Sermon for Sunday,  July 17, 2005  

HAVING THE MIND OF CHRIST IN US
1^st in a series on Following Jesus Through the Gospel of Mark

by

Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

We begin a series of sermons on the gospel of Mark, the earliest and shortest of all the four gospels, and our goal is to read through Mark, chapter by chapter, and follow Jesus around so we can have the attitude of Christ, the mind of Christ, Paul calls it.

We are making this as easy as we can for you by providing you a New Testament in the Revised Standard Translation for a donation of a dollar! And I hope you will pick up one of these today if you are looking for a very portable and very accessible Bible and read a chapter a week.

What we find when we pick up a Bible is that this is not one book. The New Testament is a collection of 27 different books about Jesus, written to different audiences and in different times. 

The four gospels were written at different times and to address specific situations and the picture of Jesus is a little different in each of them—and in the Gospel of John it is significantly different.

All the other gospels are longer and later and more complicated than Mark’s gospel. We will find some things in them that we will not find in Mark. It will take you a little over an hour to sit down and read through all of Mark in one sitting and you may be surprised by what is not there.

What we will not find in the sixteen chapters of Mark:

• We will not find many parables or much teaching material. We will find a couple of parables, namely the one that Cindy helped us with last week on the sower. But most of the parables and the teaching of Jesus are found in two other gospels. Do you know what they are? Matthew and Luke. And they contain some very important material. In those two gospels we find the sermon on the mount/plain, the Lord’s Prayer, the really important and familiar parables like the parable of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son. But none of those are in Mark

• Secondly, Mark does not tell us anything about a virgin birth. In fact, he tells us nothing about Jesus birth at all. Jesus arrives full grown in Mark and goes to be baptized by his cousin and then to teach and heal. Mark leaves out any reference to Jesus’ birth as does one other gospel, John, and as does the earliest writer in the whole New Testament, Paul.

• We will not find in Mark any stories of Jesus appearing to his friends after Easter; that is, in the original ending of Mark, there are no resurrection appearances. There are some stories added later by other writers but not Mark. Mark ends his gospel with three women going to the tomb and finding it empty and being told by an angel that the risen Christ will meet them in Galilee. But they did not tell anyone about this, Mark says. Why? Because they were amazed and terrified and afraid. That is the real ending of Mark.

• We will not find in Mark the superhuman Jesus that the gospel of John gives us, Jesus who is always pointing to himself and offering the I AM sayings: I am the good shepherd, I am the bread of life, I am the vine and you are the branches. I believe all those descriptions are true, but Mark does not tell us about them. Jesus in Mark’s gospel does not want anyone to know who he is though some people figure it out.

• We will not find in the Jesus of Mark’s gospel a deep and intense compassion for the poor. We find that in Luke’s portrayal of Jesus, but not so much in Mark.

• And, we will not find as much in Mark the emphasis that Matthew’s gospel gives us on how Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Jewish hopes and expectations about the messiah. Matthew is constantly quoting the Hebrew Bible to say how Jesus is the fulfillment of what this prophet or that prophet was telling about. None of that is in Mark.

Well what do we find that is unique in Mark’s portrait of Jesus?

• We find ACTION! Jesus is always moving quickly from one place to another. He is passionate and intense. The word “immediately” shows up thirty or forty times in Mark; we have already heard it three times this morning in the reading.

• In Mark, Jesus is the secret messiah. When the evil spirits figure out who he is, he tells them to be silent. When he heals people, he urges them not to tell anyone. We will look at why that happens a little later.

• In Mark, Jesus says that following him will be costly. It will require much of us and it will return much to us.

• In Mark, Jesus is doing three things most of the time: teaching, preaching and healing, and you may be surprised at how much of his ministry is given to healing as we will see this morning.

• In Mark, Jesus family—his mother and brothers believe he is crazy and they come to Capernaum to restrain him. They believe he is an embarrassment to himself and perhaps to them!

• In Mark, Jesus, the Son of God, goes unrecognized even by his closest friends—and that may still be the case today. We will also talk later about that.

• In Mark, we see the humanity of Jesus fully. He gets tired, he gets angry with his disciples, he is impatient, and he often has an unsettling effect on the people you would think should be most open to the messiah—the religious leaders. But it is those leaders he has the most trouble with.

• In Mark, Jesus does not call attention to himself but to God. He points beyond himself to God. When a man comes to him and says, Good teacher, what must I do to have life at its fullest, what does Jesus say? “Why do you call me good? Only God is good.”

• In Mark, Jesus keeps welcoming the outcasts—the people whom others thought should not belong in the family of God

• In Mark, Jesus withdraws and prays so he can better be engaged when he returns. Is there a lesson already in that for us? He also was faithful every Sabbath in being present for worship on a regular basis. Is there a lesson in that as well for you?

• And finally, in Mark, Jesus is the Son of God who suffers. This suffering is part of the scandal of Jesus. How could the messiah, the Son of God, suffer and die? The messiah was supposed to make other people suffer and die!! The messiah was supposed to help conquer the Romans and restore Israel to glory. But Jesus is the suffering servant messiah who after chapter 8, half way through this gospel, almost ceases his healing activity and begins to prepare his friends for his suffering and death.

That’s enough of an overview. Mark introduces Jesus by saying that this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. To encounter Jesus is to experience good news, Mark says; not good advice, not good teachings, but good NEWS. What would be good news for you this morning? What is the best news you could hear?

When we actually meet Jesus in this gospel, it is when he goes from Nazareth to the Jordan River to be baptized by his cousin. John was offering a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People have wondered why Jesus would be baptized by John and some have said, it was to identify himself with the renewal movement that John started and others have said, it was for Jesus to identify himself will all of us, not to set himself apart from us but to be with us. I think it was also to mark this beginning of a new chapter in his life.

John is arrested and Jesus begins in Galilee proclaiming God’s good news and telling people that the kingdom of God is very near and inviting people to change direction, change their hearts, and trust the news he brings. The kingdom of God is different from the kingdoms of this world. It is what life would be like if God was in charge, or if we really chose each day about living by the Ten Commandments instead of seeing that they are posted in various places. I think it is much more important for us to live by the principles of the Ten Commandments—to live in the realm of the kingdom of God. There are life-changing principles in that document. And Jesus’ first words ever in Mark are about change and new direction and a new heart—that is what the Greek word for repent meant. What change in direction would you need to make if you listened with your heart and soul and responded with your heart and soul? 

Billy Graham conducted what might have been his last crusade in America two weeks ago. There were some wonderful interviews with him recently. He has refused to be on the front lines in the culture wars over abortion and Supreme Court judges. Someone asked him if he would do anything differently as he looked back on his long ministry and he said that if he could do it over again he would have taken more of a leadership role with Dr. King in the struggle for civil rights for all Americans; he said he regretted being passive about that when he should have been active and in the trenches.

But his basic message two weeks ago in NYC was what we just heard from the first verses of Mark: to let God in as the center of your life, you need to change direction. Repent. Turn toward God, because God is very near to you right now and God is waiting for you.

Jesus’ ministry now happens around the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. And the next thing he does after inviting people to change direction and to open our hearts to God being our commander in chief, is to seek out some new friends. He calls his first disciples. He sees them casting their net and he invites them to be part of his new movement. Who are they? Simon and Andrew. John’s gospel has a different story about this; in John, Jesus meets Andrew first, but here they are together. Fishermen were middle class members of first century culture. They owned a boat and had a business; they were small businessmen.

What does Jesus invite them to do? To admire him? To worship him? I don’t think there is any place in the Bible where Jesus wants people to worship him. What he does invite them for is to follow him, to come with him, to imitate him and to learn from him. Jesus wants followers—not admirers, not worshippers, not people who fawn over him and idolize him but people who imitate him, become the servant leader he is, people who learn and develop as they walk with him.

Are you doing that—imitating Jesus, learning as you walk with him, or are you still at a third grade level in your spiritual growth and maturity? One of the many strengths of this congregation is that people are here to grow, to learn, to develop, to move beyond a child like faith to a servant leader faith, a more mature faith, to be part of a small group that helps all of that occur. Have you discovered that, or are you still just an admirer of Jesus?

To follow Jesus, to imitate Jesus, means that we do what he did.  He prayed regularly. He took time to be with God. He was faithful in his worship life, going to synagogue every week on the Sabbath.

That is where he is in this next section. He is in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and this synagogue, the remains of which we can see on the screen, is built on the foundation of the original synagogue that Jesus was in! This is one of the few places in Israel that pilgrims can go and say that today, we did walk where Jesus walked, that this synagogue is the site where he did his first public act.

What was that? A man with an unclean spirit—a man with mental illness—approached him and Jesus made him well. With that deed, Jesus began to be known around the area. There is more on that same Sabbath. Jesus went to the home of Peter and Andrew. Peter’s mother-in-law was ill. Jesus took her by the hand and her fever subsided.

Do you notice anything troubling yet about these healing stories? They occurred on the Sabbath and it was illegal to do anything like this on the Sabbath. Jesus does not get into trouble yet but he will. That evening—why does Mark tell us that it is now evening? The Sabbath was over after sundown. Many people who were ill came to the house—whose house?  Simon Peter’s and Andrew’s house—and Jesus made them well.

Do you know that we believe the remains of this house still exists? A church was built over it 1400 years ago and some Christian symbols have been found on its walls along with fishhooks. It is very likely Peter and Andrew’s house where Jesus hung out in Capernaum. The people traveling to Israel in February will see this spot.

There are two other stories in this chapter that are important. The next morning Jesus’ friends could not find him. Why? Because he had gone out by himself before sunrise to be alone and to pray. The Son of God took time regularly to communicate with God. If he did that, how can we not do that? What time of day works for you? Morning is that time for me but anytime can work if we just start doing it.

The last thing that happens in chapter one is really important. Jesus and his friends have gone out to the neighboring towns to proclaim the message in their synagogues and to cast out demons, when Jesus is approached by a man with leprosy who asks Jesus to heal him. What is wrong with this story so far? Lepers were UNCLEAN and were supposed to keep their distance and not even be on the same side of the street with regular folks.

What does Jesus do? He not only heals the man, what else does he do? He touches the man to make him well. He touches the leper. People did not do that. You would never touch a leper. Jesus did, and Jesus asks those of us who follow him to do this also—to touch, to reach, to include, to welcome the ones who others think are unclean.

Who would that be? Who have even the religious leaders said should not belong in the family of God? What would it mean for us to do what Jesus did?

Jesus tells the man to go and be examined by the priests, and then not to tell anyone. What does he do? He goes and tells everyone what Jesus has done!

Lance Armstrong calls this “the obligation of the cured.” In the recent book about Armstrong titled “Lance Armstrong’s War”, the author tells about all the hundreds of other cancer survivors Armstrong has helped through his generosity. It is because Armstrong believes that because he is now well, that he has an obligation to help others get well or get better. “The obligation of the cured” he calls it. This man understood it and approached others so he could tell them that Jesus could help them. That is also called evangelism—one sufferer telling another where to get help.

Jesus is going to get into trouble in the next few verses in chapter two. He is already beginning to disturb people’s thinking. The faith he is offering is more authentic and real than that of the Pharisees and priests. He is about to be a threat to them. And by chapter 3, they will already be plotting to kill him.

Jesus can be unsettling and if we occasionally leave church feeling a little unsettled or having things stirred up, it might be because we are really beginning to understand Jesus. It might also mean that the preacher was just having a bad day—but it might also mean that the gospel of challenge and of comfort is becoming real to us.

The comfort is there. Jesus is primarily in chapter one, a healer, the one who brings hope and comfort and solace to people who are hurting.

Where do you need the healing touch of Christ right now? Let us pray about that.

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