A Sermon Preached at Salem United Church of Christ
Higginsville, Missouri
21 February 2021
I. Scenes from a Life
- What we have here in Mark’s Gospel are three scenes from Jesus’ life – the Evangelist tells readers these stories right after telling about the John the Baptizer – these scenes give us some insight into who Jesus is in Mark, and they establish his identity, mission, and authority as the Messiah
- The first scene takes place somewhere along the River Jordan – it is the enigmatic baptism of Jesus – leave aside the questions we moderns have about it (why did Jesus need to be baptized in the first place? Why did he go to John as he did?) – Jesus comes up from the water, sees the heavens torn open, sees the Spirit of God come down from heaven as a dove, and hears a voice – this is what we need to take from this scene –this is an announcement to the readers of Mark’s Gospel that in Jesus God is doing something new – in Jesus, a new day is dawning – and Jesus has God’s approval and support – the whole baptism scene is an affirmation of Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry
- In addition, the Holy Spirit is with him – throughout the Hebrew Bible, we read of the Spirit of God resting on or coming to people for particular tasks and particular times – there is no clear sense that the Spirit remains with any of those people for any length of time – in Jesus’ case, however, the word the Evangelist uses implies that the Spirit does not come down “onto” Jesus, but “into” him – the Holy Spirit comes to Jesus and stays with him permanently
- The second scene is in the wilderness – we usually think about this scene as the temptation of Jesus, but a better way to think of it might be as the testing of Jesus – in this case, I believe that the testing is not for God, but for Jesus’ sake – the testing comes to prepare him for the rest of his work, mission, and ministry
- One of the Evangelist’s favorite words is “immediately,” and he uses it here — immediately after the announcement, the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness – Mark does not say Jesus wants to go or that he chooses to go – the Evangelist implies that Jesus has no choice – the Spirit drives him, impels him, compels him to go – the word that Mark uses is the same word he uses to say that Jesus drives unclean spirits from people – it is a forceful word, not really a gentle word
- The wilderness a symbol of chaos – there is no rule of law there – there is no peace – the wilderness is the place where the fittest survive and the weak do not
- This wild and dangerous place is where Jesus encounters God’s adversary, the one who puts Jesus to the test, physically, personally, and spiritually – but Jesus is not alone in his test – in the wilderness, Jesus is with the wild beasts, and angels wait on him – here, then, is another symbol that something new has arrived – it is a new Vision of what the world can be, a Vision of a peaceable place – it is God’s Vision for all the world, and it begins in earnest with Jesus
- The third scene moves readers to Galilee, where Jesus begins his public ministry – it starts with a sermon – after apparently passing through the time of testing successfully, Jesus returns to Galilee and starts preaching the good news of God – it is a simple message, really, “The time is now, and the Vision of God is here; turn away from brokenness, from anger, from violence, from power, from the ways of the world; turn to God and to God’s ways of peace, grace, hope, and love; turn and trust in the good news” – in the proclamation Jesus makes, and in the proclamation we make about Jesus through our words and our actions, we signify that God’s Vision is here, now
II. The Vision of God Is Here
- We have to understand and always remember that the Vision of God is never only about individuals – God comes to us as individuals and as communities – for us as individuals, the Vision becomes the dominant reality of our lives – the Vision informs everything we think, say, and do – the Vision is the standard by which we measure our lives – the Vision is God’s dream of healing for us and for the whole world
- As far as we know from Mark, Jesus alone sees the heavens torn open and the Holy Spirit descending, and Jesus alone hears the voice of affirmation – and having heard, the Spirit drives Jesus into confrontation with the powers of this world – and the Spirit also drives us into confrontation with powers – with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, we confront the powers that divide us from one another, the powers that treat some people as commodities and as of less value than others, the powers that oppress, the powers of violence – every day for us is a test of where our hearts are – we cannot hope to avoid these tests because following Jesus means that we do not, cannot, follow the ways of the world
- To confront the powers, we have the words of Jesus’ teaching – the time is fulfilled and the Vision of God is here – while that is true, we also live between the times – the vision is here, and so are the powers of the world – and yet there will come a day, we do not know when, when the fullness and the perfection of God’s Vision will be apparent to all the powers – until then, we have the stories about Jesus to guide us
- These scenes from Jesus’ life tell us that following the Holy Spirit in the way of God and Jesus brings us into confrontation with the powers of the world – and when all is said and done, no one can serve two masters – the choice is ours to make which master we serve
III. Conclusion
- As we begin our Lenten journey, let us see the days ahead for all the opportunities they will bring to us – opportunities for service – opportunities for testing ourselves – opportunities to share with others, through our actions and through our words, what God has done and is doing in our lives through Jesus Messiah – our task is not to force anyone accept the good news of God – our task is simply to proclaim and to live the good news of the Vision of God
- The time is now, sisters, brothers, friends, the Vision of God is here, now – through Jesus, we have the power and the calling to live into the Vision with everything we are