Hear the Good News and …. Resent? – sermon on July 5, 2015
Mark 6: 1-13 He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.
Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Sermon: Hear the Good News and …. Resent? by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Our reading this morning starts with “Jesus left that place and came to his home town.” The place he left was the place where he raised a 12-year-old girl from the dead after healing a woman who’d been hemorrhaging for 12 years, and all she did to be healed was touch his cloak. Crowds have been following him for some time now, pressing in, seeking healing, and unclean spirits have fallen before him, calling out, “you are the son of God!” He’s had to go out on boats to teach or to avoid being crushed by the crowd. He’s barely had time to eat. Some have accused him of being demonic, and others of losing his mind. When his family heard, they went to “restrain him” but Jesus wouldn’t see them, saying that his mother and brothers are those that do the will of God.
He wouldn’t see them then, but after more time teaching and healing and casting out demons, he returns to his home town, to the place where he grew up. Instead of pressing crowds seeking healing, he is met with a different attitude. While the people at the synagogue can’t help but be astounded at his teaching, at the things he has done, for some reason they are offended. When someone takes offense, it is usually because they feel insulted in some way. So what is the insult? Do people think they already know enough about how to worship God without this big shot with his adoring crowds coming in with some new-fangled ideas? And it’s a local boy no less – Mary’s boy, they call him – maybe because there are still rumors about his paternity. Is it an insult to be offered healing when you already believe you are hale and hearty and whole?
The story says that Jesus could do no deeds of power, except curing a few sick people. So what was it that he couldn’t do? Isn’t healing sick people a pretty impressive deed of power? Maybe they weren’t that sick? Were there sick people he was not able to heal? I went back through Mark’s gospel to see what “deeds of power” Jesus had been doing up to this point. The first thing he did in this gospel – after his baptism and wilderness time, after calling a few disciples – was cast out an unclean spirit. After that it was all healing and casting out demons. Once he calmed the storm, but that was only for the disciples. His public deeds were all about casting out demons and healing all manner of disease and uncleanness. Sometimes he framed this as forgiving sins. Sometimes he announced that it was the faith of people that healed them.
So he’s back in his home town, and he’s healed, but maybe he hasn’t been able to cast out any unclean spirits. As I thought about it, about Jesus failing at something, I started to wonder if maybe Jesus didn’t try and fail, it was just that no one asked him to do these things. It is rare for Jesus to heal someone unasked. Maybe it wasn’t that Jesus couldn’t do it, but there were no crowds pressing in trying to touch his garment, no unclean spirit calling out, “I know who you are – son of God.” There was just suspicious, resentful looks, whispers of “who does he think he is? He’s not fooling us!” I started to wonder if this egotistical “offense”, indicated an unclean spirit at work. Jesus is astounded at this rejection of his gift. I remember my grandmother, my father’s mother opening a Christmas gift from my mother – a lovely dress that my mother had made for her. Nana wouldn’t accept it – “What do I need this for? I have plenty of dresses!”
Is there anything in this story for us to relate to? Are we so attached to our own ideas about God, about church, about faith, about life, about ourselves, that we would reject the Good News of the coming of God’s kindom? I’m thinking with the state the world is in, it happens all the time. The kindom will not be forced upon us, be we are invited to turn – to repent – and head into it at any time. But it means acknowledging our brokenness and asking for healing even if we are skeptical, even if part of us is still offended by the idea. The power of Jesus to enter in and transform our lives is limited only by our unwillingness to let him. I’m guessing he is no longer astounded at the rejection of his gift. What is amazing is that neither is he discouraged by it.
Our passage today shows that it didn’t take him long to understand that he may not always have adoring crowds pressing in on him, but that that needn’t change his mission. His job was to bring the good news, no matter how rebellious or stubborn people hearing it may be. And his ministry takes a turn here. So far the disciples have been followers, observers, maybe assistants tending to the grunt work – set up the boat so he has a platform for teaching, sail him to the other side, keeping him from getting trampled by the crowd, maybe cooking and cleaning up, scouting out places to sleep. But here Jesus decides to put into action part of the good news. The time is fulfilled, the kindom has come near, and all can participate. One scholar theorizes that all the times Jesus tells people not to say what he’s done or who he is (the Messianic secret) is because he want to make the good news less about himself and more about his message – God’s realm has come close – a realm of forgiveness and mercy and abundant life. You don’t have to touch Jesus’ garment to find it, you just need to turn from the way you are going – believe and repent. Others can carry that message also, and so he sends them two by two.
He knows what happened to him in his home town will likely happen to these disciples, going out in faith with nothing but a staff, sandals, and one tunic. They will be rejected, looked at with suspicion and resentment. He does not want them to be afraid or discouraged by it, so he gives them a little ritual to do so they can move on and continue in their work. He tells them to shake the dust off their feet as a testimony against them. According to Prof. Cleophus LaRue, this gesture was used by pious Jews returning to Israel from a gentile land. It symbolized separation from any clinging form of defilement. But biblical Greek scholar M. Mark Davis challenges the interpretation of the word “against.” He says the Greek word can also be interpreted as “to” – as a testimony “to” them, and he feels this interpretation would be more in keeping with Jesus’ style. It’s not a matter of, “well you reject me so I reject you.” Instead it is a matter of saying something like, “I came freely to offer you a gift, this good news. I came to take nothing from you, but only to receive your welcome if you offer it. If you do not offer it freely, I will take nothing, not even the dust from your courtyard.” It is not about rejecting the rejecter so much as honoring their freedom to reject. This ritual may remind the disciples that they are not there to force anything, not to exploit or manipulate, not to threaten or plead. It’s not about their egos, their ideas of success, it is simply about participating in this new thing that God has done.
We are also invited to participate, to receive the good news that the kindom has come near, to believe and turn toward it; to share this good news with others. I suspect that doing this work here and now would look very different from what it did for those Jesus sent out 2 by 2. And it would look different than it did 40 or 50 years ago when people were socialized to go to a building to hear the good news. It’s not really clear what it looks like, and there are probably many, many ways of living and sharing this good news. Jesus may have wanted to point people away from him and to the message of the coming kindom, but the truth is, for me, Jesus is the message – the way he lived, the things he taught, the love he showed. Can we welcome that freely? May it be so.
