Mark 1:1-8
Today is the first Sunday in the period of the church calendar that we call Lent. In the first centuries of the church, Lent developed into a period of time of preparation for baptism which was held on Easter. It was modeled after the forty days of fasting Jesus experienced in the wilderness just before he began his public ministry. So in some church traditions, for the period of Lent, you give up eating something you like. Fasting for six weeks is difficult, but you can give up eating meat or chocolate or something.
I like to preach from the Gospels during Lent. In years past I have preached from the parables of Jesus and last year we looked at questions Jesus asked in the Gospel according to Matthew. I struggled quite a bit this year trying to decide how to approach Lent and finally decided to preach from Mark because over Christmas I had a good time reading through this gospel.
I have never spent much time in Mark and I am not alone in that. Mark is the shortest of the four gospels and for much of church history has been ignored. In the middle ages it was dismissed as a shortened form of Matthew and it was not until modern critical scholarship that it was discovered that Mark was the first of the four gospels to be written.
When Matthew and Luke wrote their gospels, they had a copy of Mark in front of them, as well as some other resources.
Who was Mark who wrote this gospel? When Peter was miraculously released from Herod’s prison, he came to the home of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark. So Mark grew up in a wealthy household in Jerusalem.
Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey and then left them for some unexplained reason. This later caused an argument between Paul and Barnabas, causing them to separate. Paul taking Silas and Barnabas going off with Mark.
By the end of Paul’s life, he was reconciled with Mark and encouraged the Colossians to receive Mark with a welcome. During his imprisonment in Rome, Paul told Timothy to bring Mark with him for he is useful to me in ministry.
Peter refers to Mark in his first letter as “my son.” So Mark was privileged to work with the two great apostles, Paul and Peter.
According to church tradition, Mark was the first evangelist to go to Egypt, the founder of the churches in Alexandria and the first bishop of that city. So great were his converts, both in number and sincerity of commitment, wrote Eusebius, that the great Jewish philosopher, Philo, was amazed.
Mark created the form of gospel literature and we call his gospel the Gospel according to Mark, but it is really the apostle Peter’s gospel. This is Peter’s perspective on the life of Christ. If you read Peter’s sermons as recorded in the book of Acts and compare them to Mark’s gospel, you can see where Mark got his material and the structure of his gospel.
Mark wrote his gospel shortly after Nero arrested Peter and had him crucified. You can imagine what Mark was thinking. Peter has just died and he is determined that Peter’s story will not be lost. It is in the milieu of persecution and suffering that this gospel was written. When you read Mark’s gospel, think about this context and imagine how his readers and listeners in Rome might have reacted to what he wrote. To give just one example, when Mark records that Jesus went into the wilderness and was tempted by Satan, he says that He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
How comforting do you think that detail was to Christians in Rome who were being thrown by Nero into the arena with wild animals as entertainment for himself and the people of Rome?
Mark is a gospel that takes your breath away. Immediately, at once, without delay, are phrases you read often in Mark. This is a gospel that hurries you through until it reaches the passion of Jesus. It is as if Mark can’t wait to get to the good part of the good news.
We will focus on Mark’s gospel for the six weeks of Lent and unless inspired differently, we will continue in Mark after Easter through the spring.
I want us this morning to take three lessons from Mark’s introduction to his gospel, verses 1-8. The first lesson is that the gospel is about Jesus but it begins with us.
Look with me in your Bibles at Mark 1:1-4
The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet:
I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”
3 a voice of one calling in the desert,
“Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.”
4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
The gospel of Mark begins with the pronouncement that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God and then races through evidence for that statement until it reaches the first of the two great confessions of Mark’s gospel. In 8:29 Jesus asks his disciples:
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”
And then begins Mark’s explanation of what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah which reaches its climax in 15:39
And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
When Mark sat down to create this new form of literature, he wrote a gospel account of Jesus. There is not a single mention of Mark in this book. This account is not about Mark and although it mentions Peter and the other disciples and followers of Jesus, it is not about them either. It is about Jesus. Jesus who announced his ministry in 1:15
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
And then Jesus set out to demonstrate that the kingdom had come by healing and casting out demons.
This gospel is about Jesus who Peter proclaimed to be the Christ, the Messiah and it is about Jesus who the Roman centurion declared to be the Son of God.
The gospel of Mark is about Jesus but it begins with John.
In the most true sense, everything begins with God. The Holy Spirit is the one who opens hearts and minds to hear the gospel and enables us to respond. But from a human point of view, knowledge of God begins with us and so Mark quotes the prophecy from Isaiah that anticipated the coming of the Messiah.
It is written in Isaiah the prophet:
“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”
3 a voice of one calling in the desert,
“Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.”
John was the messenger who prepared the way for Jesus but we too are the messengers who prepare the way for Jesus in the hearts of those around us.
John made straight paths by baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. How can we make straight paths?
When you make a straight path, you have to get rid of obstacles that prevent the path from being straight. A boulder might need to be removed, a tree might have to be cut down. Brambles might have to be cleared away.
What are some of the obstacles that get in the way of people who are not followers of God?
Some people doubt that God exists. Others refuse to believe in a god that allows suffering in the world. Some people think Christianity is for people who have not yet learned to think. Others are caught up in superstition and folklore and unable to consider an alternative.
To make the path straight, you need to find ways to counter the assumptions these people make. The way you live your life, deal with the struggles of life, think about life issues helps those around you to have a straighter path to Jesus.
Some people are misinformed. Do a Google search for this phrase, More people have been killed by religion, and you will see how prevalent is this idea that more people have been killed by religion than any other cause. This idea is trumpeted as evidence for the danger of religion and for not being religious.
But this common understanding is not true. In the last century, 100,000,000 people were killed by a secular materialist philosophy. Stalin, Lenin, Hitler, Pol Pot rejected any form of religion (other than dabbling in astrology and superstition).
It is true that religion has been used to divide and attack others, but the cause of violence between people goes deeper than religion.
In the conflict between the devil and God, the devil uses any and everything he can to divide and cause people to attack each other. If all the world were the same religion, then it would be white against black against Asian. If all the world were one religion and one race, then it would be meat eaters against vegetarians. There will always be conflict until the day the devil is bound and cast into oblivion. The problem is not religion. The problem is the devil.
We need to challenge the common assumptions people make as reason for avoiding religion.
The Mel Gibson movie The Passion was released this past Ash Wednesday and has been enormously successful. This movie focuses on the last twelve hours of the life of Christ and is a graphically realistic depiction of the suffering of Christ. Critics have denounced this film because they say it reinforces the perception that the Jews are to blame for the death of Christ.
Liberal scholars join this attack on the film and say that the gospels themselves have this anti-Semitic bias. But they miss the point.
In the movie, Mel Gibson makes a cameo appearance. He directed the film but his hand can be seen in one scene of the movie and this is when his hand holds the nail that is being driven into the hand of Jesus on the cross. Rembrandt, when he painted the crucifixion, did the same thing. He painted himself into the picture as the one who pulled the cross of Christ up from the ground.
The point that Mel Gibson and Rembrandt made with their art is that it is not the Jews or the Romans who are responsible for killing Jesus. It is we, Mel Gibson, Rembrandt, Jack Wald and you listening to me this morning who are responsible for the death of Jesus. He died for our sins.
Make the paths straight for Jesus by correcting misinformation.
People are misinformed and people are ignorant. Some people simply do not know what it is Christians believe. When my daughter Elizabeth was in high school, she was sitting in the gym writing a letter to God. A classmate came up and asked her what she was doing. “I’m writing a letter.” “To who” “God.” “Really?” “Yes.” “Can I read it?” “Go ahead.” And then after reading what she was writing, he said to her, “I didn’t know Christians thought they were sinners.”
When Elizabeth shared her letter with her classmate, she made the path a bit straighter for him. There are many people who do not know what it is Christians believe. Share what it is you believe. Learn to articulate what it is you believe.
Correct misinformation, inform people about what it is we believe and be real. Let people see how you deal with anxiety, doubt and fear. You don’t make the path straight by putting on a face and pretending to the world that because you are a Christian, everything is wonderful.
When I was in business, people in the company knew I was a Christian and some watched me like a hawk to see how I reacted to difficulties. Some of the best opportunities I had to share my faith came when I was honest about doubts and fears.
If you try to be a super Christian, always happy and always walking confidently with Jesus, you will become an obstacle that needs to be removed to make the path straight for Jesus. When you are real and honest, allowing others to see you in your weakness as you follow Christ, you make the path straight.
The gospel is about Jesus but begins with us, God’s path straighteners.
The second lesson from these verses is that people will come to us but we must point them to Jesus.
The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”
When God uses you in the lives of others, they will be drawn to you. John came in a time when there was an expectation that the Messiah would come and rescue Israel from Roman occupation. John was a charismatic personality and people were attracted to his message. People traveled out from Jerusalem , a 32 kilometer journey, to hear him. There had not been a prophet for 100 years and now John was prophesying in the wilderness. People were excited. People flocked to him.
This is what happens when God uses you to accomplish his purposes. People are drawn to you and when God uses you, you have a choice. Will you accept the acclaim given to you or will you deflect that acclaim to God?
What could John have done with this adulation? What do many modern preachers do? They go on speaking tours, raise enormous amounts of money, buy fancy houses and cars, clothes and jewelry. John could have established his kingdom but that was not what he did.
And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.”
John’s choice was to deflect the praise given to him and direct it to Jesus. This is not easy to do and all you have to do to see how difficult it is to do this is watch Christian television and see how the evangelists and pastors soak up the praise that is directed to them. Dressed in white suits with a spotlight on them, delighting in the power they have over the crowds that come to see them.
There are those who deflect very well the praise that comes to them. Billy Graham, Bill Bright – who died this past year, Jack Hayford. These are men who when they speak, speak out of the humility John the Baptist modeled.
Be wary of those in ministry who draw all the attention to themselves. When a Christian leader speaks, look for his or her humility as a sign of whether or not you can trust what they say.
Christian leaders need to take John as a model of one who was willing to give up his ministry for the sake of Jesus. Jesus is always more important than your ministry.
Most of us are not in that situation. We do not have thousands of people flocking to hear us speak. But in smaller ways, we face the same temptation.
Occasionally when I preach, I am impressed with the sermon. I read it later in the week to Noreen Maxwell and there are times when I think, as I read it, “This is a really good sermon.†And from time to time, people come up to me and say that the sermon was a good one.
Now I have a choice to make here. I can say, “Boy am I a good preacher,” or I can thank God for helping me and inspiring me as I prepare the sermon. The truth is that God would not pick me to write a musical composition. Daniel would be a much better choice for that. We do have talent but God uses that talent and he is the one who gave us the talent in the first place.
When God puts you in a position of responsibility, take on that responsibility with humility.
With l’Eglise Protestant a recognized association, I am now pastor of RPF, Chairman of the Board of the Village of Hope and President of l’Eglise Protestant. The other day I was talking with someone and realized I was promoting myself, letting that person know all the responsibility I had, and later as I reflected, I was embarrassed by myself.
God is the one who leads us and puts us in positions of responsibility and when I examine my life, I am very aware of the grace of God that has led me, shaped me and allowed me to be in the position I am now. Humility does not come easily but we need to be self-reflective and work at making the choices that will deflect praise that comes to us and direct it to God.
However it is God uses you, deflect the praise you receive to God. This is why it is so important to be honest and real. When people see you in your weakness, they can more easily see the power of God at work in you. Allow others to see your weakness and that it is Christ in you that makes you strong.
The gospel is about Jesus but it begins with us. People will come to us but we must point them to Jesus. The third lesson from this passage is that we can love people and speak the truth in love but it is God who converts.
“I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
John was a talented man. He had great gifts but there was a limit to what he could do. John knew that while he could baptize people with water, helping them to express their determination to return to Israel’s wilderness faith, it would be Jesus who would send the Holy Spirit, bringing people into a living relationship with God.
We are called to love people in the name of Jesus. We care for them, share with them the good news we have discovered. But we cannot convert anyone.
If, by the force of your personality and intellect you are able to persuade someone to become a Christian, you may have added a notch on your belt but you have most likely not added a name to the book of life in heaven. We do not convert people. We love people and God uses what we do and say to accomplish a miracle only he can do.
This takes pressure off of you. Conversion is not your responsibility. How can you be held responsible for not doing something that is beyond your power to do?
Let’s say that you are part of a committee planing an outing for RPF. Someone is assigned the responsibility of getting a bus. Someone else is assigned the responsibility of providing food. Someone else arranges for games to be played. And then you are assigned to make sure it does not rain that day.
How unfair is that? How can you be responsible for the weather when you are unable in any way to control the weather?
You cannot convert anyone. So love and be pleased that God has given you the opportunity to love someone in his name. Pray for that person but do not be frustrated when nothing seems to be happening. You have done and are doing what God wants you to do. Allow God in his time and in his plan to do what he will do.
I want you this week to think of yourself as a path straightener. When you walk down the street and interact with people at the market or your workplace, remember that God wants you to make the path straight for Jesus to come in.
Make choices this week to take the path of humility. Let praise that comes to you be deflected to God and then enjoy the privilege that is yours to be a partner with Jesus in the ministry he has given you.
Be humble, make straight the path and love the people you meet in the name of Jesus. Love in the name of Jesus and then let God do the work only he can do.
