Rev. George Miller
February 11, 2024
Mark 8:27-33; 9:2-8
Today we come to a pivotal moment.
Jesus reveals what is about to happen, where his ministry will lead and
how he will endure great suffering and pain.
And the disciples do not get it.
How are they supposed to get it?
Six days later Jesus takes three of them up a hill where a magnificent
event occurs, and Peter doesn’t quite get the significance of what just
happened.
Often, when sharing these readings in Bible Study, the people participating
have so many questions.
Usually the number one question is “Why don’t the Disciples get it?”
The disciples were there to hear his teachings. They were there to personally witness the
healings.
In chapter 6 the disciples themselves go out in groups of two in which
they preach, cast out demons and bring wellness to others.
How did they not get it? Seeing
Peter’s mother-in-law going from being sick to serving,
seeing the man in the graveyard go from self-harm to being well groomed,
watching a restored girl share a meal with her Mom and Dad.
After all the teachings, healings, the disciples just don’t seem to get
it. Why?
The demons got it. A non-Jewish woman
got it. Those without sight and sound get
it.
But not the Disciples. Why don’t they
get it?
…perhaps we are being too unkind and impatient with Peter and all the
others.
After all, here we are 2,000 years later with a Bible full of their
foibles and follies and we get to see the Big Picture as those who weren’t
there.
At this point of the story, the disciples knew nothing about the
Crucifixion or the Resurrection, they had no notion of Jesus being a Messiah
who suffered.
They thought Jesus would be the Messiah who saves them from unfair taxation,
foreign threat, and Roman rule.
They thought Jesus would whip society back into place, not be whipped by
society.
The Disciples don’t get it, and we ask “Why?”
And maybe it is not about whether Peter and the disciples got it or not…but
the point is that they followed…
They did not always get it, they did not always understand what Jesus was
about, but they followed.
And maybe THAT is the point. Maybe that’s what
it is about.
Maybe that is what Peter and John and all the rest are role modeling to
us today.
Even when the Disciples did not fully understand, even when they didn’t always
get the point, they still made the choice and they still followed Jesus.
They followed him among the shore, they followed him to private homes, to
the graveyards, they followed him to where people have diseases and children
die.
The disciples followed Jesus, and let’s be honest, Jesus was not easy to
follow.
For one thing, Jesus and his style of healing was not always consistent.
He heals Peter’s Mother-in-Law by taking her hand, but the daughter of
Jarius he says “Talitha cum.”
Jesus heals a leper by touching him and saying “be made clean” but a
woman with blood receives healing by touching his clothes.
Jesus heals a deaf and a blind man by using spit, but he offers healing
to a leper by using his words.
The only thing consistent about Jesus and his form of ministry is his
compassion.
His compassion for anyone, regardless if they are amongst the least of
these or a family in power.
Jesus is consistent with his compassion for anyone seeking wellness, a
better life, a new beginning, restoration, relationship.
Maybe, just maybe following Jesus has nothing to do with understanding,
but it means-
to follow in faith, to follow with your heart, be it full or broken, in
love or ostracized.
Maybe following Jesus without fully “getting it” is the point.
Following Jesus does not come with a guarantee, or the promise of
consistency.
Following Jesus is not all hearts and roses, romance and dazzling clothes.
Following Jesus is to follow in faith, it is to follow in kindness, care,
it is to follow in humility.
And who is this Jesus we follow?
In Mark 9:7, God calls Jesus the Beloved One.
Which means that although we may not always understand, we may not always
“get it”, we are following God’s Beloved One.
The One who called the working men and women, the menders and maligned.
We are following the Beloved One who cared about the children of leaders
and the daughters of gentiles.
God’s Beloved is the one who cared for the deaf and blind, those living
with disabilities and those with restless spirits.
Does following the Beloved One mean that you have to always understand?
No.
Does following the Beloved One mean that you have to be perfect?
No.
No one is perfect. No place is
perfect. No government is perfect. No church is perfect.
But in our imperfection, in our questions- are we still willing to follow?
In your imperfections, in your doubt will you follow?
Will you follow the Beloved One, and not just on the glorious mountaintop
full of sunshine and glorious light.
Will you follow Jesus by the shore full of fishermen and farm folk?
Will you follow in the home, in the sickbed, the chores, the bills?
Will you follow in the graveyard, in the death and depression?
Maybe, Jesus is Ok with us not knowing or getting it all.
Maybe Jesus is Ok with us just…following, knowing that we want him to be
our King,
that we want to be better citizens of his Kingdom,
we want to be better citizens of Heaven.
That we are willing to Follow Jesus with our imperfect hearts, our
imperfect bodies, and to see him as our Beloved.
For that, we can say “Amen.”
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