Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] We are in Mark, the Book of Mark. We're going all the way through the Gospel of Mark from the beginning of Jesus's ministry all the way to the death and the resurrection over Easter is where we're going to end up. Spoiler alert. For those of you who are wondering how this ends, we're going to go through the death and the resurrection. And right now we're in Mark, chapter six. And so to recap a little bit for those of you who maybe haven't been involved in the whole series. So this book specifically doesn't spend quite as much time as some of the other books and gospels on the teachings of Jesus. So for instance, the Beatitudes that happen in Matthew don't exist in Mark. Instead, Mark takes a lot more time to just run through this. Really action packed. What did Jesus do and how did he do it and who was he doing it for?
[00:00:57] And that's no exception, again, in this case, that there is some teaching more through the actions of Jesus as opposed to simply the teachings. And also remember the, the cultural context at this point. The Roman government is occupying Israel and there are groups of people, one the Jewish traditionalists, that are looking for a Messiah. They're hoping a Messiah will arrive. And then there are some who are considered zealots that are hoping that they can somehow create an army to overthrow the Roman government and take back their city. And then there are many who ex in both camps. Some are looking for a messiah that will then overthrow the Roman government. What they're looking for is some kind of a revolution in one way or the other that tips the scales back into their direction. And Jesus in this story that we're going to read through today is a revolutionary, but of course in true Jesus fashion, not exactly how they had hoped or anticipated. But it's even better than all of that. So Mark, chapter six, verse 30, it says this. The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all that they had done and taught. So remember last week Jesus and the disciples went to Nazareth and did some ministry there that went relatively poorly because the people of Nazareth simply knew Jesus as the kid from around the corner and not as a prophet or as the Messiah. And so that many of them rejected him. And then he sends out the disciples to go do the work of the ministry without him being by their side. And this is immediately following that. It says, then Jesus said, go off by, let's go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest a while. He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn't even have time to eat. Shout out to the moms in the room today that have said these words that Jesus has said, let's go off by myself to a quiet place to rest a while.
[00:02:58] But in true mom fashion, they don't get to sit for very long. So listen to this. So they left by boat for a quiet place where they could be alone. But many people recognized them and saw them leaving. And people from many towns ran ahead along the shore and got there ahead of them. Again, if we want to follow the mom metaphor, this is the children knocking on the bathroom door insisting that you should be done by now.
[00:03:22] Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped out of the boat. He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And so he began teaching them many things. And late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, this is a remote place and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat. And Jesus said, you feed them.
[00:03:47] A powerful message in and of itself. I'll read it again. Jesus says, you feed them. And then the disciples appropriately responded with what they asked. We'd have to work for months to earn money to buy food for all these people.
[00:04:02] How much bread do you have? He asked. Go and find out. They came back and reported, we have five loaves of bread and two fish. Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass. And so they sat down in groups of 50 or 100. And Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven and blessed them. And then breaking the loaves into pieces. He kept giving the bread to the disciples so that they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share. They all ate as much as they wanted. And afterward the disciples picked up 12 baskets of leftover bread and fish. A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed.
[00:04:41] Let's pray together. Father God, we thank you for your word that it is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword. That it would pierce our hearts today. That we wouldn't simply go through some text and learn a few things, but that we would be moved by your Holy Spirit to be the people that you are calling us to be. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:05:05] So what Jesus is doing here is an act of revolution. There's a lot of symbolism in this passage. And Jesus actually begins to fit the bill that the zealots would be hoping that he would fit. So another important piece of context is this, that as they go to rest and they go to a remote place, the remote places in this area were actually known to be sympathetic toward the zealot cause. So again, the zealots were the ones that were wanting to overthrow the Roman government and take back what was theirs. And so these remote areas were sympathetic to them, and they also housed many of the zealots. And so Jesus, who is beginning to gain this power and authority and influence with his charisma and his miracles, he's gathering this crowd even in this remote places, that is most likely largely consisting of people that want him to be a zealot with them, to lead their cause. And Jesus actually begins to do a lot of things that that revolutionary leader would do right in this story. He stops and he spends time with them. He gathers them, he feeds them.
[00:06:16] He begins to look like what we've seen in many revolutionary leaders outside of even this context all over the world, for all of history. He fits a practical need. He meets a practical need for them. He gives them purpose and a vision for their lives. But he stops short of this violent overthrow of the government. And instead he decides to go deep into the soul of the person whom he is ministering to.
[00:06:44] Because it turns out that Jesus revolution is not that of the sword and of blood. Instead it is that of the heart and of the soul of man.
[00:06:53] That's Jesus goal and effort, that we would be changed from the inside out.
[00:07:01] The symbolism is representative of this revolution and of course, a revolution that is not just led by anyone, but by Jesus and then his unqualified revolutionaries.
[00:07:13] I don't know if you've ever felt in this life of following after Jesus that you are also an unqualified revolutionary, often asking questions that others might deem silly or that you yourself deem silly, wondering why God would have chosen you or us to do the things that we are feeling compelled and called to do.
[00:07:34] You're under educated. You don't have all of the experience and or wisdom. It's not just about failing to interpret scripture on your own as well as you wish you could. But a lot of times it's just about this feeling of imposter syndrome that many of us are prone to.
[00:07:52] When Pastor Steve Mickle, who is a pastor, senior pastor alongside Evan and I, but was the solo senior pastor here at Westside for a decade before that, when he Left or was deciding to leave, and we were making plans. There was a few of us, Evan and I and Lindsay, who led worship with us this morning, that were just talking about what life would look like beyond Steve. And for those of you know, me, know that I just. I love, love, love, love, love Steve so much. And Lindsay, I was panicked, basically. I was like, look, here's the deal.
[00:08:26] People are coming to this church for Steve. I am coming to this church for Steve. And now that he's leaving, I might go to church somewhere else.
[00:08:34] How does that sound?
[00:08:36] I might renounce Christianity, the whole thing. Was Steve a cult leader? Maybe.
[00:08:41] I was certainly influenced in such a way.
[00:08:46] And Lindsay was sharing less panicked but similar sentiment to me.
[00:08:52] And she said. She said, look, what we have to come around to the conclusion and the understanding of is that we're in our 40s, we're the grownups in the room now, we get to lead the church from here going forward. And I was like, hmm, that sounds logical.
[00:09:14] I don't feel it inside my heart right now.
[00:09:20] And the truth of the matter is, is that despite all of our imposter syndrome, God is calling us to be the church to this world and to this area, to this street that is Shevlin Park Road to Bend, Oregon and central Oregon. We are being called up to be the people. No matter how unqualified you feel, Jesus is a habit of performing revolutions with unexperienced revolutionaries.
[00:09:45] He's calling us into this moment today on purpose and with intention.
[00:09:50] It's easy to interpret this entire story as kind of a pastoral story. A church picnic with blankets and thousands of people being fed.
[00:10:01] But it's not just that. It would have been viewed by these zealots and revolutionaries as potentially the muster of an army.
[00:10:10] The Gospel of John says about this moment, it says they came to make him king by force.
[00:10:17] And it makes sense, especially coming so closely on the heels of the story of John the Baptist. Word has spread that this man, John the Baptist, that was a prominent member of the team, so to speak, had been beheaded and killed by Herod.
[00:10:30] These people are looking for a king in the way that they have hoped for, and Jesus may be that one.
[00:10:37] So again, he continues actually to kind of say words and speak this narrative that would confirm their thoughts and their feelings. Jesus says they're like a sheep without a shepherd in this story. Now, again, that's not just a pastoral cute metaphor.
[00:10:52] He's quoting Moses from the Book of Numbers at the end of Moses life, saying that God would give them hoping that God would give them a political and a military leader. He says, may the Lord appoint a man over this community that would go forth and would lead them so that the Lord's people may not be lost like a sheep without a shepherd. Jesus is saying these words on purpose and they're clocking this in their mind. They're going, what did he just say?
[00:11:17] He sounds like one of the major authorities in the tradition of our faith and of our culture. He's saying these words with intention. He must be our political and military leader that we have been hoping for.
[00:11:28] And it goes on. In verse 34 it says that when he saw that they wanted this revolutionary leader, he began to preach the gospel.
[00:11:37] This is usually the part of the muster of the army where weapons are handed out and you begin to devise a plan for war.
[00:11:46] When Jesus met with this moment to take up and bear arms with his army, instead he gives out the truth of the gospel bread.
[00:11:58] These are the tools instead of weapons of traditional warfare for his revolution.
[00:12:05] He goes with and against the revolutionary expectation of the day.
[00:12:12] He lets them know that he is that leader, he is that one, but that their future is not going to be met with a battle at the gates of the city. Instead, it will be met with forgiveness and mercy and grace in our hearts and souls.
[00:12:29] Now, what a waste. By the way that it would feel to many of these people. Jesus would do all these things, say all these things, put together all this work and then fill this practical need for people and not snatch that power and take it with both hands and run with it.
[00:12:48] Instead, he leaves himself vulnerable in this moment. Who among us wouldn't grab all this authority and charge forward with the army at your back, screaming of this brand new wonderful revolution to take back what you believe to be yours. Instead, Jesus meets us right here today with the gospel and bread.
[00:13:08] He pushes against the model of liberation for the day, but he doesn't push against liberation. He pushes against their hope for their expression of power. So again, Jesus could muster this entire army and then begin to perform incredible, unnatural acts of his power. He could soar above the lakes and the oceans. He could rise up on these wings, right, that he could sprout out of his back himself being the creator of the universe.
[00:13:34] But Jesus doesn't actually express his power in this unnatural form ever along the point of his ministry. And I love this quote from Jurgen Moltman that says Jesus healings are the only natural things in a world that is unnatural, demonized and wounded. What Jesus gospel, what his revolution does is it draws the world that has become so unnatural and broken and it begins to bind it up and bring it back to the natural way that God had intended at the beginning of the creation of the world.
[00:14:07] The ways of this world are actually not natural. Hunger, loneliness, depression, homelessness, persecution. These are not the ways that God had made the world. They're unnatural. The gospel that Jesus preaches provides bread for now and for eternity. Miracles that Jesus performs restore the natural order of things and then remind people that miracles aren't about this expression of Jesus's raw power that sometimes we crave, but it's a drawing back of the way to the things that God had intended.
[00:14:41] So Jesus fulfills this practical and natural need as an expression of what the gospel does for us.
[00:14:51] And I love that Jesus answers these questions. As we talked about, as we read through the scripture, the disciples say we should send the crowds away so that they might go to the nearby farms and villages and find something to eat.
[00:15:07] And you know what? The disciples are right. They lack the resource, they lack the finances to be able to pay for something for all these people. It would make sense that they would send them away. But then Jesus charges them with an opportunity that I believe that Jesus is charging us with today.
[00:15:22] No, don't send them away.
[00:15:25] You go feed them.
[00:15:29] I believe that Westside Church, that the church as a whole, the big C global church, is still called to this vision mission because see how this gospel works, how Christianity is intended to work is not for us to have all of the resources available to us right in front of our face at every single moment. You know how faith in Christianity works is that we offer ourselves, the people, as a sacrifice, open handed and willing and obedient to the way of Jesus, even when the resources not seen right in front of our face.
[00:16:08] And it frustrates me and I hope it frustrates you too. Especially when massive Christian voices rise up and say if there is a need, then we should simply remove the people with need. If we get them out of the way, then there will be enough resources for those who remain. And we, the disciples come to people and say, look, you should go, you should leave, you should be removed so that we might actually create this life for ourselves. It makes sense. It's pragmatism, it's problem solving. But Jesus would come to his church today and he would say, no, you feed them, this is your job.
[00:16:46] When we're faced with incredible mental health crisis of today, maybe the love of Jesus and forgiveness that he teaches and brings would bring so Much relief to generations and generations suffering with their own identity of purpose and future.
[00:17:02] Maybe when the world says there's not enough food to go around, the church would rise up and say, we don't know where the money comes from and we don't know where the food will come from. But we know that we are here and willing and available to do whatever Jesus is calling us to do. Because we don't believe it's someone else's job to feed the poor and clothe the cold and house the homeless. We believe it actually revolves in our responsibility and our faith. We want to care for people in such a way. Amen.
[00:17:39] Revolutions have all started with someone or something that wants to subvert the current culture.
[00:17:47] And Christians are no exception, and we're no exception to that today. We want to subvert through the transformative power of the gospel and serving the lives of those around us, even those who actually believe differently than we do.
[00:18:02] By the way, this is a really important distinction that may help bolster your faith.
[00:18:07] We are not called simply to those who already believe. Instead, we are called to serve even those who believe and live differently than we do.
[00:18:18] So if you're serious that you want to be a Christian revolutionary, and maybe there's a few of us in here today, if you want to subvert the culture through a form of Christianity, you have to do it the way Jesus did. And that brings us to this moment where Jesus departs from their traditional revolutionary and he proves to be something in and of himself altogether.
[00:18:41] We learn that to be a revolutionary of Jesus, we actually have to lose power and not take power in order to gain authority in our world.
[00:18:53] So how can we revolutionize this world? Well, I'll give you three points as we close.
[00:19:00] The first thing is this. How to revolutionize living in this world today. You can be generous.
[00:19:05] You can give from what you have, whatever that might be.
[00:19:10] You can give to the church. I'm a big believer at what's happening here at Westside. And from Westside, you can give to the poor, you can give to the needy. You can give to the people in your family that you feel like don't deserve it. You can go out of your way to be generous with your kindness and your grace, but be generous. Give from what you have, what resource you have. The thing that makes this difficult is that generosity actually makes us vulnerable.
[00:19:35] There's always this question of, well, if I give away too much, then I might be left vulnerable in the future.
[00:19:44] Leaves me open for attack. It leaves me open for something to go wrong with me and mine. And yet Jesus calls us to be generous. This is our act of open handed faith and obedience in Jesus that we might be generous in all seasons and situations.
[00:20:02] My sister's a great example of this.
[00:20:05] I've referenced that my family's going through a little bit of a house remodel that's created some inconvenience. And what has happened in my sister's house, my sister, who already has seven kids, by the way, is that me and my wife and my kids have ended over there. And then not only that, two of my three dogs have ended up over there with great regularity. And you know what happens when you open the door at Colleen's house? Come on in. I'm like, you're crazy.
[00:20:30] You are nuts. You should be locking the door. When you see my pickup, pull up, come on in. There's food. There's more than enough for everyone.
[00:20:42] My sister and brother in law are not wealthy people, but they operate with a wealth of generosity.
[00:20:52] So you want to be a revolutionary of Jesus? The first thing you can do is be generous. Second thing, be curious. In a world that everyone seemingly seems to have all the answers to all the questions. You can be someone that walks up to the table and says, help me understand, or can you tell me a bit about your life?
[00:21:16] Can you tell me your story and how you view the world today? We've got a shorthand in so many ways, where in moments of seeing a post on social media or moments of even seeing somebody out in the world, we believe that we know far more about their lives than we actually do.
[00:21:34] The same can be said for Christians. It certainly can be said for politics.
[00:21:40] We don't want to listen or ask questions anymore. Instead we want to cast aspersions and we want to be confident in our own conviction, our preconceived notions that we already view the world as exactly as it is.
[00:21:55] But the church is called in this moment of time to be a curious people ask questions about those that live and vote and think differently than you. You may learn something about them and yourself, and ultimately you will find yourself gentler and kinder in every context.
[00:22:15] The third thing is this.
[00:22:17] We can desire forgiveness.
[00:22:26] Is there anything worse than the vulnerability of asking forgiveness from somebody?
[00:22:32] I have definitive memories from growing up in a Christian school that happened out at our church, which was hard on a few levels. Number one, not that many kids good at sports. And so thus they all made me angry and, you know, was I playing too rough? No, I was trying to win as you should.
[00:22:52] I was in the right and they were in the wrong.
[00:22:55] That kind of behavior, combined with the fact that, you know, it was a Christian school at the church that my dad pastored at, made meant that he was always available for discipline.
[00:23:11] The worst thing that my dad would make me do after I did something stupid was he would bring not just me, but he would bring that person into the, the office and he would say, you need to ask for forgiveness.
[00:23:24] Well, there are many things I will do, but that is not one of them.
[00:23:30] You know, crossed arms, head looking down, look up at the other person, you apologize and ask for forgiveness.
[00:23:40] I'm sorry.
[00:23:43] Are you sorry? No.
[00:23:46] Again, they traveled before the foul was committed, so it's not my fault.
[00:23:57] Oh. And it still exists inside of us as grownups today.
[00:24:03] Forgiveness, again, like generosity, it leaves us vulnerable.
[00:24:09] But ultimately it leads to the greatest of healings in our lives.
[00:24:16] Jesus, death and resurrection is not just a miracle in and of itself of what happened, that Jesus was dead and now he's alive. But in the process of it, what happened was forgiveness for the whole world.
[00:24:32] If we are a people that are to be revolutionaries like Jesus and to take on him, we are called to seek and to give forgiveness.
[00:24:44] So again, let's revolutionize the world around us. Let's be generous, let's be curious, and let's desire forgiveness. Why don't you stand with me and we're going to close. Jesus, we thank you for your presence here in this place. Thank you that you are calling all of us gathered, an unqualified people to simply love and to care and to forgive and be forgiven.
[00:25:09] Thank you for your sacrifice on the cross. Thank you for these elements that remind us that your gospel is now a part of us, not just something we think on. We give you praise and glory in Jesus name. Amen.
