Sermon 28th June 2015

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches. The reading is from Mark's Gospel - 3: 20-35

Hmm: I wonder! If I were to begin by saying, “The Son of Man did not come to … who might join in? Let’s try it then: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” And, for the bonus point, the Bible reference for that verse is … (Mark 10:45).

Well, it has been a while since any of the preachers used what I said at the start would be our memory verse for this series from Mark. But the shadow of the cross has seldom been absent from the pages of this book that we’ve been working through over the past 2 months. It is particularly, ominously, present here at the end of chapter 3; though less blatantly so than it was at the start of it. Verse 6 reads, “Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus” – which really leaves very little to the imagination.

In today’s passage what we have is both sides of this coin, as it were. In part it’s an illustration of how things had got so bad so quickly. It’s also, in part, an insight into the mind, and the mission, of Jesus – for which he knew he would have to pay that ultimate price. Into that rich mix we can, and must, add no less than 3 other key elements. First is the reminder of the stark, costly, choices that Jesus expects his followers to make in his name. Second is the fact that those who do consistently make such choices demonstrate their membership of God’s family. And, thirdly there’s the minor matter of an issue that has troubled Christians throughout history: what counts as the unforgivable sin, of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?

To all of that we could easily add a fourth element of course! I’m sure that you noted how those accusations of the teachers of the law focused on Jesus’ driving out of demons. The presence of demons is frequent and obvious throughout this first part of Mark’s Gospel. As he told the story of this dramatic arrival of the reality of God’s Kingdom in Jesus, Mark wanted his readers to grasp the significance of what it meant. At the start of this Gospel John the Baptist had promised that the one who would come after him was much stronger, more powerful than him. This is Jesus proving that he was; he was powerful enough to tie up the strong man and rob his house of what the devil had taken from God: all of humanity.

Demonology isn’t often at the forefront of 21^st Century Western Christian preaching, let alone of our society’s prevailing secularist thinking. But the events of Friday, on top of last week’s, may well force us all to think about the reality, and the nature, of evil. A beheading at a factory in France; dozens of tourists gunned down on a beach in Tunisia; a suicide bomber killing 27, and injuring hundreds, at a mosque in Kuwait; all after 8 people were shot dead at a prayer meeting in a Charleston church because of the colour of their skin: and evil is only the invention of deluded religious minds? I’d certainly say that Jesus knew exactly what was doing when he confronted the devil in his ministry. He also modelled price of doing so; as well as securing the final victory over evil by dying on the cross. And all of that is at least trailed here, if not explicitly visible in these conflicts between Jesus, his family, and the teachers of law.

Now I don’t plan to say much more today on the topic of evil, modern or ancient. That’s because I don’t think that’s the main point to emerge from this passage, or this series. As ever, though, if it’s something that you want to pursue yourself, I’m more than willing to explore it further with you. It matters, in every way, because this is about us needing to see, understand and interact with God’s world in God’s way. We need to grasp that first and foremost, or else we’ll risk not understanding Jesus – just as his own family did here. This passage is bracketed by their lack of understanding; which was even greater by the end than it was at the beginning. They really didn’t get it, or him: at all. In fact, they thought that he was mad!

Here is that first insight into the mind, and the mission, of Jesus then. To him, being about his Father’s business was much more important than eating even. Well, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” remember. So when people piled into the house where he was staying, teaching, and healing them (doubtless including driving out demons), was what he got on with. It’s also what he expected of those 12 that he’d chosen earlier in the chapter, note. The intensity which they did it with clearly caused word to be sent to his family. Their reading of events was that Jesus must have gone mad Mark says. (And there is no reason to doubt him on this, because it’s so refreshingly honest that it can’t have been made up.) So they set out to go and do what these days might be called an intervention!

I know: put like that it’s this notion which sounds crazy; but hindsight is a wonderful thing. All his family had were these strange reports that they couldn’t make sense out of in any other way. As we’ll return to, family was (and is) such an important feature of Jewish society. It was their duty to protect the family reputation from any further damage, then. As they saw it, what Jesus was doing was bad enough: being so caught up in meeting all these need that he wouldn’t even stop to eat? So who knows what they’d have made of the events that then transpired while they were on their way to stop him. Yet another run-in with the religious authorities; this time with the teachers of the law who had come down from Jerusalem specifically to check up on what Jesus was saying and doing.

In his commentary on this passage Tom Wright suggest that these people were looking for a fight. We can tell that they had already made up their mind about Jesus from what they said. As people tend to do when we want to dismiss someone or something, they’d stuck a conveniently derogatory label on him. But they did that quietly, amongst themselves, from the other side of the room: “he’s demon-possessed, look”. As we heard, though, Jesus brought it into the open. Having called them over, he pointed out how illogical and inaccurate a label it was. “How can Satan be divided against himself?” That seemed to silence them; but what’s more significant here is the point that Jesus made to them about that unforgivable sin, of blasphemy (or “saying evil things” in GNB) against the Holy Spirit.

As I say, that question has troubled many Christians for many years; not wanting to commit that sin themselves. But if it’s set in this context, there is clearly no need for us to worry. Jesus’ point – again as is well explained by Tom Wright – is the danger of getting a wrong idea fixed in the head. If we convince ourselves that the Doctor who’s offering to perform a life-saving operation on us is actually a sadistic murder, then we’ll never agree to having it! That’s how many people saw Jesus in his time – as was the case here. Even as Jesus was bringing in God’s Kingdom, taking back ground from enemy, these people convinced themselves that he was the enemy. And it reaches a point Jesus says, where there is no getting out of this kind of self-made corner. It’s those who keep on blindly insisting that God’s work is actually from the devil who are committing that unforgivable sin, then.

Once again there is so much more that could b said on this. And if it is still troubling you after this brief explanation then please do speak to me about it. For now, though, I want to move on, to pick up the other bracket. That comes in verse 31, when Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived at the house he was in. It was still full enough that there wasn’t room for them to get in, so they sent word in that they were outside. For most of us that probably doesn’t sound too big a deal. We’re mostly used to living far from our wider families; maybe not even having much to do with them for weeks or more at a time. In Jesus’ time (as for many Jews today) it couldn’t have been more different: family provided their model of relating to God: in encompassed their whole life.

Here once again Jesus turned what people, even his own family, thought completely on its head. Looking around him – not just at his chosen 12 – Jesus said that it’s those who do his Father’s will who are his family. This was a truly radical, sweeping redefinition of all that his hearers understood about God, and themselves; so it’s not a point that could’ve been missed by any of them – though it might be by us. What each of us need to get our heads around, then, is what it means for us to follow and obey Jesus; to do his Father’s work; even in the face of life-challenging opposition, let alone if our nearest and dearest call us mad; or demon-possessed.

It may be that you’ve never spent very much time considering that for yourself. If so, and if you do think of yourself as a disciple of Jesus, then now is the time to do just that, I’d suggest. And you could do much worse that to do it in the context of this passage. It may only be short, and contain some unfamiliar cultural material; but it sets out so many of the key issues of life and of the Christian faith. It includes: how we see, understand and interact with, God’s world in God’s way. It allows us to confront the nature of evil, both the overt kind and the sort that invites us to drift away from God. It puts key questions to us about the choices that we will, or won’t, make; about what priorities we’ll set for our time, energy, and relationships. It also encourages us to examine the cost of obedient discipleship; of following Jesus in any, and all, circumstances. And I’m sure that there’s plenty more in here besides that we’ve not even begun to get to today. What I’m even more sure of is that this is all possible only because, in the words of Mark 10:45, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” And therein lies both the challenge for us, and the reason for our eternal life that we can, and must, begin to live out right now.

With all that in mind, I’ll end with this prayer written by Henri Nouwen: “Let me be reborn in you and see through you the world in the right way, so that all my actions, words, thoughts can become a hymn of praise to you. I need your loving grace to travel on this hard road that leads to the death of my old self and to a new life in and for you. I know and trust that this is the road to freedom. Lord, dispel my mistrust and help me become a trusting friend. Amen.”