Jesus in the Wild

Series: The Gospel of Mark
Title: Jesus In The Wild
Text: Mark 6:14-29

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Mark chapter six. I'm gonna start with a story. Um, there's a there's a book uh called Brave Cities. Don't necessarily recommend that you read the book. I'm not sure you would find it that interesting, but there's an interesting story in that book uh told by one of the authors. It's co-authored uh by uh Hugh Halter and a guy named Taylor McCall. And Taylor McCall tells this story, kind of trying to highlight how he came to faith in Jesus. And he uses this illustration to describe what it was like for him coming to faith in Jesus and then also like his spiritual journey. And he uses this illustration of a family vacation that he goes on with his wife and his uh his kids. They go to Yellowstone Park, and one of the things that was kind of on their bucket list was that they really wanted to see a bear. They really wanted to see a bear, but not just any bear. They wanted to see a bear in the wild. Now, they did not think that they would uh be likely to see a bear, so just in case, they also bought some tickets to the local zoo. But as luck would have it, they were out doing whatever it is that they were doing in the park, and they pulled up to this lookout spot, and there were hundreds of people kind of all gathering in this one place. So sure enough, they pull over, they get out, and what do they see? A bear. And for hours, people stood there, took photos, like just were in awe of the amazement of seeing this bear, the cubs, this interaction that was happening right there in front of them, just a hundred feet away. And they they just enjoyed it. It was amazing to see this bear in the wild. Well, they had these tickets to the zoo. So, so fast forward to the next day, they go to the zoo. And guess what they see in the zoo? A bear. But this bear's not in the wild. This bear's like in a in, it's like in a whatever, not a not, it's in a cage, I don't know, whatever they call these things at the zoo where they where they put the animals, like sort of their pseudo non-natural, natural habitat, and it's just like sitting there. And Taylor describes the experience of his family looking at this bear at the zoo, and he says, like, after about four minutes, my kids were bored out of their mind and they wanted to go play at the playground. And he goes on to say this, kind of talking about our spiritual journey. He says, the thing about this wild bear, and the thing about this wild Jesus is that they can always be found in their natural habitat. Jesus is out there among the poor and the outcast. He's with the fatherless and the oppressed and in the kingdom that is being crafted under his reign, but he can't be boxed in. He can't be domesticated and he can't be predicted. As Mr. Beaver notes of Aslan, the central Jesus figure in C.S. Lewis's fictional character, The Chronicles of Narnia, he isn't safe, but he is good. And McCall's point, Taylor's point, is that something happened in his spiritual journey, and something often happens in our spiritual journey where we come to faith, we encounter this Jesus in the wild. It's it's it's amazing, it's changing our lives, it's transforming everything about us, it's captivating our imagination and our hearts.

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And then we end up at the zoo. Sitting, listening, laughing, and it's just not the same. It's just not the same.

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And in Mark chapter six, Mark is going to give us a picture of Christian discipleship. That's what that's what he's doing. But what he's trying to show his readers is that Christian discipleship is not something that is safe, it is not something that is neat and tidy. It is not something that you just kind of put over here in a box and take out when you need it.

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But it is dangerous, it is unpredictable, it is wild. This is what Christian discipleship is meant to be.

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Now, in Mark's gospel, he he uses this literary tactic to help us sometimes understand some of the bigger points he's trying to make. This literary tactic is what is called the, it's kind of lame and uh not that interesting, but it's important to mention this morning. It's called the Marken Sandwich. Okay, it's where he takes one story and he sandwiches it between two other stories, just sort of puts it right in the middle. And the reason that he does this is because the two stories that are on the outside of the story that you're looking at actually help inform and make sense of the story that you're reading. So if you have a Bible, you can go to Mark chapter six. And I want you just to notice as we get to um verse 14, where we're we're gonna look this morning, the couple verses before uh chapter verse 14 and Mark chapter 6, verses 12 and 13, Mark writes this they, being the disciples, went out and preached that people should repent. And they drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. So what's happening here is Jesus is just sent out his disciples. He's just kind of given them his authority, he's given them uh his wisdom, he's kind of sent them, and they are an extension of the ministry of Jesus. And so if you're to read this, you're gonna see they go out and they do a whole bunch of Jesus-y things. That's what we read right here. And then there's this sudden break in that story where we read about John the Baptist being beheaded, and then fast forward to the end. So go to verse 30, Mark chapter 6, verse 30, and look at what Mark writes. The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. So verses 12 and 13, they've gone out, they're they've got Jesus' authority, they're preaching, calling people to repentance, they're healing, they're casting out sick, uh, casting out demons rather, healing the sick. Then they come back, they gather around Jesus, they're gonna report to Jesus all that they've done. And then, sandwiched right in the middle of this is the beheading of John the Baptist. And so then the question is: what are we to make of this? What is what is Mark's point? Well, what John, uh what Mark rather is trying to show us is that there is something about the beheading of John the Baptist that relates to the discipleship journey that Jesus invites us to be on. And so, what I want to try and do this morning with the time I have is make four observations from this text about Christian discipleship. So there's gonna be four thoughts. They're gonna flow out of the text, informed by the stories on either side of the text we're in this morning. So the first observation is this Christian discipleship will often provoke the powers of the world. Christian discipleship will often provoke the powers of the world. If you look at verses 14 and 15, here is what happens. King Herod heard about this. What did King Herod hear about? Well, he heard about Jesus' disciples out there doing the Jesus-y things that they were doing. So King Herod hears that there's these guys that are out there preaching repentance, healing sick, casting out demons. For Jesus' name was becoming well known. At this point, people aren't aware of who Jesus is. They're trying to figure it out. So some were saying, some of these people around Herod were saying that this is John the Baptist who'd been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him. Uh, if you've been tracking with the series, in Mark chapter one, John the Baptist was already put in jail. So at this point, John's actually already dead. Okay, so in real time, John's already dead. They're trying to figure out what's going on. Others said he's Elijah, and still others claimed he's a prophet, one of the prophets from long ago. So there's this kind of messianic angst angst that is building amongst the people that perhaps what's happening is a fulfillment of this Messiah who is to come. But when Herod heard about this, he said, John, whom I'm who I beheaded, has been raised from the dead. So Herod latches on to this idea that that all of this news that is being reported about all of this Jesus-y type work that is happening, is actually John the Baptist who has been raised from the dead. There's a reason why we'll talk uh why John, um why Herod rather latched on to that. We'll talk about that in a second. But here is what I want you to know. Here is what I think Mark is trying to show us. And we see it in the the provoking of Herod. Mark wants us to see that Jesus' mission does not remain hidden. It is not possible for the mission of Jesus to remain hidden in the form of pious, private spirituality or inside the walls or the programs of the church, but rather it is public, it is obvious, and it has a way of disrupting the rulers and the systems of the day. What I want you to see, what I think Mark is trying to show us, is that when Jesus' mission goes forward in society, the culture and the society always take notice. It cannot go unnoticed. It is done in such a way that it is happening in plain sight. There is an appropriately prophetic nature to the ministry of Jesus that should be obvious to the culture and the society around it. It's very interesting. We live in an epoch of time where it seems like we are trying to, not doesn't seem like it's it's actually what's happening. There's almost like a reverse exorcism that is taking place in our society. So if an exorcism is where Jesus' disciples come and cast demons out of people, our culture is attempting to do a reverse exorcism where we actually exercise God out of all spheres of our secular culture. And we relegate uh religion and even to some degree spirituality over here, but it has no place in our general society. And what can often happen if this is the waters that we swim in as followers of Jesus is we can just go along with the stream that is flowing out of our culture. And we can take our Christian faith and we can privatize it, and we can take our churches and we can push them over here, and never the two shall meet. But yet, this is not the model of discipleship that we see in the New Testament. It is not the model of discipleship that we see all throughout church history. What we see is that the mission of Jesus as it goes forward always comes in conflict with the culture. It always happens in plain sight. There's always this reality that the church acts as a prophetic witness to an unbelieving world, it is woefully insufficient.

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And dare I say, incongruent with the way of Jesus, and certainly dangerous for your soul.

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If you take your discipleship and you place it solely and squarely inside the church, whatever that even means.

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So the first observation Christian discipleship will provoke the powers of the world. The second observation about Christian discipleship is this Christian discipleship comes at a cost in a corrupt culture. Now, from verse 17 all the way through 29, Mark is going to go back and rewind the story and unpack for us what actually happened to John the Baptist. So again, what we read here is already taken place. He's looking back on it. And what we see is that Herod has Jesus arrested. If you go to verse 17, or sorry, Herod has um John arrested and then has him beheaded. So we we we we get this picture. Um verse uh verse eight, uh, verse 16. Sorry. When Herod heard this, he said, John who might be sorry, John who might be headed has been raised from dead. Verse 17, when Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, he had him bound and put in prison. And he did this because of Herodias, his brother, Philip's wife, whom he had married. Look at this. For John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. Okay, so so Herod has John the Baptist arrested. And the reason for this is because John is giving a prophetic critique of Herod's marriage to his wife, Herodias. Now, this needs to be unpacked ever so quickly, and and just I need to help you understand this. Okay, and it's a little bit crazy. Like just think about um, it's sort of like a soap opera, but it's like a soap opera on steroids. It's kind of like Days of Our Lives meets Jerry Springer. Okay, that's what that's what's going on here. So in this story, and there's there's lots of different Herods in the New Testament, which kind of makes this confusing, but the Herod of Mark VIII is known as Herod Antipas. He is married at this point in time to a woman named Herodias, who was previously married to Herod Antipas's brother, Philip. Now, the way that all of this kind of worked itself out was that Herod, uh, who was originally married to a woman who was the daughter of the king of Arabia, uh, was not overly content with his marriage, but he was also, Herod himself, was a weak and insecure leader. He'd been given a poor part of the empire to rule over. He was sort of like the forgotten child of the family, and he had this like insecurity in him that led to all sorts of trouble in his life. So Herod had a brother named Philip who lived in Rome. And Philip, like his brother Herod, was also the son of Herod the Great. So these guys had the same father. It kind of seems like it should be obvious, except that not because there's a whole bunch of Herods. Herod actually had 10 different wives, he had a number of different children. So this was like not your usual type of family. Enter in Herodias to the story, and this is where things kind of get weird. Herodias was the daughter of one of Philip's half-brothers. Okay. So Philip's wife Herodias is the daughter of one of Philip's half-brothers. So what this means is that she married her half-uncle, who was also consequently her father's half-brother. Do with that what you will. So Herod Antipas goes to visit his brother Philip, and while visiting, becomes attracted to this woman, Herodias, and Herodias becomes attracted to Herod. And so they both decide to divorce their spouses and then go and get married. And then on the other side of the marriage, this is where it gets even a little bit, I don't know, crazy. The king of Arabia, whose daughter was previously married to Herod, following me here, was not happy about all this. So he sets out to wage war against Rome. A huge war breaks out, a whole bunch of blood is spilt all over this like weird, inbred, dysfunctional marriage. So what's happening here is so much more than just two people getting divorced and remarried. There's like utter chaos, there's darkness, there's sin. It's ugly. There's a reason why this is the kind of stuff like we make television series out of and people watch them because it's like pure entertainment. But we probably shouldn't enjoy it, but we do. It's like a car accident, right? Like you shouldn't look at it, but you actually can't help yourself. You just got to look. That's what's taking place here. But this is also, though, why John the Baptist is so adamant about speaking out against the marriage. Because he looks at what's taking place here and he realizes this isn't just about like two people who got divorced and remarried, although it is that. This is like pure and utter chaos. It is pure and utter darkness. There has been so much blood that has been shed over this sin and over this rebellion. And this is absolutely, unequivocally wrong. And so John starts to speak out, preach out both publicly and privately, and also persistently against the wrong that is taking place. Now, make no mistake about this. This ministry that John has here is not what we would call uh, you know, friendship evangelism, right? There's sometimes this idea of like evangelism that we have where it's like, um, I'm gonna be a really, really, really nice neighbor. And I'm not gonna talk about my faith at all. Okay, I'm just gonna be really, really nice. And I'm gonna hope that maybe something really bad happens to one of my neighbors. I mean, that's a weird thing to hope for, but we sometimes do that, right? Like, man, if they get diagnosed with cancer, then I get to jump in and like be a good Christian. And we're just waiting for that opportune moment to jump in and like, ta-da! I'm a Christian. But we're gonna hold it back as long as we absolutely can because we don't want to be offensive. We don't wanna, we don't wanna ruffle any feathers, we want to be good Canadians, right? We don't talk about politics, we don't talk about religion, we keep all that over here, off to the side.

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It's not what John does. It's not what John does at all.

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John, John, John's faith is informing how he lives his life in a very public way. He he's he's willing, he's willing to publicly speak out against the ills of his culture.

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What do we do with this? And the reality is like sometimes we have to say things.

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Sometimes we have to hold positions, sometimes we have to hold a line on certain things. And guess what, friends? There is going to be a cost associated with it. We've already talked about the reverse exorcism in our society that's taking place. There, there is no doubt we cannot we cannot avoid the reality that we live in a corrupt culture.

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And there is going to be numerous moments where culture and faith collide. What are we gonna do with that?

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Sometimes in in your workplace, you're gonna have to say, No, I I actually can't participate in that celebration. No, I actually can't say those words. No, I actually can't sign off on that decision.

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No, I won't talk that way. Or maybe, yeah, I do actually have an opinion on that issue. There's a cost.

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No, I wanna I want to be clear about what I'm not saying, because there's some of you that are like, I've been waiting for this. It's like, I can't wait to go to work on Monday and tell everybody what I think. It's not what I'm saying. This is not a license to be a jerk. Sometimes you get persecuted for being a jerk, but that has nothing to do with Jesus.

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That's just because you're a jerk. But what we cannot avoid, and it's not just Mark 6, I'm not just cherry-picking this out of the text, go read your New Testament, is that our faith and the corrupt culture that we live in, they're gonna rub up against each other.

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And here's what I would say. Here's what I would say.

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If everybody is always offended with you all the time, you're probably doing something wrong.

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Here's what I would also say. If no one is ever offended with you ever, you're probably doing something wrong.

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Because Christian discipleship will face opposition in the face of a corrupt culture. We see that clearly in the life of John. We see it in the ministry of Jesus, he speaks the truth and they crucify him. The disciples, 10 out of the 12, speak the truth and they suffer and they are martyred. This is the lineage of faithful ministry. This is the lineage of faithful ministry. I love Canadian culture. My daughter's going to school in the States right now, and I love to remind her of how great our country is. But there are aspects of the Canadian culture that have seeped their way into our Christian discipleship that I think have actually harmed our faithful witness, if I'm honest. Jesus says in John chapter 16, when warning his disciples that his life is about to come to an end, and on the other side that they will be persecuted and scattered, he says this in verse 33 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace, because in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. We do not have to be afraid. Christian discipleship comes at a cost in a corrupt culture. The third observation of discipleship is this Christian discipleship means choosing to live in the right kingdom. Story goes on. There's this whole situation where Herodias, her grudge gets exposed, and there's a bit there that I'm going to just skip over between Herod and John. But then the story goes on and says this in verse 21 Finally, the opportune time came, and on his birthday, Herod gave a banquet. Notice who the guest list was for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. So this is like, without going into too much detail here, this is like the elite of the elite. Okay, this is the wealthy of society. These are the people that are like sort of snuggling up to Herod because he's in power. And make no mistake about it, you know, Herod is at this point using his position of authority and power to like, to kind of bolster his need to feel self-important. So he's throwing a party, he invites all these important people to come so that he can feel important. And then this is where things get really even weirder and more sideways.

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Uh verse 22.

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When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and the dinner guests. So what do we have here? Well, this is Herod's stepdaughter, the daughter of Herodias. She couldn't be more than 14, 15, maybe 16. And Herod has her come out to dance. And this is functionally, like this isn't, you know, like, I don't know, dance dance revolution or something, right? This is like, this is like a striptease. Again, all this done just to make himself feel more powerful. What Mark is wanting to highlight for us is not the grand opulent nature of this banquet or this gala, but rather that this was a debaucherous, licentious, gluttonous, untempered abuse of wealth, power, and influence. Where the powerful and the wealthy take advantage of the weak and the vulnerable for their own gain.

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This was a first century picture of what we have with with Epstein Island. It's exactly what this is. This isn't innocent fun.

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This is grotesque, debaucherous evil. That's what's occurring here.

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And Mark is wanting to paint a picture for us of the potential for depravity that exists inside the human heart and in the kingdom of the world. And Herod and this banquet are the embodiment of this. And don't miss what he's doing because he's going to draw a straight line here from what happens next.

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Second half of verse 22.

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We read this.

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The king said to the girl, Ask for anything you want, and I will give it to you. And he promised her on oath, whatever you ask, I will give it, up to half my kingdom. Again, we just see the depravity of Herod, his insecurity. Verse 24, so she went out and said to her mother, What shall I ask for? The head of John the Baptist, she answered. This is the mother just waiting for this moment. At once the girl hurried to the king with the request, I want to give you, uh, I want to I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter. The king was greatly distressed, but because of the oath and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So immediately he sent executioners with orders to bring John's head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother.

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So again, this banquet is the embodiment or the fulfillment of just the total depravity of humanity. And what happens on the other side? They kill a prophet of God. Why? For proclaiming God's righteousness.

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So don't miss this picture that Mark wants to paint.

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Here we have this banquet that is the embodiment of everything evil, and it is so evil that a righteous prophet of God must die. Now, this is interesting. This is where the marking sandwich comes in. If you go down to verse 30 really quickly with me, it says this the apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. So again, remember, he picks up the previous story. And I'm not going to read the verses because we don't have time, but what comes next is this story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. And I don't want to steal the thunder of whoever's preaching next week, but we have to understand what's taking place here in order to understand what's taking place at Herod's banquet. In the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus goes out with his disciples and he gathers the crowds. They sit in a grass field. He takes a few fish and a few loaves. He prays over them. He multiplies them and he feeds them. And we have 12 baskets left over. And what Mark is trying to do is he's trying to contrast the banquet of Herod with this banquet that Jesus throws. The Herod of Banet that exists for the elites, the who's who of society, the Herod of Banquet, the banquet of Herod, rather, that is, that is like excessive in all its indulgences. The banquet of Herod, where where there is the death of a prophet that comes as a result of the evil that takes place. The banquet of Herod, where where he is at the center. Everything orbits around him because he has a messiah complex. And then you contrast that with this banquet that Jesus throws in the next set of verses. And who's on the guest list? Well, we don't know for sure, because Mark doesn't say for certain, but we know that everybody was invited and everybody was welcome. And we know that when Jesus looked out on that crowd, we're told in Mark chapter six that he looked at them with compassion in his heart because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So this is likely the lowly, the outcast, the socially rejected. That's who's at Jesus' banquet. And just like Herod's banquet was a banquet of excess, Jesus' banquet was a banquet of excess. But it wasn't debaucherous. At the end of the banquet, there were there were 12 baskets of fish and loaves left over, 12 being a significant number for a whole host of reasons. But one of the things that 12 represented was abundance. In other words, to say, when life is insufficient, it is actually all sufficient when Jesus is present. And just like there was a death as a result of Herod's banquet, there will also be a death on the other side of Jesus' banquet, but it will not be the death that will come at the hands of Jesus. It will come because Jesus himself, the truest righteous prophet, will lay down his life.

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And while Herod made the whole thing about him, Jesus, the only leader in all of human history who didn't have a Messiah complex, made it all about God's glory and the good of people.

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And the question for us is this which banquet will we feast at? Which banquet will we allow to dominate our thoughts? Which banquet will fulfill the culture of our lives and our home and our church? Will it be all about us?

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Will it be all about our needs and our wants and our desires? Is it us seated on the throne? Is everything orbiting around us?

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Or will we humble ourselves, take a seat on the grass, wait patiently for someone to pass us a piece of bread and a piece of fish. But in that experience the intense satisfaction because Jesus is there.

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The last observation, I will close with this, I'll invite the band to come up is this Christian discipleship trusts that Jesus' mission continues through suffering. We read in verse 29 that John's disciples came and took his body and they laid it in a tomb. It's interesting. If you're to go to Matthew's uh telling of this story, the story goes on. Uh, I'm not gonna turn there in my Bible, you'll see the verses on the screen. But John's disciples came and took his body and buried it. And then look at what it says in verse 12, they went and they told Jesus. Now, why would they go and tell Jesus? Well, because Jesus was a big deal to John. If you were to look at the ministry of John, he was the forerunner to Jesus, he was the cousin of Jesus, he talked about Jesus, he said, you got to look at Jesus, he's a big deal. Uh, I must increase, Jesus himself must, or sorry, I must decrease, and Jesus himself must increase. I'm not even worthy to untie his sandals. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and that something interesting happens. Jesus hears from John's disciples about the death of John, and then he leaves. It says in verse 13 that Jesus heard what happened. He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. And hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. So Jesus hears about the death of John, he gets in a boat and he goes to a solitary place. Why?

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Well, his death is a big deal. It's his cousin, it's a prophet who proclaimed his coming. But there's something else happening here. Jesus knows that this is the most, the most real and vivid picture of what is to come for him.

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He sees a righteous prophet of God being rejected by the people that John actually wanted to respond and repent to the truth that he was proclaiming, and he knows that that is his fate, and he knows that that is his future. And sure enough, that's what's going to happen. Jesus is going to go to the cross and he's going to die. And just as just as there was a silence on the other side of John's death, there's going to be a silence on the other side of Jesus' death. As Jesus' disciples are sitting there bewildered and wondering, what is going to happen? What is going to happen now? And guess what happens? Three days later, after Jesus dies on the cross, he's resurrected from the dead. And then 50 days after his resurrection, his Holy Spirit comes and falls on the church.

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And then what happens? Those fearful, afraid, hiding, hiding in the church at their little prayer gathering. Disciples get filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

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And they couldn't be stopped. They couldn't be stopped, friends.

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And they'd go and do it again.

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And it would happen again, and they would go and do it again. Until every single one of them were killed for proclaiming the gospel. Every single one of them were killed for proclaiming the gospel. But the mission doesn't stop.

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Because we pick up right where they left off. And just like Jesus said many times through the gospels, take up your cross and follow me, deny yourself and follow me. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel will actually find it. Just like early church follower, uh early church follower Tertullian said, the blood, it is the blood of the martyrs that is the seed of the church. Yes, there will be death. Yes, there will be pain. Yes, there will be hardship. Yes, there will be struggle. Yes, there will be sorrow. Yes, there will be loneliness. But the mission will go forward. Jesus' name will be proclaimed. People will come to faith. And the message for us, the question for us.

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Is that worth it? Is it worth getting eaten by a bear in the wild so that you could see one? Or would you rather just sit at the zoo where it's safe?

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And Jesus' invitation to us, whether we're followers of his and need to discover him, or sorry, not followers of him and need to discover him, or followers of him and need to rediscover him, is to step out into the wild, to take a risk, and to follow him.

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Let me pray for us.

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Lord Jesus, we thank you that you have so much more for us than we could ever hope or imagine. You were not safe, but you were good. So, Spirit of God, fill us.

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Grant us courage, grant us hope, fill us with your spirit and remind us of what you promised. That you will never leave us nor forsake us, that you will always be with us to the very end of the age. And may our heart's desire be to hear the whisper of your voice in our ear. Well done, good and faithful servant. So bless us, we pray in Jesus' name. And all God's children said.