On the Move

If you want to look at Jesus you have to be prepared to take a journey. Jesus simply can't be treated as an interesting museum piece, static, frozen in time for all to view at their leisure.

No, Jesus was on the move. Mark's Gospel soon has Jesus moving on to somewhere else, apparently often leaving crowds, fans and supporters behind. In the first three chapters alone just look how many times moving on/out/up/back figures in the story.

Yet this dynamic nature extended to those he interacted with too. He was moving, and he wouldn't allow others to remain static either. He calls to follow, he sends the cleansed-leper on his way, he commands the paralysed to walk, he gets Levi to round up his (dubious) mates and so on.

To encounter Jesus requires and inevitably leads to movement. Karl Barth wrote that theology must follow the living God. Yes if we are to understand God, we are going to have to be on the move.

The Lonely Walk of Ministry

Mark's gospel accumulates momentum incredibly rapidly. By v15 Jesus has already been baptised by John, led into the wilderness, and is ready to declare "The time has come".

With power encounters in v21f there has hardly been time to get followers on board and already news about him is spreading, crowds are gathering.

Jesus' itinerary seems rapid-fire too. v38 has him moving on leaving an apparent revival behind, which leads to yet more driving out demons and healing. With all this 'good stuff' going on, it seems hard to imagine how ministry could get any better.

Yet by v45, i.e. before we have even made it to chapter 2, Jesus is forced to hang out in lonely places. For Jesus, popularity does not necessarily equate to staying on the correct course, and so he is forced out to the margins.

The walk of ministry, even with so much blessing and goodness happening amongst so many people, can turn out to be a lonely road to take.

When Power & Status Doesn't Cut It

I couldn't help chuckling earlier this week when the President of the United States, arguably the most powerful man in the world, found himself grounded. Driving in an elite bullet proof, bomb proof, chemical attack proof car with the national flags flying, his journey was brought to an abrupt halt by a humble ridge on a drive-way.

Now a lady called Deborah together with a man ironically called Barak (!!) had a song of praise to God that is recorded in Judges chapter 5. The song opens by musing on 'princes' as well as kings and rulers, i.e. people of status and presumably some degree of power.

Yet look at the detail. In verses 2, 7, 9, 10 it comes across that the real heroes were actually ordinary people. People who stepped up to get on board with God's actions. The reality was that they were led by a woman (v7, probably quite an odd phenomenon back in those days). In fact v8 and v10 almost seem to mock those of status and power, with God instead achieving his purposes through mere villagers.

So Deborah and Barak can praise God that the real princes were in fact willing volunteers (v9), not those who had the fancy means of transport (v10).

What is Truth

So last time I talked about people's tendency to believe. Discussing this with a friend who claims to be an atheist, my friend said that while we might have a tendency to believe (in God), it would be better to only trust in what we can indisputably prove to be true.

An interesting point, I thought, and worthy of further discussion. The problem with such this position is, however, that in reality we all make decisions that are based on more than 'just what we can prove' all the time. A big example is getting married, of course. Do we do scientific tests on our partner to prove they are (and will remain lifelong) compatible before the wedding day? Well my wife had a scorecard for me (!), but it was hardly scientific.

No, our epistemology (what we accept as truth) is actually a somewhat fuzzy and variable thing, even for quite ardent rationalists. We all make decisions based on a range of factors, many of which we can't possibly know all the outcomes of. Was that breakfast cereal good for me this morning, or is it in fact increasing my risk of cancer?

So in witnessing to people who want to try and run only on the 'rational' tram-tracks, it makes sense to not request that they check their brains at the door of the Gospel Hall, but to work with them to use their brains to understand the broader spectrum within which their understanding of truth in fact works.

Who knows? Maybe they may then discover their understanding has room for God after all.