Take Five

"As it is written... behold" Mark 1:2.

A few years ago, an artist I like decided to put out some 'stripped down' versions of her songs from one of her albums - vocals, acoustic guitars, a little percussion and some piano with her voice. The results knocked it out of the park for me, and I found myself playing those 'bared' tracks constantly on my fave collection for months and months. There was something so powerful about something so musically honest. It was truly refreshing.

The same is so often the case when it comes to truth.

This week, I spent time just looking at the plain words of the first five chapters of Mark's electric gospel once again, and I found myself totally staggered once more at the sheer raw power of what he wrote and the person he introduces in such a dynamic and immediate way.
If you have the time, I'd really recommend you read those chapters for yourself, but I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to touch on what I saw, so here goes...

Can you imagine what it would be like today to have someone around that was naturally so good to listen to that he had to actually leave being in towns and even cities and setting up in the open because so many people wanted to see and hear him?
Mark makes it clear that very quickly, Jesus was saying and doing things that made the people throng in droves to Him, but what's even more telling is how the writer 'stops' amongst all the hum and rattle of the masses to show how this Jesus made time for the individual  - the men He calls to travel with Him, the man broken by an unclean spirit and the leper (deemed unclean) that Jesus touched to heal - that's how the story opens.

What comes next made me shudder. Jesus heals a paralytic in the context of forgiving His sins. Mark tells us why -the "religious" present were perplexed at what He's doing, but He shows His "authority" by doing so.

Think about that... there's a great deal to ponder right there, and the ramifications will ripple throughout the rest of the text.

It's almost certainly as hard for us now to accept what happened as those that witnessed it... more on that in a moment, but He goes on pressing their concepts of what is good and righteous. He calls a tax collector. He dines with those who are viewed as morally as untouchable as lepers, and he supports his disciples when the religious seek to shun them for doing something "irreligious" on a holy day. This, I realised, was Mark's way of leading us up to the pivotal moment of conflict between what God is like, and how we really cannot handle that.

So that's how we begin chapter three. A man with a diseased hand is present in the religious place on the religious day of the week, and the pious find Jesus amongst them.
The one who was turning their world upside down in giving without measure to those in need was present - and Jesus wasn't going to ignore someone who truly needed Him.
The man is healed, and the religious call a counsel of war... to kill the one who has healed Him.

Did you see that?

Let that sink in.

You're present, witnessing a very genuine miracle, and all you can think about is how you can rub out the one performing that deed, because He simply doesn't fit in your framework of what's proper.

Start to see what religion is now?

The crowds love it. His family deem Him mad, but Jesus warns those followers who are closest to Him that there's an error that cannot be erased - when we repudiate such a work of pure love as evil and only have a framework of hatred which continually renounces such good.

It's entirely possible, He's saying, for people to be that blind.

If we allow this account to begin to bear upon us, we're not going to be able to walk away untouched, but that impression can be for good or for ill, and that's where Jesus goes next - in teaching about seeds, soils and what is grown when what's  needed (life-changing truth) is encountered by indifference, overcrowding distraction, or with a genuine desire for what's good.

Where are we on that scale?
And how would we have reacted when this Jesus stilled gale force winds, pounding waves, and broke the will of a legion of demons (restoring a man to his right mind) before He brings a little girl back from death?

Awe. Amazement. Wonder. Joy.
Or anger and hatred?

It's understandable why the people thronged Him at this point - this man clearly had something remarkable.

What I found so telling in this opening section was how it was what seemed reasonable to those passionate about a dogma that was constantly challenged and shaken by what Jesus was - that's why they were so troubled, and why some of them only grew in hatred of what He was.

The real gem we should take away from this record - the real insight that Mark wants us to glean - is what Jesus is showing us about God.

Across these five chapters, we see Him expressing and giving unconditional mercy to anyone who comes to Him and cries for help. There isn't anyone turned away, but there are those who turn away.

God in Christ is entirely about giving unceasingly, willingly, to those who are prepared to receive, but Mark also shows us the awful truth that when some encounter this marvel, they only desire such beauty to be killed.

Engage with that astounding message afresh and soberly ask yourself, can I come with my need and see Jesus?