This is the second talk delivered during the Leadership Training Course at Christ Church in Spokane on March 8, 2008.
Having learned that the Church of God is in desperate need of men of character, the present talk addresses the character that is needed for these men. What does Paul reveal to us about the character that men who want to lead in the Church must manifest? Perhaps even more important, how has the Church’s response to these requirements in recent history undermined the goal of raising up leaders?
Last week we had the great privilege of looking at Isaiah 60 and its vision of the restoration, the return from exile that would be accomplished through the instrumentality and power of the Servant of the Lord. When the Lord acted to bring not only Israel but also the nations out of exile, the Servant of the Lord would come and, simultaneously, Zion would be lifted up as the chief of the mountains, as the light of the world. As a result, the nations would stream to Zion, bringing Zion’s sons and daughters home and bringing their wealth as a sign of tribute and loyalty to Zion and, what’s more important, to Zion’s Lord.
Through exploring Isaiah, we found that wealth is viewed in the passage as a gift from God that comes in various shapes and sizes. Further, we found that this wealth is part of the worship which we offer up in tribute to the Triune God. The loyalty that we once showed to other gods by offering our tribute to them, we now display toward the living God by bringing our tribute to Him. When we come to worship each Lord’s Day, we don’t come bringing merely our spirits or our thoughts, we come bringing our whole selves – including our labor and the produce thereof.
But this raises the question, does it not, what portion of that which we produce is to be brought to Zion? How exactly do we go about paying tribute, manifesting our loyalty to the Lord? There are many things which modern culture, even Christian culture sad to say, has forgotten. Among them is the principle of paying tribute. How do we do this? What exactly does it mean to bring our wealth into Zion? How much should we bring?
We closed our sermon last week by looking at Isaiah 59 and God’s declaration that He was going to bring about the deliverance and salvation of His people. God looked around and no one else was able to save, so His own arm brought deliverance. He declared that He Himself would save His people. This declaration gives us some hint of the identity of the coming Servant, this Servant would be in some mysterious way not yet fully revealed the Lord Himself.
Immediately following that declaration we have a call issued, a call to Arise and Shine! As we study the passage, we find that Isaiah is telling us that simultaneously with the arrival of the Servant of the Lord will come the exaltation of Zion. Zion shall be lifted up and be glorious. Zion will be a city on a hill; Zion will be the light of the nations. This leads us to a bit of a perplexing problem – at least it has become perplexing in the last 150 years or so of church history. Who is this Zion? Who is Jerusalem? And how is it that she is called the light of the world?
Throughout the Gospel of Mark Jesus has been confronting the blindness of his generation. We have witnessed this blindness in the hardness of the Pharisees and Herodians and their plots against Jesus’ life. We have witnessed it in the life of Jesus’ family and their accusation that Jesus has gone mad. We have witnessed it in Jesus’ home town of Nazareth where even He marveled at their unbelief. And we have seen it, tragically, even among the disciples – having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear?
Today Jesus is confronted with a blind man in need of healing and the way in which Jesus treats this man forms an interpretive grid for the entire Gospel of Mark. Mark places this incident here in the middle of his gospel, just prior to Peter’s declaration of faith, to help us understand what is going on in the life and ministry of Jesus. What is it that Jesus was really all about in His ministry? What was his calling? It was to open the eyes of the blind; to cause light to shine on those who walked in darkness.
As we saw last week, Jesus has implied that in His coming the ritual purity laws separating Jew and Gentile are coming to an end. Consequently, the division between Jew and Gentile is also ending. Mark gives expression to this reality by recording for us Jesus’ ministry among the Gentiles, healing the daughter of a Syro-Phoenician woman and healing a deaf mute in the region of Decapolis. Now Mark tells us that while in the region of Decapolis, while in this predominantly Gentile region, Jesus gives another feast.
Why? Why feed another group of people? To proclaim once again the nature of His Kingship and the nature of His kingdom. What does it mean to be king in the context of the Gentiles?
It is this question that occupies the first twenty one verses of chapter 8 – and indeed that continues to occupy much of the rest of the Gospel. What does it mean to be Messiah? What does it mean to be one of His followers? In order to answer these questions faithfully, correctly, the disciples must beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
Throughout the New Testament, the elimination of the ritual purity laws of the Old Testament carries deep theological significance. It is no minor issue that these regulations were eliminated. Why? Because they stood as a barrier separating Jew from Gentile. And if Messiah was coming to inaugurate the Kingdom of God – as Jesus has manifested again and again was His intention – and if the promises of the Kingdom’s inclusion not just of Israel but of the nations were to come true, then something would have to be done with the ritual purity laws which separated Jews from Gentiles.
This, according to Mark in the first part of chapter 7, Jesus did. Jesus pointed to the elimination of the ritual purity laws. If that is the case, then it would seem evident that He was also pointing to the elimination of Jew and Gentile. This implication is made explicit in our text today when Jesus extends his ministry beyond the borders of Israel and begins ministering to Gentiles.
In the text last week, Jesus vindicated Himself as the legitimate heir of Moses and demonstrated that, though the scribes and Pharisees claimed to speak for him, claimed to be his legitimate heirs, they were not. Their traditions actually undermined the commandments of God.
Today, Jesus returns to their opening question about ritual purity. “Why don’t your disciples wash their hands in accordance with the tradition of the elders?” But Jesus’ response extends beyond that specific issue to the principle involved.
Jesus’ response revolves around the question: What was the message of the ritual purity laws in the OT? What was the significance of these various rites – whether they were priestly washings or dietary restrictions or clothing restrictions or plowing restrictions? What was the message of the various laws of ritual purity?
For the Pharisees the message was that external purity makes one acceptable to God. The more ritual purity one possesses, the closer one comes to God. And so they took the regulations that were given to the priests – the highest level of acceptance – and spread those throughout society. If everyone is at this state of acceptance with God, then all will be well. God will have to accept us.
Jesus, in response, insists that ritual purity in the law was given as a symbolic reminder of the need for something far more needful and far more drastic – internal purity, purity of heart. The ritual purity did not make one acceptable to God in and of itself – it was an external expression practiced and embraced by those who loved the Lord, who already possessed internal purity. Without purity of heart, ritual purity meant nothing. Ritual purity could not accomplish or secure purity of heart. Thus the principle thing is the purity of heart not the ritual purity. The purity of heart is the essence; the ritual purity the accident. And Jesus’ words have all kinds of implications for the Church today.
In our text today a matter of utmost importance is addressed: how do we identify the true Jew, the good Jew? The Pharisees, we discover, are trying to sell themselves to the multitude as the legitimate heirs of Moses. “We have the true program for Israel’s greatness and prosperity. We have the capacity to identify the true Jew, the good Jew. How is that? By noting those who follow the tradition of the elders.”
Jesus responds by undermining their claim, first by addressing whose heirs they really are and then responding to the specific question they ask. He begins by noting that they are the legitimate heirs of someone – but that that someone isn’t Moses. They are the legitimate heirs of those who brought about Jerusalem’s destruction the first time; and they are well on their way to doing it again. Jesus vindicates this charge by proposing an alternate answer to the question – how do we identify the true Jew, the good Jew? His answer? The true heir of Moses is the one who does what Moses said. On this occasion, Jesus demonstrates the scribes’ and Pharisees’ failure to speak for Moses by highlighting one way among many in which their tradition undermined the Word of God. Rather than abandon their tradition to follow the commandment of God, they destroyed the commandment of God in order that they might keep their tradition. Whereas Moses commanded them to honor their parents, they invented the legal fiction of Corban to avoid their duty.
And so the answer to our opening question – how do we identify the true Jew, the good Jew? – drives us back to the Word of God and the commandments of God.
The examples of our fathers and mothers in the early church who died rather than renounce Christ stand as stirring embodiments of faith. They were able to take courage in the midst of their trouble because they knew whom it was they served. Rather than see their suffering as pointless or irrelevant, they were actually able to see the glory of Christ in the midst of it.
It is this basic lesson that Jesus endeavors to press upon his disciples in our passage today. Again and again he has revealed not only that He is a King but also what kind of king He is. In particular, in the feeding of the 5000 He has revealed that He is the Good Shepherd who has compassion for His sheep, who gathers them together and protects them, and who feeds them with His teaching and with food from heaven. You can trust me – don’t be afraid; believe Me. This is the type of King I am. I will protect you; I will provide for you.
Yet we find that the disciples have not quite figured this out yet. They’re getting closer, but they’re not quite there. And it is this story that we read today.
