Fulfilling His Mission -- for Your Sake

Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

 

 

 

          Were it left to you and me in our sinful estate, Jesus never would have saved us.

          Examine this morning’s sermon text, St. Mark 1:35-45, and see how well Jesus’ understanding and undertaking of his mission fits with your definition of “success.” For many (if not most) of us, success is equivalent to popular approval, or to visible demonstrations of power, or to red-carpet receptions.

          Not our Lord Jesus. Not his mission of redemption.

 

          Far from being a quest to garner accolades or to amaze audiences with miracles, our Lord Jesus Christ well understood that his mission to redeem his church was rigorous. He understood five essential truths about his mission, as related in today’s passage: his mission demanded prayer; it was to declare his Gospel; it displayed compassion to the hopeless; it depended on fulfilling his Father’s law; yet it – he – met with disobedience.

          You and I in our darkened imaginations would have preferred a less-intense, more-luxurious and spectacular mission – but our “mission” for Jesus would not have secured salvation. Thankfully our Savior understood his mission – ordained by his Father – and fulfilled that very mission to buy you and me out of slavery.

 

          We see first that Jesus’ mission demanded prayer.

          It might seem curious that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the eternal Son of God, rose early to pray. Yet he did – and Mark is at pains to emphasize that Jesus rose very early in the morning, long before daybreak, to go to a solitary place to pray to his Father. Certainly Father, Son and Spirit eternally co-exist in a bond of perfect love and intimacy; they are always coinhering with one another. Still, Mark tells us that the Son of God made prayer a priority in his ministry.

          As you begin to understand his mission, though, you begin to see Jesus’ great need to commune with his Father. Our Savior told us he came “not to be ministered unto, but to minister” – with his lowest act of humility coming on Good Friday. Examine the Gospel records of Jesus’ final hours, and you’ll note that in Gethsemane, as the horror of his coming descent into Hell sat before Jesus, he began to sweat drops of blood. As a true man, yet without sin, he had known only perfect communion with his Father; but he also knew that this communion soon would be broken for a time.

          In that dark hour, Jesus prayed.

          And the Father, through prayer, bolstered His Son for the unspeakably difficult work that lay before him. Three times Jesus prayed that, if possible, the cup of God’s wrath would pass from him, but also that the Father’s will be done. After the third time, the Father clearly had steeled His Son for the Cross – so Jesus followed where his Father led. Communion with his Father prepared Jesus for the countless rigors of his mission.

          In other instances – strategic moments, such as before the Transfiguration and before the choosing of his apostles – we read of Jesus praying to his Father. Jesus obviously understood that the Father unfolds His perfect and eternal will through prayer: thus prayer formed an essential aspect of Jesus’ mission and ministry.

          If you are going to fulfill the God-given, demanding, Christ-centered ministries to which the Lord calls you, you must be a person of prayer. You, like Jesus, must make communion with your Father a top priority if you are going to care for your family well, or perform your work to His glory, or be a witness for Christ in a world of wickedness. If we in Leakesville are going to see spiritual growth and conversions and churches planted, we must make prayer a top priority as a body.

          Your cell phone is a gift from God. Surely the Lord uses cell phones in so many ways to do the work of His church: have you called that friend in the nursing home lately? That person you haven’t seen in church in a while? But when you and I neglect prayer and trust our own abilities to convert sinners or to reclaim erring sheep, we ourselves are in error.

          Shut off the cell phone. Wake up at 4 a.m. or stay up until 11 p.m. if need be. Drive in your truck to a hollow in the woods that only you know.

          Spend time with your Father, praying for those things acceptable to His will. The continuing mission of Christ’s church demands it.

 

          Second, Jesus’ mission involved declaring his Gospel.

          Probably sensing Jesus’ growing fame, Peter and the other disciples came and found the Lord (evidently they were “hunting” for Jesus) and told him everyone was looking for him. Clearly more people were learning about Jesus and seeking him for their needs; his growing popularity surfaced in last week’s lesson as well. Note, though, Jesus’ response: “Let us go to the neighboring villages so that I might preach there, because this is the reason I came forth (from Heaven).”

          Jesus was well aware of how crowds would respond to his miracles. Do you recall the reaction of the people following his feeding of the thousands? They pursued him – for more food! The typical reaction by most people to this fame likely would involve staying and performing more miracles so as to enlarge one’s following. But not our Lord Jesus. He instead moved on so he could preach the Gospel in other places.

          Jesus’ preaching revealed the very character of the invisible God as well as our own corrupt characters. Moses promised a coming prophet who would be greater than he; and St. John tells us that Jesus, the Word made flesh, exegetes the Father to us. In praying to the Father (as recorded in John 17), Jesus stated that he had accomplished his God-given mission of revealing the Father’s Name – His character, word and works – on earth.

And as Jesus preached he shed light on the holiness of God as he exposed your sin and mine – and pointed to himself as our only hope of salvation. Of course Jesus’ mission required him to accomplish the work of redemption both in his sinless life and in his perfect passion, death and resurrection, yet our Lord emphasized preaching as central to his ministry.

          If you and I wanted Leakesville Presbyterian Church to burst with people in the pews, we ought to promote counterfeit miracles. Even today, people delight in a display. A healing? “Speaking in tongues?” These would draw in throngs of people.

          But they would not please the Lord, who has chosen to grow His church through the “foolishness of preaching,” as St. Paul phrases it. If you are going to flourish as a follower of Christ, and if this church is going to grow healthily, we must lay aside every human technique and take up the Sword of the Spirit: the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

          Jesus’ mission, third, displayed compassion to the hopeless.

          In verse 40 St. Mark informs us that a leper came to Jesus, paid homage to him and acknowledged Jesus’ power to heal him. Now, did this leper express saving faith in Jesus as the Christ? Really, we cannot be certain. But we can assert with confidence that Jesus demonstrated true compassion to one who previously had no hope.

          “Leprosy” often stood for any number of skin diseases, including leprosy as we think of it today. Leviticus 13 and 14 describe how the leprous person is to be declared unclean by a priest and separated from the covenant community for at least seven days. Leprosy in the fullest sense was a vicious disease that slowly ate away a person’s body and could not be cured, thus cutting that sufferer off from the community permanently.

          In a moment we will examine the implications of Jesus’ touching this man in terms of the law, but for now, observe Jesus’ reaction to the man. Christ literally answered the leper’s plea tit-for-tat, saying he in fact was willing to heal the man – and then healing him by the power of his word. Christ showed mercy both to body and soul for a man who surely had no hope apart from Jesus’ healing power. Jesus was moved with compassion – one textual variant has “anger” instead of “compassion,” perhaps indicating Jesus’ anger at the sin that brought on the Curse that brought on leprosy. He later spoke to the man sternly, which term – “sternly” – also was used to describe Jesus’ general disgust with sin and with the Curse.

          Above all, our Savior poured out mercy. He cared for soul, thankfully, but also for body. And his redeeming work ultimately means that you and I will dwell with him in sin-free, pain-free, Curse-free bodies in the New Heavens and New Earth. This is the message of whole compassion that you and I must proclaim and demonstrate to the seemingly forsaken, outcast, “hopeless” sinners around us in Leakesville.

 

          Fourth, Jesus’ mission depended on his fulfillment of the Mosaic law for your sake.

          You will note that Jesus apparently does two contradictory things in relation to the law in this passage: he touches an unclean person, forbidden in Leviticus; yet he also tells the cleansed leper not to tell anyone anything but instead to go to the priests and to offer the appointed sacrifices as a testimony to Jesus’ healing work. How can this be?

          The solution is found in Jesus’ fulfillment of the law for you and me. Indeed he is the Author of the law, because as God he is the Author of Holy Scripture, so he has the right to interpret the law as it should be understood. In a dispute elsewhere, Jesus gives the full meaning of the Mosaic regulations about clean and unclean food under the Old Covenant: it’s not what goes into a person but what comes out of his heart that defiles him. Here, leprosy – while dangerous as a disease – represents the effect of sin and the Curse on humans, but Christ’s touch and healing word demonstrate him to be the One who, by his redeeming work at Calvary and on Easter Sunday, takes away the Curse. The law pointed to God’s holiness and to sin’s disastrous and infectious nature (e.g. leprosy). But it also pointed to the One who would roll back the Curse by removing sin from his flock.

          Jesus also told the man to obey the law’s regulations regarding his cleansing. Remember, he also said he came not to destroy but to fulfill every jot and tittle – every last bit – of God’s law. His suffering under the law took away your sin; his obedience to the Father’s law earned Heaven for you. How often men speak of Jesus as a “rebel.” They could not be more incorrect! He came not to rebel but to obey – and to win Glory for you and me who believe on him as our Redeemer.

         

          Fifth, Jesus’ mission met continually with disobedience.

          He commanded the man not to tell anyone anything (the Greek is pronounced), but of course, this man – to whom Jesus just gave a new physical life – immediately went out and began telling people about what Jesus did for him. Now, telling others about Jesus is commendable, but not when it violates his express command not to do so (such as this instance). People began coming to him from all directions, so much so that he had to stay in solitary places. (Today it would be like staying miles away in the Rounsaville community when you were trying to minister to Leakesvillians).

          Christ met with continual disobedience, even from his own disciples (see, for example, Peter). Jesus knew his mission demanded that he take the hard road of obedience to his Father’s law, which led straight to Calvary. Yet he also knew men would want to avoid the Cross, just like today, adding that much more opposition to his work. Truly the Son of Man, the Lord of Glory, also may be called the “Man of Sorrows.”

 

          Observe the rigor of Jesus’ mission, as Mark unfolds them in today’s text: Jesus came to preach the hard message of repentance and salvation, not to astound crowds with miracles. He came in prayer, not in pomp. He came to earn victory by the “Via Dolorosa,” not by walking a red carpet. And he came to his own, who rejected him.

          Thanks be to God, however, that Jesus’ meat and drink was to do his Father’s, and not man’s, will. Because our Savior has taken the path of obedience, you and I are privileged to follow in his steps as we proclaim him on our way to Glory.