I'm preaching a series titled “Jesus and Individuals.” Two weeks ago we were thinking about an encounter Jesus had at the home of Simon the Pharisee with a sinful woman of Galilee. Last week we were considering a personal 40 year journey since ordination.
This time I want to take a look at an encounter from Mark's gospel where we find Jesus encountering a whole group of folk known as “The Scribes” or “The Teachers of the Law.” They have come down from Jerusalem with a whole host of questions in mind. We also see an encounter in this passage that Jesus has with His own family, and some words of Jesus about forgiveness... or rather the lack of it!
As we each personally encounter the gospel message in our lives, it does indeed raise for us many, many, questions. If we choose to embrace the gospel message, then it creates new dynamics in our relationships with others, including our own families.
There are some scriptures we find difficult to understand. Each of us is on our own spiritual path. Our journey is not the same journey as another person’s. We walk in our own shoes. We are all unique. We are all individuals and that's what this sermon series is all about, Jesus and Individuals.
In Colossians chapter 3:20 Paul writes “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord.” Apart from being the kind of advice that parents really like to hear, it is clear that in the early church there were whole families who had felt the embrace of the gospel. And though it is sadly an increasingly less common feature of our society, in the past there have been many who fortunate to have grown up in a Christian home.
I have had several people over the years tell me that they just don't remember a time when they didn't believe in God. God was just... always a part of our conversations, our mealtimes, our bedtimes. We went to church because that's what we did.
Of course, they can identify some significant moments when particular insights came their way, but they can't say, when their discipleship journey began, because they can't remember a time when they were not on it. More importantly they can point to a present experience of God to which their journey has led them.
For others their Christianity is more of a Damascus Road experience, rather like St. Paul. Paul could point to the hour, the day and the moment when he met Jesus and felt God's call on his life, the crisis encounter that changed everything in an instant.
In between the two are a vast number of options. There are those like Peter, who though they follow, can hardly put a foot right. Who have learned just as much from their mistakes as from their breakthroughs. There are those like Thomas, who struggle to believe because their doubts overwhelm them. Who just have that mindset that says, “I hear what everybody else is saying. That's great for them! But I need to touch it and feel it for myself.” And Jesus came through... eventually... for Thomas.
There's an encounter Jesus has with a man called Nicodemus. In John 3:7, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be or “Born from Above” or “Born Again” if he was ever to experience the Kingdom of God. Some sections of the church have taken that phrase and used it as a source of division. So that there are average Christians... who don't really get it... and then there are the true faithful, the “born again” Christians.
I recall an encounter I had with a lady in a Christian bookshop in the U.K. In conversation I explained that I had recently felt the call of God on my life and was now a Presbyterian minister. I was looking for some good theological books to help me feed my congregation. She shook her head in disgust, as though knowledge were a terrible thing to pursue and said, “That's all very well... but are you born again?”
It is scary how certain phrases can be taken completely out of context and overlaid with meaning they were never intended to have... and become not a source of unity, but a source of division within the Christian Church. Some folk use certain scriptures like sledgehammers to destroy those who feel different to them! Kind of like the Scribes who came down from Jerusalem to meet with Jesus. They weren't seeking enlightenment. They were on a mission to discredit. Let's dig deeper.
THE TIME It's a busy day. The disciples haven't even had time to eat because of the crowds around them. Jesus is on a second tour of ministry and there have been remarkable healings and exorcisms taking place. His ministry is causing quite a stir.
THE PLACE Capernaum. The hometown of Jesus.
THE CIRCUMSTANCES As Jesus is in His hometown, His family are around. And they are expressing their concern! They think He's lost it... going too far... a touch of madness has got to Him. Believe me, when you tell your family you are giving up everything and going to be a minister of gospel for the rest of your life... some people are not slow in telling you that, in their opinion, you have totally lost your marbles.
Been there. Experienced that! I think there may even be some who still think that this whole Christianity thing is just a phase I'm going through. Who shake their heads and say, “He always did take things to extremes. He couldn't just go to church, he had to go and be a pastor!”
But with the family of Jesus, it's more than that. They are also concerned about the trouble that He's stirring up. Although in favor with many, because of His ministry, others, notably the Scribes and Teachers of the Law, are offended by Him and they just want Him to stop. So, they arrive from Jerusalem.
THE SCRIBES ARGUMENT The Scribes argument is altogether more sinister than that of His family. They don't think He's mad. They accuse Him of being evil. They suggest that the only spirit driving His mission is a demonic spirit of Beelzebul, the God of dung and flies.
It's an argument that the great Christian apologist C.S. Lewis had encountered. In his own spiritual journey, he came to the conclusion that Jesus must have been mad or He was bad. Either that, or He was exactly the person He claimed to be. The Scribes from Jerusalem are sticking with the second option. He was bad .In fact He was evil. Mark 3:22 tells us plainly; “The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons."
In reply to such an accusation Jesus gives them some pictures... short parables.
Firstly, a country fighting itself and tearing itself apart. Secondly, a family dividing into groups, and falling apart. Thirdly, the picture of a thief breaking into the home of a strong man and needing to tie him up before taking his possessions.
The Scribes who came down from Jerusalem never question the power Jesus had to cast out demons. They question the source of His power. One commentator describes them as saying “It is by the great demon he casts out little demons.”
Jesus completely explodes their argument. William Barclay, in his commentary, writes, “Jesus says, 'Just think! If there is an internal dissension in a kingdom, that kingdom cannot last. If there are quarrels in a house, that house will fall! If Satan is actually making war on his own demons, then he is finished as an effective power, because civil war has begun in his kingdom.'”
We may wish to go further and say that the power of love was being shown as overcoming the power of hate. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.
Jesus refuses to be drawn into a debate about the nature or the source of evil. He does not try and explain it, or quantify it, He just deals with it. He brings healing into the situation. He dealt with it and gave others the power of His Spirit that they may engage in the same struggle to bring God's Kingdom to be revealed among the kingdoms of this world.
Having reasoned with them, then Jesus starts to warn them that they were making accusations that put their souls in peril and led them beyond the grace of God. That if they took such a flippant and careless attitude towards the things of God, they were in deep trouble. They only had to look around them. To see that person restored to a right mind. To talk with that person who had now received healing. These good works were the work of God's Holy Spirit.
They knew how absurd it was that the Devil would cast himself out and they knew that the Spirit which gave Jesus power was a very different spirit than that which gave the devil any power. They were not just people with stupid theories, they were placing themselves in a dangerous position in relation to God.
We then have one of those biblical verses that has caused a lot of head scratching and heartache. Mark 3:28 and 29 “Truly I tell you; people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” This passage, and others like them, have led folks to speculate if there are some sins that are unforgivable.
The “So-Called” unforgiving sin has been put forward as being everything from suicide to sexual orientation, from paganism to folks simply belonging to a different religious tradition. Thankfully this passage offers the actual context. Verse 30 “For they (that is the Scribes) had said, "He has an unclean spirit."
The original meaning of the word blasphemy was that it described “the act of insulting or showing contempt for God.” In their heart of hearts, the Scribes know they are wrong. 'The Message Bible' offers us a perspective that gets to the heart of the matter.
Jesus tells the Scribes: "Listen to this carefully. I'm warning you. There's nothing done or said that can't be forgiven. But if you persist in your slanders against God's Holy Spirit, you are repudiating the very One who forgives, sawing off the branch on which you're sitting, severing by your own perversity all connection with the One who forgives." Jesus, as did John before Him, is calling them to repentance. They choose not to respond. They therefore remained outside of God's grace. That was where their inability to be forgiven kicked in.
A whole lot of lessons in this encounter Jesus had with the Scribes. Here are some of the things we can learn.
From the family of Jesus who thought He had lost His mind we learn that, at times following the call to discipleship can be misunderstood be even those who are closest to us. Yet God chose to redeem the world through what Paul describes as “Fools Wisdom.” People encounter and are embraced by such wisdom, in as many different ways as we are different people.
From the Scribes we learn a sobering lesson that the heart can be so deceptive as to lead us beyond the reach of God's grace and cause us to knowingly attribute the work of God to the work of evil. If we are in that position, we should fear for our personal salvation. Forgiveness is always available to those who repent.
From the passage as a whole we learn that we are not called to explain evil, but in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are called to oppose it and work against it. This we do through acts of healing and love, though acts of deliverance and justice, both individually and corporately as communities of faith.
While we cannot explain every evil in this world, we can consistently stand against all that cheapens and destroys. We can continue to pray that God's will may be done, and kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven. We can seek to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem We can always seek for God's transforming grace to lead us and guide us.
Around a table laid with bread and wine is a wonderful place to do just that. Amen!
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
No comments:
Post a Comment