Mark 1:29-39

 ** As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

  Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.**

 This passage seems to be primarily about healing. We are being asked this season to reflect on who Jesus is and why Jesus came. Certainly to restore the world to health and wholeness is part of that understanding. I think though this passage reveals to us a much bigger picture if we look at as a whole.

 Here we have a snapshot of life itself. We have a family caring for their extended family. We have people who are sick making everyday life and the pleasure thereof – eating together, sharing together, difficult. We have a larger community with many other sick people and people who we would say today were struggling with all kinds of emotional and mental struggles that made their relationships strained and in some cases impossible. Jesus comes into the middle of this everyday life full of needs wants and desires and begins to fulfill them. Healing people and restoring the relationships. There is no doubt that there was a need for change. But did deep change actually occur or did people just feel better. The message here is not to come to Jesus and feel better. It is listen to Jesus, follow Jesus and be changed.

 What is this change? It is more than being inspired. We do not need to be inspired. Most of the spiritual hunger and seeking in the world today is seeking inspiration – or seeking to feel better. There is a greater challenge presented here then simply our need to feel better.

 We live self pleasing lives. That is why they were flocking to Jesus and looking for him – to get their needs met. Why? To please themselves. This causes everything to breakdown.

 It has been said that the one principle of hell is I am my own. There are basically two ways to live. My life for yours or I am my own – my life for me.  Jesus brings them life through the healing and immediately pushes them to lay it down, to give it up, for people they do not even know and go with him to proclaim the message.  To please oneself is the driving force of the world. It is not the driving force of God. Loose your life and you will find it save your life and you will loose it says Jesus. This is the very heart of creation. The very heart of the Trinity. My life for yours. It is what Jesus did. He gave up his life and his glory for you. It is at the very heart and principle of life itself. We are all here through our mothers life. Someone who nurtured and cared for you no matter how imperfectly. They gave up their convenience, their money, in a very real sense their life for you.

 You may have experienced Jesus coming to you in your life. Perhaps bringing healing wholeness, well being, blessing. That is a gift, a wonderful thing. But have you heard him say come follow me, lay down your life. Cease focussing on yourself, let go of the hell that has a grip on you trying to convince you your life is your own and enter the kingdom of heaven where it is my life for you. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

 Blessings Al

We read the baptism of Jesus from Mark’s gospel this year. Mark’s gospel was the first one written and most would agree that both Matthew and Luke used it as a resource in writing theirs. John who wrote much later took a different approach. Mark’s gospel is the shortest. In comparing the 4 gospels I have heard it said that what we are witnessing is an evolution of early Christian thinking. Some look at Mark’s gospel as evidence that the early Christians thought of Jesus as simply anointed by God and called to be the Messiah and not as John proclaims at the beginning of His gospel “the word becoming flesh” or as the creeds proclaim “begotten not made being of one substance as the father”.  Mark however paints a picture and makes a proclamation just as profound as John does. Through the use of images he takes the reader back to creation making just as profound a proclamation as John or the apostle Paul. The Christian proclamation that Jesus is God in the flesh is not a result of evolving thinking but of God revealing reality to us. Mark reports that when Jesus was baptized the “Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove”. We are familiar with the Holy Spirit being referred to as a dove because we are familiar with the New Testament and other Christian writings. When Mark wrote his gospel the only other reference to the Holy Spirit being referred to as a dove came from the Targum – an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. The first readers of Marks gospel would have been familiar with this translation. In the Targum, in the book of Genesis, when creation is being described it says that the Holy Spirit “fluttered over the face of the deep like a dove”. Here at the Baptism of Jesus Mark carefully, because each word Mark uses is carefully chosen, he writes with an extreme economy of words, Mark uses the same imagery. In the story of creation there is God the father, the Holy Spirit, and God’s word. Here at the baptism of Jesus there is the Holy Spirit described in the same language, God the father communicating and Jesus proclaimed as God’s communication. The baptism of Jesus creates confusion for some. Why did Jesus need to be baptized if baptism is a sign of repentance and turning to God? But baptism is actually a sign of God’s work not our work. Jesus baptism is a proclamation of the beginning of the new creation reflecting back to creation itself as Mark proclaims it. In reality the beginning of John’s gospel proclaiming the word became flesh and dwelt among us is the same proclamation as the beginning of Mark’s gospel. There is no evolution of thinking or understanding but rather a different way of articulating the same thing.

Rev. Allan Carson

Mark is the first narrative account written about the life of Jesus.  It was written about 30 years after Jesus walked on the earth. Why? Why did it take 30 years to create this work? To answer this we can get a hint from Paul’s writings. In the oldest book of the New Testament, 1 Corinthians. Paul is speaking about the death and resurrection of Jesus. He names a number of people who were eyewitnesses, and then adds that Jesus appeared to over 500 people at one time. Many of whom are still alive but some had died. He is suggesting that if people were wondering about the reality of the Jesus event, that they simply speak to an eyewitness about it. This was written almost 20 years before Mark wrote his gospel. The eyewitnesses were becoming fewer and fewer as time went on. We know from some of Paul’s letters and from other non biblical writings that there were many people making up various stories about who Jesus was, or who they thought he was. Since there were fewer and fewer eyewitnesses around, Mark no doubt thought it was necessary to write an account of the “real Jesus”. As incredible as the proclamation is.

So who does Mark proclaim Jesus to be? He tells us right at the beginning – he is the Christ – the Messiah – the anointed King – the son of God.  Then just in case one might think,  are we not all children of God? and is not the Messiah just an overly gifted person? He (Mark) goes on to make it very clear who he is speaking about. He quotes from Isaiah 40. A prophecy that proclaimed that the LORD (YHWH ) Would visit Jerusalem, and that the people were to prepare for His visit. The one who created the heavens and the earth, The one who delivered them from slavery in Egypt, The one who visited them on Mount Sinai and gave the 10 commandments. They know doubt envisioned this similar to the accounts in Exodus with God appearing in glory in great clouds or pillars of fire or earthquakes or some sign of great power. The people are told to prepare. Mark says John the Baptist is the voice crying in the wilderness – prepare the way of the LORD – he is the one spoken about by Isaiah. This means that Mark is proclaiming that Jesus is God (YHWH) come. It could not be any clearer or bolder. It could not be more earth shaking. People may have many thoughts about who Jesus is, but the eyewitnesses are being clear. “He is God”. We might say that is hard for modern people to accept this, but it was just as hard if not harder for a first century Jew to believe that God became a human. But after witnessing Jesus, their conclusion was that is who he is. 

It is said there are only 3 reasonable responses to this – to Jesus. Say it is insanity and attempt to destroy such a claim. Run in fear. Bow down and worship. Make Him the center of your life.

But to say he is inspiring, or a good example is not an option. Jesus is not inspiring. He is God

Rev Allan Carson

This Sunday we celebrate All Saints, we remember those who have gone before, who have born witness to the work of God in Christ.

One of our readings is Revelation 7:9-17 and it paints a picture of what is in store. The book of Revelation is not well understood, but it is first and foremost a book about reality…the way things are. The image is there are two worlds colliding, the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God. Like the tectonic plates coming against each other, the pressures lead to earthquakes and a great shaking. The proclamation of Revelation is that the kingdom of God is the kingdom that will last. Throughout the book John speaks of hearing and seeing. A line from a song by my favorite group says “I listened hard but could not see” it proclaims the reality of those in the world. The listening does not lead to seeing reality.

Celebrating All Saints is celebrating those who like John listened and saw. They saw the reality of the finished work of Jesus Christ. The end is determined and he is the victorious one. Do we see Him? Do we hear Him? Do we hear and see? When we know that Revelation 7:9-17 is about us, then our entire focus in this world will be different. When we have heard and seen the one described in Revelation 1 starting at verse 9, we will hear and see everything we encounter in the world differently!

Blessings,

Rev Allan Carson

The story appears simple – authorities trying to trick Jesus – to pay taxes or not – if he says yes, one group will be mad at him. if he says no, another group will be mad at him – but if you know history and those at the time would have, it is way worse than that.

Around 6AD a guy named Judas the Galilean started a new movement – the zealots – some of Jesus disciples were associated with them. They believed that only God should be ruler in Israel, and that the kingdom of God was literally God as king, and justice now for all and that if necessary force would be used to bring this about – lots of support in the Old Testament for that line of thinking.  A new tax was added around 6AD and that was the final straw for them so to speak .Judas led an armed revolt where they stormed Jerusalem and took over the temple. Then cleansed it from all foreigners and called on the people to stop paying Roman taxes and help fight them off. Their uprising was crushed and Judas was jailed and later executed.

Matthew Mark and Luke all have the Pharisees (opposed to roman rule) and heorodians (OK with Roman rule) coming to Jesus to ask him this question… just after he drove the money changers out of the temple… just after he cleansed the temple. It is a political question,  are you leading a revolution or not?. If he says “no, do not pay the tax” he will be crushed by the authorities because they are interested in what is happening as well.  Since all his teaching is about the Kingdom of God, if he says “yes, pay the tax” then the people will think he does not know what he is talking about and they will ignore him.  So its not just upset group A or B, but an answer to the question if he gives a yes or no answer would end his mission so to speak. Talk about a loaded question!

SO what does he do?  He asks for a coin… notice he does not even have one .He then asks whose image is on it … now there is not only an image on it, there is also writing . On one side it gives the emperors name and declares him as king and son of God, on the other side it declares him as high Priest. So Jesus is holding up a coin that has blasphemous proclamations on it saying this foreign dictator is the King of Israel, son of God and High Priest. And they all knew that the requirement was to swear allegiance to this dictator, to accept the tax was to agree to that. Jesus response does not translate well, but he changes the verb used in the question. In the question what was asked was to pay the tax by making an offering, the idea being almost by worshiping . In Jesus response he uses a verb that indicates to simply return to rightful owner, basically he says return to Caesar that which has his image on it (but wait there is more and here is the punchy part) and to return to God that which has God’s image on it!

Wow – what has God’s image – we do!.. we are made in God’s image…..so he does not say “yes pay the tax” and he does not say “no don’t pay the tax” – but he does say “yes participate in a revolution, one that does not serve the self centred power hungry tyrants of this world, but serves God in whose image you are made. A revolution to end all revolutions because it is led by the King of heaven and earth, who owns everything, but for your sake became poor . A King who does not demand payment from us, but offers payment of our debt himself. No wonder they walked away speechless and amazed. He said yes I am leading a revolution, I am overthrowing this world, I am ushering in the kingdom of God, but not by force and not by some political agenda, and I am not replacing one world system with another, I am uniting heaven and earth – thy kingdom come, thy will be done on heaven as it is on earth.

This is one of those passages where history and God collide in a way that no one could have made up – only God could do this – change history by entering history

Rev Allan Carson