Mark

A few years ago I did a study of the book of Mark. You know how familiarity breeds a yawn. Been there, read that. Eyes glaze over. Give me the name of the person, parable or problem and I could fill you in on the story in my sleep. At the end of the study however, I’d found a Jesus that was so different than the one I’d known for years.

I’ve realized that over and over in conversations, whether the person is a believer or not. It becomes apparent after a while that we’re not talking about the same person. The one I know is different than the one they’re talking about.

So when this book came up as the course of study for the next few months, I was excited to look at him again knowing with this time around, it would be the same but different because it’s the Bible. Timeless and unchanging but like peeling an onion, layer after layer peeled in different times in your life, produces new insights and discoveries.

It begins with the fact that God, Jehovah, created heaven and earth and wanted a relationship with the man he created so he sent his son to earth to accomplish this. If you looked for a main theme, that’s it. That’s what Jesus repeats over and over, “I’m God. I’m God’s son. He and I are one.”

So often we read these episodes in one breath. But there were big breaths. Big causes for pause. The last person I heard say he was God was nuts. A legitimate response is, “Prove it.”

God would tell the children of Israel to show up and fight the next day. Not to worry, guys, I’ll show up too. We zoom on to the next verse, but they didn’t. They had to go home, sit down on the sofa and wonder if this was all a figment of their imagination, if it was really God and would he really show up.

Same here. Same thing happened here and throughout history. Yet time after time, God would give supporting evidence to substantiate His claim. Enough for you to take to the bank and believe.

The story begins with Mary. She was a teenager, poor and unmarried. The angel Gabriel was dispatched to tell her she was going to become pregnant by the Holy Spirit. O….k. But she believes! In fact, signs on completely and goes to tell her cousin. If you were a much older Elizabeth, wouldn’t you have been a little skeptical? Wouldn’t you have thought this was a little stretch of the imagination? Nope, because God let her know too. She was as excited as Mary.

Joseph, the man she was engaged to, could have put her to death upon finding she was pregnant, but the angel appeared to him as well and gave him the same story. And he believed. Would you? I would love to say, you bet…absolutely. But that’s with 20/20 hindsight, knowing how the story ends. Yet it was crystal clear to all three. They could not have been more convinced. Nobody talked any of them into this.

The supporting actors are all on board because God Himself sent an angel to tell them. He did not leave it to chance that they would read a verse that morning and “get it.”

The government decides to take a census which just happened to coincide with Mary’s due date. Remarkable timing. And I don’t care what the governor said, I would not get on a donkey and ride to Bethlehem at nine months pregnant. Joseph just happened to be from Bethlehem which Micah just happened to prophesy as the Messiah’s birthplace 700 years before his birth.

Enter Jesus.

All births should be announced but this one received a heavenly announcement directed to, not the local church but the lowest rung of society, a random group of shepherds hanging out in a pasture. An angel scares them to death and announces the good news. For added emphasis, a huge choir of angels appears with the choral benediction.

They knew it was God, no question about it and found the family exactly as they were told.

Next player, next confirmation was Simeon who was a righteous and devout man meaning he was serious in his pursuit of God. It says he lived his life expecting God’s intervention on Israel’s behalf. There was a 400 year silence between the Old and New Testaments so his faith is remarkable. How do you stay pumped when it’s been 400 years since God said anything? Yet on one particular day, God told him to go to the temple. He was listening. Listening was the habit of his life…and he obeyed. He went.

Do you listen? I turned around to greet the people behind me at church one Sunday. It was two college girls and I knew just as clearly as if it had been audible that God said to take them to lunch. Much like Simeon. “Go to the temple. Today. ” I said I was really sorry, but I had to go to Lowe’s. I didn’t really say that…I said something like, “Mmmmmm.” But I went to Lowe’s. Do you know what Simeon would have missed if he’d decided to go to Lowe’s? It’s not that God’s not speaking, even when we pursue him daily. We’re either not listening or have a better idea that is not a better idea.

When he saw the little family, he knew beyond a shadow of doubt that this was the Messiah. This cannot be written off as a doty old man who just picked the right kid. He made an incredibly revealing statement . “My eyes have seen Your salvation which you have prepared for all people, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel.”

To the Gentiles! No Jew would ever have uttered that. They thanked God every morning they were not born a woman or a Gentile. To the Jews, yes, but to announce that His salvation is available to all people, a light of revelation to the Gentiles is unbelievable unless it came from God himself. It did. Paul confirms this in Ephesians. As one of the most dynamic men in history, he was given the job of integrating the church, bringing Jews and Gentiles together into one body. The integration of blacks and whites in the church in America pales in comparison. John 3 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.” To the whole world. All people. Amen, Simeon.

People you and I would not have chosen, hand picked and convinced by God Almighty. Timing and confirmation would be a pattern God would use throughout Jesus’ life so we would not wonder if it was coincidence. He wouldn’t just say it once. It would be affirmed several times so we’d know beyond a shadow of doubt. He does the same thing today.

And this is just the beginning. It gets better.