Proper 8; Pentecost 7
Preaching
Preaching Mark's Gospel
A Narrative Approach
The revised lectionary cycle serves us well by putting the intercalated stories of the healing of the unclean woman with the flow of blood and the raising of the twelve-year-old girl together again. We still have the problem, however, that vv. 1-20 are omitted totally from the lectionary readings. It can be argued on a number of premises that these three stories belong together. They belong together, for example, as a threefold response to the question of the disciples: "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:41). Who is this? This is the One who brings the kingdom near by casting out a legion of demons, healing a woman with a twelve-year flow of blood and raising a twelve-year-old girl from the dead!
Mary Ann Tolbert suggests another reason for holding these three stories together. She sees them as examples of the good soil that Jesus alluded to in his Parable of the Sower. She includes the story of the disciples in Mark 4:35-41 in her grouping together of these stories. "These four episodes, by contrasting the disciples to three people seeking healing, distinguish the rocky ground from the good earth and the human response of fear from the healing one of faith."1 We recall the response of the disciples to Jesus as one of fear. The stories in Mark 5 are stories of people who come to Jesus for healing. They are stories of people of faith. These may well be Mark's best examples of good soil people!
The location of the story in Mark 5:1-20 is "on the other side of the sea" in the country of the Gerasenes. This is Gentile country! The Gentiles, of course, are outsiders to the promises for Israel. The man with the demon is an outsider even to these Gentile outsiders!! He is a man with an unclean spirit who lived among the tombs. Jesus has come to bind the "strong one" in the land of the Gerasenes, just as he did in the first miracle he performed in Capernaum (1:21-28). Jesus is the kingdom of God drawn near. As an agent of the coming kingdom Jesus sets his will against evil first in Capernaum among the people of Israel, then in the land of the Gerasenes among Gentiles.
In doing this deed on Gentile soil Jesus cleanses the land. He does this most massive of his exorcisms on Gentile land and follows it up with the greatest miracle he ever did for a person (raising the dead!) on Jewish land. Jesus, therefore, embraces both sides of the sea! The coming kingdom is a kingdom that includes all people! Jesus has broken the boundaries again. He has transgressed the barriers that had labeled Gentiles as outsiders.
Tolbert's thesis is that the Gerasene demoniac is the first example Mark gives us of a good soil person. She sees each of the stories in Mark 5 as stories told to illustrate who the "good soil" people are. The demoniac is the first "good soil" person. His malady is described in great detail. And what can he do about it? He can run to Jesus. He ran and fell down before Jesus out of his desperation. Jesus saw his faith and said, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" The demoniac shouted at Jesus in response: "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me" (Mark 5:7). After a brief conversation, Jesus cast out the legion of demons from the unclean man and sent them into the unclean pigs. A great Gentile cleansing had occurred! The townspeople, however, did not get it. They saw the man in his right mind and they were afraid (5:15). We have here again the contrast between faith and fear. Remember Jesus and the disciples (4:40).
Jesus let the faithful man tell his story (5:19). Others had been told not to tell (1:34, 44; 2:12). The cleansed Gentile demoniac is allowed to speak. Is this because Jesus is in Gentile land? In this land the word about Jesus needs to be heard. There is a kind of foreshadowing of the preaching to the Gentiles in this story.
The second story of a good soil person is Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue. Jesus had crossed the sea again (5:21) and is back in Jewish territory. This is the first time in Mark's story that a respectable person from the Jewish community has taken any interest in Jesus! You find good soil people in the strangest places! Jairus' daughter is near death. Like the Gerasene demoniac, Jairus comes to Jesus in the midst of his desperate need. He comes in faith. He believes that Jesus can help. "Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live" (Mark 5:23).
There is great urgency in this story. The girl is near death. But on the way to Jairus' house Jesus' entourage encounters a delay. A woman with a twelve-year flow of blood stops his procession. But what about the little girl? Sure enough, word comes that in the delay the daughter has died. Jesus eventually arrives at Jairus' home. He says to Jairus, "Do not fear, only believe" (5:36). Once again we see these two roads open to people in the light of the kingdom-come-near. People can be afraid or they can believe. Jairus believed. Jesus raised his daughter from the dead. The people were amazed. Good soil that yields thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold is always amazing!!
The third "good soil" person in this chapter 5 trilogy is the woman with the twelve-year flow of blood. Her hopeless condition is described in detail. Each of the "good soil" people in Mark 5 faces hopelessness. In their desperation they turn to Jesus. Jesus calls their desperate coming to him FAITH. In her desperation the unclean woman touched the hem of his garment, believing that if she touched him she would be made whole. And she was. She was made whole in public. This woman, after all, was unclean. She had a social disease. She was not to be in the company of other people. But here she is in public and in public she is healed!
When Jesus felt power go forth from himself he wondered aloud about who had touched him. The woman knew that she would have to confess in public and she was afraid. But Jesus said to her: "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease" (5:34). A woman has heard the word of Jesus. A woman of fear has become a woman of faith. The Sower's seed has fallen upon her life and she has become whole. The seed bore fruit: thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
Quite in contrast to Jesus' command to the Gerasene to proclaim what Jesus had done for him, this story ends with a call to silence. "He strictly ordered them that no one should know this ƒ" (5:43). We need to remember here the parables of the kingdom in Mark 4. "For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light" (Mark 4:22). (See also Mark 9:9.) Whatever else this charge of secrecy means, it is secrecy only for a time. The time of coming to light will come soon enough.
Three "good soil" people. Unlikely people at that. An outsider to outsiders. A Gerasene demoniac. An unclean woman. A ruler of the synagogue. Each came to Jesus in desperation. Each heard the words of the Sower as good news. Each moved from fear to faith. Of such is the kingdom of God!
Homiletical Directions
The first possibility here is to include the story of the Gerasene demoniac with the stories in the gospel text appointed for this week. We have before us probably the most spectacular miracles attributed to Jesus in Mark's Gospel. These miracles take place on both Gentile and Jewish lands. The massive story of casting out legions of demons and the incredible story of the raising from the dead are truly eschatological signs that the kingdom is breaking into time and that it is coming for all the world's peoples. When we put the stories together in this way we will emphasize the "pentecost" character of the church (Acts 2:1-42. Preference is given here to the word "pentecost" rather than the more secular term, "inclusive"). The theme of a kingdom that is for all persons is always relevant. We all harbor corners of thought in our minds which will to exclude people from the reign of God's grace. The pentecostal reality of the Christian Church is a desperately needed message in our age of racism and ethnic cleansing!
A second possibility is to follow Mary Ann Tolbert's intriguing suggestion that the three stories in Mark 5 are illustrative of "good soil" people, a reference to the Parable of the Sower. Last week's story of the disciples who fear rather than believe might be called to mind briefly as a backdrop for the Mark 5 stories. We see clearly the difference between the "rocky ground" and the "good soil."
Story One for our sermon would be the story of the Gerasene demoniac. It's a wonderful story. (The American Bible Society has a brief video version of this story titled "Out of the Tombs.") Themes of Jesus binding the Strong One as a sign of the kingdom and the inclusion of the Gentiles in the coming kingdom could be touched on briefly. Focus the story on the fear that this outsider's outsider must have lived with. Faith is not mentioned in this story but faith is a good definition of what this unclean man does. He comes to Jesus out of his desperate need. The seed is sown. He believes what he hears. He is healed.
Story Two can focus on these similar realities in the life of Jairus. He falls at Jesus' feet with a word about his desperate need for help for his daughter who is near death. Jairus certainly believes in the power of the Sower. "Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live," he says to Jesus. Jesus comes. But it's too late. The girl is dead. "No," Jesus says, "she is just sleeping." Jesus says one more thing. "Do not fear, only believe." The man believes. Jesus raises the young girl from her sleep of death. The seed is sown and bears much fruit.
Story Three focuses on the story in the middle of the Jairus story. Here, again, focus on the contrasting realities of fear (v. 33) and faith (v. 34). (You might also comment on how unlikely these three candidates in Mark 5 are as "good soil" people.) The Sower sows the word. The woman hears. She believes. "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." The seed bears fruit thirtyfold and more!
We can, perhaps, draw our listeners into the reality of this text through this matter of fear. It is interesting how fear and faith are contrasted in Mark's Gospel. Mark doesn't define just what that fear is. It may have manifold expressions. So it does in the life of our hearers. These stories call people of fear to come, in the midst of their desperate need, to the Sower. "The Sower sows the word" (Mark 4:14). We allow that seed to fall on us when we read God's Word and when we hear God's Word in the mouth of those who proclaim and testify.
We bring the "soil" of our lives to the Sower. This is faith. We come believing that the Sower's seed has the power to fructify the "soil" that is our lives. We come believing that the Sower can make things grow in our lives „ thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold. That's what we do. In faith we just keep on coming to the Sower. There is no magic here. It's not just a matter of coming once and watching the "soil" of our lives break into instant fruit. It is part and parcel of our culture to expect everything to happen instantly! Faith is not necessarily instantaneous. It is a lifelong reality. If we don't see the fruits today, we come back to the Sower tomorrow and the next day. One day, if not this day, we will be "good soil" people. Most certainly the Sower has the power ultimately to bring our fragile human soil out of the grave and make it blossom forth thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold in all eternity!
____________
1. Mary Ann Tolbert, Sowing The Gospel (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989), p. 165.
Mary Ann Tolbert suggests another reason for holding these three stories together. She sees them as examples of the good soil that Jesus alluded to in his Parable of the Sower. She includes the story of the disciples in Mark 4:35-41 in her grouping together of these stories. "These four episodes, by contrasting the disciples to three people seeking healing, distinguish the rocky ground from the good earth and the human response of fear from the healing one of faith."1 We recall the response of the disciples to Jesus as one of fear. The stories in Mark 5 are stories of people who come to Jesus for healing. They are stories of people of faith. These may well be Mark's best examples of good soil people!
The location of the story in Mark 5:1-20 is "on the other side of the sea" in the country of the Gerasenes. This is Gentile country! The Gentiles, of course, are outsiders to the promises for Israel. The man with the demon is an outsider even to these Gentile outsiders!! He is a man with an unclean spirit who lived among the tombs. Jesus has come to bind the "strong one" in the land of the Gerasenes, just as he did in the first miracle he performed in Capernaum (1:21-28). Jesus is the kingdom of God drawn near. As an agent of the coming kingdom Jesus sets his will against evil first in Capernaum among the people of Israel, then in the land of the Gerasenes among Gentiles.
In doing this deed on Gentile soil Jesus cleanses the land. He does this most massive of his exorcisms on Gentile land and follows it up with the greatest miracle he ever did for a person (raising the dead!) on Jewish land. Jesus, therefore, embraces both sides of the sea! The coming kingdom is a kingdom that includes all people! Jesus has broken the boundaries again. He has transgressed the barriers that had labeled Gentiles as outsiders.
Tolbert's thesis is that the Gerasene demoniac is the first example Mark gives us of a good soil person. She sees each of the stories in Mark 5 as stories told to illustrate who the "good soil" people are. The demoniac is the first "good soil" person. His malady is described in great detail. And what can he do about it? He can run to Jesus. He ran and fell down before Jesus out of his desperation. Jesus saw his faith and said, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" The demoniac shouted at Jesus in response: "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me" (Mark 5:7). After a brief conversation, Jesus cast out the legion of demons from the unclean man and sent them into the unclean pigs. A great Gentile cleansing had occurred! The townspeople, however, did not get it. They saw the man in his right mind and they were afraid (5:15). We have here again the contrast between faith and fear. Remember Jesus and the disciples (4:40).
Jesus let the faithful man tell his story (5:19). Others had been told not to tell (1:34, 44; 2:12). The cleansed Gentile demoniac is allowed to speak. Is this because Jesus is in Gentile land? In this land the word about Jesus needs to be heard. There is a kind of foreshadowing of the preaching to the Gentiles in this story.
The second story of a good soil person is Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue. Jesus had crossed the sea again (5:21) and is back in Jewish territory. This is the first time in Mark's story that a respectable person from the Jewish community has taken any interest in Jesus! You find good soil people in the strangest places! Jairus' daughter is near death. Like the Gerasene demoniac, Jairus comes to Jesus in the midst of his desperate need. He comes in faith. He believes that Jesus can help. "Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live" (Mark 5:23).
There is great urgency in this story. The girl is near death. But on the way to Jairus' house Jesus' entourage encounters a delay. A woman with a twelve-year flow of blood stops his procession. But what about the little girl? Sure enough, word comes that in the delay the daughter has died. Jesus eventually arrives at Jairus' home. He says to Jairus, "Do not fear, only believe" (5:36). Once again we see these two roads open to people in the light of the kingdom-come-near. People can be afraid or they can believe. Jairus believed. Jesus raised his daughter from the dead. The people were amazed. Good soil that yields thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold is always amazing!!
The third "good soil" person in this chapter 5 trilogy is the woman with the twelve-year flow of blood. Her hopeless condition is described in detail. Each of the "good soil" people in Mark 5 faces hopelessness. In their desperation they turn to Jesus. Jesus calls their desperate coming to him FAITH. In her desperation the unclean woman touched the hem of his garment, believing that if she touched him she would be made whole. And she was. She was made whole in public. This woman, after all, was unclean. She had a social disease. She was not to be in the company of other people. But here she is in public and in public she is healed!
When Jesus felt power go forth from himself he wondered aloud about who had touched him. The woman knew that she would have to confess in public and she was afraid. But Jesus said to her: "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease" (5:34). A woman has heard the word of Jesus. A woman of fear has become a woman of faith. The Sower's seed has fallen upon her life and she has become whole. The seed bore fruit: thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
Quite in contrast to Jesus' command to the Gerasene to proclaim what Jesus had done for him, this story ends with a call to silence. "He strictly ordered them that no one should know this ƒ" (5:43). We need to remember here the parables of the kingdom in Mark 4. "For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light" (Mark 4:22). (See also Mark 9:9.) Whatever else this charge of secrecy means, it is secrecy only for a time. The time of coming to light will come soon enough.
Three "good soil" people. Unlikely people at that. An outsider to outsiders. A Gerasene demoniac. An unclean woman. A ruler of the synagogue. Each came to Jesus in desperation. Each heard the words of the Sower as good news. Each moved from fear to faith. Of such is the kingdom of God!
Homiletical Directions
The first possibility here is to include the story of the Gerasene demoniac with the stories in the gospel text appointed for this week. We have before us probably the most spectacular miracles attributed to Jesus in Mark's Gospel. These miracles take place on both Gentile and Jewish lands. The massive story of casting out legions of demons and the incredible story of the raising from the dead are truly eschatological signs that the kingdom is breaking into time and that it is coming for all the world's peoples. When we put the stories together in this way we will emphasize the "pentecost" character of the church (Acts 2:1-42. Preference is given here to the word "pentecost" rather than the more secular term, "inclusive"). The theme of a kingdom that is for all persons is always relevant. We all harbor corners of thought in our minds which will to exclude people from the reign of God's grace. The pentecostal reality of the Christian Church is a desperately needed message in our age of racism and ethnic cleansing!
A second possibility is to follow Mary Ann Tolbert's intriguing suggestion that the three stories in Mark 5 are illustrative of "good soil" people, a reference to the Parable of the Sower. Last week's story of the disciples who fear rather than believe might be called to mind briefly as a backdrop for the Mark 5 stories. We see clearly the difference between the "rocky ground" and the "good soil."
Story One for our sermon would be the story of the Gerasene demoniac. It's a wonderful story. (The American Bible Society has a brief video version of this story titled "Out of the Tombs.") Themes of Jesus binding the Strong One as a sign of the kingdom and the inclusion of the Gentiles in the coming kingdom could be touched on briefly. Focus the story on the fear that this outsider's outsider must have lived with. Faith is not mentioned in this story but faith is a good definition of what this unclean man does. He comes to Jesus out of his desperate need. The seed is sown. He believes what he hears. He is healed.
Story Two can focus on these similar realities in the life of Jairus. He falls at Jesus' feet with a word about his desperate need for help for his daughter who is near death. Jairus certainly believes in the power of the Sower. "Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live," he says to Jesus. Jesus comes. But it's too late. The girl is dead. "No," Jesus says, "she is just sleeping." Jesus says one more thing. "Do not fear, only believe." The man believes. Jesus raises the young girl from her sleep of death. The seed is sown and bears much fruit.
Story Three focuses on the story in the middle of the Jairus story. Here, again, focus on the contrasting realities of fear (v. 33) and faith (v. 34). (You might also comment on how unlikely these three candidates in Mark 5 are as "good soil" people.) The Sower sows the word. The woman hears. She believes. "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." The seed bears fruit thirtyfold and more!
We can, perhaps, draw our listeners into the reality of this text through this matter of fear. It is interesting how fear and faith are contrasted in Mark's Gospel. Mark doesn't define just what that fear is. It may have manifold expressions. So it does in the life of our hearers. These stories call people of fear to come, in the midst of their desperate need, to the Sower. "The Sower sows the word" (Mark 4:14). We allow that seed to fall on us when we read God's Word and when we hear God's Word in the mouth of those who proclaim and testify.
We bring the "soil" of our lives to the Sower. This is faith. We come believing that the Sower's seed has the power to fructify the "soil" that is our lives. We come believing that the Sower can make things grow in our lives „ thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold. That's what we do. In faith we just keep on coming to the Sower. There is no magic here. It's not just a matter of coming once and watching the "soil" of our lives break into instant fruit. It is part and parcel of our culture to expect everything to happen instantly! Faith is not necessarily instantaneous. It is a lifelong reality. If we don't see the fruits today, we come back to the Sower tomorrow and the next day. One day, if not this day, we will be "good soil" people. Most certainly the Sower has the power ultimately to bring our fragile human soil out of the grave and make it blossom forth thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold in all eternity!
____________
1. Mary Ann Tolbert, Sowing The Gospel (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989), p. 165.
