Mark 9:30-35
Pilgrimage – Asking the Right Questions
01/27/13
In the Gospel of Mark there are a lot of questions. Jesus himself asks 47 questions. We received one of those 47 here in the
passage today. As the disciples are
traveling from Galilee to Capernaum they start to argue about who is the
greatest among them. Jesus asks them
“”What were you arguing about during the journey?” In another translation the question is
stated, “What were you discussing on the way?” Either way the question is a
reflection of the conversation between the 12 as they journeyed.
Jesus’ questions are not the only questions in Mark’s
gospel. There are twelve different
questions that come from the religious leaders, seven that come from a crowd or
an individual, five that come from Pilate, and two that come from unclean
spirits. The whole gospel is filled with
questions. The first one in Mark’s
gospel is actually from an unclean spirit.
Jesus is in the same area, Capernaum, in a synagogue teaching when a person
with an unclean spirit walks in and questions him. The evil spirit screams “What have you to do
with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you
come to destroy us?”
This differs from the other first questions in the other
gospels. In Matthew the first question
comes from the magi. They ask, “Where is
the child born King of Jews?” In Luke
the question comes from Zechariah as he learns that Elizabeth is pregnant with
their son who will be known as John the Baptist. He asks the angel, “How can I be sure of
this?” In John the religious rulers ask
the first question to John the Baptist.
They ask him, “Who are you?” In
Matthew, Luke and John the first questions reflect a need to understand and
searching. But in Mark, as in most of
the questions in this gospel, the question the unclean spirit asks is an
attempt to question Jesus’ authority and power.
Remember the question the evil spirit screams? “What have
you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?”
With that simple question about coming to destroy the spirit is
attempting to corner Jesus’ power as one who is coming to destroy but in
reality Jesus has come to redeem. How a
question is asked is important because how we ask will lead to how we are
answered.
If you have ever asked the question, “So, how was school?”,
what was the normal response? (Fine.)
This is what as a closed-ended question.
Too easily students learn they can give a one word response to their
parent’s question. When the parents are
seeking to find out what happened in their child’s life at school all they
usually get is fine, good, okay. That is if they get any words at all and not
just a smirk and shrug of the shoulders.
Instead of asking a closed-ended question, how would the response change
if you asked an open-ended question? A
type of question that would lead to more than one word response? What would happen if you asked a question
like, “Can you tell me about your day?” or “What was the topic of your English
class today?” These lead to a
conversation because they demand more than one word.
What type of questions we ask are extremely important for
our own faith and journey to grow as individuals and as a congregation? There are right questions and there are wrong
questions to ask. The wrong questions to
ask are ones that lead to accusations, labeling and destruction of community
and relationships. The evil spirit was
looking to peg Jesus as a destroyer not a redeemer. There was a purpose behind the closed-ended
question he asked. Jesus did not take
the bait though and cast the spirit out.
No matter how clever we think we are, we can never trap Jesus in a
corner.
Here is another example of a wrong question. When Campbell was two years old I walked into
our living room to find her jumping on our recliner. Now this could go bad in many ways. The recliner was right next to a class French
door, so if she fell off she could go through the window. She could go the other way which would lead
to her head hitting a coffee table. I
was concerned with her safety. Plus I
was attempting to teach her the rules of the house which are you don’t jump on
furniture. Being the wise father I am I
raised my voice and asked her, “What are you doing?” She stopped jumping and looked at me, “I’m
looking for trouble.”
I know a minister who is a senior minister of a very large
church and has many staff people under his leadership. It came out that two of his staff people
where having an affair with one another.
He invited them into his office to sit down and talk out the
ramifications of this affair. As he
discussed their termination and other consequences they were confused about why
this was happening. The minister looked
at them and asked, “How did you think this was going to work out well for
either of you?” This was a far better
question to ask in this situation because it was more of an open-ended question
that could lead to dialogue and understanding.
My question was more closed-minded, or the wrong question to ask at that
moment. This pastor did a better job
asking the right question.
A right question is one that leads to a conversation, to a
deeper understanding, and strengthening of a community or a relationship. It is something that will build up rather
than tear down. Many of the questions in
Mark’s gospel vary from right questions and wrong questions. One of the questions the religious rulers ask
of Jesus is to question his authority.
In the second chapter of Mark, Jesus is once again in Capernaum and a
paralyzed man is brought to him and Jesus forgives him of his sins. The legal experts see this and the question
they ask is, “Why does he speak this way?”
They were questioning his authority, his power to forgive sins. They demanded an answer and so Jesus answers
them with a couple questions of his own.
He asks them, “Why do you fill your minds with these questions? Which is easier – to say to a paralyzed
person, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and
walk’? But so you will know that the
Human One has authority on the earth to forgive sins” – he said to the man who
was paralyzed – “Get up, take your mat and go home.”
The legal experts questioned Jesus authority and there was a
power struggle going on. The legal
experts wanted to make sure the power of their society rested with them. But if Jesus was walking around forgiving
sins, healing people, their power was threatened. The same was true for the first question in
Mark’s gospel from the evil spirit. The
spirit’s power was threatened and he wanted to know if Jesus was here to
destroy. But Jesus came to earth not to
destroy but to redeem. He came not to
limit us to the law but for us to be free from it. He came to forgive sins, to heal the broken,
and to take the sins of the world upon himself.
Jesus had told the disciples about this task in the early
part of our scripture today. He told
them that he would be crucified and would die.
In verse 31 it says, “He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be
handed over to men. They will kill him. After three days he will rise from the
dead.” He told this to the disciples but
they did not understand. What question
did they ask to get clarification on what he told them? They didn’t.
The scripture says, “But they didn’t understand this kind of talk, and
they were afraid to ask him.” What
questions are you afraid to ask Christ because you don’t understand or you
really don’t want to know the answers to?
Power is extremely important to people. People love to have power. It could only be the power to change the
channel on the TV so they hoard the remote.
Or it could be they want to be the one in charge, the director of what
is going on. There is a story I read in
a book called Ten Temptations of Church:
Why Churches Decline and What to Do about It. It is a story about a declining church. It had been losing its members and worship
attendance. As it did leaders came up
and started to fill in roles that needed to be filled. They got so use to those roles they kept them
for years, decades even. In the story
the authors focus in on Bill. Bill was
the head of trustees and the head usher.
He sat on the finance committee and memorial committee. His family had donated a lot of the art work
for the church and they had been there for three generations. If the doors were opened Bill was there. Members of that church said, “Bill is the
face of our church; nothing gets past him.
It’s been that way as long as I can remember!” The pastor the church then asked the right
question, “How long has the church been in decline?” A church member asks, “As long as I can
remember.”
The point of the story isn’t to point at Bill and say that
he is the source of the church’s decline.
No, that isn’t right. But there
is a hidden benefit to Bill to keep his church in decline. The more his church declines the more it will
depend on him. The more power he ends up
having. This probably happened
completely by accident and without Bill really knowing it. The truth in this story though is that it
will be really hard on Bill as the church moves out of decline because as they
do he will have less power, less control.
How will Bill react to this?
As churches decline and seek to be revived there is a
thought that only through death can a resurrection happen. Now this is true. Jesus had to die to be able to rise again. But how did Jesus die? Well that may be the wrong question to ask at
this moment. A better question would be,
“Why did Jesus die?” The disciples
struggle with this a lot as they follow Jesus.
In Mark 8 Jesus asks another, very vulnerable question. He asks the disciples, “Who do you say that I
am.” Peter answers correctly by saying,
“You are the Christ.” Then Jesus starts
to teach them about his death. He says,
“The Human One must suffer many things and be rejected by the leaders, chief
priests, and the legal experts, and be killed, and then, after three days, rise
from the dead.” Peter doesn’t like this
and scolded him. Jesus has none of this
and says, “Get behind me Satan.”
When faced with reality that Jesus had to die Peter decided
to control Jesus, or have power over him, and told him differently. Yet if Jesus is going to be the Christ, the
Messiah, the Savior of the world, he will have to die. God knew this when he sent him to grow in
Mary’s womb. But the disciples had a
hard time with this but this is because they hadn’t figured out the lesson that
Jesus is attempting to teach them once again in verse 35; “Whoever wants to be
first must be least of all and the servant to all.”
Bill was a servant to that church as it declined but as it
would be resurrected would he be fine losing some of that power? Would he be okay with the fact he would have
to step out of the lime light, away from some of his leadership roles to let
other people move in with possibly new ways of doing things and new ideas? That is hard to do when you have been the one
people look to for the decisions of a church for so many years, but if the
church is not going the way it should maybe the right question to ask is “am I
getting in the way of this church growing?”
To go back to Jesus’ original question, “What were you
arguing about during the journey?” The
disciples were arguing about who had the most power. Throughout the whole journey from Galilee to
Capernaum they argued about who was the greatest. In Galilee they heard once again Jesus
predict his death and resurrection. They
could have been talking about that. They
could have been trying to figure out what that has to do with being a disciple
but instead they argued about who was the greatest, who had the most power.
Many church keep asking the same question and it is one that
we here at Indian Trail UMC must have to face as well, “Do we have a future?” Are we going to stand around and argue about
who has the most power, who the greatest is, or are we going to follow Jesus
instead? Are we willing to be a servant
to all and the least of all for the greatest of all, Jesus Christ?
I am glad to know that some of you are taking the reading
through the New Testament seriously and are doing well with it. I know this because some of you have emailed
me questions about what some of the scriptures mean. I enjoy that, so keep them coming. But as I wrote this sermon this week one of
those questions came back to me and it fights right into Jesus’ calling for his
disciples, his calling to us. Matthew
10:29 says, “Those who find their lives will lose them, and those who lose
their lives because of me will find them.”
The person who asked this question was wondering what it meant. It echoes just what Jesus says here, “Whoever
wants to be first must be least of all and the servant of all.” We must follow Jesus’ example which leads to
the cross.
If we are truly wanting to live into that mission and that
vision that Jesus calls us to in John 17, then we will have to be comfortable
with being the least and the servant.
“Why did Jesus go to the cross?”
He went because he loved us so much that he took our sins upon himself
and died for our sake. Yes he rose
again. Yes we love Easter but to get
there we have to be willing to go through Good Friday. The question we have to ask ourselves is, “Am
I willing to die to self in order for God to be glorified?” “Am I willing to put God’s will above my
own?” “Am I willing to serve no matter
where or when in order to do the will God has laid out for this church?” “Am I willing to do what it takes, even if it
leads to my own cross, if that is what God’s will demands?”
The last question in the gospel of Mark is asked by Mary
Magdalene as she approaches the tomb she laid Jesus in a few days before. She asks, “Who will roll away the stone for
us from the entrance to the tomb?” The
difference between that question and the first question from the evil spirit is
remarkable. To quote the book I am using
for this series, “The first question by the unclean spirit is an attempt to confine
the power of the Holy One of God. The
last question asked on Easter morning opens our lives to the reality of the
empty tomb and the power of the Holy One.”
Mary’s question was the right question because it opened her up to the
power and truth of the God she loves.
Are we asking the right questions that open us up or are we asking the
wrong questions which will simply lead to death?
And all God’s people said...Amen.
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