How do I know for sure that I am saved? That is a question that has plagued Christians for centuries. The doctrine of predestination, which we’ll be talking about today, helps get to the root of that question.
The entire Word of God is intended for two things. The first thing is that it is intended to show us where we have sinned against God. This is what a Lutheran preacher would typically call God’s Law, and its main purpose is to bring the terror of judgment to those who feel comfortable in their sins. The Law wants to bring us to repentance.
The second intention of the Word is what we call in the broadest terms the Gospel, and its main purpose is to comfort an afflicted sinner. Whereas the Law brings terror and anxiety, the Gospel brings healing and comfort.
The whole Word goes back and forth between these two purposes, now rebuking, now offering comfort. That’s a good thing, because it keeps us at the cross where our sin and salvation meet. Each of those purposes—the Law and the Gospel—is important for our lives in Christ.
But there are a few passages in Scripture that present good, solid Gospel concepts—concepts that are to bring us a healing balm of comfort—that can be easily misunderstood. And when that happens, what is meant to be a word of comfort can become a thing of confusion. Because of our limited understanding, we can sometimes get caught up in dwelling on, even obsessing over, certain doctrines of the faith and become confused—and even terrified—over whether or not we as believers in Jesus Christ are truly saved or not.
One of those passages in Scripture comes up in today’s epistle lesson. We only get a few verses into the reading before we hear in verse five that God “predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ.” It all sounds good . . . except that one word, “predestined.” That can cause problems.
The word itself is simple enough. In the Greek it means to decide a matter from the beginning, from beforehand, to pre-ordain. We use the word to speak of God’s divine predestination of believers from eternity. The doctrine of predestination is intended to give great Gospel comfort to believers, for in this doctrine we recognize God’s hand in our salvation not just today, not just in the last year or ten years, but from before time began.
Has anyone ever had those thoughts, “But . . . what if I’m NOT predestined?” Has it made you wonder if you are truly saved? Has it made you wonder if you do have a place with Christ in Heaven or not? Has it made you wonder if your name is written in the Book of Life?
You’re not alone. I’ve wondered about that myself. I recall being in my twenties and having a conversation with my pastor, trying to get at the meaning of this idea of “predestination” and how that figured into my life of faith in Jesus Christ. At that time, the best answer that I recall hearing was to not think about it. Hardly satisfying.
So let’s talk about predestination. Let’s talk about what it doesn’t mean and what it does mean. Let’s figure out if we can truly be secure in our faith in Jesus Christ or not.
To begin with, let’s nail down a few wrong ideas about the nature of predestination. Let’s set the scene. Picture this: God is sitting around in eternity, thinking about creating the world. He looks down into the future and sees every single person that will ever live, and He starts to make two lists. One list is the Book of Life, the other is the Book of the Damned. And He starts to assign people to either of those books.
Now, to illustrate the problem behind this, I’ll need two volunteers. I’ll play God, and you two will be people entering into eternity.
“Well, ______, I see that you’ve spent your life searching for religious truth. Interesting. You tried Buddhism, Hinduism, New Age. Hmmmm . . . never thought that my Son Jesus Christ was the way of salvation. But look at this! Here’s your name in the Book of Life! You were predestined to enter Heaven! So c’mon in!”
“And you, __________, very impressive resume! Baptized into the church by believing parents. Took catechism classes and got very involved with the life of your local church. Very good! Faithful in receiving the Lord’s Supper, prayed diligently, and witnessed your faith to your friends and co-workers. Truly believed that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Well done, you good and faithful servant! But . . . oooooo . . . I don’t see your name here. Oooh, sorry. Your name isn’t on the predestined list. You’re in the book of the damned. Well, thanks anyway! The angels will show you to the door where Satan can pick you up.”
Now there’s a problem! There’s this idea running around that, if you’re predestined, then no matter what happens, no matter what you do, no matter what you believe, you’ll get into Heaven! And if you’re not . . . weeellllll . . .
There’s four points we need to refute in this wrong idea of what “predestination” is. The first is that God truly doesn’t want all people to come to repentance and believe in the Gospel. The idea reasons that if God chose some to eternal life, then those are the only ones that He truly desires to be saved. This idea results in the notion that the only ones we should witness to are the ones God has predestined, because He doesn’t truly care about the rest. In effect, it nullifies the Great Commission.
If it were true that God doesn’t really want all people to repent and believe in Jesus Christ, then why does Paul say in 1 Timothy 2:4 that God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” God desires that everyone be given the chance to hear of salvation through Jesus Christ.
The second point is that God isn’t truly serious about wanting all people to come when He calls. This view at least allows for the fact that the Great Commission is indeed to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” but it stops short of that being what God actually wants.
How does God call us? He calls us through what we call the Means of Grace—the Word and the Sacraments. Through the preaching of His word—either from the pulpit or the front porch—God calls us to Himself. In baptism and in the Lord’s Supper He offers us His forgiveness, He offers us His Son. And yet there is this notion that, although He may call out to everybody, He does so half-heartedly, not really wanting everyone to respond.
Is that what the Scriptures teach? That God doesn’t truly desire that everyone respond to Him? No. 2 Peter 3:9 gives us a picture of a serious God, one who is truly passionate about everyone—not just a few, but everyone—turning from their lives of sin. That passage says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
The third point is where we struggle with reason. We often figure that, if God has chosen certain people to eternal life, then it must be true that He has also by the same token assigned the rest to damnation. This just makes rational sense to us. I mean, we figure if you’re not on one list, then you MUST be on the other, right?
If that is true, then Jesus Christ did not die for the sins of the whole world. So nothing could be further from the truth! The best-known passage of all Scripture makes it clear that God hasn’t written anybody off to eternal damnation. Instead, John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
The fourth and final incorrect view of predestination is that, as God looked into history, He saw something in certain people that caused Him to write their names down into the Book of Life. That predestination relies upon something within us that God could see beforehand.
Now here we need to expand our explanation just a little. What are the things that God could see in us that would cause Him to choose us? One idea is that some people would be . . . well, good people. You know, the type of person that God would desire.
I think that view sells sin short. Ecclesiastes 7:20 makes it clear that “There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.” God would see into each of our hearts and discover something ugly. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, so it can’t be that God sees something special in just a few people.
But perhaps it’s that God used His omniscience? That He looked into the future and saw those people who would put their faith in Him, and as such He wrote them into the Book of Life?
That at least makes a little more sense, but it confuses the idea of God’s foreknowledge with the doctrine of God’s election. There’s a distinction there. On the one hand, we do acknowledge that God knows all. He knows all things before they happen. But knowing is not the same as choosing. Foreknowledge is NOT the same as election. It is NOT predestination.
The problem with each of these four views is that we simply don’t have the information we need to get the answers we’re looking for. As a matter of fact, the question itself is an impossible one. How do we know what God did before time began? For that matter, how can we know anything about God at all?
We can make guesses about what God is like, but for real answers we have to admit that the only things we can know for sure are those things that God has chosen to reveal to us. We’ll never be satisfied probing into the hidden things of God, but when we look to the revelation of God, then we’re starting to get somewhere!
See, the things of God are a mystery to us. We can’t fathom His ways, we can’t understand His methods. The things of God are a mystery to us, and they remain a mystery to us unless He chooses to reveal Himself to us.
Where do we find God’s ultimate revelation? Certainly we have the Scriptures, but who do the Scriptures point to? Colossians 1:19 tells us that God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ. Colossians 1:27 says that God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Christ is the ultimate revelation of God, and so of course we look to Him for answers on those things that trouble us in our faith. Am I saved? Am I one of the elect? How can I know? Look again at what Paul says: God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world. It is through Christ that you have been chosen.
In other words, God didn’t make some arbitrary predestination before creation began, but He predestined you through Christ. Therefore, if we desire to know if we are among the elect, we merely have to look to the cross to find out. Do you believe upon the cross? Do you believe upon Christ? Then God has chosen you. He has chosen you through Christ.
Our Lutheran forefathers put it this way in the Formula of Concord: “An answer to the following question is necessary for the further exposition and the salutary use of the teaching of God’s foreknowledge to salvation: Since only the elect “whose names are written in the book of life”3 will be saved, how can and should one know, and wherefrom and whereby can and should one discover, who the elect are and who can and should comfort themselves with this teaching? 26 We should not pass judgment on the basis of our reason, or on the basis of the law, or on the basis of some outward appearance. Neither should we permit ourselves to try to explore the secret and hidden abyss of divine foreknowledge. Instead we must heed the revealed will of God. For he has revealed and “made known to us the mystery of his will” and has brought it forth through Christ so that it should be preached (Eph. 1:9, 10; 2 Tim. 1:9-11).
What comfort this is for us! We don’t have to waste any time speculating about what God might have done in eternity! We don’t have to waste any time wondering if our faith is in vain! Put those impossible questions aside and look to Christ! There is your answer! There is your Lord! There is your destiny! There is your pre-destiny. Am I saved? Am I one of the elect? How can I know? By looking to His revelation. By looking to the cross. And there we have all the answers we’ll ever need to know.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Sunday, July 16, 2006
The Gospel of Mark: Conqueror, Crucified
There are many different ways for a storyteller to let you know what’s important in his story. He can add symbolic details, he can arrange the events to point to a greater meaning, he can build suspense that leads to a certain point. As a storyteller of the ministry of Jesus, Mark does all of these, but in this last section of his gospel he chooses a different, but very effective method. He changes the pace of the story.
Jesus’ earthly ministry lasted about three years. But this third act, the final six chapters of Mark—over one third of his total gospel—covers just one week: the final week of Jesus’ earthly life. Without this section of Mark’s gospel—the section that tells us of the cross—without this section we will never understand Jesus or His ministry, we will never understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and so Mark slows down the action to a snail’s pace. The detail is excruciating. The importance is immeasurable. This is it: the reason why Mark is bothering to tell the story at all.
It begins in chapter eleven—turn there now—as Jesus sends two of His disciples into town to get a colt on which He plans to ride into Jerusalem. Mark 11:2-3 “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.'”
Now either Jesus is using His divine omniscience or He has planned this out beforehand. Either one’s possible, but it doesn’t really make a difference which it is. The point is that Jesus is putting a series of events into place so that He can make a statement about who He is and what He has come to do. He is coming into Jerusalem, but on His own terms. His terms are that of a conquering hero.
But what happens next? Jesus enters Jerusalem, heralded by the pilgrim crowd as a conquering king, strides with purpose into the Temple annnnnnd . . . looks around like a tourist. He takes a peek at everything, but then heads back out to Bethany with the Twelve.
This seems odd, but remember that we’re on Jesus’ terms now. He’ll act when He is ready. It doesn’t matter what the crowds expect. It won’t be until the next day is when He is ready to make a profound statement.
The next day comes, and Mark relates a curious story about Jesus and a fig tree. Mark 11:12-14 reads, “12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.”
At first blush, this sounds . . . well, rather spiteful. I understand Jesus is hungry, but Mark goes out of his way to say, “it was not the season for figs.” Jesus has got to understand this . . . and yet the God of all Creation curses a fig tree for being unfruitful. Is there more to the story?
Yes, of course there is! Remember one of Mark’s most interesting storytelling methods is the intercalation, the sandwiching of one story inside another. Normally it would be the story on the inside that would be the meat, but in this case the outside story, the “bread” of the sandwich if you will, the story about the fig tree that is going to tell us about the inside story. Hang on with me for just a minute.
After Jesus curses the fig tree for its unfruitfulness, He heads into the Temple. And He tears it apart. Going from one end of the temple area to the other, He throws over the tables where sacrificial animals were sold. He trashes the tables where the moneychangers had set up shop, scattering the coins over the Temple floor. He kicks over pews and tears up hymnals. He is after one thing and one thing only: kicking butt and taking names.
Now I want you to understand something. You’ve no doubt heard it said that the people selling doves and exchanging coins were greedy so-and-so’s that were only out to make a buck. That they saw only one thing the Temple was good for, and that was to turn a profit. I don’t think that’s entirely true. So let’s say—for the sake of argument—that these were honest businessmen. Does that mean Jesus is out of line? No, it does not . . . remember the lesson of the unfruitful fig tree tells us how to interpret the lesson of the Temple.
What was the Temple for? The temple defined Israel; the Temple defined what it meant to be one of God’s people. It was set up by God to be a place where sacrifice was offered so that His people could receive forgiveness of sin. It was the one place in all the world where God had promised to meet face to face with His people. But much more than that, everything that the Temple was, from it’s building materials to how it was set up architecturally, everything from the lampstands to the altar; every festival, every priest, every sacrifice pointed to something greater than itself. The Temple pointed to a greater promise that would be fulfilled by God, but it could not fulfill the promise in and of itself.
Compare that to the life of a fig tree. A fig tree would lie dormant for a portion of the year, but when spring came its leaves would sprout forth and spread out. Those leaves would then be the promise of fruit to come. And as Mark says, “it was not the season for figs.” The leaves bore promise . . . but they did not offer the fruit of that promise. Biblical scholar R.T. France says this, “A tree in full leaf at Passover season is making a promise it cannot fulfill; so, to, is Israel . . . Jesus on his initial visit to the temple has found all leaves, but no fruit.”
Even though it wasn’t the “season for figs” (even though the Temple was not supposed to be the ultimate place for forgiveness and to meet with God—that was to be Christ), Jesus curses the fig tree for it’s lack of fruit (Jesus is appalled at what the Temple has been allowed to become, and thus drives out the moneychangers). The temple was “unfruitful,” meaning the religious system of the Jews wasn’t generating what it was supposed to do.
In other words, the full green leaves of the fig tree point to something that it does not have . . . yet. The temple, by its very existence and the sacrifices that happen there point to something it can’t do . . . but Christ can. The full leaves promise figs, but it has none. The temple promises forgiveness of sins and friendship with God, but it cannot give that. The figs will come later, and then no one will care about the full leaves, they were only the promise of figs. Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, being hailed as the Messiah proclaims a bold new truth: True fellowship with God comes from Christ who has now come, and therefore no one need care about the Temple any longer.
So Jesus, not spitefully but deliberately, blasts the fig tree as an example of how He has come to nullify the earthly Temple’s existence. Jesus Christ is now the way, the truth, and the life. The old Temple system is no longer valid. The new way is, as Jesus will reveal, the way of the cross.
Now, this is only the first chapter in the final act of Mark, and it is nothing less than groundbreaking! Remember who Mark is writing to: Gentiles. Mark is making a deliberate point of telling them, “Through Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God is now open to you, too.” Jesus is making a radical statement. Is it any wonder, then, why the Jewish leaders try so hard to trap Him? Look at the following chapters: they question Jesus’ authority in 11:21, but Jesus stumps them. In 12:13 the Pharisees and Herodians try to trick Him into denying either God or government, but Jesus shuts them down again. The Sadducees ask a calculated question that tries to deny the reality of the coming resurrection, but Jesus flatly informs them that they don’t even know the Scriptures or they wouldn’t be asking the question at all
But let’s keep moving. Notice that in the coming chapters Jesus is moving away from the crowds. He is reducing the size of people He is talking to little by little, until the point finally arrives in chapter fourteen, verse twelve that He is alone at a table with His disciples.
Remember that all throughout Mark we’ve seen a repeated theme. Crowds often get taught in the mysterious code of parables, but the disciples receive Jesus’ teachings in plain, simple words. It is in these private, intimate moments that Jesus teaches His disciples what it means to say that He is the Christ. It is in these private, intimate moments that Jesus teaches His disciples what it means to follow Him. And it is in these private, intimate moments that Jesus connects “cross” and “Christ.”
Does it come as any surprise, then, that He would choose this setting to sit with His disciples, break bread, and say in 14:22, “This is my body”? Using plain, simple language Jesus tells His disciples, “This my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” No parables, no cryptic language, just straight talk on what His mission is and how we are to follow Him.
Do you understand? When Jesus gets alone with His disciples, He points them to the only place that they look to for a true relationship with God. Don’t look to the Temple, don’t look to a building—it can’t save you. Don’t look to government—it can’t save you. There is no sacrifice that you can offer, there is no gift you can give . . . just look to Jesus. Receive Him. Take His body . . . drink His blood. Repent and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of David, the Messiah, the Savior. In this, His final meal, Jesus again connects “Christ” and “cross” . . . and bids us to be joined with Him by receiving His broken body and drinking His blood that was spilt for us. This is a profound moment. This is a cross moment.
For the past few weeks I’ve been talking about how Jesus makes every effort to make people understand that “cross” and “Christ” are inseparably connected. I think that, for Mark, the cross is the central message of Jesus. It is the rallying point around which he would have us gather. And as we prepare to close his Gospel he leaves us with two final examples of just how important the cross is.
Here’s where it gets a bit tricky. The Gospel of Mark traditionally closes with twenty verses of chapter sixteen. But you may notice in your Bible—as I have in mine—a strange note. The note in my Bible says, “The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16:9-20.” In other words, the best evidence that we have to look at indicates that Mark did not write the resurrection account that we have in the final verses of Mark.
This is not to say your Bible has errors, this is not to say we can’t trust our Bibles fully—we can! But understand how we got our Bible. Mark wrote his gospel, and somebody thought it was so good that they copied it and gave it to a friend. That friend thought it was so good that they copied it . . . and so on and so forth until we have hundreds, possibly thousands of copies of Mark being passed around. Since the oldest copies that we have of Mark—those copies that are closest to Mark’s original writing—do not have verses nine through twenty, we must assume that some well-intentioned copyist decided to tack on bits and pieces of the resurrection that were written in Matthew, Luke, and John. But no . . . Mark himself did not write those verses.
Without verses nine through twenty, however, Mark’s gospel ends not with a glorious and triumphant bang, but with a subdued thoughtfulness. In 16:6 a “young man”—probably an angel—proclaims to the women at the tomb that Jesus has indeed risen from the dead. They are to go back to where it all began, they are to go and tell the disciples and return to Galilee, where they will see the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. But instead, verse eight—the end of Mark’s writing—reads, Mark 16:8 8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”
Why does Mark end his writing this way? Why not tell of the awe-inspiring events of the resurrection, as John does, for instance? I think it is because Mark wants to leave us meditating on the cross.
Remember that Mark is writing to Gentile believers. They no doubt already know of the resurrection. Mark doesn’t neglect the resurrection; he is careful to mention that it is true! That it did happen! But he doesn’t dwell on it because he chooses to leave us pondering on the cross. The weight of it. The enormity of it. The price of it. Mark wants to be sure that “cross” and “Christ” stay firmly connected in our minds and in our hearts, to know that to understand the cross is to understand Jesus Christ.
All throughout the Gospel people have misunderstood who Jesus was and what He came to do. They named Him as one of the prophets, they considered Him a teacher. Even if, as Peter did, they call Him “Christ” they do not fully understand what that means.
But now look back to the cross in chapter fifteen verse thirty-nine. Jesus has been tried. He has been executed. He has called out to God and with a loud cry breathed His last. His beaten, broken, bleeding body hangs limp from the cross . . . and at this sight a Roman centurion—a Gentile—believes with his heart and confesses with His lips, “Surely, this man was the Son of God!” At the cross, and only at the cross, does everything about Jesus finally become clear. Only at the cross do we finally understand what it means to say Jesus is the Christ.
Jesus’ earthly ministry lasted about three years. But this third act, the final six chapters of Mark—over one third of his total gospel—covers just one week: the final week of Jesus’ earthly life. Without this section of Mark’s gospel—the section that tells us of the cross—without this section we will never understand Jesus or His ministry, we will never understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and so Mark slows down the action to a snail’s pace. The detail is excruciating. The importance is immeasurable. This is it: the reason why Mark is bothering to tell the story at all.
It begins in chapter eleven—turn there now—as Jesus sends two of His disciples into town to get a colt on which He plans to ride into Jerusalem. Mark 11:2-3 “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.'”
Now either Jesus is using His divine omniscience or He has planned this out beforehand. Either one’s possible, but it doesn’t really make a difference which it is. The point is that Jesus is putting a series of events into place so that He can make a statement about who He is and what He has come to do. He is coming into Jerusalem, but on His own terms. His terms are that of a conquering hero.
But what happens next? Jesus enters Jerusalem, heralded by the pilgrim crowd as a conquering king, strides with purpose into the Temple annnnnnd . . . looks around like a tourist. He takes a peek at everything, but then heads back out to Bethany with the Twelve.
This seems odd, but remember that we’re on Jesus’ terms now. He’ll act when He is ready. It doesn’t matter what the crowds expect. It won’t be until the next day is when He is ready to make a profound statement.
The next day comes, and Mark relates a curious story about Jesus and a fig tree. Mark 11:12-14 reads, “12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.”
At first blush, this sounds . . . well, rather spiteful. I understand Jesus is hungry, but Mark goes out of his way to say, “it was not the season for figs.” Jesus has got to understand this . . . and yet the God of all Creation curses a fig tree for being unfruitful. Is there more to the story?
Yes, of course there is! Remember one of Mark’s most interesting storytelling methods is the intercalation, the sandwiching of one story inside another. Normally it would be the story on the inside that would be the meat, but in this case the outside story, the “bread” of the sandwich if you will, the story about the fig tree that is going to tell us about the inside story. Hang on with me for just a minute.
After Jesus curses the fig tree for its unfruitfulness, He heads into the Temple. And He tears it apart. Going from one end of the temple area to the other, He throws over the tables where sacrificial animals were sold. He trashes the tables where the moneychangers had set up shop, scattering the coins over the Temple floor. He kicks over pews and tears up hymnals. He is after one thing and one thing only: kicking butt and taking names.
Now I want you to understand something. You’ve no doubt heard it said that the people selling doves and exchanging coins were greedy so-and-so’s that were only out to make a buck. That they saw only one thing the Temple was good for, and that was to turn a profit. I don’t think that’s entirely true. So let’s say—for the sake of argument—that these were honest businessmen. Does that mean Jesus is out of line? No, it does not . . . remember the lesson of the unfruitful fig tree tells us how to interpret the lesson of the Temple.
What was the Temple for? The temple defined Israel; the Temple defined what it meant to be one of God’s people. It was set up by God to be a place where sacrifice was offered so that His people could receive forgiveness of sin. It was the one place in all the world where God had promised to meet face to face with His people. But much more than that, everything that the Temple was, from it’s building materials to how it was set up architecturally, everything from the lampstands to the altar; every festival, every priest, every sacrifice pointed to something greater than itself. The Temple pointed to a greater promise that would be fulfilled by God, but it could not fulfill the promise in and of itself.
Compare that to the life of a fig tree. A fig tree would lie dormant for a portion of the year, but when spring came its leaves would sprout forth and spread out. Those leaves would then be the promise of fruit to come. And as Mark says, “it was not the season for figs.” The leaves bore promise . . . but they did not offer the fruit of that promise. Biblical scholar R.T. France says this, “A tree in full leaf at Passover season is making a promise it cannot fulfill; so, to, is Israel . . . Jesus on his initial visit to the temple has found all leaves, but no fruit.”
Even though it wasn’t the “season for figs” (even though the Temple was not supposed to be the ultimate place for forgiveness and to meet with God—that was to be Christ), Jesus curses the fig tree for it’s lack of fruit (Jesus is appalled at what the Temple has been allowed to become, and thus drives out the moneychangers). The temple was “unfruitful,” meaning the religious system of the Jews wasn’t generating what it was supposed to do.
In other words, the full green leaves of the fig tree point to something that it does not have . . . yet. The temple, by its very existence and the sacrifices that happen there point to something it can’t do . . . but Christ can. The full leaves promise figs, but it has none. The temple promises forgiveness of sins and friendship with God, but it cannot give that. The figs will come later, and then no one will care about the full leaves, they were only the promise of figs. Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, being hailed as the Messiah proclaims a bold new truth: True fellowship with God comes from Christ who has now come, and therefore no one need care about the Temple any longer.
So Jesus, not spitefully but deliberately, blasts the fig tree as an example of how He has come to nullify the earthly Temple’s existence. Jesus Christ is now the way, the truth, and the life. The old Temple system is no longer valid. The new way is, as Jesus will reveal, the way of the cross.
Now, this is only the first chapter in the final act of Mark, and it is nothing less than groundbreaking! Remember who Mark is writing to: Gentiles. Mark is making a deliberate point of telling them, “Through Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God is now open to you, too.” Jesus is making a radical statement. Is it any wonder, then, why the Jewish leaders try so hard to trap Him? Look at the following chapters: they question Jesus’ authority in 11:21, but Jesus stumps them. In 12:13 the Pharisees and Herodians try to trick Him into denying either God or government, but Jesus shuts them down again. The Sadducees ask a calculated question that tries to deny the reality of the coming resurrection, but Jesus flatly informs them that they don’t even know the Scriptures or they wouldn’t be asking the question at all
But let’s keep moving. Notice that in the coming chapters Jesus is moving away from the crowds. He is reducing the size of people He is talking to little by little, until the point finally arrives in chapter fourteen, verse twelve that He is alone at a table with His disciples.
Remember that all throughout Mark we’ve seen a repeated theme. Crowds often get taught in the mysterious code of parables, but the disciples receive Jesus’ teachings in plain, simple words. It is in these private, intimate moments that Jesus teaches His disciples what it means to say that He is the Christ. It is in these private, intimate moments that Jesus teaches His disciples what it means to follow Him. And it is in these private, intimate moments that Jesus connects “cross” and “Christ.”
Does it come as any surprise, then, that He would choose this setting to sit with His disciples, break bread, and say in 14:22, “This is my body”? Using plain, simple language Jesus tells His disciples, “This my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” No parables, no cryptic language, just straight talk on what His mission is and how we are to follow Him.
Do you understand? When Jesus gets alone with His disciples, He points them to the only place that they look to for a true relationship with God. Don’t look to the Temple, don’t look to a building—it can’t save you. Don’t look to government—it can’t save you. There is no sacrifice that you can offer, there is no gift you can give . . . just look to Jesus. Receive Him. Take His body . . . drink His blood. Repent and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of David, the Messiah, the Savior. In this, His final meal, Jesus again connects “Christ” and “cross” . . . and bids us to be joined with Him by receiving His broken body and drinking His blood that was spilt for us. This is a profound moment. This is a cross moment.
For the past few weeks I’ve been talking about how Jesus makes every effort to make people understand that “cross” and “Christ” are inseparably connected. I think that, for Mark, the cross is the central message of Jesus. It is the rallying point around which he would have us gather. And as we prepare to close his Gospel he leaves us with two final examples of just how important the cross is.
Here’s where it gets a bit tricky. The Gospel of Mark traditionally closes with twenty verses of chapter sixteen. But you may notice in your Bible—as I have in mine—a strange note. The note in my Bible says, “The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16:9-20.” In other words, the best evidence that we have to look at indicates that Mark did not write the resurrection account that we have in the final verses of Mark.
This is not to say your Bible has errors, this is not to say we can’t trust our Bibles fully—we can! But understand how we got our Bible. Mark wrote his gospel, and somebody thought it was so good that they copied it and gave it to a friend. That friend thought it was so good that they copied it . . . and so on and so forth until we have hundreds, possibly thousands of copies of Mark being passed around. Since the oldest copies that we have of Mark—those copies that are closest to Mark’s original writing—do not have verses nine through twenty, we must assume that some well-intentioned copyist decided to tack on bits and pieces of the resurrection that were written in Matthew, Luke, and John. But no . . . Mark himself did not write those verses.
Without verses nine through twenty, however, Mark’s gospel ends not with a glorious and triumphant bang, but with a subdued thoughtfulness. In 16:6 a “young man”—probably an angel—proclaims to the women at the tomb that Jesus has indeed risen from the dead. They are to go back to where it all began, they are to go and tell the disciples and return to Galilee, where they will see the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. But instead, verse eight—the end of Mark’s writing—reads, Mark 16:8 8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.”
Why does Mark end his writing this way? Why not tell of the awe-inspiring events of the resurrection, as John does, for instance? I think it is because Mark wants to leave us meditating on the cross.
Remember that Mark is writing to Gentile believers. They no doubt already know of the resurrection. Mark doesn’t neglect the resurrection; he is careful to mention that it is true! That it did happen! But he doesn’t dwell on it because he chooses to leave us pondering on the cross. The weight of it. The enormity of it. The price of it. Mark wants to be sure that “cross” and “Christ” stay firmly connected in our minds and in our hearts, to know that to understand the cross is to understand Jesus Christ.
All throughout the Gospel people have misunderstood who Jesus was and what He came to do. They named Him as one of the prophets, they considered Him a teacher. Even if, as Peter did, they call Him “Christ” they do not fully understand what that means.
But now look back to the cross in chapter fifteen verse thirty-nine. Jesus has been tried. He has been executed. He has called out to God and with a loud cry breathed His last. His beaten, broken, bleeding body hangs limp from the cross . . . and at this sight a Roman centurion—a Gentile—believes with his heart and confesses with His lips, “Surely, this man was the Son of God!” At the cross, and only at the cross, does everything about Jesus finally become clear. Only at the cross do we finally understand what it means to say Jesus is the Christ.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
On the Road to Jersusalem
You know, if I would have been thinking straight earlier last week, I would have asked that we could sing “Amazing Grace” right before the sermon. Do you all know the first verse? Well let’s sing it!
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
What does it mean, that I was once blind, but now I see? _________________
It’s a metaphor, isn’t it? We’re talking about a spiritual blindness, one that prevents us from seeing who we really are (sinners in need of grace). It prevents us from seeing the world as it truly is (fallen, lost, and condemned), and it prevents us from seeing—truly seeing—Jesus Christ.
As we head into the second act in our study of Mark, we’re going to meet two men who were literally once blind, but when they met Jesus they could finally see. But though they have a true, physical blindness Mark also wants to use their story to show how we can often have a spiritual blindness when it comes to Christ, as well. Get out your Bibles and turn to the Gospel of Mark, chapter eight, verse twenty-two.
Mark 8:22 22 “They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.” Now the “they” are Jesus and His disciples. As in the first section of Mark’s gospel, they’re still pretty much sticking to the area around the Sea of Galilee, but in this second section we’re going to see a shift in purpose and discussion. Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem, and His main focus has changed from ministry to the masses. He’s now going to focus primarily on teaching the disciples why He came.
Mark 8:23 23 “He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?” Take note of two things: One, Jesus is leading the man outside the village. He’s leading him to a more private, secluded space. He’s getting away from the crowds. This is a bit different than what He’s done before. Before this Jesus has been pretty public about His preaching. When He’s done miracles, they’ve typically been seen by a large number of people. But this is different; it asks us to take notice.
The second thing to notice is that Jesus does a healing in two steps. First is a partial healing, “Do you see anything?” Followed by a complete restoration of the blind man’s sight. This is very different than anything else we’ve seen before in Mark, and again, because it is so different, it wakes us up and says, “Pay attention! Something big, something important coming up!”
“Do you see anything?” Mark 8:24 24 He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." 25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
He saw everything clearly. Let’s take the obvious meaning first. Jesus has a heart filled with compassion for people. He wants to see people be everything that they were created to be. Even more than that, He desires that everyone come to have a saving faith in Him. And so Jesus displays His power and compassion and fulfills the Father’s will by healing this man, and in so doing draws the man to the Father through Himself.
That’s what’s right there on the surface. That’s the obvious stuff. But below the surface, beneath the words themselves, I’m want to ask, “Why is Mark telling me this story?” Why did Mark choose this story to tell? Does it serve some greater purpose? The answer is yes.
Beneath the surface, Mark is showing us that while a little understanding is good, it is better to understand Christ’s work fully. To see everything clearly is to fully understand Christ and His mission. And we cannot understand Christ apart from the cross.
In order to get Mark’s point, we’re going to take a look at several stories in chapters 8-10, and with each story we’ll ask, “Do the people in this story see everything clearly?” In other words, do the people in this story that Mark tells us about Jesus’ life and ministry fully understand what it means that Jesus is the Christ, the very savior of the world? Let’s find out.
Immediately after that healing, chapter eight, Jesus takes His disciples around to some villages and as they travel He asks them, “Who do people say I am?” The responses are interesting: John the Baptist, Elijah, maybe one of the prophets of the Old Testament. But then Jesus asks, “And who do you say that I am?” That gets right down to it, doesn’t it? It doesn’t matter much what other folks think about Jesus, it’s really what me, as an individual, believe to be true about Him.
Peter gives a very good answer: “You are the Christ!” The “Christ” is the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, the long-promised Savior. Peter says, in effect, that while everybody else is willing to say that yes, Jesus is pretty amazing and all that, they are still blind about Jesus and who He really is. Peter says, “They may say you’re a man, but I say you are nothing less than the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a savior.” That’s pretty dang good. It’s clear that Peter’s not “blind” any more.
But what’s our question? “Does Peter see everything clearly?” Right after Peter says, “You are the Christ” Jesus begins to teach the disciples what it means to be the Christ. Mark 8:31, 31 “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.”
Even though Peter claims to understand Jesus, it is clear he doesn’t, because he stands up and tries to rebuke Jesus. “No, Jesus . . . you don’t understand! You are the Christ! These things can’t happen to you!” Peter doesn’t see clearly. He can’t connect “Christ” and “cross,” because he doesn’t have the things of God in mind, but the things of men.
Chapter nine, verse two. Jesus takes three disciples—Peter, James, and John—to the top of a mountain. There they see an astounding sight. Jesus is revealed in His glory; He becomes blindingly white. And to top it off, two of the most prominent Old Testament prophets show up and began talking with Jesus. Again, Peter thinks he understands. This is what it means to be the Christ, to have great power and glory. And so he says, “Lord, let’s stay right here. We’ll build a couple-three shrines for you and Moses and Elijah and we’ll settle in. Your ministry can carry on right here.”
Does they see everything clearly? Peter wants to stop and stay on the mountaintop, stay where everything is good and free from pain and suffering . . . but the Transfiguration ends and Jesus leads them back down. And on the way He warns Peter, James, and John not to tell anyone until after He has risen from the dead. And in one of the most hilarious verses in the whole gospel, Mark tells us in verse ten that they keep the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant!
I mean, really! “What does ‘rising from the dead’ mean?” Duhhhhh! “Gee, Jesus said that we should have pancakes for breakfast . . . I wonder what that means?” Well, what do you suppose it means! “Rising from the dead” means He’s . . . going . . . to . . . rise . . . from . . . the . . . dead! But see, it’s still something that they can’t wrap their minds around; they don’t see clearly. They can’t, not yet, because they don’t yet fully understand that “Christ” and “cross” are inseparable. But soon they will.
Chapter nine, verse thirty. Jesus has just cast a demon out from a child. It’s one of my favorite portions of Scripture, and so I’m kind of depressed that we don’t have time to talk about it, but it’s not really where I’m headed. Right after that display of Jesus’ power and authority, He is again alone with His disciples, and again teaches them that that, Mark 9:31 "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise."
Now, by this time you’d think they’d take Jesus at His word. You’d think they’d put their full trust in Him and believe. But can they? Do they see clearly? No . . . not yet. Mark 9:32 “32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.”
The second act of Mark concludes when we meet Bartimaeus. In chapter ten verse forty-six blind Bartimaeus is by the roadside where he sits, every day, making a living by begging. And finally, just like it was throughout the first act of Mark, there is again an entire crowd with Jesus. No more private teaching for just His disciples, the time has come for public revelation of Jesus’ ministry.
Bartimaeus probably overhears some people talking, and hears that it is none other than Jesus Himself coming down the road. And Bartimaeus shouts out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
“Son of David”—that’s a distinctly messianic title. It comes from 2 Samuel 7:11-13, when God Himself promised to King David, “'The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” For Bartimaeus to call Jesus the “Son of David” is to say exactly what Peter said in chapter eight: “You are the Christ. You are the promised one of God, who will reign forever. You are the savior.”
Now, understand this: Bartimaeus hasn’t been with Jesus for three years. He hasn’t had the benefit of being able to see Jesus in action, he hasn’t sat at Jesus’ feet and absorbed His teachings. But still he has the faith to say, “Jesus, you are my savior. I do not have anything to offer you, but take mercy upon me. Heal my blindness, take away my infirmities, and I will follow you wherever you go.”
Mark 10:50-52 51 "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." 52 "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
The road to where? The very next verse shows that they went to Jerusalem, the place where all that Jesus has predicted about His suffering and death will come true. Bartimaeus can now see with his eyes, but it is the disciples who, in Jerusalem, will finally be able to “see” what it means that Jesus is the Christ. Like Bartimaeus, they will be able to see everything clearly.
We began in chapter eight by meeting a blind man whom chose to illustrate a point. By healing that blind man in two steps, taking him from blindness to a fuzzy, skewed eyesight to being able to see everything clearly, Jesus helps us to understand that we cannot “see” without Him. By teaching His disciples that to be the Christ meant that He must suffer, He shows us that to call Him Jesus Christ is to say that we understand that “Christ” and “cross” are two words we can never separate.
Do you see everything clearly? Do we have troubles in this life? Yes. But it is impossible to understand Christ unless we understand the cross. The cross—the bloody, ugly cross—the cross is the place where our sin and salvation meet. That is Jesus’ ministry; to take our sins away, to nail them to the cross, and to redeem us from a life of poor, partial spiritual sight into a living, fully restored sight focused solely upon Jesus, the Christ. Apart from Him and His cross, nothing will ever make sense, we will never be able to see clearly.
Jesus, Son of David . . . have mercy on us. We want to see.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
What does it mean, that I was once blind, but now I see? _________________
It’s a metaphor, isn’t it? We’re talking about a spiritual blindness, one that prevents us from seeing who we really are (sinners in need of grace). It prevents us from seeing the world as it truly is (fallen, lost, and condemned), and it prevents us from seeing—truly seeing—Jesus Christ.
As we head into the second act in our study of Mark, we’re going to meet two men who were literally once blind, but when they met Jesus they could finally see. But though they have a true, physical blindness Mark also wants to use their story to show how we can often have a spiritual blindness when it comes to Christ, as well. Get out your Bibles and turn to the Gospel of Mark, chapter eight, verse twenty-two.
Mark 8:22 22 “They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.” Now the “they” are Jesus and His disciples. As in the first section of Mark’s gospel, they’re still pretty much sticking to the area around the Sea of Galilee, but in this second section we’re going to see a shift in purpose and discussion. Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem, and His main focus has changed from ministry to the masses. He’s now going to focus primarily on teaching the disciples why He came.
Mark 8:23 23 “He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?” Take note of two things: One, Jesus is leading the man outside the village. He’s leading him to a more private, secluded space. He’s getting away from the crowds. This is a bit different than what He’s done before. Before this Jesus has been pretty public about His preaching. When He’s done miracles, they’ve typically been seen by a large number of people. But this is different; it asks us to take notice.
The second thing to notice is that Jesus does a healing in two steps. First is a partial healing, “Do you see anything?” Followed by a complete restoration of the blind man’s sight. This is very different than anything else we’ve seen before in Mark, and again, because it is so different, it wakes us up and says, “Pay attention! Something big, something important coming up!”
“Do you see anything?” Mark 8:24 24 He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." 25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
He saw everything clearly. Let’s take the obvious meaning first. Jesus has a heart filled with compassion for people. He wants to see people be everything that they were created to be. Even more than that, He desires that everyone come to have a saving faith in Him. And so Jesus displays His power and compassion and fulfills the Father’s will by healing this man, and in so doing draws the man to the Father through Himself.
That’s what’s right there on the surface. That’s the obvious stuff. But below the surface, beneath the words themselves, I’m want to ask, “Why is Mark telling me this story?” Why did Mark choose this story to tell? Does it serve some greater purpose? The answer is yes.
Beneath the surface, Mark is showing us that while a little understanding is good, it is better to understand Christ’s work fully. To see everything clearly is to fully understand Christ and His mission. And we cannot understand Christ apart from the cross.
In order to get Mark’s point, we’re going to take a look at several stories in chapters 8-10, and with each story we’ll ask, “Do the people in this story see everything clearly?” In other words, do the people in this story that Mark tells us about Jesus’ life and ministry fully understand what it means that Jesus is the Christ, the very savior of the world? Let’s find out.
Immediately after that healing, chapter eight, Jesus takes His disciples around to some villages and as they travel He asks them, “Who do people say I am?” The responses are interesting: John the Baptist, Elijah, maybe one of the prophets of the Old Testament. But then Jesus asks, “And who do you say that I am?” That gets right down to it, doesn’t it? It doesn’t matter much what other folks think about Jesus, it’s really what me, as an individual, believe to be true about Him.
Peter gives a very good answer: “You are the Christ!” The “Christ” is the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, the long-promised Savior. Peter says, in effect, that while everybody else is willing to say that yes, Jesus is pretty amazing and all that, they are still blind about Jesus and who He really is. Peter says, “They may say you’re a man, but I say you are nothing less than the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a savior.” That’s pretty dang good. It’s clear that Peter’s not “blind” any more.
But what’s our question? “Does Peter see everything clearly?” Right after Peter says, “You are the Christ” Jesus begins to teach the disciples what it means to be the Christ. Mark 8:31, 31 “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.”
Even though Peter claims to understand Jesus, it is clear he doesn’t, because he stands up and tries to rebuke Jesus. “No, Jesus . . . you don’t understand! You are the Christ! These things can’t happen to you!” Peter doesn’t see clearly. He can’t connect “Christ” and “cross,” because he doesn’t have the things of God in mind, but the things of men.
Chapter nine, verse two. Jesus takes three disciples—Peter, James, and John—to the top of a mountain. There they see an astounding sight. Jesus is revealed in His glory; He becomes blindingly white. And to top it off, two of the most prominent Old Testament prophets show up and began talking with Jesus. Again, Peter thinks he understands. This is what it means to be the Christ, to have great power and glory. And so he says, “Lord, let’s stay right here. We’ll build a couple-three shrines for you and Moses and Elijah and we’ll settle in. Your ministry can carry on right here.”
Does they see everything clearly? Peter wants to stop and stay on the mountaintop, stay where everything is good and free from pain and suffering . . . but the Transfiguration ends and Jesus leads them back down. And on the way He warns Peter, James, and John not to tell anyone until after He has risen from the dead. And in one of the most hilarious verses in the whole gospel, Mark tells us in verse ten that they keep the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant!
I mean, really! “What does ‘rising from the dead’ mean?” Duhhhhh! “Gee, Jesus said that we should have pancakes for breakfast . . . I wonder what that means?” Well, what do you suppose it means! “Rising from the dead” means He’s . . . going . . . to . . . rise . . . from . . . the . . . dead! But see, it’s still something that they can’t wrap their minds around; they don’t see clearly. They can’t, not yet, because they don’t yet fully understand that “Christ” and “cross” are inseparable. But soon they will.
Chapter nine, verse thirty. Jesus has just cast a demon out from a child. It’s one of my favorite portions of Scripture, and so I’m kind of depressed that we don’t have time to talk about it, but it’s not really where I’m headed. Right after that display of Jesus’ power and authority, He is again alone with His disciples, and again teaches them that that, Mark 9:31 "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise."
Now, by this time you’d think they’d take Jesus at His word. You’d think they’d put their full trust in Him and believe. But can they? Do they see clearly? No . . . not yet. Mark 9:32 “32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.”
The second act of Mark concludes when we meet Bartimaeus. In chapter ten verse forty-six blind Bartimaeus is by the roadside where he sits, every day, making a living by begging. And finally, just like it was throughout the first act of Mark, there is again an entire crowd with Jesus. No more private teaching for just His disciples, the time has come for public revelation of Jesus’ ministry.
Bartimaeus probably overhears some people talking, and hears that it is none other than Jesus Himself coming down the road. And Bartimaeus shouts out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
“Son of David”—that’s a distinctly messianic title. It comes from 2 Samuel 7:11-13, when God Himself promised to King David, “'The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” For Bartimaeus to call Jesus the “Son of David” is to say exactly what Peter said in chapter eight: “You are the Christ. You are the promised one of God, who will reign forever. You are the savior.”
Now, understand this: Bartimaeus hasn’t been with Jesus for three years. He hasn’t had the benefit of being able to see Jesus in action, he hasn’t sat at Jesus’ feet and absorbed His teachings. But still he has the faith to say, “Jesus, you are my savior. I do not have anything to offer you, but take mercy upon me. Heal my blindness, take away my infirmities, and I will follow you wherever you go.”
Mark 10:50-52 51 "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." 52 "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
The road to where? The very next verse shows that they went to Jerusalem, the place where all that Jesus has predicted about His suffering and death will come true. Bartimaeus can now see with his eyes, but it is the disciples who, in Jerusalem, will finally be able to “see” what it means that Jesus is the Christ. Like Bartimaeus, they will be able to see everything clearly.
We began in chapter eight by meeting a blind man whom chose to illustrate a point. By healing that blind man in two steps, taking him from blindness to a fuzzy, skewed eyesight to being able to see everything clearly, Jesus helps us to understand that we cannot “see” without Him. By teaching His disciples that to be the Christ meant that He must suffer, He shows us that to call Him Jesus Christ is to say that we understand that “Christ” and “cross” are two words we can never separate.
Do you see everything clearly? Do we have troubles in this life? Yes. But it is impossible to understand Christ unless we understand the cross. The cross—the bloody, ugly cross—the cross is the place where our sin and salvation meet. That is Jesus’ ministry; to take our sins away, to nail them to the cross, and to redeem us from a life of poor, partial spiritual sight into a living, fully restored sight focused solely upon Jesus, the Christ. Apart from Him and His cross, nothing will ever make sense, we will never be able to see clearly.
Jesus, Son of David . . . have mercy on us. We want to see.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Where Jesus Goes . . .
Who is Jesus and what does it mean to follow Him? As we launched our study on the Gospel of Mark last week we finished up with that very question. That question—who is Jesus and what does it mean to follow Him—is the main question that Mark is seeking to help us answer by the time we finish reading his account of the ministry of Jesus Christ.
Remember that, for Mark, the answer to the question of who Jesus is is inexorably tied to what He does. And since what He does—His miracles, His teachings, His very life—calls for a response from us, what it means to follow Him is also tied to the actions of Christ.
But still, at this point in our study we don’t have very many answers to either of those questions. We can’t find the answers unless Mark tells us . . . so let’s not waste any timing guessing, but let’s get right into the book and see what Mark has to tell us.
To begin with, remember that Mark is a storyteller. He loves to paint a visual picture. He loves to build suspense and draw us into the story. As part of his storytelling method we can pick out about three larger sections that Mark uses to tell us of the life of Christ. The first section—the one we’ll be studying today—occurs mostly around Galilee and the surrounding areas. In this first section we walk with Jesus as He ministers to individuals and to crowds.
The first section of Mark —call it the First of three Acts, if you will—lasts from 1:1 to around 8:22, and in the first act the overarching picture that Mark paints is of large crowds following Christ and hanging on His every word. But is it enough to hear . . . or must something else occur? Hopefully we’ll find out. Open your Bibles to Mark, chapter one.
Mark 1:1-4 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way" -- 3 "a voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'" 4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Now, I find this interesting! Mark begins by saying this is the gospel about Jesus Christ . . . but then the first person he tells us about is John the Baptist? Why is that?
Well, let’s see if we can’t get some answers. First, Mark uses two prophecies—one from Isaiah, one from Malachi—to indicate that there would be a messenger from God who would come before the Lord and prepare the way for Him, and that messenger would be John the Baptist. 2nd, Mark tells us the message John is preaching: John is preaching “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” John’s message is “Repent!” 3rd, John himself testifies that there will be one who comes after him who is more powerful, more worthy, and will have a more enduring ministry. John’s baptism is with water . . . but the one who is to come baptizes with nothing other than the Holy Spirit.
In other words, to put it all together, the one who is to come—whom we know is Jesus—the one who is to come will be like John. He will be similar to John . . . but He will be more than John. The things that John does, Jesus will also do, but Jesus will do them one better. John’s ministry not only prepares the way for Jesus, it also foreshadows Jesus’ ministry. Mark tells us about John’s ministry in order to help us understand Jesus and His ministry better.
Now keep that in mind, because it will be important later. But let’s continue: Mark 1:14-15 14 After John was put in prison . . .” WHAT??? That’s it? Mark tells us all about John, he tells us how important he is, and then in chapter one verse fourteen he sweeps John away. Is that really it for John?
No, that’s not it; not yet. Remember that John preached repentance. Remember that he said that there would be a time coming when one more powerful would arrive on the scene. Then in Mark 1:14-15 Mark tells us, “Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" John said the time was yet to come, you better repent. Jesus says the time is now . . . “Repent and believe!” Where John goes, Jesus follows . . . but Jesus does it one step better.
We’ll come back to John in a few minutes, but for now page forward to chapter four. Chapter four is the largest speech Jesus has made so far in Mark. Up till now the gospel has been all action: calling the disciples, healing the sick, casting out demons, confrontation with the Pharisees. Healing, calling, confrontation, healing, calling, confrontation and now . . . a break in the action. Mark slows down the pace dramatically in order to get our attention with some very important words of Jesus.
There are always two basic reactions to the teachings of Jesus Christ: belief or unbelief. Sure, there’s some variation on each of those, but it really boils down to those two options: do you hear what Jesus says with your heart and believe Him . . . or do you only hear with your ears and reject Him?
For the longest time in my life I was very confused about why there were people I knew who had been given the benefit of being raised in a church home, who had been taught the Word, who had heard the teachings of Jesus Christ, and who had still walked away from it all. It seemed inconsistent to me. I mean, here is a person who is a lot like me, who’s heard the same Word of God that I have, and yet years later I’m still here in church and they’re out doing their own thing.
Now by saying that I don’t mean to make anything big out of myself; I’m just a guy, after all, and not really a model Christian. I’m still a sinner in need of grace. But I think that’s my point: I realize I’m in need of God and that I need to stay connected to Him, but some of my old friends don’t. They should know better, but they don’t. Why is that?
Chapter four answers that question, and in so doing it helps us understand the entire first eight chapters of Mark. The same group of people has heard Jesus’ teachings and seen His miracles, and while almost all of them are still confused about exactly who Jesus is, there are nevertheless people who believe Him and His message, and people who reject Him.
And in chapter four Jesus tells a parable that says the reason for that is simple: it’s the way the Kingdom of God works! You go out, you scatter the seed everywhere you possibly can, and some of it is snatched away, some of it withers and dies, but some of it takes deep root and thrives.
There is no explanation for this other than it is the secret—the word in verse eleven actually means “mystery”—the mystery of the Kingdom of God. Everywhere that the Word of God goes there are forces opposing it. It may be Satan deliberately snatching the Word away before it has a chance to grow, it may be the circumstances of life that choke the Word so that it cannot become fruitful. But if you hear the Word and it has worked in you, then you also understand that you have been given a gift. You’re not worthy of the gift, because there is anything about you that makes you better than anyone else, but it’s a gift nevertheless. You have been given ears to hear. The mysteries of the Kingdom of God have been opened to you, but with that knowledge comes responsibility. It is not a gift to be taken lightly. We’re about to find that out.
Remember John the Baptist? We’ve seen nothing at all of John after 1:14 until, finally, some people are talking about him six chapters later in Mark 6:14. Go ahead and flip forward to chapter six.
In chapter six verse 17 Mark fills us in with the background of that cryptic little remark in 1:14 about John being put in prison. In verse seventeen we learn that John hadn’t broken any laws, he had simply spoken the truth, and in the process became unpopular with some powerful people. We also learn in verse twenty that although Herod liked listening to John’s preaching, he was still greatly puzzled by it. Furthermore, it seems as though Herod was personally convinced that John was a righteous and holy man, and that he found no fault in him.
Yet despite all that, Herod’s hand was forced. Wishing to avoid public embarrassment, in verse twenty-six Herod gives in and has John the Baptist executed. John is dead because of his message, despite the fact that he was innocent, despite the fact that Herod tried to worm his way out of it.
But why this huge story? Why does Mark suddenly stop the action, stop the story about Jesus and abruptly drop into this anecdote about the end of John’s life? Because where John goes, Jesus follows. Look at that story again: An innocent man, hated because of his message of truth, put to death by some behind-the-scenes maneuvering, despite the fact that the one giving the order for the execution would rather do just about anything else. Sound like anyone else you know?
Of course it does! Remember: Mark tells us about John so that we can understand Jesus better. Mark 1:6-8 7 And this was his [John’s] message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with {8 Or in} water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Where John goes, Jesus follows . . . but Jesus does it one step better. People just thought Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead . . . but Jesus actually did rise from the dead.
Certainly where John goes, Jesus follows. But more than that, I think Mark also wants us to understand that where Jesus goes, so do His followers. See now, look back just a few verses to chapter six, the second half of verse six. Jesus is sending out His disciples, He is sending out the Twelve with a message and a mission. They are to preach repentance and they are driving out demons and healing people. In effect, they are doing exactly what Jesus has been doing all throughout the first act of Mark. They are doing His bidding, they are preaching His message, and they are doing His ministry.
Okay, that’s fine . . . but skip ahead to verse thirty. What’s happening? Jesus is receiving back the apostles and they are reporting to Him everything that had happened on their missionary journey. Did you catch that? Mark starts a story about the disciples being sent out on a journey, stops that story, tells us about John the Baptist, and when that story is done he goes back to the story about the Twelve and their missionary journey.
This kind of story telling is technically called an intercalation, but it’s easier to remember it as a Mark sandwich. Like a sandwich, Mark takes two slices of a story and puts some meat in between them. And just like having a sandwich, we’re a lot poorer if we don’t have the meat that goes on the inside. What’s a sandwich without the meat? Without the stuff on the inside, all you have is a bread sandwich! It’s the story on the inside that really helps drive home the point, that really makes us sit up and take notice . . . and Mark does this all the time.
Seriously! Mark has a habit out of sandwiching two stories together, and whenever he does it it’s because he wants us to read the outside story with the eyes of the inside story. The outside story is about the mission of the disciples, and the inside story not only points to Christ but also points to what disciples of Jesus can expect. Where Jesus goes, so go His followers.
Being a follower of Jesus Christ isn’t all chocolate and roses, it’s not all power and authority. Sometimes it’s pain and prison. But in the end, those who are sent out by Jesus will always be received back by Him. One way or the other, He will gather them back to Himself, whether He has to gather them by the lakeside or pluck them from the jaws of the grave. We who have been blessed to hear His word and believe upon it are also sent out on His mission. And those who are on His mission are always under His eternal protection.
Remember that, for Mark, the answer to the question of who Jesus is is inexorably tied to what He does. And since what He does—His miracles, His teachings, His very life—calls for a response from us, what it means to follow Him is also tied to the actions of Christ.
But still, at this point in our study we don’t have very many answers to either of those questions. We can’t find the answers unless Mark tells us . . . so let’s not waste any timing guessing, but let’s get right into the book and see what Mark has to tell us.
To begin with, remember that Mark is a storyteller. He loves to paint a visual picture. He loves to build suspense and draw us into the story. As part of his storytelling method we can pick out about three larger sections that Mark uses to tell us of the life of Christ. The first section—the one we’ll be studying today—occurs mostly around Galilee and the surrounding areas. In this first section we walk with Jesus as He ministers to individuals and to crowds.
The first section of Mark —call it the First of three Acts, if you will—lasts from 1:1 to around 8:22, and in the first act the overarching picture that Mark paints is of large crowds following Christ and hanging on His every word. But is it enough to hear . . . or must something else occur? Hopefully we’ll find out. Open your Bibles to Mark, chapter one.
Mark 1:1-4 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way" -- 3 "a voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'" 4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Now, I find this interesting! Mark begins by saying this is the gospel about Jesus Christ . . . but then the first person he tells us about is John the Baptist? Why is that?
Well, let’s see if we can’t get some answers. First, Mark uses two prophecies—one from Isaiah, one from Malachi—to indicate that there would be a messenger from God who would come before the Lord and prepare the way for Him, and that messenger would be John the Baptist. 2nd, Mark tells us the message John is preaching: John is preaching “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” John’s message is “Repent!” 3rd, John himself testifies that there will be one who comes after him who is more powerful, more worthy, and will have a more enduring ministry. John’s baptism is with water . . . but the one who is to come baptizes with nothing other than the Holy Spirit.
In other words, to put it all together, the one who is to come—whom we know is Jesus—the one who is to come will be like John. He will be similar to John . . . but He will be more than John. The things that John does, Jesus will also do, but Jesus will do them one better. John’s ministry not only prepares the way for Jesus, it also foreshadows Jesus’ ministry. Mark tells us about John’s ministry in order to help us understand Jesus and His ministry better.
Now keep that in mind, because it will be important later. But let’s continue: Mark 1:14-15 14 After John was put in prison . . .” WHAT??? That’s it? Mark tells us all about John, he tells us how important he is, and then in chapter one verse fourteen he sweeps John away. Is that really it for John?
No, that’s not it; not yet. Remember that John preached repentance. Remember that he said that there would be a time coming when one more powerful would arrive on the scene. Then in Mark 1:14-15 Mark tells us, “Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" John said the time was yet to come, you better repent. Jesus says the time is now . . . “Repent and believe!” Where John goes, Jesus follows . . . but Jesus does it one step better.
We’ll come back to John in a few minutes, but for now page forward to chapter four. Chapter four is the largest speech Jesus has made so far in Mark. Up till now the gospel has been all action: calling the disciples, healing the sick, casting out demons, confrontation with the Pharisees. Healing, calling, confrontation, healing, calling, confrontation and now . . . a break in the action. Mark slows down the pace dramatically in order to get our attention with some very important words of Jesus.
There are always two basic reactions to the teachings of Jesus Christ: belief or unbelief. Sure, there’s some variation on each of those, but it really boils down to those two options: do you hear what Jesus says with your heart and believe Him . . . or do you only hear with your ears and reject Him?
For the longest time in my life I was very confused about why there were people I knew who had been given the benefit of being raised in a church home, who had been taught the Word, who had heard the teachings of Jesus Christ, and who had still walked away from it all. It seemed inconsistent to me. I mean, here is a person who is a lot like me, who’s heard the same Word of God that I have, and yet years later I’m still here in church and they’re out doing their own thing.
Now by saying that I don’t mean to make anything big out of myself; I’m just a guy, after all, and not really a model Christian. I’m still a sinner in need of grace. But I think that’s my point: I realize I’m in need of God and that I need to stay connected to Him, but some of my old friends don’t. They should know better, but they don’t. Why is that?
Chapter four answers that question, and in so doing it helps us understand the entire first eight chapters of Mark. The same group of people has heard Jesus’ teachings and seen His miracles, and while almost all of them are still confused about exactly who Jesus is, there are nevertheless people who believe Him and His message, and people who reject Him.
And in chapter four Jesus tells a parable that says the reason for that is simple: it’s the way the Kingdom of God works! You go out, you scatter the seed everywhere you possibly can, and some of it is snatched away, some of it withers and dies, but some of it takes deep root and thrives.
There is no explanation for this other than it is the secret—the word in verse eleven actually means “mystery”—the mystery of the Kingdom of God. Everywhere that the Word of God goes there are forces opposing it. It may be Satan deliberately snatching the Word away before it has a chance to grow, it may be the circumstances of life that choke the Word so that it cannot become fruitful. But if you hear the Word and it has worked in you, then you also understand that you have been given a gift. You’re not worthy of the gift, because there is anything about you that makes you better than anyone else, but it’s a gift nevertheless. You have been given ears to hear. The mysteries of the Kingdom of God have been opened to you, but with that knowledge comes responsibility. It is not a gift to be taken lightly. We’re about to find that out.
Remember John the Baptist? We’ve seen nothing at all of John after 1:14 until, finally, some people are talking about him six chapters later in Mark 6:14. Go ahead and flip forward to chapter six.
In chapter six verse 17 Mark fills us in with the background of that cryptic little remark in 1:14 about John being put in prison. In verse seventeen we learn that John hadn’t broken any laws, he had simply spoken the truth, and in the process became unpopular with some powerful people. We also learn in verse twenty that although Herod liked listening to John’s preaching, he was still greatly puzzled by it. Furthermore, it seems as though Herod was personally convinced that John was a righteous and holy man, and that he found no fault in him.
Yet despite all that, Herod’s hand was forced. Wishing to avoid public embarrassment, in verse twenty-six Herod gives in and has John the Baptist executed. John is dead because of his message, despite the fact that he was innocent, despite the fact that Herod tried to worm his way out of it.
But why this huge story? Why does Mark suddenly stop the action, stop the story about Jesus and abruptly drop into this anecdote about the end of John’s life? Because where John goes, Jesus follows. Look at that story again: An innocent man, hated because of his message of truth, put to death by some behind-the-scenes maneuvering, despite the fact that the one giving the order for the execution would rather do just about anything else. Sound like anyone else you know?
Of course it does! Remember: Mark tells us about John so that we can understand Jesus better. Mark 1:6-8 7 And this was his [John’s] message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with {8 Or in} water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Where John goes, Jesus follows . . . but Jesus does it one step better. People just thought Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead . . . but Jesus actually did rise from the dead.
Certainly where John goes, Jesus follows. But more than that, I think Mark also wants us to understand that where Jesus goes, so do His followers. See now, look back just a few verses to chapter six, the second half of verse six. Jesus is sending out His disciples, He is sending out the Twelve with a message and a mission. They are to preach repentance and they are driving out demons and healing people. In effect, they are doing exactly what Jesus has been doing all throughout the first act of Mark. They are doing His bidding, they are preaching His message, and they are doing His ministry.
Okay, that’s fine . . . but skip ahead to verse thirty. What’s happening? Jesus is receiving back the apostles and they are reporting to Him everything that had happened on their missionary journey. Did you catch that? Mark starts a story about the disciples being sent out on a journey, stops that story, tells us about John the Baptist, and when that story is done he goes back to the story about the Twelve and their missionary journey.
This kind of story telling is technically called an intercalation, but it’s easier to remember it as a Mark sandwich. Like a sandwich, Mark takes two slices of a story and puts some meat in between them. And just like having a sandwich, we’re a lot poorer if we don’t have the meat that goes on the inside. What’s a sandwich without the meat? Without the stuff on the inside, all you have is a bread sandwich! It’s the story on the inside that really helps drive home the point, that really makes us sit up and take notice . . . and Mark does this all the time.
Seriously! Mark has a habit out of sandwiching two stories together, and whenever he does it it’s because he wants us to read the outside story with the eyes of the inside story. The outside story is about the mission of the disciples, and the inside story not only points to Christ but also points to what disciples of Jesus can expect. Where Jesus goes, so go His followers.
Being a follower of Jesus Christ isn’t all chocolate and roses, it’s not all power and authority. Sometimes it’s pain and prison. But in the end, those who are sent out by Jesus will always be received back by Him. One way or the other, He will gather them back to Himself, whether He has to gather them by the lakeside or pluck them from the jaws of the grave. We who have been blessed to hear His word and believe upon it are also sent out on His mission. And those who are on His mission are always under His eternal protection.
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