The Challenge of Christ

Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath.

Mark 3:2

I used to work as a manager in one of the UK’s most prestigious retailers.  Some days I really enjoyed working there – I liked meeting the public, and my staff were a great bunch.  I often felt, however, that the senior management in my store had it in for me.  My boss made it absolutely clear to me that she didn’t like me when I first met her – an opinion formed solely on the basis of my CV and the paper work from my interview and assessment centre.  Consequently, I felt that she and a couple of her friends in senior management were constantly watching me, desperate for me to make a mistake so that they make life difficult for me.  It wasn’t a happy environment to work in, and I was relieved when we finally parted company.

By the time we get to chapter three in Mark’s gospel, Jesus is quite well known to the Pharisees.  They have taken an instant dislike to him, since he challenges their perceptions of the world, their faith, and their God.  They have built up a picture of God that they are happy with, and Jesus, with his tendency to heal people, expel demons, preach and allow his disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath, is not what they expect of their Messiah.  Consequently, they are watching him even closer than ever.  They are waiting for him to flout Jewish law so that they can come down on him hard, and get rid of this uncomfortable figure.

Jesus continues to challenge us today with the demands that he makes on our lives.  Will you listen carefully to Jesus, study his words, observe his reactions, and accept the challenge he gives you?  Or will you, like the Pharisees, look for any possible reason to reject him, and keep him out of your life?

“And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.”

Mark 2:22

Sometimes I think that people are fundamentally conservative creatures; we don’t like change, and are keen to avoid it.  At work recently, an experienced and well-respected Head of Year retired, having been in the position for many years.  His replacement, a good friend of mine, was considerably younger.  She had lots of new ideas, and was keen to start making changes as soon as she started in her new role.  I was a member of the Year Team, and it was really exciting to have someone so vibrant and energetic leading our group of tutors.

There were many in the school, however, who were wary of this new person.  Things had always been done in a certain way, and they were happy with that.  Life had continued smoothly for twenty or more years, and there was no need for change.

When Jesus appeared on the scene, there were plenty who were wary of him.  The Jewish traditions had continued unchallenged for centuries, and now, here was someone who was telling them that things had to change – there was a new order.  Whilst this was exciting for many, and attracted plenty of new people, the traditionalists felt that it was not right to change things.

Jesus, in today’s verse, makes it clear that things are going to have to change.  He is like a new wine, he says.  You can’t put new wine into old skins, because they’ll simply burst.  In the same way, you can’t simply put Jesus’ teachings into the same old pigeon holes, because they are radical, exciting and new.  Those conservatives have to recognize that things are going to have to change, whether they like it or not.

Be excited by what you read in your Bible, especially as we continue to study Mark together.  Be prepared to be challenged, however.  Don’t try to fit Jesus’ message into your view of the world – it won’t fit.  Instead, you will need to build a new view of the world, based around Jesus’ words.

The Crowds Continue to Gather

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.

Mark 2:13

I love Coldplay.  I think their X&Y album is a masterpiece.  As I’m always saying to my friends, I think that this album works together as a coherent work of art, in a way that very few albums do these days.  My housemate and a few of my friends are off to Wembley this weekend to see Coldplay perform live, and I’m very jealous, because I’m not going.

Coldplay is one of those bands that continues to draw huge numbers of people to their gigs.  The capacity of Wembley stadium is 90,000, and I suspect that the crowd on Saturday will be close to that.  That’s just one evening!  Many of the people who go will no doubt be the die hard fans who go to see Coldplay whenever they can; they never tire of seeing their idols perform live.

In our verse today, Jesus has once again drawn a large crowd to him.  This seems to be becoming a bit of a theme; everywhere that Jesus goes, the crowds follow.  It doesn’t matter if these people have heard Jesus before, they continue to go and listen to him.

What does Jesus do when he gets this captive audience?  Once again, he teaches them.  Mark keeps stressing that Jesus teaches the crowd, and so I feel no shame in repeating this theme in our Daily Readings.  At every opportunity Jesus wants to share the gospel with those around him.

There are two ways of learning from this passage.  First of all, if we imagine ourselves in the crowd, are we going to listen carefully to all that Jesus says?  What are we going to do with these teachings?  And secondly, we can put ourselves in Christ’s shoes – are we taking every opportunity available to us to preach the gospel?

So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.

Mark 2:2

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Michael Jackson died recently.  He had been a pop icon for many years, and was renowned around the world for his skill as a songwriter and singer, not to mention his dancing.  I remember one of my friends at school, Howard, used to be a massive fan of Michael Jackson, and would moonwalk from one lesson to the next.  Howard is now something of a celebrity himself, having appeared on both the big and the small screen on many occasions.  I’m sure he won’t mind me saying that he has yet to reach the fame of Michael Jackson, however!

Everywhere Michael Jackson went, he was followed by crowds.  On one memorable occasion, huge crowds had appeared outside the hotel where he was staying, and he dangled his baby out of the window to show his fans.  Even in death, Jackson is massively famous; not a week seems to pass when he isn’t in the papers and on the news.  Everyone is desperate to hear the latest about this iconic man.

First century Palestine had a somewhat different outlook on fame; they didn’t have the same kind of celebrities that we have in the twenty-first century.  One man who very quickly became very famous, however, was the Nazerene Jesus.  This carpenter had somehow developed a massive following, no doubt as a consequence of his miracles, but also as a result of his preaching.  Mark has already told us that people were astonished by Jesus’ teaching.  Now, a short time later, huge crowds have appeared to see him.  And what does he do?  He preaches the word to them.  He recognizes that he has an amazing opportunity, with so many people gathered around, and takes full use of it to tell people of God’s love for them, and how they should respond.

Clearly this Jesus character is something rather special.  There are two important messages for us here, I think.  First of all, imagine that you are in the crowd.  Will you listen carefully to what Jesus has to say?  Will you study his words carefully, as recorded for us in the Bible?  How will you respond to what Jesus has to say?  Now imagine that you are Jesus in these verses.  Will you take advantage of every opportunity to preach God’s word?  Will you tell all those you encounter about God’s love for them?

Loving the Unloved

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”

Mark 1:40-41

I saw District 9 at the cinema earlier this week.  It’s a film set in an alien colony in South Africa, which starts out as a humanitarian camp, set up to provide for aliens who had become trapped on earth.  Over the ten years of the camp’s existence, it gradually evolved from something that was meant to benefit the aliens into a slum, a shanty town, in which the aliens were forced to live in absolute squalor.  As the colony expanded, people become more and more hostile to the aliens, which they nicknamed “prawns.”  Having initially been keen to help the extra terrestrials, as a consequence of mistrust and ignorance, people began to despise them and thought that they should either be destroyed or sent back to their own planet.  It amazed me how in just ten years, the whole situation could change; the aliens were initially given a warm welcome and put up in a humanitarian camp, but ten years later they were despised and living in squalor.

Yesterday, we looked at the rule in Leviticus which states that lepers had to live on their own outside the camp.  Just as the original purpose of the District 9 camp had been forgotten over the ten years of its existence, people had forgotten that the Leviticus rule was imposed for very practical reasons.  People in the first century AD were using it as a basis to victimise lepers, people who were suffering from a disease that they didn’t really understand.

Jesus, however, has a different approach to this particular leper.  He reaches out and touches the man, and he is instantly healed.  This action would have shocked many people, not simply because the man was cured, but because Jesus had actually touched someone who they considered to be ‘dirty’.

Jesus came to show the world how to follow God.  Whilst the laws in Leviticus had a specific purpose at a specific time, people had lost track of what they were for.  By the first century, people were using the law of Leviticus to justify the  victimisation of lepers.  Jesus, on the other hand, shows compassion for the man, touches him and heals him.  Whilst society was saying to reject this man, to isolate him and have nothing to do with him, Jesus drew him to himself and showed that he loved him as he loves anyone else.

Do we always have compassion for those around us?  Do we reject people for reasons we can’t really remember?  How would Jesus handle these relationships?  Let’s try today to show love and compassion to all we meet.