31.01.21 Sermon Precis and Bible Reading
Jesus, Braveheart
Mark 1:21-28
There is a scene in Mel Gibson’s, Braveheart, where William Wallace is gathered with a ragtag Scottish army and the Scottish lords to face off against the well trained and well-equipped army of King Edward the First of England. England’s herald rides out to negotiate Scotland’s surrender. The Scottish nobles ride out to join the negotiation. England offers lands and titles to the Sottish nobles. As Wallace decides to join them his friends ask him, ‘where are you going?’. Wallace replies, ‘to pick a fight’.
Mark’s Jesus likes to pick fights.
Fight #1: In the Wilderness
I really dislike that children’s evening prayer that entirely misrepresents Jesus. It begins, ‘Gentle Jesus meek and mild.’ Jesus is gentle! Jesus is meek – ‘meek’ is an old word for humble and Jesus is humble! But mild, really! Jesus is a warrior he fights for us and he fights for our children. He is not some bland and innocuous do-gooder who can achieve little of nothing for us. He is a warrior who has conquered sin, death and the power of the devil – for us. He is a warrior and there is nothing mild about him!
Jesus has come from the wilderness and a fight with Satan – the accuser. Full of the Holy Spirit he has been tested, and he has conquered. Now he is ready for a couple more fights.
21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.
Fight #2: In Church
Unlike the Rabbis who taught on the basis of arguments from the Jewish Bible commentary – the Talmud, Jesus taught directly from scripture. He was a teacher of Torah, unlike the religious teachers of his day. Rabbis teach from the Talmud which is a commentary on the scriptures from Rabbis of the past. When a majority of rabbis agree on a particular interpretation of scripture, the majority decision becomes the official teaching.
There is another branch of Judaism that teaches directly from the scriptures and is open to an understanding based entirely on the God breathed Word and not on someone else’s interpretation alone. Karaite Jews follow this method. It’s much the same as the most rigorous Christian approach. Scripture first, the commentary of others second. In the Lutheran Church the processes and boundaries for exegesis (allowing the scriptures to speak for themselves), is well established.
So, Jesus ‘authority’ comes directly from God’s Word, directly from Torah not through the human filter of Talmud. Mark wants us to know that Jesus authority is directly from the Father and not via intermediaries.
Christian pastors must be aware of this every time they preach and, in-the-end, the listener is responsible, with the pastor, for the message they take away. Pastors must preach the Good News of Jesus our King, with all the joy and hope and faith that it evokes as well as all the challenges and offence that it provokes. The Good News of Jesus isn’t to make us comfortable as we are, but to make us fit-for-purpose. That’s what ‘sanctified’ and ‘holy’ mean. To be a saved by grace is to be a saint beyond being just a sinner. To be the saint Jesus has made us to be, is to be engaged with God as he speaks ‘fitness for purpose’ into us. That’s almost always hard to bear at first but the result, if the preacher and the listener are fully engaged in the task together, is wonder and amazement at what God is doing in and around us.
23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
Fight #3: In the Spirit
Having taught so well it amazed his audience and conquered the inane and damaging teachings of the Talmud teachers of his time, Jesus now enters into a battle with an impure spirit. He confronts a man, possessed by impurity. A man who came to worship in the synagogue.
Mark calls the spirit, ‘impure’. Not evil, although that is what it is. Evil is that which keeps us from living full and fulfilled lives. Jesus wants more for this man. So, he kicked the impure spirit out.
Purity is the first and most necessary quality required in us for the full bodied, wholehearted worship of God. Purity. We can assume that this man’s desires had led to actions and behaviours that had taken over his life and left room for an impure spirit to dominate him.
By releasing this man, Jesus freed the him to worship God with his all and receive everything God has to teach him and the capacity to follow wherever God would lead him, especially on holy paths away from impure habits.
27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
Of course, Mark’s Gospel doesn’t end here. Mark has him fighting other battles for us before he makes his way to the final battle ground where he goes to pick a fight once more. The greatest battle of all time in fact. It was at the cross where Jesus finally conquered the sin we each carry, and the disease of sin itself that permeates all of life on earth. It was the battle ground of the cross where he dethroned the devil and all evil from the lives of those who believe in him and where he gave us the right to called children of God. It was through the cross where Jesus conquered death itself when he rose to life three days later.
His purity is now our purity. He has made us fit for purpose. All he wants from us is our trust. Believe!
For Monday
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How well do you engage with God’s Word and with sermons?
- Do you come to it with an eagerness to find something for yourself and for others?
- Do you come with a heart ready to receive, a quiet mind and ears ready to listen?