Introduction to Mark
- Posted by Tony Huy
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Now— here is my secret: I tell it to you with an openness of heart that I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God— that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love. – Douglas Coupland.
WE LONG FOR LIFE
That confession concludes Coupland’s raw book on life, Life After God. It’s a strange conclusion, considering Coupland grew up in a home intentionally insulated from any trace of religion, and he himself rejected any notion of the divine. Yet what becomes apparent from Douglas Coupland’s writing is that this life, like so many of ours – if not all of ours – contains complexities which make ignoring God feel suicidal. How do we explain suffering, how do we process the deep longing for community, how do we work through intense anger at injustice and the subtle echoing need for meaning and purpose? People will often say, “There’s no such thing as heaven,” and yet when they find love and experience being loved, heaven doesn’t seem so odd of a place in which to believe. Then, when love is gone, or broken, or worst yet, destroyed through betrayal, the whole narrative of “lost Eden” and “eternal suffering” doesn’t sound so ridiculous. At the end of the day, what Coupland discovered is that, as much as we all want to relegate the concept of “God” to the category of superstition, the truth is, living life and soaking in its experiences makes God un-ignorable.
WHO IS THIS JESUS?
This week we kick off a new Sunday morning series in the gospel according to Mark. In sixteen chapters, Mark aims to convince his readers that Jesus was more than a legend; he was, in fact, a true historic person. But more than that, he was a king. And even more than that, this man-king that all of Israel had been awaiting was in fact God himself. For Mark, this truth about Jesus is what makes the Christian message the greatest news on earth.
- Because Jesus is God Himself come to us, forgiveness is possible and we read what we all long to hear, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5). Only God forgives sins.
- Because Jesus is God Himself come to us, entrapped lives have hope for freedom. “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” (Mark 5:8). The net result: a life of torment, isolation, and bondage turns into a life healed, restored, empowered. Only God has ultimate authority over demons.
- Because Jesus is God Himself come to us, man-made “isms” get rejected. Sexism is rejected when Jesus gives precedence to an unnamed woman over a ruling synagogue man. Racism is rejected when a Gentile mother finds her prayers answered. Legalism is rejected when disciples are vindicated for eating on the Sabbath. Elitism is rejected when Jesus dines with sinners. Only God is unaffected by trends, culture, and broken historical precedence.
- Because Jesus is God Himself come to us, every life matters. He made every life. He cares about every life. To the leper who says, “If you will, you can make me clean,” Jesus responds, “I will; be clean” (Mark 1). Only God sees every life as indispensable.
That’s a small snippet of Mark’s line of thinking. Over and over again, we get glimpses through Mark about who Jesus is. Each glimpse moves us closer to the conclusion, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39).
THEOLOGY THAT MATTERS, LIFE THAT MATTERS
Sometimes people believe, as Douglas Coupland did, that Jesus is an impediment to living. They think that the true wonders of life can only be found when Jesus is cast aside and life is lived unencumbered by the notion of God. After all, was not Jesus primarily a contrarian – always against people, always against ideas, always against progress and always against the things that we long for most as humans?
What Mark sets out to prove in his gospel is that the dawning of Jesus upon this earth was not repressive to living, but remarkable for living. All that we long for, at the most foundational level of debates on homosexuality, abortion, politics; all that drives us, at the most fundamental level of our hopes and dreams and aspirations – ideas of worth, value, identity, meaning, love, forgiveness, redemption – all of it is not only affirmed in the life and teaching of Jesus, but through his sacrifice and resurrection, becomes reality. This is the most empowering news in history. He rescued us from our sins! He rescued us to what we most deeply want!
AN INVITATION
As we study through the book of Mark, would you join us? As you join us, would you invite a friend, a neighbor, a person lost and in search of what it means to live.
JESUS – MAN, KING, GOD!
The answer to life after death. The answer to life before death.
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