The funeral of Coretta Scott King this week was a powerful remembrance of what determined people can do. People mourned her life and felt saddened anew by the loss of Martin Luther King. Isn’t it incredible that his presence can still be missed so much 40 years after his death?
Someone has said that all cemeteries are a tribute to indispensable people. It does not matter whether you are George Washington, Cleopatra, or Gandhi, the hour comes when you leave the human stage.
God has a special way of dealing with these transitions to keep hope alive in us. I have been here 11 years, but I think with special pain about some missing people in that time. Letha Catlett was a leader here and a Martin Luther King without the fame. She was a poll watcher for the United Nations in South Africa and survived a grenade attack. Helen and Frank Yu died together tragically and Helen was a key encourager to help our church in its work. The Shockleys were major donors and godly people. Loren had been a vice president of a store chain and brought that business wisdom to church affairs.
So how does God protect the church and protect the hope of the kingdom in this world? If you worry if life will be secure for the challenges ahead, then you will be interested in Mark’s gospel today and the way God is protecting your future and protecting salvation and hope in our world.
Now after John was arrested (Greek: -- from paradidomi --handed over, delivered up, betrayed), Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."
"Now after John was arrested (paradothenai), Jesus came to Galilee" (v. 14). Mark tells us that Jesus began his ministry only after John was arrested (paradidomi -- handed over, delivered up). John is a forerunner of Jesus, not only in that he prepares the way for Jesus, but also in that his paradidomi foreshadows the coming paradidomi of Jesus.
The word "arrested" fails to convey the richness of paradidomi, which will be used several times to speak of the betrayal of Jesus or his being handed over to the Gentiles (10:33). Paradidomi "is a very significant term Mark uses the verb to create a parallelism between John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Christian.
John's paradidomi opens the door to Jesus' ministry, and Jesus' paradidomi will open the door to the disciples' ministry. The paradidomi of the disciples (the blood of the martyrs) will be the seed of the church. While there is evil at work in each paradidomi, God is also at work behind the scenes, transforming Good Fridays into Easters. The death "of a faithful messenger of God is never a defeat; ...it is always a doorway through which the kingdom advances and grows"
"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near" (v. 15). "With these words, Jesus points away from himself and toward God. It is God's kingdom, God's reign, that Jesus announces" Ultimately, the good news has to do with the salvation work of Jesus Christ, but first Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God (v. 15). "That main theme of Jesus must be the main theme of his disciples and messengers, if they are to be truly his messengers. The great tragedies of church history have occurred in those periods when Jesus' theme of the kingdom of God was made secondary or was forgotten"
For Jesus, repentance meant two things -- "turning away from the social and political agendas which were driving Israel into a crazy, ruinous war" --and "calling Israel to turn back to a true loyalty to YHWH, their God"
Apparently the four men see something compelling in Jesus --something that causes them to walk away from those things most precious to them to follow him. For Simon and Andrew, the great sacrifice is leaving their nets. For James and John, it is leaving their father.
16As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea -- for they were fishermen. 17And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people ." 18And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
In Jesus' day the Sea of Galilee supported a substantial fishing industry that exported fish to Egypt and other distant locations (Edwards, 49). While some of the fishermen would practice subsistence fishing along its shores (fishing primarily to feed one's own family), there would also be substantial family businesses involved in the export trade. Some fishermen would be poor -- most would be comfortable -- and some would be quite prosperous.
In a society where family ties are strong and fathers expect sons to take over the family business and to support elderly parents, Jesus' call demands a radical break -- a break from social ties that bind Simon and Andrew to father, mother, brothers, sisters, and cousins -- a break from the economic security represented by fishing, the only work that they know -- a break from the interdependence of family members that provides security in the event of illness, accident, and old age. Jesus calls Simon and Andrew to let go of everything that they know so that they can step out onto a pathway that he will show them -- a pathway that he does not define for them in advance -- a pathway that they will not understand until they have walked it. That is what discipleship involves -- faith to step into the unknown, trusting Christ to lead us to the right destination.
Upon returning from his goodbyes, Elisha slaughtered the oxen with which he had been plowing and boiled them, using their yokes as fuel – insuring that he could not turn back to his old way of life. James and John do not destroy their boat and nets, but simply leave them behind.
People do crazy things -- or things that look crazy to most of us. a 60 Minutes program several years ago that featured Dr. Joseph
Kramer. Dr. Kramer lived in New Jersey and had a successful practice there -- until he closed his practice and set up a
clinic in a tough, poor neighborhood in New York City. Dr. Kramer treats all comers -- insurance or no
insurance -- able to pay or not. One day a woman brought her sick baby to the clinic -- a VERY sick baby. When Dr. Kramer saw that the baby needed more help than he could offer, he closed the clinic and drove the mother and
baby to a hospital. Closed the clinic! Drove them to the hospital! When is the last time that your doctor shut down the clinic and drove you to the hospital?
A little further on, Jesus saw two more fishermen -- James and John. He called them to follow him, and they got out of their boat and followed. They didn't ask permission to get their affairs in order. They didn't ask for time to say goodbye. They left their father standing in the boat and started walking -- started following Jesus.
But I think that I can tell you the "why" behind the "what." I think that I can tell you why these four men
followed Jesus -- followed him at the drop of a hat -- left everything to follow him -- followed him IMMEDIATELY! I think they followed Jesus because they saw that he could make something of them -- that he could change their lives
from ordinary to extraordinary -- that he could use them to shift the world on its axis a little bit – more than a little bit. I think that they followed Jesus because they believed
that following him was the most important thing that they could do with their lives.
And they were right! Simon and Andrew -- James and John -- two pairs of brothers! Would we have heard of them if they had stuck with their fishing -- if they had stood rooted to their past instead of allowing Jesus to lead them into their future? Hardly! If these four men had failed to follow Jesus, they would have lived the rest of their lives in quiet obscurity. At the end, death would have swallowed them without a ripple -- and that would have been that.
Because these four and a few more like them followed Jesus, they changed the world. They carried the message of Jesus to others. They helped to establish the church. They baptized -- and healed -- and proclaimed – and some of them died in Christ's service.
The result is a world where the church daily makes people's lives better -- where Christ's church gives money and time and blankets and food and clothing and tents to care for people whose needs are desperate. The result is a world in which Christ's church teaches people to love instead of hate -- to change lives through kindness rather than through violence. -- The result is a world where Christ's disciples have started hospitals in Christ's name -- and drug rehab centers in Christ's name -- where people build houses for needy people in Christ's name.
The result is a world in which there is hope.
I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. Green, the historian, tells us that the world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pulses of each honest worker.-- Helen Keller
