Popular Christianity or Authentic Discipleship? - Mark 6:53-56

Popular Christianity or Authentic Discipleship?

Mark 6:53-56

Introduction: Frank Abagnale Jr. was a brilliant young man, who got off to a rather dubious start (You might know his story from the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, Catch Me if You Can). He learned from his father the art of the “con” and began as a teenager to put it into practice. Once, on the first day he was in a new school, he pretended to be the substitute teacher, and got away with it for a while. He pretended to be an off-duty pilot and got free rides in the jump seat of airlines, reportedly traveling over a million miles before he was caught. He also became an expert at falsifying checks and was eventually caught by the FBI, and sent to prison. Later he got an early parole from prison and was recruited to help the FBI in detecting false checks and catching those who were forging them. He knew what to look for. In order to discern what is “false” we need to carefully study what is authentic. There is a disparity between popular Christianity and the call to authentic discipleship that we see in the gospels. Mark is making it clear that the way of a Christ-follower is not going to be all gentle seas and green pastures. It is more often stormy seas and desert roads where we grow, learning to know Him better and trust Him more.

The Context: The loaves and the lake… Jesus was revealing Himself, and teaching the disciples, preparing them for the ministry they will have after His ascension.

The Maine* Idea: Jesus is the revelation of God, able to bring healing and life to all who believe.

The Setting: Jesus guided them to their destination. He has a plan (53)!

⁵³ When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. 

       Remember the context… Jesus had sent them out onto the Lake, and then, in their frustration and exhaustion, He came to them on the water, revealing His glory in His divine power, speaking words of life and hope to them: “Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid!” The Great I AM was present, and He was strengthening their faith, revealing the truth, leading the disciples deeper. He is continuing in this Gospel to teach them and to prepare them for the mission that would very soon be entrusted to them: bringing the Gospel of Jesus to the ends of the earth.

I. Popularity: Many were looking to the Lord to meet their needs (54,55a).

⁵⁴ And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him  ⁵⁵ and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. 

       I couldn’t help but see a contrast here between the experience the disciples just had on the lake, and the people in the region of Gennesaret. Jesus came to the disciples in their need, walking on the water, and they didn’t recognize Him. They thought they were seeing a ghost!  Instead of relief and joy their first reaction was fear. They did not recognize Him. They hadn’t understood the loaves, and they had no expectation that they were never out of His line of sight, never somewhere where He could not come to them in their need. In contrast, as soon as Jesus and His disciples got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized Him. He was known to them, His reputation preceded Him, and they knew this was the miracle worker Jesus, the One that could help and heal those in need.  Have you ever been near a famous person and not recognized them? Many years ago Mary Ann and I were at a marriage conference and got in an elevator with a rather friendly guy. He asked us how the conference was going and made some small talk. I think one of us finally looked at his name tag and we realized it was Dennis Rainey, the Founder and main speaker of the Family Life conferences!

       Mark is wanting us to be reminded of the dullness of the disciples more than the spiritual acumen of the crowd. It is probable that very few in the crowd had a right understanding of who Jesus is and why He came. His popularity came with limited understanding from the people. But the point of the contrast is that the disciples should have been further along in their understanding! Jesus’ focus was on preparing a relatively small group of followers to take a key, foundational role in the church, after the cross / resurrection / Pentecost. Their faith needed to be sure before they could proclaim Jesus as the revelation of God, the One who is able to bring healing and life to all who believe.

II. Persistence: If we care about people we will want to do all we can to bring them to Jesus (55). What did the people do when they realized Jesus was there?

[They] ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. 

       You have to admire the tenacity and persistence of these people in Galilee who were running around bringing the sick to wherever they heard Jesus was! This indicates commitment, and caring for their needy friends, bringing them to the One who could help! It might have been easier to stay at home, or to even visit their friend and let them know they should be alert in case Jesus passed by! They were persistent, they got their sick friends, and brought them to Jesus. That kind of caring takes diligent effort, intentionality.

A common phenomenon in nature is “the path of least resistance.” Electricity moving through a circuit will travel where it has the “easiest” route... Rivers always travel around a mountain because it is easier than going through one.

     Frequently people are like that too. It is easier to sit in front of the TV than to care for a neighbor’s needs. It is easier to get angry at your mate and let that anger diminish (or smolder) over the course of time rather than sitting down and working the problem through… And so we find that humans are prone to “take the path of least resistance.”

     But there is one difference between ourselves and electricity or a river. They will never have to give an account of what they have done. We will. Thus, perhaps we should incline ourselves to take the path of greatest persistence.

Greatest persistence, not least resistance! So, we should be persistent (if not pesky!) in seeking to bring our friends, relatives, and neighbors to Christ, because Jesus is the revelation of God, able to bring healing and life to all who believe.

III. Power: Jesus is the Way to Life, He alone is able to Save (56).  

⁵⁶ And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well. 

       The wind storm last week was amazing… some trees that had stood tall and strong for a hundred years were knocked down in one night.  The power of the storm caused damage that a week later still has some without electricity! Even so, relatively speaking, that was a mild show of the power that we find in nature. One astounding demonstration of power in nature occurred on May 18, 1980, when Mount St. Helens in Washington State exploded. According to one report…

…At 8:32 A.M. the explosion ripped 1,300 feet off the mountain with a force of ten million tons of TNT, or roughly equal to five hundred Hiroshimas. 60 people were killed, most by a blast of 300-degree heat traveling at two hundred miles an hour. Some were killed as far as sixteen miles away. The blast also leveled 150-foot Douglas firs, as far as seventeen miles away. A total of 3.2 billion board-feet of lumber was destroyed, enough to build 200,000 three-bedroom homes…

We can hardly comprehend such power! Yet that power is only the flicker of a candle compared to the power of Jesus Christ. We see a glimpse of it here as the crowds are bringing the sick to Him, and all who come are healed, just by a touch of the edge of His garment. Let’s look at a couple of the details.

        Mark is describing the exploding popularity of Jesus at this stage of the ministry in Galilee. He says “…wherever He came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplace…” What a contrast to the ministry of Jesus in His hometown of Nazareth at the beginning of chapter 6! Remember Mark told us, “And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them…” (Mark 6:5). Why could He do no miracles there? It seems that the residents didn’t think this hometown boy could do anything for their friends, so they didn’t bother to bring them out in public places for Jesus to do His works of power and heal them. They were indifferent, unbelieving. And Mark tells us that Jesus “marveled” at their unbelief! Throughout the rest of Galilee, the crowds were coming, bringing the sick, and laying them in public places where Jesus was expected to pass.

     “…they implored Him…” Grammatically, it seems that the ones doing the “asking” were not the sick, but those who brought them and laid them in Jesus’ path. Not only had they brought their needy friends and relatives to Jesus, but they were “imploring” Jesus on their behalf!  I couldn’t help but think of the idea of our ministry to our oikos, our extended household, family, neighbors, and friends. Are we imploring God on their behalf? How these people must have loved the sick that they were bringing to meet Jesus! And they were also asking Jesus to help them. We’ve been encouraging our church family to embrace these same ministry opportunities toward our friends, relatives, and neighbors, starting with prayer! Have you listed the 8 to 15 people you live life with, and begun praying?

     “…the hem of His garment…” (see Num 15:38,39; Zech 8:21-23). Back when we were looking at the story Jairus, and of the suffering woman touching Jesus’ garment and being healed, Herb M. and Bob C. were talking in our Tuesday morning prayer time about the significance of the tassels on a Jewish man’s garment. We see God’s purpose for these tassels in Numbers 15:37-41…

³⁷ The LORD said to Moses, ³⁸"Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner.  ³⁹ And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after.  ⁴⁰ So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.  ⁴¹ I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD your God."

       Chris Wright in his book The Mission of God comments on Zechariah 8, another key Old Testament passage that is echoed in our context in Mark…

Zechariah 8 also promises that God will return once more to Zion to dwell with his people (Zech 8:3). The covenant relationship will thus be restored (Zech 8:7-8). The result is that the curse will change to blessing. Echoes of the Abrahamic promise surface in verse 13. But the chapter concludes with the picture of the nations urgently encouraging one another to go find the Lord where he may be found—among the people where he dwells. This may be centripetal, but it is certainly also missional. People will clamor to join those who know the living God. God dwelling among his people should be the most attractive force on earth. (Mission, p.339).

Read that chapter if you have a chance this week, but for now look at Zechariah 8:20-23, and listen for echoes of this story of Jesus in Mark…

²⁰ "Thus says the LORD of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities.  ²¹ The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, 'Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD and to seek the LORD of hosts; I myself am going.'  ²² Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD.  ²³ Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'" 

It seems Zechariah is talking about the future kingdom when the Messiah will reign from Jerusalem, but remember that as Jesus walked on earth He was announcing that the kingdom was at hand, because He, the King, was present. By grace we too have taken hold of the robe of a Jew, Jesus, the promised Seed of the woman, the descendant of Abraham who would bless the nations, the Son of David who would have an eternal kingdom!

       “…as many as touched it were healed [saved]…” The context is clearly talking about the miraculous healing of the sick who were brought to Jesus, and who touched the hem of His garment. His compassion and his power is revealed by the healing of all who reach out to Him. H.A. Ironside said,

God incarnate was walking about in the midst of His people, and it was His delight to relieve their sufferings and to cure them of their diseases. His saving-health was manifested wherever He went. Yet, alas, all this failed to convince the leaders that their long-waited-for Messiah had come to deliver them.

The hard hearts of the leaders will come out again in Mark 7. Here Jesus is offering healing and life to the people. This story makes me think of another scene in the book of Numbers, when God sent judgement, or at least chastening, on the grumbling Jews. We read in Numbers 21:6-9,   

⁶ Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.  ⁷ And the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people.  ⁸ And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live."  ⁹ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

Provision was made: Look and live! We don’t know, but could there have been some who refused to look, or who thought that it was silly to think a bronze snake on a pole could help them, and didn’t bother to even look? Jesus referred to this scene when He said in John 3:14-15,

¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

The issue was faith. And so Mark tells us that as many as “touched the fringe of Jesus’ garment were healed.” The Greek verb used here, sozo, has the primary meaning of “save.” In fact, the first use of that verb in the New Testament occurs in Matthew 1:21 describing the work the coming Child would accomplish,

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

Here the “healing” that Jesus would do is described as primarily spiritual, He would “save His people from their sins”! The connection between “healing” and our sin problem was stated by the prophet Isaiah 7 centuries before…

⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.  ⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all… (Isaiah 53:5-6).

What is God saying to me in this passage? The Maine* Idea we see here is that Jesus is the revelation of God, God incarnate, and He alone is able to bring healing and life—eternal life, abundant life—to all who believe. Have you trusted Him?

What would God have me to do in response to this passage?  This same Jesus, who healed the sick, who fed the multitudes, who calmed the sea and walked on the water, came to meet our deepest need. He came to resolve our sin problem, and to make it possible for fallen humans to be reconciled to our Holy God. The provision has been made, his death was the perfect and sufficient sacrifice for sin. Have you reached out your hand and touched the fringe of His garment? Have you believed in Him as your Savior and Lord? The promise of the Bible is “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!”

       Let’s be reminded again of the friends, relatives, and neighbors who brought their loved ones to Jesus, and who “implored Him” that they might touch the fringe of His garment and be healed. Shouldn’t we love our friends enough to do the same, praying for them, and by every means possible, seeking to bring them to Jesus? That is what authentic Christianity looks like! We’ve experienced God’s grace, and we are compelled to tell others! Only He can meet their deepest need!

       On this first Sunday we remember the sacrifice that made that salvation available to those who believe.  This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.  AMEN.