Ezek. 2:1-7; Mark 6:1-13
In what places is the person
and the presence of Jesus recognized, received, and praised? One answer I certainly trust comes right to
mind is that this happens in church –
in particularly designated and designed public places. For example, folks have been recognizing, receiving
and praising the person and presence of Jesus in buildings around here
throughout our 265 year old congregational history.
But we should also always
be reminded that church is more than
buildings. In the Bible, the essential
meaning of “church” is that it is “the people of God, created and called by
God, to be God’s worshipers and witnesses, both in this world and in eternity.”[i] And we should always call to in mind that
the earliest Christians did not meet in special church buildings, but rather,
in homes (Acts 2:46, Colossians 4:15, Philemon 2). In homes, then, is definitely another
place I hope to hear that Jesus is recognized, confirmed and praised.
Wherever the
locations, the point is that our Lord is known. Not known based on loose familiarity with
His famous name or by correctly identifying Him as the founder of a world
religion. I mean known as in knowing
Him through the Bible and biblical community, where our hearts and minds are inspired
by the Holy Spirit to embrace His teachings, personality, priorities, and awesome
holy purpose. Where, by grace and
through faith, we come to intimately dedicate ourselves to Him as our family
member, our friend, our mentor, as well as our Lord and Savior. To be
in the same place as Jesus – from right here in this spot today on through to the
ends of the earth -- is to be in and desire to share His heart.
It sure seems very
logical to say that nobody has ever known Jesus better than those who walked
with Him while He was incarnate in one human body a couple thousand years
ago. I mean, just imagine being right by His side,
directly absorbing his abundant love as it flowed through so many pure, holy words
and actions. Imagine his actual
fingerprints leaving a healing mark on you, hearing the tenor of his voice as
it both sooths your sin-sick soul while also stirring up life as you know
it. Yes, indeed, the people that close to him in the time and places
of the first century surely must have known him best.
How terribly curious
and rather confusing it is, then, to find what we read in this morning’s
passage from Mark’s gospel account.
We read that after
exhibiting divine power all around the Sea of Galilee, Jesus had returned to
his hometown of Nazareth. He had returned to the place where family,
friends and neighbors in this nearly 2,000 member village had interacted with
him for thirty years. This estimated
population size gives me helpful perspective because it’s basically the size of
the church I served as a full-time student minister. I certainly didn’t know everyone there, but
I knew of names and heard many stories that went along with them. In
ancient Nazareth, Jesus the boy, the teenager and the young adult had at least
been generally known.
Our passage from Mark
places us in the hometown synagogue on a day of worship. We are sitting down in the pews next to the
people who knew well enough of Jesus. We
experience their immediate reaction as He began to teach. Initially, this means we encounter their
utter astonishment. It’s like strands of our hair move as the
home town crowd is blown away, completely struck with amazement at Jesus’
wisdom and witness to deeds of divine power.
We can relate to this, to His powerful person and presence.
But then we experience
the congregation move quickly and dramatically away from this
astonishment. We uncomfortably shift in our pew seats as the
locals turn against him, suddenly suspicious and actually offended by all that
wisdom and witness.
Mark was very specific
in writing down a particular Greek word to convey the drama of the scene that
day. We commonly translate this Greek word,
skandelizo, in English as “offense,”
but it means more than just feeling affronted, insulted and upset. It’s more scandalous than that. In this context, the word means that the
crowd began to distrust and desert someone they otherwise should have trusted
and obeyed. In this tension between
being blown away and wanting to cast away, we hear Jesus proclaim a proverb
that everyone there would have known, a proverb about how prophets are not
honored in their hometown, amongst their closest kin and acquaintances. This
was also, perhaps, a zinging nod for the congregation to remember God’s call of
Ezekiel, when God labeled the Israelites “impudent” and “stubborn” and overall
a “rebellious house.”
What happened? Why the grievous shift? My reading of Bible commentaries points to
the fact that in the culture of that day, it was quite offensive to become
someone other than what you were perceived and expected to be. With
regard to Jesus, the crowd clung tightly to their knowing him only as the
carpenter they had called upon to build wooden door frames and tables. Jesus’ “status as a local craftsman” had
been “considerably lower than that of a member of the educated class,” and so
the villagers perceived and resented Jesus as someone attempting to elevate
himself to a position above that which He was entitled to at birth. Plus,
it seems his first thirty years may have been surrounded by whispers around
town, whispers about his birth to a teenage mother and about uncertainty regarding
his father’s identity. In short, they
expected Jesus to maintain the status quo and keep in His place. And they expected Him to do so right then and
there, in what they provincially felt was their
church.
And so He surely did. He knew His place. And He kept to His place … His place as the
Son of God, as the Savior of the World, as the consistently counter-cultural stirrer up of
social conventions, as the One who understood completely that the church is
created and called by the providence of God alone. He had been rejected for being other than
expected, but this did not warp Jesus’ wisdom and witness, His divine ministry of
reconciliation and salvation for all.
Mark reports that it
did, however, cause some interruption of holy power flow. It happened because Jesus found Himself bewildered
by the utter lack of belief amongst those close kin and neighbors. We should not jump to the conclusion,
however, that the church crowd that day totally turned off the power within Him. This gracious flow is not at all dependent
on what we do or don’t do, and it’s clear across the Scriptures that God’s loving
desire to deliver us from sin is eternally unabated.
What Mark reports
happened seems more to be that in Jesus’ wisdom, he chose to limit His own
ability to do divine deeds. By choosing
this, the church that day and forever was taught a deeply significant lesson --
how we respond to the living person and presence of Jesus does matter. If any of His
followers and hometown churches fail in faith to recognize, confirm and praise
Him for His gracious power – especially if it’s because they are offended that He
didn’t stay in the place of their limiting, narrow perceptions, and if they
therefore act like those rebellious folks God warned Ezekiel about -- then they
will fail to realize that they have “an important role to play in the
manifestation of the kingdom. They will
not perceive and receive their role in “sensing, experiencing and making known
God’s will and work in the world.”[ii]
After leaving the
hometown worship service that day, Jesus resumed his ministry of reconciliation
and salvation. He did not go alone. He went with his disciples, freely sharing his
power with them in order to multiple the miracles. But as he sent them out, he also warned them
about the very strong possibility of power interruptions. He
counseled them to expect some people not to listen and not to welcome them. They were told to respond to such encounters
by shaking the dust of their feet as they departed. This was a common gesture indicating they’d
made the wrong choice. Understandably,
then, the disciples were to do this as part of their calls for repentance, their
calls for people to turn around and recognize, receive, and praise Jesus.
In what places today,
I wonder and I worry, is our living Lord’s gracious flow being
interrupted? In what places in the universal
Church, in the vast and diverse people of God who are called and created by God
to be worshipers and witnesses? Where are
narrow perceptions and limiting expectations of our Lord leading to distrust
and desertion?
We presently don’t have
time in this place to answer such challenging, though very necessary,
questions. Please don’t dismiss them,
though. I encourage you to depart here
today allowing the sixth chapter of Mark and the second chapter of Ezekiel to summon
you to faithful examination. Examine what you are reading in the papers and
on-line about the Church in the world today and, more provincially, about all
that is happening in the life our PC(USA) denomination. There is quite a lot to prophetically review,
especially given that our 220th General Assembly just wrapped up
yesterday – a gathering that passionately deliberated where Jesus is placed
within the critical issues that are currently causing conflict and personal
pain across our declining denomination and for a great many of God’s beloved
people.
As you examine,
though, be sure to do so prayerfully trusting in and seeking to further perceive
the amazing, unbounded grace that reveals the person and presence of Jesus. We can be faithfully, blessedly assured
that our Lord is keeping to His place as the Son of God, the Savior of the
World. Our Lord will be known. Amen.
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