The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

Sermon: A Sign From Heaven (Mark 8:1-21)

A Sign From HeavenSunday, August 27th, 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 8:1-21
In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, 2 I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: 3 And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far. 4 And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? 5 And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven. 6 And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. 7 And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. 8 So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. 9 And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.
10 And straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha. 11 And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. 13 And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side.
14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. 15 And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. 16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. 17 And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? 18 Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? 19 When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. 20 And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. 21 And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?
Prayer
Father, you know how weak our minds are, you know how difficult it is for us to understand anything spiritual. We confess that we are often just as confused by Your Word as these disciples were, and so we ask for mercy, we ask for your compassion, and most of all for the gift of understanding and the love that comes from understanding. Give us these supreme gifts of the Holy Spirit, for we ask in Jesus name, Amen.
Introduction
Well if you have been with us for most of these sermons in Mark’s gospel, everything I just read should sound very familiar to you. And that is because, from Mark 6:31 to the end of Mark 7 mirrors and parallels everything in Mark 8. In both of these sections there is a very clear six-step sequence of events that gets repeated. Now why does Mark do this?
The purpose of this repetition is twofold:
1) First, it draws out for us certain points of similarity and dissimilarity that we might have overlooked on our first read, and by doing the work of comparing and contrasting these two cycles we are given further insight into the mystery of the kingdom.
2) Second, this repetition drives home the fact that we are often just as clueless and forgetful as the disciples. The disciples are firsthand witnesses to Jesus’ miracles and teaching, and yet at this stage, they cannot see or understand the spiritual meaning of his miracles and teaching. They do not recognize that this is God dwelling amongst them, nor can they fathom that God is going to die and rise again for their sins.
This is the blindness, the deafness, the muteness that the disciples are suffering, and they need Jesus to heal them.
So Mark is giving us a second chance now as readers to try and catch what the disciples missed the first time. And so let me summarize that six-step sequence of events so we have it fresh in our minds.
1. Jesus feeds a multitude (He feeds 5,000 in Mark 6:31-44; and 4,000 in Mark 8:1-9).
2. Jesus gets into a ship and crosses the sea (Mark 6:45-56, Mark 8:10).
3. Jesus has a conflict with the Pharisees (In Mark 7:1-23 over handwashing, in Mark 8:11-13 over his credentials).
4. Jesus has a conversation about bread (In Mark 7:24-30 with the Syrophoenician woman, in Mark 8:14-21 with his disciples,).
5. Jesus heals somebody as a parable of his teaching (In Mark 7:31-36 it is a deaf/mute man, and next week in Mark 8:22-28 we’ll see him heal a blind man) Both healings result in a…
6. A confession of faith (the people confess “He has done all things well,” Mark 7:37, and Peter will confess, “Thou art the Christ,” Mark 8:27-30).
So Jesus 1) feeds a crowd, 2) crosses the sea, 3) fights with Pharisees, 4) talks about bread, 5) heals someone, and then there is a 6) confession of faith. That’s the pattern and Mark repeats this cycle back-to-back.
What all this repetition is leading to is the very center of the book, and that is Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, and then Jesus for the very time in Mark’s gospel, is going to teach that the Son of Man must die and rise again.
Mark 8:31-32 says, “And Jesus began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he spake that saying openly.”
What has been concealed and kept secret for 8 chapters of Mark’s gospel, is starting to come out. It is not until this point, the halfway mark, that we are told how the Christ is going to bring about the kingdom of God. Jesus has been announcing “repent and believe for the kingdom of God is at hand,” but nobody knows how that kingdom is going to come.
So next week, we’ll look at that section in greater depth, but it is important for us to know that that is where our text is heading. This is the setup for that great confession and teaching from Jesus.
Let us turn now to our text which divides neatly into three sections.
Division of the Text
In verses 1-9, Jesus feeds the 4,000.
In verses 10-13, Jesus has conflict with the Pharisees.
In verses 14-21, Jesus talks with his disciples about bread.
Verses 1-3
In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, 2 I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: 3 And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far.
We should notice here a point of contrast between the feeding of the 5,000 and this feeding of the 4,000.
In both instances Jesus has great compassion on the multitude, but the reason for his compassion is different.
With the 5,000, Jesus is moved with compassion because they are like sheep without a shepherd and need teaching. And therefore, Jesus meets that spiritual need by teaching them before he does that miracle.
Here, the people have been with Jesus for so long, three days now, that Jesus is moved with compassion because they have nothing to literally eat. And so Jesus meets their physical need by feeding them.
Already we have seen that physical food is an analogy for spiritual food, and Jesus continues to develop that theme here.
Another thing we should note is that this feeding of the 4,000 takes place in predominately Gentile territory, and so this crowd is probably a mix of both Jews and Gentiles (at the very least the disciples are Jews and the crowd are Gentiles).
Remember the scene just prior to this one, Jesus was in Tyre and Sidon (up northwest from Galilee) and then came down to the coasts of the Decapolis. All predominately Gentile areas.
We remember also the example of the Greek-speaking Syrophoenician woman (a Gentile) who begs for scraps of bread from the master’s table. Well here now is a hungry crowd, here also is The Master, and we might wonder, are there enough scraps from the children’s bread to go around for so many people?
That is at least what the disciples are wondering in part.
Verse 4
4 And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these with bread here in the wilderness?
This is a very dangerous question to ask. It is dangerous because this is the exact same question the unbelieving Israelites asked in the wilderness (and that was where they died).
Psalm 78:17-20 recalls this sin of unbelief saying, “And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, And the streams overflowed; Can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people?”
So just like the Israelites tested God and did not believe, the twelve disciples are committing the same sin.
The Israelites witnessed firsthand miracle upon miracle upon miracle: the ten plagues in Egypt, the Passover, the Red Sea crossing, miracle water flowing in the desert, a cloud by day and fire by night, and yet for all of those signs and wonders, that unbelieving generation did not believe or enter into God’s rest.
The Twelve are in danger of suffering that same fate. They have already seen Jesus heal the sick, cast out demons, even raise the dead. They just partook and handled miracle bread that Jesus multiplied to feed the 5,000. And yet they look God in the face and say to him, “From whence can a man satisfy these with bread here in the wilderness?”
They still do not know who Jesus is.
How does Jesus respond?
Verses 5-9
5 And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven. 6 And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. 7 And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. 8 So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. 9 And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.
Jesus repeats what he did with the 5,000. He takes the bread, he gives thanks, he breaks it, and gave it to his disciples to distribute. This is of course a foreshadowing of what happens in the Lord’s Supper.
The major difference we notice is in the number of loaves, leftovers, and the people fed.
Jesus used 5 loaves and 2 fishes to feed 5,000 people, and there were 12 baskets left over.
Here he uses 7 loaves and a few small fishes to feed 4,000 people, and there are 7 baskets left over.
There is debate over what these numbers mean, or if they have any significance at all.
The church fathers saw in the 5 loaves and 2 fishes a reference to the 5 books of Moses (the law), and Psalms and Prophets. You can take that or leave it, but at the very least the food signifies the Word of God.
Twelve is of course the number associated with Israel, and this suggests that the twelve baskets signify that there is an abundance of food for all Israel to be fed.
So if the feeding of the 5,000 was ultimately about Jesus giving himself and his word to feed the sheep/children of Israel, what does the feeding of the 4,000 signify?
Because this is predominately a crowd of Gentiles, and because we just saw Jesus “feed” the Gentile dog, the Syrophoenician woman, this feeding of the 4,000 suggests that the Gentiles are not only going to get scraps, they are eventually going to get a full meal right alongside the children of Israel. Which is what the New Testament explicitly says in many places.
It is those with the faith of Abraham who are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29).
In Christ, both Jews and Gentiles die and rise again and are united into one new man, the body of Christ (Eph. 2:11-14).
Paul echoes Jesus’ order of feeding, when he says in Romans 1:16, that the gospel is “to the Jew first and then to the Greek.”
So Jesus feeds the sheep of Israel in abundance, there are twelve baskets leftover, one for each tribe. And now he feeds both Jew and Gentile together, 4,000 people perhaps signifying the four corners of the earth. Seven baskets left over, perhaps one for each day of the week. Twelve is the number of Israel’s fulness. Seven is the number of creational fullness.
Whatever the significance of the numbers, Jesus gives a definitive answer to the disciples’ question: “From whence can a man satisfy this multitude with bread here in the wilderness?”
Jesus’ answer is, from me. I am the bread that comes down from heaven, and I will give myself for the life of the world, both Jew and Gentile alike.
Now before we hear the disciples’ response to this miracle, Mark inserts a discussion Jesus has with the Pharisees.
Verses 10-13
10 And straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha. 11 And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. 13 And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side.
Do you notice the irony here? Jesus has been doing miracles for the last 7 chapters, showing forth his divinity, and now here come the Pharisees, asking for a sign.
Jesus, however, knows that what they want is not a sign, they want him dead (Mark 3:6). And therefore, the only reason they ask for a sign is to tempt him (like the devil) to do something that will get him into trouble with the authorities.The Pharisees are goading Jesus, they are provoking him to reveal openly that He is king, and Caesar is not. This is why Mark says they were “seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him.” What does Jesus do?
He does not take the bait. Instead he declares that no sign is going to be given to this generation, and then he leaves.
Why does Jesus do this?
Jesus is on a mission to expose just how wicked and sinful this generation is. He is on a mission to expose the sinfulness of sin. Like the prophets of old, Jesus calls them to repent, he performs signs and wonders, and he gives them ample opportunity and reason to turn and be saved. But for all of that patience and condescension, there are some people, like the Pharisees, there are even entire generations, like the Jews of his day, who are committed to wickedness, so that even if Jesus gave them a sign from heaven, it would only further harden them in unbelief.
The Pharisees have become Pharoah, and they don’t even know it. They are so hardened in sin, that no sign can persuade them otherwise. We’ve already seen them attribute Jesus’ miracles to the power of the devil. So why should doing some new sign from heaven be treated any differently?
Jesus says in Luke 16:31, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead.” If someone does not believe God’s Word when it’s read from the Old Testament, they won’t believe even if they see with their own eyes a man rise from the dead.
Many unbelievers think that if God would just give them a sign, then they would believe in Him. But the testimony of Scripture and history is that signs do not do what people think they do.
Asking for a sign is in reality, just a front, just a cover, just another excuse, for willful unbelief.
Jesus says in Matthew’s version of this same story, that “an evil and adulterous generation” seeks for a sign.
In other words, people lie to themselves and think that if God were only to give me a sign, then I would stop sleeping around, then I would go to church, then I would get clean.
Sinners are so proud and self-centered that they think God owes them a sign, that He must save them on their own terms, and if He does not meet their criteria, their demands, then they have no responsibility to believe.
But Jesus says, if you don’t believe the words of the Old Testament, then you won’t believe even if God gives you a sign.
The proof of Jesus’ words is that someone did die and came back from the dead, and yet still people don’t believe. This is the nature of sin, and this is what Jesus comes to expose.
As he says in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.”
If you want to be saved, you must utterly abhor and forsake your flesh. And if you find in yourself that temptation to ask God for a sign in order to believe, beware.Because you are like a fish asking for proof of water. There are signs of God everywhere, you are a living sign and walking image of God. Your conscience testifies to His moral law. Your desires testify that you were made to life forever. If you look up at the sky, the heavens are shouting the glory of God, the sky above proclaims His handiwork. And the fact that the world is full of Christians is a perpetual witness that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead.
We are those who Jesus spoke of when he said to Thomas, “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).
An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, and no sign from heaven will be given to them, only the sign of Jonah descending into the earth.
Well as bad as the Pharisees are, the disciples are hardly better. In verses 14-21, they continue to miss the point of Jesus’ miracles and teaching.
Verses 14-16
14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. 15 And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. 16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.
So what is the disciples’ problem? They are not like the Pharisees who are trying to get Jesus killed or tempting him for a sign. The disciples’ blindness is of a different sort.
They see the signs, they eat the bread, they hear the teaching, but they do not understand what it means.
Jesus says to them, “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod,” and they think he’s warning them about getting bread from those bad guys. But what Jesus is actually warning them about is the false doctrine and hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Herod.
The Pharisees elevated their traditions above the Word of God. Their leaven is to appear orthodox, to appear righteous, while inwardly nursing an adulterous and covetous heart.
Pharisaic leaven cloaks wickedness under the guise and appearance of righteousness.
The leaven of Herod on the other hand is uncloaked pomp and perversity. It is the delusional grandeur that styles oneself above one’s true rank. The Herodians and perhaps Herod himself thought that he was the Messiah, he was the king the Old Testament spoke of. But of course, anyone who inquired into Moses and the Prophet would know that this Herod does not qualify. And yet the “orthodox” Pharisees found an ally in Herod and the Herodians, because they had common cause together to destroy Jesus.
So Jesus says, beware of just a little bit of that leaven entering into you, because as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:6, “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?”
The Pharisees and the Herodians represent the decadence and depravity of that generation. They are the elite amongst that evil and adulterous generation who demands a sign.
And although we might think ourselves, like the disciples, immune to that leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, Jesus knows how weak our wills are. Jesus knows how easily we forget all the miracles he has performed. Jesus knows that we need to get bread daily from him.
For man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deut. 8:3).
Conclusion
In verse 14 it says the disciples forgot to take bread, and had only one loaf with them in the boat.
Jesus is that one loaf. He is the bread. He is the multiplier of bread. He is the Creator of bread. And if Jesus is in the boat with us, if the leaven of Christ (the gospel) is in our hearts, then we have food for eternal life.
So repent of your unbelief, seek not a sign from heaven, for the sign of salvation has already been given, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: Bread For Dogs (Mark 7:14-37)

Bread For DogsSunday, August 20th, 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 7:14-37
14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. 16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. 18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; 19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? 20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid. 25 For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. 27 But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. 28 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. 29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. 30 And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.
31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. 32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. 33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. 35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. 36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; 37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Prayer
Father, we ask now that you would open the ears of our heart, that we might understand your word. And having understood your word, the mystery of Your Kingdom, we might open our mouths and pour forth praise that is worthy of You. We ask for you Holy Spirit to guide us unto the truth, and we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
Introduction
The Lord Jesus has done all things well. Jesus has done all things well. As we pickup in chapter 7 of Mark’s Gospel we recall that Jesus has just laid the smack down on the scribes and Pharisees. The Pharisees were critiquing Jesus because his disciples were not washing their hands. Jesus claps back saying that the Pharisees elevate their manmade traditions (like handwashing) above the authority of God, and they have so trampled upon God’s command to honor father and mother, that they deserve to die. Jesus says their disregard for God’s law, while paying lip service to it, makes them worthy of death.
Jesus says in Mark 7:13, just before our text begins, “[You make] the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.”
We have seen a continual problem not only amongst the Pharisees, but also amongst the disciples and the crowds: they are unable to distinguish between sign and thing signified. They cannot see the difference between earthly sign and spiritual reality, between shadow and substance.
So far, no one has been able to see through the external miracles that Jesus performs into the truth of who Jesus is. No one recognizes this is God in the flesh.
And here now in our passage, we see that they are unable to discern the true meaning of the ceremonial law. They think that food and handwashing and physical cleanliness is all that God commands, when in reality, these are merely signs to teach us about the need to become spiritually clean, spiritually pure (to be baptized), so that we can partake of spiritual food (namely the Lord Jesus).
As the Apostle Paul says in Titus 1:17, “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”
Where did Paul get this teaching? He got it from Jesus, and He got it from being given spiritual insight into the true meaning of the Old Testament.
So this theme of true purity and true defilement is what unites our text, and our text divides neatly into three sections.
Division of the Text
In verses 14-23, Jesus teaches us the nature of true defilement, and then gives two real-life illustrations of this point in the following two sections.
In verses 24-30, Jesus casts out an unclean spirit from an unclean Gentile who turns out to be spiritually clean.
In verses 31-37, Jesus shows us that what comes out of him, his word, his spirit, even his spit, can make a man holy. He makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak.
So that is the division of our text, let us now consider his teaching on true defilement.
Verses 14-16
14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. 16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
On the surface this might sound like Jesus is contradicting the laws of Moses.
For example, Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 both give long lists of what Israel could and could not eat.
If it divides the hoof and chews the cud, it is clean, you can eat it. But if it only divides the hoof, or only chews the cud, or does neither, then it is unclean, it will defile you.
God says in Leviticus 11:43-45, “Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby. 44 For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 45 For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
So these are the kinds of laws that the disciples and the Pharisees are accustomed to. And they come with divine authority. This is the law of God.
How then is what Jesus saying, not a contradiction? This is what the disciples want to know.
Verses 17-19
17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. 18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; 19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?
So Jesus makes an appeal here to what should be obvious to everyone. Where does food go? It goes into the body and then out into the sewer (draught). How then can something physical like food make the spiritual part of man defiled? If food does not enter our heart/our soul, how then can it make us unclean? It can’t.
What Jesus is explaining here is what the Levitical food laws always taught.
Genesis 1 is very clear that everything that God created is good, and that includes pigs and shellfish, bacon and shrimp, things that were temporarily forbidden by Moses. But nothing is unclean or evil in itself.
What Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 are teaching is that for Israel as a holy nation, these animals are going to be a sign of spiritual cleanliness or spiritual dirtiness.
So to summarize: Something can be called unclean in two ways, 1) it can be called unclean in itself (which nothing is) or 2) it can be unclean in what it signifies. So a pig might be externally dirty, but spiritually it cannot defile you, and therefore in itself it is clean. It’s just a pig. But a pig insofar as it signifies a filthy lifestyle, rolling in the dirt of sin, is unclean. And the Jews were commanded to observe this distinction to teach them that if you want to be close to God, you need to be spiritually clean.
The Jews were meant to see what is obvious in Jesus’ parable, that food doesn’t go into the heart, and from that truth, conclude that God must have given this distinction between clean and unclean animals to teach them a lesson.
And what was that lesson? That clean and unclean animals represent different kinds of people, different kinds of nations. Are you a vulture or a dove? Are you a lamb without blemish, or a ravaging wolf? Animals are the sign, and people are what they signify.
This is especially obvious when you consider that the entire sacrificial system revolved around this principle. Animals represent the worshipper; they can represent the priest or nation or a child or our works. And the only animals you were allowed to sacrifice were clean animals that had no spot or blemish (Bulls, Sheep, Goats, Doves, or Pigeons).
This is how King David (who knew this) could say things in Psalm 51 like, “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
So what makes a man’s heart pure? That he is humble and contrite before the Lord.
What makes a man’s offering acceptable to God? That it is offered to Him in true faith and love.
As God says in Hosea 6:6, “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
Moses and David, Hosea and all the prophets, knew the meaning of the food laws, that they were teaching tools for Israel. And yet the Pharisees and the disciples and the crowds don’t get it. They do not yet have ears to hear or eyes to see what is obvious, “that whatever a man eats, only goes into the body, it cannot defile his heart.”
If that is true, where then does uncleanness come from?
Verses 20-23
20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
The source of evil and uncleanness in the world is not found in any material substance. There is no black goo out there called evil that has tainted everything. And in fact, evil has no substance, it is strictly a privation, evil is only an adjective that can only corrupt the good things God has given being to.
As Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:4, “Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving.”
So man’s body, his mouth, his stomach, insofar as it has material existence, is a good creation of God. What makes a man spiritually clean or unclean is the immaterial, non-physical part of him called the heart, or the soul, or the mind. These are all synonyms for that rational part of our nature that reasons and wills, judges and loves.
Jesus says, it is out of that place, the invisible heart of man, that proceed evil thoughts.
Jesus then goes on to list twelve different sins that proceed from those thoughts: adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts and so forth. So for man, what takes place in our heart/mind/soul, that immaterial part of us, moves us to do things with our body that are indeed corrupt.
So the disciples can eat bread without washing their hands, and so long as they eat with thanksgiving in their heart, no defilement comes to them.
And at the same time, you could bathe your whole body, clean all your pots and utensils, and eat only clean animals, organic with no preservatives all natural, but if you eat that clean food without thanksgiving, without any real love for God, you are defiled. Not because of the food, but because of your heart as you eat that food.
Our culture loves to locate sin everywhere else except where it actually is. We always have someone else to blame, some mitigating circumstance, some excuse for why we did what we did. It’s always someone else’s fault. This is what Adam and Eve did in the garden, and it is what our sinful natures love to do.
So Jesus exposes our wickedness and removes every excuse by telling us exactly where the problem is. You cannot blame the food for why you are a glutton. You cannot blame the alcohol for why you committed blasphemy. You cannot blame the woman’s beauty for why you committed fornication. You cannot blame anything external to you, for the sinful actions of your heart. Those things might be the occasion for sin, but they are not the cause or source of sin.
Jesus says, “All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
So this is the nature of true defilement. It is not what goes into the body but what comes out of your heart that makes you either clean or unclean.
To drive this truth home, Mark gives us two scenes to illustrate this point. The first scene is Jesus casting out an unclean spirit from an unclean woman’s daughter.
Verse 24
24 And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.
In the days of David and Solomon, Israel had an alliance with the King of Tyre, and Tyre supplied both raw materials and workersfor the construction of the temple. Hiram of Tyre did all the brass work on the temple (1 Kings 7). So once upon a time, the holiest place on earth, was constructed with the help and materials of those in Tyre.
However, as time went on and Israel apostatized, so also did Tyre and Sidon.
The most notorious villain that came from this region was the Sidonian princess Jezebel, who married King Ahab. Jezebel promoted idolatry, she had hundreds of false prophets, she persecuted Elijah, and because of her, Tyre and Sidon came to symbolize pride and harlotry (Is. 23, Ezek. 26-28, Amos 1:9-10, Zech. 9:2-4). If ever there was an unclean land with unclean women, this was it. And this is where Jesus chooses to go, and who comes knocking on his door?
Verses 25-26
25 For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
Notice Mark calls our attention to this woman’s language and birthplace, she is a Greek-speaking Gentile born in the Syrian part of Phoenicia. In Matthew’s version he simply calls her a Canaanite woman (Matt. 15:22).
Based on these facts, we should be suspicious of her. Remember Jezebel.
However, this woman insists that Jesus come and cast forth the devil out of her daughter. She has heard and believes that Jesus can clean the unclean.
Knowing this, Jesus gives her a test.
Verses 27-30
27 But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet (οὐ γὰρ καλόν) to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. 28 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. 29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. 30 And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.
What is the test Jesus gives her?
He sets up a scenario where hungry children need to eat, and it would be morally wrong to feed the dogs with the children’s food. The children are of course the children of Israel (the Jews), and the dogs are the unclean Gentiles (this woman and her daughter).
Jesus is calling this woman a dog.
Rather than being insulted, this woman recognizes that Jesus is inviting her to enter the story and wrestle with Him. He wants to make known to the world (and especially to the Jews) how great her faith is.
How does the woman respond? She calls Jesus, “Lord.” “Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.”
Remember the feeding of the 5,000, there were twelve baskets of bread leftover. Jesus fed in abundance the children of Israel, and this woman recognizes the priority Israel has in being God’s covenant people. The children should be fed first because God adopted them and promised to feed them. However, just because the children must be fed first, does not mean the Gentiles cannot, at the same time, eat the scraps.
The woman enters Jesus’ story, she accepts her place as a little dog under the table, and because of her humility and faith, Jesus says, “for this saying, go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.”
What made the daughter clean? It was her faithful mother, getting on the floor, crawling in the dirt under the table, looking for scraps from Jesus. And because of her faith, the devil is cast out.
Do you see the contrast Jesus gives us. There are scribes and Pharisees and Jews who are externally clean, they wash and eat the bread. But because they eat with unbelief, they are actually defiled. And then you have a Gentile Woman, this Canaanite, who is externally unclean and knows it (she’s a dog). But she is willing to do whatever it takes to get to Jesus. Faith has made her daughter clean.
Do you wrestle with God like this woman does? Are you persistent in your prayers? Or do you stop asking when heaven seems silent?
The Syrophoenician woman does what the patriarch Jacob did right before God changed his name to Israel. She wrestles with God and prevails. She argues with Jesus, and wins. This is what God wants from His people. He wants us to know our place, to own up to the sin that proceeds from inside us (no excuses), and then He wants us to do whatever it takes to get the bread of heaven. To partake of Him who is eternal life.
When God plays hard to get like he does with this woman, it is not because he is angry or upset or indifferent to you, it is because he loves you and wants your faith to grow. He wants your desires to mature. He wants your appetite to grow from settling for frozen tv-dinners, when a five-star feast awaits you. God wants us to desire the infinite glories of His kingdom, more than the fleeting pleasures of this world.
He says in Jeremiah 29:13, “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
2 Chronicles 16:19 says, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
This is why God tests us. It is why Jesus tests this woman. To make known to her and to us and to the whole world, the cleansing power of faith.
Verses 31-37
Finally, we are given a second scene to illustrate the nature of true defilement.
I will summarize this scene for us.
In verse 31, Jesus enters “the coasts of Decapolis,” this was where he earlier cast out a legion of demons into a herd of swine, so this predominately unclean Gentile territory.
In verse 32, they bring to Jesus “one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech,” and Jesus proceeds to heal him. But the way that Jesus heals this man is rather strange.
Verse 33-34 says, “he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.”
Why does Jesus put his fingers in this man’s ears, and why does he spit and touch the man’s tongue? Let’s start with the fingers in the ears.
In Exodus 21:1-6, we are given the ritual for a servant to be adopted into his master’s household.
Exodus 21:5-6 says, “if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.”
This ritual of putting a hole in the ear was to signify that the servant’s ear is ever open to his master’s word.The servant could have gone free, but freely chooses to become a permanent servant of the master whom he loves. And because he is now a full member of the household, and adopted son, he is able to inherit what his master bestows.
This ritual was what God had done for Israel. He adopted them as his firstborn son, he had opened their ears to hear his voice, and if they love and serve him, they will inherit the promised land.
This is what Jesus is reenacting when he opens this man’s ears. His fingers are the aul (the needle) that opens the ear, and by doing this, Jesus is adopting him into the kingdom.
What about the spit and the tongue?
The first thing we should recognize is that the things that are gross and unclean in us, like our tongues and our spit, are pure in Jesus. Jesus’ spit, Jesus’ saliva, is actually cleansing.
And what Jesus is doing here is recreating man. How was Adam formed? From the dust of the earth, and the breath of God (Gen. 2:7).
And how is this deaf and mute man re-formed? By the hands of God in his ears and the wet breath of God on his tongue.
This is exactly what Isaiah prophesied 700 years prior.
Isaiah 35:4-6, 8 says, “Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: Behold, your God will come with vengeance, Even God with a recompence; He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, And the tongue of the dumb sing: For in the wilderness shall waters break out, And streams in the desert… And an highway shall be there, and a way, And it shall be called The way of holiness; The unclean shall not pass over it…”
Conclusion
Jesus is the God who comes to show us the way of holiness. And if we would be holy as he is holy, then we must observe his teaching in this gospel:
First own up to where evil truly comes from, it comes from within. We must stop blaming other people, we must stop blaming our circumstances, we must stop making excuses for our sins.
Second, we must humble ourselves like the Syrophoenician woman, we must be willing to get on the ground and wrestle with God for his blessing.
And Third, we must be willing to have Jesus make us uncomfortable so that he can remake us, poke open our ears, spit, and touch our tongue. All these things He must do, if we would become servants of The Master, and sons of the Most High King.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen.

Sermon: Secular Pharisees (Mark 6:45-7:13)

Secular PhariseesSunday, August 6th, 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 6:45-7:13
45 And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. 46 And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. 47 And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. 48 And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. 49 But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out: 50 For they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid. 51 And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. 52 For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.
53 And when they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret, and drew to the shore. 54 And when they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew him, 55 And ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was. 56 And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.
7 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. 2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. 3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. 4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. 5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? 6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: 11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. 12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; 13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Prayer
O Father your Word says that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Father, we confess that our churches, our cities, our state and our nation, has walked contrary to Your Spirit, we have grieved Your Spirit, we have hardened our hearts against Your Spirit and so we are in bondage to sin. Grant us deliverance we ask. Give us life from the dead, for we ask this in Jesus name, and Amen.
Introduction
Last week we saw Jesus perform the miracle of feeding 5,000 men. What began with five loaves and two fishes, concluded with thousands of full bellies, and twelve disciples each with his own personal take-home basket. We saw in this miracle that while bread and fish can feed a man’s body, only the Eternal Word from the Father, can feed a man’s soul. And unlike bread and fish which perish in the using, the teaching of Christ is imperishable, unlimited, and infinitely valuable, for it shows us the way to God.
Now in every miracle that Jesus performs, there is a sign and there is a thing signified. Miracles are living parables that have a surface or external meaning, which is usually pretty obvious (ex. multiplying loaves, calming the sea, casting out a demon, etc.), but only those with living faith, “eyes to see, and ears to hear,” can understand their significance.
As the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:6, “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
In other words, you could be standing in front of Jesus, listening to him teach, you could be like the disciples, watching him heal the sick, raise the dead, and walk upon the waves, and yet still not recognize who He is.
So far in Mark’s Gospel, nobody understands who Jesus is. They might recognize Him as a great prophet, as a great teacher, as a mighty worker of miracles, but none of them see that this is God in the flesh.
Our text this morning continues the same theme and gives us three different groups of people who encounter Jesus but continue to not see Him as He is.
Outline
In verses 45-52, the disciples continue to not understand, their heart is hardened.
In verses 53-56, the crowds continue to seek Jesus, but only for their bodily/physical needs.
In verses 1-13 of chapter 7, the scribes and Pharisees continue to make themselves look silly by arguing with God.
Starting in verse 45, let us walk through our text.
Verses 45-46
45 And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. 46 And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray.
So Jesus has fed the sheep, he has taught them and given them food, and now he sends them away. And the purpose for sending his disciples on ahead of him, is so that he can be alone to pray.
In that Jesus is Divine, he has no need to pray, for He is the God who answers prayer. But by this human action we are given an example of what is most needful as humans. We need solitude, we need elevation, we need quietness of mind. We need sanctuary.
When God talked to Moses, where was it? Upon a mountain (Ex. 3). When God talked to Elijah, where was it? Upon a mountain (1 Kings 19). What is the tabernacle and temple, but symbolic mountains? They are the high points, the high places where sacrifice is offered, where heaven meets earth, and God comes down to speak with us.
What Jesus does physically in ascending the mountain, all of us are called to do spiritually.
This is why Paul says in Colossians 3, “seek those things which are above…set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
This is what Jesus is teaching us by his actions, he sends everyone away, and “departs into a mountain to pray.”
Send away the crowds of thoughts, put off the carnal man, and put on the Lord Jesus, ascend with him to prayer.
Verses 47-50
47 And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. 48 And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night (that is between 3am-6am) he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. 49 But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out: 50 For they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.
So Jesus is alone on the mountain to pray, and he is there from the evening until the early morning hours. And when the fourth watch had come (that is, the last watch before morning light) he sees the disciples toiling in rowing. The wind is fighting them. And so “he cometh unto them.”
It says in Psalm 102:19, “The LORD hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary,” and therefore, Jesus looking down upon his struggling disciples, descends the mountain, and walks upon the sea.
Who is this man that he has such power?
A pious Jew would recognize that walking upon the sea is something only God does.
It says in Job 9:8, “He alone spreadeth out the heavens, And treadeth upon the waves of the sea.”
Job 41 says that God, “draws out the great sea dragon with a hook,” and “plays with Leviathan as with a bird.”
Psalm 74:13 says, “He breaks the heads of the dragons in the waters.”
So who is Jesus, if God alone “treadeth upon the waves of the sea?” He is the Lord. The Creator. The ruler over all.
And if walking upon the sea was not enough to make this plain, Mark draws our attention to two other things that reveals Jesus’ divine identity.
First, it says in verse 48, that Jesus “would have passed by them.” That is, just as the glory of God was revealed and passed by Moses on the mountain (Ex. 33), so also Jesus passes by his disciples.
And whereas God said to Moses, “thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen,” to the disciples, God reveals his very face, it is the face of Jesus Christ.
This is the irony. Although they see the physical face of Jesus, they do not perceive that this is the glory of God. That kind of perception requires a different kind of sight, which we call the light of faith.
Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:6, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
So at this point in Jesus ministry, the disciples see, but do not see. They are looking at the face of God and don’t even realize.
Second, Mark draws our attention to what Jesus says to the disciples before he gets into the boat. In verse 50, Jesus says, “Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.”
This phrase, “it is I,” in Greek is “ἐγώ εἰμι,” “I AM.” Which should remind us of God’s personal name, “I AM THAT I AM” (Gk. Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν).
So Jesus is hinting at, if not outright revealing, that He is the great I AM, who revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush.
The disciples, however, do not perceive this. They are like Eliphaz, one of Job’s worthless counselors who says, “the spirit passed before my face…but I could not discern the form thereof” (Job 4:15).
Verses 51-52
51 And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. 52 For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.
Notice that amazement and wonder is not the same thing as having true and saving faith. You can be amazed by the miracles of Jesus, you can be impressed by his teaching and power, and yet have a heart as hard as Pharoah. The disciples then are in dangerous territory. Like Pharoah they have seen signs and wonders firsthand, they have as Hebrews 6:5 says, “tasted the good Word of God, and powers of the age to come.”
But despite this close and up-front experience, Mark says, “they considered not the miracle of the loaves,”that is they failed to perceive that Jesus is God when he multiplied loaves and fishes. And now, again, they fail to perceive that Jesus is God, when he walks upon the sea.
The exhortation for us then is summed up by Hebrews 3:12, “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”
Many people have found themselves amazed and impressed by Jesus, amazed and impressed even by the Christian religion and what is wrought in the Western world. But admiration and respect for Jesus, is not the same thing as true belief. It is not the same thing as love for God.
So take heed brother and sisters, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief.
In verses 53-56, we see the crowds coming again to Jesus for healing. This itself is a multiplication of what we saw back in chapter 5, when Jesus came into the region of the Gadarenes (Mark 5:1). There a demoniac came running to him and found healing, and now the crowds come running bringing the sick.
Verses 53-56
53 And when they had passed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret, and drew to the shore. 54 And when they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew him, 55 And ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was. 56 And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.
This section sets up a contrast between the masses who are sick (and know it) and therefore Jesus makes them whole. And the Pharisees, who think they are healthy, clean, holy, and therefore criticize Jesus for not washing his hands.
One group knows they are physically sick, and therefore receive physical healing.
The other group (the scribes and Pharisees) are physically clean but spiritually they are sick, and do not realize it.
Both of these groups have the same problem in that they do not recognize their true need. Physical healing is great, but what they really need is spiritual healing, the forgiveness of sins. Washing your hands before you eat is a good and fine tradition, but washing your heart is infinitely more important.
Like the disciples, both of these groups see the sign, but not the thing signified. They see Christ’s power, but not His purpose for revealing that power.
So as we get into chapter 7, verses 1-13, we launch into a debate over tradition and authority. What is the place of tradition in relation to God’s Word?
In verses 1-5, the Pharisees pose a question, and in verses 6-13, Jesus gives his response.
Verses 1-5 – The Pharisees’ Question
Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. 2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. 3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. 4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. 5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
The theological position of the Pharisees was that Israel was called by God to be a holy people, but because of their unholiness, God had judged them. And this is true insofar as it goes.
However, the Pharisees erred in two major places as Jesus will show.
First, they did not understand the nature of true holiness. They equated external cleanliness with internal cleanliness, and therefore only had the appearance of godliness without the substance.
And second, they misapplied the law of God. They took a true command that was unique to the priests at the Tabernacle and applied it to the whole nation, and enforced as if it had Divine warrant.
This tradition of washing hands before eating appearsto have its roots in Exodus 30:19-21 which says,
“For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet [in the bronze laver]: 20 When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord: 21 So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.”
So while it is certainly no sin to wash your hands before you eat, it is a great sin to treat a voluntary custom as if it is equal to the Ten Commandments.
And what Jesus exposes in the Pharisees is that human beings care far more about looking righteous than being righteous.Mankind has an incessant need to justify himself in the eyes of others, and so we invent laws and customs and regulations that give us the appearance of godliness, without ourselves being godly.
Let us watch how Jesus exposes this.
Verses 6-13 – Jesus’ Response
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: 11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. 12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; 13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Jesus goes for the jugular here and minces no words with the Pharisees.
He meets them on their own turf by quoting the authority that they claim to hold in highest esteem, Moses.
For Moses said, “Honor thy father and thy mother.” But notice, Jesus stops there, he does not give the full citation which is, “that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
Instead of giving the promise for keeping the 5th commandment, Jesus inserts the penalty for breaking the 5th commandment, also from Moses.
Exodus 21:17, “And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.”
So Jesus gives two witnesses from their highest authority, Moses. And then he proceeds to demonstrate that they are guilty of breaking God’s law, and according to Moses, should be put to death.
The example Jesus gives is that instead of providing financial support to their aging parents, they write it off as Corban (a gift). In other words, they have the wealth to support their needy parents, but they give it to their buddies at the Temple instead, using God as their “tax shelter.”
Why can’t they help their mother and father, why can’t they give them honor? Because they must honor God above them. You can see how holy this sounds. And Jesus says, you deserve to die for this.
Not only are you breaking the 5th commandment by not giving your parents honor, you are blaspheming the name of God by invoking Him as your excuse.
So Jesus hangs them by their own principles. If Moses is the highest authority in your tradition, well according to Moses you deserve to die.
This is the threat and warning Jesus gives them when he says, “This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”
He is quoting Isaiah 29:13, which is a prophesy of Jerusalem’s destruction.
Just as God destroyed Jerusalem for idolatry in 586, so also the Son of Man will destroy Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Why? Because “in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”
Conclusion
There are a multitude of applications we could make from this passage, but I will limit myself to just one.
We are presently governed by Secular Pharisees (hypocrites) because there is still a little Pharisee inside all of us. Satan was the original Pharisee, he wanted to make the rules instead of following God’s rules, and ever since Adam and Eve heeded the voice of the serpent, we have been inventing and enforcing false versions of godliness, false versions of righteousness.
What were the Covid restrictions but Militant Secular Pharisaism?
Our government worships itself, their prophet was Dr. Fauci, and the CDC was their divine lawgiver. And if you did not sanitize sufficiently, or mask up, or keep your 6 feet of distance, you were not keeping the laws of cleanliness. You were unclean.
They shut down churches, they locked up pastors, they prevented family members from seeing their loved ones in the hospital, and all in the name of “public safety.” Because they care about your wellbeing. This is the hypocrisy we are ruled by.
God makes it very clear in Scripture, that when you worship idols, you get the bondage of bureaucracy. Proverbs 28:2 says, “When a land transgresses, it has many rulers.”
If we as a nation, continue to harden our hearts against God, we will continue to be governed by Pharisees. The kind of Pharisees that Jesus denounces saying, “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.”
If you don’t want to be ruled by Pharisees, crucify the Pharisee in your own heart. It’s not hard to spot a Pharisee out there, it is very hard to kill the Pharisee in here. But this is what Christ calls us to do.
Our old man deserves to die. All of us have broken all of the commandments. And this is exactly why God came to earth in Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus is walking on water, healing the sick, and arguing with Pharisees. It is because he loves them.
Jesus loves his hard-hearted disciples, and eventually he will open their eyes.
Jesus loves the crowds coming to him for healing like sheep without a shepherd, and eventually he will save their souls.
Jesus loves even the Pharisees, and he is going to take their best and brightest, a man named Saul of Tarsus, and turn him into an Apostle.
So while it may seem bleak out there (and it really is) and wicked in here (which all of us must fight against), Jesus has the power to make us actually holy, actually righteous, and that is what his death and resurrection offers to all.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Sermon: Like Sheep Without A Shepherd (Mark 6:30-44)

Like Sheep Without A ShepherdSunday, July 30th 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 6:30-44
30 And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. 31 And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. 32 And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. 33 And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him. 34 And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things. 35 And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: 36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. 37 He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? 38 He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. 39 And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. 40 And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. 41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. 42 And they did all eat, and were filled. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. 44 And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.
Prayer
Father, you are the God who satisfies the desire of every living thing. We thank you for giving us Christ to be the bread of life for us, and ask that you would nourish us now, by Your Word and Spirit. We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
We come now in Mark’s gospel to one of the most famous miracles in Jesus’ ministry, the feeding of the five thousand. This is the only miracle (besides his resurrection) that is recorded in all four of the gospels. Each gospel does something a little bit different with it, and here Mark’s emphasis is on the contrast between the feast that Jesus prepares and the feast the King Herod prepares.
Last week we saw that Herod prepares a feast for his nobles and governing officials, and in a sick twist of events, the head of John the Baptist is brought out on a serving dish. The feast of the wicked is to have a prophet on a platter.
Jesus on the other hand is the good shepherd, the true king, and unlike Herod and his court who devour the sheep, Jesus feeds the sheep both physically and spiritually.
The crowds are hungry for teaching and so Jesus feeds them God’s Word. And when the day is spent, and their bodies are hungry, Jesus miraculously multiples bread and fish to feed their bodies as well.
Who else can do this but God alone? Who else can make bread and fish multiply but the God who created bread and fish in the first place?
On every single page of Mark’s gospel, we are given signs both implicit and explicit, that Jesus is the Son of God. This is of course what we should expect because the opening words of this gospel are, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
So Mark is hammering home this thesis that Jesus is divine, Jesus is the YHWH of the Old Testament, Jesus is the promised Messianic King. And in this scene where he feeds 5,000 men, plus women and children, we are given another visual fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies (Ezek. 34, Jer. 23, etc.).
So let us walk through this text together and see how Jesus fulfills the promises God made through the prophets.
Verse 30
30 And the apostles gathered themselves together unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught.
We remember that earlier in this chapter, in verses 7-13, Jesus called, anointed, and commissioned The Twelve to go forth preaching in the surrounding villages. We were told they cast out demons and healed the sick, but before we got that full report of their ministry, Mark inserted a flashback to describe the death of John the Baptist. Well now that flashback is over, and we come to back to real-time, and the disciples return.
Mark calls them apostles here (literally “sent ones”), and this is the only time they will be called apostles in this gospel. These apostles tell Jesus about the exorcisms and healings accomplished by their hands, and also tell him what they had taught.
Jesus, seeing that they did what he commanded, now invites them to a retreat.
Verse 31
31 And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.
Notice again we have this motif/theme of the wilderness (deserted place) as a place where God meets with His people.
The wilderness is especially where God meets with his prophets, his spokesmen, and that was of course the place where John the Baptist’s voice used to be heard.
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Mark 1:3).
John baptized in the wilderness, but now that Herod has beheaded him, it falls to Jesus to pick up Elijah’s mantle. And just as Elisha surpassed Elijah, being given a double portion of Elijah’s spirit and doing twice as many miracles, so also Jesus far surpasses John, having received the Holy Spirit without measure.
So Jesus picks up John’s mantle (so to speak) and continues to show his disciples the way of the Lord, and where does that way lead? It leads back to the wilderness.
However, rather than finding a restful retreat from the crowds and ministry, the crowds and the ministry follow them.
Verses 32-33
32 And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. 33 And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them, and came together unto him.
You can imagine the scene here, Jesus and The Twelve get back into the boat, and that is about as much privacy as they are able to find these days.
And while they are casting off from shore, looking forward to a little R&R, some peace and quiet, people see them departing and start to run after them.
These people are so desperate to be with Jesus that they run ahead of the boat (“outwent them”) and get to Jesus’ destination before him.
And this was not just a handful of people who ran to meet Jesus, this is thousands (“they ran afoot out of all cities”). This is a stampede of running sheep. So what does Jesus do?
Verse 34
34 And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.
Jesus gets out of the boat, sees this crowd, and it says, “he was moved with compassion toward them.”
In Greek this work for “moved with compassion” is a very visceral term that denotes the bowels or guts or inward parts of us where we feel things. It’s like saying Jesus’ stomach was tied up in knots over what he saw. He was moved in his bosom, in the depths of his being with pity for them.
And the reason for this stomach-turning pity is that the people are like sheep without a shepherd.
They are wandering in herds and hungry, but no one is there to feed them.
They are lost in the woods and in need of rescue, healing, and love, but no one is there to give that to them.
And this is the state of many millions of Americans today, even many millions who call themselves Christians. They are lost. They are lonely. They are easily led astray by the things they read and watch and hear on the internet.
One of the reasons church membership is so important is because we all need a shepherd, we all need accountability, we all need someone to watch over and protect our souls.
This is what Paul commands in Hebrews 13:7, “Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.”
Jesus Christ is our chief shepherd, but he has appointed under shepherds, pastors and elders, to care for his flock, to feed the sheep and tend to them.
There are millions of professing Christians who do not go to church, who have no real relationship with their pastor or elders, and they think that watching a sermon online, or getting together with some friends for a Bible study, is all they need to be spiritually healthy.
But that is so far from the picture of the church we find in Scripture.
In Acts we see the church meeting together in person regularly. At times they even gather daily in the temple for worship, and break bread in one another’s houses (Acts 2:42-47).
The biblical picture of the church is one that has structure, and hierarchy, routine and ritual, government and discipline, and a whole lot of eating together.
That is how God wants the sheep to be organized and cared for. And when the shepherds fail in this duty, the sheep wander. And that is what Jesus finds when he comes to Galilee and it grieves him.
What is God’s heart towards a lost and wandering nation?
Jesus reveals that He is moved in the depths of his being with compassion and pity. God is sad at the lostness of these Galileans.
These are the people that Herod is supposed to protect and care for. But he is away, busy at court, feasting sumptuously and murdering their prophet. The one faithful shepherd they had; Herod executes.
This phrase, “sheep without a shepherd” is actually a quotation from the mouth of Moses back in the book of Numbers.
In Numbers 27, God is talking to Moses about a succession plan for the nation since Moses is going to die, and Moses says this, “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, 17 Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd. 18 And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him…”
So the nation of Israel are the sheep, the shepherd is their king/leader, and who does God appoint so that they are not like sheep without a shepherd? God appoints Joshua.
Joshua is just the Hebrew form of the name Jesus (Gk. Ἰησοῦς). And that name Ἰησοῦς or יְהוֹשׁוּעַ (Joshua) literally means YHWH Saves or YHWH is Salvation.
Who is the one who shepherds Israel? YHWH Saves.
Just as God appointed Joshua to lead his flock Israel into the promised land, so also God sent forth His Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, to lead us into His kingdom.
How then does our Joshua lead us?
Verse 34 tells us, “He began to teach them many things.”
The mark of a true shepherd is to give the Word of God unto the people. The shepherd is like a chef or a cook, who rightly divides the Word, and apportions it out to all who will hear.
And notice the order in which Jesus feeds this crowd. First, he feeds them spiritually the Word of God, and only after that, does he feed them physically.
This order and priority is exactly what Jesus says in Matthew 4:4 (quoting Deut. 8:3), “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
We read this story and are rightly amazed that Jesus can multiply 5 loaves and 2 fishes into an abundance that feeds thousands. But think about it, what is of more lasting value? The feeding of someone’s body for one meal? Or the feeding of someone’s eternal soul? Which meal has a more lasting impact? Food is good and necessary, but the Word of God is even more so.
The whole purpose for this miracle we are about to read, is to signify that the teaching of Jesus, the preaching of God’s Word, the food of the kingdom, is unlimited in supply. You just need faithful shepherds to give it out.
So keep that in mind as we watch how this miracle plays out.
Verses 35-36
35 And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: 36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat.
Remember, the disciples have just returned from a short-term missionary trip, where Jesus explicitly told them not to bring food, or bread, or a knapsack or extra provisions, and to trust God to give them what they need.
Well, did God provide for them? Yes. They survived. God provided. And so here is a new test for their faith. Can God provide for even this many?
I suspect the thought did not even cross their minds to try to feed this many people. They recognize it’s getting late, they know they don’t have enough food to feed the crowd, and so it’s quite reasonable to tell Jesus to send them away for dinner. How does Jesus respond?
Verse 37
37 He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?
The disciples think Jesus is just sending them on an errand to go buy a bunch of bread. And so their first thought it is well we don’t have that much money. We can’t afford that.
Two hundred pennyworth (denari) is roughly two hundred days’ worth of wages. This is a big crowd!
Verse 38
38 He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.
The disciples are still confused at this point, and probably think Jesus’ request is a little pointless. Obviously 5 loaves and 2 fishes are not enough to go around.
Nevertheless, Jesus says, “make everyone sit down.”
Verses 39-40
39 And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. 40 And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.
There are two peculiar details that Mark includes here.
The first is that Jesus makes the people to sit down “upon the green grass.” And this is kind of odd because the place they are located is still the wilderness, the deserted place. How can 5,000 men, plus women and children all have green grass to sit on?
Well what Mark is doing is calling to mind by this detail, Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.”
What has Jesus done in this gospel? He just commanded the Sea of Galilee to become still waters. And now, he makes these thousands of sheep without a shepherd to lie down in green pastures. And now he is going to feed them, so they have no want.
In Psalm 23, who is the shepherd? It is the LORD, YHWH.
Here in Mark 6, who is the shepherd? It is Jesus.
Jesus is LORD. YHWH Saves. This is the message of every miracle!
The second details Mark draws out is that “they sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties.”
In Exodus 18, by hundreds and fifties is how Israel is divided up and organized in the wilderness.
And the Greek word here for “sat down in ranks” (πρασιαὶ πρασιαί) comes from this image of orderly planting rows in a garden bed.
What is Jesus doing here?
He is replanting the nation of Israel. Instead of being a disorganized mass of sheep without a shepherd, he leads them and feeds them and sets them in order. Instead of being thorns and thistles scattered in the wilderness, he plants them in orderly rows like a skilled gardener.
Jesus is the one who comes to make Israel alive again. He comes to make true what they sang in the psalms.
Psalm 100 says, “It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”
By this miracles Jesus reveals he is both the Creator who made us, and the Shepherd who rules us.
Psalm 104:14-15 says, “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, And herb for the service of man: That he may bring forth food out of the earth; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, And oil to make his face to shine, And bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.”
Jesus opens his hands (arms outstretched) and satisfies the desire of every living thing.
Finally, we come to the miracle itself.
Verses 41-44
41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. 42 And they did all eat, and were filled. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. 44 And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.
We are not told exactly how this multiplication happened. We don’t know if the bread and fishes grew in Jesus hands as he divided them, or what this might have looked like if you were there. But what we do know, is that if God spoke the world into existence, and created everything out of nothing, then by that same divine power, he can make fish and bread to multiply.
In Genesis 1:28 it says after the creation of mankind, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”
Well here, Jesus follows that same pattern we find at creation. He blesses, he breaks, he gives, and he multiplies. He blesses Adam, he breaks him open, he gives him Eve (he gives them the world), and then tells them to be fruitful and multiply.
Jesus is doing with bread and fish, what God commanded the human race to do at the very beginning. Our sin had frustrated that task. But in Jesus, a new creation is dawning.
A new humanity that lives not by bread and fish alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
We will see this same miracle again in chapter 8, when Jesus feeds the 4,000, and he says afterwards to his disciples in essence, “Are you so blind, is your heart hardened that you do not understand, why are you only thinking in earthly terms? Don’t you see that bread and fish signify something greater. They signify the multiplication of true doctrine. He says to them, “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod” (Mark 8:15). They have false food, false doctrine, whereas Christ has the true food, the true leaven.
Jesus says in Matthew 13:33, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”
What do five loaves and two fish signify? They signify the Word of God.
The church fathers saw in these five loaves a reference to the five books of Moses (the Law/Torah). And in the two fishes which make the bread more flavorful, they saw a reference to the Psalms and the Prophets which expound that Law. Whatever the case, it is clear that what Jesus is signifying by this miracle is that the entirety of the Old Testament is taken up and blessed and fulfilled in Him (in his death and resurrection).
As Jesus Himself says in Luke 24:44, “All things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
So when Jesus is blessing and braking and distributing this food in superabundance, what is the real miracle?
The real miracle is that God’s Word is infinite. God’s Word is unlimited. The message of salvation, the doctrines contained in Scripture, unlike material bread and fish, can be shared and given freely to anyone.
In Jesus, the Law, and the Psalms, and the Prophets, become fruitful and multiply. The truth contained there in seed form, becomes food that can feed the whole world.
And who is going to distribute this doctrine to the people? The twelve apostles. At present they are just handing out bread and fish. But after Christ’s resurrection, their eyes will be opened, and they will understand the true meaning of the feeding of the 5,000. They are the shepherds who must feed God’s sheep. Just as Jesus commands Peter three times in John 21.
There are twelve baskets left over, one for each disciple, one for each tribe of Israel, and Jesus wants them to know that when they preach the Word of God, there will always be more than enough.
Closing Application
If you think about the difference between your physical and spiritual appetites, you will begin to understand more the kingdom of heaven.
We all know what it feels like to be hungry and then full. After we eat our fill, our bodily appetite goes away, and desire for food disappears. And therefore, it doesn’t really matter if you have a superabundance of bread or fish, or whatever your favorite dish is, because your physical appetite is finite and limited. And in fact, eating more, not matter how good that thing is, will probably make you sick.
But this is not the case when it comes to the spiritual appetite. When God awakens our spiritual desire to know the truth, he awakens in us something that is infinite.
As it says in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has placed eternity in the heart of man.”
C.S. Lewis famously says in Mere Christianity, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Lewis recognized that there was something inside of him that food and drink and physical pleasures could not satisfy. And when God awakens you to this reality, that you have a spiritual appetite, eternity in your heart, then the only logical conclusion is that you were made for something or someone who is spiritual and immaterial and infinite.
The gospel is that Jesus Christ is the eternal Word from the Father. He is the infinite God, made flesh for man.
And if you want to live forever, then you are going need spiritual food. Because man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
In the name the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Sermon: A Prophet On A Platter (Mark 6:14-29)

A Prophet On A PlatterSunday, July 23rd 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 6:14-29
14 And king Herod heard of him; (for his name was spread abroad:) and he said, That John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. 15 Others said, That it is Elias. And others said, That it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets. 16 But when Herod heard thereof, he said, It is John, whom I beheaded: he is risen from the dead. 17 For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife: for he had married her. 18 For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife. 19 Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him; but she could not: 20 For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly. 21 And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee; 22 And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. 23 And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. 24 And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist. 25 And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. 26 And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. 27 And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, 28 And brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. 29 And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.
Prayer
Father, we thank you for the example of Saint John the Baptist, a man greater and holier than any others before the coming of Christ. We thank you for the testimony of his martyrdom, and for his willingness to decrease that Jesus Christ might increase. As we reflect upon his execution in the Gospel of Mark, we ask for your Holy Spirit to guide us into the truth, for we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
Introduction
Last week we saw what happens when Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth. Jesus has been away for a time, ministering in Galilee, and yet despite the many signs and wonders and wisdom of his teaching, the people of Nazareth refuse to believe in Jesus.
This is of course exactly what Isaiah prophesied would happen when the Messiah comes.
Isaiah 53:2-3 says, “For he shall grow up before the LORD as a tender plant, And as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: And we hid as it were our faces from him; He was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
So Jesus did not walk around with a halo around his head or a divine glow radiating from his skin.The glory he had from all eternity was something hidden and concealed. There was not outward beauty that made people attracted to him.
John 1:11 says likewise, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”
So Jesus is suffering rejection from those who should be closest and kindest to him. His family, his brothers and sisters, his friends who grew up with him, they do not yet understand who Jesus of Nazareth is. They think that just because they knew him according to his humanity as a common carpenter, that therefore he could not be the promised Davidic King, and certainly not the Creator God in the flesh.
We saw last week that there are many diverse motives for rejecting Christ and the gospel, some are intellectual, some are theological, but more often than not, they are usually personal reasons like envy, jealousy, pettiness and pride.
And while these sins may seem relatively small or minor to us, Jesus says that it will be “more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city that rejects him” (Mark 6:11).
So what we might deem as a minor sin, like nursing a grudge, or coveting what someone else has, can actually become the cause of far more serious sins like rejecting God and his offer of salvation. The slope of unbelief is very slippery. And this is the sin of people of Nazareth.
However, by now, Jesus is used to rejection, He is no stranger to opposition, but that does not remove the sorrow in his heart over the people’s unbelief. And while many of us would be tempted to despair or discouragement or bitterness because our family or friends reject us, Jesus continues to minister undeterred.
As Isaiah 50:6-7 also says, “I gave my back to the smiters, And my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me; Therefore shall I not be confounded: Therefore have I set my face like a flint, And I know that I shall not be ashamed.”
Jesus (like the prophet Isaiah), for the joy that was set before him, despised the shame of the people who rejected him. He despised the shame of those who wanted to distance themselves from his movement.
And this absolutely fixed determination to do the Father’s will, come what may, is what Jesus wants all of his disciples to learn as well.
As the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 1:10, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
And so Mark has written this chapter in such a way as to teach us this lesson from Jesus: that no man can serve God faithfully if he also desires the approval of others. Just as you cannot serve God and Mammon, you cannot serve God and seek the approval of others.
Listen to what John 12:42-43 says about the people who attempt this, “Many even of the authorities believed in Jesus, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.”
The test of a true Christian is to answer the question: Who do you want glory from? Whose approval do you most desire?Is it God? Or is it man?How you answer that question will determine your fitness for the kingdom of heaven.
And so to help us aspire to this seeking the glory of God above the glory of men, Mark inserts this story of John the Baptist. And he inserts John’s martyrdom between the sending out of the disciples in verse 13 and their return in verse 30.
You can think of these verses (14-29) as a kind of interlude to inspire and encourage the disciples before they go out to preach. This is a coach’s pep talk in the locker room before they head out to the field.
And the takeaway from this interlude is pretty straightforward: Sometimes the reward for obeying God, is to have your head chopped off. Sometimes the reward for doing exactly what God commands you to do, is imprisonment and martyrdom.
And this is basically the opposite of how most people think about the Christian life. We think that obedience leads to blessing. Which is exactly right and true. But what we miss and often overlook is that God’s blessings sometimes come to us disguised as curses.
For John the Baptist, sitting in prison, might not seem like effective fruitful ministry. He can’t preach, he can’t baptize, he can’t point people to Jesus, he’s just sitting there in chains. And yet, his imprisonment and beheading, are going to be written down by the apostles and proclaimed until the end of the world in every nation under heaven, and the testimony of his faith, which is sealed in blood, will resound into eternity. John was counted worthy to suffer for the name, and that cursed death he endured was the reward of his faithfulness.
God’s blessings sometimes come to us disguised as curses. This whole scene of course is a foreshadowing of Christ’s death. If this is how the powers that be treat John a holy prophet and forerunner for the Messiah, then how they will treat the one who comes after him?
So with this in mind, let us turn to our text.
Verse 14
14 And king Herod heard of him; (for his name was spread abroad:) and he said, That John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.
Notice first that Mark calls Herod, “king Herod.” There are a bunch of Herods in the Bible (this is a different Herod than the one that tried to kill Jesus as an infant). This is Herod Antipas who was the tetrarch of Galilee. You can think of a tetrarch as a kind of local governor who only had power insofar as Caesar granted it. Rome was the imperial power, and Herod Antipas was the local governor over the regions of Galilee and Perea.
And the ironic thing about Mark calling him “king Herod,” is that he never actually held the official title of king though he desperately wanted it. The Jewish historian Josephus tells of how his wife Herodias goaded him into requesting this title of king from Caesar, and it was that ambitious request to be made king of the Jews, that led him to him being deposed and banished by the emperor Caligula (AD 39).
Now for all intents and purposes, for those who lived in Galilee, Herod very much lived and acted like a king. And beyond the irony of him being deposed for aspiring to that royal title, Mark calls Herod, “king Herod” because he wants to set up a contrast between two different kinds of king, two distinct visions of kingship.
Mark is wants us to compare King Herod with King Jesus, and therefore the rest of this chapter is a kind of commentary on what a true shepherd/king is compared to the false shepherd/king that is Herod.
We’ll see next week that Jesus will say in verse 34, the people are like “sheep without a shepherd” and then Jesus is going to miraculously feed those sheep with five loaves and two fish.
The contrast then, and the question Mark wants us to ask is, What kind of shepherd is king Herod? Does he feed the sheep, or devour them? Jesus multiplies and divides loaves and fishes, what does Herod divide?
So “king Herod” has heard of Jesus, and he thinks that John the Baptist has risen from the dead. And again, there are layers of irony here, because in Jesus, John will one day literally rise from the dead, but in the meantime, John was Elijah, and Jesus is Elisha, who comes with a double portion of the same spirt. The ministry of Jesus then is what John’s ministry looks like resurrected. John did no mighty signs and wonders, but he preached the truth. Jesus comes as “a resurrected John” and is performing miracles all over the place.
In verses 15-16 we hear what people are speculating about Jesus’ identity…
Verses 15-16
15 Others said, That it is Elias (Elijah). And others said, That it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets. 16 But when Herod heard thereof, he said, It is John, whom I beheaded: he is risen from the dead.
Herod appears here haunted by the execution of John. And perhaps in his mind, Jesus is a kind of divine vengeance for John’s murder (the ghost of John is haunting him).
And then in verse 17, we get a flashback from Mark, which tells us how John’s execution went down.
Verses 17-20
17 For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife: for he had married her. 18 For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife. 19 Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him; but she could not: 20 For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.
King Herod is a man divided. He has married his niece, Herodias, who was also the wife of his half-brother Philip, and so there are multiple violations of God’s law in this marriage between Herod and Herodias.
Leviticus 18:16 says, “Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife.”
Leviticus 20:21 says, “And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.”
Herodias had already had a daughter together with Philip, and so for her to divorce him and then marry Herod Antipas was a scandal to the Jews.
John the Baptist therefore confronted Herod about this unlawful marriage, and ever since then, Herodias had wanted to kill John.
This should remind us of the various scenes in 1 Kings where King Ahab is controlled by his wicked wife Jezebel, and uses her husband’s power to get what she wants.
Elijah slaughters the false prophets of Baal, and then Jezebel tries to slaughter Elijah (1 Kings 18-19).
Naboth has a vineyard that Ahab desires, and Jezebel sets up false witnesses to have Naboth murdered.
There are many parallels between Ahab and Herod, Jezebel and Herodias, Elijah and John the Baptist.
And if you remember how Jezebel dies, she is thrown out of a window, eaten by dogs, and when they go to bury her it says, “they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands.” Jezebel has her head severed from her body.
So just as Jesus is John “risen from the dead.” Herodias has “resurrected” the spirit of Jezebel, and she now seeks the head of John the Baptist.
We should also note here that it belongs to the prophet to confront kings when they deviate from God’s law. It did not matter that Rome claimed supremacy, or that king Herod was not a professing believer. According to the law of God as set forth in Leviticus 18 and 20, it was unlawful for Herod to have his brother’s wife.
This prophetic ministry now belongs to the church, and therefore the job of preachers is not only to feed the people of God, but also to confront the lawlessness that happens in Washington D.C., in Olympia, and wherever the city council meets. The church is Christ’s mouthpiece to tell the powers that be, what is lawful and what is not.
It does not matter if the President or Governor or Mayor is not a Christian, the moral law of God is forever binding on all men, and if they deviate from it, we have the authority given to us by God, to tell them, “You may not have your brother’s wife.” You may not allow abortions in this state. You may not allow transgender surgeries in Washington. You may not allow same-sex mirage to exist. You may not draft our daughters into the military. On and on I could go. These people who desire to corrupt our children and spread perversity need to be punished, not elected to public office.
This is the prophetic ministry of the church, and if we start to preach like John the Baptist, we should not be surprised when they like Herodias, want to kill us.
The fact that we have so many women (like Herodias and Jezebel) in government is not a sign of great progress, it is a sign of God’s judgment.
Isaiah 3:12 says, “As for my people, children are their oppressors, And women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, And destroy the way of thy paths.”
If you go to vote, and your options are Herod, Herodias, Jezebel, or Deborah, of course choose righteous Deborah. But as you vote for her, remember that this is not how it is supposed to be.
When God ordained the government of Israel in Exodus 18:21-22, this was the standard for being a ruler, “Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: 22 And let them judge the people at all seasons.”
There are 4 basic qualifications for a godly ruler. You must be:
1. An able man (competent to rule)
2. Fear God
3. A Man of Truth
4. Hate Covetousness (hate a bribe)
Where are these men today? How many of our senators and representatives meet that very basic criteria? Not many.
If Christ is King of the world, then He is King of Centralia, He is Lord of Chehalis. Jesus is the ruler of Washington State and these United States. And Psalm 2 issues a warning to all human governments that we must constantly put in their ears, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, And ye perish from the way, When his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”
The blessing of God will not come to our nation, until we as a nation put our trust in Him. In the meantime, we can either lock up and behead preachers of God’s truth, or we can amplify their voice and repent at their preaching. Which way Western man?
In verses 21-23 we have Herodias’ wicked scheme.
Verses 21-23
21 And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee; 22 And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. 23 And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom.
This was most likely a very lewd dance from a teenage girl. And if you were to read about what took place in Herodian courts, this is not surprising activity. There was all kinds of incest and perversity there.
This dancing damsel stands in contrast to another damsel we just read about back in chapter 5, Jairus’s daughter who was at the point of death. We said that Jairus’s daughter signifies the death and resurrection of Israel of Daughter Zion, and here we have another picture of how corrupt Daughter Zion has become.
Here is a royal princess, dancing and debasing herself for the pleasure of men. This is exactly how God describes Jerusalem in Jeremiah and Ezekiel and elsewhere: Jerusalem is a daughter that has been made royalty, but who then debases herself with fornication and murder.
Ezekiel 16:15 says, “But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it.”
Jeremiah 11:15, 27 says, “What hath my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest…I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?”
Here we have another angle on this theme of Jerusalem as God’s daughter that has become corrupt.And just as Jerusalem is the city that murders and devours the prophets, so also this damsel will be the cause of John’s murder and their devouring of him.
So Herod offers the girl whatever she wants, up to half the kingdom, and now we get her request.
Verses 24-29
24 And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist. 25 And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger (on a platter/serving dish) the head of John the Baptist. 26 And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. 27 And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, 28 And brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. 29 And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.
What is the dish that the wicked desire to eat? It is the flesh of prophets. What is the communion meal and sacrament of the perverse? It is to consume the head of those who spoke the truth.
Herodias daughter is no innocent young girl, just doing what her mother says against her will. This is a daughter who has embraced her mother’s murderous intents, and even embellishes them. It is the girl who adds to the request, “I want his head on a platter, immediately.”
She, like her mother, knows that Herod is double-minded. Herod fears John and respects him as a holy man, and therefore John’s imprisonment is a compromise to keep John alive, and his wife at bay.
And so Herodias and her daughter look for and press upon Herod’s great weakness, which is his desire for approval and the keeping of appearances. The text says, “And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her.”
What did Herod want more than to keep John alive? He wanted to keep his reputation as king intact.Herod knew murdering John was morally wrong, he also knew it was bad public policy, it could incite rebellion, and endanger his ability to rule. He had a bad conscience about the whole thing. But feeling bad about sin, is not the same thing as repentance.
And at this point of the girls requests, Herod still had a way out. He could have given her half of his kingdom instead. He could have broken his oath as an unlawful oath, we know he had no problem breaking marriage vows.
And so Herod, instead of dividing his kingdom, divides the head from the body of John the Baptist. He caves to the pressure of his wife and this girl and the people who are watching.
We have then a great inversion here of something that happened in King Solomon’s court. You remember the scene where two women come in, with competing claims of who is mother of the baby. And Solomon threatens to divide the baby in half. And the true mother out of love for her child, pleads for the baby’s life (give it the other woman), and thus Solomon discerns true mother from false mother.
Well King Herod has no such discernment. And rather than judging righteously between two women, here two women exercise authority and judgment over him. This is the kind of king that King Herod is: weak-willed, compromised, double-minded, controlled by women and what they think.
In contrast to Herod, we have the examples of both John and Jesus.
John and Jesus preach the truth and care only for the approval of God. They could care less what people think of their preaching.
What gives a man courage to confront kings and authorities and those who could do us great harm, is an absolute trust that God is on our side. That the Father is pleased with us, and it his good pleasure along that we desire.
Conclusion
If we want to become a faithful and honest church, where truth and love abound, then we are going to have to be a little bit brave.
We are going to have to first confront the wickedness and perversity in ourselves. We are going to have to repent, and put to death that little Herod and that bitter Herodias that dwells in our flesh. Our envy, our lust for power, for money, for reputation. The hankering for other people’s approval must die in us if we want courage to stand.
The true prophet is willing to lose his head for Christ. To decrease that He might increase.
The true king is willing to lay down his life for the sheep, to face down wolves to protect those who are his.
And so take John and take Jesus as your examples of what it means to be a true disciple, a true Christian.
The path that Jesus is taking us on is a path that leads through the valley of the shadow of death.And if you trust Jesus, even unto death, then you will find on other side: green pastures, still waters, beautiful and pleasant places that will restore your soul.
So trust the good shepherd, trust the true King, and surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: The Carpenter (Mark 6:1-13)

The CarpenterSunday, July 16th 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 6:1-13
And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. 2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. 4 But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. 5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. 6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching. 7 And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; 8 And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse: 9 But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats. 10 And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place. 11 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. 12 And they went out, and preached that men should repent. 13 And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.
Prayer
Father, we thank you for sending forth Christ to bring us to You. We thank you Lord Jesus for sending the apostles to preach Your gospel. We thank you for giving us that gospel and preserving it for us to read. We ask that you would give us faith to hear and understand it now. In Jesus name, Amen.
Introduction
This morning we come to a new chapter and section in Mark’s gospel. So far we have seen Jesus perform many miracles and those miracles come to climax with the resurrection of a twelve year old girl from the dead (the raising of Jairus’s daughter), which we saw last week (that was how chapter 5 ended).
All through these opening five chapters, Jesus has been demonstrating that He has power to heal any affliction, He has power to cast out and conquer demons, He has power to control the wind and the waves of the sea, He even has power over death itself.
And the conclusion Jesus wants us to arrive at from observing these mighty works is that Jesus is indeed God, Jesus is divine. No one could do all of these things the way that Jesus does unless He is God. And so miracles are given as signs of Jesus’ divinity, and yet not all who hear and see these signs come to that conclusion. As Jesus said when he taught in parables, not everyone has ears to hear nor eyes to see.
This is especially true of Jesus’ own family, his friends, and his acquaintances back in Nazareth. And the question I want to set before us as we ponder this text is: Why is it that some people refuse to believe in Jesus? We know of course the big answer is sin, but what specific sins, what specific obstacles are there, for people to believe on the Lord Jesus?
This text is going to give us some good examples to answer that question.
Division of the Text
There are two basic sections to this passage:
In verses 1-6, Jesus returns to Nazareth and encounters unbelief.
In verses 7-13, Jesus sends out The Twelve and tells them the consequences of unbelief.
Remember the context here, Jesus has just commended the faith of the woman with the flow of blood. This unclean woman reached out in faith to Jesus and was healed. Jesus has just performed a series of astonishing miracles. And now Mark shows us in these two sections the inverse of that faith and the consequences of unbelief.
And part of the irony is that those who are most familiar with Jesus lack faith, while those who have only heard about him from a distance, have great faith. And we said this is a foreshadowing of the Jews eventually rejecting Christ while the Gentiles will embrace Him.
Verse 1
And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.
Jesus is now leaving the Sea of Galilee (the coastal regions) and going back to his hometown of Nazareth.
Nazareth was a kind of suburb of Galilee, about 25 miles southwest, and it probably had no more than 500 people living in it (perhaps fewer). Nazareth was only about 60 acres in size, and we know from other places in the New Testament that it was of very little reputation amongst the Jews.
For example, in John 1:46, Nathanael says to Phillip, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Little does he know that the only thing that is Good came out of Nazareth.
So Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah, but he was raised in Nazareth, and Nazareth was what we would call a little Podunk town (flyover country).
And so you can imagine the response of a small town when they start to hear that Jesus of Nazareth is performing miracles, healing people, casting out demons, teaching in the synagogues. And with that comes some natural curiosity but also suspicion; Is this really the same Jesus who grew up here? Who does he think he is now?
We saw back in Mark 3:21, that his companions, his friends and family thought he was “beside himself.” They thought maybe he’s gone crazy. And so there is both concern and suspicion and curiosity about Jesus as he returns to Nazareth after some time away.
Verses 2-3
2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.
So Jesus returns and he goes to teach in the synagogue he once grew up in (he goes back to his home church).And when they hear him teach, they are astonished, but they are astonished not at his teaching per se, but because they don’t understand how it is that this carpenter now teaches with greater wisdom and authority than the scribes. They are confused how this same Jesus they all once knew, who had brothers and sisters still living amongst them, could suddenly claim to be the promised Messianic King.
In Luke’s version of this same scene, they actually try to kill Jesus.
So this is the homecoming Jesus receives from his former neighbors. They are offended at him.
In verse 4 we see how Jesus responds.
Verse 4
4 But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
Why is this statement so proverbial and true? What is it about human nature that cannot stand to see people elevated above us, who were formerly our equals or inferiors? Why is it so hard for these fellow residents of Nazareth to rejoice that in one of their own, salvation has entered the world?
In English we have our own versions of this saying, something like, “familiarity breeds contempt” or “a bunch of crabs in a bucket.”
And the sin that is at the root of this rejection of Jesus is envy.
Envy is sorrow at another’s good.
It is envy that cannot rejoice that Jesus is the Son of God.
It is envy and human pride that cannot be glad that a blue-collar tradesman, can suddenly put all of the PHD holding rabbis to shame.
In verse 3 they ask, “Is not this the carpenter?” as if being a carpenter somehow disqualified Jesus from also being royalty or teaching them the Scriptures.
They say, “Is not this the son of Mary,” which suggests both that his father Joseph is probably long dead by now, and perhaps to their mind, Jesus is an illegitimate son of Mary, “he’s the son of that woman.”
In John 8, the Pharisees ask Jesus, “Where is your father?” and say, “We were not born of fornication.” Perhaps implying that Jesus was. I mean who really is going to believe before His death and resurrection that He was born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit? It sounds like a tall tale and a strange excuse for fornication.
So the residents of Nazareth are stumbled by the fact that Jesus was just like them in many ways. For 30 years he had lived a very ordinary life. He worked with his hands, he probably built fences or tools or even houses that some of them lived in. And in their mind, it would be totally incomprehensible that the little boy who they watched grow up into a man, who swung a hammer, who sweated, who ate the same food as them, and went to the same synagogue, would turn out to be the Creator God in the flesh. For people so familiar with Jesus’ humanity, it makes it almost harder for them to believe he is the Messiah.
Some find it hard to believe that God could become man, and some find it hard to believe that a man could be God. This is a stumbling block for the people of Nazareth.
Mary nursed baby Jesus at her breast, and that same human baby was at the same time fully God, the author of life, and Creator of the cosmos.
So some people do not believe because the incarnation is a mind-blowing mystery. They cannot accept that Jesus is both fully God and fully man. That there is One God and Three Persons and the Three Persons are the One God. For many that is just unacceptable, illogical, and unreasonable.
And then there are others who do not believe, not for theological or intellectual reasons, but for what we might call personal reasons.
For some it is because of pure envy. It is the pettiness of not wanting anyone to be better than us. Of not wanting anyone to tell us what to do, and certainly no carpenter. Who does he think he is?
This is what keeps many from entering the kingdom. They want to be in charge, they want to dictate the rules, they want to say what God can and cannot do, what God can and cannot be, and if He does not conform to their standards and expectations, they want nothing to do with Him.
It was this kind of envy that got Jesus crucified. Even Pontius Pilate could see that envy was motivating the Jews (Mark 15:10).
We see this earlier in the Bible with the story of the original twelve tribes. Why was Joseph sold into slavery by his own brothers? Because they envied him.
“Who do you think you are? You think you are better than us?”
It is those kind of sentiments that blind people to the truth.
Envy is the sin that has our nation by the throat. It is what drives political movements, business decisions, and national legislation.
Why do the gays want gay marriage? Why did they make the equal sign (=) their bumper sticker, and march for “marriage equality?” Because the very existence of heterosexual marriages makes them feel inferior, and they envy that.
Why do so many people want to tax the rich more than the poor, occupy wall street, and abolish the existence of entrepreneur billionaires? It’s not just because there is corruption and bribery in America, it is because they aren’t getting their cut of the bribe. The “have nots” envy the ones who have, and that spirit of envy drives all kinds of class warfare.
James 3:15 says that, “Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” I have never seen a more confused populace than I see today. The gender confusion, the sexual orientation confusion, the what color is my hair supposed to be confusion, our nation is desperately confused. We are approaching that sad state of Nineveh, where God says, “they do not know their right hand from their left.” They do not know a boy from a girl.
Nineveh repented. It is yet to be seen whether America will. And if we do, it will need to start where judgment always starts, and that is in the household of God. The church must come to absolutely hate envy in ourselves.
And so if you are made sad by someone just like you being elevated above you, of making more money, of being better looking or more intelligent, then watch out. There is envy in your heart, and with it will grow strife, and confusion, and all kinds of evil works. Envy has slain many a Christian households, it has divided friends, divided churches, divided denominations, divided countries.
And you will notice that envy is especially found amongst groups and individuals who are most similar to one another.
For example, as much as I enjoy playing basketball, I feel no envy towards Lebron James or Michael Jordan, because we are not even in the same category of skill or height or capability. It does not hurt my ego to say they are better basketball players than me, or to watch them win championships. I can be happy for them.
But if I were to play 1 on 1 against someone who was exactly my height, and my age, and my skill level. And he beat me by one point, and received all the praise and glory of winning, and everyone thought he was soooo much better than me, I would be tempted to envy. I would feel there was some grave injustice in the world that someone who I think is my equal, others think is above me.
You can find envy almost everywhere you look. And if we are honest with our own heart, envy is in far more places than we would like to admit. So be careful when you start to make comparisons. Be on guard when you make judgments in your heart about others.
This is what kept the people of Nazareth from believing in Jesus. They could not fathom a man they thought their equal, to be God.
Continuing in verses 5-6 we see the consequences of unbelief.
Verses 5-6a
5 And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. 6 And he marvelled because of their unbelief.
Think about what Jesus could have done in Nazareth. He could have showed up, and because of their great faith and reception and honor of Him, poured out blessings beyond what they could have imagined. He came there to bring the kingdom of God.
But because of their envy and unbelief, He can do there no mighty work.
This is not to say Jesus lacked the power as if his doing of mighty works was dependent upon their faith, but rather that, the purpose for doing mighty works was made void by their unbelief.
If someone is committed to putting the worst spin on whatever you say, you mine as well stop talking. If a group of people is committed to interpreting whatever you do, however great, as some evil deed (as something done by the devil), then why do it?
In this sense, Jesus is being merciful to them by not doing mighty works, because if he did, it would only heighten their judgment, making them even more without excuse. Envy is such an irrational sin, that even if Jesus was transfigured before their eyes, they still would not believe. Because envy locks itself in a room of unhappiness and swallows the key.
Behold, Jesus stands at the door and knocks, but envy will not let him in.
So this is the homecoming Jesus receives in Nazareth. And while he marvels at their unbelief, he continues to minister undeterred. In verse 6b and following we see that Jesus now multiplies his efforts by giving his authority to The Twelve.
Verses 6b-9
And he went round about the villages, teaching.
7 And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; 8 And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip (bag), no bread, no money in their purse: 9 But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats.
This is the first commission of the twelve apostles, and in a very real sense, the beginning of the church and her apostolic ministry.
When we confess in the Nicene Creed, “I believe one holy, catholic, and apostolic church,” we are confessing that our faith and doctrine and preaching is the same faith and doctrine the apostles preached.
Christ is the cornerstone, the prophets and apostles are the foundation, and the church is built exclusively on top of them (Eph. 2:20).
It is in this sense that the famous words of St. Cyprian (210-258 AD) are true, “There is no salvation outside of the church,” and “No one can have God for his Father, who does not have the Church for his mother.”
The spiritual lineage of Christ Covenant Church goes all the way back to Christ and the apostles, and therefore this is the first missionary trip of the one true church, of which we are a part.
So notice first that Jesus calls the twelve to himself, and gives them his own power over unclean spirits. What this teaches us is that Jesus’ Divine power can be transferred to his chosen representatives. But it also teaches us that his chosen representatives can exercise that power, while they themselves might not be true believers. This is proved out by the example of Judas who ministered as an apostle, but later apostatized.
Jesus says in Matthew 7:22, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
So it is possible for apostles, evangelists, and ministers in the church to do real, true and mighty works in the name of Christ, to convert souls, to heal the sick, to cast out demons, and yet on judgment day, Christ will say to them, I never knew you.
This is a very important principle for distinguishing between the objective good work of the Holy Spirit, and the crooked instruments He often uses to do those works. Sometimes people have a crisis of faith because the person that led to them Lord, suddenly abandons the faith. Or their pastor, who they trusted and learned from, commits adultery or commits suicide, and their faith is shaken.
Well Jesus tells us, and Scripture warns us that this is going to happen. And yet it should not nullify the actual truth or the actual power that was manifest in their ministry. Remember the Apostle Judas. Remember the Apostle Peter, he is going to deny Christ three times. All the apostles are going to scatter in shame. And yet that does not make false the true preaching and good works they do now.
Next, we observe that Jesus sends the apostles out two by two. There are multiple reasons for this, but the primary one here is that according to Biblical standards for justice, there must be two or more witnesses for a testimony to be valid in a court of law.
Deut. 19:15 says, “One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.”
Jesus reaffirms this principle when it comes to church discipline in Matthew 18:16, “But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.”
As we will see in the next few verses, this missions trip is going to be a testimony against any town who rejects them. And when they shake the dust of their feet, they are acting as two witnesses before the Lord, that that town should be destroyed.
We see also here that Jesus reaffirms the principle that the worker is worthy of his wages, that those who preach should make their living from their preaching.
Jesus forbids them from taking with them a bag, bread, money, or even a second coat. The apostles are going to preach and minister, and the hearers are going to supply whatever they need along the way.
This is a call for the apostles to truly trust God to provide for them, and a call for those who receive their ministry to give honor to whom honor is due.
In verse 10 we see another guideline for ministry.
Verse 10
10 And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place.
When the apostles are shown hospitality and invited to stay the night, they are to remain there until they move on to the next town. And the reason for this is so that if someone else extends hospitality to them, who might be wealthier or of a higher status, it would be bad manners to just take the best offer. It would be disrespectful to that first family who offered you a place to stay, to move next door. So Jesus says, once you’ve accepted the offer of hospitality, don’t go trying to find a better offer, be content where you are.
Finally, in verses 11-13, Jesus tells them to how handle places that reject them.
Verses 11-13
11 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. 12 And they went out, and preached that men should repent. 13 And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.
The stakes are high when someone rejects the gospel. They are rejecting their own eternal salvation, they are rejecting the free offer of forgiveness of sins, they are rejecting the God who they were created to know. And Jesus says that when you come to a city, and no one receives you, no one gives you a place to stay, no one offers hospitality for the night, the judgment for that city, will be worse than the judgment that came upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
What was God’s judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah? It was fire and brimstone. It was turning those cities in a smoking heap.
And the reason Jesus chooses Sodom and Gomorrah as an example is because the mission of the apostles is analogous to what happens in Genesis 19.
Jesus is sending out the apostles two by two. Genesis 19:1 says, “there came two angels to Sodom at evening.” God sends two messengers to Sodom.
Lot sees the two angels and welcomes them into his home, “And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways…and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.” (Gen. 19:2-3)
Lot shows them hospitality, and because of this, he alone (and his two daughters with him), are spared from God’s judgment.
The men of Sodom come to Lot’s house and want to rape the angels. That is the level of wickedness Sodom has become. And so God burns that city to the ground, because of their refusal to repent.
When Christian missionaries are kicked out of the country, or when cities and states, and nations become hostile to Christianity and openly refuse to repent at the preaching of Christ, they are begging heaven to rain fire and brimstone down upon them.
There are only two things that keep wicked places from being utterly destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah.
1. The patience and mercy of God.
2. The presence of Christians among them.
When God’s patience is up, and the righteous leave those wicked places, judgment falls on those lands.
Romans 2:4-5 says, “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
God is very patient, but you do not know where you are in the timeline. For you judgment day might happen on the way home from church. A car crash, a heart attack, a sudden stroke, none of us know when we might be face to face with the throne of God.
And this is why Paul says in Hebrews 3:15, “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” Today if you are hearing this message of repentance and forgiveness in Jesus Christ, then cast aside your wicked works, your envy and jealousy. Turn away from your sins. Prepare for judgment day because you don’t know when you might die.
The same message that the apostles preached, is the same message you hear every week: The kingdom of God is here, repent and believe in the Lord Jesus.
If you reject that message, Jesus says, it will be worse for you on judgment day than Sodom and Gomorrah. In other words, because you have been given even more revelation and truth than they ever received, the punishment for rejecting so great a light, so good an offer, will be far worse than fire and brimstone.
Conclusion
I close where I began. What obstacles are there to your belief? What sins, what envy is keeping you from receiving healing at the hands of Christ?
Jesus has sent forth apostles, He has sent forth preachers to the ends of the earth, to proclaim forgiveness of sins in His name.
And if you will cast aside your pride, and look to Him for salvation, He has given the church authority and power to declare, that your sins are forgiven through Christ. He has given the church authority to bind and to loose, to baptize and excommunicate, to preach this gospel to all who will hear.
And so receive that message. Welcome Christ into the home of your heart. Let him take up residence there, and He will make you clean.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Sermon: Daughter Zion (Mark 5:21-43)

Daughter ZionSunday, July 9th 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 5:21-43
21 And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea. 22 And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, 23 And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live. 24 And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him. 25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. 35 While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? 36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe. 37 And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James. 38 And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. 39 And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. 40 And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying. 41 And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. 42 And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. 43 And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat.
Prayer
Father, we thank you for this revelation of Your desire to heal and touch and raise to new life, those who have been polluted by sin. As we consider this scene in the life of Christ, we ask for your Holy Spirit to guide us into the truth, and that by apprehending the truth, we might attain to true freedom. We ask all this in Jesus name, Amen.
Introduction
This morning we consider two more miracles from the hands of Jesus, both of which continue to reveal His Divine identity. Last time we saw that Jesus went out of his way to sail across the sea of Galilee through a storm (which he calms), in order to bring salvation to a man who was possessed by a Legion of demons.
And we recall that while these miracles are real historical events, they are also at the same time “living parables,” which if understood and interpreted rightly will reveal greater realities about the kingdom of heaven and who this Jesus is.
We saw that Mark has purposely organized these stories in such a way that if we know how to interpret Jesus’ parables and teaching, we will know how to interpret Jesus’ miracles and actions. And we said that the best method for interpreting a sign or a parable is to first look back at the Old Testament and see what those signs and realities meant there. And because Scripture has One divine Author we should expect there to be a unity of thought between Old and New Testaments, between what God did in ages past and what Jesus is doing in the gospels.
Now in our text this morning we have what might appear at first glance to be a simple story of a healing and a resurrection. But there are certain details that Mark includes in this story which suggest there is a lot more going on here. And that is the riddle and parable of this story.
For example, it’s rare for Mark to include the actual names of the people Jesus heals or helps. Instead, they are usually just called by their affliction or their relation to someone else (ex. the paralytic, Peter’s mother-in-law, the leper, the demon-possessed man, and now in our text a daughter and a woman with a flow of blood). And so for Mark to give us the name of the ruler of the synagogue Jairus, but not the names of the two women Jesus heals, is a bit odd. What is going on here?
There are also some curious similarities between Jairus’s dead daughter and the woman with the flow of blood.
We are told in verse 25 that the woman “had an issue of blood twelve years,” and then in verse 42 we are told that the age of Jairus’ daughter was twelve years.
What is significant about this number 12 and the fact that the woman has been sick for as long as the girl has been alive? Why include this detail but not their names?
There is also a question about the order in which these two healings happen. Jesus is on his way to resurrect Jairus’ daughter, when he is interrupted and touched by the woman with the flow of blood. What is it about this healing that compares and contrasts with the girl’s resurrection? What does Mark (or God rather) want us to learn from this sequence?
It is these kinds of details that should provoke us to read this story at two levels. First there is the literal or historical level of the story (the miraculous healings), but then there is what those literal/historical events themselves signify. Just as seed and lamps and birds have a greater spiritual significance in Jesus’ parables, so also the historical actions of Jesus are themselves significant.
So as we walk through this text, we want to keep an eye out for that spiritual sense of these literal events.
Division of the Text
There are three basic movements to this story, and they form a kind of sandwich structure.
In verses 21-24, Jairus pleas for Jesus to heal his daughter. Jesus agrees and goes with him.
In verses 25-34, They are interrupted as the woman touches Jesus’ garment and is miraculously healed.
In verses 35-43, We resume that original journey and Jesus arrives and resurrects Jairus’ daughter.
So there is: 1) A plea for healing, 2) the healing of someone else, and then 3) the resurrection of the dead daughter.
Verses 21
21 And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea.
Jesus is likely returning now to Capernaum, after his detour to the pig herding region of the Decapolis. And yet Mark wants us to know that Jesus is still “nigh unto the sea.” He continues to minister along the seashore.
Already we have seen that the sea is associated with the Gentile nations, and the sand on the seashore signifies Abraham’s offspring/seed.
And so there are echoes here of God’s promise in Isaiah 60:5, where it says, “The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, The forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.”
God had promised long ago that in Abraham’s seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed, and Jesus is that seed, he is the son Abraham and son of David, who brings God’s kingdom into the world. “The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto Him, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto Him.” That is what we are seeing in Mark’s gospel.
We also remember that when Jesus called the first four disciples to leave their nets and follow him, he said that he would make them into fishers of men. Well, that is also what Jesus has been doing. He’s been preaching and teaching from inside a boat, going from city to city near the sea, fishing and catching the souls of men.
So that is the scene here, Jesus nigh unto the sea.
Verses 22-23
 22 And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, 23 And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.
Notice first that this Jairus is a ruler of the synagogue. He is roughly equivalent to what we might call a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church. He is probably not an ordained minister or a Levitical priest, but he is a man of prominence with responsibility and authority in the synagogue.
This name Jairus is a Hebrew name that comes from the word יָאִיר and means something like enlightened one or he who gives light/awakens. And so there is irony here in that the man whose name is enlightened or awakened, has a daughter who Jesus says in verse 39 is “not dead, but asleep.” In other words, if Jairus (the enlightened one) has death for a daughter, what does that say about his light?
This is reflective then on the spiritual state of the Jewish people and their synagogue. Already we have seen that the synagogues are infested with demons, they are full of people who are sick and suffering the curses of God’s covenant. And so there is a parallel here between Jairus’ daughter which he says, “lieth at the point of death” and the synagogues which likewise are on life support.
And so Jairus falls at Jesus’ feet and begs him saying, “My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.”
All throughout the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Zephaniah, etc. God calls His people by the name “Daughter Zion.” And this is the name that is given to them as they are suffering judgment and exile for their sins. The entire book of Lamentations is a weeping over the destruction of Jerusalem under this name Daughter Zion.
If you were to summarize all the prophecies about Daughter Zion in the Old Testament, they would essentially boil down to this: Daughter Zion is going to be punished for her sins, she is going to suffer judgment and die, but God is going to resurrect her, remove her uncleanness, and make her glorious again. I’ll give you a couple samples of these prophecies:
Isaiah 62:11 says, “Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; Behold, his reward is with him, And his work before him. And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord: And thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.”
Zephaniah 3:14-15 says, “Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away your judgments, He has cast out your enemy. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; You shall see disaster no more.”
Well, here is Jesus, the King of Israel, the LORD God in their midst, and what does Jairus ask him to do? Touch his daughter who is at the point of death and heal her.
This is of course in the first instance a desperate cry from a father’s heart for the life of his beloved daughter. But it is also at the same time that this daughter is representative of Jerusalem, of Israel, of Daughter Zion who likewise lies at the point of death, and only the King of Israel can raise her up.
Well, what does Jesus do?
Verse 24
24 And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him.
Again, the crowds follow Jesus wherever he goes. And then in verse 25 we have an interruption to his mission to heal Jairus’s daughter (and spiritually speaking, we have a delay in the healing of Daughter Zion). What is this delay for?
Verses 25-28
25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
According to the laws of Leviticus, a woman with a flow of blood was in the same unclean state as the leper. And this meant exclusion from the congregation, exclusion from the temple and its worship, and exclusion from anyone else who wanted to be clean.
Leviticus 15:25-27 says, “And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean. Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation: and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation. And whosoever toucheth those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.”
So this was a woman who for twelve long years, has suffered in uncleanness. She has been forced to live as an exile from the holy city of Jerusalem and is therefore really no different from a Gentile. Her state of uncleanness has separated her from God, and despite her attempts to find healing from the hands of many physicians, she has only been made worse and has now spent all that she had.
Like the leper, and like the man possessed by a legion of demons, this woman is utterly destitute. But verse 27 says, “she had heard of Jesus.”
We know from Jesus’ previous miracles that word has spread abroad. We saw last time that the demoniac was sent home so that he could “publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him” (verse 20).Perhaps this woman was one of those people who heard.
However it is that she heard of Jesus, this woman reasons that if Jesus has touched unclean lepers and healed them, perhaps he can do the same for her. And so she says to herself in verse 28, “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.”
Here we have a point of contrast with Jairus (the enlightened one). Who in this scene has the greater faith? Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, or this destitute woman?
Jairus asks Jesus to come and lay his hands on his daughter so that she will be healed. That is as far as his faith extends.
But this woman believes that if she just touches his garments, she will be made whole.
Perhaps we are reminded here of that scene in Matthew 8, where a Roman Centurion says that if Jesus will just say the word, his servant will be healed. He is not worthy to have Jesus come to his house, but he believes that just a word from Jesus will bring healing. Jesus says of that gentile centurion, “Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”
That same idea is present here. The places and people where you would expect to find great faith, the synagogue and Jairus, is put to shame by this woman.
Jairus requires Jesus to come to his house and touch his daughter. But this woman presses her way through the crowd and in a great act of faith touches only his garment. She believes that touching the mere outskirts of Jesus will heal her. Well, what happens next?
Verses 29-33
29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
Notice that Jesus’ power is not magically or locally contained in his garments. There are many people pressing against him and touching him in this thronging crowd, and nothing miraculous happens to them. But when this woman reaches out in faith, it says, “virtue/power went out of him,” and he notices.
Jesus then turns and asks, “Who touched me?” Not because he was ignorant of what had happened, any more than God was ignorant when he asked Adam and Eve, “Where are you?”, but Jesus asks this question to give her an opportunity to testify, and to bless her even further.
Verse 34
34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
Jesus commends this woman for her faith, and just as he brought peace to the storm, and then peace to the demoniac, now he brings peace to this unclean and destitute woman. And notice, what is the name he calls her by? Daughter.
First, we had Jairus’s daughter who Jesus was enroute to heal, but before he gets to her, before he restores Daughter Zion, he adopts this woman of great faith,and she becomes a part of his family. Jesus adopts her and calls her daughter.
Who does Jesus adopt into his family? Those with faith. Those who want God to be their Father in Heaven.
What is the lesson Jesus been trying to teach his disciples? What did he just say to them back in the boat, “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?”
Well, here is true and living faith, and it is found not in a disciple, not in a ruler of the synagogue, but in an unclean woman who has been in exile for 12 years.
The church fathers recognized in this woman a symbol of the Gentiles. Just as she had spent all that she had on physicians but was only made worse, so also the Gentiles had tried everything (worshipping idols, studying the stars, writing poems, developing philosophy), and yet none of these “physicians” could save their soul.
And so Christ comes into this woman’s life in the 12th year, or as Paul says in Galatians 4:4, “in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son.”
And before Daughter Zion, the holy city can be resurrected, the gospel must first go to the Gentiles, to the nations, to those who have been polluted and made unclean by the blood of idolatry and wickedness. Before Daughter Zion can be restored, God is going to adopt the Gentiles into His family.
As it says of Jesus in John 1:11-12, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
The order and sequence of these two daughters being healed is a picture of what Paul says in Romans 11. He says,“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved…” (Rom. 11:25-26).
In other words, God uses the Jews rejection of Christ, to bring about the salvation of the world, and then when the Jews see the Gentiles experiencing the blessings of God’s covenant, they will want back in.
Romans 11:11-12 explains this saying, “I say then, have they [the Jews] stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. 12 Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!”
Jesus is foreshadowing by the healing of these two daughters, what Paul calls in Ephesians 3, “the great mystery of the gospel…that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel.”
In Christ, by faith, anyone can become an adopted son or daughter of God, and therefore an heir to the blessings God promised to Abraham and his seed. Jesus is that entrance into God’s family, and all you must do is reach out to him by faith.
Continuing in our story. While great salvation has come to this newly adopted daughter, what about Jairus’s daughter.
Verses 35-36
35 While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? 36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.
Notice again that the charge to God’s people, to Jairus, to the Jews, to the disciples, to those who mourn and lament the death of this Daughter of Zion, is “be not afraid, only believe.”
Verses 37-40
37 And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James. 38 And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. 39 And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. 40 And they laughed him to scorn.
Notice that these mourners go from weeping and wailing to laughing scornfully at Jesus in just a moment. These are likely hired mourners who had been at many funerals, and therefore they knew a dead body when they saw one.
It is interesting then that despite the girl being physically dead, Jesus says “she is not dead, but sleeps.” That is to say, she might be dead to you, but I am the God who kills and makes alive (Deut. 32:39), I am the God who formed man from the dust and breathed life into his nostrils and therefore to me, this girl is not dead but only asleep, and I have the power to do what Jairus could not do, and that is enlighten her, awaken her, raise her from the dead!
Verses 40-43
But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying. 41 And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. 42 And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. 43 And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat.
This is the first resurrection Jesus performs in Mark’s gospel. And what could be more convincing of someone’s divine power, than that he raise the dead to life?
In five chapters, Mark has shown us that Jesus has the power to heal the sick of any disease, he has the power to bind Satan and cast out thousands of demons, he has the ability to control the winds and the waves, and now we see his power to raise the dead to life.
If you are unsure whether Jesus is God, what greater sign could you possibly need? How weak is your faith if you need something greater than this to believe that Jesus is LORD?
Well, there are more signs to come, and as we will see next week, unbelief is the natural response of Jesus’s own countrymen. These signs do not persuade them. And so I close by returning again to the faith of the woman with the flow of blood.
Conclusion
We don’t know the name of this woman. But we know that God calls her “Daughter.” And if you feel or have felt as this woman did, that no earthly physician can heal your soul, that there is a constant flow of impurity within you that seems unstoppable, and everything you touch becomes tainted with sin, then forsake yourself, and reach out in faith to the Lord Jesus. He alone has the power to heal you and make you pure. And He delights to adopt those with faith into his family.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Sermon: Legion (Mark 4:35-5:20)

LegionSunday, June 25th, 2023Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Mark 4:35-5:20
35 And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. 36 And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. 37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. 38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? 39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? 41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
5 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. 2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: 4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. 5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. 6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, 7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. 8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. 9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. 10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. 12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. 14 And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. 15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid. 16 And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. 17 And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. 18 And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. 19 Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. 20 And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.
Prayer
Father, we thank you for the power that is manifest in the Lord Jesus. We thank you for these stories you give us in the gospels, that reveal to us Your compassion, even and especially to those who are afflicted by demons. We ask that you would exorcise in our own day the many evil and unclean spirits that have possessed our nation, arise, and deliver us O Lord, for we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. 
Introduction
Well after a long day of teaching the crowds in parables and then explaining those parables to his disciples, evening has finally come. We were told at the beginning of Mark chapter 4 that Jesus “entered into a ship and sat in the sea [while] the whole multitude was on the beach,” and now Jesus is going to send them away and say, “Let us pass over to the other side” (Mark 4:35).
You’ll remember they are on the Sea of Galilee, which is about 64 square miles in size (roughly twice the size of Lake Washington), and Jesus has been preaching and healing and casting out demons in these primarily Jewish towns along the coast.
His custom has been to go into the synagogues and teach on the sabbath days, but his popularity is increasing such that he can hardly go anywhere without huge crowds following him. Therefore, the only place the Lord Jesus has to rest is in the hinder part of a ship.
Now, the way that Mark has arranged this material suggests that if we know how to interpret Jesus’ parables and see in them the mystery of the kingdom, then we will also know how to rightly interpret the real-life “parables” of Jesus’ actions.
Just as the parables forced us to ponder the deeper meaning of seed and soil and lamps and mustard trees and birds, so also Jesus’ actions are themselves packed with significance and invite us to ponder the deeper meaning of storms and ships and swine and demons who drive those swine into the sea.
It is the interpretation of Jesus’ parables that should prepare us now to interpret Jesus’ actions. And so even though we are not reading parables anymore, you should still be thinking about what these now real historical events signify. What do Jesus’ actions teach us about the kingdom of God?
Outline
There are two major scenes in our text:
In verses 35-41 of chapter 4, Jesus brings peace to a stormy sea.
In verses 1-20 of chapter 5, Jesus brings peace to a demon-possessed man.
Mark has intentionally set these two scenes next to each other for us to compare and contrast, and so despite this being quite a long sermon text, it’s important for us to study them together.
The Calming of the Storm
Verses 37-39
37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. 38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
Notice first that the ship is full of water, “the waves beat into the ship so that is was now full.” The ship is probably starting to sink. And yet somehow, Jesus is asleep on a pillow. His body is probably soaking wet, and we presume his head at least is propped up out of the water so he can still breathe.
The disciples of course are afraid they are going to drown, and so they wake Jesus up. And what do they say to him? They say to him what all of us have probably said to God at some point or another: “Lord, don’t you care about me? Don’t you see what is happening? Do you not care that I am suffering? I though you loved me?” “Carest thou not that we perish?!”
You can almost hear the frustration and annoyance in the disciples’ voice. Why won’t you do something?
This is a good question to ask, but before we see how Jesus responds, I want us to zoom out for a moment and think about how this scene might be similar to other stories in the Bible, because that is going to help us penetrate to God’s intention for giving us this miracle in the first place. Of all the things that Jesus did, why give us this story in this context?
So think for a moment and ask yourself, has anything like this ever happened before in the Bible? Are there any similar stories with boats and water and storms?
Perhaps the first instance we think of is Noah’s ark. Noah’s ark is the first boat to appear in the Bible and it is used to survive a great storm (a flood of God’s judgment).
This motif of an ark saving us through water, the Apostle Peter says is a picture of baptism (1 Pet. 3:20-21), baptism being a kind of death and resurrection, a rebirth through water.
When we come to the book of Exodus, we see that baby Moses is saved by a miniature ark (תֵּבָה), a basket of reeds that helps him escape Pharoah’s persecution of the Hebrew boys. Ironically Moses then becomes Pharaoh’s adopted grandson.
This salvation through water that Moses experiences is itself a foreshadowing of when he will lead the nation of Israel through the Red Sea. What do you do when you need to cross a body of water but don’t have a ship? God splits it in two. The Exodus from Egypt is another Noah’s Ark moment. There is a flood of judgment on Egypt, plagues, and destruction, but Israel is saved through water. The Exodus is a second Noah’s Ark.
And then finally we must not forget the story of Jonah. Jesus will later tell the Pharisees that the only sign they will be given is the sign of Jonah, and in this story of Jesus sleeping in a storm, we have many parallels with the Jonah story, I’ll mention just a few:
Jonah is commissioned by God to preach repentance to the Gentiles, God sends him to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, but Jonah goes the other direction.
Where is Jesus going in our text? He is going to the Gentile regions of Galilee, to the Gadarenes, to the Decapolis, where there are pigs and tombs, and other unclean things that were an abomination to the Jews. Jonah refuses to go to them, Jesus chooses to go to them.
Both of them get on ships, both ships are caught in a great and life-threatening storm, and both are asleep while it happens.
Both Jonah and Jesus are awakened by a frantic and fearful crew.
And then we start to see some important dissimilarities between these two stories.
In order for Jonah to calm the storm, what must happen? He must die, the sailors must cast him into the sea. Jonah 1:15 says, “So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows.”
The miraculous calming of the storm after Jonah’s death, is what converts these Gentile sailors, “they feared the LORD exceedingly.”
Now what does Jesus do to calm the storm?
Verses 39-41
39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? 41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
In Scripture and in every other world religion, everyone knows that the weather is outside of man’s control.
The pagans would offer sacrifices to various deities in hopes that the god of rain, or the god of sun would be favorable to them and cause their crops to grow. If there was a drought, the deity must be angry. If there was an abundance of harvest, the deity must be pleased. But in either case, the pagan mind knows that only God controls the weather.
Therefore, what could be a more obvious sign of a man’s deity, than that he can bring instant calm to a deadly storm? And unlike Jonah, or Elijah, or Moses, or any other great prophet, Jesus does not pray to God, he does not ask for God to save them, but rather, He Himself just rebukes the wind like a father rebukes his son, and says, “Peace, be still” and the wind and the sea obey him.
Gentiles know that only God has this kind of power, it was what converted the sailors on Jonah’s ship. And the Jews likewise have many passages in Holy Writ that say the same.
Psalm 107:23-31 reads almost like a prophesy of this event, “They that go down to the sea in ships, That do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, And his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, Which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: Their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, And are at their wits’ end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, And he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, So that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; So he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, And for his wonderful works to the children of men!”
There is only person who can “maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.” And that is the LORD. Who then is this Jesus?
Proverbs 30:4 asks the same question, “Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, If you know?”
What Solomon pondered in Proverbs and what the Jews sang in Psalms; Jesus comes to answer. The LORD Jesus is his name.
Mark leaves the question hanging in the disciples’ mouth, “What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” And for us who know the answer to the question, we are given a deep insight into the ways of God and why He does what He does.
If you were one of the twelve disciples on that ship, who lived through this miracle, and pondered this scene after Jesus resurrection, what you would conclude is that, because Jesus is God, according to His divine nature, He was the one who caused that storm in the first place, just like Psalm 107 says, “He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind.”
And therefore, if Jesus has the power to both cause the storm and make it to cease, then He must have had some greater purpose for bringing us to the point of almost perishing. What was the purpose for Jesus sending the storm?
Well, there are at least two reasons for Jesus doing this:
1. First, Jesus wants us to know that there is nothing that touches us, that does not first pass through the hands of Almighty God. Just as Satan could not touch or harm Job unless God gave him permission, so also there is no storm that can harm us unless God permits it.
The wind may be tempestuous, our boat may be filling with water, but Jesus says, even if you are executed, “there shall not an hair of your head perish” (Luke 21:18), and “a sparrow does not fall to the ground apart from your Father’s will…and you are of far more value than sparrows.”
Nothing touches the disciples, and nothing touches us that does not first pass through the hands of God. And if God permits it, then we can be at peace knowing our Father knows what is good for us. Sometimes a storm is just what we need.
2. Second, Jesus wants us to know that He is always with us in the ship. Jesus could have stayed awake in the storm if he wanted to (if he fasted for 40 days, he can certainly keep himself awake for a few hours if he wants), but he chose to go to sleep. Why did he do this?
He did this first to reveal that he was truly human (that he was fully man with a true human body that wanted rest), but he did this also to test the disciples’ faith, to bring them to a point of crisis wherein they would cry out for deliverance.
You see while Jesus was sleeping according to his human nature, He was at the very same time according to His divine nature wholly present and awake and ready to save as soon as they called out.
As it says in Psalm 121:4, “Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep.”
And again in Psalm 34:15, “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, And his ears are open unto their cry.”
Jesus wants the disciples and all of us to know, that the trying of our faith is how God increases our faith. Just as you need heavier weights to build stronger muscles, so also the LORD gives us more difficult tests to increase our reliance upon Him.
1 Peter 1:6-8 summarizes the lesson of this miracle saying, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.”
God sends his church like a ship into the storm, so that calling upon Him in the time of trouble, He might answer, and give to us that Divine tranquility and peace which surpasses understanding.
Now if this first miracle demonstrates Christ’s power over earthly and external forces (the powers of nature), this next miracle reveals Christ’s power over spiritual and interior forces (the powers of evil).
The Exorcism of Legion
Verses 1-20, I will summarize this story for us.
Having calmed the storm, Jesus and his disciples arrive at the other side of the sea. And lo, their destination was the country of the Gadarenes (a Gentile region with pig farmers nearby). Mark says in verse 2 that “immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.”
We are then told in verses 3-5 that “no man could bind him, no not with chains,” and “always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.”
So, this demon-possessed man is about as far from the kingdom of God as a man can get. If ever there was someone who was “unredeemable,” unclean, and “untouchable,” it was this man.
According to the law of God, “He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days” (Num. 19:11). This man lived amongst the dead.
According to the law of God, “the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase” (Deut. 8:8). This man lived near thousands of filthy swine.
According to the law of God, “You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead…I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:28). This man cut himself with stones constantly.
And yet, Mark tells us in verse 6…
Verses 6-7
6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, 7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
So this man seeing Jesus and running towards him, falls before him prostrate, and then we hear the voice of the demon speaking through him, “I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.”
Jesus then asks for his name, and the demon responds (in verse 9), “saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.”
This name Legion is a Roman military term and suggests that there are many thousands of demons inside of this one man. A Roman legion was approximately 6,000 soldiers, and although we are not given an exact number of demons here, we hear from their own mouth that “we are many.”
So, Jesus commands this Legion to “come out of the man” and in verse 12 it says, “all the devils besought him, saying, ‘Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.’”
Jesus permits them to go into the swine, and verse 13 says, “and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.”
The same sea that threatened to drown the disciples and their ship, becomes the graveyard for God’s enemies. This was true in the days of Noah and the flood, this was true when Israel crossed the Red Sea and saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore,and it is true when a legion of demons face off against the Messiah.
Remember what Jesus said to the scribes from Jerusalem back in chapter 3, when they accused him of casting out devils by the prince of the devils. Jesus said, “No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.”
Well, this is the strong man. This is the one that no one could tame. This is thousands of demons going against Jesus. And the best they can do is beg and parley to be sent into the swine. And when they do they go rushing down into the watery abyss. The devil is no match for the Lord Jesus, not even when there are legions of demons.
There are many many lessons here.
We could reflect upon the nature of demonic power and its suicidal tendencies.
We could ponder why it is the pigs drowned, despite the fact that most pigs can swim.
We could reflect upon how Jesus regards one man’s soul as worth more than the lives of 2,000 pigs, the men and animals are not of equal value. These are all good questions to ponder.
But I draw your attention to what Jesus wants this man to go away with, and that is: the great compassion that God has shown him.
There are two different responses Mark records for us after this exorcism.
The first is from the people who fed the swine and lived in the city, verse 17 says, “And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.” They want Jesus to leave.
Whether this was because they had suffered a great financial loss by the death of 2,000 pigs and didn’t want any more trouble. Or because they knew themselves unworthy to have Jesus amongst them, like Peter said, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” We are not told their reasons. Whatever the case, they want Jesus to depart out of their coasts. That’s the first response.
The second response is from the man who was delivered. We are never told what his name is (in any of the gospel accounts), and there is a reason for that. But this man responds by asking to follow Jesus. Verse 18 says, “he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.”
This man went from violent and wild and running naked in the tombs, to “sitting and clothed in his right mind.” And the one whose mind has been made right by the Lord Jesus, wants nothing more than to be with Jesus. That is what right reason moves the will to do.
However, Jesus does not allow him to join The Twelve. Verse 19 says, “Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.” And then verse 20 closes with, “And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.”
Not all are called to be apostles, but all of us are free to go home and tell our family and friends, to publish in all the places we travel, how great things Jesus has done for us. How he has had compassion upon us.
The truth is that apart from the grace of God, any one of us could be that wild man, naked, possessed, cutting ourselves, and living amongst the dead. Perhaps some of you have faced or are still facing those same self-destructive temptations and behaviors.
The same evil that possessed this man by the thousands, is very much at work in our own day. Just look at the sexual perversity and insanity around us, the grooming of children to cut off their private parts and choose their own gender. This whole abomination called “Pride Month” where people boast in their shame, and flaunt their iniquity, and demand our approval for wicked and unclean acts.
What other name is there for this but demonic?
Our nation and our culture and many many churches, have become synagogues of Satan. They have become unclean places where demons are invited to take up residence.
And unless Christ has compassion upon us, we will die in our sins. We will jump off a cliff and drown ourselves like wretched swine.
This story is meant to warn us about where sin and unrepentance leads. It leads to the abyss. It leads to the same place where devils are punished and tortured for eternity.
This story is also meant to give us hope. That Christ is a compassionate God, and is willing to go out of his way, to cross the sea into unclean places to deliver us.
Conclusion
So take heed what you hear and see in these miracles. See in them that Jesus is wholly divine, and that He wields His divinity always for the good of His people. See in the face of the Lord Jesus, the power and love and compassion of God. And then fall down and worship Him. Pray that you might be with him. For he will clothe you, and make you to sit down him with in heavenly places, giving you the mind of Christ.