Readings:
Sermon:
Success brings challenges. Just before today’s reading from Mark’s Gospel we read how Jesus had begun his ministry in the villages of Galilee and had attracted a following from a wide area around. He had appointed an inner group of twelve apostles to assist with his growing ministry but even so the pressures from the sheer numbers coming to him meant that as our reading observes, there was not even time to take a break to eat.
Success brings challenges and often opposition also. We read today about two groups of people who tried to stop Jesus’ ministry in its tracks, but from quite different motives.
Jesus’ own family were concerned about his welfare and quite possibly their own reputation. People were saying ‘he has gone out of his mind.’ Jesus family were no doubt first bemused and then disturbed about his behaviour. Once, I imagine, so reliable a member of the family carpentry business and so reliable a member of the local synagogue, Jesus had become a wandering preacher and miracle worker. Had he had a breakdown? Would all this publicity reflect badly on the whole family? So, they intervened to try to stop him, or at least reason with him. Their motive appears to be at least partly a concern for Jesus’ own welfare.
The other group intent on stopping Jesus’ ministry were not motivated by any positive intentions. A delegation of scribes had come down from Jerusalem. Word of Jesus’ ministry had reached the senior figures there and so a fact-finding group had been assembled to find out what was going on. They were not impressed. Jesus had already carried out a healing on the Sabbath day. In his words and his actions he had shown himself willing to criticise established religious leaders. These leaders should have seen the healing miracles as powerful evidence of God’s activity, but instead they asserted that Jesus’ power was demonic: ‘By the ruler of demons he casts out demons.’ This was the official verdict of the investigation.
Jesus dealt with both these challenges firmly, but very differently. For the scribes he warned that they may have placed themselves beyond the scope of salvation. Jesus described their verdict as a ‘blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.’ This does not mean uttering a simple swear word, which is how the meaning of the word ‘blasphemy’ is sometimes construed. Rather this was a deliberate attempt to declare as ultimate evil something which emanated from the loving heart of God. Such twisting of the truth placed their very souls in danger.
Jesus was more measured in dealing with the challenge from his own family. ‘Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother,’ he said. It would be quite wrong to infer from this that Jesus was against the notion of the family. He had spent 30 years or so as a faithful member of his family, which was what made his current behaviour appear so strange. And later we know that on the cross his last act was to ensure the welfare of his mother. However, our natural family has a proper role and that can never be to suffocate the activity of God. Following God faithfully brings new sets of relationships and new responsibilities. These do not invalidate family ties but may mean that they need to be renegotiated. Jesus held a firm line with his family, but the strength of his criticism is of quite a different order to his response to the delegation of scribes.
Success brings challenges and often opposition. Today’s gospel reading contains just two of the challenges that are recorded in these early chapters of Mark’s gospel. Jesus dealt with them firmly, making clear the overwhelming importance of his ministry to do the will of God. But he dealt with them very differently according to the motivation lying behind the challenge.
Christian mission and ministry today often bring challenge and opposition from those outside the church and sometimes from those within. The more it is perceived as successful the more it is likely to be challenged. As in today’s reading such challenges may come from those who have the best interests of those involved at heart or sometimes from those who are opposed to the activity of God itself. The task of Christians is to seek to follow Jesus Christ faithfully, whatever the cost may be.
Question:
- Are you aware of situations where Christian activity or mission has caused opposition? How was this dealt with?