Epiphany 6
Preaching
Preaching Mark's Gospel
A Narrative Approach
We have before us this week another healing story as the One who brings God's reign explodes into ministry with God's life-giving power! This time it is an unclean leper who comes to Jesus. This has been characteristic of the healings and exorcisms in Mark's first chapter: people come to Jesus for help. One wonders at times if this is Mark's story-formed way of telling us what faith is. Faith is people in deep need who come to Jesus in their desperation! In the case of the leper we could add to this definition. The leper comes believing that Jesus does, indeed, have authority over leprosy. (Remember the discussion concerning Jesus' authority in the story told in Mark 1:21-28, see v. 27.) "If you choose," the leper says to Jesus, "you can make me clean." A man in need comes to Jesus, trusting that Jesus has the authority in his word to make him clean. Such is Mark's picture of a faithful one.
Jesus responds to a leper in need. "I do choose," Jesus says. "Be made clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was clean. We have yet another instance here of the power and authority of Jesus' word. His word is not like the words and the authority of the scribes. His word has the power to do what it says. God's creative word has become flesh in this man Jesus. When Jesus speaks, God performs. The leper's faith has a new reality to deal with. The word of Jesus has made him clean. As Saint Paul puts it: "ƒ faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17).
A full New Testament picture of faith will always include the reality that faith is called into being by the creative, authoritative word of Jesus Christ. Faith is coming to Jesus in the midst of our desperate need. If that is the only dimension of faith, however, then faith is a human creation. Faith is called forth from us in its fullness by the word that Jesus speaks to us. Again, if we were only to emphasize the divine word that calls faith into being we would be in danger of making robots of the faithful. Faith emerges from the intersection where Jesus with his word meets us with our desperate need. How spirit-driven faith arises from this intersection is a mystery. Whatever we say about faith beyond the reality of the work of the Spirit at the intersection of human need and Christ's word will probably lead us into some form of heresy!
There is an important caution to preachers at this point. Preaching, after all, takes place precisely at this divine/human intersection. We speak God's word which creates new realities and calls people to faith. We need to be very careful here about our job descriptions. It is our job at this intersection to speak Christ's word with authority in our preaching. It is the Spirit's job to take that word on the long, long journey from human ear to human heart. The story is told that Martin Luther was once chastised for drinking beer in a Wittenberg pub. "How can the reformation move forward while you sit here drinking beer?" someone asked him. "The Holy Spirit will take care of the reformation," Luther is said to have replied. Luther knew how to keep his job and the Spirit's job separate from each other. If creating faith in human hearts were our job, wouldn't every preacher die of a panic of overwork!
Jesus sends the cleansed leper to a priest to offer for cleansing as Moses had commanded. Leviticus 14 spells out the duties of priests in relation to leprosy. (If you have never told the story of the priestly task in relation to leprosy as outlined in the Hebrew Bible, this might be a good time to do so.) It was the priest's task to pronounce the leper "Clean" or "Unclean." It is worthwhile noting that it is the uncleanness occasioned by the leprosy that is the central issue and not the disease itself. We should note as well that Jesus at this point is not ready to put the priests and the temple out of business. That day will come!
The man who was made clean spoke freely of the powerful word of Jesus that had bathed his body with health. People flocked to Jesus in reaction to this man's testimony. So many people came to find Jesus, in fact, that he could no longer enter their towns. Is that why Jesus ordered so many of those whom he healed to keep silent?
Donald Juel has an important treatment of this story in his Markan commentary. He points out that this story is the first of several stories that deal with Jesus' violation of ritual boundaries. In chapter 2 reference was made to Juel's organizing insight concerning the tearing of the heavens.1 Juel sees Mark's Jesus as the One who tears open the heavens and transcends the boundaries between heaven and earth in order to be loose in this world. He characterizes parts of Jesus' ministry as transcending or transgressing boundaries. Boundaries had been established in Israel for the protection of the community. Boundaries helped Israel maintain her identity. And then Jesus comes along transgressing the boundaries and offering people a new identity. In the stories that follow Jesus transgresses the boundary of God's prerogative to forgive sin as he himself proclaims forgiveness (Mark 2:1-12). Jesus proceeds to eat with the unwashed (Mark 2:15-17), eat the bread of the Presence (Mark 2:23-28), and heal on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6).
Jesus refuses to recognize the religious boundaries of his day! He tears apart old ways of being religious and old ways of maintaining identity. A person in need is simply more important than religiously defined boundaries. A new way of God's relating to humans is at loose in the world. A new way of relating to God, the way of faith, becomes an open possibility.
Homiletical Directions
We could identify faith as the focal point of a sermon on this text. Enough has been said in the comments above on the matter of faith to give some theological substance to a sermon on faith. It is probably premature, however, to tackle the topic of "faith" in Mark's Gospel. Mark still has much to say on the reality of faith. A key passage will be Mark 4:35-41. Jesus is asleep in the boat with his disciples. A great storm arises on the sea and Jesus sleeps on! The disciples wake Jesus and cry out for his help. Jesus' response to their frantic behavior is surprising. "Why are you afraid?" he asks them. "Have you still no faith?" Two responses to Jesus are presented in this story. People can be in fear in Jesus' presence or they can have faith. The contrast between fear and faith will be a strong theme in later chapters of this Gospel.
We have identified a series of passages in Mark 1:40„3:6 where Jesus transgresses the religious boundaries of his day. Each of these texts will occur in the Cycle B lectionary. Still, it might be well at some point to treat these passages together so that the reality of Jesus' boundary-breaking will be seen in its fullness. Since today's text is the first such story in this list, now is as good a time as ever to treat these stories holistically. This means that the stories we will tell this week are the stories of transgressing boundaries: Mark 1:40-45; Mark 2:1-12; Mark 2:15-17; Mark 2:23-28 and Mark 3:1-6. Each story needs to be briefly told. The two stories of the Sabbath, Mark 2:23-28 and 3:1-6, might best be told together.
The thread that holds our stories together could be the theme of transgressing or breaking boundaries. Jesus breaks down old ways of thinking about one's relationship to God. Jesus offers a new way to understand our identity as God's people. Our identity is not as clean or unclean people. "Be made clean!" Jesus says to us (Mark 1:41). "I give you a new identity as sons and daughters of God's word."
Our identity is no longer that of sinner. "Your sins are forgiven," Jesus says to us (Mark 2:5). "I give you a new identity as sons and daughters of God's word."
Our identity as righteous ones is no longer achieved by eating with the right people, people who wash their hands in the right way. "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners," Jesus says (Mark 2:17). "I give you a new identity as sons and daughters of God's word."
Our identity is no longer secured through sabbath-keeping wherein keeping the sabbath law is more important than people. "The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath," Jesus says (Mark 2:27). "I give you a new identity as sons and daughters of God's word."
You may further wish to pursue ways in which people in your context set up boundaries that they use to identify themselves as God's people. Jesus Christ wishes to break down all such boundaries. A colleague of mine once cautioned about drawing such boundaries. "Be careful when you draw lines," he would say. "Whenever you draw a line (boundary) which helps to tell you who is in and who is out of God's people „ remember „ Jesus is always on the other side of the line!"
____________
1. Donald H. Juel, Mark (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1990), pp. 43-45.
Jesus responds to a leper in need. "I do choose," Jesus says. "Be made clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was clean. We have yet another instance here of the power and authority of Jesus' word. His word is not like the words and the authority of the scribes. His word has the power to do what it says. God's creative word has become flesh in this man Jesus. When Jesus speaks, God performs. The leper's faith has a new reality to deal with. The word of Jesus has made him clean. As Saint Paul puts it: "ƒ faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17).
A full New Testament picture of faith will always include the reality that faith is called into being by the creative, authoritative word of Jesus Christ. Faith is coming to Jesus in the midst of our desperate need. If that is the only dimension of faith, however, then faith is a human creation. Faith is called forth from us in its fullness by the word that Jesus speaks to us. Again, if we were only to emphasize the divine word that calls faith into being we would be in danger of making robots of the faithful. Faith emerges from the intersection where Jesus with his word meets us with our desperate need. How spirit-driven faith arises from this intersection is a mystery. Whatever we say about faith beyond the reality of the work of the Spirit at the intersection of human need and Christ's word will probably lead us into some form of heresy!
There is an important caution to preachers at this point. Preaching, after all, takes place precisely at this divine/human intersection. We speak God's word which creates new realities and calls people to faith. We need to be very careful here about our job descriptions. It is our job at this intersection to speak Christ's word with authority in our preaching. It is the Spirit's job to take that word on the long, long journey from human ear to human heart. The story is told that Martin Luther was once chastised for drinking beer in a Wittenberg pub. "How can the reformation move forward while you sit here drinking beer?" someone asked him. "The Holy Spirit will take care of the reformation," Luther is said to have replied. Luther knew how to keep his job and the Spirit's job separate from each other. If creating faith in human hearts were our job, wouldn't every preacher die of a panic of overwork!
Jesus sends the cleansed leper to a priest to offer for cleansing as Moses had commanded. Leviticus 14 spells out the duties of priests in relation to leprosy. (If you have never told the story of the priestly task in relation to leprosy as outlined in the Hebrew Bible, this might be a good time to do so.) It was the priest's task to pronounce the leper "Clean" or "Unclean." It is worthwhile noting that it is the uncleanness occasioned by the leprosy that is the central issue and not the disease itself. We should note as well that Jesus at this point is not ready to put the priests and the temple out of business. That day will come!
The man who was made clean spoke freely of the powerful word of Jesus that had bathed his body with health. People flocked to Jesus in reaction to this man's testimony. So many people came to find Jesus, in fact, that he could no longer enter their towns. Is that why Jesus ordered so many of those whom he healed to keep silent?
Donald Juel has an important treatment of this story in his Markan commentary. He points out that this story is the first of several stories that deal with Jesus' violation of ritual boundaries. In chapter 2 reference was made to Juel's organizing insight concerning the tearing of the heavens.1 Juel sees Mark's Jesus as the One who tears open the heavens and transcends the boundaries between heaven and earth in order to be loose in this world. He characterizes parts of Jesus' ministry as transcending or transgressing boundaries. Boundaries had been established in Israel for the protection of the community. Boundaries helped Israel maintain her identity. And then Jesus comes along transgressing the boundaries and offering people a new identity. In the stories that follow Jesus transgresses the boundary of God's prerogative to forgive sin as he himself proclaims forgiveness (Mark 2:1-12). Jesus proceeds to eat with the unwashed (Mark 2:15-17), eat the bread of the Presence (Mark 2:23-28), and heal on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6).
Jesus refuses to recognize the religious boundaries of his day! He tears apart old ways of being religious and old ways of maintaining identity. A person in need is simply more important than religiously defined boundaries. A new way of God's relating to humans is at loose in the world. A new way of relating to God, the way of faith, becomes an open possibility.
Homiletical Directions
We could identify faith as the focal point of a sermon on this text. Enough has been said in the comments above on the matter of faith to give some theological substance to a sermon on faith. It is probably premature, however, to tackle the topic of "faith" in Mark's Gospel. Mark still has much to say on the reality of faith. A key passage will be Mark 4:35-41. Jesus is asleep in the boat with his disciples. A great storm arises on the sea and Jesus sleeps on! The disciples wake Jesus and cry out for his help. Jesus' response to their frantic behavior is surprising. "Why are you afraid?" he asks them. "Have you still no faith?" Two responses to Jesus are presented in this story. People can be in fear in Jesus' presence or they can have faith. The contrast between fear and faith will be a strong theme in later chapters of this Gospel.
We have identified a series of passages in Mark 1:40„3:6 where Jesus transgresses the religious boundaries of his day. Each of these texts will occur in the Cycle B lectionary. Still, it might be well at some point to treat these passages together so that the reality of Jesus' boundary-breaking will be seen in its fullness. Since today's text is the first such story in this list, now is as good a time as ever to treat these stories holistically. This means that the stories we will tell this week are the stories of transgressing boundaries: Mark 1:40-45; Mark 2:1-12; Mark 2:15-17; Mark 2:23-28 and Mark 3:1-6. Each story needs to be briefly told. The two stories of the Sabbath, Mark 2:23-28 and 3:1-6, might best be told together.
The thread that holds our stories together could be the theme of transgressing or breaking boundaries. Jesus breaks down old ways of thinking about one's relationship to God. Jesus offers a new way to understand our identity as God's people. Our identity is not as clean or unclean people. "Be made clean!" Jesus says to us (Mark 1:41). "I give you a new identity as sons and daughters of God's word."
Our identity is no longer that of sinner. "Your sins are forgiven," Jesus says to us (Mark 2:5). "I give you a new identity as sons and daughters of God's word."
Our identity as righteous ones is no longer achieved by eating with the right people, people who wash their hands in the right way. "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners," Jesus says (Mark 2:17). "I give you a new identity as sons and daughters of God's word."
Our identity is no longer secured through sabbath-keeping wherein keeping the sabbath law is more important than people. "The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath," Jesus says (Mark 2:27). "I give you a new identity as sons and daughters of God's word."
You may further wish to pursue ways in which people in your context set up boundaries that they use to identify themselves as God's people. Jesus Christ wishes to break down all such boundaries. A colleague of mine once cautioned about drawing such boundaries. "Be careful when you draw lines," he would say. "Whenever you draw a line (boundary) which helps to tell you who is in and who is out of God's people „ remember „ Jesus is always on the other side of the line!"
____________
1. Donald H. Juel, Mark (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1990), pp. 43-45.
