Read or quote Mark 8.
We are half way through Mark’s gospel today.
What does Mark do for you and I as readers? Just think of the way we get to be in on all this action in Jesus’ life and ministry. We are allowed to overhear Jesus’ public and private conversations and observe the reactions of all those who came in contact with him. What a privileged position Mark puts you and me into! We are allowed to look at the disciples at their best and worst. We get to watch the enemies of Jesus fall on their faces again and again as they attempt to trap him. With Mark we are there to witness it all. We can marvel at the miracles and wonder at the multitudes. Thank the Lord for the gospels! Today we reach a new turn in the road. This time, Jesus has some important teachings about himself that we need.
But before we do that, think back. Who was the first character in Mark’s gospel that comes on the scene? Remember? He appears in the wilderness wearing camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. He eats desert food and preaches a prophetic message of someone who will come after him. What are his words again? “After me will come one who is mightier than I. I am not even worthy to stoop down and untie the thongs of his sandals.” Wow! Who is this mighty one? What kind of person is this? How great is his authority?
John says, “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!”
The gospel begins by pointing out the awesome authority and majesty of who Jesus is. But you know something? It is very easy to have a vision problem. Coming to Jesus at first can be shocking, exciting and amazing. But after a while, when we have become accustomed to his presence and comfortable with his nearness, there is a danger that we begin to loose sight of his majesty. That first love faith can begin to cool. The deep sense of joy and appreciation for his grace can become common.
The brides maids are all there. The groomsmen are standing with the groom. The wedding march begins and the bride walks in with her dad as the groom stands there anxiously waiting. Stars shine in their eyes and covenant promises are spoken to each other, promises to love, cherish and be faithful to one another until death do us part.
The preacher pronounces them husband and wife, they kiss, and they leave together to begin their ever after life together. For some couples the stars continue to shine through the years. Oh, there are bumps and trials on the way, and there are times of doubt and damaging emotions, but through it all, love and commitment remain. For others the stars go out even as the love dies and drowns in the misery of boredom, selfishness, conflict, sinful breach of covenant, or whatever else destroys what God has joined together. Sometimes the relationship survives, or at least they remain together, but the joy and love have faded and perhaps died. They loose sight of one another and build separate lives.
Look at your faith in Jesus Christ. Think back on the time when you experienced God’s saving grace. Remember when you decided to follow Jesus? Remember when you confessed the name of Jesus as Lord and your faith in him as the Son of God? Remember when you walked into that water and were baptized in his name for the forgiveness of your sins and his blood washed your sins away? There you met Jesus in his death, burial and resurrection. Remember your first love commitment to follow Jesus? It was exciting and fresh! There were stars in your eyes and joy in your heart!
I don’t know how much time has passed for you, but I know that there is a danger of familiarity giving birth to contempt. How is your relationship with Jesus coming these days? I believe that we are either growing deeper and closer or we are becoming blind to his grace and losing sight of our first love faith. We are either growing in the Spirit and bearing fruit, or choking on the world’s worthless worries and temptations and being neither light nor salt.
Gospel faith is expressed in at least two ways in scripture. There is a punctuated gospel expression, i.e. I was lost and now I’m saved expression. Paul’s conversion is the scriptural classic. He hated Jesus, he met Jesus, he gave the rest of his life to following Jesus. There is the death, burial and resurrection. Before Christ I was like this, then I met the Lord. Now my life is like this! Lost – saved! Dead in sin – Alive in Christ! A person is outside of Jesus Christ, they hear the gospel and are baptized into Christ! Hell bound – Heaven bound! This is a common theme in the book of Acts. Is that it? For some people, Christianity means get wet and forget. Ok, I’ve accepted Jesus and been baptized, now I have to go to church the rest of my life! What a great salvation! Is that the kind of faith we see in Mark? Did Jesus save you so that you would endure setting in church on Sundays and Wednesday nights the rest of your life? I don’t think so.
There is another expression of faith given in scripture called the linear gospel expression. This is more the story of the life of faith. This is more common in the gospels. Here there is a beginning, but there is also a story. Here we see that the disciple’s relationship with Jesus Christ had its ups and downs. It wasn’t just a Paul like conversion and that’s it. They certainly came when they were called, but they went though a development of faith that often shows itself to be less than perfect and sometimes it seems out and out frustrating to Jesus. But Jesus works with us. We move around with him. We meet people and go on assignments and exercise our spiritual muscles with challenges. There are times of eyes wide open to great wonder and amazement and there are times of blindness and just plain duhhh. Mark 8 shows us one of those times where the disciples are just not getting it. But then Jesus says some things that challenge them again to new depth, height, length and breadth that stretches them.
For seven chapters now they have been close to Jesus and spent a lot of time with him. He has amazed them over and over with miracle after miracle, and now they seem to have adjusted even to that. Up until now Jesus’ call to follow him has been an adventure in walking with the most powerful man in the world. But now he is about to raise the bar on what it means to come after him and be a disciple. This new level of commitment that he will demand requires a deeper trust in who he is, and a clearer vision of his purpose.
Jesus will teach the disciples about his own commitment to saving them and the cost of keeping this commitment to them. It is a commitment that will lead to suffering many things, being rejected by his own people and ultimately being killed. But after three days… he will rise again.
None of them know how to handle this information. Peter handles it poorly. What does he do when Jesus has just revealed the very heart of his purpose for coming? He rebukes Jesus for it. Can you imagine that? What is he thinking? Where is his vision focused that he would rebuke the Lord of lords and King of kings? Peter can not be seeing Jesus for who he is and do such a thing. Jesus responded with some of the strongest language in scripture and immediately rebukes Peter. “Get behind me Satan! You do not have in mind God’s interests, but mans!”
Jesus has just asked them: Who do you say that I am?
This is a big question. How you answer this makes all the difference. Who do you say that Jesus is? We may know the right words here and yet not know Jesus. Peter knew the right answer. You are the Christ! But Peter didn’t know the meaning of his own answer.
Who do you say that Jesus is? Do you remember your confession of faith when you were baptized? What did those words mean to you? I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. It takes more than flesh and blood to reveal the real meaning of these words. It takes a work of God in you. A work that he performs by his word and the Holy Spirit. But what happens after this confession? What happens between you and Jesus as time passes.
What happens in other relationships as the years pass? Ask the young man about his bride to be, “Who do you say that she is?” What will he say? Ask the bride about her future husband, “Who do you say he is?” What will she say?
Fast forward 20 years. Ask the same questions to the man and woman who have been married now for 20 years. What is the answer now?
I think about my mom and dad. 54 years of marriage and dad would say of mom, “she’s the love of my life.” Mom would tell you, “This is the best man I know.” Why?
They have devoted themselves to this relationship and it has grown deeper and richer over the years. Good soil, good growth, good fruit.
Jesus explains what it takes for us to have the kind of relationship with him that will thrill our souls and fill our lives and ultimately bring us to glory.
What does Jesus give to this relationship? Mark is going to tell us. What does Jesus expect from this relationship? Jesus calls us to himself and says it clearly:
Come to me all you who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Are you ready to answer his call?
