on around Jesus. Mark reminds us that Jesus has become a superstar, and with that he has inherited the “crowd-management” problems that go with stardom.
The Crowds 7-12
Jesus is on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus carried on an itinerant ministry. In plain words, he traveled around. Most of his travels were in the territory of Galilee, which included this lake. Jesus traveled around the territory, teaching and ministering in the countryside, the towns, and along stretches of the shore.
Mark conveys two pieces of information about the crowd following Jesus. First, it’s a big crowd. Again and again he impresses on us the “crush of humanity” following Jesus. Verse 7: a large crowd…followed; verse 8: many people came to him; verse 9: because of the crowd…to keep the people from crowding him; verse 10: he had healed many. There are a lot of people. The other item he wants you to note is that the crowd is made of people from all over the Palestinian area, not just Galilee. Judea, Jerusalem and Idumea are areas at the southern end of Palestine territory, far from Galilee. The regions across the Jordan actually cover area outside of Palestine, though next to Galilee. Tyre and Sidon indicate the northernmost areas. Though Jesus’ ministry is largely confined to Galilee, his fame and appeal has reached long distances.
So, there are a lot of people following Jesus. What further image does Mark give us? If we were in the Goodyear Blimp – maybe on our way to the chariot races in Caesarea – and looked down, we would see a little boat in the water near a crowd-filled shore. We grab our binoculars for a closer look, and we spot the crowd pressing around a single man. A handful of men are trying to push them back, but some of the people are getting through. They are falling before the man, and some of them seem to be grabbing at him.
What’s happening of course is that these are the sick, who are trying to touch Jesus so they can be healed. Do you remember how I described the first time Jesus healed a crowd of the sick who came to him? It was at Capernaum, during the evening after he had cast out the demon in the synagogue and healed Simon’s mother-in-law. I may have been wrong, but it seemed to me that the healing would have been an orderly affair. One by one the people would come, and Jesus would heal them. That definitely is not what’s taking place here. The crowd is close to becoming a mob. Jesus orders a boat to be ready because of the crush of the crowd against him.
Look at their aggressiveness. They are pushing forward to touch him. This is the first time Mark reports the sick reaching out to touch Jesus. Until this time, it has been Jesus doing the touching, if any touching is done at all. The people cannot wait for Jesus to even give them attention. He is not so much a healer anymore as he is a healing power to activate. Later on we will read about the woman who touches his garment unaware. It is evident she does so out of shyness or modesty. The people here are not being bashful. They are just being impatient.
So Jesus has become a superstar. I had mentioned before how the disciples were disappointed when Jesus wanted to slip away from the crowd in Capernaum who wanted to be healed. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wished Jesus would give the order to slip away on that boat. The ministry is getting difficult to manage.
Jesus is popular, but not for the reason he should be. Let’s go back to Capernaum the morning after Jesus had done his first healing stint. Beginning in 1:36 we read:
Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”
Why did Jesus travel? To preach. Why are the people crowding around him? To be healed. Jesus had not intended for his ministry to focus on healing the sick. It was a good thing to do, but it was not the thing he had come for. What he had come to do was preach – to turn the hearts of the people to the kingdom of God. He did the healing out of compassion and as a sign to give himself and his words credibility. What had happened instead was that the healings took center stage.
Why was that? One reason is that miraculous healing is exciting to see. Wouldn’t you like to watch a cripple be immediately healed or a blind person suddenly see? What about a leper be cleansed? That’s neat stuff. But of course, the people most eager to see healings would be the sick. To be healed of disease – that’s what mattered to them.
You can imagine how the word about Jesus spread. There might have been a few people spreading the word about Jesus’ teaching. “You have got to come here this young rabbi speak. Boy, can he preach a mean sermon!” I think, though, it was the people like the leper who drummed up the most attention. “Look at what Jesus has done! He healed me! He can heal you!” That’s a crowd-getting advertisement.
And don’t forget the demon exorcisms. He is still doing those. And he is still ordering them to keep quiet when they declare his identity. We’ve talked about this before, why Jesus did not want them to identify him. As the Holy One of God it was not the place of demons to testify to him; that is the privilege of the members of God’s kingdom. But it is also not difficult to imagine the pandemonium that would have broken out if Jesus were publicly declared to be the Son of God. He’s got enough problems with crowd management as it is. But let’s note that, once again, the demons revealed greater understanding than the people to whom Jesus had come. Caught up with their own felt-need, they had no room to fit in what Jesus was really about.
The Disciples 13-19
In our next scene Jesus goes to a mountainside. He is getting away from the crowds this time, but it is not just for the purpose of getting away. He has something in mind for his disciples. This incident gives us insight into his relationship with them, as well as purpose for them.
Mark says that Jesus called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. Just as before he called disciples out from among the people and they followed him, so now he calls twelve from among those who have been following him. And, just as before, they obey. One implication Mark is making is that there were more than the twelve disciples who followed Jesus. We know from Luke 8:1-3 that many women whom Jesus had healed followed him. We know from Acts 1:21-2 that other men also followed Jesus throughout his ministry. In Luke 10:1, Jesus sends out seventy-two disciples on a missions trip.
But he chooses twelve to form a type of inner circle, who will receive a special commission. 14 He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons. He gives them each the same title and job description.
The title “apostle” means “ambassador,” i.e. “one who is sent.” His disciples will become followers who are sent out by him. Like ambassadors, the apostles will go forth bearing official standing as representatives for Jesus. They will be more than mere messengers. They will possess authority to act in his name.
Mark explains that first they are to be with him. What does that entail? One, they are to spend time listening to Jesus. He will be teaching them a lot. Sometimes it will be as he is teaching the crowd; sometimes he will take them aside. He will arrange special times for teaching, such as the Sermon on the Mount, which was a sermon specifically given to his disciples. He will use incidents that come along to teach a lesson on the spur of the moment. Always he will teach.
Two, they are to spend time observing Jesus. They will observe how he treats children and women, how he deals with confrontation. They will observe his miracles. They will observe how he handles pressure and how he lives each day.
And, if they have learned and observed well, they will start to be like him or at least understand him. Here’s what I mean. I knew James Boice at Tenth Church for eleven years, seven of those years serving in a sense as his representative in the church. Beyond hearing and seeing what everyone else did, I also had regular private moments with him. I was in on informal meetings with staff or with friends. I was able to serve him pretty well over time, because I had come to anticipate how he would think about things. I could anticipate what he would be favorable to and not. And over time, I came to realize that much of the way he thought about things rubbed off on me. The result is that I can now represent him even though he is gone. On many issues, I can say, “Jim Boice would have thought…” or “Jim Boice would always say…” And to a degree that I had not anticipated, I find myself saying, “I learned that from Jim Boice.” Being around him, he rubbed off on me. That’s what Jesus intends to take place for his disciples. He is going to rub off on them.
Now the point of this cozy fellowship is so he can eventually send them away. Note what they are to do. First, they are to preach. Not surprising considering that it was Jesus’ calling as well. Are you beginning to see the high value Jesus (and Mark) placed on preaching? It was his first act of ministry in 1:14. Before the healings or exorcisms, it was his teaching that amazed the crowds (1:22). Jesus first left Capernaum to carry out what he defined as his calling – to preach (1:38).
And now that is how he defines the ministry of his newly appointed apostles. They would not forget this either. When the demands of the newborn church grew after Pentecost, they passed on those responsibilities to care for physical need to the deacons, precisely so they could continue to preach the Word. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:3,4).
Furthermore they are given authority to drive out demons. Let’s back up again to 1:38. We read: 38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” The next verse then reads: 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. Let me explain again the significance of driving out demons.
Jesus could preach without someone feeling compelled to cry out for healing. It is not as though sickness was unable to stand the presence of Jesus. But demons did have a problem being in his presence. They could not stand by idly when he was near, no more than German soldiers could casually sit around while the Allies entered France. Jesus and the demons were enemies, and Jesus was invading their territory. He was not a traveling dignitary paying a neighborly visit and saying a few words when he had the opportunity. The preaching itself was a powerful weapon against the demons who hated him. And as Mark makes clear, Jesus was the victor. As he entered the land, he drove out before him his enemies.
What was true of Jesus will be true of his ambassadors. They too will be confronted by the forces of evil, and they too will be victorious. Both of these realities are very important for the young church to know. The church will be attacked by the forces of Satan. Will the church of the apostles stand against evil spirits and these forces? Yes, and not because Jesus happened to recruit gifted men. It is because he gave them the same authority that he himself possessed.
We should note briefly that the number of apostles was not arbitrary. There were twelve tribes of Israel. These men would become the leaders of the “twelve tribes” in the kingdom of God. They were to become the leaders of the church.
The rest of the verses spell out who they were: 16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder); 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
I don’t have too much to say here. Mark puts them in order roughly corresponding to their significance. Simon Peter is clearly the leader in all the gospels. James and John form with Peter an inner circle within the inner circle. A couple of times Jesus has them accompany him privately. There are a few brief references to Andrew, Philip, Matthew and Thomas, but nothing at all of the others, and, indeed, comparing Mark’s list with Matthew’s and Luke’s, it is confusing as to who is who. Mark clearly puts Judas last intentionally, unable to resist the remark, who betrayed him.
Lessons
What do we learn about Jesus’ ministry? For one, we see that his ministry, though popular, was mostly misunderstood. Indeed, he was popular with the crowd precisely because he was misunderstood. He came to teach them the way of the kingdom; they came to get their problems solved – in this case the problem of bad health.
People can, we can, be attracted to Jesus for the wrong reasons. We might come to him so he can heal our diseases. They might be physical illnesses like cancer; they might be relational diseases like a broken marriage or love relationship or being in trouble with parents; they might be situational diseases like unemployment or a bad job. Some people look to Jesus’ teachings, not to learn how to enter the kingdom, but how to make a kingdom on earth. Jesus, they think, showed how to set up a better society. What matters is not only that we come to Jesus, but that we come to him on his terms. He taught about the kingdom of God – how to enter it and live as members of it. What matters then is that we listen to what he said and respond the way he wants us to. It is not enough to like Jesus, to think he’s cool. It’s not enough to think he is wise if we don’t grasp what he is saying and respond appropriately.
What else do we learn? Another is that his work goes on through the church. Jesus appointed his apostles and gave them authority to carry on his work. Those apostles in turn anointed elders and ministers, who in their turn did the same until we come down to the present age. The church still preaches and still possesses Christ’s authority so that his kingdom carries on and Satan’s kingdom is driven out. It is important to understand this for two reasons.
One, we tend to forget the business of the church. It is to preach the gospel, to proclaim the good news. It is easy to lose focus on what we are to be about because the needs of the world are so tremendous. Time and again the church has begun ministries in the name of the gospel, only to have these ministries reduced to mere social agencies. The YMCA was at one time an evangelistic ministry. Hospitals with church names – Presbyterian, Baptist, etc. – were started as an extension of the gospel. Now these institutions are mere physical care agencies. Many churches who themselves have lost the gospel are little more than social care agencies. Many evangelical churches that still adhere to the gospel have placed it aside to proclaim political platforms. Others have downplayed it in favor of marketing techniques that appeal to felt-needs.
Preach the gospel. Jesus could have said to his disciples, “Look at the crowds I have drawn through healing. I appoint you now to heal in my name.” Instead he appoints them to do the very thing the crowd ignores and that offends those who do listen.
The second lesson we need to embrace is that we still possess the authority of Jesus to overcome the forces of evil. We need to remember that, because so often it seems that Satan is winning the battle. He’s not. Remember that when you are discouraged. The authority of Jesus Christ which cast out demons, will continue to prevail against Satan’s forces. We, his church, will prevail.
