What are we doing here?
The obvious answer is, “We have come together to worship God.” Or, for those of you inclined towards the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “We have come here to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”
But I want you to think a little more broadly than worship. What is it we are doing? How do we understand what happens the rest of the week? What is our mission?
That really is the question that comes up in the passage this morning. These two paragraphs are kind of a sleeper; that is, they follow some spectacular events and precede some spectacular events and the beginning of controversy. Surrounded by the spectacular, it could be easy to overlook the significance of what Mark was telling his readers about Jesus’ self-understanding of his identity, priorities, and purpose.
The narrative itself is fairly simple. Jesus went out to pray. The disciples went out to find him, to tell him that “everyone is looking for him.” He replied, “We have to move on. I have to proclaim the message in other places, too.” They took off and did just that: Jesus proclaimed and cast out demons. At some point later, a leper came to him, begging. Jesus healed him, told him to keep quiet; but the man did not. Because of that, Jesus and the disciples could not go into the towns. They stayed out in the country and the people came to him.
Having recapped it like that, I am going to invite us to slow things down. There is more to this than simply narrating a transition from Jesus’ first stop to the next legs of his tour of Galilee. There are a couple of things I want to cover with you: Jesus’ example, Jesus’ focus, and Jesus’ self-revelation. The most important thing to see in today’s lesson is how Jesus was moving forward. Jesus was pursuing what God had sent him to accomplish. Ultimately, we are going to look at what Jesus’ focus on the message means for us.
I. Jesus’ Example
We start with Jesus’ example. We start with prayer. “In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.”
We start with prayer because Jesus started his day with prayer. And? Well, if prayer is important enough for Jesus, it is important enough for us.
I bet if I were to ask for a show of hands, we would have close to unanimous agreement that prayer is important. It is important and, yet, if I am honest with you; I can tell you that prayer can be a struggle for me. It took my well into my adult years to develop any kind of consistency in prayer – and consistency is very different than saying “I am a success.”
I look at Jesus here and marvel. Remember: Jesus had just completed a HUGE day. When I have had a big day – and, I have never had a day where I cast out demons and healed the sick of an entire town – but when I think about big days I have had, my prayer response has tended to be to give a hat tip nod to the Lord, saying, “Thanks. That was awesome, Lord.” I may spend a few minutes reflecting, but then I am off to sleep and to take a day or two breather before starting in again.
Matthew Henry observed two things about Jesus’ prayer in this passage: when and where.
Jesus went out to pray the morning after the sabbath. He went to pray outside of the formal worship time in the synagogue. He went to prayer on a normal morning. Henry commented, “When [worship] is over on Sunday, we must not think we may intermit our devotion until the next.”[1] In other words, we do not say to ourselves, “You know what? I am going to hold this and give thanks when I pray in worship next Sunday. I will talk with God then.” Now, we can nod in agreement, but how many of us get too busy during the week to go to God in prayer? If we do not intentionally carve out time to be in prayer, we can get into the habit of praying sporadically, when we want something, or only in a crisis.
Jesus intentionally set aside time to be in prayer. Let those with ears to hear, hear.
Then, where? Jesus went to pray in a deserted place by himself. He did not spend all his time alone and he did not spend all his time with other people. There were times when each was necessary.
Jesus set the example of separating himself to spend time with God in prayer. Elsewhere we read how it was his custom. In Luke 11, the pattern was so well known that the disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.” They knew what prayer was and they prayed; they wanted to see the results of the kind they saw in Jesus after he prayed. Why was Jesus’ prayer time alone so powerful?
Being alone in a deserted place meant Jesus could minimize distractions. Eliminating distractions takes effort. It takes intention. Eliminating the physical can be easier than eliminating spiritual distractions. Silence can be daunting. Sitting and waiting – being still and knowing that He is God – does not happen naturally; in fact, when external distractions are minimized, I still find my own mind to be the biggest distraction. How quickly I am prone to wandering. Focused listening is difficult.
Seeing the when and where of these verses helps to remind us that prayer is part of the work of faith. Our salvation is a gift. Our redemption is a gift. Our adoption is a gift. Growing as part of God’s family, growing as a brother or sister of Christ, growing into the citizen of the kingdom of God we have been elect and created to be – all these take work. A big part of that work is prayer.
Prayer is a relationship thing. It is spending time and attention on God. It involves telling God what is on our heart – what joys we have, what sorrows we have, what wants we have, what aspirations and desires we have for ourselves and for others. It also involves listening. Listening can be more difficult because God does not simply jump in because we say, “Lord, speak, your servant is ready.” We cannot schedule an appointment with God, like, “Lord, can you make it quick? I have fifteen minutes before I really have to get on with my day.”
Prayer is a relationship where our expectations are not controlling. We have to present ourselves before God and submit to waiting for God. Prayer is an act of discipline and obedience. Through that discipline and obedience, though, we find that our wills are conformed to God’s will.
Mark does not tell us what Jesus prayed, but what follows suggests how that time alone with the Father shaped the choices Jesus had to make immediately after. Hold that thought because we are going to come back to it. For now, just know that Jesus set the example of the importance of prayer.
II. Jesus’ Focus: The Message
Next, we turn to Jesus’ focus. Because Jesus had gone out early in the morning, Simon and the others did not know where he went. It is not difficult to piece together how their morning developed. After the events of the previous day, it was no wonder that people showed up at Simon’s house looking for Jesus. Remember, he had taught with authority during their service at the synagogue the day before. He had delivered the man from the unclean spirit. Then, he went to Simon’s house where he healed Simon’s mother-in-law from a fever and then – as word got out – healed and delivered many in the community.
Who would not want to see what was going to happen next? So as morning broke, as soon as it was socially acceptable (or perhaps earlier), people started showing up to see Jesus.
“Simon and his companions” hunted for Jesus. Of course they hunted for him. They were part of the inner circle of this amazing show. There was no telling how far things would go for them if Jesus kept going like he did the day before. When they found him, they said, “Everyone is searching for you.” In other words, boy, the people love what you are doing. Keep it up. They want to see more of the same!
Here we get to the pivot point and why, I think, Mark included these verses. Jesus said, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” Pay attention to what Jesus said here because it shapes what he would do the entire rest of the gospel of Mark. Jesus had a message to deliver, “for that is what I came out to do.”
What was the message? We heard it at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe the good news.”
The message was the main thing. The kingdom of God has come near. The right response to that reality was: repent and believe the good news. The things he taught and the acts of power he performed were designed to validate the message. As I mentioned last week, the miracles were a demonstration of power of the kingdom – demonstrating that in Jesus the kingdom of God had in fact come near. The miracles were not intended to be the point.
Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God meant that things were going to be different. They were changed – and not in a progressive, incremental way. Things were completely different. The announcement of the kingdom combined with the acts of power communicated a messianic message and the people had some fairly lofty expectations for the messiah foretold in the prophets.
The promised Messiah was going to be more powerful than Moses. The people remembered God used Moses to deliver their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. The Exodus from Egypt was a defining event for Israel. But also recall that God delivered them from slavery in Egypt for a specific reason: Israel was to be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. The people understood that to mean that they were supposed to be separate and special. They were supposed to be vaulted above all others in the eyes of God.
The Scriptures – the Torah, the history, the wisdom literature and the prophets – all supported the notion that Israel had been set aside by God for a special purpose. Historically, Israel’s unfaithfulness led to periods of judgment and exile. Now, after four hundred years of silence and waiting – a time similar to the amount of time the people had been in Egypt when they were crying out for God’s deliverance – here was Jesus demonstrating signs of being the new Moses.
If the Messiah was going to be more powerful than Moses, then would he not only throw out the Romans from the Promised land forcibly, but also establish a kingdom more along the lines (or greater) than the kingdom under David and Solomon? And, if God repeated the pattern set with the Egyptians, the Romans would give their wealth and treasures to the Israelites.
Can you imagine the dreams Simon and his companions had that previous night?
Simon’s dreams were not the same as God’s plan. The power that Simon and his companions had witnessed was real; however, it was the power of a completely different kind of kingdom. They would not understand that until quite a while later – but Jesus knew it.
The kingdom of God was the redemption of creation and its restoration to fullness and completeness – without fault or blemish. The outworking of Jesus’ obedience to the mission for which he was sent can be seen in what followed his reply. Mark reported Jesus “went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.” Think about what this meant: Jesus was spiritually engaged in a military campaign to advance the kingdom of God. He was moving forward into territory and into lives held captive by the demonic, declaring victory and driving out the enemy.
At this point the disciples did not know it, but Jesus would not spend any time focused on driving out the Romans. He would not look to reform or overthrow the Herodians – the murderous king and his family. Instead, he went around casting out demons as a demonstration of the power of the kingdom of God that had come through him.
Let me be careful here: Jesus absolutely worked within the physical realm. That said, his focus was not limited to the physical realm. He was accomplishing spiritual realities through physical acts of power.
This brings me back to my opening question in the larger sense, “what are we doing?” How have we been called to proclaiming the kingdom of God come near, and inviting people to respond through repentance and belief? How are we working in the physical realm to bear witness to the spiritual realities that Jesus was accomplishing?
We need to think of our assignment in a fashion similar to Jesus’: we are part of a campaign to proclaim the coming of the kingdom of God. We are to bear witness to a spiritual reality in the physical world.
What does that look like? Well, let me give you a simple illustration: we celebrated a baptism today. In Romans, we learn that in baptism, we participate in Jesus’ death and resurrection. We die to what separates us from God and are raised to newness of life in Christ. Baptism points us back to the grace of God expressed in Jesus Christ, who died for us and who was raised for us. Baptism also points us forward to that same Christ who will fulfill God’s purpose in God’s promised future.
Baptism is the fulfillment of one part of Jesus’ great command, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Do you hear the language of the campaign?
Let me give you another quick reminder: in just my few short months here, we have hosted and prayed for the Imbrocks with Mission Aviation Fellowship; the Mensies in Belize; and the Nelsons in Guatemala. What did we pray? We prayed that God would prepare the hearts of those they encounter to receive the gospel and that they would be strengthened and emboldened to share the gospel. Do you hear the language of the campaign?
The question for each one of us is, how are we to obey God’s command to serve in this campaign today? This week? As we look to the next season? We pray God grants us discernment to recognize opportunity and boldness to respond.
The most important thing to see in today’s lesson is how Jesus was moving forward. Jesus was pursuing what God had sent him to accomplish: the proclamation of the message. That needs to be our prayer as well, that we would pursue what God has sent us to accomplish.
III. Jesus’ Self-Revelation
And that brings us to the final paragraph, where Jesus healed the leper. Why did Mark include this encounter after summarizing so many other things? The encounter with the leper revealed Jesus’ heart and Jesus’ focus.
David Garland described the unique quality of a leper’s condition.
If the priest declared a particular skin problem to be leprosy, the sufferer was excluded from the community by divine decree (Lev. 13:45–52; Num. 5:2–4). This banishment was not rooted in any fear of spreading the disease but of spreading religious impurity. Leprosy was considered a primary source of uncleanness. Like a corpse, the leper could impart impurity to objects found within the same enclosure. As a result, he or she was viewed as a living corpse, and a cure was likened to raising the dead. The leper was confined by a strict set of rules that governed his contact and relations with other people. The leper in Mark 1:40, however, does not keep a safe distance but breaks through the religious barricade to confront Jesus. He is willing to chance that Jesus has both the power and the grace to heal him.
This man was counted as good as dead by the community. He was ostracized, shunned, and scorned. In choosing to heal him, Jesus demonstrated the power of the kingdom of God to restore to life that which was dead.
So, why the secrecy? Why did Jesus command the man to fulfill the requirements of the law by making and offering and showing himself to the priests, but not say anything to anyone else? There are several reasons, all pointing to Jesus’ focus on proclaiming the kingdom of heaven come near.
First, within Israel, Jesus did not want to draw attention to himself as a miracle worker. Plenty of other miracle workers had come and ended up being false prophets. Jesus marked himself as different because he did not want to be known as a miracle worker. As we have noted, miracles are wonderful for the person who benefits; others are left wondering why not them? Jesus saw his purpose in proclaiming the message of the kingdom of God.
Second, Jesus commanded secrecy so as to avoid any accusation of insurrection before the Romans. He was not interested in whipping up the crowds against the Romans. Jesus was interested in so much more than just the physical world – he was on the campaign to redeem all the families of the earth; he was on the campaign to redeem all of creation. The Roman Empire was small potatoes in comparison to what he was doing. Later, he would be charged and wrongfully convicted for insurrection – that was the charge for which the sentence of crucifixion would be made – but it was too early to get there at this point.
And this brings us back to prayer. Mark gave us these two paragraphs to highlight how Jesus was clear about what he was doing and how he was committed to that mission.
Jesus’ clarity about his purpose was confirmed and made sure through prayer. Prayer for Jesus was like a mission briefing where he solidified his marching orders. He was called to action: to pursue the offensive, moving the kingdom of heaven forward pursuant to the will of God.
The same is true for us. As disciples of Jesus, we are to participate in the campaign to proclaim the kingdom of God. We are assigned the responsibility to tell what God has done in Jesus and what God has done for us in Jesus. Prayer sets the direction. The stuff we do – mission, ministry, service, and outreach – all point to the message we have to proclaim.
When we leave here, we leave here with the charge to share in word and deed the message Jesus declared: “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven has come near; repent and believe the good news.”
Amen.
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH: Heidelberg Catechism, Question 124
Q. What is the third petition?
A. “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” That is: grant that we and all men may renounce our own will and obey thy will, which alone is good, without grumbling, so that everyone may carry out his office and calling as willingly and faithfully as the angels in heaven.
[1] Matthew Henry Commentary