“The Scandalous Jesus”
1. I love the gospel of Mark because he tells it like it is. He doesn’t sugar-coat the Jesus story. He tells us things that, if we stop to think about them, are shocking.
2. case-in-point: what do you make of Jesus? His audience response is all over the charts. A high degree of people had serious questions about Jesus & his ministry:
§ 1st disciples: 4:41 – who is this? Even the wind & waves obey him?
§ 2nd family: 3:21 – he is out of his mind
§ 3rd Pharisees & Herodians: 3:6 – they began to plot how they might kill Jesus
§ 4th Scribes/teachers of the law: 2:7 – he’s blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? 3:22 – he is possessed by Beelzebub. By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.
§ 5th home town crowd: 6:3 – where did this man get these things? Carpenter? Mary’s son? They took offense at him.
3. on the other hand, the forces of evil “get” Jesus; they are the only ones who confess Jesus to be God’s Son:
§ 1:24: I know who you are, the Holy One of God
§ 1:34: they knew who he was
§ 3:11: You are the Son of God
§ 5:7: Jesus, Son of the Most High God
The evil spirits believe that Jesus the man is Jesus the God.
4. this is not what you would expect to find. And it causes me to wonder – is it possible that we might not see Jesus as clearly as we think?
the home town crowd
1. when the Sabbath rolls around Jesus is in his home town of Nazareth teaching in the synagogue. Some were amazed & others had questions.
2. where did this man get these things? He went to our schools, attended our synagogue, lived in our neighborhood.
3. what’s this wisdom that has been given to him, that he even does miracles? He didn’t have this wisdom & power when we knew him!
4. isn’t this the carpenter? He worked with wood. He built yokes & door frames & cattle stalls. “Jesus built the bookshelves in my parent’s home. He didn’t go to college. He never managed a big business.”
5. there’s such irony here. This carpenter who built the bookshelves is the carpenter who built the universe! Think about that. He constructed the lives of his critics. He fashioned them with the minds they used to erect a case against him & the mouths they used to criticize him. They exist because he is. The carpenter is the Creator.
6. isn’t this Mary’s son? Jesus lived in a patriarchal society. Your lineage was traced through your father, not your mother. They remembered the questions surrounding his birth – Mary got pregnant as a teenager BUT Joseph said he wasn’t the father. Jesus is illegitimate!
7. and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas & Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us? We know his family. We watched him grow up.
offense & faith
1. and they took offense at him. The word here is the word scandalize. They were outraged & horrified by this local boy.
2. Jesus made their blood pressure rise. They wanted to put him in his place. They thought he was a fake. They were scandalized by him.
3. he was amazed at their lack of faith. As a result he only healed a few people. Why? He wasn’t going to cast pearls before swine.
4. His homecoming flopped. Jesus was met with skepticism & unbelief.
Jesus sends out the 12
1. Jesus sends the 12 disciples out on their 1st mission. They go out 2 by 2. They take something of Jesus with them – the authority to cast out demons.
2. no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Not an extra tunic.. Jesus wants them to depend upon the hospitality of the people they want to reach. Go live with them. Meet them on their terms. Walk in their shoes. Depend up on them.
3. this is a picture of the incarnation – God entered the world in Jesus & lived fully in it. He didn’t partially come to earth. He came all the way to earth. Jesus didn’t retreat every evening @ 5pm to a gated palace outside the city. He had no home & no place to lay his head except the places of the people he loved. And he told the disciples to do the same!
4. how did the church get from the lifestyle of Jesus & these instructions to the 12 TO pastors today who live in luxury, fly around the country in their own private planes & drive the latest Mercedes? I wonder what Jesus thinks!
5. shake the dust off your feet. Just as Jesus offended people, so his disciples doing their Jesus stuff would offend people. Shake the dust off your feet means that they are not responsible for the response of those who reject Jesus. Those who have heard are now responsible.
6. Jesus sent them out to preach repentance, free people from darkness & anoint the sick with oil & heal them. Like Jesus, like the 12.
What do you make of Jesus?
1. this passage illustrates what is true so far in Mark’s gospel – Jesus is a mixture of attraction & offense. He draws a crowd wherever he goes. After he teaches, heals & delivers, people are amazed (attraction) & bothered (offense). He entertains some & scandalizes others.
2. who is this Jesus? At this point in Mark’s story I can’t point you to Jesus family – he is out of his mind. I can’t point you to his disciples – who is this? Even the wind & waves obey him. I can’t point you to his hometown people – they took offense at him. I can’t point you to the church officials of his day – they began to plot how they might kill him.
3. all I can do is point you to some evil spirits, demons. They get it. They confess that Jesus is the Holy One of God & the Son of God. They believe he is Divine. And they are terrified of him!
4. some were amazed, some were offended & some were terrified.
5. what do you make of this Jesus?
§ if he is the Holy One of God
§ if he is the Son of God
§ if he has power over evil spirits
§ if he can calm the waves & the wind
§ if he can heal the sick
§ if he can save the lost
§ if he can call people to leave their nets & follow him & they do
§ if he died for our sins
§ if he rose from the dead
§ if he lives today
§ if he is the matchless Cosmic King of the universe
6. what are you going to do with this Jesus?
Jesus, be the Center
1. each of our lives is centered on something. What’s at the center of your life?
2. or, what’s the main thing in your life? What’s 1st in priority? What’s at the top of your list?
3. or, what are you most passionate about? What do you love to talk about, think about?
4. or, what defines you? Your career? A relationship? Your family? Cause? Political affiliation? Hobby? Talent? House? Business?
5. is it Jesus?
6. I wish all of you could go to West Africa – Guinea & Sierra Leone. I wish all of you could meet Gessim (rejected by his family & cut out of the family finances because of his love for Jesus). I wish all of you could meet Fode (shunned by his mother who refused to talk to him after she realized he loved Jesus & not Allah). I wish all of you could meet Cisse (beaten in his hometown village by his own family because of his love for Jesus).
7. I wish you could meet Sam Sesay (who left a comfortable job with the British High Commission; who then left a comfortable pastorate at the Wilberforce Baptist Church; who became a missionary to the Susu people in his mid-40s with 6 children because of his love for Jesus).
8. I wish you could meet Paulo Rehm (who left a secure, high-paying job with a company in Brazil – he was set for life – to become a missionary to the Susu people in one of the poorest countries in the world because of his love for Jesus).
9. Jesus is the center of Gessim, Fode, Cisse, Sam & Paulo’s lives. He’s their passion. Jesus defines them. Jesus is more important to them than money, security, country, family & safety.
10. I wish I could fly our whole church to Africa to meet these people & others just like them. But I can’t.
11. but here’s what I can do. I can take you to Jesus. You don’t have to fly to Africa to meet Jesus. You can meet Jesus right here, right now.
12. you can be one of the crowd & be amazed by his miracle-working powers. Or you can be one of his hometown friends & be offended, scandalized by him. Or you can be like the evil spirits & be terrified of his authority & power. Or you can be like the 12 who, misdirected as they sometimes were, made him the center of their lives & loved him till they died…for their love for him.
13. what is Jesus asking of you today?
14. this is what I think he’s asking –
§ make me more important than money in your life
§ make me more important than security in your life
§ make me more important than country in your life
§ make me more important than family in your life
§ make me more important than safety in your life
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