February 21, 2021 Mark 9:14-10:12

The passage from Mark has a lot to challenge us and maybe even frighten us.  These are not the kind of teachings we like to have from Jesus.  All too often I think people imagine Jesus as this all around nice guy who never really says anything mean.  But today we read him giving a blanket condemnation of divorce and remarriage.  He talks about cutting off limbs and plucking out eyes.  He has these strange teachings about salt losing its saltiness – that is chemically impossible.  And there is the scene where Jesus is mad because the disciples couldn’t cure the epileptic boy.  He tells them, “You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you?  How much longer must I put up with you?”  (Mark 9:19) 

You may remember me mentioning when we started Mark’s gospel that this writing will pull the rug out from under your feet time and time again.  Every time you think you understand and you think you have Jesus figured out Mark will upend your understanding.  I think that is part of his point.  He wants us to know that God is deeply loving, and that God is very generous, and that God’s cares for all people.  But we cannot think that because this is God’s nature that we can figure God out or control God or even intellectually understand what God is up to.  Instead, we are called to trust, and trust God more deeply than our brains can comprehend.

Let’s look at some of these scenes in reverse order.  Some Pharisees attempt to trap Jesus by asking him about divorce.  It’s an entrapping question because there’s no way out.  If he says no then he has gone against Deuteronomy 24:1 which says that a man may divorce his wife for any reason.  The exact wording is, “…she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her…”  That’s it – grounds for divorce were simply failing to please a man.  You may remember me joking that a man could divorce his wife on the grounds that he doesn’t like her meatloaf! 

On the other hand, if Jesus says yes a man can divorce his wife then he’d get into trouble with the powerful Essene community, a large Jewish sect that forbade divorce under any circumstances.

Jesus’ answer rightfully turns the question on its head.  Marriage is based on God’s order of creation, not about rules and regulations.  Jesus’ private teachings to his disciples about remarriage being adultery are also rooted in God’s order of creation, not rules and regulations.  His teachings acknowledge the emotional feelings of betrayal, hurt, and shame that any emotionally healthy person feels at the break down of an intimate relationship and the beginning of another.

Notice Jesus does not say people who remarry will burn in hell forever.  He simply roots the situation in God’s order of creation and names the pains that go with it.

The scene prior to that talks about dismembering yourself if part of you causes you to sin.  Fortunately I see you have not followed that advice or I’d be talking to a bunch of blind people without arms and legs.  I’d be like that too.  Remember, Jesus often uses exaggerated language in his teachings.  And here he is picking up on an ancient Greek teaching, “Cast away every part of the body which leads you to intemperance; for it is better to live temperately without it, than to live whole.”  (Sextus Sentences 13)

It reminds us of the seriousness of sin.  A person who takes his or her sin lightly also takes God’s grace lightly.  A person who takes his or her sin seriously also appreciates the undeserved-favor-that-is-God’s-grace as a wonderful gift.  Again, can you see that this is rooted in creation and right relationship with God.

Going back another scene we have the disciple John wanting to stop who’s doing good work in Jesus’ name.  John is acting like Jesus’ name is proprietary and this other guy hasn’t paid the licensing fee.  Once again we see how human logic wants to put limits on God.  The same can be said for the scene previous to that where the disciples are arguing over who was the greatest.  This is a human tendency to always want to rank and measure ourselves against other people.  We want to feel like we are better than them, and we certainly don’t like being beneath others.  But this is all thinking from the human point of view.  It is not God’s way.  As I said before, Mark’s gospel will always witness to the abundance of God’s love, but never let us think we have control over it, or that we can limit it, or predict it.

And I think that leads us to the very first scene we read from the gospel.  The disciples are unable to cast a demon out of a boy.  Based on his symptoms we can conclude he has epilepsy.  The whole scene is filled with anger and chaos.  There’s a crowd, there are religious experts, there are the disciples, there’s this father, and his boy who he wants to have cured.  Jesus enters the scene as well and he seems angry at everyone, calling them a faithless generation.  Then the boy has a seizure right then and there and Jesus forcefully drives it out.

In the midst of all the chaos the boy’s father says something that has become famous.  “I believe; help my unbelief!”  What a strange thing to say!  But it is an authentic and deeply revealing truth.  I think we all have felt just like that man.  We want to believe.  We need to believe.  But it just seems so impossible and we want to have solid assurance right then and there.  The boy and his father are fortunate that they get it from Jesus.

The final word on this scene is an interesting one.  The disciples ask Jesus why they could do nothing.  He replies, “This kind can come out only through prayer.”

I think Jesus’ word on prayer and the father’s words that he believes but help his unbelief go hand in hand.

Prayer is definitely powerful, but many people treat it like a magical formula:  It is as if God was a divine magician who is available with miraculous powers if and only if you call upon God correctly.  You have to say the right words and say them in the right way and be thinking the right thoughts and if and only if you do, then God will act.

But what have we been talking about Mark’s gospel?  God is guaranteed to be loving, but is God able to be predicted, controlled or understood?  No.  Never.  Prayer is not a human being’s ability to dictate to God what God should do.  Prayer is a conversation of trust between God and people.

I suppose we could ask the question, do we trust in the power of prayer, or do we trust in the one to whom we pray?  If you say you trust in the power of prayer I’d suggest that is coming from a human point of view.  It is as if prayer in and of itself has power.  But if you trust in the one to whom you pray then you are trusting in God.

When Jesus says this kind only can come out by prayer he is not suggesting that with the correct prayer technique the demon, or the epilepsy could be cured.  He is saying that God should be trusted to have the power to cure.

The cure then, is God’s, not ours.

Now don’t get me wrong in what I say about prayer.  Many a hurting and angry Christian has swallowed their hurt and anger and prayed to God, “This is what I want, but thy will be done and I’ll be okay with whatever it is.”  That is a commendable thought, but is it a true prayer?

When you’re scared or hurting or angry then is not the time to pray prim and proper prayers.  A prim and proper prayer with fear and anger subdued within yourself is a very weak prayer indeed.  Martin Luther taught to let it out.  If you’re scared let God know it.  If you’re angry let God know it, even if you’re angry at God!  And if you’re hurting let God know it.

God knows what you’re trying to hide in your mind.  True prayer, powerful prayer, is when you are bluntly honest and truthful with God.  Then is when you trust not in the power of your prayer but the power of the one to whom you pray.  Then you are bold to trust that God’s love has a hold of you and won’t let go.

All of today’s gospel reading is about not legislating how God should act, but knowing with surety that God will act with love.  It’s easier said than done.  The disciples messed up plenty, and we do too.  But God’s love always gets the final word, and in that we rest our hope.

February 17, 2021 Ash Wednesday Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

 

     William Shakespeare is famous for the line, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players.”  It is perhaps a fitting statement for Ash Wednesday.  For, what is the world, and is life?

That quote didn’t originate with Shakespeare.  It was around for centuries beforehand, but he uses it in his play As You Like It.  It’s part of a monologue by the melancholy character Jaques.  I think it’s worth hearing more of the monologue, although I warn you it isn’t easy to understand.  At least it isn’t to me on a casual reading.  Whenever I know I’m going to be seeing a Shakespeare play I first read a summary.  Then I sit down with the text on my own and pour over it.  Then when I see the play for real I have at least a prayer of a chance of understanding it.  But anyway, let’s see if we can get the jist of what Jaques says:

 

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

 

Humph.  That’s a pretty depressing attitude about life.  It’s all the more sad because of its truth.  And if that is the truth of your life, then the words of Ash Wednesday, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return,” are enough to make you despair.

But let’s realize a deeper truth that will take us from despair.

If all the world’s a stage, then this pandemic is really messing with the play.  When Shakespeare wrote those words he did not mean that people’s lives are false – or a façade.  And yet, I suspect that is exactly what many people’s lives are.  They subtly make themselves into whatever is necessary to be acceptable and successful to the people around them.  We’ve talked about this before – things like: house, car, clothing, vacations, furnishings – many of them ultimately chosen to create the image of success.  And perhaps a person is successful, perhaps not.  It doesn’t matter.  The person is acting from society’s pressure to appear like they’ve got life together.  They aren’t a mess or a failure.

I believe many people never really examine their lives or their priorities.  Without questioning it they believe that more money leads to a happier life.  They believe that more things and a bigger house leads to greater fulfillment.  They believe that they should make themselves the most of what they can and then live as high as their abilities allow them to.  Every time I say this I feel I need to make the disclaimer that I am not advocating for laziness or any lack of productivity.  Indeed work hard, contribute, help to make the world a better place.  Just be sure you’ve asked yourself what is motivating you.

All the world’s a stage and the men and women are merely players on it.  For every person that that is true, then the pandemic is really messing with the stage.  All the interactions of the play are gone.  A lot of the day to day person to person human interactions we call “normal” are, I think, just part of the play.

I don’t mean to criticize the feelings of isolation and depression many people are feeling these days.  But I do believe Ash Wednesday gives us a faith perspective that helps the situation.

Several times in our gospel reading Jesus calls people hypocrites.  We know what that means, but it may give us the wrong idea.  Indeed the Greek word is, “upokriths” and from that you can easily hear the English word hypocrites.  But in Greek the word literally means “stage actor”.  It is not necessarily someone who’s says one thing but does another.  Hmmm… all the world’s a stage…

Jesus is not calling on his followers to hate themselves.  He is not calling on them to be excessively humble or meek.  He is calling them into a different way of living.  Actually he’s calling people into a different way of finding meaning.

Maybe I can get at it this way.  When we meet someone in a store or on the sidewalk it’s common to say, “How are you doing?”  Now most of us don’t consider ourselves to by liars, but I have a feeling we’ve all lied to that one.  The socially acceptable answer is to just say “hi” back or to say you’re doing fine.  Unless you know the person very well you’re probably not going to be honest, at least not honest if you’re truly feeling sick or worried or depressed. 

Even so, asking someone, “How are you doing?” is basically saying, “All the world is a stage and you are merely an actor on it.  How’s the play going for you?”

What would happen if we asked a different question?  I came to be friends with a pastor from Ethiopia when I was at seminary.  He wouldn’t ask, “How are you doing?”  He’d ask, “How’s your ministry going?” 

It didn’t matter whether you were a pastor or a student or a bartender or a factory worker… whatever.  The world was not a stage to him.  The world was God’s workplace.  It was a place for ministry.  “How’s your ministry going?” puts everything in life in a different light.  It erases the numerous stages of life Shakespeare talked about.

In Shakespeare’s play a person goes through: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, pard, justice, pantaloon, and second childishness.  In God’s world you are a child of God.  That’s it.  From baptism until death.  The world is no stage.  The world is God’s kingdom.  And we are not actors, but God’s agents.  An agent is someone who works on behalf of someone else. 

Yes, we are in a pandemic.  Yes, we are dust and to dust we shall return.  But we are God’s.  That is an entirely different way of understanding ourselves from the world.  It is a different way of defining our worth.  It is a different way of living.

Do not be like the hypocrites Jesus says.  The world is not a stage and you are not an actor.  The world is God’s and you are his.

February 14, 2021 Mark 8:26-9:13

            There is a saying that if at first you don’t succeed… destroy all the evidence that you’ve tried!

            As I’ve been teaching our confirmation class this year about the Bible I’ve pointed out a number of times that while most cultures tend to minimize or deny their failures, the Jews, our faith ancestors, did not.

            Often when people read the Old Testament they are upset that God seems so harsh and demanding.  Indeed, in many places in the Old Testament God does come across that way.  But that misses all of the grace filled passages.  It also misses what is perhaps a bigger message.  The Jews were not afraid to remember that they failed and failed and failed again.  They do not hide their mistakes.  For them it is a deep part of their relationship with God.  They are confident that God will hold on to them through thick and thin.

The same attitude of recognizing mistakes and failures carries over in the New Testament somewhat too.  Certainly in Mark’s gospel the disciples do not come off looking good.  Is Mark setting them up as buffoons?  Did Jesus really choose such an idiotic bunch of followers?  Is this a historically accurate portrayal of the disciples?  Perhaps they aren’t exactly at the level of slapstick comedy but they seem to be not much smarter!  Are we to laugh at them so we can feel good about ourselves?  Hmmm… Perhaps.  Though Mark’s gospel has long been criticized for its rough style and its simplicity, I hope as we’ve been going through it you’re coming to discover that Mark’s gospel is actually the product of a literary genius.

Commentator Pheme Perkins says this about the way Mark portrays the disciples, “One of the most endearing features of Mark’s [gospel]… is the evident weaknesses of Jesus’ disciples.  They seem to become more bewildered and frightened as the story unfolds.  For many [people] that depiction lends a consoling air of reality to Mark’s vision of Christian discipleship.  No ordinary person can be like Jesus, but Mark’s description of Peter sets a standard that is within reach.”  (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 8, Pg. 513)

            It appears as if within the twelve disciples Jesus regularly picks three that are particularly close.  They are Peter, James, and John.  All three of them get invited into things the other nine are not.  All three get extra special insight.  And all three make some absolutely idiotic statements and requests.  In today’s gospel Peter is the focus.

            Our first encounter with Peter shows him flying high.  Jesus has just asked the disciples who do people say that he is.  They reply that some say he is John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the prophets.  Then Jesus asks, “But who do you say that I am?”  Peter replies, “You are the Messiah.”

            We want to praise Peter for his great insight here!  He’s got it right.  He’s seen what Jesus has been doing and he understands.  But then it all comes crashing down.

            Jesus begins to teach what is coming to him.  Notice a subtle but very significant shift in what comes next.  Jesus does not go on to say what being the “Messiah” means.  This is very important in Mark’s gospel.  Jesus goes on to say what being the “Son of Man” means.  8:31-32 reads, “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.  He said all this quite openly.”  This is indeed cryptic in Mark’s gospel.  Son of Man and Son of God have a lot of similarities in Mark’s gospel.  They aren’t identical, and again, Son of Man is cryptic.  Just notice that Jesus makes a subtle shift from Messiah – which Peter has some concept of – to Son of Man.

            Peter is lost.  You know the scene.  Peter takes Jesus and rebukes him.  He does it in the same way as someone trying to drive a demon out of someone who is possessed.  But Jesus replies with his own exorcism of Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!  For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

            It is always so important for us to note that Jesus puts the human point of view on par with Satan’s point of view.  Let that be an interpretation of evil for you.

            Jesus goes on to explain more to the disciples and the crowds.  Let’s also note that the transfiguration account comes right after this.  Despite what happened with Peter he is still allowed in this innermost circle of Jesus’ followers.  He gets to witness the transfiguration.

            Of course, in the transfiguration Peter continues to show the human point of view.  He misunderstands completely.

            You probably know the story of the gospel well enough to know what’s in store for Peter.  By the time we get to Jesus’ arrest Peter is denying that he ever knew Jesus.

            Over and over again with the disciples, and especially Peter, we see them taking the human point of view.

            I’ve heard it said many times that the real issue is that they could only see the messiah as a great conquering militaristic figure.  They thought the messiah would be a hero who would teach the Romans a lesson they’d never forget.  The Romans would get what they had coming to them.  The Jews would then become a free and independent nation. 

            That is a true assessment, but I think it misses the subtlety of it.  It is so easy to caricaturize the dynamics of other people and then not apply it to ourselves.

            As I quoted Pheme Perkins earlier, the failures of the disciples should console us.  Like them, we are not perfect.  We miss things.  We have our subtle biases that blind us from the truth.  And perhaps those biases are more than just subtle.  I think they can be deep and foundational to ourselves.

            I believe we live with a lot of assumptions about life and the world and we don’t even realize we’ve made the assumption.  Recently there has been a lot of conversation about racism in our country.  February is Black History Month and so racial things continue to be heightened.  I’ve done a lot of self-examination about it all.  In some places I find that my thoughts and feelings are right.  I’d argue that I have meaningful input (and even critiques) to give.  At the same time I realize I have a lot of assumptions that aren’t well founded, or are ill founded.  But issues of race are really hot.  People turn off very quickly and using them would not suit my purposes here.  Let’s took at some other assumptions we live by and may not have ever realized.

            The Men’s Breakfast is continuing through its series on the history of Christianity in America.  In last week’s video the presenter pointed out that Americans tend to have the idea that if something is legal it is okay.  And if it is not legal it is not okay.  We make the courts our highest authority on right and wrong.

            Indeed, hopefully our legal system does reflect a good sense of morality, but I’m sure we can all think of things that are legal that do not reflect Christian morality.  Just because you can do something without legal consequences doesn’t make it right.

            Along those same lines, we Americans have long talked about a separation of church and state.  It’s actually not as deeply embedded in our constitution as we think, but it is a truth we all believe is fundamental.

            I believe it has created an unintended side effect.  For many people it creates a split between faith and politics.  People say the church should stay out of political things.  Oh really?  The church has a lot to say about political things!  Now this is a Lutheran church and we always say that you do not have to agree with what the church says, but the church has every right to say it!

            A faith/politics split is an artificial divide we unintentionally make.  People see faith as a private thing and politics as a public thing.  Again, a mistake.  Faith is not, and should not be, private.  Indeed faith should be respectful – at least Christian faith is.  But it is not private.

            Here’s another example.  A lot of people create a distinction between faith and science.  Why?  Where did people get that idea?  For centuries faith and science worked hand in hand.  Indeed the medieval church did nothing to help keep them together.  And certainly Christian fundamentalism in America has widened the gap even further.  But faith and science (or maybe I should say ‘faith and critical thinking’ should not be a split at all.   Just like faith should inform politics.  So also faith should encompass scientific thought. 

Perhaps politics shouldn’t frame faith, but politics should give us real world living applications of faith.  Politics should make us wrestle with our faith.  The same goes for science.  Science should inform faith.  Science should open our minds ever more widely to what God is up to and how God works.

            Do we misunderstand the messiah?  No.  We get it.  The disciples did not.  But do we have the same tendency to see the world through limited lenses – and be so limited that we can’t even see our limitations?  Oh yes, indeed we do.  You know Jesus saying that you should take the log out of your own eye before trying to take the speck out of someone else’s.

            The truly good news is found in our gospel.  Peter was flying high.  Then Peter failed.  Nevertheless Jesus took Peter with him on the mountain and Peter got to witness the transfiguration.  Peter messed up again, but Jesus kept him.

            James and John will mess up too.  But Jesus will keep them.  And of course Peter’s greatest bungles are yet to come.  But Jesus will forgive him and keep him.  The same goes for us.

            I think the key is not so much to be perfect as to recognize that we are hopelessly imperfect.  That attitude will keep us turning to Christ.  He is indeed our Savior.

The Syrophoenician Woman Mark 7:24-30

            This is the fifth in the series of five messages looking at Mark chapters 6-8.  In the previous messages I pointed out that there is a pattern that happens twice in these chapters.  In this scene however we are not in that pattern.  The story of Jesus healing the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter is perhaps  the most troublesome story the Bible about Jesus.  You probably know it well.  Here it is again:

 

Mark 7:24-30

²⁴From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, ²⁵but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. ²⁶Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

 

            Questions immediately begin to jump in our minds.  Does Jesus intend to reject this woman’s request?  Did he really just call her a dog?  And when Jesus can easily out debate the most learned Jewish religious scholars, did this poor uneducated foreign woman just best Jesus in an argument?

            Biblical commentators go all over the place interpreting this.  I’ve encountered feminist theologians (especially Sharon Ringe) who say the woman did indeed best Jesus in an argument, and even more.  They claim that this woman became the vehicle that freed Jesus from his sexism and racism.  And I’ve encountered more traditional theologians who make interpretations that I consider to be nothing short of idiotic.  I’ve heard it said that what was really going on is that Jesus was actually testing this woman’s faith.  Nope.  That’s definitely not what’s happening.  First, if that is the case then would God really play games with us and “test” us when we are desperate for help?  Of course not!  That goes against everything else we find in Mark’s gospel – and the entire New Testament.  Second – and this should be abundantly obvious to anyone who claims themselves to be a biblical expert – NOWHERE in the text does the word faith appear!  It’s just not there.  This is NOT a story about faith!  (It must be noted that there is a parallel account of this in Matthew’s gospel where faith does play a part.  [Matthew 15:21-28]  But this is Mark’s account, not Matthew’s.)

            I do not promise any solid answers as to what is going on here.  But I do want to point out a few things.

            Remember that there were lots of stories about Jesus floating around at the time Mark wrote his gospel.  Mark was not an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry.  He has selected from the oral accounts of Jesus ministry and written them down.  Mark did not have to include this scene.  But he did it deliberately, and for reasons we do not understand.  Jesus is Mark’s hero.  Mark would not have included a scene that would put Jesus in a negative light.

            Also remember from earlier in the gospel (e.g. 2:8) that Jesus is capable of perceiving the thoughts of people.  Jesus certainly knew what was in this woman’s mind.  He knew how the conversation would go.  There is no reason for us to conclude that she somehow bested him in an argument.

            We have seen several times before where Jesus has cured foreigners.  There’s nothing new about that.  He’s also performed miracles for women – and even unclean ones.  (5:24-34)  I don’t see any reason to interpret this passage as one where Jesus was limited by sexist or racist thinking.

            With those things pointed out, what do we do with this scene?  Despite the fact that I just said Jesus wasn’t limited by sexist or racist thinking, I do believe this story is mostly about sexism and racism.  It is yet another scene in Mark’s gospel where God refuses to be limited by any sort of human category.  Before God your gender or you race – or just about anything about you – simply doesn’t matter.  God loves you.  Period.  No debate.

            While I don’t believe this woman caught Jesus with his compassion down, I do think it reveals something of Jesus’ humanity.  At the time this woman approaches Jesus he is desperately tired.  People have been coming to him asking for help.  He’s wiped out.  He has gone out of Jewish territory for a much needed rest.  Realize that Jesus is not out on the road or in the countryside when this woman comes to him.  Jesus is in a house and wants to be left alone.  She barges in, bows down at his feet, and begs him to help her daughter.  She is being a real pest!  She is anything but respectful of Jesus or his needs.

            Inasmuch as I can make sense of this passage here is where I find it.  This woman has no compassion for Jesus’ needs.  She does not respect his space or his privacy.  She pushes herself into his presence and puts him in an awkward situation.  In other words, she does not treat Jesus with dignity and decency.  Nevertheless, and in spite of being a foreigner and a woman (which is about as low as you could go in the eyes of Jews of the day) Jesus grants her request.  He cures her daughter!

            From this passage I learn that God’s love is not weak or tentative.  God’s love is strong.  You will not weary God by begging.  You will not wear out God’s love.  You will not get a rejection by God just because you treat him with unfair tactics.  No, God’s love is there for you.

            May we have the tenacity and cleverness of this woman in our lives of faith.  All too often people quit when the path looks unclear.  People will quit at a faith task when the path looks like it may not be acceptable in “polite society.”  But God does not have such limits.

            Accept that you are wildly loved by God.  And accept that God’s wild love may embrace you in wild ways as well.

Jesus Heals by Spitting Mark 7:31-37 & 8:22-26

             This is the fourth in a series of five messages looking at Mark chapters 6-8.  If you’ve read the first three you’ll know it is very helpful to note this pattern in these chapters:

6:30-44 Feeding Miracle

6:45-52 On the Sea of Galilee

6:53-56 Healings

7:1-33 Conflict with Religious Leaders (and conflict with a foreigner)

7:34-37 Jesus uses his spit to cure a deaf man.

 

Then (minus the healings) it happens again in almost the same order!

8:1-10 Feeding Miracle

8:11-13 Conflict with Religious Leaders

8:14-21 On the Sea of Galilee

8:22-26 Jesus uses his spit to cure a blind man.

 

We’re looking at these chapters with the pairs Mark has created.  Today’s pair is the two healings done by Jesus.  Both are more detailed than the usual healing miracles.  And in both cases we get the curious detail that Jesus uses his spit for the healing.  Here are the texts:

 

Mark 7:31-37

³¹Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. ³²They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. ³⁴Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” ³⁵And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

 

Mark 8:22-26

²²They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. ²³He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Can you see anything?” ²⁴And the man looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.” ²⁵Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. ²⁶Then he sent him away to his home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.”

 

 

            The thing that jumps out to me the most in these passages is that it seems to take Jesus two tries to cure the blind man!  What?  Really?  Remember the scene in 5:1-20 where Jesus drives out the “legion” of demons from the Gerasene man?  There seems to be a bit of a struggle there but we’re left feeling that Jesus can overcome anything without a lot of fuss.  There’s also walking on water, stilling the storm, and feeding thousands of people (on multiple occasions) with very meagre resources.  Jesus can do anything, right?  So why does it take two tries here?  If Jesus were a kid’s toy I’d think his battery was running low!

            No one really knows for sure what was going on.  And biblical commentators aren’t sure what Mark intends for us to get from this.  The best suggestion is that it hints at what is going on the following scene.  We haven’t read that part yet, but it is the famous story of Jesus asking the disciples who do people say that he is?  The disciples share what the crowds are saying.  Then Jesus asks, “But who do you say that I am?”  And Peter answers, “You are the Messiah.”

            So it seems like Peter’s gotten some pretty good sight into who Jesus is.

            But in the next scene Peter comes crashing down.

            Jesus goes on to explain that being the Messiah means undergoing rejection from the religious leaders, suffering, and finally crucifixion.  Peter seems to think Jesus has become demon possessed because he starts acting like an exorcist.  In 8:32 we find, “And Peter took him aside and became to rebuke him.”  Then Jesus responds in the next verse, “But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan!  For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

            Notice something small but very important in that last verse.  It says Jesus was looking at his disciples.  And what did Jesus do in the second try to cure the blind man?  “Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored…”

            It appears as if Jesus’ look carries power.  And perhaps in the same way there was two levels of sight for the blind man, the disciples are also showing two levels of sight; although they haven’t gotten the “second” sight yet.  The first sight is seeing Jesus as the Messiah.  The second sight will be seeing Jesus as the crucified one.

            Well, that’s the best theory I’ve come across as to why Mark has the details of it taking Jesus two tries to cure the blind man.  But let’s also notice that Jesus uses spit to cure the deaf and dumb man.  You’ll remember it says, “[Jesus] took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue.”  (7:33) 

            Part of me thinks this is all gross.  Why can’t Jesus heal this guy cleanly?  But a bigger part of me appreciates the close touch between Jesus and this man.  The same goes for the spitting and curing of the blind man. 

            Jesus is not afraid to get down into the dirtiness of ailments; and even life in general.  These details show Jesus getting up close and personal with people.  He does not stay removed and at a safe distance creating cures with surgical sterility.  In Jesus we discover that God will step right into the mess of a situation and work within that mess.

            Sometimes people bear so much shame and guilt that they feel unredeemable.  They feel so foul and dirty that God could never want to be with them, let alone be close.  But if we’re learning anything from being this far into Mark’s gospel it is that God will not be so bound.  God will not stay within the bounds of cleanliness or propriety or holiness.  God will break out into any and every place God wants to be.  And God wants to be in your heart, however it is you feel about yourself.

            The man who was deaf & dumb and the blind man who took two tries to cure both received wholeness of life from Jesus.  In both cases Jesus touched them intently.  He was not afraid of their ailments.  It is important for us to remember that God wants – GOD WANTS – to be close to us.  God wants to meet us wherever we are.  That is simply who God is.  And that is how God loves.

 

Religious Conflicts Mark 7:1-23 & 8:11-23

             This is the third in a series of five messages looking at Mark chapters 6-8.  If you’ve read the first two, bear with me a moment.  If you haven’t, whenever interpreting things from these chapters it is important to note this pattern:

6:30-44 Feeding Miracle

6:45-52 On the Sea of Galilee

6:53-56 Healings

7:1-33 Conflict with Religious Leaders (and conflict with a foreigner)

7:34-37 Jesus uses his spit to cure a deaf man.

 

Then (minus the healings) it happens again in almost the same order!

8:1-10 Feeding Miracle

8:11-13 Conflict with Religious Leaders

8:14-21 On the Sea of Galilee

8:22-26 Jesus uses his spit to cure a blind man.

 

We’re looking at these chapters with the pairs Mark has created.  Today’s pair is the Conflict with Religious Leaders.  Here are the texts:

 

Mark 7:1-23

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, ²they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. ³(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; ⁴and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) ⁵So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” ⁶He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
⁷in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

⁸You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

⁹Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! ¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ ¹¹But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God)— ¹²then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, ¹³thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.”

¹⁴Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

¹⁷When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, ¹⁹since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) ²⁰And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. ²¹For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, ²²adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. ²³All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

 

Mark 8:11-13

¹¹The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him. ¹²And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.” ¹³And he left them, and getting into the boat again, he went across to the other side.

 

 

            Let’s remember that both of these scenes have a feeding miracle in the background.  (Feeding of the 5000 is 6:30-56; and Feeding of the 4000 is 8:1-9)

            When I was a kid I remember the worksheets in Sunday school.  There were often drawings of the religious leaders.  On the whole they were portrayed as a harsh and judgmental bunch with frowns on their faces.  I’m sure we all know people who are like that, so the depiction could be true.  But on the whole I believe we make a mistake when we think of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day as mean, overly righteous, stuck-up, or anything like that.  If you want to know what the religious leaders were like it’s probably best to look at your reflection in the mirror.

            Let’s take a minute to remember their situation.  In 586 B.C.E. Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed by the Babylonians.  Ten years prior most of the Jews had been hauled off into exile.  Almost everyone who remained left after the city’s destruction.  It is hard for us as Christians to understand just how central Jerusalem and the temple were to the Jews holding on to their faith and their identity as a people.  During the long decades before they were allowed to return an entire generation had come and gone.  In this exile time they learned how to hang on to their faith and the hope that God would save them.  Central to doing that was knowing where to compromise and assimilate, and where to hold the line.  Observing the laws of Moses became central to holding that line.  It really became the core of their faith and the core of holding on to their identity.

            In time the Jews were allowed to return and rebuild.  But they did not forget the exile. 

Centuries passed.  Threats came and went.  Nations and empires rose and fall around them.  Seldom did they enjoy national independence.  Usually they learned to cooperate with the empires that ruled them.  And through it all was the enduring law of Moses.  They found it to be flexible, grace filled, and capable of enduring through time.  They truly felt it was God’s gift to them.

When Jesus came along he wasn’t exactly yanking the rug out from under all that.  But he did challenge what was the center of faith.  I believe that the religious leaders had very good intentions for how they applied the law.  Unfortunately it missed the mark.

In our world there are many things that are legal, but that does not make them right.  Many things are legal, but that does not mean the law reflects the will of God.

Our society values competition.  It is the capitalist way!  I don’t want to speak against the efficiencies of our economic system.  Capitalism has many good points.  But a drawback is the way those who have certain skills tend to thrive at the expense of others.  I think the same can be said for the religious laws of Jesus’ day.

Were Jesus to be in America today I believe he’d find a lot to praise.  He’d also find a lot to condemn. 

I encourage you to make all your decisions, whether big or small, in light of these facts:

-You are a sinner in need of God’s grace.

-God loves you and wants to bring you wholeness of life.

-God made you good.  And God has given you gifts and abilities.  You are to use them to provide for yourself and for the needs of others.

-God wants to see all people flourish and grow.  God does not want to see anyone pushed down by the actions of others.

-God holds the future secure.  You are safe.