We tend to cringe when we see the first Christmas ads or items appear in the shops around September, or when Park Hampers run their TV ads for the

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1 We tend to cringe when we see the first Christmas ads or items appear in the shops around September, or when Park Hampers run their TV ads for the next year s Christmas on Boxing day But Jesus and His birth wasn t foretold a few months beforehand, this birth was heralded way back in Genesis 3:15, when God the Father told satan that his head would be crushed (and it would be Jesus who did the crushing!) 1

2 Mark doesn t give us any birth narrative at all, no angels, Mary, Joseph, donkeys, stables, shepherds or Wise Men. Raymond chandler the crime writer is suppose to have said get someone shot on the first page to get your reader hooked into your story. It seems as though Mark takes the same tack in his writing...straight in with The beginning of Straightaway we want to know what s next, what s coming Mark writes his Gospel as a page turner 2

3 By the time we get to verse 4, John the Baptist has been introduced to us John was spoken of by Isaiah 700 years before he was born...and John is described as anything but conventional. Here was a man who could live off the food in the Bush Tucker Trials in I m a celebrity get ne out of here. (yes it s also that time of year again). Some of the Old Testament prophets lived and ministered on the fringe of acceptable society. John was way beyond fringe 3

4 John was Radical. Not a radical, but the Radical. He spoke out against anyone and everyone who flouted God s laws and he called one and all to repentance. This was no just follow the laws preaching this was a call to his hearers to seek God s forgiveness and get their lives cleaned up. No wonder the people came out to hear him; no wonder they were convicted of their sin. This radical preacher-prophet was being used by God to bring a radical change in people s lives. 4

5 John tells the crowds that he is only the messenger he doesn t aspire to any leadership position; he has no interest in being the next political zealot. John tells them that by comparison the One who is to come, the Messiah; he, John, isn t even as worthy as a gentile slave (only Gentile slaves untied sandals due to what they would have walked in) John says in effect that he is the lowest of the low. 5

6 And that if they think he is a Radical with his approach, just wait until they see and hear the One who is to come John says that he is as nothing in each and every way by comparison to Jesus. 6

7 The radical leader hoped for was for a King David Mark 2 model with a fantasy and fantastic army that would rise up and purge the land as Joshua did of old. So when John is laying out the description of how Jesus will be, and that he will be so out of John s league, it is likely that this is where the minds of the people and the Jewish leaders would be turning to 7

8 A Radical comes in many forms this one of Jesus the Messiah, a time served Carpenter was not anticipated. But radical is radical. As John was an unlikely radical, so would the Messiah be. 8

9 This is a fair attempt at trying to define what Jesus s radical leadership was like. Behind this sits and on the hook of this statement hangs all the other aspects of Jesus leadership and Messiahship. 9

10 From Jesus humble and lowly birth in a stable and having an animal s feeding trough for his crib; to being a child refugee fleeing to Egypt to growing up and being a servant leader. Not one to control armies, but radical all the same. 10

11 The crowds came out to see John, but greater crowds came to see Jesus anything up to 15,000 at a time. Even numerically, John was heralding the greatest of Jesus. In death John died alone when he was beheaded when Jesus died there could have been as many as 3 million people in and around Jerusalem at that time. John s ministry finally ended with his death the ministry of Jesus went world wide after his death and resurrection. John stayed dead Jesus rose to life! 11

12 When Mark says the beginning of the gospel.. It is not only an opener into the rest of Mark s narrative about Jesus but from the outset this is not going to be a predictable story about a predicable Messiah. From end to breath taking end of Mark s writing, there is an urgency, and immediateness of Jesus the Radical King. John heralds this 12

13 We are called to live it. John as Jesus herald was a Radical as the proclaimed King Jesus would be a Radical. We, us, you are Jesus disciples and followers are also called to be Radical as the Master is, so are his disciples. Radical not to conform, but to examples of our Radical Saviour as Paul says in Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. 13

14 We can so easily restrict being Radical to this season or any season for that matter; and whilst Jesus is the Reason for the Season, He is the Radical Redeemer of the world for every moment, of every day of our God given lives. Now that is a Christmas gift, or rather that is the gift of Christmas for each and everyone of us. 14