More Thoughts on Our Calling
Mark 2 contains Pastor Randy's favorite story in the Bible, I think. The story of the four friends who lower the crippled man through the roof is exciting and great example of the lengths people would go to get a glimpse of Jesus. The reason these guys would have the audacity to cut a hole in some poor guys' roof is because they believed that Jesus really cared for the man and He could bring healing to the man. But what they found was even more than they imagined.
In the last post, we talked about what it means for us to follow Jesus. Following Jesus means repenting of our satisfaction with just living the way we've been living. To turn from the sin that holds us back and walking with Him, doing what He does, and taking on Jesus' perspective. In Mark 2:13-17, Jesus gives some clarification to His mission.
This section chronicles the calling of Levi (Matthew). Levi was a tax collector. When you think of tax collector in Bible times, however, don't just think about an IRS agent--it's much different. I was sitting the other day talking with some friends from India about the differences in our cultures. One thing that stands out to them as they adjust to life in the United States is the order. India is chaos. In the US, we have single-file lines and people generally wait their turn. In India, there are only mobs.
In the US, when a policeman pulls us over for speeding and we hand him a 20 to let us go, we get in even more trouble. In India, the police routinely ask for bribes. As we talked, I couldn't help but think that they probably have a much better understanding of the biblical culture than we ever will. When Mark explained that Levi was a tax collector who was called by Jesus, it would have raised the hair on the first-century Christian's neck.
Tax collectors were hated by any self-respecting Jew. Tax collectors in the Roman Empire were people who contracted with the Romans to extort money from the masses. When a tax collector would with the contract with the government, they were obligated to pay to the Emperor what they said they would. If they could collect more on top of that it would go directly in their pocket. They were given the authority to collect the taxes in any way necessary.
The whole system lent itself to corruption and in the Jewish world tax collectors were seen as traitors in bed with the Emperor--the lowest of the low. Tax collectors were especially hated by the religious establishment--people like the Pharisees. Yet Jesus calls Levi and Levi answers the call to follow Jesus.
Immediately, Levi invites Jesus over to his house for a party with all his friends. Of course, Jesus was always under the scrutiny of the Pharisees, who I can see peeking in the windows seeing Jesus hanging out with all the notorious "sinners" in town.
The Pharisees' religion was based on separation. They separated themselves from sin (or so they thought). They separated themselves from the masses and not wanting to be corrupted, certainly separated themselves from the "sinners." But we learn a lot about what it means to really follow Jesus in the interaction He has with the Pharisees.
Being people of separation, the Pharisees couldn't understand why Jesus would be in the company of sinners and traitors. Pharisees only associated with other righteous people, so they confronted Him on it. Jesus' answer is prescriptive for anyone who wants to truly follow Him. He answers, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." In order for Jesus to be on mission, He had to be in the middle of people who needed Him and knew it.
In the church, we'll often see this as a nice story that applies only to Jesus. Jesus had His mission and that's great, but we're not Jesus so we've taken on the mentality of the Pharisees--to separate ourselves from the "sinners" of the world. In fact, we often judge the spiritual life of Christians by the events they attend, the music they listen to, and the friends they keep. The more "Christian" we are, the further from the world we are. That's great if we are "saved" and safe. But we're not called to be saved and safe. The Church is the body of Christ, so we should be where Jesus would be.
Statistics show that the longer someone is a Christian, the less non-Christian friends they have. We have made it habit when people come to faith in Jesus, to pull them out of the world into the safety of the church. But following Jesus is not safe, it's dangerous. The parties Jesus' attended were not filled with religious people, they were filled with sinners.
When did the church become the place where healthy people sit around and talk about how healthy we are? When did we start believing it was OK just to sit around and complain about all the sick people in the world? The irony of this story is that as much as Jesus put "sinners" in quotes, He also put quotes around "healthy" and "righteous" when referring to the Pharisees. They weren't healthy and they weren't righteous and if we think that we are healthy and righteous because we only hang out with other Christians and do all the right "Christian things" we're only covering up our sickness.
When we truly follow Jesus, we gain an understanding of His mission. When we understand His mission, we understand our mission. The only question now is, will we really follow?
Thursday, July 1, 2010
NT Journey--Mark 1
Our Calling
Keeping up with the New Testament journey has proved difficult during our move to Minnesota. I've managed to keep up fairly well, but according to the schedule, I'm a few chapters behind. Please be patient with me. Things will slow down at some point and I'll be able to better keep up on a daily basis. In any case, try to stay on the regular reading schedule so you don't have to read too much on any given day. With that in mind, let's talk about Mark 1.
We learned in the intro to Mark that this book has a lot of short, to-the-point stories. This is one reason why scholars believe Matthew and Luke might have used Mark for source material for their Gospels. What it means for me on the New Testament Journey is that I either have to look closely to see how the short stories relate to each other, flow from one to the next, or just pick one of the short sections and focus on that. Today, I'll do that latter. I would like to focus today on verse 14-20--the calling of the disciples.
This section first tells us that Jesus' message was that the Kingdom of God was near. We've seen this over and over in the gospels. That was the message of Jesus. It was not first of all that people can go to heaven, but that the Kingdom of Heaven was coming to earth and it was very near. Of course, the reason it was near was because Jesus was near. Jesus was sent as the Jewish Messiah who would free people from what oppressed them. He was the promise God gave to Abraham that "all the nations of the earth would be blessed through you." So the Kingdom was near because Jesus was near.
Jesus then goes on to teach about what it takes to become a part of that Kingdom. He says, "repent and believe the good news." When we looked at John 3, we saw what that repentance looks like. Repentance is a turning. For us, it means to completely renounce the thinking and perspective of the world and begin to think like Jesus; to give up our sinful desires and take on God's desires. When we do, we participate in the Kingdom. We don't have to wait until we die and go to heaven, we can experience Kingdom life right here and now, but the way to do it is to repent.
This brings us to our focus for today. In our society today, we often think about our relationship with Jesus in terms of salvation--we get to go to heaven when we die. Although the Bible does talk of people being "saved" when they have faith in Jesus, that's not the primary terminology Jesus used when calling people. The primary calling of Jesus was not to just be saved, but it was "follow me."
Now some might say that this calling was only for Jesus' twelve disciples, but we see other instances in the Gospels where Jesus calls other people to follow Him. For instance, when the rich young man came and asked Jesus what he needed to do to be saved, Jesus told him, "Go sell everything you have and give it to the poor...then come follow me." (Mark 10:21)
Our mindset is often that what Jesus wants from us is to be saved, but when Jesus was calling people--average everyday people--His call was to follow Him. How many people over the years have come to believe that Jesus is satisfied with people simply being "saved."
The second part of Jesus' call in this passage is that He will make them "fishers of men." Oftentimes we'll continue the metaphor Jesus uses and we think we should be called "fishers of men." However, Jesus used this metaphor only with Simon and Andrew, who were fishermen. I don't think it's wrong to continue to use the metaphor today, but when we do, I think we lose the significance of what Jesus was saying to them.
What Jesus was saying was that when they come and follow Him their life will take on a much bigger purpose than just catching fish. Simon and Andrew were used to the daily grind of getting up early in the morning, preparing their nets, rowing out into the lake and casting nets all day. It's not that what they did was insignificant. It was a living for them and sustenance for others. What Jesus was saying to them was that at present they are devoting themselves to the mundane, everyday part of life, but if they're willing to follow Him, their lives can take on a cosmic and eternal significance.
What Jesus was calling them to was not just to be "saved" or even safe, but to be significant. They weren't impressive people, but Jesus rarely called impressive people. The only requirement to be a disciple was to be willing to leave everything. Jesus' call to them was far more than the minimal standard we often hold. His call was for them to leave everything they knew to gain something they never though they could. Jesus called them to partnership with the God of the universe.
That is also our call. If we want to see the Kingdom in all its power, we have to repent of our satisfaction with just being saved and safe. The call is not just for the pastors or missionaries, it's for everyone who hears the voice of Jesus. When we follow Him our greatest goal in life ceases to be making money or gaining more prestige for ourselves, but to enter into the lives of people and partner with Jesus in His mission.
Keeping up with the New Testament journey has proved difficult during our move to Minnesota. I've managed to keep up fairly well, but according to the schedule, I'm a few chapters behind. Please be patient with me. Things will slow down at some point and I'll be able to better keep up on a daily basis. In any case, try to stay on the regular reading schedule so you don't have to read too much on any given day. With that in mind, let's talk about Mark 1.
We learned in the intro to Mark that this book has a lot of short, to-the-point stories. This is one reason why scholars believe Matthew and Luke might have used Mark for source material for their Gospels. What it means for me on the New Testament Journey is that I either have to look closely to see how the short stories relate to each other, flow from one to the next, or just pick one of the short sections and focus on that. Today, I'll do that latter. I would like to focus today on verse 14-20--the calling of the disciples.
This section first tells us that Jesus' message was that the Kingdom of God was near. We've seen this over and over in the gospels. That was the message of Jesus. It was not first of all that people can go to heaven, but that the Kingdom of Heaven was coming to earth and it was very near. Of course, the reason it was near was because Jesus was near. Jesus was sent as the Jewish Messiah who would free people from what oppressed them. He was the promise God gave to Abraham that "all the nations of the earth would be blessed through you." So the Kingdom was near because Jesus was near.
Jesus then goes on to teach about what it takes to become a part of that Kingdom. He says, "repent and believe the good news." When we looked at John 3, we saw what that repentance looks like. Repentance is a turning. For us, it means to completely renounce the thinking and perspective of the world and begin to think like Jesus; to give up our sinful desires and take on God's desires. When we do, we participate in the Kingdom. We don't have to wait until we die and go to heaven, we can experience Kingdom life right here and now, but the way to do it is to repent.
This brings us to our focus for today. In our society today, we often think about our relationship with Jesus in terms of salvation--we get to go to heaven when we die. Although the Bible does talk of people being "saved" when they have faith in Jesus, that's not the primary terminology Jesus used when calling people. The primary calling of Jesus was not to just be saved, but it was "follow me."
Now some might say that this calling was only for Jesus' twelve disciples, but we see other instances in the Gospels where Jesus calls other people to follow Him. For instance, when the rich young man came and asked Jesus what he needed to do to be saved, Jesus told him, "Go sell everything you have and give it to the poor...then come follow me." (Mark 10:21)
Our mindset is often that what Jesus wants from us is to be saved, but when Jesus was calling people--average everyday people--His call was to follow Him. How many people over the years have come to believe that Jesus is satisfied with people simply being "saved."
The second part of Jesus' call in this passage is that He will make them "fishers of men." Oftentimes we'll continue the metaphor Jesus uses and we think we should be called "fishers of men." However, Jesus used this metaphor only with Simon and Andrew, who were fishermen. I don't think it's wrong to continue to use the metaphor today, but when we do, I think we lose the significance of what Jesus was saying to them.
What Jesus was saying was that when they come and follow Him their life will take on a much bigger purpose than just catching fish. Simon and Andrew were used to the daily grind of getting up early in the morning, preparing their nets, rowing out into the lake and casting nets all day. It's not that what they did was insignificant. It was a living for them and sustenance for others. What Jesus was saying to them was that at present they are devoting themselves to the mundane, everyday part of life, but if they're willing to follow Him, their lives can take on a cosmic and eternal significance.
What Jesus was calling them to was not just to be "saved" or even safe, but to be significant. They weren't impressive people, but Jesus rarely called impressive people. The only requirement to be a disciple was to be willing to leave everything. Jesus' call to them was far more than the minimal standard we often hold. His call was for them to leave everything they knew to gain something they never though they could. Jesus called them to partnership with the God of the universe.
That is also our call. If we want to see the Kingdom in all its power, we have to repent of our satisfaction with just being saved and safe. The call is not just for the pastors or missionaries, it's for everyone who hears the voice of Jesus. When we follow Him our greatest goal in life ceases to be making money or gaining more prestige for ourselves, but to enter into the lives of people and partner with Jesus in His mission.
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