Sermon given at Sung Eucharist on Sunday 29th January 2012

29 January 2012 at 11:00 am

The Reverend Dr Paul Bradshaw, Priest Vicar

 “They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes” (Mark 1.22).

 I don’t know if you have ever read any of the teaching of Jewish rabbis from around the time of Jesus, such as that contained in the Mishnah, one of the earliest collections of such teachings, but it mainly consists of varying legal opinions from different individuals and rabbinic schools of thought on how the prescriptions of the Old Testament law are to be interpreted and applied in every day life. No wonder then our Gospel reading today can say that the people were astonished at the teaching of Jesus, because what he is recorded in the gospels as having said is nothing like the records of the teaching of the rabbis. But what sort of authority is it that the gospel writer is ascribing to Jesus here? Is it just that he spoke with great confidence, as if he was convinced he was right – the authority of the politician or of the orator? Or was it the authority of the religious expert, the scholar who had mastered his subject and could speak with authority on it?

 Well, it doesn’t seem to be exactly either of these, for following on the opening story of his teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum, Mark then adds the incident of the man with the unclean spirit. When the spirit calls out to him, Jesus orders him to leave the man, and it does do, amazing the people still more, and making them remark, “With authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” This is a different sort of authority from that of the rhetorician or religious expert. Authority over evil spirits is power over the universe. This is somebody with authority on a whole different level from the others I have been talking about so far.

 And that is precisely the gospel-writer’s point. Mark’s aim is not just to present a biography of Jesus; it is not even to present the life-story of Jesus at all. And as we shall be reading his work nearly every Sunday this year, it is vital that we understand his purpose from the outset. He wants to convince those who read his book who Jesus is. And for Mark, that is the Son of God. The very first words at the very beginning of his book are: “The good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And near, the end, when Jesus dies on the cross, Mark records the words of the Roman centurion responsible for his execution, “Truly, this man was the Son of God.” Mark is not a Jew; he is not writing for Jewish readers but for Gentile Christians. He has no interest in filling his gospel with stories proving that Jesus really was the long expected Jewish Messiah. All the stories he collects and puts in there are to illustrate his claim that Jesus was God’s Son.

 That doesn’t mean that he thought Jesus was some out-of-this-world divine being totally unlike you and me. For Mark, Jesus is a real human being. There is not even any mention of a miraculous birth. His story begins with the grown-up Jesus meeting John the Baptist and being acknowledged as God’s Son when he is baptized by him. Listen to what he writes: “Coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit like a dove descending on him. And there came a voice from heaven, saying: ‘Thou are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Nor does Mark think that for ever after Jesus’ miraculous powers made him any less human. In his gospel, there are occasions when Jesus fails to do mighty works, when he weeps, when he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane not to have to face the suffering and death that lie before him.

 But alongside this Mark paints a portrait of one who can rightly be called God’s Son. He heals the sick; he feeds the hungry; he stills the storm; and he teaches with the same authority that he uses over the forces of the universe. But that teaching has a lot in it about suffering, about the need for Jesus himself to suffer, but also about the suffering that his followers will have to endure. Mark’s Jesus is not there just to promise “pie in the sky when you die”, as the old saying goes. The way of God’s Son and the way that must be trod by his disciples is one full of suffering. Watch out for those bits as we read out way through Mark this year, and think about how they would have been heard by Mark’s very first readers, trying to be good Christians, suffering hardship and persecution for their beliefs, facing the possibility of being killed for their faith and wondering if therefore they had got it right. Could the gospel be true if these were the consequences? And think how comforting Mark’s words would have been to them Yes, Jesus really was the Son of God – here are the stories that show it to be true – but Jesus also had to suffer to fulfil God’s plan and he said his followers would have to go through it too if that plan was to be realized and God’s kingdom was to come, as he promised.

  That’s Mark’s particular contribution to our faith. His is the martyr gospel, the one to turn to when the road is hard and doubts set in. It is quite short – you can read it in a single sitting, and I encourage you to try to do so. You will find it a tough, uncompromising account, but one full of hope. For Mark never loses sight of the power of Jesus to triumph in the end. Even though he is abandoned by his friends and dies alone on the cross – there is no Mary or John standing at its foot in his account – even death cannot defeat God’s power and the book ends on a note of optimism. Whatever the setbacks, God’s plan of salvation will not be defeated, for Jesus has authority over the evil forces of this world.