Submitting to Authority

       I remember working for the YMCA afterschool program during two of my years at seminary.  I was part of a staff that supervised children until their parents got off work and picked the kids up.  Inevitably, once a month or so, a kid would look me in the eye after I told them to do something and say, “You can’t tell me what to do.  You are not my parent!”

If you’ve ever worked in a situation with kids, you’ve probably been told the same thing.  It’s a question of authority.  The kid is basically saying, “You don’t have authority over me.  You don’t have the authority to tell me what to do.”

My response was pretty simple.  I’d look that kid straight in the eye and say, “Yep, you are right.  I am not your parent, but your parents paid me a lot of money to look after you and make sure you are safe.  Therefore, you will listen to me, and if you don’t like it, we will go and call your parents right now.”  That response always did the trick.  Never even had to pick up the phone.

Jesus didn’t necessarily have that luxury.  When His authority was questioned, He had to resort to quite a different method, but it was a method that worked.

Jesus and His disciples returned to the temple the day after Jesus upset the apple cart by turning over the tables of the money changers and those selling sacrificial animals.  Remember, in the last two weeks, I explained how the chief priests had sought to tap into the lucrative market for selling such animals.  They had allowed merchants to set up in the only available space in the temple–the courtyard of the Gentiles thereby excluding the Gentiles from worshiping the one, true God.  Jesus exposed them for their blatant disregard of the commandments of God, their greed, and their desire to have the safety, security, and freedom that money can buy.  Jesus showed how the deepest desire of their hearts was not to introduce people to the God of Israel, but the god of wealth and riches.  But in exposing this, Jesus had crossed several man-made boundaries.

You see, when it came to activities done within the Temple, everything was cleared or sanctioned by the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders.  This group collectively was called the Sanhedrin.  Craig Evans says this about them in his biblical commentary, “The Sanhedrin had a broader legislative and judicial jurisdiction but the high priest and his ranking priestly associates possessed ultimate authority on the Temple Mount, an authority to which in many respects even the Romans deferred.”  Think about that for a second.  The Sanhedrin exercised such control over the temple grounds that even the Roman occupying forces generally left them alone.  That’s quite a bit of power.  That’s a lot of power, actually.

And the Sanhedrin exercised that power to the extent that they could literally take another person’s life for violating the temple rules.  Remember a couple of weeks ago, I spoke about a sign that was hung on the wall separating the Gentiles area of worship from the Jewish areas of worship.  That sign was printed in Greek, Aramaic, and Latin, and it read, “No foreigner may enter within the railing and enclosure that surround the Temple.  Anyone apprehended shall have himself to blame for his consequent death.”  Nowhere that I know of in our nation is such a thing practiced.  I mean, I’ve known of situations in churches where people got really upset for moving a baptismal font or scandalized because someone suggested changing the color scheme or what have you, but I know of no church where someone was put to death for stepping on a particular rule.  The Sanhedrin could do exactly that!!

And Jesus didn’t exactly consult with the Sanhedrin when He entered into the temple and upset the marketplace.  Jesus didn’t consult with the Sanhedrin when He walked around the temple and taught people in the temple.  Jesus wasn’t following the proper procedures.  He hadn’t gotten permission.  So, a contingent from the Sanhdrin confronted Him.  “By what authority are you doing these things?  By whose authority are you doing these things?”

At this point, you might wonder why the Sanhedrin was even asking these questions.  I mean, if they wielded so much power, why didn’t they just arrest Jesus and get it over with.  Remember, this was the festival of the Passover.  The city of Jerusalem was crowded with pilgrims there to celebrate.  Jesus had endeared Himself to that crowd by his actions, so the Sanhedrin was afraid of the crowd.  They were afraid that if they did arrest Jesus, a riot would ensue.  If a riot ensued, then the Romans, who usually stayed out of temple business, would make it their business and perhaps remove them from power.  Fear is a tremendous motivator, and it causes you to be cautious.  The Sanhedrin was being very cautious hoping to trap Jesus with this question.  Again, we turn to Craig Evans for some insight here.  Evans says, “Either Jesus admitted his conduct was unauthorized, which would have made him publically vulnerable, or he claimed a right superseding that of the ruling priests, a claim that would have made him politically vulnerable.  In either case, his conduct would then have provided a basis for a more formal proceeding against him, without fear of the crowd.”

Jesus, of course, sees through the trap.  He knows the game.  But Jesus is a rabbi.  He is a teacher.  Everyone knows that, so in true rabbinic fashion, Jesus sets up a counterquestion.  “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.  Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?  Answer me.”  Jesus actually assumes a position of power when He asks this question.  The question itself is bad enough, but when Jesus says, “Answer me!!” it really comes across as borderline disrespectful.  It’s almost as though Jesus holds the Sanhedrin in contempt.  But there is a method to Jesus’ madness.  There is a reason behind what He says, and we will see that momentarily.

The representatives from the Sanhedrin begin arguing amongst themselves.  This is a very interesting comment that Mark includes.  I mean, think about this for just a second.  How would Mark know the inner discussions and inner arguments of this group of people?  They would not have argued this aloud because it would have been quite embarrassing.  How did Mark know what was said?  I want you to understand that Jesus did gain a following amongst those who had been on the Sanhedrin.  Mark tells us at the end of his Gospel that a respected member of the council, Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Jesus after the crucifixion and put it in his tomb.  Mark reports that Joseph of Arimathea was a secret follower of Jesus.  In all likelihood, we have the testimony of Joseph or another like him about these deliberations.  That’s kind of a side note, but I think a rather neat one.

These deliberations are important though.  They show us what the Sanhedrin is really concerned about.  We will actually deal with what they deliberate backwards because the former needs a little bit more attention than the latter.  The Sanhedrin does not want to say that John the Baptist was not from God because everyone believed John was a prophet.  The entire crowd would have stoned this group in a heart beat if they would have denied John’s calling.  Fear kept them from going down that route.

Which only left them one other alternative.  They would have had to admit that John’s teaching was indeed from divine origin.  They don’t want to do that because they know Jesus will respond, “Well, then why didn’t you believe him?”  This is where we must take a little bit of time because we need to understand what John the Baptist was proclaiming.  John the Baptist was not just proclaiming, “Turn your life around.  Get right with God.”  That’s only part of what John was about.  Let’s turn back several chapters in the book of Mark and hear once again the proclamation of John the Baptist:

From Mark chapter 1: 4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’

John’s proclamation centered on Jesus as the promised Messiah.  John’s proclamation pointed to Jesus!!!  If the Sanhedrin admitted that John’s ministry came from God, then they must admit that Jesus is from God as well!!  They must admit that Jesus is the Messiah!!  They must admit that Jesus’ authority supersedes their authority and that everything Jesus did in the Temple was by divine right!!!

And there was no way on God’s, green earth they were going to do that.  There was no way they were going to admit that this Jesus who had just exposed them for the frauds they were, was indeed from God.  Their pride was too full.  Their self-righteousness was too great.  They were not going to allow this upstart to dethrone them from their positions of power and prestige and wealth.  They were not going to admit that Jesus had more authority than they did.

And so they copped out.  They took the easy way out.  They came back with the answer that is not an answer.  “We don’t know.”   That is a load of B.S.  They knew.  They just didn’t want to admit.  And they would rather face a bit of public embarrassment than submit themselves to Jesus.  Evans once again puts it this way:

Ostensibly there to protect the temple as God’s house from arbitrary acts of unauthorized persons and to take action against such persons, these representatives of the Sanhedrin and the ranking priests show their true colors.  Rather than defend the temple, they protect themselves.  In doing so they betray their own selfish concerns and their inability to respond to and for God, who confronts them in the persons of John and Jesus.  Their answer demonstrates their unbelief.  At the very least, their admission “we do not know” if taken at face value is an embarrassing surrender of the field.  If their admission is not taken at face value but is recognized for the dodge that it is, then it is an embarrassing public display of cowardice.

So Jesus responds appropriately to such cowardice, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”  You know, I heard several comments about what Jesus says here, and most of them leave me with a deep sense of dissatisfaction.  Several folks spoke about how Jesus washes His hands of the Sanhedrin.  They talked about how Jesus reached the limits of His desire to bring them over to faith.  I’m not sure these folks are correct.  I think this comment is simply Jesus not giving the Sanhedrin what they desire–He’s not going to fall into their trap this easily and give them an out.  I believe that Jesus still desires to bring the members of the Sanhedrin to faith.  I believe that Jesus still desires to bring these folks into a relationship with Himself.  I believe that Jesus wants to help them submit to His authority–the same authority He wants you and I to submit to as well.

You see, we all submit to some sort of authority.  Whether we like it or not, we all answer to something greater than we are.  Oh, we like to think that we are free–that no one or nothing tells us what to do or how to do it.  We like to think that we make our own way that we have nothing putting limits on what we can achieve.  We like to think that we are our own bosses.  But it is nothing more than a delusion.  We are enslaved to authority, and many times we don’t even recognize it.

You might think me daft, but let’s think this through for a moment or two, shall we.

If you believe you have complete freedom and submit to no authority, walk away from your job tomorrow.  Just quit.  Take some time to enjoy life.  How many of you would actually do that?  Probably very few.  Why?  Because you have bills to pay.  You need the income.  You might get your house taken away.  Or your car.  Or your future.  You might be able to do okay for a while, but things would change very fast after that.  You know you cant just quit.  You are under the authority of the money you make to keep the lifestyle you have.  You are submitting to the authority of your lifestyle.

If you believe you have complete freedom and submit to no authority in your life, refuse to pay your taxes this April.  You are submitting to the authority of the federal government.

If you believe you have complete freedom and submit to no authority in your life, go slap the other political candidate that is running for office and tell him or her they have no business doing what they are doing.    You are submitting to the laws of this land.

If you believe you have complete freedom and submit to no authority, throw your cell phone away.  Need I say more about that one?

If you believe you have complete freedom and submit to no authority, go stand up in downtown Houston and announce that you are either for or against gay marriage.  Not going to?  Afraid you will get confronted by one side or the other?  You are submitting to the authority of societal pressures.

Need I go on?  Need I continue to lay out how we submit to authority all over the place?  Need I tell you that you are not free?  The only question that we must answer as we go through life is which authority we will end up submitting to.  The only question that we must answer is which authority we will give our ultimate allegiance to.

And Jesus wants that authority.  Jesus wanted that authority from the chief priests, the scribes and the elders.  Jesus wants that authority from us.  But like those chief priests, scribes and elders, we believe we have too much at stake.  We believe we are better off not fully submitting to Jesus.  We believe we are freer as we are now that we would be with all those rules and regulations Jesus will impose upon us.  And so we pridefully make up all kinds of excuses.  We decide to reserve judgement.  We put ourselves in embarrassing situations because we think submitting to Jesus is the worst thing we could possibly do.

But here is one thing that Jesus will do for you that no other authority will.  Here is one thing Jesus will freely take upon Himself when every other authority will reject you.  You see, of all the authorities that are out there, Jesus will die for you even if you hate Him.  Jesus will die for you even if you reject Him.  Jesus will take your place and face your punishment without a smidgen of regret.  In fact, that’s exactly what He did for you on the cross nearly 2000 years ago.  Every other authority will turn its back on you, punish you, or leave you high and dry because those authorities demand absolute allegiance from you.  They demand you honor them at great cost to you.  But if you reject Jesus’ authority, He will continue to love you and wait patiently for the day you turn to Him.  He does this because He wants you to freely choose Him; to freely take upon yourself His burden; to freely submit to His authority without regret.  And to earn that, He doesn’t make empty promises.  He says, “I have already done for you everything.  I have already died for you.  I have already been raised for you.  I have already redeemed you.  I have already loved you, and that love will never fail.  I have paid a great price for you, and when you submit to me, all the other authorities in your life will have no hold over you.  Sure, you will live in this world.  You will need money and a home and food and clothing and a cell phone and law and order and government, but these things will no longer rule your heart.  I will.  And you will find that under me, you have freedom, and peace and security and safety because you know my great love.”

For love is central to Jesus’ authority–a deep and abiding love that is poured out for you and for me.  This is why the Gospel in a nutshell is summed up by John 3:16-17.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that all those who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world, but to save it.”  May your heart be moved to submit to Jesus’ authority, for in it you will find freedom.  Amen.

Why Would Jesus Call a Woman a Dog?

    Don’t you just love people who talk about Jesus as such a wonderful, inclusive teacher who broke down all sorts of barriers.  He embodied love and showed love to everyone regardless of their status.  He never turned anyone away but welcomed everyone unconditionally without a second thought.  Don’t you love it when people talk about Jesus in this manner?  You may.  I don’t because it shows that they really aren’t talking about the Jesus revealed to us in the Bible.  Instead, they are talking about a Jesus of their own creation.  And while people are perfectly free to construct their own personal Jesus, doing so is a far cry from coming into contact with the Savior and Lord of the World.  In fact, I would submit to you this morning, if you build your own personal Jesus, you will never be challenged, never grow, and never truly enter into a relationship with the God who created this universe.

    Let’s turn to this rather interesting snippet from the Gospel of Mark found in chapter seven.  Here, Jesus encounters a woman; a Greek; a Gentile, and the encounter doesn’t go as we might expect.  In fact, some argue that Jesus is taught a lesson by this woman, and His notion of what His ministry is supposed to be about is changed.  I don’t think so.  Jesus does what He does all throughout Scripture.  He challenges and then bestows grace.

    The text begins in rather innocuous fashion.  After Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees and scribes and teaching that it is not what comes from outside that defiles, but what comes from inside, Jesus takes His disciples to Tyre for a period of rest.  Jesus’ choice of Tyre is rather interesting.  How so?  Well, let me read to you this snippet from one of the commentaries I consulted this week.  I don’t think I could say this any better:

    Tyre (modern Lebanon), which lay directly west and north of Galilee, was a Gentile region with a long history of antagonism to Israel.  The region of Tyre (formerly Phoenicia) had been the home of Jezebel, who in Elijah’s day had nearly subverted the Northern Kingdom with her pagan prophets and practices.  During the Maccabean Revolt in the second century B.C., Tyre, along with Ptolemais and Sidon, fought on the side of the Seleucids against the Jews.  The prophets decried the wealth and terror of Tyre.  Josephus concludes opprobriously [scornfully, don’t you love the wordiness of commentaries?] that the inhabitants of Tyre were “notoriously our bitterest enemies.”

    Now, this is an important detail that we should not overlook because it has a direct link to what happened right before this and what will happen momentarily.  Remember, and again, I stress, Jesus had just taught that it was not anything from outside that defiled a person, but what came out of the heart that defiles.  After teaching this, He takes His disciples into Gentile territory–a taboo for the Pharisees and scribes; and not just any Gentile territory–into Tyre where resided some of the Jews’ bitterest enemies.

    Why would Jesus do such a thing?  Well, we do know that He was purposely trying to get away.  We do know He entered a house and didn’t want anyone to know that He was there.  Perhaps by heading into “enemy” territory, He knew that all the crowds would not follow Him.  He knew they didn’t want to go into enemy territory.  He knew He could sit with His disciples and instruct them while recovering from all the work that they had done.   But it was not to be so.  Word of Jesus’ miracles had even spread into Tyre.

    As Jesus is in the house, a woman comes to see Him.  This is not just any woman.  Verse 26 describes what kind of woman this is: “26Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin.”  I’ve got to once again read a quote from one of the commentaries.  It’s very enlightening and somewhat entertaining.  Verse 26 “reads like a crescendo of demerit.”  You may ask how this is so?  Read this with first century Jewish eyes instead of our Western Enlightenment eyes.  For you see, this was first a woman–a second class citizen in the eyes of the Jews; she was Gentile–unclean and defiled; she was Syrophonenician–an enemy of the Jews.  Three strikes, and you are out.  This woman is beyond contemptuous to most any Jew.  She’s low on the Jewish totem pole–really not even worthy of a spot in it.  And she has the audacity to interrupt Jesus’ time of rest because her daughter is possessed by an unclean spirit.

    Now, again, because we look at this with Western eyes, we see a desperate mother with great concern for her daughter.  We see a mother willing to risk herself to get care for her child.  But we need to keep looking with first century eyes.  Remember, children in that day were not seen like they are today.  Children were basically considered chattel.  They were property.  They were your insurance policy.  They were your elderly care.  Sure, people loved their kids, don’t get me wrong.  But there was not the same attitude toward children in that day that we have in this day.  Don’t let yourself be too carried away by this mother’s desperation.  There’s quite possibly other things at work here.  Yet, there is no denying this woman’s persistence.  She wants to have her daughter healed.

    Jesus responds in a way that is quite shocking to most of us.  I’m going to re-work His statement just a little bit to add some of the connotations of the original Greek.  Jesus says to her, “Let the children first have their fill (or be satisfied), for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the little puppies.”  It is no coincidence that the same word for be filled or satisfied is the same word that Mark uses to talk about the multitude that was fed on the hillside after Jesus fed them with five loaves and two fish.  It is also no coincidence that Jesus refers to this woman, and her people as little puppies.  For our ears, it is harsh.  For our ears, this seems to contradict what Jesus’ purpose is in redeeming the world.  For our ears, this doesn’t seem to loving or grace filled.  But, as I said earlier, this isn’t our own personal Jesus, this IS the Jesus of scripture.  So why does He say these things to her?  Why does He say the children should be fed first and then compare her to a little puppy dog?

    I think there are a couple of things going on here.  First, Scripture is very clear that salvation comes through the Jews.  Jesus’ mission first was to the Jewish people.  They were to be the ones who received it first.  That doesn’t mean that the Gentiles wouldn’t be included later, but the Jews, as per the covenant with Abraham would first receive the blessings of God, and then they would take that blessing into the Gentile world.  These are the children who must first receive their fill.

    But why talk to this woman and compare her to a little puppy dog?  Why be so condescending?  Maybe you have pets.  Maybe you have had to deal with puppies.  What do they do when they get around food?  What do they do when they sense that there is something good to eat at the table?  The camp out and wait for a bite.  Their puppy minds are solely focused on getting a morsel of food.  All they care about is the food.  All they want is the food.  Do they give a flying flip about you as the owner, as the care-taker?  No.  Not at all.  And if you drop a piece of food, they will go all postal making sure they get to keep it.  They will even bite you to keep you from taking the food away from them.  They have ceased to care about you as the owner and are totally focused on the food.

    Do you get where I am going here?  Jesus is confronting this woman with something deep within human nature.  Jesus is confronting her with her own selfishness.  “Are you coming to me just to get what you can out of me?  Are you coming to me for your own benefit?  Are you simply like a puppy dog that is consumed with getting food instead of caring about the master’s provision?”

    You see, embodied in Jesus’ confrontation is a confrontation of all of our selfishness.  How many times do you know of people who are suddenly confronted with a tough situation in life?  They haven’t gone to church in forever or maybe ever.  Suddenly, they show up to worship hoping that God will somehow intervene and make everything in their lives better.  Are they there for God, or are they there to receive the things God can provide.  Which is more important to them?  Or, how often do we cease to find time to pray, and then suddenly something about ourselves or our property comes in danger.  Oh how our knees get worn out during the crisis.  But once the crisis is gone, do we continue in fervent prayer?  Or if the crisis consumes our property or our being, how do we think of God then?  We get angry because we didn’t want God.  We wanted the things God could give us.  Were not interested in pleasing our master.  We’re more interested in the things our master can give us.  We’re like little puppies waiting for crumbs.  Jesus will have none of it.  He is not interested in a heart that is consumed by our wants and our desires.  He is interested in a heart that thirsts for Him.

    And the Syrophonecian woman gets it.  She does not argue with Jesus.  She accepts His condemnation of her state.  And she submits to His will with her response.  Again, I need to do a bit of work with the translation here because it’s important.  For, in the Greek, the woman does not say, “Sir.”  In the Greek, the woman says, “Lord.”  This is the only person in the entire Gospel of Mark who calls Jesus Lord.  She is the only person who is willing to give this title to Him.  She realizes that she is completely and totally at His mercy.  She realizes He is to be the object of her attention.  She realizes He is the only one who can save not only her daughter but her as well.  And she furthermore shows her understanding of His mission to Israel.  It’s rather amazing.  “Lord, even the puppies under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”  Lord, even we who are consumed with other things, other wants, other desires, are meant to receive blessing from the children.

    Remember last week when I said that the Pharisees and scribes had nullified the commands of God through their insistence on being pure?  Remember how I said they had nullified God’s original intent of the covenant–that they were blessed to be a blessing?  The Pharisees and scribes forgot they were blessed to be a blessing.  This woman–this Gentile–this enemy of the Jews understood that she was meant to be blessed through them.  She got it. She understood.  She grasped God’s intent.  She could only be blessed through the promise of the covenant.  She knew she didn’t deserve it. She knew she didn’t warrant it.  She knew she was solely at Jesus’ mercy.

    And Jesus says, “For saying this word, you may go.  The demon has left your daughter.”

    So many times, we are unwilling to be as humble as this woman.  So many times we are so convinced of our righteousness.  So many times we are convinced that we don’t need to change a thing about ourselves.  We are okay just the way we are.  God made us this way and we don’t need to change a blasted thing about ourselves.  And we simply cannot see that we try to get things out of God without having a humble heart and a humble spirit. 

    Then we encounter Jesus who, instead of giving us what we want, confronts us with our sin.  He confronts us with our selfishness.  He confronts us with our desire to grasp the things of God instead of wanting to grasp God Himself.  And we get mad at Jesus.  We get mad that He won’t give us what we want or do what we want Him to do.
We get mad because we lack humility–a humility that comes from submitting to Jesus and calling Him, Lord.

    But here is the kicker.  You can’t just say, “I’m going to be humble.  I’m going to submit to Jesus.”  Here you are trying to do it all on your own again.  You are trying to seize control of your own life.  It doesn’t work that way.  The true submission of a heart only comes in response to someone giving you something you don’t deserve.  True humility comes when you receive something you don’t deserve.  True humility comes when you realize you are unworthy of any sort of gift, but it is given to you anyway.

    And that’s exactly what Jesus does for each and every one of us on the cross.  That’s exactly what Jesus does when He takes our sin upon Himself and dies in our place.  That’s exactly what Jesus does by reconciling us unto God when we were far from Him.  He confronts us with our brokenness and refuses to be the Jesus we want Him to be, and then He loves us with a love that surpasses our wildest imaginations.

    Do you know how broken you are?
    Do you know how unworthy you are?
    Do you know how undeserving you are?
    And do you know how loved you are?
    Do you know how accepted you are?
    Do you know the healing that is already there for you?

    When your heart comes to know the Gospel; when your heart gets captured by what Jesus accomplished for you; you grow in true humility; you submit to Him as Lord; and you find more than crumbs–you find satisfaction.  This is God’s desire for you.  This is why He sent Jesus:

    For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that all those who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world but that the world might be save through Him.  Amen.

Submit and Follow

    How many of you here this morning have ever heard the alarm go off on a given day and said, “I really don’t want to go to work today.  I just want to sleep.”?  How many of you have sat at work on Monday morning and thought, “I can’t wait for the weekend.”?  How many of you have gone on vacation only to return more tired than when you departed?  How many of you have ever felt the tinges of burnout?  How many of you who are retired find yourself busier than when you were working?

    If anyone here this morning didn’t answer yes to any of those questions, I want to offer my congratulations because the reality is, most of us fall into those categories at some point and time.  Most of us have felt the tinges of burnout, stress, worry, fatigue, and the like.  Most of us are worn to a frazzle and seem to have little energy for doing all the things we are supposed to be doing.  I ask you this morning, “why?”  Why do we find it so hard to find the energy and drive to do what needs to be done?  And if we are finding the energy, why does it seem like we have little or no happiness in doing such things?  Why is the mood of our nation and state and county, and perhaps even our church–especially on the denominational level so somber?

    You may have started to put two and two together at this point.  You may have started thinking about the line of questioning I am offering up and our Gospel lesson this morning where Jesus, after a long night of healing folks in Capernaum, gets up before the first rays of light and heads out to a deserted place to pray.  You may be thinking that I am going to put these things together and argue that you need to spend more time in prayer–that you need to take the time to recharge your batteries by connecting to your heavenly Father so that you can find the strength and energy to do everything that you need to do.

    I’ve done it before.  There are plenty of pastors who do and who continue to do such things.  But I’ve realized something. #1. I’ve realized that maybe two or three of you would take such a thing to heart, but you’d basically think to yourself, “Geez, now I have to try and find time to pray.  I have to try and carve out another space in my busy schedule to connect with God.”  For a time, you might be able to do it, but the odds are, within a couple of weeks, that prayer time will be cut shorter and shorter and shorter until it disappears.  The rest of you will either sit happy and content with your prayer lives or won’t even attempt it.  That’s the first thing I’ve realized.  The second thing I’ve realized is that admonishing you to do such a thing just reinforces the main problem.  Telling you, “pray to recharge your batteries so that you can accomplish all you need to do,” does not address the state of your heart.  It doesn’t delve down deep into the recesses of your soul to address the real issue.  And what is the real issue?

    Let me start in a rather intriguing place that doesn’t seem to have much relevance to our discussion so far.  I am going to start with the Sealy News’ story from a week or so ago about the Greater Church of Lucifer filing to do business in Austin County.  You may be scratching your head right now wondering how this fits.  Gimme a minute or so. 

    In the article, the founders of the “church” wanted to let everyone know they weren’t Satanists and that their intentions were purely benign.  They even said, and I quote, “There is a problem in following through blind faith. This is about self -empowerment and seeing oneself in a positive way.  The goal is to usher in a new age for the progression of mankind without the slavery of dogmatic thought.  We are all gods and goddesses of our own life. We are the captains of our own ship and have the right to control our actions.”

    Now, I know that these folks aren’t claiming to be Satanists or anything, but I will have you know this morning that there were some very similar words once uttered, and they came out of a snake.  But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ –Genesis 3:4.  You see, the serpent says, in not so many words, “Eat of the fruit so that you can be your own god.  You will know good and evil on your own.  You will have no need of the true God.  You can do it all yourself.  Be self-empowered.  Be self-reliant.  Control your own actions.”

    We know the man and woman ate of the fruit, and it has been downhill ever since.  Be reliant upon yourself.  Control your own actions.  Do all the things you want to do.  Why are you so tired?  Why do you burn out?  Why do you continually fill your lives with busy-ness refusing to say no to your work; to your family; to advertisers; to friends and others who put demands upon you? 

    Let me jump in with my own experience here, for it is no secret that not too long ago I faced the reality of burnout.  I will not say I wish I never went through it, for it taught me much, and led me to understand the Gospel.  However, I know now that it could have been prevented.  And no, I don’t mean by carving out time to pray.  I don’t mean by making sure I took my day off and used my vacation days.  I did all those things.  Really, I did.  So, why did I burn out?

    I remember sitting down with the council during that time.  I was asking for a sabbatical, and I can remember plain as day one of the things I said during that meeting.  I said, “I feel like I have been carrying this congregation for the past year.”  Along with the arrogance displayed in that statement, do you see who I thought was responsible for the life and ministry of this congregation?  Do you see who I thought was supposed to make everything work?  Do you see who I believed was the one who made or broke this church?  It was all up to me.  It was all about me.  It was all on my shoulders.  And if prayer was all about recharging my batteries so that I could keep carrying this congregation and making it work and what have you, prayer was just a means to me doing what I thought I needed to do.  Prayer was about me trying to get God to do what I wanted Him to do.  Prayer was about me trying to impose my will upon God.  And if I stand up here this morning and tell you, take time to pray so that your batteries will be recharged and you can continue the frantic pace you have set, then I am simply being part of the problem.  So, this morning, I am not going to tell you to be like Jesus and rise early before you head to work to go get your batteries recharged.  That won’t change a blasted thing and you will still be tired.  You will still burn out.  You will still have no joy in your life, and you will still be somber and angry and upset.

    So, what will I do in this sermon this morning?  Well, actually, I’m going to press further through this biblical text and show you something very interesting.  Jesus goes off to pray, and His disciples have a freak out.  Literally, they wake up the next morning to find Jesus gone, so they go hunting for him.  Yes, that’s the word that is used.  They have to track Jesus down.  We get a sense of their motivations when they finally find Jesus, and they tell him, “Everyone is seeking you.”

    Now, most of us might take this to be a good thing.  Most of us would think, “Man, if only everyone would seek Jesus.  If only everyone would search for Him to find Him, everything in this world would work out.”  We hear these words of the disciples in a similar fashion to Jeremiah 29:11-13, “11For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.”  Who wouldn’t want this?

    Well, Mark is actually telling us something very different here.  Let me read to you what I found in one of my commentaries, “When the disciples find Jesus, they announce, “Everyone is looking for you.”  The language is deceptive.  The Greek word behind “looking for” (zetein) occurs 10 times in Mark, and in each instance it carries negative connotations.  Its first two occurrences refer to interference of Jesus and obstruction of his ministry (1:32, 3:32); its next two refer to disbelief and faithlessness (8:11,8:12); and the remaining occurrences refer to attempts to kill Jesus.  “Seeking” connotes an attempt to determine and control rather than to submit and follow.  In this respect, seeking for Jesus is not a virtue in the Gospel of Mark.  Nor are clamoring crowds a sign of success or aid to ministry.  Here, as elsewhere in Mark, enthusiasm is not to be confused with faith.” (Edwards: Pillar New Testament Commentary on Mark)

    Seeking connotes an attempt to determine and control rather than to submit and follow.  Isn’t that how we tend to want Jesus?  Isn’t that how we tend to want God to operate?  Give me strength to do what I want to do.  Give me the joys of life and minimize my sorrw.  Give me insight to make the right decisions so that life will be wonderful and grand.  Prayer oftentimes becomes just this as we go to God and say, “MY will be done.”

    But Jesus looks at his disciples and says, “Let us go to the surrounding towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.”  Jesus won’t be bound by claims on Him.  Jesus won’t allow everyone, including us, to determine and control.  That is not what He is here to do.  He is here to proclaim the Gospel–God’s kingdom is arriving in Him.  And He is inviting us to be a part of that Kingdom not by determining and controlling Him, but by following and submitting to Him.

    At this point, some of you might be getting a little twitchy.  Some of you might be thinking, “Does this mean I have to give up control of my life?  Does this mean I might have to change my ways?  Does this mean I might have to think and be different?”  The answer is, well, yes.  It’s nothing less than an entire change of your entire being.  It’s nothing less than an entire change of your attitude.  It’s nothing less than an entire change of your person and being as you relinquish control.  And you may ask me, “Now, why in the world should I do that?”

    Here is why.  There are three times Jesus prays in the book of Mark.  There is this one when the people are trying to determine and control Him.  There is the time right after he fed the multitude with five loaves of bread and two fish.  And then the final time in the Garden of Gethsemane.  It is no coincidence that Jesus faced His final temptation in a garden–just as man faced his first temptation in a garden.  It is no coincidence that Jesus prayed, “Father if it is possible, please take this cup from me, but not what I want but what you want.”  For it was the same struggle that man and woman faced when tempted to go their own way–to do what they wanted and not what God wanted.  But whereas man and woman failed in the first garden, Jesus succeeded in His garden.  Jesus accomplished what we could not accomplish by being totally and completely obedient to His Father–and our Father.

    And by accomplishing what we could not accomplish, Jesus became spotless, blameless, pure and holy.  He was sinless as He gave up control when we seized it.  If you read through Genesis chapter 3, you see the punishment man and woman received for seizing control.  You see that every good relationship established by God became broken, and the end result was death.  The end result of us seizing control of our own lives and our own fates is death.  It is grief.  It is burnout and weariness and anger and joyless living.  And Jesus took all of that upon His sinless self.  He took our grief and burnout and weariness and anger and joyless living to the cross where He faced the punishment we deserved.  He faced the wrath of God due to us for our desire to be in control of our lives.  He took our place because He loved us.

    For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that all those who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

    And to the extent you believe this good news; to the extent you trust in the saving action of Jesus; to the extent you understand what He has done for you, then you will understand the joys of submitting and following.  You will understand the joys of allowing Him to be Lord of your life instead of trying to satisfy your own desires.  Work will not become a burden.  Worship will be a joy.  Prayer will be sought after as you continuously seek to submit yourself to the One who died on your behalf to bring you abundant life both now and forever.  Amen.