Monday, March 19, 2012

Mark 10:13-16: This is no place for children...

Having just addressed God's plan for the marriage relationship, it's not surprising that Jesus then turns His attention to children.  He does so in response to His disciples’ attempts to prevent children from coming to Him.  Who knows why the disciples were trying to bar children's access to Jesus.  It may have something to do with the way in which many viewed children at the time.  Things weren't any better for children than they were for women in Jesus' day, and if you were a female child you got the worst of both worlds.  In a papyrus dated June 17, 1 BC in Alexandria, a husband writes to his expectant wife who may have had the child telling her “if it was a male child, let it live; if it was a female cast it out."  Such was the attitude toward children at the time.  That's why it's perplexing to the disciples that Jesus would say "to such belongs the Kingdom of God." Some look at this passage and think that Jesus is referring to the innocence of children.  Perhaps that is part of it, but I think the real thrust of the statement comes from fact that children enjoyed no status in the ancient world.  I'm sure that in that age, as in ours, parent loved their children a great deal.  But the law and society didn't grant special protections to children, protecting them from abuse and exploitative labor.  As is seen from the papyrus quoted earlier, fathers even possessed the power of life and death over their children at birth.  In short, children were the most vulnerable members of society.

So, why does Jesus say we must "receive" the kingdom as a child?  Christ is taking the vulnerability of children and using it as a powerful illustration of our vulnerability.  Children receive things not because they buy them, or because they are owed them, but because they are given them.  Children are entirely dependent on their parents or guardians to supply what they need for survival.  Children receive things as gracious gifts.   As we grow older, we are tempted to think that we become independent of others, and maybe even independent of God.  We live in a world that stresses individuality and making it on our own.  By placing a little child on His knee, Jesus is reminding us that no matter how big or how old we become, in some way we never move beyond our vulnerability.  When we understand how vulnerable we truly are spiritually, then we can reach out as little children and receive the kingdom of God, not because we have earned it or because it is owed to us, but because it is God's gracious gift to us. 

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Mark 10:1-12: before divorce there was marriage

In Jesus' day divorce was a hot-button issue, just as it is in ours.  It led to especially heated arguments in the religious world.  Many used it as a litmus test for religious teachers, similar to the way politicians use abortion or views on the 2nd amendment to evaluate judicial nominees.  That's why the Pharisees ask Jesus this question, that and because they want to get Him into some hot-water with the authorities.  After all, it was John the Baptist's teaching on marriage that led to his ultimate demise.

To answer their question, Jesus replies with a question.  He asks them, "what did Moses command you?"  He frames the discussion this way because he knows that Moses never commanded divorce, but simply tolerated it.  Their response that Moses "allowed" for certificates of divorce shows that the precedent in Deuteronomy is not a commandment, that in fact divorce is the prerogative of man, not God.  Divorce is not an invention of the loving God that created marriage, but rather of the hardness of heart of man.  Jesus is having to respond to the question in a society that had lost sight of what God intended in the marriage relationship.  Consider a few of the views of marriage and divorce we have recorded from around the time of Jesus:
  •  The school of Shammai adhered to a strict interpretation, with the wife’s sexual misconduct being the only grounds for divorce (notice nothing is mentioned of the husband's sexual misconduct)
  •  The school of Hillel gave a far more liberal interpretation, saying divorce was permissable “even if she spoiled a dish for him.”
  •  Rabbi Aqiba said divorce was acceptable “even if he found another more beautiful than she is”, placing no value on fidelity and commitment in the marriage relationship. 
  • Concerning divorce, in around 200 B.C. Joshua ben Sira would write, "if she go not as you would have her go, cut her off and give her a bill of divorce."
 The existence of the contingency itself does not determine whether divorce is right or wrong, it simply tries to put into place some safeguards to protect the wife who has been dismissed.  The ancient world was extremely patriarchal, as is shown by Josephus' writing that “a divorced woman may not marry again on her own initiative unless her former husband consents.”  According to the law, a man could commit adultery against another man by seducing his wife, or a woman could commit adultery against her husband, but a man wronging his wife by committing adultery is never mentioned as a possibility.  Jesus must operate in this world, and it is in this context that he must address the issue of marriage and divorce.  After asking an initial question of his own, how does Jesus respond?  In short, by going back to the beginning. 


In a way, Jesus asks the question, "what did God originally intend for the marriage relationship to look like?"  The Pharisees go back to the Mosaic law, which was written to help fallen humanity navigate life with one another.  By appealing to the creation story, Jesus is showing God’s intention for marriage, prior to fallen humanity’s corruption of the relationship.  He quotes directly from Genesis 1:27 and 2:24, and by quoting from these creation accounts, Jesus shows marriage to be a type of reunification.  He does warn that to end a marriage for any reason other than adultery, is to commit adultery oneself.  This statement has caused a lot of confusion, and even division in Christian communities.  Does that mean that if someone divorced their first spouse years ago over something petty, that they have to end the marriage with their current spouse, and remarry the first spouse?  Things get pretty sticky as we see all the implications of trying to interpret this passage through any lens but that of grace.  Personally, I don't think Jesus is instructing his followers to go and try to fix all their past mistakes on their own by ending some relationships, and rekindling others.  I think what he's saying is far simpler.  He's instructing us to see marriage as God sees it, and to enter into the covenant we make with our spouse with the same intentions that God has had for marriage from the very beginning.  Maybe our past mistakes led us to commit adultery.  As bad as that is, it doesn't lie beyond the scope of God's grace.  I think there is a connection between what Jesus says here, and what he says to the woman caught in adultery in John.  "Go and sin no more." (John 8:11)  Perhaps instead of rehashing our mistakes and trying to find ways to make things right ourselves, what we should be doing is focusing our energy on nurturing our current marriages, striving to make them what God intended for them to be all along.     

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Mark 9:42-50: What are you tripping over?

Jesus uses some pretty strong words when he describes what our reaction to sin should be.  Many people wonder, and some people argue over, whether Jesus was being literal here.  Should the church look like a collection of the walking wounded?  Should we blind and maim ourselves in order to get to heaven?

Depending on which version you read, you may see the word sin or the word stumble when Jesus says, "whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin (or stumble)..."  Whichever word you use, whether it be sin or stumble, it comes from the same Greek word that gives us our word "scandal".  Not too long ago Herman Cain was climbing the polls in the Republican Presidential Primary, only to drop like a rock when the news broke about an alleged affair.  Folks will argue over whether or not the allegations were true, but no one will argue that the scandal itself, regardless of it's veracity or lack therefore, sunk Cain's chances for the Republican nomination.  There are things in this life that will "scandalize" our attempts to follow Christ.  Jesus is using the body as a powerful illustration of what it means to be committed to following Him in the kingdom of God.  We must be willing to sacrifice parts of ourselves, not only to defend against sin, but sometimes also in active war against the enemy.  The reference to members of the body would be a way of referring to sins, so that it is the sins themselves that Jesus is speaking of casting away, not literal body parts.  All of us will be called to give up habits, dreams, status, and sometimes even relationships in order to follow Jesus faithfully.  Depending on what we are sacrificing, it may seem like we are losing an arm or a leg, like we are sacrificing part of our actual body!  It sounds radical because it is.  And yet, we do no less when trying to save our physical bodies.  Compare it to the amputation of an infected limb to save the whole person.  As painful as it is to lose a leg, foot, arm, or hand, it's even worse to die, to lose your entire body.  We will all be called to make painful choices on our spiritual journey, but in the midst of the pain Jesus calls us to remember that it beats the alternative!  Jesus alludes to the fact that the alternative, rebellion against God's reign in our lives, ends in a far worse fate.  He quotes the words of the prophet Isaiah:
 “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me.  For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
 – Isaiah 66:24
The words are the very end of the book of Isaiah, coming even after the description of the new heavens and new earth created by God.  The new heavens and new earth are for those willing to make the sacrifices necessary to participate in God's reign, with the end of those who rebel against God being far less pleasant.  


This section ends with a short, and somewhat enigmatic reference to the purifying and preserving power of salt.  Salt was used as part of the offering in the Old Testament:
“You shall season all your grain offerings with salt.  You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” – Leviticus 2:13
 “You shall present them before the Lord, and the priests shall sprinkle salt on them and offer them up as a burnt offering to the Lord.” – Ezekiel 43:24
It also has purifying properties.  I remember as an acne-riddled teenager, being amazed at the ability of the salty ocean water to cleanse my complexion.  When Jesus speaks of being salted with fire He speaks of the trials that Christians must undergo, trials that test their faith.  Peter, remembering the teaching of his master, brings those trials up in at least two places in his writings:  
“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith- more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” – I Peter 1:6-7
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” – I Peter 4:12-13
If we are made to suffer like Christ, it is because the world sees His likeness in us.  While trials are never easy, what a comforting thought to know that the world sees in us some of the traits of our Lord and Savior.  This is why elsewhere Jesus refers to His disciples as the "salt of the earth".  Because the character of Christians is part of what helps preserve our society, and the world in which we live.  Jesus is agreeing with the ancient maxim, that "the world cannot live without salt."  When reflecting on our call to be salty, a teen in the youth group I worked with once said, "you need a bunch of salt to change the taste."  Tanner's observation was as profound as it was simple.  None of us can change this world on our own, as individual grains of salt.  We need God, and we also need each other.  Coincidentally, another use of salt was for the sealing of interpersonal covenants.  Those covenants are quite the contrast with the bickering of the disciples earlier.  By instructing us to be at peace with one another, Jesus reminds us that the salt of our covenant with one another should be a testimony to others.  


Jesus does more than tell us to refrain from impeding one another, from warning us about the danger of stumbling blocks and scandal.  He encourages us to make covenants with one another, so that the the fidelity and love of those covenants may serve as a purifying force that preserves our world from the work of evil that we see all around us.  

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Mark 9:30-41: Missing the Point

Jesus isn't shy about telling us His fate in the gospel of Mark.  In a forthright way, He tells that will endure suffering, and even death as He fulfills God's plan to redeem mankind.  The tense used reflects the definite nature of God's plan.  "Delivered up" also carries the connotation that ultimately Jesus' arrest, trial, and death are the activity of God.

On the heels of this proclamation the disciples miss the point, and they miss it by a mile.  Jesus has just told them about what it is he must suffer, and the next thing we know the disciples are arguing over status and who is the greatest!  Lest we be too judgmental, it is important to remember that as disciple's of Christ, we ourselves often forget that if we truly follow Jesus suffering and sacrifice will be involved.  Jesus tells them that "if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all."  God's kingdom, the kingdom inaugurated by Christ clearly works in ways diametrically opposed to the ways of this world.  Gaining power in our world today requires the backing of the people, but that is usually gained through some of the most self-promoting, and at times dishonest ways possible.  It wasn't much different in Jesus' day, and in the next chapter of Mark Jesus will expound on what it means to become last and a servant of all:
“And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.  But it shall not be so among you.  But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” - Mark 10:42-45
Jesus statement clearly resonates down through the teaching of the church, as Polycarp, a martyr and leader of the church in Smyrna states that, "likewise must the deacons be blameless…walking according to the truth of the Lord, who was ‘the servant of all’", in his Letter to the Philippians.  Deacons, as servants of the church were to model their attitude and behavior after the Lord Himself.  To drive home His point, Jesus uses a child as an example of what He is trying to say.  In Palestinian society, a child would have represented a non-entity. They would have no status, no legal protection, and would be completely at the mercy of those around them.  In our service, Jesus is calling us to a sort of vulnerability that is uncomfortable, and yet necessary if our faith is going to flourish.  Jesus made Himself vulnerable, and so we must as well.  I like the way theologian Ernest Best sums it up:
  "What does it then mean to follow Jesus? It means to drop in behind him, to be ready to go to the cross as he did, to write oneself off in terms of any kind of importance, privilege or right, and to spend one's time only in the service of the needs of others."


While it seems impossible that the disciples could misinterpret Jesus statement about humility and serving others, it clearly didn't sink all the way in, or at least not right away.  My the end of the passage, they've gone from arguing about who is the greatest, to arguing over who is in charge, and who gets the credit.  The disciples see someone casting out demons in Jesus' name and it perturbs them, largely because "he was not following us."  Their pride is wounded, as they see someone else doing the very thing they couldn't do earlier in this chapter, cast out demons.  Their frustration reveals more than their wounded pride, it also reveals that to some extent, they were following Jesus for their own glory.  The glorification of Christ should always be our first priority.  To that extent, rather than lament that others successes are not our own, we should rejoice when Christ is being given the glory.  A similar thing happened to Moses during the Exodus:
"Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them.  They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp.  And a young man ran and told Moses, 'Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.' And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, 'My lord Moses, stop them.'  But Moses said to him, 'Are you jealous for my sake?  Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!'" – Numbers 11:26-29
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all have an attitude like Moses?  Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could put aside our self-seeking attitudes, and boldly pray that the Lord would put his Spirit on all of his people?  In order to pray that prayer and to truly mean it, I think we have to take Jesus' words to heart and become as little children.  In the words of Ernest Best we have to "be ready to go to the cross...to write oneself off in terms of any kind of importance, privilege or right, and to spend one's time only in the service of the needs of others."  Only in the process of doing so will we come to the realization that it isn't about us, but about Christ's glory.  

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Mark 9:14-29: The Co-existence of Faith and Doubt

We are often told as Christians that the war for our salvation has already been won, that on Calvary Jesus accomplished our reconciliation.  It's true that God has accomplished through Jesus Christ all that needs to be done to open for us the door to redemption, but that doesn't mean that we as His disciples are left with nothing to do.  

While                    Even though Christ won the victory over sin and death on the cross, there are still battles left to be fought by Jesus' followers.  We see this clearly reflected in this passage from the gospel of Mark.  Jesus isn’t even allowed time to savor the moment of His transfiguration before he descends from the mountain to find a demon-possessed boy and the failures of His disciples.  It's a reminder that while Jesus' glory was revealed on the mountain, that revelation was not universal.  God has twice acknowledged His son, both at His baptism and on the mount of transfiguration, but that same Son must still suffer and die so that God’s victory, our victory will be assured.  It reminds me of the Second Word War.   With the benefit of hindsight, many historians say that Germany and the Axis powers lost World War II the moment the United States entered the conflict.  The United States' industrial and economic might would eventually overwhelm Germany, Japan, and Italy, as powerful as they were.  And yet, when we declared war, those nations didn't throw up their hands and surrender.  Men, women, and children were still exposed to suffering and death as the two sides slugged it out.  I've spoken to men whose memories of horrendous experiences testify to the fact that inevitable victories still have to be won, and in the process there is suffering.  What is true of wars between nations is no less true of the spiritual war being waged between the forces of good and the forces of evil, between the forces of life and the forces of death.  Indeed, there is much work left for us to do, as disciples of Jesus Christ.   
What
What we also see born out in this passage is that our actions as Jesus’ followers reflect on Christ Himself.  This isn’t to say that our failures are Christ’s failures, but that nonetheless people are prone to see it that way.  Speaking to Jesus, the father of the demon-possessed boy asks Him to cast out the demon, “if you are able.”  The failure of the disciples has led the man to question the power of the one who commissioned them.  When they later ask what caused their failure, Jesus attributes it to a lack of prayer.  The disciples made the error of self-reliance when trying to exercise their spiritual gifts.  A few months ago I was experiencing power outages in my house.  One day I went to flip the switch on for the light, and nothing happened.  My response was to continually flip the switch on and off a few times.  You see, sometimes we forget that our flipping a switch isn’t what turns the light on, it simply opens the way for the power to make its way to the light.  The power isn’t coming from me; it’s coming from the wires connected to a source somewhere.  Similarly, the disciples make the mistake of thinking that the power to exorcise demons comes from within themselves, when in reality they are just the ones that open up the line between the afflicted person and God.  When they fail to pray, they lose their connection to the one whose power is at work in the exorcisms.  I wonder if in those times we give the wrong impression about who Christ is, if it isn’t because of a lack of prayer in our own lives.  I wonder if in failing to maintain a line of communication to God through Christ, we sometimes forget who Christ is in the first place. 

A final point related to this passage has to do with the constant struggle within each of us between faith and doubt.  The boy’s father clearly wants to believe, but he needs help.  In words that surely resonate with each one of us, he exclaims “I believe, help my unbelief!”  In an age of science and technological advancement, it is easy to misunderstand the very nature of faith.  You may here religious folk say sometimes, “I’m 100% certain that God exists!”, or “I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is real.”  At the risk of sounding blunt, that isn’t faith.  That’s knowledge.  God calls us to faith knowing full well that there will be times when it is difficult to believe.  If you think of the most iconic pictures of faith, they all contain an element of the absurd.  To walk through the Red Sea took faith, a belief that God would continue to hold back the waters.  To stand in front of Goliath with nothing but a sling was more than courageous, it was nuts.  And yet, David’s faith told him to defy reason and take the risk, trusting in God for ultimate victory.  In the end, we only know faith because of doubt.  Just as we only know and appreciate light because we know of darkness, the absence of light, we can only truly know faith in relation to doubt, or the absence of faith.  We don’t decide to follow Jesus because we are 100% certain that He exists, and is who He claims to be.  We do so because we desperately need His Spirit to grow our faith as we follow Him.  Emily Jane Bronte wrote a poem called Plead for Me, in which she expresses many of the emotions we feel as we struggle with the co-existence of faith and doubt within our spirit.  I leave you with the words from the first and last stanza:
“O thy bright eyes must answer now, when reason, with a scornful brow, is mocking at my overthrow;
O thy sweet tongue must plead for me, and tell why I have chosen thee!
And am I wrong to worship where faith cannot doubt nor hope despair, since my own soul can grant my prayer?
Speak, God of Visions, plead for me, and tell why I have chosen thee!”