Eighth Sunday After Pentecost

Lissa Wray Beal

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Good morning, St. Peter’s – people of the mystery. Today, Mark brings us face-to-face with the mystery in which we live.

No, not the “International Man of Mystery” kind of mystery – though you might you’re your martini “shaken, not stirred” - that is not the kind of mystery in Mark. Nor is it a mystery like an Agatha Christie. Not even a Sherlock – updated or not! But a mystery, just the same.

Our Christian life – our parish life – is a life of mystery for we live the reality of something that was hidden, but now – almost beyond comprehension – has been made known. This is how the Bible defines a mystery.

Mark unpacks the reality of this mystery. It begins when Mark first opens his mouth with these words: “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.” Mysterious! A “messiah” is one anointed, and this was especially applied to kings. Mark is saying that Jesus is a king, the Son of God. How could it be that a poor carpenter – of no notable branch of King David’s family – raised in obscurity – is a king? (as an aside, you might want to read through Mark’s gospel sometime, watching to see who “gets” Jesus’ identity – it might surprise you!).

Mark continues the mystery with Jesus’ opening words (1:14-15): “The time has come, the Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” How could a kingdom – and a kingdom of God, at that! – come through this no-account man? What kind of kingdom could it be? How would a carpenter rally troops to throw off the Roman yoke – and how would they do it?

Mark unpacks this mystery throughout his gospel. He answers those questions. But he does it slant. With cues. With clues. With hints.

Mark’s whole gospel takes on the genre of mystery. But if you pay attention, like the game Clue, you come to the end of the gospel and know that it was indeed “Mr. White, in the study, with the candlestick.” Mark unpacks the mystery slant, but he does unpack it.

One way Mark unpacks this mystery is through Jesus’ parables of the kingdom (such as in ch. 4). Jesus tells his followers that “if anyone has ears to hear, let them hear!” Those seeking the kingdom of God can catch a glimpse – sometimes a light shining and then gone – but the sense of its presence and warmth is not forgotten.

And Mark gives hints about the king, the Messiah. Sometimes by using Old Testament passages; sometimes just by how he orders the story. For instance, did you notice that our gospel reading this morning follows immediately after last week’s reading? Last week King Herod sits on Israel’s throne but is definitely not the Messiah. More, he is an ineffective king, making decisions out of fear of his important guests. Right after that, we have this morning’s gospel. The question we need to ask is: in what way does this juxtaposition show us the character of King Jesus? How is his kingship different than Herod’s?

But first, let’s begin by looking at the clue in our gospel’s reading’s first emphasis on the signs of the kingdom. It begins with the 12 disciples, telling Jesus “all they had done and taught.” To know what it is they’d done and taught you have to go back a few verses, for our gospel reading takes up a story begun earlier in the gospel (remember the Marcan sandwich?). The disciples had been away, commissioned by Jesus. They’d taught the good news of the kingdom of God, and they’d done many miracles: casting out demons, and healing the sick. Later in our reading, people recognize Jesus and flock to him. Many are healed – and we aren’t just talking physical healing here (although that happened). The word used here (which we translate “healed”) is much broader in its scope. It has the idea of being saved; of being made whole. It is the same word used of the woman who earlier had touched Jesus’ garment and been healed – it includes physical healing as well as spiritual healing. Jesus made people whole.

These miracles: healing (of body and spirit), exorcism – are prominent in Mark’s gospel. By the time we get to this reading, Jesus has: healed several times, cast out demons, forgiven sins, calmed the storm, and raised the dead.

This is why people crowded around Jesus: because they so desired to be whole, and they’d heard that this man could make it so. These signs of power are very different than the pseudo-power of King Herod. These signs are signs of the kingdom of God. They pointed to the kingdom: “It is here!” and people were drawn to it.

We need to be careful here, though. These miraculous signs were a sign of the kingdom, but they were not the only sign. There were other evidences. To illustrate that, let me tell you about Amos. Amos is a 3-year old boy I’ve never met. I did meet his father while I was on sabbatical this year. He’s American. This summer, he and his family travelled home and, while there, Amos became very sick and it was discovered he had cancer. He’s had a successful operation: the tumor has been removed. But this little guy still has all kinds of tubes and medical interventions. He will begin chemo this week. The family is a long way from saying that Amos is healed physically. In the midst of this uncertainty, what is striking about the facebook posts is that the family is still talking about Jesus. About his power. About his presence in their lives as their king. This suggests to me that there is a deeper reality to the Kingdom of God other than healing—as much as we hope for healing. We see this reality in our gospel account’s second emphasis.

Remember that the people were drawn in such numbers and frequency that everywhere Jesus and the disciples went, they were mobbed. Sick people. Broken people. Curious people. People longing for meaning. These and more crowded, wanting, needing.

It is no wonder that Jesus took his disciples on a summer holiday. He had compassion on them, knowing that it is the busy-ness of life, and the ever-present frailty of humanity that presses on us, and from which we long to escape.

So, in compassion, Jesus took his disciples away for a break.

But even there, the crowds found him. Their need found him. They wanted, and clamoured for his touch; his healing; his presence.

And Jesus didn’t turn them away.

“He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

And he responded to them.

Mark’s comment that Jesus had compassion because “they were like sheep without a shepherd” shouldn’t lead us to think Jesus was just a nice guy – someone who cares for people. He is that. But Mark’s comment about Jesus’ compassion, and the sheep without a shepherd is much more than that. It is, in fact, a huge clue in this gospel reading. It gives the key to understand both the mystery of the Kingdom of God, and the mystery of Jesus as the “Messiah,” the anointed king of Israel.

But this clue – this key to the mystery of the kingdom of God – provides a solution almost as mysterious as the clue itself!

See, these words of Mark are right out of Ezekiel 34. In that passage, God has chastised the kings of Israel. Kings in the ancient world were often pictured as shepherds. God through Ezekiel calls them bad shepherds because they have not cared for the people as kings were supposed to. Then God speaks through his prophet to the people. These people have lost everything: land, homes, hope. They are in deep distress. Stressed out. Broken. Needy. Just like the people in today’s gospel reading.

And what does God say to these people – exhausted as they were by the busy agony of life?

God says this:

You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture and I am your God, . . . I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. . . . I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak. . . . I will feed them with justice.

With these words, God himself takes his place as Israel’s shepherd – Israel’s king. In their deepest need, God meets them in compassion.     

These are the words Mark chooses to describe Jesus and his understanding of the crowds. Jesus sees them as God sees the people; Jesus acts as God acts.

And here we get to Mark’s central claim: the mystery of the kingdom of God is that the King – God Himself – has come among us in the God-Man, Jesus.

          The Shepherd King has come in power – to meet our needs

          The Shepherd King has come in compassion – to meet us in our needs.

No mystery could be deeper than this. That the all-powerful King of the Universe chooses to stoop and become one of us. To know our pain and weariness. To exercise compassion and power where we most need him to be present.

But, in fact, this mystery does get deeper. For the power and compassion of Jesus the Messiah – the King of Israel – the King of the Universe – commits Jesus to willing death on a cross. This is the great mystery by which the Shepherd King dies for my – your – sin and makes us part of his flock.

No wonder that the Roman centurion, seeing Jesus’ death on the cross proclaimed, “Surely, this man was the Son of God.” For it is the cross – a sign of weakness and brokenness - that is The sign of the Kingdom of God. A Kingdom that the Herods of this world could never fathom and only scorn. But a Kingdom of love and power that conquers—and outlasts—all other kingdoms. The sign that God has come amongst us, to meet us at our greatest point of need. To pay the price for our sin, and set us free from bondage and death.

Add up the clues Mark gives throughout his gospel: the signs of power, the teaching, the compassionate presence of God; add up these clues and the solution to the puzzle Mark explores in his gospel is clear: what is the mystery of the Kingdom of God? Who is the Shepherd-King? It is Jesus the God-Man, at Calvary, with compassion.

This is the king who is present with us today: the same king; the same power; the same compassion. King Jesus—the compassionate and powerful Shepherd King is there today, able to meet you in compassion at your place of need. Able to act powerfully in ways we can’t fully comprehend, and sometimes don’t know how to ask.

So, St. Peter’s, walk in the mystery! Keep your eyes open for the cues and clues and hints of the powerful Shepherd-King. He is here amongst us to save and heal. He is here amongst us in our pain, holding us in his deep compassion, and granting rest.

Thanks be to God.