Questions and Answers and Love

Reading is Mark 12:13-34 

 
This exchange between various Jewish leaders and Jesus happens between the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and Passover.  The day after the entry into Jerusalem, and the cheering crowds, Jesus cleanses the Temple, and upsets the religious leaders, who then start looking for a way to kill him “They were afraid of him, because the crowds were completely amazed at his teaching.”  Mark 11:18

The next day when Jesus arrives at the Temple, the religious leaders ask him a question, which in true Jesus’ style he answers with a question, again frustrating the religious leaders.  

Then in chapter 12, Mark writes “The leaders knew that Jesus was really talking about them, and they wanted to arrest him. But because they were afraid of the crowd, they let him alone and left.”

Then the three questions addressed to Jesus, each by a person or group form a different part of the religious leadership.

1.   Should we pay taxes to Rome? Do they want an answer. Yes! Not because they are interested in the answer as such, but because Jesus will be in trouble regardless of whether he answers yes or no.  If he says do not pay taxes to Rome, the political leaders will be after him. If he says pay taxes to Rome, he loses his popular support that is protecting him for the Jewish authorities.[1]

2.   The second question is about who the seven-time widow will be married to in heaven. The Sadducees, who asked this question, do not believe in the resurrection of the dead. The question is about a social system that is based on women giving birth to sons. Here Jesus reminds people that “The ‘house’ of Israel is not guaranteed in and through patriarchal marriage structures, but through the promise and faithfulness of Israel’s life-giving God.”[2] In other words, the system that meant a woman was married off to seven brothers, one after the other, each time the family hoping for a son, is not part of God’s Kingdom. Our future is not based on our fertility but the faithfulness of God.

3.     And the third question: which is the greatest commandment. This was a topic of discussion among Rabbi’s, who were the religious teachers and biblical scholars of their day. This time the teacher of the Law agrees with Jesus, and all seems good.
‘When Jesus saw that the man had given a sensible answer, he told him, “You are not far from God’s kingdom.” After this, no one dared ask Jesus any more questions.

 

Three questions, the first two are a set-up, and I wonder how often we ask questions, not to find out the answer, but to humiliate or put someone down. When we ask a question are we listening for an answer that we might learn something or are we wanting to shame or embarrass the person. How do we respond if the answer to our question is not the answer we wanted or expected?  

The two greatest commandments are: Love God with your whole being and love your neighbour as you love yourself.
That all seems simple and clear, but of course it isn’t.

One of my favourite authors on Mark’s Gospel is Ched Meyers and he writes:

‘heaven must come to earth – there is no love of God except in love of neighbour’[3]

 

How do we love our refugee or migrant neighbours when we fear them?
How do we love our Muslim neighbours when we are suspicious of them?
How do we love our addicted neighbours or our homeless neighbours when we avoid them?

The scribe understood the law, he could recite it, and knew that these commandments were important, more important than burnt offerings, which were an important part of Temple life.

So why might Jesus have told him he was close to the Kingdom, he is not there yet. He admires Jesus, he recognises Jesus as a good teacher, he gives praise to Jesus, but he does not follow.

‘More than intellectual assent, this demands a decision to turn the concise gospel into concise living.’[4]

Being a disciple of Jesus, is not about a set of rules, or passing a test in biblical and theological studies. Being a disciple is following Jesus in the way we live, and that means in loving.

Christianity is not a knowledge based religion, but a religion based on relationship with God through Jesus. A relationship that changes who we are, how we live with others and how we see ourselves.  That does not mean we do not study, but that our salvation is about relationship not academic grades.

I remember seeing a picture of our relationship with God and others being like a triangle.

if we want to grow closer to God, we must be growing closer to people.
We cannot love God, with our whole being, if we do not love our neighbours, and ourselves.

That does not mean we put ourselves above others,
but that we have a healthy respect for the life God has given us, other people and all creation.

In some of what I have read recently there have been a few things that have stood out to me. One is that because of the many options in the way we interact with the news, we can stay wholly within a group or groups of people who agree with us.   We do not see much positive about people who disagree with you or their opinions.

How can we love each other when we are suspicious, when we label those with differing political or religious views as wrong or heretics or stupid.

How do we love each other, and live in right relationship with God and each other, when we disagree about how to interpret a Biblical text.

What is fundamental to our faith?

Does our faith help us grow in relationship with God?

Does our faith help us grow in relationship with our neighbour?

How is our living each day shaped by our faith? 

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[1] Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man, p 314.

[2] Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man, p 316

[3] Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man, p 318

[4] Spill the Beans, Issue 5, p 78.

Greatness, serving, normal?

 Mark 10: 32-45

Something that I have heard about lately is confirmation bias, this is when we look for things that agree with our opinion. For example, if you think people with blue eyes have a higher IQ than people with brown eyes, you will read articles that agree with you, and find ways to disagree with articles or research that says that eye colour is not associated with IQ. You may have noticed this in climate change debates.

This passage from Mark this morning begins with Jesus telling the disciples, for the third time, that he will be arrested and killed. Still the disciples don’t get it. The disciples have seen Jesus in action, healing, teaching, feeding, miracles; they have left their home and family to follow, literally, to walk with him. Why might they not understand or acknowledge what Jesus is saying about his arrest and death?

I wonder if confirmation bias is at play here.

The Jewish people were looking for a Saviour, a Messiah, from the line of David, who would bring them liberation. Jesus is making all the right moves, saying all the right things; surely, he is amassing a mighty army to overthrow the Roman occupiers of Israel. Once again Israel would be great and free, ruled by people who feared and worshipped God.

But, we know, and the disciples were not ready to admit, that the freedom Jesus was offering was not freedom from Roman occupiers. Jesus was not preparing an army of warriors to take on the might of Rome. Jesus was preparing the way for a new kingdom, one that was so different to the current systems of the world, that it was hard to see what it might be like.

James and John, brothers, asked Jesus if they could sit at his left and right in the new Kingdom. Traditionally those who sit next to the King, or leader, were powerful people. It was a place of honour. When you are at an event, maybe a wedding, who sits at the top table, who sits with the parents of the bride and groom, and who sits in the back corner?

Soon the places at the left and right of Jesus will be those crucified with him.

Then Jesus tells the disciples, again, that those who are great are those who serve. This new way of living, the way of Jesus, does not follow the ways of Rome or any other empire. Honour and status is not about wealth or prestige or the number of slaves you own. Being great is not about the size of your army, but the way you serve, the way you live for others.

Then this final sentence in our reading: The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master, but a slave who will give his life to rescue many people. You may be more familiar with his version: For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” New Revised Standard Version

One of my favourite writers on the Gospel of Mark is Ched Myers. He writes: The term (ransom) referred to the price required to redeem captives or purchase freedom for indentured servants. Jesus promises then that the way of “servanthood” has been transformed by the Human One into the way of liberation.[1]

It is 20 months since life changed dramatically due to COVID. Since then, we have been able to meet at times, sometimes masked, sometimes singing. At times. we have not been able to visit family and friends, we have missed birthday celebrations and funerals. And we yearn to return to ‘normal’. But what is ‘normal’.

Like James and John, we do what humans do best, we fall back on what we know—what’s comfortable; how the world always worked; we hope and pray that the world has not and will not change as much as it already has and as much as we know it will. What once was, is not working anymore. We know that. Deep in our hearts and souls. And we don’t know how to fix it.[2]

The world around us is changing, it feels chaotic at times, out of our control, confusing and frustrating.

For James and John, they have heard Jesus talk three times now about his impending death, I imagine they may have been confused as well, their idea of a Messiah does not include this death.

“Jesus is simply affirming here what the world does to those who put their trust in love and follow it through in every aspect of their lives. The disciples are fixated on the rewards for their actions, but that is not what is significant, it’s the ability to trust love and live it out in the world that is the right response to the call of Jesus and the disciples miss the point completely. The kind of power they seek is the very power that will have Jesus crucified.” ^[3]

Once Jesus enters Jerusalem, the world will change. We live on the other side of the cross and empty tomb, and still when we don’t have answers or there don’t seem to be any answers in the immediate future, our human pattern is to “partner with power” rather than “hold hands with humility.”^[4]

I am one of those people who wants the answers, now, all of them. I want to know what is going to happen, I want to be able to plan, and not have those planned changed by COVID or ageing or ill-health or anything else.  I am human. I want the security of knowledge. Jesus asks me to trust in love.

In this passage we are reminded that our faith is not in power or knowledge, but in love and service.

I know it is not much of an advertising slogan, but Christianity isn’t about slogans, but a way of life that offers freedom. Freedom to love, freedom to trust in God, freedom to serve.

Where is God calling you to let go of ‘normal’

Where is God calling you to live in love?

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[1] Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man,  p 279

[2] https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/preaching-in-the-midst-of-merging-crises

[3] Spill the Beans, Issue 5, p 64

[4] https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/preaching-in-the-midst-of-merging-crises

the question of divorce?

 

Trigger warning, these readings and the sermon discuss divorce, if this raises issues for you, please talk with someone about it. write their name down now, so you have it later.

The readings are Deuteronomy 24:1-4 and Mark 10:1-16

At first reading, this passage is about divorce, or rather not getting divorced, but is it really?

We start by hearing that Jesus is teaching the crowd, and some Pharisees decide to test Jesus.

They ask Jesus is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?  

Is it lawful?

I wonder what questions we ask.

Is it lawful?

Reminds me of teenagers saying, you didn’t tell me I couldn’t

Is it lawful, is a boundary pushing question.

Yes, this question is about divorce, but also about much more than divorce. The question could have been about anything, the intent of the question is to trap Jesus. No matter how he answers this question, someone will be unhappy, and maybe enough people will walk away from listening to him, and he will no longer be a threat to the power of the Pharisees.

I wonder, what questions do we ask, not when we want an answer, but when we want to trap, or ridicule, or point out to someone how wrong they are. I have seen this in discussions about refugees, same gender marriage, abortion, and climate change.

 The passage begins with Jesus teaching the crowd.

I wonder what Jesus was teaching when the Pharisees interrupted with their question? Throughout the gospels, Jesus is teaching about transformation and the upside nature of the Kingdom of God compared to what we experience in most social and political situations.

In situations where power, status or strength give privilege;
in a world where being male and adult is honoured,
in a world where women and children are treated as property and not human, I wonder what Jesus was teaching about? Maybe sharing resources, or treating all people with dignity, or not judging another person, or …. 

Mark does not tell us.

The Pharisees want to know how Jesus will answer one of the topical and contested issues of the day, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife. Divorce was an accepted part of both Jewish and Roman societies. Some leaders spoke against divorce as bad for society, but for the most part people debated only details of its legal basis. [Matt Skinner, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-27-2/commentary-on-mark-102-16-2]

 If you look up divorce in the Bible, you will find a few references. The law comes from the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. Some references on divorce are in Leviticus to do with laws for Priests, and in Deuteronomy 22:28, if a man takes a young woman who is not engaged, and rapes her, he must marry her and can never divorce her.

If we look at the Deuteronomy reading [24:1-4], a man divorcing his wife is a given, but if she marries another man, she cannot go back to the ex-husband who divorced her. Genesis 2 implies no divorce, and in Ezra those with foreign wives are expected to divorce them.  

Divorce presumes marriage, and that is how Jesus answers the question.

Something about marriage: marriage at this time was not a result of courtship, romance, flowers, dancing, movies, and meals; marriages were arranged between families, marriage was about property, honour, and status. Therefore, divorce was quite complicated and involved extended families and the community. Today divorce is also complicated, though for different reasons. 

Divorce, then and now, puts people in jeopardy. Then divorce left women in a precarious place. When a man divorced his wife, if her father or brother was unwilling to take her in “the consequences for the woman were devastating -- familial and public disgrace, potentially severe economic hardship, and limited future prospects for her and her children. So Jesus' words were likely intended not to set up a standard by which to judge and stigmatize but rather to protect women who were so much more vulnerable before the law than men.”  [Love and Marriage Monday, October 01, 2012 David Lose] 

“Jesus describes marriage with utmost seriousness, as something that transcends contractual obligations and economic utility, as something rooted in human identity. This offers a sharp reproof to any who would construe marriage as a contract of convenience, casually formed and casually broken.” https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-27-2/commentary-on-mark-102-16-2 

I wonder if any of this is helpful for people who want to know God’s will on the issue of divorce. I remember a person coming to see me about problems in their relationship, this person did not want to leave the marriage because ‘I promised before God, I would stay married’. That is what our marriage vows say. But this person was being abused by their spouse. Should they stay, continue to be abused, and their children see one parent beating another?

I doubt anyone would suggest to this person that they must stay because of the importance of marriage. 

I am not suggesting the Bible says divorce is fine, go for it thoughtlessly. But neither does it say you cannot divorce. Each divorce is different. 

Where do we draw the line? That was also an issue in the time of Jesus. 

Just as today there are people who will argue points of law on points of law, and what various words mean in various contexts, the interpretation of the Law of Moses was quite varied. So even though the Pharisees ask, “is it lawful”, they already know what is in the law. The interpretation of this law varied from divorce is only allowed in cases of infidelity, to the other extreme - if your wife is late with your dinner or displeases you in any way you can divorce her.

Notice only the man can divorce the woman. In Jesus’ response, he does say if she divorces her husband, this was permissible in Roman law, but not in Jewish law. 

Why did Moses write that divorce is allowed? In Mark, Jesus says it is because of the hardness of heart, or because people are heartless, depending on the translation. 

We are human, we make mistakes, sometimes we are rude, obnoxious, disloyal, or unfaithful. Some people are forced or coerced into marriage by societal expectations, maybe not so much in our western culture today, but in my lifetime, if you were unmarried and pregnant, a wedding was likely on the horizon, ready or not. 

Divorce left women in a potentially dangerous situation, unable to find shelter or food for herself and any children. I wonder who is most disadvantaged by divorce today. Sometimes it is women and children, sometimes men tell me how hard separation and divorce has been on them and their children. I have heard people say you must stay together for the children, but how is it healthy for children to grow up in a household full of tension. 

This passage is about divorce, but also the questions we ask and how we interpret the law.

I wonder if it also helps us to see where our hearts are hardened to another person or group of people. 

All through the gospels we see people’s lives changed, for the better, by the healing, forgiving, inclusive words of Jesus; and we see the Pharisees and other religious leaders challenged by Jesus when the law is used to condemn people.

Is it lawful?

Maybe there are other questions to ask.

 

VALUES

(Mark 10:2-16)

Jesus pointed out
the hardheartedness he saw
in those around him.

 Pharisees, divorce;
disciples missing the point;
children turned away.

Indignant Jesus
showed the values of God’s realm;
including, blessing.

How do I reflect
God’s including and blessing
day by day by day?

    Jeff Shrowder, 2021