Series: Getting to Know Jesus #2: JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR? (Mark 6:1-6) by Rev. Dan McDowell March 4, 2018

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1 1 Series: Getting to Know Jesus #2: JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR? (Mark 6:1-6) by Rev. Dan McDowell March 4, 2018 Did you ever know anybody who was a name dropper? Some people love to tell you about all of the important people that they know or maybe celebrities they have had contact with. I have some relatives like that. They live in the Los Angeles area, so they run into television and movie stars sometimes. I have to admit that often I have no idea who they are talking about. I m especially clueless when it comes to rock stars. I have no idea who they are. I have had very little celebrity exposure in my life, but I do remember one memorable encounter. I was in my early 20 s, living in Nebraska and I was asked to serve on the Board of Directors for the state chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The first meeting I attended was held on the campus of the University of Nebraska on the day of the home opener for the football team. I have probably told you before, that in Nebraska they practically worship the University football team, and that was especially true in the early 1980 s when I lived there. They were a perennial top ten team under the direction of Coach Tom Osborne, who (besides being a great coach) is probably the closest thing to a saint that Nebraska has ever had. As I walked into the board room, I was very surprised to see that my name was on a name plate at the table and right next to mine was Tom Osborne s. As I sat down, I thought Cool! I can tell everybody back at church that I got to sit next to Tom Osborne! But as the meeting started his chair remained empty. I began to think, Well, after all he is coaching a big game today he probably just allowed them to

2 2 use his name to add prestige to the organization. He won t actually show up. Not long after that, in he walked. He quietly took his seat and then turned to me, shook my hand and introduced himself (as though I wouldn t have known who he was!) I was very impressed with his humility, and I was even more impressed as the meeting went on and as he shared some details about work he was doing with a Junior High youth group in that city. When I got home I couldn t wait to tell the folks at my church that I had met and even shook hands with the great Tom Osborne. That might not impress you very much but believe me, it impressed them! In fact I joked with them that I wasn t going to wash the hand that he shook ever again. I doubt that Coach Osborne had any idea what a pedestal people put him on. He grew up in a small town, played for a small college and very gradually made his way up the ranks to eventually become a hall of fame coach and then a congressman. Fame sneaks up slowly on some people. I don t know if you have ever thought about this, but from the perspective of the people of Nazareth, Jesus grew up around them for 30 years and all during that time, they never realized they were in the presence of greatness. They didn t expect him to become famous and never saw the anointing of God on his life. He walked among them, lived among them, worshipped with them, went to parties with them, and they had no clue who he really was. We are in our Lenten process of Getting to Know Jesus and we are taking a look at some scenes from the life of Jesus that provide insights into who He was and what He was like. Our story today is found in the sixth chapter of the gospel of Mark (found on page 40 in the New Testament of your pew Bibles). It gives us a glimpse of Jesus from a different angle. In this story we see that many people didn t recognize

3 3 Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God or even a great prophet. They saw him as a common carpenter; Mary s son. They thought they knew him. They thought they had him pegged, but He was nothing like what they imagined Him to be. So they never took Him seriously and as a result, they missed out on one of the great blessings that God gave them the opportunity to have in their lives all because: I. He Didn t Fit Their Stereotype Here is the story (beginning with the first verse): He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. (Mark 6:1-3) When I was in college, I was involved quite a bit with the theater department. One of the students I knew was a guy named Craig. Craig was a pretty good actor (as college students go, especially students at a small Christian college). He majored in drama and he had a pretty strong reputation by the time he was a senior. Unfortunately, nobody took Craig s theater talents more seriously than Craig. At times, he was something of a caricature of the pretentious, self-involved artist. He didn t just walk into a room; he had to make an entrance. If your vocabulary was not up to his standards, he let you know it, and if you were anything less than professional in your efforts on stage, he certainly let you know about that too. After Craig graduated, he tried his best to make it as a professional actor, but like most actors, he

4 4 never could quite make the grade. I m told that it really crushed him to discover that he wasn t as talented as he thought he was. Jesus was on the flip side of the coin from Craig. Did you notice those trees on the mountains surrounding you on your way to church today? He created them. The sky above our heads? Jesus spoke it into existence. In the first chapter of the gospel of John, the third verse we are told All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. So Jesus was the creator of the universe, but He entered the world through a stable and spent years of His life in obscurity in the backwoods Galilean village of Nazareth, working with his hands as a common laborer. A lot of us are nobodies trying to act like somebodies. Jesus was a somebody who spent much of his earthly life acting like a nobody. Perhaps it is no wonder that many people in his hometown could not accept Him. In effect, they were saying, Who does Jesus think He is? We know him! We know His family! He s just like us! And that was a real problem for them. In the first century, Jewish culture did not allow for much social mobility. We live in a country where anybody who has the ambition and the talent can become the next American Idol or even President of the United States! That didn t happen in the day of Jesus. People then lived their entire lives within the confines of the class to which they were born. Blue collar workers remained blue collar. You had to be born into royalty. And it had been centuries since they had last seen a real, live prophet. And Jesus was much more than that. People are often attracted to an image. We want to believe in and follow the image not the ordinary, down to earth reality of who a person actually is. You can see that playing itself out in the steroid controversy in professional baseball.

5 5 Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Andy Pettit, Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa It is so disappointing to find out that our heroes have feet of clay. We do that with Christian celebrities too. We tend to put Max Lucado, Chuck Swindoll, Billy Graham, Rick Warren and Bill Hybels on a pedestal. They must be somehow different from us better than us. They must have a high speed connection to God. Even though every one of those men go out of their way to emphasize that they struggle like the rest of us, we like to think differently. As we get to know Jesus, we need to realize that Jesus was truly human. He didn t float through life; he truly became one of us. He lived like one of us. When he walked the streets with open sandals his feet got dirty. When he was working with wood in his workshop his hands were covered with scrapes and blisters and splinters. His stomach growled when he got hungry just like yours does. When he breathed dusty air, he sneezed. And the Bible tells us that when he was tired, he needed to sleep. He was fully human. Most people forget that. They see Jesus as half-man, half-ghost, but he was 100% human. He was just also 100% God. The people of Nazareth couldn t accept Jesus because he didn t fit their stereotype. Have you ever done that to Jesus? We often try to create Jesus in our image. As I mentioned last week, politicians do it, theologians do it we all have that tendency. Jesus just doesn t fit into our neatly conformed molds. The only mold that Jesus fits into is the one cast by the New Testament of the Bible. In the New Testament you see a man alive with the power of God. You see how He cares for children, the weak and the helpless, and how he has compassion on those who are hurting, shows mercy to those who have sinned and has little tolerance for the arrogance and self-righteousness often displayed by religious types. Sometimes He

6 6 speaks harshly, sometimes he speaks gently and sometimes he will not speak at all. Jesus can be hard to pin down. As a result: II. He is Often Unfairly Dismissed. Because Jesus didn t fit the image that his hometown friends and neighbors had in mind for the Messiah, they dismissed Him. In fact, in verse three of our passage, we are told, they took offense at him. As a result, we are told (in verse four) Then Jesus said to them, Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house. I can only imagine how that must have felt to Jesus. A few months ago, I was reading my hometown newspaper from Emporium, the Cameron County Echo. One of my classmates is the main sports writer for that weekly paper, and I enjoy his column, so I thought I would write him a note and let him know that I am a regular reader. In the process I also filled him in on what is going on in my life and that I am back in the area again after many years away. And I invited him to me so we could catch up. I never heard a word. Apparently he s not interested. Now, we were never really friends in high school, so I don t know why that surprised me or disappointed me, but it did. I can only imagine how Jesus must have felt, given what He was sacrificing for the people he grew up with! And His words weren t taken seriously. He wasn t given the hearing he deserved because to them, he was just a local guy. Nobody special Just Mary s son, James brother, a local carpenter So they never really heard what He was trying to tell them. In fact, even His own family doubted him. In Mark 3:21 we are told that when the crowds began to follow Jesus, When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, He has gone out of his

7 7 mind. So it was not only his friends and neighbors who misunderstood Him it was his very own blood relatives! Now, they must have seen something special in Jesus, living with Him all those years Mary and Joseph had even been visited by angels - but they couldn t wrap their minds around the enormous implications of who Jesus was. Here is the thing we are all in danger of that. We can become immune to His teaching. Most of us find ourselves not taking Jesus all that seriously. Perhaps we have heard his words so often that they no longer affect us. He calls for radical discipleship, total commitment, complete obedience but most of us prefer to maintain a pretty casual relationship with Him. He tells us that our forgiveness depends on how well we forgive others (Matthew 6:12) but how many of us carry a grudge? He says, All things are possible to those who believe (Mark 9:23) but we keep on doubting. He tells us, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. (John 6:35) But we keep looking to the things of this world to satisfy our hunger and quench our thirst. For proof of that, just take a drive on the interstate and see how many cars crowd the casino parking lot. And drive by the local taverns on a Friday or Saturday night and see how busy they are. Statistics tell us that Christians are just as likely to be alcoholics, drug addicts, have gambling problems and marital strife as everyone else. Why is that? We know His words. We can repeat His words. But sometimes we are reluctant to believe His words. The tragedy is that Jesus is often dismissed by those of us who should know Him best. III. Dismissing Jesus Causes Us to Lose Access to His

8 8 Power. In the sixth verse of today s passage, Mark makes an interesting observation: And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. (Mark 6:5) What does that tell you? Did their lack of faith limit Jesus power? Was Jesus somehow made weak by their unbelief? No Jesus did heal those who were brought to Him. The thing is few people came to him. It wasn t that He tried to heal people and couldn t. He just never had the opportunity. You can t heal many people in a room full of empty chairs. As we discussed during our Recovery series, one of the critical steps in recovery is recognizing that God has the power and the desire to help us. If you don t believe that there is no hope. God will not force you to do what is best. We have to believe that He wants to help. He wants to fill your life with joy and peace and happiness. He wants to help you through your struggles, defeat the enemies that oppress you, overcome the obstacles that are in front of you and make His power available to you. But unless you see through the veil of familiarity that sometimes prevents us from encountering the real Jesus, and take Him at His word you will dismiss His teachings as irrelevant religious talk or wishful thinking. Pro hockey Hall of-famer Wayne Gretzky used to say, You miss 100% of the shots you never take. The spiritual association of that principle is this: You get zero answers to the prayers you never pray. You miss out on every miracle you refuse to ask for. Today I want to urge you to take a chance on getting to know Jesus so you can experience His blessing on your life. Don t settle for the Jesus you think you know. Get to know who He really is. Read the Gospels. Listen to His teaching and ask Him to make Himself

9 9 known to you. The more you know Him, the more you will find yourself able to trust Him and the more you take Him at His word, the more you will experience His power in your life. Robert Dick Wilson taught Hebrew at Princeton Theological Seminary and one of his students was Donald Barnhouse (who grew to be a great preacher). Barnhouse tells of his going back to the seminary to preach after having graduated from there twelve years earlier. Dr. Wilson came into Miller Chapel and sat down near the front. There is something rather intimidating about going back to the school where you were trained and to teach the Scriptures to those who taught you. At the close of the service, Dr. Wilson came up to Barnhouse and said, If you come back again, I will not come to hear you preach. I only come once. I am glad that you are a big-godder. When my boys come back, I come to see if they are biggodders or little-godders, and then I know what their ministry will be. Barnhouse asked him to explain. Well, some men have a little God and they are always in trouble with Him. He can t do any miracles. He can t take care of the inspiration and transmission of the Scripture to us. He doesn t intervene on behalf of His people. They have a little God and I call them little-godders. Then there are those who have a great God. He speaks and it is done. He commands and it stands fast. He knows how to show Himself strong on behalf of them that fear Him. You, Donald, have a great God; and He will bless your ministry. He paused a moment, smiled, said God bless you, and walked out. Let s pray. Lord, as we strive to get to know you in this holy season of the year, give us a big enough vision of who you are. The world has put you in a box and portrays you in stereotypes. Help us to see through all that and take your true teachings to heart.

10 10 Help us to know your love, your power and your desire to help us. And as we get to know you, give us the faith and strength to follow you each and every day. In Jesus name. Amen