NOW - we face rejection
Mark 6:1-29
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As we’ve said, Mark’s telling of the story of Jesus of Nazareth
is fast-paced and urgent.
And as we move through it, the pace quickens,
and the conflict and tension build.
In the 5 chapters we’ve already breezed through,
Jesus ran into resistance everywhere.
Read it again and take note where he was resisted,
in chapter 1,
by ordinary people who didn’t understand him,
by an unclean spirit embodied in a man he encountered,
in chapter 2,
by scribes who thought Jesus was blaspheming God,
by Pharisees offended that he ate with tax collectors and sinners,
and offended that he broke Sabbath law,
in chapter 3, he was resisted
by Herodians in cahoots with the Pharisees to destroy him,
by scribes who said Jesus was full of the devil,
by members of his own biological family,
who thought he might be losing his mind,
in chapter 4,
by his own disciples confused by his parables,
and frightened by his power.
and in chapter 5,
by the Roman residents of the Decapolis,
who urged him to leave their region
after he freed a demoniac,
and upset the social, spiritual, and economic equilibrium.
So take note, and then . . . scan those 5 chapters again,
and notice, throughout, how overwhelmingly popular he was,
at the same time!
See how his followers, in their enthusiasm, clamored after him,
crowding him, touching him, praising him.
He could scarcely escape their adoration, their crying out for help.
No matter how hard he tried to get away, they would catch up.
Not even a third of the way through the book,
and the pattern is crystal clear—
the adoration, and the resistance, are both intense.
It will continue like this until it all comes to a head in Jerusalem,
and a life-and-death struggle plays out in both palace and temple,
where the authority figures of both the Roman Empire,
and the religious hierachy,
try to solve the Jesus problem with violence, by killing it off.
So what happens in Mark, and especially in today’s text,
is that we get a glimpse into the nature
of the kingdom of God.
Remember, that’s how Mark (as well as Matthew and Luke)
summarize the essence of Jesus’ message.
Jesus’ opening words in the Gospels are,
“Here is the kingdom of God.
It is near you.
It is at hand.
See it.
Hear it.
Taste it . . .
Enter it.”
In fact, the kingdom Jesus proclaimed, and lived, and demonstrated,
was compelling.
It attracted people like a magnet,
especially people who were being left behind
by the powers of the earth-bound kingdoms and empires.
_____________________
Let’s do a quick review of today’s Gospel story—
actually three stories.
Story 1.
Jesus the prophet is not accepted in his own hometown.
All the adults in Nazareth knew Jesus from boyhood,
knew his working class family,
knew his siblings,
and just didn’t know how to reconcile his ordinariness,
with these reports of miraculous power.
Mark says, they took offense at him.
And because of that lack of trust, lack of faith,
Jesus was hindered in what he could accomplish there.
Mark says he did nothing much,
“except he laid his hands on a few people and cured them.”
Sounds like, “Whoop-die-doo! Nothing to see here.”
Story 2.
Since Jesus could do so little himself in that community,
he sent his disciples out into the countryside,
two by two, and delegated his own authority to them.
He gave them no provisions—only authority, and instructions.
Teach and heal and cast out demons.
Perhaps Jesus’ thought process was,
I have too much baggage here in this community.
Let them go out with no baggage,
and see what power
the Spirit might unleash through them.
As it turned out,
they had a much greater impact than Jesus had.
Mark says,
“They cast out many demons
and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.”
That’s a “whoop-die-doo” for real.
Story 3.
This is about King Herod,
who got word of Jesus’ growing popularity and power,
and then got paranoid.
Sounds like a lot of people were getting a bit tense over Jesus,
and couldn’t agree on what was really happening.
Some said, “It’s John the Baptist raised from the dead.”
Others said, “It’s the prophet Elijah.”
Or some other prophet of old, returned to the present,
to set things straight.
But Herod seemed to latch on to the theory
that it was John the Baptist come back to life,
which freaked him out, understandably,
because he was the one who recently had John beheaded.
Then Mark goes back in time to tell the story of John’s beheading.
How far back? Days? Weeks? It doesn’t really say.
But it’s certainly fresh in the memory of many people,
because the first thing that came to their mind,
to explain Jesus’ amazing power,
was that he was a resurrected John the Baptist.
It’s a strange and colorful story describing John’s beheading.
It happened at the culmination of Herod’s big birthday bash,
when they were probably all pretty well soused.
The details of the story are actually not that significant.
What’s important here is the pattern
being repeated over and over in Mark.
This is yet another example of how power from below,
disturbs and distresses power being exercised from above.
The powerful deeds of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth,
stand in stark contrast to the power being exerted by,
and anxiously grasped by the likes of Herod, and Caesar,
and the scribes and Pharisees, and such.
It seems that Empire and hierarchy of all kinds
exercise power over, bending underlings to their will,
by whatever means necessary.
Whereas the power of Jesus and John and the prophets of old,
challenge the power structures over them,
and are seen as a mortal threat.
So much of a threat,
that executing the offender seems like the most viable solution.
_____________________
Those calculations are still being made in our world today.
We know that, of course,
simply by following the news coming out of Ukraine and Gaza
and too many other places to name.
The powers exert their influence on others by force or violence,
and keep doing it that way, until they can’t.
Until a greater power overtakes them, and does it back to them.
That is the character of the kingdoms of this world,
of empires, of monarchies, of dictatorships . . .
of democracies, republics, and socialist states.
Sadly, this reality is not limited to the powers of the State or Nation.
It is also the character of many of our own
public and private institutions,
and political parties,
and other organized social entities.
It even finds its way into the church and religious bodies.
It has become an accepted way of being in this world.
Our culture has an obsession with popularity, with celebrity.
People who are able to attract attention,
generally are also able to gather power around themselves.
They are influencers.
And once they leverage their popularity into power,
and institutionalize that power,
and establish a position from which they wield that power,
then the paranoia sets in.
They start feeling threatened when others get some of the limelight,
because . . . limelight leads to power,
and their hold on power might start to loosen.
So they lash out, try to damage their rivals.
I’m only describing what we all see right in front of our eyes,
as we watch what’s happening
in our political system,
in our culture,
on public school boards,
and every other place power is being wielded
from a position of superiority.
Jesus points us in a different direction.
There are other ways to look at power.
The reign of God operates with a whole different set of assumptions.
It’s clear in scripture,
God shows preferential care for the poor,
for those who are being told they are of little worth.
That’s why Jesus, in Mark, and in every other Gospel,
moves toward the margins,
socializes with thieving tax collectors and scandalous women,
touches lepers,
and challenges both religious and imperial powers.
Jesus is exercising another kind of power.
Dr. Amanda Brobst-Renaud,
a Lutheran pastor and theology professor at Valparaiso,
drawing on the work of other Mark scholars,
wrote a brief commentary on this text,
and contrasted the reign of God and the reign of Rome.
Rome works from the center out;
God’s reign begins at the margins,
in the wilderness, initiating a new sociopolitical order.
Rome works from the top down;
God’s reign starts from the bottom up,
a peasant movement spreading like invasive mustard plants.
Rome secures the strongest of its people and exploits the weak;
God’s reign restores the weakest and the most vulnerable.
Rather than power demonstrated by all that one HAS,
power in God’s reign is demonstrated by all that one GIVES.
Maybe it’s too much to ask,
but wouldn’t it be an amazing turn-around of our polarized culture,
if we could redefine power in terms of what we give away,
instead of what we accumulate?
It might be a lot to ask of our whole society and political system.
But maybe, it’s a fair question to ask ourselves.
Do we measure our own life and contributions
and yes, personal power,
by what we have, or by what we give?
And what difference might it make,
if we started measuring our own self-worth
by what we contributed to the well-being of others,
particularly those on the margins?
We have an example in Jesus.
We have a saving redeemer in Jesus,
who by the power of Spirit is able to transform us
into his likeness.
—Phil Kniss, February 4, 2024
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