Who really is this Jesus fellow?  I mean how do you answer that question with more than “the son God who saves the world?  Yes, that’s true but let’s try to get it in practical terms.  Just who is this Jesus and how reliable are the claims made on his behalf?  These were the questions that were pressed on the gospel writers.  Here we are ready to listen to Mark’s gospel that is set some 30 years after Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  Mark takes pen in hand and decides to give an account of the ministry of this man whom he knew and trusted to be God on earth, doing God’s work the way God intended it to be done.  One of the most persistent criticisms Mark, as well as the other first Christians, had to answer was, “How could this man have been God?  He was executed.  A god who cannot protect himself is no god!  Yet, you have made up this tale about his being raised from the dead but that is but an idle tale attempting to cover his execution.”  Mark’s gospel is one version of an answer to that question and criticism.

Let us now listen to a portion of Mark’s story and be alert to God’s word to us within that story.  Listen for God’s word in portions of the 6th chapter, reading at the 30th verse.

Yes, this Jesus is some person-an extraordinary presence in the midst of everyday life.  The first thing that jumps out at us from his passage is Jesus’ extraordinary availability to people. Didn’t you pick that up?

 First is his response to the disciples.  They had been hard at work.  Mark says, “They gathered around him and told them ALL they had done and taught.”  The language and form gives one the picture of a group eagerly gathered around its leader eagerly and excitedly relating their experiences.  (Wynn’s analogy of “shaggy dog that had just gotten wet.”)  So here’s Jesus being bombarded with all these reports and his first response is “ Come, let us go to a quiet place.  You haven’t even had time to rest and eat properly.”   So he took them away to a retreat.

The retreat that was not hidden.  Jesus’ reputation had gone before them and when they arrived there the crowds were waiting for them.  Once again here is the good news of Jesus’’ extraordinary availability.

Jesus’ original plans were interrupted.  He went there for a purpose:  a good and holy purpose.  And “Holy Mackerel,” look what happened.  A gaggle of folk comes after him.  But consider his response- What did he do?  I know what my natural tendency is.  “Sorry I’m up to something else.  Let’s schedule you for a later date.”  Is that what Mark’s account tells us?  No!  Jesus had compassion on them!  Jesus, sizing the crowd up, realized they were like sheep without a shepherd and “he began to teach them many things.”

Not only teach them, but here is where Mark begins to round out for us this picture.  It was late-the disciples point out to Jesus that the people are hungry.  Listen to what Jesus did; he issued a sharp command to his disciples to feed them.   Right here is where the whole Jesus begins to emerge in this story.

 Yes, Jesus is compassionate.  Yes, Jesus is extraordinarily available to those in need.  And also Jesus sees more in the disciples than they see in themselves.  The disciples fire back with a sarcastic retort- “What do you mean feed this crowd with the handful of pocket change we have.  You must be out of your mind!”  Notice the resolve of Jesus, acting on his trust that God had provided enough, he doesn’t waste his time trying to convince them that they can do it, he says to them sternly, “Give me what you have and divide the people into groups.” The reset of the story is history. Not only were we fed but there was more than enough.

And then the final thing we learn about Jesus: from this part of the passage we get a look into the window of his relationship with God.  He went off by himself to pray.  Present to all sorts of people-yes; active compassion that meets people’s needs where they are, yes.  And also a person who provided for his own nurture and replenishment by Almighty God, he went off to pray.

So Mark’s portrait of Jesus is beginning to emerge for us. We move now to this next incident from this chapter for what it tells us about peoples’ response to Jesus.

Verses 53-56 give us another crowd scene. Jesus and disciples complete their retreat and return to the other side of the lake and immediately are confronted with a crowd who want what Jesus has to offer.  At least it appears they want what he has to offer.

Here is where it is important to pay attention to the whole story and not just the words of the particular verses.  Here is where we celebrate the compassionate Jesus who is extraordinarily available to those who need him.  But just as important as the celebration is our keeping our eyes wide open.  Let’s pay attention to the whole story.  They are literally begging for his healing.  They are running to him from all over the region.  But wait a minute.  Some are begging.  Some want what he offers.  But not all.  The disciples are confused and in their confusion respond to him with sarcasm.  The scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders of the community, are straight out hostile to him.  Keep reading on beyond the verse where we stopped and right in the next verse, beginning of Chapter 7, Jesus has one of many encounters with those who are supposed to know when God is present and they treat him as a common criminal.

What in God’s good world is going on here?  Why would anyone not welcome with open arms and praise the presence of God in their midst?

Surely the presence of God is the occasion for celebration.  But the recurring message of Mark and reinforced by Paul in Ephesians is celebrate with your eyes wide open.  Pay attention to what we are celebrating.  Let’s take in the whole picture of what its like when God shows up.

One of the problems people had with Jesus was his timing.  Jesus kept reminding his hearers that he was only doing what they had been reading in the law and prophets was going to happen.  They were okay with that but they just weren’t ready for it to happen right now. They were more comfortable for God’s way of doing things to be off in the future somewhere.  Here’s Jesus acting and proclaiming that God’s realm has come to be right under their very feet.

Justin Wilson, the Cajun humorist, tells the story of the little church located down in the bayous that was having a revival one summer.  It was the last night and the visiting evangelist was pressing hard for decisions.  With great expression he exclaimed, “ Everybody wanna go to heaven stand up!”  A few stood up.  He kept repeating his invitation/exhortation with more and more liveliness until finally everybody in the sanctuary was standing but ol’ Brother Thibodeaux, seated back in the corner.  The preacher came out of the pulpit and asked with some exasperation, "Good Brother, don’t you wanna go to hev’n when you die?”  “Why sho. The way you were carrying on I thought you were getting a bus up right now!”

Yes, Jesus’ problem was one of timing. He embodied in the present what others wanted to put off to some distant future.

Are we all ready to get on the bus, even if it is loading up in Hidenwood’s parking lot as soon as we can get out there?  I hope so because on that “bus” which is headed into the fullness of God’s presence is hope.  The hope that won’t disappoint us-the hope that is poured into our hearts though the Holy Spirit.

As Paul says to us in Romans, it is that hope that is born out of suffering, suffering that produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope.  And it is a hope that does not disappoint us because it comes from God’s love from which nothing can separate us.  (Romans 5:1-11)

And my friend, that is good news. Where else are we going to find that kind of dependable hope except from the very being of God?  We and our world hunger for hope today. One indication that there is so much hunger for hope is how easy it is to get media exposure to predict it.

Do you get as weary as I do hearing people predict hope?  When is the economy going to get better?  I, like you, hope sooner rather than later, but who knows? Certainly not all those folks who have theories.

What is it gong to take to stop the bloodshed in Iraq? My heart aches for the families of our service men and women over there who are facing an indefinite stay and are charged with defending against a phantom enemy that strikes mysteriously here, there, and out of nowhere as the death toll mounts.

And yet there is another story the faith community has to set over against the stories of seeming hopelessness.  It is the story of the utter fidelity of God.  God is faithful. God is extraordinarily available to all of us. Those who trust God for hope are not disappointed.

Here is where it comes right down to us in the Christian church.  Since we are the body of Christ, we are called to be extraordinarily available to those in need of hope.  We can witness to, point to, be channels of a hope that is available to us out of the suffering love of God.

Take Mark’s portrait of Jesus home with you today.  Just make sure it is the whole portrait; the portrait of the Christ who is extraordinarily available with his compassion and also the Christ who is unrelenting in his sharp command to his followers to carry on and use the gifts God has planted within them; it matters not whether we superficially think we have those gifts.  The good news of the gospel is that we do have them.  Therefore we can use them.

One of the more influential persons on my faith journey was my grandfather.  Among the many legacies he left to us was one we did not discover until decades after his death.  Upon cleaning out a closet we found some old farm journals he used to record the daily transactions of the farm and his dairy business.  He was a dairy farmer with a processing plant.

In addition to his journal entries about his farm and business, each day he would add an “editorial comment.”  I’ll read you two of those from a period of time in which people were looking for hope.

December 31, 1930
“A beautiful cold day. We had a dry year. Only 35 inches of rainfall for the whole year. The state made a better crop than last year. The price of everything that the farmers make is very cheap. Corn, $.60; peas $1.25; cotton $.09. Can’t pay expenses on the farm. Day labor can’t get work and there is lots of complaint of want of food in the cities and towns. We are about as well off at the dairy as a year ago. Rhett came here on the 17th of November and is working at the dairy. (Rhett was my father who had lost his job and everything in Chattanooga, TN; put his wife and 3 small children on the train and come home to the farm). We are hoping to do more with the dairy this year. I owe $400.00 for cows and we have 18 good cows besides bull and 4 yearlings. My rheumatism is not improving.  Here is trusting that we all may be enabled to do more for our heavenly father next year than ever before and love and be a help to each other. Farewell 1930.

December 31, 1931
Year ’31 was very dry year…(The usual crop report)…We have so much to thank our heavenly father for. All have been spared. I went to the hospital last March and am in a cast but not suffering as much pain. (The cast was from his armpits to below his knees; a ‘strange’ perception of ‘having been spared’). The balance of our family is all well.  Jane Ann doesn’t seem to be improving much.  Her mind is very bright which is so much to be thankful for and we trust she will finally get better. (Jane Ann is my oldest sister who had just been diagnosed with polio marking the beginning of a long, long bout with that crippling disease which left her crippled.).  Oh may we all be able to do more for our heavenly father than ever before. Farewell 1931.

What is that can enable a man to express such hope and faith when he is fighting a losing battle economically?  He has already lost one farm in 1917 and is on the way to losing this one in the Depression.  His health is not good.  All those months in a cast left him with a stiff back. His son and family have lost all and come back to the farm.  His granddaughter has a serious illness.  And yet the tone of his writing is positive and thankful.  His faith keeps him hopeful in spite of suffering. In fact his back would not allow him to bend enough to get inside of an automobile but for years he rode the 10 miles to town every Sunday on the running board of a truck so that he could attend worship.

Let us go forth into our varied lives, trusting as the poet reminds us:
 

Called as partners in Christ’s service,
Called to ministries of grace.
We respond with deep commitment.
Fresh new lines of faith to trace.
Make us partners in our living, our compassion to increase,
Messengers of faith, thus giving hope and confidence and peace.

Amen.

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