The Path of the Cross

February 25^th, 2018                 “The Path of the Cross”                Rev. Heather Jepsen

Mark 8:31-38

         This morning we continue our Lenten journey in the gospel of Mark.  Last week we mused on Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and wondered what it might mean that Jesus was among the wild beasts.  We dared to examine the wild beasts within our midst and even within our own hearts.  This week we continue our inward journey, pondering whether or not we have the strength to take up our crosses and follow Mark’s Jesus into death.

         This is one of those Scripture readings where the lectionary, or selected verses for the day, really does us a disservice.  We can hardly discuss what is happening in verses 31-33 without talking about what happened just before that in the story that Mark is telling.  So let’s back up.  Starting at verse 27 we read “Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”  And they answered him, “John the Baptist, and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”  He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?”  Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”  And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.”  Then we read verse 31 “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering . . . “
         We need to understand the setting of this story before we can begin to understand what was going on with Peter.  After telling everyone to keep the fact that he is the Messiah a secret, Jesus turns around and openly discusses what is going to happen to this Messiah.  The Son of Man will undergo suffering, he will be rejected by the elders, he will be killed, and after three days will rise again.  Peter is upset by this teaching that he takes Jesus aside and begins to tell him so.  The text says Peter rebukes Jesus, which isn’t very nice.  Remember Jesus rebukes the storm, rebukes the demons, and rebukes the money changers, so this isn’t really an appropriate role for Peter to take with his Lord. 

         Peter is obviously upset, and every time I’ve seen this scripture interpreted I have heard that Peter is upset for himself.  Peter is upset that Jesus isn’t living up to the Jewish expectations of what a Messiah would be.  The Messiah was supposed to be a military leader, the Messiah was supposed to help the Jews overthrow the Roman Empire.  The Messiah wasn’t supposed to die like the over 2,000 a year other Jews who were executed by the government for insurrection.

         Peter’s rebuke makes sense in those terms, and initially I am sure he didn’t sign on to follow a suffering Messiah.  But while I was thinking of this passage this week I came up with another idea.  I began to wonder if Peter isn’t so upset because he loves Jesus so much.  Instead of rebuking him because he is disappointed in the abandonment of the traditional messiahship plan, maybe Peter is rebuking Jesus because he is afraid to see Jesus suffer. 

         Go with me here.  Imagine how you feel when a loved one is suffering.  When a husband or wife is ill, imagine how you suffer to watch them suffer.  When a good friend is diagnosed with cancer, imagine how your heart breaks.  Parents, imagine with me how it feels when our children suffer.  When my children suffer I want to tear my clothes and yell “No, no, no!”  I am going to rebuke anyone who tells me suffering is necessary for my children.  Would not Peter’s love of Jesus cause him to rebuke Jesus in this way?  Maybe Peter is not heartbroken when he contemplates losing the dream of the Jewish Messiah.  Maybe Peter is heartbroken when he contemplates his friend Jesus suffering and dying.  That sure makes sense to me.

         No matter his motivation, Peter is rebuked for his rebuking.  “Get behind me Satan!” Jesus yells at him.  What is happening here?  Is Peter Satan?  Or is Jesus tempted to avoid suffering and so he sees Satan in Peter’s words?  I’m going to guess that is the case.  As much as we don’t want to witness the suffering of a loved one, we don’t want to suffer ourselves either.  Though he knows it’s the plan, Jesus is not totally into the path of the cross.  That is evidenced later in the story when he prays in the garden that God might find another way.  Jesus doesn’t want to go to the cross anymore than we do.

         Jesus follows up his confrontation with Peter’s love with some of the most powerful teaching in the gospel of Mark.  Jesus makes it clear that the path of discipleship is the path of the cross.  It is the path of suffering and self-denial.  It is only when we are willing to give up our lives that we will truly gain them for ourselves and for all of eternity.

         This is as hard for us to hear as it was for Peter.  Who wants to embrace a path marked by suffering?  But at the same time, this is perhaps the core teaching of our faith.  All of us are born to be selfish, all of us are made to put our own needs first.  Call it original sin, or call it a survival instinct, we are hard wired to put our own needs front and center.  The path of faith is the gradual shifting of that center.  Through years of prayer, study, and worship we are trained to bypass that hard wiring.  We are formed into new creations that are able to put the needs of others before our own.  “Love your neighbor as yourself” is to put the other in the position of most value.  This is what it means to lose your life for the sake of the gospel.  We are called to abandon our self-centeredness, for an other-centered mode of living.  This is the path of the cross.

         For many of us, we first truly understand this when we have kids.  That is when our hearts are broken open in such a way that we automatically put others ahead of ourselves.  I would gladly suffer and die to protect my children from harm, and other parents I know would do the same.  We can understand sacrificial love when we put it in those terms. 

         But the circle is far greater than this.  We can find this behavior between some doctors and patients, and good pastors and their churches.  We also see teachers deny self for students.  Was that not the case in Florida a week ago?  All around this country, teachers are beginning to realize that not only are they giving up lucrative careers to teach our children, they are now called to give up their very lives to stand between our children and bullets.  That is some pretty serious “taking up your cross” behavior.

           There are other hard paths to walk here as well, things that are more nebulous.  One way we are called to shift our center from self to other is recognizing injustices in the world.  To deny oneself and take up a cross is to recognize the reality of white privilege and systemic racism in America.  To deny oneself and take up a cross is to recognize our position as the rich that are so often preached against in the gospels.  To deny oneself and take up a cross is to acknowledge that America looks a lot more like Babylon then like the Christian nation everyone seems to talk about.  All of these stances involve a shift, a movement of our center from self to other.  If we are to deny ourselves and take up our crosses, then we need to give up our comforts including our denials of injustices within our midst.

         Peter didn’t want to hear that he had to suffer any more than he wanted to contemplate the suffering of Jesus.  And the truth is, as much as we don’t want our loved ones to suffer; we really don’t want to suffer ourselves either.  The temptation is that we want to live an authentic life of faith without suffering.  Jesus reminds us that that is simply not possible.  “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed.”  And so shall those that follow this Son of Man.

         This Lenten season we are called to journey with Jesus to the cross.  Part of that calling is taking a look at what resides within our own hearts.  Have we been able to bypass our self-centered hard wiring, or are we still looking out for number one?  Are we able to model the path of discipleship with other-centered living?  Are we ready to call out the injustices in our world, many of which benefit us personally? 

         The path of the cross is hard for everyone.  It was hard for Jesus, hard for Peter, and it is hard for us.  And yet it is a journey we must take.  For the more we cling to our self-centered way of living, the less value our lives have.  The more we are able to give up our lives for others, the more we truly live authentic lives of faith.  May God be with us this Lent as we continue on the path of the cross.  Amen.

In the Wilderness

February 18^th, 2018                  “In the Wilderness”                  Rev. Heather Jepsen

Mark 1:9-15 with Genesis 9:8-17

         The First Sunday of Lent is always a recollection of the temptation of Jesus, and Mark’s version of the story is so brief it leaves a lot to be desired.  Matthew and Luke both give us a better version of the story.  They both offer conversation between Jesus and the devil, as well as ideas of what the actual temptations might be.  By contrast Mark gives us very little, hardly any details at all.  As a preacher, it is not much to go on.  But as a person of faith, there is something about Mark’s sparsity and silence which can really draw us in.

The period of temptation actually begins in Jesus’ baptism; it is from that moment that he is driven out.  In Mark’s gospel, the vision and voice, the dove and declaration, they are all just for Jesus alone.  No one else sees the signs, and no one else hears the message.  Only Jesus is given the vision, only Jesus hears the voice; I imagine within his own head, “You are my beloved Son.”  And after that strange and great moment, Jesus wanders off alone into the desert.  Or, as the writer tells us, the Spirit drives him out into the wilderness. 

I think that this was a time of personal struggle for Jesus.  Who was he?  Who was God calling him to be?  What shape should his mission and ministry take?  Mark tells us that “Jesus was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.”  It sure sounds like a personal search for identity to me.  Don’t we all experience those times in our lives, times when are trying to decide who we are, times when we are trying to determine what our next steps will be.  When we are faced with challenges, or with new information, we are forced to redefine ourselves.  This was that moment for Jesus.  40 days alone in the desert, trying to determine the shape of his future, trying to decide his response to this new information “You are my beloved son”.  Jesus was trying to understand his sense of call.

         Mark is the only gospel writer who mentions wild beasts in his temptation story, and I have been wondering just what exactly he meant by that.  I suppose the writer of Mark would have us imagine literal wild beasts that might roam the lands of ancient Israel.  Lions, bears, jackals, leopards, and wild boars were said to have once lived there.  Were these the kind of wild beasts Jesus was with or was it something more sinister? 

         I like to imagine that the wild beasts Jesus faced were more like the wild beasts we face in life.  I’m talking about struggles of self-identity, decision, and direction.  I am talking about battles with cancer and long term illness.  I am talking about how we deal with suffering and pain.  I am talking about the fact that we live in a country where mass shootings in our classrooms are an everyday occurrence.  I am talking about addiction.  I am talking about greed and apathy and selfishness.  I am talking about broken and abusive family relationships.  Are these not the wild beasts that we face? 

Some of the minor wild beasts I am most familiar with are my children on a grumpy day and my own exasperated response to their bad behavior.   It may not sound like a big deal but I am often at my worst when I am dealing with my children.  This is my temptation and mothers, we know the struggle is real.  When I lose my patience I know I am at my worst and I become the wild beast. 

         Mark tells us that angels ministered to Jesus and I know they often minister to us as well.  I had a hard week this week, for many reasons, but throughout my days there were angels lifting me up.  From an unexpected and heartfelt Valentine card from a member of this congregation, to the encouraging words and smiles of friends, there have been angels ministering to me in my difficulties.  I am sure you too can look around and find times when others reached out to you when you were low.  Be it a home cooked meal, a ride to the doctor’s office, or a simple phone call to check in, we have the power to be ministering angels to those within our midst.  Sometimes we just want to know we aren’t alone in the wilderness, and maybe that’s the point of Mark’s whole story after all.

         The thing about the temptation story of Jesus is that it demonstrates the depths that God will go to in order to be in relationship with us.  In the beginning, God gets tired of us pretty early on.  By chapter 6 of this “Good Book”, God is sorry that humankind was made to walk about on the Earth.  God was disappointed with us and sorry that we were created.  God regretted us, and after the events in our country this week I am not surprised.  God had had enough of us and so God wiped us all off the face of the planet in the great flood.

         By chapter 9, God appears to have changed God’s mind again.  God promises not to destroy us anymore.  God hangs God’s weapon up forever, the bow in the clouds, and declares that no matter what we do, we will not be destroyed by God’s wrath in this way ever again.  Even when we kill each other’s children, even when we say that the right to own a weapon is more important than the right to live in safety, even then God promises not to destroy us. 

         Amazingly, miraculously, as the ages pass, God appears to grow to love humanity even more.  Despite our continued sinfulness and wickedness, God continues to reach out to us.  So much so in fact, that God comes to us in the nature and person of Jesus Christ.  God comes to live among our wilderness spaces, to personally witness to our wickedness and strife.  Jesus is driven by God out into the wildness, is accompanied by wild things, is tempted, and is still called beloved.  Jesus is driven into the classrooms riddled with bullets.  We are the wild beasts and Jesus comes among us.  How deep and vast and broad is this love of God?

Today, as we collectively consider the period of trial and temptation for our Lord, I invite you to think about where you are on your own journey of faith.  What wild beasts surround you and threaten to throw you off your path?  What angels draw alongside you to minister to you in your time of need?  Where do you find God in these wilderness places we have created?

To tell each other that the journey of faith will be a cake walk is a lie.  We all know that deep struggles will come.  Real challenges with wild beasts will threaten us.  There will be days when we feel like we will be in the wilderness forever, wandering around lost.  There will be days when we lose our patience and act out like the wild beasts around us.  There will be days when we will face temptation and we fail.  There will be days when we give up hope.

And yet, this story reminds us that God’s love will never fail us.  God will never again regret us and destroy us.  God will be with us in suffering, in all of our suffering, as Jesus was with the wild beasts.  God’s angels will minister to us, through our loving actions offered to each other.  We may be in the wilderness, but we are never alone.

The story that Mark tells us of Jesus is a short one, and yet he records several times that I would consider wilderness journeys for our Lord.  Jesus wrestles with his identity throughout the gospel of Mark.  After his 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus is seen proclaiming the good news of God “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near.”

Like Jesus, our own lives move in and out of this holy struggle.  Who are we in the wilderness and who are we in the kingdom of God?  Where is our place of love and belonging and how do we understand our own identities as beloved children of our God?  The season of Lent is a time to honor and remember that this wrestling with identity is real.  Like Jesus we are all led into wilderness places.  Lent is a time to be honest about our own sinfulness.  Lent is a time to search our hearts for the wild beasts that live there.  And Lent is a time to embrace the deep love that God offers us despite our brokenness.  May God bless us on our 40 day journey in the wilderness.  Amen.

In the Cloud

February 11^th, 2018   “In the Cloud”         Rev. Heather Jepsen

Mark 9:2-9

         Show of hands . . . how many friends here have things stored in the cloud?  How many of us understand exactly what the cloud is and how it works?  That’s what I thought!  The cloud is a modern mystery that many people take on faith.  I have all my sermons from my whole preaching career, and all the photos my iPhone has ever taken stored in the cloud, but I don’t really understand what or where it is.  I know how to access my documents, but I can’t see the cloud and I can’t touch the cloud.  I think that the cloud is my information stored somewhere on servers, but I know if I saw those servers it wouldn’t look like a cloud.  It would look like a bunch of big black boxes, and if I opened them with a screwdriver I would not see my sermons or my pictures inside of them.  And yet, they are there, in the cloud.  I would guess a lot of people have faith in the cloud which they can’t see or hear or touch.  I would also guess that a lot of these same folks refuse to have faith in God because they haven’t been able see or hear or touch God.

         Today is Transfiguration Sunday and we always celebrate it right before we begin the season of Lent.  Like the cloud, the transfiguration story is shrouded in mystery and hard to explain.  The three Synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke) all have a central point to their narrative where Jesus ascends a mountain and is transformed before a handful of the disciples.  John doesn’t tell this story.  His Jesus is so holy and god-like that he doesn’t need this moment.

         The way Mark tells it, Jesus heads up the mountain with Peter, James and John.  While there his appearance becomes dazzling white.  Moses and Elijah appear and consult with Jesus.  Then the cloud comes down, overshadows them all, and instructs the disciples, and the reader by proxy, to listen to the message Jesus has.

         Of course, there is a lot of symbolism here.  The mountain is always important as a way to connect with the divine.  Jesus is like Moses ascending Mt Horeb to meet with God and get the 10 commandments.  Moses and Elijah are important because they signify the law and the prophets respectively in the Jewish tradition.  Their appearance shows that Jesus now is the summation of all that previous teaching.  God is in the cloud on Mt Horeb with Moses and so God is in the cloud here, telling the disciples to pay attention.  As they descend the mountain, Jesus tells them to keep all this a secret until after the Son of Man has risen from the dead.  I’m not sure they would know what to say to anybody about this anyway.

         The disciples are totally confused and overwhelmed by this mysterious event.  (Much like the preacher who must craft a sermon on it every single year!)  In Matthew the disciples are so scared they fall down and in Luke they are so bored by Jesus conversation with Moses and Elijah that they fall asleep until the cloud wakes them up and scares the dickens out of them.  In Mark Peter is so scared he doesn’t know what he is talking about when he says “Maybe we should pitch some tents up here.”

         Much like we don’t really understand the cloud that holds our digital documents, the disciples don’t really understand the mystery that is Jesus.  When Jesus’ glory is revealed and they are looking right at him as a divine glowing being, they don’t understand what they are seeing.  Much like I still wouldn’t understand the digital cloud if I was standing there staring at the server.  Yet, I trust the cloud with my sermons anyway.  And so the disciples are told to trust Jesus.  “This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him!”

         What Jesus has to say is hard to listen to.  A week before they ascend the mountain Jesus tells the disciples that the Son of Man will undergo great suffering, will be killed, and will rise again.  Peter is so upset that he takes Jesus aside to explain to him how confused Jesus must be.  It’s as if Jesus doesn’t know who the Messiah is supposed to be.  Yet, this is the story that God tells the disciples to listen to.  Listen to this path of suffering.  The Son of Man will take up his cross and so must you who choose to follow him.  No wonder the disciples don’t understand.  Who could ever understand a lesson like that?

         I can find a lot of similarities between our modern faith in the digital cloud and our ancient faith in the God of the cloud.  Everything on the internet is in the cloud but we can’t see it.  God is in everything here among us on Earth, and we frequently cannot see it.  Everything is in Jesus Christ, that is what the gospel of John preaches, and yet even when the disciples witness Jesus Christ glorified they cannot see it.  He is too bright to look at and so they look away.  Jesus teaches that he brings the kingdom of God and also that the kingdom of God is coming.  And the church teaches that the kingdom of God is among us now, and the kingdom of God is coming.  Right now and not yet.  There is a lot of mystery here, a lot of gray area, and a lot of cloudiness.  I believe that I have seen and heard and touched God, and yet I cannot adequately explain that to you, and I cannot give you those experiences.  Like the digital cloud, God doesn’t work that way.

         Today we gather at the communion table and this is yet another place shrouded in cloudy mystery.  Here you can eat real bread and drink real juice.  That I can offer you tangibly.  But there is something intangible here as well.  When we say the prayers and celebrate together we believe that the spirit of Jesus Christ is among us in a profound way.  You can’t see it but you can feel it.  And in true divine fashion you can’t always feel it, just sometimes.  God seems to like to keep us guessing, keep us in the grey cloud of faith.

           People demand proof for a lot of things in this life, and yet other things they willingly take on faith.  Modern Americans trust computers, iPhones, the cloud, the stock market, and much more.  Things they believe will always be there for them, even if they don’t really understand what they are or how they work.  Ancient Israelites trusted the God they saw in the law and the prophets, as well as the God they were beginning to see in Jesus Christ.  They didn’t really understand what these things were or how God worked but they had faith anyway.

         The nature of modern faith is much the same.  We trust in a God we cannot always see or hear or touch.  We trust in a God we know some things about but not all things about.  Every now and then, like the disciples on the mountaintop, we get a glimpse of the true presence of God among us.  Sometimes that strengthens our faith.  Sometimes it just confuses us more.

         The transfiguration story is the tipping point of the gospel of Mark.  It is exactly in the middle of the gospel.  Before this Jesus was healing and teaching and figuring out who he was.  After this Jesus will head to Jerusalem and to his own death.  The church too turns toward darker things now as we ponder our own death and sinfulness during the season of Lent.  Like being in a cloud, all these stories are nebulous and confusing.  We know there is truth there but it is not easy to see.  And so every year we tell these stories again.  Transfiguration, temptation, arguing with the Pharisees, Pilate, the Sanhedrin, and the angry crowds, torture, death, and the body in the tomb; we tell all the stories again until we get to Easter in the hopes that this year we will get another kernel of wisdom.  This year we might harvest another smidgen of knowledge from this story in the cloud.  This year we might listen to Jesus and actually understand.

         May God be with us as we begin our Lenten journeys this week.  And may God be with us as we continue to search for answers and faith within the cloud.  Amen. 

"Re-reading the Text"

February 4^th, 2018   “Re-reading the Text”   Rev. Heather Jepsen

Mark 1:29-39

         This morning we are continuing our reading in the gospel of Mark and I want to point out how often we are tempted to misread or simply gloss over the Biblical texts.  When we look at passages we are familiar with, like these verses from Mark, we often only see the lessons we already know.  This week, I want to challenge you to re-read the texts and to find new meaning in familiar stories.

         We pick up right where we left off last week.  In fact, in our readings all the events from last Sunday and this Sunday are occurring within the same 24 hour period.  You could say that this is a “day in the life” of the Markan Jesus.  The day is the Sabbath, and as we read last week, Jesus went to the synagogue to teach.  While there, Jesus was faced with a man under the spell of demonic possession.  Jesus healed the man, demonstrating his power and authority, and the gathered crowds were amazed.

         In this morning’s reading, Jesus’ day continues on.  As soon as they leave the synagogue the disciples head to the home of Simon and Andrew and while there Jesus heals Simon’s mother in law.  There is a lot going on here that we might miss in a simple reading of the text.

         From what we know about the culture at the time we can probably assume that this woman was a widow.  After her husband’s death she moved in with her daughter and her daughter’s husband, that’s Peter, and Peter’s brother, Andrew.  In ancient Israel, a mother-in-law was a handy addition to any household as she would carry most of the burden for keeping things tidy and keeping everyone fed.  Daughters and wives are busy with babies but mothers-in-law can ground the whole family. 

         In our text for today, Peter comes home to find that his mother-in-law is ill.  She is in bed with fever, which in those times was not a symptom of illness but rather an illness in and of itself; and one which was frequently thought to have been brought on by evil spirits.  That’s why the text says the fever “left her” like it was a demon.  If there is sickness, or a demon in the home the men should not enter it.  To do so they would risk not only getting sick themselves, but they would risk the stigma of ritual uncleanliness which would then prevent them from going back to the synagogue.

         Jesus does not fear illness or ritual unlceanliness and so he chooses to enter the home.  This is a very intimate gesture on his part, for only a family member would enter the home of a sick person.  Jesus crosses social and religious boundaries, and comes to the woman’s bedside taking her by the hand.  To touch a stranger that was ill is absolutely unheard of.  Jesus touches the woman, and immediately the fever leaves her and she is healed.

         And this is where something amazing happens, the woman is healed and she immediately gets out of bed and serves them all, friends and family.  Now I am sure there are quite a few women here who might be a bit taken aback by this.  In fact, the reason this story is well known is because it has a tendency to offend women.  Who wants to get straight up from their sick bed and get to work waiting on people?  What woman wants to get well only to turn around and wait on a bunch of men?  In our modern culture this looks a lot like sexism.  We are thankful Peter’s mother-in-law was healed, but couldn’t the men get their own sandwiches?

         This is a perfect opportunity for us to re-read this familiar text.  If we dig deeper, we find that the Bible has something more to offer us than simply reinforcing gender stereotypes.  The Greek word that is translated as “serve” in the NRSV is diakonei.  Now, this is a very important word in the gospel of Mark.  Diakonei, doesn’t just mean to serve someone, it means to minister to them.  The same word is used earlier in Mark 1:13 where the angels of the Lord minister to Jesus in the desert. 

         So, Peter’s mother-in-law rises from her sick bed, to minister to the guests in her home.  And she ministers to them, by serving them.  This is significant because in her act of service she becomes the first model of discipleship.  Later in the gospel of Mark, Jesus will teach his followers that the greatest among them must be the servant and again the word used is a derivative of this word, diakonei.  This is the model of discipleship.  Jesus teaches that “the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve”, and again the word used is diakonei. 

         So where we might see a reinforcement of gender stereotypes, the Bible is actually bending the gender rules.  Here is Jesus at the home of his disciples, and his disciples, all men, have yet to behave like disciples.  They have not acted like servants and they are not modeling true discipleship.  By contrast, Peter’s mother-in-law is the first person to serve others, the first person to model true discipleship.  It is a woman who first understands what it is Jesus asks of his followers, and not the men surrounding him.

         In fact Peter’s mother-in-law is the first in a series of women who will become the hidden heroes in the gospel of Mark.  It is women, in the gospel of Mark, who most frequently present the correct response to Jesus’ message.  There is the widow with her two coins, the woman who anoints Jesus’ feet with costly nard, the women who gather at the cross, and the women who will come to the tomb Easter morning.  In Mark, it is the nameless women behind the scenes, who will get the message that Jesus is preaching; whereas the disciples of Jesus will frequently be confused.  In the gospel of Mark, it is the women who are the model of true discipleship and not the men.  Definitely worth a second reading!   

         As our passage for today continues, Jesus continues to push the boundaries of what people expect.  At sundown, when the Sabbath is over, folks begin to gather outside Peter’s home.  Words has spread about that morning’s events in the synagogue.  Many who are sick or possessed come to the home, and many are healed there.  Once again we have the chance to read closely and discover something new in this text.  When we read this passage we assume that Jesus healed all who came to him, but the text specifically says “many” were healed.  Many is not all.  Perhaps Jesus was unable to heal some who were gathered, or perhaps they were unable to accept healing themselves.  It’s a point that is easy to miss and worth a second reading.

         Early the next morning, before the other disciples rise, Jesus gets up and heads out into the predawn hours for some alone time.  The writer of the gospel tells us that Jesus prayed but they don’t say what Jesus prayed about.  Here is another place where we might find our assumptions challenged by a re-reading of the text.  Because we have a tendency to conflate the four separate portrayals of Jesus in the four separate gospels, we often put characteristics of one Jesus on top of the others.  With a quick reading, we assume that Jesus, in confidence of his status and place, simply retreats to rest, pray, and connect with God. 

But, just like with the last section, if we dig deeper we find hidden cues in the text.  Jesus goes out not into the light but into the darkness.  In fact, the writer tells us that it is very dark.  Jesus goes out not into a comfortable garden but into the deserted place.  These cues the writer of Mark offers are meant to draw us into a more sinister setting.  This dark deserted space is not to a place of comfort, but is much more like the place of temptation in Mark’s gospel.  This is not meant to be read as a time of contemplative prayer, rather this is meant to be read as a time of wrestling. 

Remember in Mark’s gospel we will find Jesus at his most human, and I imagine in this scene he is trying to determine his next steps.  What does his healing power mean?  Maybe Jesus was wondering why he was only able to heal “many” people and not all who had gathered there?  Perhaps Jesus is wondering how he should respond to his sudden fame?  In Mark’s gospel Jesus is constantly trying to understand who he is and he is constantly wrestling with his identity.  Perhaps that is why he is always telling the demons who call him the “Holy One of God” to be quiet.  Rather than a moment of peaceful solitude, the writer of the gospel of Mark wants us to see this prayer time as a time of wrestling in the darkness.

         It appears that Jesus comes to answers in his time of prayer, and he decides that he will be the only one to determine his future path.  The disciples come looking for him later that morning and they are angry.  Again, without re-reading and studying the text we miss the author’s point.  The disciples aren’t simply looking for Jesus, rather they hunt him down.   The Greek verb katedioxen which is used here means to pursue in a hostile sense.  This is the same verb used when Pharaoh’s army is chasing after the Israelites.  When we re-read this text we get a better sense of the disciples misunderstanding and anger.  They are mad at Jesus for not being in the house and mad at Jesus for not responding to the needs of the crowd.  These are no meek and mild followers, these folks are angry and frustrated.  I imagine they are wondering just what exactly they signed on for.

         Jesus responds that he will not be controlled.  Only he will determine his future and he has decided that the message he has to share must spread beyond Capernaum.  Jesus and the disciples head out into the neighboring regions to keep stirring up trouble, offering healing and hope, and announcing the kingdom of God.

         As we review these familiar stories in the gospel of Mark, I hope that you’ve had a chance to gather a deeper understanding of the Biblical texts.  So often we get bored or even offended by these stories and that is because we are missing the clues the ancient authors have left us.  There is wonder and power in the Scriptures and they have the ability to strike us anew each day if we study them and treat them with respect.  From the surprising leadership of women in the gospel of Mark, to Jesus’ limited healing ability, from Jesus’ own wrestling regarding his own identity, to the anger and confusion of the disciples, there is often more in the Bible than first meets the eye.  Amen.