My Name is Mark
Acts 15:36-41
Matthew 5:7
June 12, 2005
It was during the latter part of the summer of 1978. I was working as the Youth Director at North Presbyterian Church in Denver, Colorado. The youth group always took a summer rafting trip down the Colorado River. They had their own rafts and all the other equipment. They had been doing this for years and so no longer needed to hire a guide. There were enough men and women in the church who were skilled enough to take a bunch of teenagers down that river.
To be perfectly honest with you, I really messed up…big time. First of all, I am scared to death of wild rides. I don’t do roller coasters or any of the other amusement park rides that everybody else in the world likes. When our kids were younger, we took them every summer to Great America. One summer we took them to Disney World. I sat in the shade sipping coke while they did all the crazy rides.
So anyway, I was with the youth group from Denver after we crossed over the Continental Divide. We got off the interstate and traveled down a state highway far into western Colorado. Mile after mile, the road ran alongside the Colorado river. The snows had been fairly heavy the winter before and the river was running high and fast.
We finally got to the place to put the rafts in the water and I told the other adults that I wasn’t going to go. They needed someone to drive the van down to the end of the ride to pick them up. I said that I would drive the van. Looking back, I should have sucked it up and gone with them, but I was terrified of the river.
Later that night, we sat around the campfire and had devotions. After awhile, the kids drifted off to their tents. One of the adults brought out a case of beer and passed the bottles around to the other adults there.
In my youth, I did a lot of things that got me in trouble with my parents. Drinking was not one of them. But this particular night, I apparently thought that I had to be one of the gang of adults that was drinking. So I took a bottle. Took me forever to get it down. I honestly don’t remember, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I poured some of it out.
The next week back in Denver, Dr. Beach the senior pastor, asked me to come into his office. He said that he had heard reports that one of the adults on the trip had brought beer. Apparently some of the kids told their parents and the parents told the pastor. I told him “yes” the report was true. He then asked me if I drank any. At that moment, I wished for the life of me that I could have said “no.” More than anything in the world, I wanted to tell him that I did not drink any of it. But I had, and I told him so.
I think that he was more saddened than angry. He looked at me and said, “I am terribly disappointed in you.” He was also sorry that I had chosen not to experience the river with the youth. That would have been a bonding experience that would have been very important. For a couple of weeks, our relationship was pretty rocky. We didn’t speak much and when we did, his conversation was tinged with distrust.
Shortly after that, school began and I was faced with a major exam; an exam that I had to pass in order to graduate. I passed. When I got the letter of notification from the school registrar that I had successfully passed the exam, I took it to show to Dr. Beach. He read the letter and I watched this big smile come across his face. He put his arm around my shoulder and said, “I’m proud of you. Congratulations!” From that point on, our relationship was back to where it had been before I disappointed him that summer.
We’ve come down to the fifth sermon in our series on the beatitudes. Matthew 5:7 says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
Exodus 34:6 says, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…”
Psalm 25:6 says, “Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.” The author of Psalm 51:1 cries out, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” The prophet Hosea announces God’s message when he says, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6).
A member of the Pharisees, that group of loyal, super-vigilant keepers of the Law of Israel and a despised tax collector happened to be in the Temple together one day. The
Pharisee gave his thanks to God because he was not like that other guy. The tax collector, on the other hand prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 10:9-13).
Two blind men were in desperate need of help. They followed Jesus, crying out after him, “Have mercy on us” (Matthew 9:27).
Jesus tells the story of a traveler who was beaten and robbed on the road to Jericho. Two fellow Jews, each of whom was a member of the clergy, passed him on by. It was a Samaritan, a member of a despised group of people thought to be religiously unclean by Jews, who stopped to help. Jesus asked who proved to be a neighbor to the man who was beaten. The answer was, “The one who showed mercy on him.” Jesus said, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:29-37).
Mercy in the Bible is more than just an attitude. It is an action. Those who are merciful are imitators of God, because that is how God acts to his people.
Do you remember the story of the Apostle Paul and his friend John Mark? There are some stories about John Mark that cannot be verified, but which add to his personality profile. The common belief about Mark is that he is the young man in the Garden of Gethsemane who escaped capture by the Roman soldiers as they arrested Jesus. (Mark 14:51). This rests on the assumption that the Garden of Gethsemane was owned Mark’s family and John Mark would have been there as sort of a guard during the night watch.
Another tradition holds that Mark was the son of Peter. “Your sister church in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings; and so does my son Mark.” (I Peter 5:13).
There are some things, beyond speculation, that we do know of him. For example, we know that he was the son of a woman named Mary. In Acts 12:12, we are told that after the Apostle Peter was released from prison, he went to the house of Mary. Her son was John, also called Mark.
We do know that he was the cousin of Barnabas (Colossians 4:10). In Acts 12:25, he is introduced as a traveling companion of Paul and Barnabas.
In Acts 13, on the first missionary journey undertaken by Paul and Barnabas, they first sailed to the island of Cyprus. From there, they sailed back on to Asia Minor, but for some reason John Mark did not go with them. We don’t know what disagreement between them served as the breaking point for Mark, but obviously something happened that caused Mark to go back to Jerusalem.
Later on, as recorded in Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas were back in Jerusalem contemplating a return trip to the places they had visited. Barnabas wanted to take Mark. Paul refused, citing the incident when Mark had deserted them. It is impossible to get into the heads of these three men, but they were obviously very angry with each other. Paul felt that he had been abandoned by Mark and wasn’t ready to trust him again. The work was too important and necessary not to be able to count on one of the members of the team. So Paul refused to work with Mark again.
But that is not the end of the story. Mark’s name reappears throughout Paul’s record as a reconciled missionary to the Apostle. Paul writes to Timothy, telling him to “…Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful in my ministry.” (II Timothy 4:11).
Paul closes his letter to Philemon with these words. “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. (Philemon 24).
Somewhere along the line, there was settlement and resolution between the two. Paul showed mercy on Mark, looking into his heart to find his real character. He loved him and forgave him and welcomed him back as a friend and partner in ministry. Mark had fallen away for a time. Their paths had gone separate ways. Their humanness kicked in and they acted toward each other in ways that were not always helpful. But in the end, Paul showed mercy. He demonstrated love. He modeled acceptance. He forgave as Christ had forgiven him.
I’m not sure that he realizes it, but Dr. Allen Beach will always be a mentor to me for the way that he showed me mercy. I was young, impulsive, and not-always-that-bright of a seminary student. I made more mistakes that I can count. But he forgave me and restored our relationship.
Let me ask you a question. Who are the “Marks” in your life? Who are the people who have sinned against you and need to be forgiven? Who are those who have made mistakes in your presence and caused you pain? With whom are you angry? With whom are you disappointed? What broken relationships cause you mysery?
The beatitude says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” What we need to realize is that we have already obtained mercy. We have already received unconditional love and undeserved acceptance from Jesus. God has had more mercy on us than we will ever realize.
It is up to us, I believe, to move from attitude to action. There are “Marks” in everyone’s life. We have all been a “Mark” to someone else. Perhaps it is time to show mercy in a proportionate amount of the mercy with which we have been showered. Perhaps it is time to move from just talking about loving others, to actually showing them mercy in concrete ways. For those of us who have been forgiven and reconciled to Jesus, there can be no course of action other than to bless as we have been blessed, and to show mercy as we have been shown mercy.
