Sermon from February 11, 2001
We know the early history of Israel from the inside by the stories that have come down by generation. They are our stories too. They tell of David and Solomon and Israel's golden age. They tell of a long and terrible decline from that golden age. They tell of a day when the Babylonian armies of King Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem and destroyed it and deported the flower of Jewish citizenry into captivity. The kings were gone; the nation was gone; Jerusalem was gone. A long and sometimes tragic succession of nations began to rule Israel, even after Jews returned and rebuilt Jerusalem.

During the long and terrible decline from Israel's golden age, voices had spoken out that foretold the tragic history to which the decline would lead. But those voices had also prophesied a reversal of fortune and the return of a glorious age of Israeli ascendancy and worldwide blessing to follow. Such hopes came to be invested in a figure that did not yet exist. The Jews called him Mashiach, Messiah.

As those five centuries of occupation neared completion, Israel came to believe more strongly than ever that the words of the prophets were nearing fulfillment. God's kingdom and God's king were coming to vanquish, first the Greeks, then the Romans. Pretenders arose, who said they were Mashiach. But their failed attempts at liberation and the occasional, gruesome row of crosses that gave the lie to their pretensions only made Jewish opes of deliverance more fervent.

In this violence-tinged, revolutionary atmosphere John the Baptist's imprisonment sent a signal to Jesus that it was time for Him to go public. He went public in Galilee with this inflammatory message: "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Could the moment have come when the promise of the prophets came to pass? Could this be the Man who would bring it to pass? Only if we read the Gospels against this background of revolutionary fervor and national hope can we appreciate more fully the story of Jesus of Nazareth.

The word in Jesus' message that put the fat in the fire was the word near. If someone says that God's power to exercise authority over a nation's life is about to show itself in the public arena, the next thought in your mind should be, "Show me! Prove it!" Mark told his story of Jesus in such a way as to demonstrate the presence of God's kingdom in the daily affairs of Israel.

Jesus asked four fishermen, Andrew, Peter, James, and John, to abandon their source of livelihood and attach themselves to Him as disciples, and they did it. He persuaded and illumined the consciences of the congregation by His teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum, and they were amazed. He broke the power of irrational evil over a human personality by virtue of His command, and his reputation spread like wildfire. By a touch He dismissed fever from a woman's body and got the undivided attention of an entire fishing village. He then declared that what He had done in Capernaum must not be confined to Capernaum; that had served as a model of what He had a mission to make happen elsewhere. In a great act of love and authority He touched and healed an unclean leper, who represented the dregs of Jewish society.

Beginning with the forgiveness of the paralytic in chapter 2, Mark crafted a sequence of five events that continue to demonstrate the presence of God's love and authority in the daily affairs of Israel. They also demonstrate between Jesus and some of the religious authorities a conflict that escalated dangerously. First, He forgave a paralytic his sins, and teachers of the law accused Him of blasphemy.

Then, they took Him to task for failing to keep a kosher table. When Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, He was defying what faithful and loyal Jews saw as an indispensable badge of Israel's unique relationship with God among the Gentiles.

Fasting also was part of an observant Jew's piety. John the Baptist and his disciples had practiced fasting. Jesus and His disciples had not. Why not? Jesus responded that He had come to teach Israel a new and joyful way of being Israel.

Finally, in a world where pagan Romans constantly chipped away at the distinctiveness of Israel, a Jew could show himself loyal to Israel's unique calling by strict Sabbath observance. Along comes Jesus, and not only does He ignore the rules, He calls Himself Lord even of the Sabbath and in the Capernaum synagogue, He healed a man on the Sabbath. That pushed some of His enemies over the edge. The Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

Matters had come to a head. On one hand, even greater crowds thronged Jesus, and He appointed 12 apostles to help Him cope with new opportunities. On the other hand, antagonism toward Jesus expressed itself in His own family, who said He had lost His mind. Officials from Jerusalem said that Jesus acted by the power of the devil. Jesus warned the Jerusalem delegation that by attributing His power to the devil, they were not only not thinking straight but were also in danger of committing the unpardonable sin. Far from being Satan's servant, He was Satan's superior. He responded to His family's statement by saying that those who believe in Him do the will of God and doing the will of God forms a family of faith that can transcend the family of flesh and blood. Were the authorities right, or was Jesus right?

In this atmosphere of decision Jesus, like Jewish prophets of old, performed a symbolic act. He told the parable of the soils. Anyone hearing that parable for the first time would know every word He said and have no idea what He meant.

He explained why He did that. He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'" To reject Jesus, as some official Jewish leadership had done, would also bring judgment on the Israel of Jesus' generation that was losing the power to discern what God was doing in Israel.

If the first four chapters have to do with Jesus' authority, Mark 5-8 have to do with His identity. The disciples raised the question of Jesus' identity after He had calmed the life-threatening storm at sea. "Who is this?" Mark's story gives a first answer to that question. Jesus is a prophet, like the great prophets of Israel. He does the works of a prophet: He calms the storm, cleanses a demoniac, heals a woman by His touch, and raises a child from death. He also has the self-consciousness of a prophet. At his hometown of Nazareth He called Himself a prophet. The murder of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas reminds readers that being a prophet can be hazardous.

Chapter six records the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus' walking on the water. The miraculous feeding points to Jesus as an inexhaustible source of satisfaction for humanity's insatiable appetite for purpose and wholeness and God. Jesus may be a prophet, but He is more than any other prophet ever claimed to be. In chapter seven Jesus speaks like a prophet. In fact, He quoted the great Jewish prophet, Isaiah, a signal that He was acting in the tradition of the prophets of Israel.

Also, like the prophets of old, Jesus reached beyond the borders of Israel to minister to Gentiles. He did this when He healed the Syro-Phoenician woman's daughter and when He fed the 4,000 who had congregated in the ten-city area in Gentile country.

However, the focus of Jesus' ministry in these chapters shifts almost imperceptibly to His twelve disciples. It was their answer to the question, "Who is this?" that became important. Two miracles point to the spiritual deafness and blindness of the disciples. Both the healing of the deaf-mute and the blind man (which was not completely successful at first) serve as illustrations in the flesh of the difficult miralce needed in the human spirit in order for Jesus' disciples to hear, see and take to heart what was going on in the words and deeds of Jesus.

It had at times been a rough ride for the disciples. Now, in Mark's story we come to one of the great moments in the spiritual growth of the disciples. Verse 27 says that Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?" The theme of Jesus' identity has come to a head. What will these courageous, loyal, baffled and all-too-human men say in reply?

Verse 28 gives the first part of their answer. They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." It sounds like the results of a Galilean Gallup Poll. We have already seen in chapter six an almost identical sampling of public opinion. It was heady stuff, don't you think? Suppose that we erected a billboard out front saying, "21st century successor to Elijah here each Sunday!"

It is important to remember that high-sounding praises for someone can be one of the finest ways to misjudge what a person is all about and to avoid paying attention to what the person has to say. Remember King Herod, who liked to listen to John the Baptist and then cut off his head. Jesus seems not to have been overly impressed with his press releases. Verse 29 tells us what He really had on His mind.

"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

Peter answered, "You are the Christ." I do not suppose we will ever be able to have a widely accepted English version that will translate Peter's answer so that we can feel something of its original power. We would only have to change one word. Peter answered, "You are Mashiach. You are the Messiah." Not since chapter one, verse one has Mark used that word.

Ever since the disciples' question in the boat at the end of chapter four, Mark proceeded in a series of stories to build up in us a picture of Jesus' identity. The only label that has stuck and made sense has been to call Jesus a prophet. He surely was, but Mark also told his story in such a way that we have said more than once, "He may be a prophet, but at certain moments He does things unlike any other prophet in the history of Israel." Now, we have another label, one more dramatically charged with the revolutionary fervor and national hopes that swirled around Jesus in first century Israel. But what might Peter have meant when he said, "You are the Messiah?"

Ideas about a Jewish Messiah were not universally agreed on by Jews. Let me say two tings that I believe will help us read the Gospels with greater realism. First, "the main task of the Messiah ... is the liberation of Israel (from her oppressors, whether Greek or Roman), and her reinstatement as the true people of the creator God," (Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, 320).

Second, the liberation was usually thought of as the result of armed uprising. The Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70 took place in response to serious Jewish revolt against the Roman occupation. The fearful Roman butchery of Jews 65 years later took place in response to a Jewish revolt against the Romans under a leader called Bar-Kochba, whom many hailed as the Messiah. The great Jewish writer of the first century, Josephus, reported a number of such minor revolutions.

Did Peter and the others have these expectations in mind when they called Jesus the Messiah? All the Gospels are remarkably opaque, when it comes to saying clearly what the disciples thought at this point in their journey with Jesus. There is evidence we will look at later on that suggests they did have distinctly political ideas. But on the whole the Gospels do not say much, because, I suspect, the disciples had the idea of the Messiah all wrong. Whatever their ideas, the disciples must have been as shocked as we are with what happened next.

Verse 30 says, Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. "You have to be kidding! You are the Messiah, who is supposed to liberate and reinstate Israel as the true people of God, and no one is supposed to know? You are going to take care of the Roman problem in secret?"

A demon-possessed man called him the Holy One of God, and He told him to hush. He healed a leper and told him not to tell anyone about it just yet. Another set of demon-possessed people called Him the Son of God, and He put a stop to it. He raised a little girl from death and gave strict orders not to let anyone know about it. He made a deaf-mute hear and speak plainly and commanded people not to mention it. He restored sight to the blind man and forbade him to go to the village. And now this!

For the first time in a long time Peter and the others got something right, and He warned them not to tell anyone about him. What's the big secret? All these commands to silence leave one with a feeling that something important about Jesus has not surfaced. You know what it reminds me of? When Moses was at the burning bush, he asked God what His proper name was. The answer in Exodus 3:14 was, "I am who I am." It was as if God had said, "I am who I am, and if you want to know who I am, watch what I do." Maybe the rest of Mark's story will make a full disclosure about Jesus.

For now, let's allow Jesus to put to us the question He put to His disciples. "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" How would you answer that question? I don't want the answer you think I want to hear. What do you think? What do you believe about Jesus of Nazareth? Your very presence in this congregation today might imply anything from mild interest to lifetime devotion to Jesus Christ.

The twelve disciples serve as models for the journey to faith that a lot of people make. They just did not get it at times. They struggled mightily and not always successfully to make sense of the unmistakably dominant and winsome figure they had latched on to. But they stayed with Him. They took His stinging rebukes, watched His startling deeds and slowly, slowly began to grasp why He held them in His grip.

Except for my ignorance and frailty and tendency to wander from the God I love, I would wish that all of you could be as I am today. I believe in Jesus Christ in all His majesty, meekness and mystery. I believe that only He has the authority to rescue humanity from the downward tug that pulls us away from God and into the gluttony, lust, envy and pride that ruin human lives and even threaten human life on this planet. I also believe that the great material sign of His enduring presence in our world and of His intention to rescue us from sin and darkness is the Church. Believe in Jesus Christ. Maybe your grasp of things is partial. Hold fast to what you have. He will give you more.