I read this
addition to the end of Mark’s gospel and I’m drawn to the amazing things Jesus
says those who believe in him will be able to do: by using Jesus’ name they
will cast out demons, speak in new tongues, pick up snakes with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing it will not hurt them, and they will lay
their hands on the sick and they will recover.
I could do with some of those skills.
Well, I don’t have much use for picking up snakes or drinking deadly
things, but I sure would like to heal sick people. And my grades when I took Spanish in high
school would certainly have been better with some divine help! But I can’t do any of those things. Does that mean my faith is too weak or that I
don’t believe?
Wouldn’t belief
in Christ be so much easier if there was a measurable difference between a
believer and a non-believer? Wouldn’t it
be easier to believe the power of prayer if the prayer studies that have been
done would show with statistical significance that people who were prayed for
were more likely to be healed or be successful than those who were not.
There have been
times in our nation’s history where Christian faith would open doors for you
that would not be opened for others, and times when Christian community has
saved the day for a person; but you are hard pressed to show that believing in
Christ brings about anything miraculous in any rate greater than any other
religion or non-religious people at all.
Do we just throw
up our hands and walk away from it all?
If there are no benefits to faith then what’s the point after all? And yet to walk away doesn’t seem possible
either. To walk away from faith is to
give up hope. The world is a broken
place, and without God what is the point of life? If your life plan is to die with the most
toys you still die! And someone else
gets all your toys! At some point
doesn’t some sense of fairness and justice come into your life that says it’s
wrong to exploit other people for your own benefit?
I’m reminded of
my colleague Johanna Rehbaum, who when she was a teenager found out about some
tragedy that had befallen a good friend.
She turned to God and said ‘that’s it, I quit.’ And her atheism lasted for about three days
before she returned to God and said, “Okay, I’m back. Where else can I go?” I’m reminded of the disciple Peter’s
statement to Jesus, “Lord, to whom can we go?
You have the words of eternal life.”
(John 6:67)
Our struggle of
faith is nothing new. I don’t think we
have a lack of faith or a weakness of belief that we cannot perform miracles
with our own hands or drink poisons or handle snakes. Look at the first disciples. They had the same struggles. They struggled to believe in the
resurrection. The addition to Mark’s
gospel that we read echoes the same struggles that we find in Luke’s gospel and
in John’s gospel. The disciples didn’t
believe Mary Magdalene when she told them about Jesus. They didn’t believe the two followers who met
the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus.
Only when Jesus appears to them in person do they believe.
And listen to
these verses that some ancient manuscripts of Mark add. If I start with what we have with verse 14,
“Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table;
and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they
had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.” And then this gets added, “And they excused
themselves, saying, ‘This age of lawlessness and unbelief is under Satan, who
does not allow the truth and power of God to prevail over the unclean things of
the spirits. Therefore reveal your
righteousness now’ – thus they spoke to Christ.
And Christ replied to them, ‘The term of Satan’s power has been
fulfilled, but other terrible things draw near.
And for those who have sinned I was handed over to death, that they may
return to the truth and sin no more, that they may inherit the spiritual and
imperishable glory of righteousness that is in heaven.’”
And then it
continues with verse 15, “And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and
proclaim the good news to the whole creation.’”
Whether there is
any truth to those verses or not, you can see how even the earliest Christians
are struggling with belief and how to evangelize.
Evangelism is
hard. And if we admit it, it’s
embarrassing. How weird is it if you
carpool with someone who is forever talking about Jesus? And you’ve heard me say before that I cringe
when I’m on an airplane and someone beside me asks what I do for a living. Conversation suddenly gets very forced. They either think I’m a simple-minded weirdo
for being a pastor, or they may launch into a conservative evangelism spiel that
turns all eyes on the plane towards us and I find my face burning in
embarrassment.
Maybe I should be
more bold, but I’ve never had what I consider to be a productive faith
conversation with someone on the street.
Yet I think all
this awkwardness gets us to the real root of the issue. And I think this is powerful evangelism in
our world today too.
I disagree with
those who suggest that being a Christian will make you healthy and wealthy and
wise. And I completely disagree with the
Joel Osteens of the world who preach that God wants you to be rich and successful. That’s not faithful and it’s just plain
silly.
Our powerful
evangelism is to offer hope. We live in
a crazy world with people running around so broken they don’t even know
it. They look for hope in all the wrong
places, all too often turning to destructive drugs or substances. Or they turn to atheism and mix it with
twisted science believing religion is what is wrong with the world and if we
humans got it right we could fix things.
Here’s a nasty
statistic for atheists. More people were
killed in the name of atheism in the 20th century alone than
Christianity has killed in twenty centuries combined.
If you think
you’re going to solve the world’s problems by rejecting Christianity you’re
heading the wrong way.
Jesus says he
died for the sins of the world. There’s
nothing fancy about that. There’s
nothing prideful either. It is a humble
statement of reality.
We don’t have to
go out and prove our faith to people by curing diseases and casting out demons,
drinking poison and surviving, or handling dangerous snakes. And we shouldn’t expect to live lives that
are somehow easier or more prosperous because of our faith.
However, we know
where there is hope. It is in
Christ. And we should be able to quietly
and confidently acknowledge that God is our only hope. Only God’s love and grace turn this mess of a
world around. And God has empowered us
to be the people to do it.
Is it hard to
believe sometimes, and certainly to believe with confidence, yes. That is just part of faith.
But you don’t
have to be embarrassed by your savior.
And there is no embarrassment letting it be known in public where you
put your hope. When we humans try to fix
things we just make things worse.
History has proven that the faith God is inspiring in us is the answer.
Jesus’ commission
to the disciples is the same commission that comes to us. Proclaim to the world hope. When the world has that hope it improves. It is a wonderful gift of deep happiness,
wholeness and contentment. May you find
opportunities to proclaim that hope, and may you have the words to express it
so that you can also bring hope, faith and joy into the world around you.
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