Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Sometimes what Jesus knows is that maybe we don't understand yet, but all that really means is that the story isn't over yet. And so bit by bit, cloudy image by blurred vision, unsure foot by timid step, faith is about stumbling our way toward God. Today, we are continuing our series in the gospel of Mark, and this is actually a return to Mark. We worked through the first half of the gospel in the fall. We are back for Lent and we are making our way toward Easter together through the gospel of Mark.
Jeremy Duncan:Today though, we actually find ourselves at a bit of a narrative turning part in the story. First of all, a couple things here. One last reminder about our annual general meeting. It's this Thursday night, 6 PM here at the church. Dinner and child care are provided.
Jeremy Duncan:It is free. It's open to everyone. And I will say that as far as business meetings go, this one is a lot of fun. It's a chance for us to look back on the year that's been, and also to look forward to what is on the horizon for us together as a church. We'd love to have you join us.
Jeremy Duncan:The event is open to everyone at register online. Along with that, we're also on our way toward Easter, and a lot will be happening in and around the church during Holy Week. But I do want to remind you that there will be a noon service as well on Easter Sunday. You can see we're quite full today. If you could consider shifting to that service at noon just for Easter, we would really appreciate it.
Jeremy Duncan:We know there will be a lot of guests that day. And if I can ask something from you as well, could you think about someone that you might invite to church this Easter? I think it's a time of year when a lot of people are willing to try something new or maybe even to give church another shot. And maybe it's the right time for someone in your life to hear the love of Jesus one more time for the very first time, we would be honored to play even a small part in that story here at common. So think about that.
Jeremy Duncan:Alright. Last week, Bobby took us through chapter 7 in Mark, and there's a lot that happened in there. But I think for me the center of this section is really this passage where Jesus talks about what goes in and what comes out of our lives. And the context here is that he's talking to a group of religious leaders. They're called the Pharisees and they had this very strict practice of hand washing and implement cleansing before meals.
Jeremy Duncan:And to be honest, that all sounds pretty good to me. As parents of young children, we have put a lot of energy into trying to convince our kids to properly wash anything before they put it in their mouths. Between 2 kids and a golden retriever, I'm convinced that all of our worldly possessions have been in someone's mouth at some point this week. But this ritual was actually a lot more than that because it was based on commands in the Hebrew scriptures that demanded that the priests do these type of things before eating. And so, the Pharisees, as a more populist, grassroots revival movement said to themselves, well, if it's good for them, then it should be good for us too.
Jeremy Duncan:No? Remember, the Pharisees were not part of the priestly order themselves. And their thought was that maybe part of the problem is we have left our spiritual care in the hands of professionals a little too much. And maybe we would be better if we held some of that for ourselves. And, honestly, that's a perspective I can get behind.
Jeremy Duncan:So I don't think what Jesus is upset with here is the Pharisee's intent. Rituals are good for us. They ground us. They give us some stability in a world that can sometimes feel very unstable. No.
Jeremy Duncan:I think what Jesus is concerned with here is whether those rituals are working to shape us well. This is what he actually says to them. He says, nothing outside a person can defile them by going in. Rather, it is what comes out of you that matters. In other words, I think we should be careful about what we consume, and we should think about what we give our attention to and we should be thoughtful about the rituals that we participate in.
Jeremy Duncan:But at the end of the day what God cares about most is not that you follow all the rules it's who you become over time. How you learn to treat the people near you the love that flows out of you steadily always. And so Jesus says nothing that goes into you, nothing anyone does to you, nothing anyone could ever say to you, no circumstance in your life, none of this could ever diminish you in the eyes of God. But how you choose to live and how you choose to treat people, how you move through the world in the choices that you make that can, if you let it, make you very very ordinary. Because that's the thing, this word defilement that's what it means.
Jeremy Duncan:I know it sounds very big and scary and grandiose, but at the end of the day all this word koinoi meant was common. So think mundane or not special, the opposite of everything that is set apart and sacred. That's what defilement means. It doesn't mean evil. It means normal.
Jeremy Duncan:And I think it's a really interesting way to think about our lives. It's easy to be selfish. It's normal to be consumed with greed. In fact, that's the default road that all of us are discipled on every single day when we open our phones and spend our time on social media. Buy more is not an exceptional way to live.
Jeremy Duncan:But if we look for it and if we're willing to search it out, there is a path off to the side, sometimes hidden in the weeds that offers us something unique. And if ritual helps to put you on that path, then it's good. And if religion guides you in that way, then it's beneficial. If being part of a church community like this helps you become more kind, more generous, more trustworthy, more truthful then hold on to that however you can. But know that nothing outside of you will ever contribute or diminish your standing in the eyes of God.
Jeremy Duncan:That comes down to how you choose to live. Now, the good news, the gospel, if you will, is that we can always start again even today. Now, this week, we have chapter 8. And as I alluded to earlier, I think this is actually the major turning point in the gospel. But first, let's pray.
Jeremy Duncan:God of grace whose mercy is new every morning whose love falls fresh on us each day. Might we embrace the good news that there is always time to begin again, to look at our rituals and to examine our practice, to look at the ways in which we engage with and treat the people around us, to see if our path aligns with the way of grace and peace. And for where it does, we give thanks to the one who goes ahead of us leading us back to you, but for where it does not we are grateful for forgiveness and we recommit ourselves to the peaceful way of Christ. Would your Spirit be close to remind us this morning that nothing that happens to us can defile us, and that it is your very breath in and through us guiding us toward peace that makes us set apart and holy. In the strong name, of the risen Christ we pray.
Jeremy Duncan:Amen. Today it's bread again, hard hearts again, the magical papyrus of Paris. Yeah. You heard me right. And finally, the God who waits for us.
Jeremy Duncan:Today though, we find ourselves at what I would call the major turning point in the gospel of Mark, one that will push us now toward a new direction that culminates at Easter, And we're gonna have to skip forward just a little bit to get there, because at the start of chapter 8, we find the tale of the feeding of the 4,000 And that is a parallel story to the feeding of the 5,000 which we have read about earlier in Mark. And the key insight here being that the first feeding story occurs within a Jewish audience, the second with a gentile or non Jewish crowd. And if you look at the stories closely, you can see the difference in how Jesus responds to these two crowds. In the first story, we're told that Jesus had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd And the reference there is to Numbers 27 and Ezekiel 34. We talked about this, but this is about politics.
Jeremy Duncan:The Jewish people don't have their own leadership. They are subject to a violent pseudo king who owes his allegiance and any power that he wields to the Roman Empire. And, therefore, the Jewish people are like an afterthought at best, political pawns at worst. They are caught up in this predatory social economy that does not really care about their best interests. And because of that, they have forgotten how to share.
Jeremy Duncan:They've neglected their responsibility to care for each other. They are in essence this sort of crowd of individuals rather than a holy community. And Jesus' miracle is really in some sense, regardless of how you think he gets there, it's about bringing them together and shaping that new restored identity for them. Well, that story is then expanded to the Gentile, non Jewish communities here at the start of chapter 8. And as we said a couple weeks ago, divine kingdom implies community, but divine kingdom also instinctively begins to tear down our boundary marking walls.
Jeremy Duncan:And so we read that Jesus had compassion on them. Same start. But this time he had compassion because if he were to send them away hungry, they would collapse on the way home. They had traveled so far just to see him. This time the reference is to Psalm 107, this song about God's grace extending even beyond the borders of Israel.
Jeremy Duncan:Give thanks to the Lord who is good, whose love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story. Those he gathered from all the lands, from the east and the west, from the north and south, those wandering in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. Hungry and thirsty, their lives ebbed away, but they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and were delivered from their distress. This idea is central to the Hebrew imagination.
Jeremy Duncan:The God who saves us is also the God who will save them. And, trust me, that's simple, but it's really easy to lose sight of. Right? The Jewish people often did. We certainly often do.
Jeremy Duncan:Our comfortable in groups are very comfortable places to be. But this is worth returning to. If God's goodness found you when you were lost, then part of learning to trust is that God's goodness will do the same for your neighbor as well. Faith isn't just for us. It's for the world and Jesus' parallel miracles are about reminding us of that truth.
Jeremy Duncan:What's good for us is good for all. But that now leads us into this triplet of questions that Jesus asks to provoke the crisis at the end of chapter 8. And it all starts on the heels of this second feeding miracle. See, after Jesus feeds the crowd, he gets in a boat and goes to the other side of the lake, and there he is confronted by some religious leader, so he gets back in the boat and crosses the lake again. But this time, while en route, Jesus has a warning for his friends.
Jeremy Duncan:This is Mark 8 verse 15. Be careful, Jesus warned them. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. In other words, there are certain ideologies that have a way of working themselves into our imagination of the world just like yeast does into dough. The disciples though, true to form respond amongst themselves with confusion.
Jeremy Duncan:Is it because we have no bread? They ask wondering if this is still all about the lack of lunch. And Jesus, probably a little annoyed, jumps back in and asks them, why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts really that hard?
Jeremy Duncan:And if you remember, we talked about this phrase, hard hearts, how it's really about a lack of imagination in the disciples, their inability to see a new world. But he continues. He says, do you have eyes but fail to see and ears but fail to hear? Don't you remember when I broke the 5 loaves for the 5,000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? 12, they replied.
Jeremy Duncan:And when I broke the 7 loaves for the 4,000, how many basketfuls did you pick up? 7, they said, and yet you still don't understand? And for me, this is actually Jesus confirming everything we have been speculating about for the past few weeks. Jesus sees these miracles as more than just lunch. He sees them as a social reset in a sense, a new way forward.
Jeremy Duncan:The kingdom of God leads us to look after each other. The kingdom of God pushes us to look outward even as we do it. And Jesus very explicitly contrasts that generous imagination in the world against a more narrow religious, against a militaristic political ideology that surrounds him, that's the yeast he's warning about. In other words, from these 2 feeding miracles on, Jesus sees a conflict that's brewing, but the disciples, well, they don't see it yet. And And I want to point this out here, because in the NIV Jesus says, do you still not understand?
Jeremy Duncan:But a better more literal translation would be something like do you not yet understand and that's different subtly, but it's really important. The significance being I think this is less about Jesus scolding them. Although, let's be honest. There's definitely a bit of that here. But primarily, I think this is actually a forward looking question.
Jeremy Duncan:Do not yet understand. The implication is they will eventually. Right? Although, I think there's probably also maybe a little bit of self reflection layered in there. This is Jesus asking himself.
Jeremy Duncan:Okay. If they don't get it yet, well then what do I need to do to move them forward? I think sometimes our instinct, my instinct in particular here is that when someone doesn't understand what we're saying, our assumption is the solution is to, well, say it again louder. Like, I remember teaching my son to ride his bike, and it was not going well. And part of me actually started to maybe just wonder if, like, he didn't have the balance for this.
Jeremy Duncan:It wasn't in him. There was some mythical cycling gene that I had been gifted with, but maybe he just wasn't. That seemed more plausible than the idea that I wasn't good at teaching cycling, anyway. But then one summer we sent him to bike camp, and he came home from day 1 riding like a champ. Turns out me repeating just pedal was not as effective as I had hoped.
Jeremy Duncan:Now listen, you want to parent well, you want to lead a team effectively, you want to get people on board with where you're going and have them follow, A big part of that is learning to actually ask questions and then actually listen and then adjust your strategies as necessary. It turns out that just telling yourself, well, they're the problem is not an effective and actually perhaps not even a Christ like strategy. And so Jesus asks, do you not yet understand? And when they don't his response is to think to himself, well, then how am I going to get them there? And so from there, next verse we read that they came to Bethsaida and people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.
Jeremy Duncan:So he took the blind man by the hand and let him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, he asked, do you see anything? And he looked up and he said, well, I see people, but they look like trees walking around. So once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes and this time his eyes were opened. His sight was restored and he saw them clearly.
Jeremy Duncan:Jesus sent him home saying, don't even go into the village. Now, here's that messianic secret we've been talking about in the last few weeks. Right? Jesus wants to hide or at the very least delay his coronation. But there's a few things that are really important here.
Jeremy Duncan:1st, from the context of this chapter, I think it's becoming clear that Jesus is using this encounter here as a follow-up to what happened there on the boat. The disciples did not fully understand the first feeding miracle. The disciples did not fully understand the second feeding miracle. And so Jesus, frustrated perhaps, but not deterred, redoubles his efforts rather than abandoning his friends. I like that.
Jeremy Duncan:But what happens here? How does he doubt it? Well, first of all, we can admit this, right? This is a pretty weird story. Jesus takes the man away from town, spits on his eyes, heals him a little bit, and then heals him the rest of the way.
Jeremy Duncan:So let's talk about these ideas here. 1st, I think the fact that Jesus takes this man away from town, away from prying eyes, pun intended, into a space where only his disciples get to see what's happening, I think that only reinforces that this story is a continuation of the last story. All through Mark, we've seen this messianic secret. It's very common for Jesus not to want the recipients of his grace to tell his story ahead of his pace. But nowhere does he go this far to actually take the person away from town to heal them.
Jeremy Duncan:I think that's meant to be there because this moment is personal. It's personal for this man. It's personal for his closest friends who get to observe what happens. As an aside here, remember this, sometimes your best stories are just for you, or maybe just you and some of your closest friends. Perhaps everything doesn't need to be on Insta after all.
Jeremy Duncan:It's okay. Which may ironically also be our entry point into our second question about this story. Why on earth does Jesus spit on this man? Well, as strange as it sounds, this is actually a somewhat familiar ritual in the ancient world. Eye of salves containing spit were actually a pretty common story.
Jeremy Duncan:There's this really interesting mention in the book of Revelation where the Spirit writes to the church in Laodicea. Now, in the city of Laodicea, there were 3 major industries. There was a robust banking sector. There was a lucrative trade in wool that came from a particular black sheep that was cultivated in the region. And there was an ancient ophthalmology school that specialized in this particular Phrygian powder that they used to make a soothing eye salve that was put on eyes.
Jeremy Duncan:And so, in Revelation, when the spirit writes and says, I counsel you to buy gold from me refined in the fire, rather than your banks, and to wear white clothes to cover your nakedness rather than the expensive black wool that you covet, and to put my salve on your eyes so that you can see rather than trust your fancy powder. This is a uniquely Laodicean panacea. But it's also an example of this type of salvific, very much pun intended, by the way, expectation around the healing of eyes. Because you would buy this powder and you would mix it with some type of liquid or lubricant. Let's be honest here.
Jeremy Duncan:Probably water not spit, but and you'd put it on your eyes to be healed. In another example, the Roman historian Suetonius actually records a story where the emperor Vespasian heals a man's sight with a salve that is made from his spit. In fact, there's an even more ancient text. It's called The Great Magical Papyrus of Paris, which, by the way, is a wonderful name for an ancient text. I like it when historians let loose a little bit here.
Jeremy Duncan:But this text dates to potentially as early as a 100 years before Jesus, and it calls for a magical salve to be placed on the recipient's eyes, not only to heal their eyes, but to open their spiritual acuity as well. So is that what Jesus is doing? He's taking a page from the great magical papyrus of Paris? Well, maybe, but probably more likely. What he's doing is responding to what this man was expecting when he asked for healing of his eyes.
Jeremy Duncan:There's a cultural framework for this type of story, and Jesus responds by moving toward his frame of reference, what he expects. And what happens? Well, Jesus heals him a little bit. He starts to see, in part, kind of like the disciples do. But then Jesus touches him again and asks him again, and this time he sees clearly.
Jeremy Duncan:You see, this whole story is all about the long, slow process of coming to see things for what they really are. In particular, it's about coming to see Jesus for who he really is. The one who moves toward us, the one who appears within the confines of our imaginative grid, the one who condescends to what we expect from him. All precisely so that he can slowly expand the walls of what we come to believe for ourselves. That's why this excursus into eye salves is actually really important to the story because the blind man here, it's not just a prop so Jesus can make a point to His disciples.
Jeremy Duncan:This man is on very much a parallel journey to the disciples. Jesus doesn't need magical salves, and he's not trying to embarrass this man by spitting on him. He's not even trying to be enigmatic or mysterious just for the sake of it. For my money, at least, what he's doing is exactly what this man expects him to do. He meets him where he is, and he moves him along toward the health that he wants for himself.
Jeremy Duncan:That in itself is a kindness. But now, we come to the final question. Do you not yet understand? Do you see anything? Who do you say that I am?
Jeremy Duncan:This is where we left off in verse 27. It says that Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. And on the way, he asked them, well, who do people say I am? And they replied, oh, some say you're John the Baptist, others say Elijah, still others one of the prophets. But what about you?
Jeremy Duncan:He asked, who do you say I am? Peter answered, you are the Messiah. So Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about this. And one of the things you have to understand here is that this is only the second appearance of the word Messiah anywhere in the gospel of Mark. And do you remember the first?
Jeremy Duncan:It's been a while. It was all the way back in the fall, in the first week of the first part of this series when we read the first verse of this first gospel. The beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, Mark 1 verse 1. See, in all of Mark, in everything we have read, across all of the sermons and stories that took us through part 1 and now closing in on the end of part 2, Messiah has never come up since. And that is by design.
Jeremy Duncan:There's been hints of course, right? A lot of them along the way and every time Jesus has tamped them down and held them off and waited until now. But I think this is one of the most beautiful touches that Mark weaves into his telling of the Jesus story that Jesus saves space for his friends to tell their story with him because that's what this is about. Right? Of course, Jesus is the Messiah.
Jeremy Duncan:Mark told us in verse 1. For 8 chapters now, he's been walking around healing people and excising demons. Mark has hinted at references to Hebrew scriptures and divine theophanies. Both crowds and critics all know exactly where the story is going. But thus far no one has put breath behind the hope they hold.
Jeremy Duncan:And that's because Jesus has been protecting this moment for his friends because he knows it's gonna take them a while to get there. They just don't understand yet. Except, I think about Peter here, right? I mean he's been with Jesus for a while now, he's been following around, listening to him teach. He's seen things he can't explain up close.
Jeremy Duncan:He even left his home and his job, his family to follow Jesus. Whatever you imagine about Peter and all of his failings, which are many, he is a disciple in the best sense. And because of that, I'm convinced that this moment here on the road with Jesus is not even close to the first time Peter has thought this thought. Right? Like, I imagine Peter holding these words in his mouth, biting his tongue around fires and meals.
Jeremy Duncan:I bet he had these words on the tip of his tongue a 100 times before, but never found the courage to say them until now here. And why? Well, I want to suggest it's because he hasn't been asked. You see, sometimes the truth is for all of us we know the answer, right? And we know what needs to be said.
Jeremy Duncan:Sometimes we know exactly what it is that we hope for, but what we're waiting for is for someone to care about what we have to say. And I think that's what Jesus has been protecting all the way along for His friends here. He doesn't say it for Himself. He doesn't tell them. He doesn't let demons steal the moment.
Jeremy Duncan:He asks what they think, and he lets Peter name the hope that this ragtag group of outcasts and fishermen had been holding in their hearts from the first moment they saw Jesus. That's what he's been saving all this time, the difference between being told and that long slow process of coming to understand and name that story for yourself. See, here's the thing. Faith isn't just about having the right answers. It's about the process of finding our way to them.
Jeremy Duncan:And sometimes what Jesus knows is that maybe we don't understand yet. But all that really means is that the story isn't over yet And so bit by bit, cloudy image by blurred vision, unsure foot by timid step, faith is about stumbling our way toward God and trusting that when the time is right, God will want to hear your story because divine welcome goes all the way down. Please hear this. Jesus isn't in a rush to get you to the end. Jesus is interested in giving you all the space that you need so that you can slowly, steadily at your own pace come to your own realization of all the divine love that surrounds you even now.
Jeremy Duncan:Because that realization is so much more powerful than just being told. And Jesus will protect that for you as well. Let's pray. God of grace, for all of these encounters where we have not quite understood yet, but we've seen hints and glimpses, flashes of your glory, tastes of your love that draw us forward and onward step by step. We are grateful and we are thankful and we ask that you would continue to show us yourself in new ways.
Jeremy Duncan:But God, we are most grateful not just for the end but for this long slow process we have been invited into. That every step is a gift. And every space that you give us is a gift. Every time you gently walk beside us, letting us set the pace, all of this is gift because all of this is divine love. And so wherever we find ourselves on that journey, near or far, but hopefully pointed in the direction of love, we trust that you are with us, You are guiding us.
Jeremy Duncan:You will lead us home to your arms. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen. Hey. Jeremy here, and thanks for listening to our podcast.
Jeremy Duncan:If If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at commons, you can head to our website commons.church for more information. You can find us on all of the socials at commonschurch. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community. You can also join our discord server. Head to commons.church/discord for the invite and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus, we would love to hear from you.
Jeremy Duncan:Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.