Travel, Travail, Trials

Mark 6: 1 – 31

Let’s begin by acknowledging a feeling of disjointedness in today’s text. It is long, it jumps around, it is kind of dark. Jesus sounds a little grouchy. And what exactly is going on with Herod and the women in his life?

 

We could take a deep dive on any one of the three episodes presented here and fill our time. And, the more I sat with these texts this week, the more I felt the need to explore them all together, at least as a starting point. 

 

Each of these episodes serves to advance the bigger story of Jesus that we are exploring. They are setting a tone and offering some important foreshadowing.

 

So let’s take a 30,000 foot view and then spend just a little time with one specific part of the story.

 

If you tuned in last week, you know that Eva Szabo ably and bravely shared Hunter’s message because he was home sick. I really appreciated an undergirding encouragement in that message – studying scripture is a process, an ongoing process. In Hunter’s message I heard us being encouraged to wade around, poke at things, note what is odd, find similar stories (parallels) in other gospels. I heard permission to ask why those differences exist. In fact, I heard encouragement to ask a lot of questions. Your questions cannot break the bible. Your questions cannot break these stories. Your questions are not a lack of faith.

 

Mark’s gospel is the earliest – and served as a source for both Matthew and Luke’s gospels. That means that in some ways, Mark’s narrative is the story framework that establishes the baseline for what details carry over or are expanded on in the later gospels. Some elements of all three episodes read today appear in other forms and in different timeframes in Matthew and Luke’s gospels. In you are curious about that, google “gospel parallels.” You’ll find all sorts of great online resources for identifying stories found in different places in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.

 

Here in Mark’s sixth chapter, we begin with a continuation of Jesus’ ministry travels, this time back to his hometown. The reception is not warm…it doesn’t end particularly well. And it is from this episode that we get the oft quoted line, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown.” 

 

The people of Nazareth seem to be aware of the remarkable things Jesus is teaching and doing. But it sounds as if they can’t get over the fact that he is - in many ways - one of them.  That seems to bother them. The text says they took offense, but other translations add a bit to that…for example the common English translation says they were repulsed by him and fell into sin. The Greek used here does somehow suggest that their response to Jesus causes the people of his hometown to stumble, or to fall away somehow.  In my understanding of sin as a separation from God, perhaps their failure to understand who Jesus was and accept his teaching moved them further from their relationship with God.

 

Then, following rejection in his hometown, Jesus gathers the disciples, gives them authority to teach and heal, and then sends them out with specific instructions about how they are to travel – very lightly, it seems – no money, no food, no luggage, only their sandals, one tunic and a walking stick.  They should not waste their time in places they are not welcome. And they should not move from house to house looking for better or different kinds of welcome. If their teaching is not embraced, they are to shake the dust from their feet and simply walk away…

 

Next…in what feels like a bit of an interruption in the flow, we are in King Herod’s court. Having heard of Jesus’ travel and teaching, Herod pauses to wonder whether Jesus might be a reincarnation of John the Baptist. This includes a flashback that illuminates how Herod was responsible for John’s death. 

 

Dropped into the middle of Jesus’ travels and teaching is this narrative that fills in some blanks but also raises questions about WHY the story is being told here. 

 

In the story, we begin to get a glimpse of the hazard of being a prophetic teacher. We witness the power of a political leader to end the life of one who has raised questions about power and authority and gathering a supportive crowd. And yet we also see that it really wasn’t John’s teaching that pushed Herod to take his life…it was social pressure.

 

This part of the story even ends with a reference to John’s disciples collecting his body and laying in in a tomb.

 

That sounds familiar, right. Most of us know how Jesus’ story unfolds. These words about a body laid in a tomb…we know that will hear them again.

 

In bible study this week, someone noted that these three episodes kind of summarize the shape of Mark’s entire gospel – Jesus teaches and heals. He sends people out to do the same. The powers of the world feel threatened. This episode is also bookended by another important recurring theme - JESUS sends the disciples for a time of retreat and rest – because the next stories are of larger crowds with even greater needs.

 

There is a pivot happening here that is important as we move toward Lent, a season which will lead us to the cross. Jesus has been gaining momentum, gaining followers, attracting attention. And now we get a glimpse of how unsettling this is for the powerful.

 

Those of you who have journeyed with me for a few years now know that I love the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. To my ear, in this portion of text, we begin to hear the introduction of the recurring musical theme and minor chords that frame any conversation among the Pharisees. (good Caiaphas, the council waits for you…)

 

So let’s pay attention to how this stretch of text begins to shed light on how the plot is beginning to take a turn in a specific direction – a direction where Jesus’ ministry is expanding and becoming more and more of a threat to the existing institutional powers – government and the Temple.

 

I also wanted to take a little bit of a deep dive and a portion of the text, specifically the way Jesus instructs the disciples to go out into the ministry field.

 

Over the last two weeks, I have traveled twice, once for a weeklong vacation in Kentucky with my husband, and once a 36-hour trip to Nashville for a national meeting to talk about youth and their faith. When my husband and I traveled, we were in his Mini Cooper and it was packed to the gills with clothes and shoes and books and kitchen gear, snacks of our choosing (as if there were go grocery stores in Central Kentucky) and other things that would make our week away from home as comfortable as possible. Packing for my trip to Nashville, I committed to a single roller bag, half the size of a normal carry-on suitcase. Really… What did I need? A change of clothes, toiletries, my iPad, my headphones, and some cables to make it all work. I was pretty proud of myself.

 

But I have been sitting with Jesus‘s directions to his disciples as he sends them out. Take nothing with you, your sandals are walking stick the clothes on your back. Whatever they need, will be there for them. They should be willing to be vulnerable and to accept the hospitality offered to them along the way. 

 

Let’s face it, that’s a really foreign idea to most of us.

 

In fact, sometimes, as the church, we think we have to be ready and have all of the things in place before we go talk to our neighbors about what God is doing in our lives, how the Holy Spirit is moving, and who Jesus is to us. We expect to carry what we need into places we feel called to go.

 

But Jesus is teaching here that this is not how we are called.

 

Take nothing for your journey…but shoes, the clothes on your back and your walking stick.

 

There’s some ego we bring with us when we assume that we can somehow carry everything we need. That we can somehow pack our bags with the right things, the right knowledge, the right wisdom, to share God’s love. 

 

To carry nothing feels very vulnerable. To walk into a situation empty handed… with nothing but love in our hearts and a real sense of being sent into the world to share Good News.

 

I mean how much thought do we give to hostess gifts. 

Or to the tools we might need in to do what we think might need done on a mission trip. 

Or to the script we want to have on the tip of our tongue to respond to what we hear from those we encounter…

 

Maybe we tell ourselves we don’t want to impose. But don’t we sometimes gear up for our own comfort and security?

 

And how often do we think through what we are going to say to someone, rather than listening deeply for what they might reveal to us.

 

I have spent the last two days thinking deeply with a group of folks who are passionate about meeting young people and their families where they are in the world to share God’s love.

 

And really, the conversations have reminded me that what matters when we go out to meet people, to get to know people – is what is in our hearts. Not what we pack in our bags. 

 

So preparing to do the work of reaching others is a matter of preparing our own hearts by listening, following and then going.

 

Today, we come to the Table to share God’s love for us in a very bodily way – we are nourished by bread and juice as a way of remembering – an act that is both about memory and about bringing the scattered parts of the body of Christ back together. 

 

And my prayer is that we are somehow “full” and ready to travel lightly into a world that needs God’s love so much.

May it be so.

Amen.