Background
Today we
are beginning the Gospel of Mark. Mark’s
Gospel is known for being short and sweet.
Mark wrote like Sergeant Joe Friday from Dragnet spoke: just the facts,
ma’am. You will also notice that Mark
does not mess with a birth narrative. It
isn’t that the birth narrative isn’t important.
It’s that Mark is about the story of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus’ ministry officially begins at His
baptism – and you can make as many theological inferences into that statement
as you want, for it is ripe for inferences of all kinds!
Jesus’ Baptism
We begin
with John the Baptist and Jesus’ baptism.
John the Baptizer was in the wilderness.
Literally, En Te Eremo! John the
Baptizer was proclaiming the need for people to repent and receive forgiveness
for their sins. John the Baptizer was
preaching about someone coming after him who was more important than
himself. This sounds like a pretty good
calling card for the Christian, too. We
are to talk to people about repentance and forgiveness while telling them about
someone who is more important than ourselves.
Yes, we could all take a lesson from John the Baptizer.
Jesus is
baptized. As with all the stories of
Mark, the baptism story is short and sweet.
Of course, Jesus was baptized by John as a sign of God’s approval, not
for the forgiveness of sins. I just felt
the need to make that clear.
Speaking
of God’s approval, in the baptism we know that God does speak and declare His
approval. He calls Jesus His beloved
son. He says that He is well pleased
with Jesus. There is nothing about Jesus
that brings the Father displeasure.
Already we have foreshadowing of the perfect nature of Christ and how
only He can be the atoning sacrifice. He
is the one that is pleasing to God. He
is the one upon whom our salvation hangs; He is the one who appeases God’s need
for a sacrifice for the ultimate forgiveness of sin.
Jesus’ Temptation
In typical
Sergeant Joe Friday tradition, we then move to the temptation of Jesus. Notice that we don’t have any mention of the
three specific temptations that Jesus encountered as related by Matthew or
Luke. All we need to know is that Jesus
went out and was tempted. It is not
ultimately important that we know how or why.
Sometimes all we need to know is that it happened. Through the mysterious power of God, Jesus
Christ was able to overcome the temptation to sin.
Passing
through the temptation, we are then told that the time for ministry is now at
hand. As with John the Baptizer, we are
told by Jesus to repent. We are told
that the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near.
Kingdom of Heaven
At the
risk of having to shorten up the conversation about the rest of the chapter, I
want to talk specifically about this idea of the Kingdom of Heaven. What is the Kingdom of Heaven? In its simplest form, the Kingdom of Heaven
is Christ. It is living out the agenda
of God. It is declaring God’s ways as
ultimate and living so as to fulfill them.
That is what Christ did, and it drew near to us in Christ.
However,
the Kingdom of Heaven did not go away when Christ ascended. It is still here. When the Spirit moves within us and we are
obedient to God’s calling, we are living in the Kingdom of Heaven. When Christ Himself comes to us and invites
us into a spiritual relationship with the Father we are living out the Kingdom
of Heaven. When we become tools for God
and invite others into that same relationship with God we are living in the
Kingdom of Heaven. I’ve quoted it often
on my blog, but I think Galatians 2:20 is the perfect answer to the question,
“What is the Kingdom of Heaven?” Paul
says, “I have been crucified with Christ.
Therefore it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within
me. And the life I now live in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” What is it that draws near to us? It is the opportunity to be crucified with
Christ and live according to an agenda different than the agenda of this world.
Calling the Disciples
Then Jesus
begins to call disciples. Notice what
happens here. Jesus calls his disciples
away from the work they were doing. He
calls them away from their family. He
calls them away from the agenda of the world.
To be a disciple of Christ is to be open and willing to do whatever God
makes possible. It might mean leaving
your career. It might mean leaving your
family. It might mean going to different
parts of the world. After all, Peter,
Paul, and most of the disciples spent little time in Jerusalem and Galilee once
the Christian movement really got moving.
Being called into discipleship inherently means being willing to
sacrifice for the call.
Preaching to the Towns
Finally,
Jesus settles into a routine of preaching and healing. I don’t have space to go into great depth
here on this topic. But one verse stuck
out as I read the rest of Mark 1. Jesus
says, “Let’s go to the other towns to preach, because that’s what I came to
do.” I had to pause when I read that
verse. What makes Jesus so great? Jesus accomplishes what He came to do.
Then I had
to ask myself the same question. Do
I? Do I accomplish what Jesus asks me to
do? Again this goes back to the point of
being a disciple. Am I really following
God’s agenda? Am I really willing to
give up everything for His call? When I
am living out my day, can I respond that “I am doing what God has called me to
do today?”
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