The Little Apocalypse

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Mark 13:1-9, 12-13, 21-26, 32, 35-37:

There are just some passages from scripture that at the end it’s a little hard to say, this is the good news of Jesus Christ, or even this is the word of God for the people of God. And the passage we heard from Mark today, and even to a degree from Daniel, is one of those passages. Pain, war, destruction, suffering, “yea, God.” Or as I overheard one of the choir members say one time, if that’s the good news, what’s the bad news. That passage we heard from Mark is known as Mark’s little apocalypse, although it’s not technically an apocalypse at all. But a little prelude and postlude for this story so that we can better understand not just what Jesus is saying, but also what Mark is doing with this story it its construction. Last week we heard Jesus’ third passion prediction which was given as he and the disciples and others were making their way to Jerusalem. Mark then has the story of the transfiguration, which we will come back to next week, then Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which we celebrate on Palm Sunday. The Jesus spends a few days in and around the Temple grounds, which is where the passage we heard picks up as he is leaving the Temple. But, Jesus is not just being a tourist there, he’s also engaging with the religious leaders on various questions, and then he makes a judgment against the Temple its leaders.

When we looked at the Parable of the Sower, I said that New Testament scholar Mary Ann Tolbert said that there were two parables which described not Jesus’ ministry and mission, but also the entirety of Mark’s gospel. One of them, and the most important was the parable of the sower, and the second is that of the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. In that Parable, which comes at the beginning of chapter 12, we are told that a man plants a vineyard, and builds a watchtower, and prepares everything then leases it out to tenants. Then, when the time comes for the landowner to collect what’s do to him he sends servants, but they are rejected and beaten, and insulted and some are killed, and so finally he decides to send his beloved son, his only son, and they too kill him so they can claim the land. So what does the landowner do? He comes and destroys the tenants and gives the vineyard to others. And so this parable we should be hearing the owner as God, the tenants as the religious leaders, and a watchtower is a common metaphor used for the Temple, and of course the son is Jesus. And so really this could be seen as a potential fourth passion prediction, although the purpose is to make judgment against the leaders of the Temple.

Give Us Power

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Mark 10:35-45:

Exactly two weeks before he would be assassinated, martyred for his work for racial and economic justice, and calls for peace, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., educated at a United Methodist school, preached his last sermon. Entitled “The Drum Major Instinct” it was based on the passage that we just heard from Mark. And what King said was that there is a natural tendency in most people, and maybe all people, to want to be out front. And in being the one out front it also give us the glory, people applaud us directly, even if it’s meant for the whole band, but we are separated from them as well, leading the way. And yet that’s the opposite of what Jesus has called us to in the life of discipleship, and we see that in the audacious request, or perhaps we might even say brazen request, that James and John make to Jesus. And yet we shouldn’t be all that surprised, because as we have encountered several times already as we have made our way through Mark, the disciples continue to not get or understand what Jesus is telling them and teaching them about discipleship.

As I’ve said before, Mark likes to group stories and themes together, to sort of serve as a framework of emphasis. And so two weeks we heard Jesus’ first passion prediction, which was then immediately followed by a teaching by Jesus about discipleship. And why was that teaching necessary? Because Peter rebukes Jesus for the passion prediction. And so Jesus tells them ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” That’s chapter 8, and as a reminder that happens after Jesus heals a blind man. Then in chapter 9, along with the story of the transfiguration, which we will come back to in two weeks, Jesus gives his second passion prediction, and this time we are told specifically that the disciples don’t understand what he is saying and they are afraid to ask him to explain it. And then to show us how much they don’t understand, they begin arguing amongst themselves about who is the greatest, and in overhearing this Jesus tells them “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Now the truth is that there is a hierarchy within the disciples, that there are three who seem to be in positions of prominence, or at least preference, and those three are Peter, James and John, although it’s not clear what part they play in the argument about greatness or if there is jealousy amongst the other disciples for their position. But, we have two passion predictions, two examples of the disciples not getting it, and then correction and teaching from Jesus about discipleship. So surely they must be starting to understand right?

The Confession

Here is my sermon from Sunday. The text was Mark 8:27-38:

For those who study the literary structure of scripture, some have argued that the gospel of Mark is circular. Not that he is making a circular argument but that the stories that happen at the beginning of Mark are paralleled at the end, so that there are rings to the story. If you accept that argument then the center of the gospel can also be found, the story around which everything else centers. But, even if you don’t accept that theory, and I’m not arguing either for it or against it, in Mark there is a clear center of the story. A clear place in which everything leads up to it, and then everything leads away from it, and that is the story we heard this morning of Peter’s proclamation of faith and the first passion prediction that Jesus makes. It also happens to be conveniently enough, basically right in the center of the gospel as well. There are 16 chapters in Mark and the story is found in chapter 8. It also represents a break in time. There are three years of Jesus’ ministry encapsulated up to this point, and he begins making his way to Jerusalem with 3 passion predictions in the next two chapters, and then the remaining five chapters tell the last week of Jesus’ life. That delineation is why Mark has sometimes been referred to as a passion narrative with an extended introduction. And it is this passage that begins that passion narrative especially with Jesus’ passion prediction. I’ve already talked a little about how Mark structures the story around grouping stories or common themes. And this chunk of text is also bracketed by two healing stories, that also happen to be the healing of blind men, and we’ll come back to why that is important.

But Jesus and the disciples have left Galilee and are traveling to the cities, or the area of Caesarea Philippi. Now this is a town named for two Roman rules, first for Caesar Augustus, and then for Herod Phillip, Herod the Great’s son who is the ruler, the tetrarch, of the area. And so there is a clear roman presence and political importance to this town. Additionally, depending on when Mark was written, and we’ll address that in a few weeks, Vespasian, before he becomes Emperor, rested his troops in the city before going forth to crush the Jewish resistance in Galilee during the Jewish Revolt, and his son Titus, before he too becomes emperor, celebrated his victory over Jerusalem in the city by executing captives and holding a victory games. So there is a lot of significance to where this is taking place for those who first heard Mark’s story. But, Jesus is not in the city, he is on the way there. Instead he is in that in-between that is so important in Mark; he is in the wilderness. And he asks the disciples “who do people say that I am?”