Mark 3:7-19 Called, Responded, to be with, sent... the twelve and ... us!

 

read Mark 3;7-19 

What jumped off the page for you? What word or phrase or idea caught your attention as you listened to the reading from Mark this morning? You know when you hear scripture read or read it often one thing will leap out at you. It may resonate with you, it may raise a question, it just may seem new like you’ve never noticed it before, or it just makes a connection with something else for you. I’ve found that is a way that the Holy Spirit will catch my attention as I read scripture prayerfully.   I want to give you a moment just to share what stuck out to you from the reading this morning with a person next to you… whatever it is however trivial or profound although remember I’m preaching the sermon today.

 I’ve been focusing on this passage for a while and there are three things that really stuck out for me.

The first was the crowd pushing in on Jesus. In fact the Greek word here gives the idea that they were falling over each other to get to Jesus. Demanding his attention, it was no longer Jesus reaching out to touch others it them reaching out to touch and grab him. To get what they want.  I couldn’t help but think so many demands. So many expectations. So much need… What do you do when your to do list, is to long to do… and you see these things tripping over each other vying for your attention and time.. and your back is against the wall… well in Jesus case the lake. What happens to your priorities and purpose? I know that doesn’t even stop when youré retired… I was in the supermarket one evening and this elderly man came up to me and asked if I liked shopping. He had been dutifully following his wife and a shopping trolley round the store. He then told me he was exhausted and tired, he was 84 and he’d been working all day helping renovate his son in laws house, now he was out doing the weekly shop. At that stage the man’s wife looked round for him, and I said “I’m just here for a bottle of milk and you’d better catch-up mate.”

The second is that list of names… The twelve disciples that Jesus called to himself. What struck me was some of them are familiar, they appear though out the gospel… mainly Jesus inner circle… Simon peter, John, James and  Andrew, Thomas we know from John’s gospel and for another reason, we know Judas Iscariot, but some of them are unfamiliar, they are only recorded here, they even have different names in the other gospels… they are part of the twelve but they seem to just disappear into obscurity.  We don’t know their stories but here they are called to be disciples of Jesus to be with him and later sent out by him.

The third thing that stuck out to me, and this was more as I have focused on the passage is how it clearly articulates what it means to be a disciple. He appointed or chose them, called them to himself, first and foremost to be with him, then he sent them out to preach and have authority over unclean spirits. That last part bit got me thinking … and

Well I want to work through the passage and then come back and reflect on these three things.

We are on a yearlong journey through the gospel according to Mark… what Mark calls ‘the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ’. The series is called The Way of the cross… as in Mark’s fast paced narrative, the focus is on Jesus as the suffering servant, who will give up his life for many. It invites us to strip away many of the cultural expectations we have of Jesus and what it means to follow him and again realize as one commentator puts it we are an army whose only weapons are service and self-sacrificial love. That to be a flourishing Christian community is ironically to follow Jesus on the way of the cross.

The passage we read from Mark this morning, marks a transition in the narrative… up till now we’ve been introduced to Jesus as his baptism and have been looking at his early ministry in Galilee. His preaching in the villages and towns calling people to repent and believe because the kingdom of God was at hand. Developing a group of followers. Healing the sick and showing that he had authority over unclean spirits. All this leading to conflict with the religious authorities of the day, which culminates in Mark 3:6 with the Pharisees and members of Herod’s party meeting on the sabbath to make plans to kill Jesus, ironically just as they had criticized Jesus for healing the man with the withered hand on the sabbath.

In response Jesus now moves the focus of ministry to the lake shore, and in the next section of the gospel we have Jesus crisscrossing the lake. But also, as Jesus selects a group of twelve disciples there is a focus on his teaching and preparing them for ministry. We also see that despite growing opposition to Jesus from the religious authorities that his fame is growing. We are told that a great crowd follows him: many from galilee, more than that we see that there are people coming from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, from across the Jordon and from the region around Tyre and Sidon, the whole of Israel, both Jewish are also more gentile ones. In the rest of the gospel Jesus goes and ministers in these different regions.

 As I said before this great crowd are falling over each other to touch Jesus and  be healed. There is a great need… I wonder if it was a little bit like the hysteria round modern day pop stars or celebrities. I remember starting work at the bank in queen street the week Charles and Di came to visit. The street was packed with people jostling to get close, straining against the hastily erected ropes. Hoping to say Hi and shake hands. As well as them falling over each other we have people with unclean spirts falling down. The unclean spirits know who Jesus is, they call him the Son of God… but it is not out of reverence, William Lane in his commentary says in the ancient world, if you knew who someone status and true identity was it gave you some semblance of power over them. Kind of like in a movie or a book where you have a character say ‘you’re not fooling me I know who you are and what you are really like”. But here, Jesus shows his authority by commanding them to be silent and leave. These shrill unhuman voices are not the ones that are needed to proclaim Jesus identity and nature. We see in response to the push of the crowd and demands that Jesus asks the disciples, who were fishermen to have a boat ready for him. That fits with the later journeys across the lake but as Luke tells us in Luke 5:1-11 Peter suggested Jesus got in the boat pushed off from shore so he could focus on teaching the crowd. There is a place on the lake now called the bay of parables which is amphitheatre shaped, and tourists are amazed at the clarity of sound as they are on the shore and some one speaks from out in the bay.

But again the crowd is ambiguous in Mark. They come to Jesus many for what Jesus can give them, looking for healing not because they are longing for the kingdom of God… and Jesus goes out onto the mountain by himself, away from the push and calmer, just like after the crowd had come to Simon’s house when he had healed Simon’s mother-in-law. Now he can refocus on what his mission is about and he build on his plan of calling people to come and follow him by selecting and calling twelve to be with him and to be sent out to preach and given his authority to drive out demons.

We have the list of the twelve from amidst a greater number of disciples. Simon whom he calls Peter. Peter which we are not told means Rock, Not the pro wrestler actor. I love Timothy Gombis’ take on this. Righty he talks of Jesus hopes for Simon to be steadfast and faithful and dependable as he will assume a key role in the spread of the gospel and the early church. But Gombis suggests that it may also have been a friendly jib at Simon being slow to learn, it was hard to get through to him. Like with James and John whom he gave the name ‘the sons of thunder’ it has the feel of close camaraderie, even a slight sense of humor. James and john could have been fiery preachers or just loud over the top personalities, with hair triggers. But it is a show of genuine friendship.  Andrew is Simon’s brother. Bartholomew, while being adopted these days as a first name is actually just a last name… it simply means son of tholomew. Matthew is traditionally equated with Levi, we don’t know why the change of name, maybe it was because of the stigma of having been a tax collector, early on Christians would choose a new name when they came to faith, Thomas which means twin, James son of Alphaeus, this could be Levi’s brother as Levi is also called the son of Alphaeus in Mark 3:14, which mean there could have been three sets of brothers in the twelve.  Thaddeus is not mentioned in the other gospels, but in them there is a second person called Judas and you could imagine the other judas being tired of saying…’ no not that one not Iscariot the other one’ and finding it easier to adopt a different name. Simon the zealot, the zealots were a political party inside Judaism alongside the pharisees and Sadducees who were willing to advocate violence to over threw Roman rule. It maybe that Simon was a prior member of that group. Finally, Judas Iscariot, Iscariot most probably meaning a man from Kerioth, a village in Judah and Moab. Then we have the spoiler alert this is the one who betrayed Jesus. 

There is of course significance in twelve as here we see Jesus establishing the roots of a new people and a new family of God, reflecting the twelve tribes of Israel.  People that will be with Jesus and will proclaim the Kingdom of God and show its authority and authenticity. Later in this chapter, without spoiling Pauline’s thunder, when Jesus is confronted by his family to come home with them he says that his family are those who do his will. In selecting the twelve he has started that family… A family who by grace you and I are part of as we come to faith in Jesus Christ.

We’ve unpacked the passage a bit, and now I want to go and reflect on what stuck out to me.

The first is how Jesus dealt with the demands needs and pressure of the crowd. This is helpful for us in all areas of life, as we face expectations, workloads, pressures, dealing with others needs and that most pervasive characteristic of twenty first century life… Busyness. Jesus takes time out to be by himself. We see this was a discipline in his life. To take time to be alone. Over the last three-week period in preaching there has been an emphasis on sabbath rest. Both Pauline and Lorne spoke on it. Jesus makes time for refreshment and recharge; he makes time to look at his mission and purpose and priorities and refocus on what is important. We are not told in Mark, but in Luke we are told Jesus spent the night in Prayer before he called them to him. It wasn’t simply alone time it was focusing on that key central relationship with God his Father. Being on a mountain here picks up that idea of encounter with God as well. Then we see that he has an answer to how he is going to advance his mission and call, he  calls people to come and to work alongside him. He goes and finds a team to be with him in dealing with the push and in being able to minister to others. When we face stress and demands and peoples expectations there is need for us to find time alone, time alone with God, for sabbath rest  and also to look at sharing the load with others and focusing again on what is essential and important. As I was preparing this sermon that spoke to me and I took day out to go and pray and read scripture and find clarity for myself and my sense of call.

That leads on to look at what this passage tells us about being disciples. Followers of Jesus. The twelve are like a template for us. The first thing is they are called to be with Jesus and they respond.  There is a need to respond to Jesus call, to come into relationship with him, through his death and resurrection. We can be like the crowd and simply have Jesus there to meet our needs. Health and prosperity are two of the idols of our western world, and it is easy for us to simply see Jesus as a means for us to have that cultural image of a good life. But the call of Jesus is to repent from going our own way and go his. To be a disciple is to spend time with Jesus, to learn from him, to become more attune in our character and nature to Jesus, to be Christian means to be Christ like, and that comes as we spend time with Jesus, often in a group context as well, as we learn to relate to one another as Christ loves us. Then we too will be sent out to witness and proclaim and tell about Jesus. The more we spend time with Jesus that it wells up within us, as we see what Jesus does, as we hear what Jesus says. As the Holy Spirit bring Jesus words to mind.  Yes that will bring us into direct conflict with the powers of this world, but we have Jesus authority over them. I’ve had some encounters with the demonic in my lifetime and ministry and as I said that last part made we wonder a bit what it means. Is it talking about deliverance ministry? Again I think Timothy Gombis is helpful.

 "The primary way down through history that Christians push back the darkness and unclean spirits is when they live authentic, Christ orientated, lives. When we reflect more closely the Kingdom of God."

Now you may have noticed that I skipped the second thing that stood out to me the names, well I did that deliberately because I want to finish with that point. Those names some well know and that appear again and again in the gospel and the story of the early church, others who simply are obscure and we don’t know their stories, but we do know they were called to be with Jesus and they went out and proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ, and drove out the darkness in Jesus name. Mark titled his writing the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, son of God… that story continues, that good news is for us as well… we are at this end of the unbroken chain of people who Jesus called to be with him and sent out and Our names, your name, my name are amongst those who are that new people of God in Christ…be it playing an upfront loud role, or simply being one who spends time with Jesus and is sent amidst the business of life, the demands and expectations with Christ to witness to him in our time and culture, our crowd, put simply at the supermarket, the retirement village, the street, the work place, the family, school, friendship cluster, he has called us to be with him and sent us out to. Your name… you…me… we together. Will you hear that call?