Note: This sermon was introduced with scenes 12 & 13 of "Traveling Light"
Jesus pursued the good of other people. He did it in his healings; he did it in his teachings. Jesus poured his life into the lives of others. Ultimately Jesus pursued our good by dying in our place, taking upon himself the full weight of our sins. Jesus lived his entire life for the good of other people.
And if you become a follower of Jesus, you’ll find yourself pursuing the good of others too. In fact Life Bible Fellowship Church’s mission statement says that we exist to help unchurched people discover a relationship with Christ and to help Christians grow into full devotion, so they love God and other people. Helping you love other people means helping you pursue other people’s good as you live your life.
Christians use different words we use to describe this process. Sometimes we call it "ministry," "service," or "outreach." Whatever we call it, following Jesus means being like Jesus in this respect.
Pursuing the good of others is what happens when a Christian sees a coworker who’s beaten down because she’s going through a painful divorce. So the Christian offers a word of reassurance, a hand on the shoulder, an encouragement that God can bring hope to their hopeless situation.
It’s what happens when a Christian student notices that his teacher is discouraged because the students don’t seem to be learning. So this student stays after class to let his teacher know how much he appreciates the teacher’s effort. In fact, a few years ago we saw a junior high science teacher come to faith in Christ through her Christian students. That’s pursuing other people’s good.
Christians pursue the good of others in a variety of ways. We do it through our giving, sharing of our resources to help other people. We do it by starting ministries like orphanages, hospitals, and hospices for AIDS victims. We do it through our words, as we share the hope we have in Jesus Christ with others gently and compassionately. Whether you call it ministry, service, or outreach, the bottom line is that following Jesus changes our relationships with other people. Jesus pursued the good of others, and if you hang around Jesus long enough, you will too.
We’ve been in a series based on the New Testament book of Mark called Following Jesus in the Real World. Last week Pastor Bruce did a wonderful job talking about how Jesus creates all things new. Today we’re going to talk about pursuing the good of other people. Today’s message is going to center around three different scenes: A synagogue, a lakeside, and a mountaintop. In these three scenes we’re going to find out what happens when we pursue the good of other people.
1. The Synagogue (Mark 3:1-6)
The first scene occurs back in the synagogue of Capernaum in vv. 1-6. This is the second time we’ve read about Jesus doing a miracle in this synagogue. I mentioned a few weeks ago that archeologists have actually unearthed this synagogue.
The fact that this miracle takes place in a synagogue on the Sabbath day clues us in on the fact that the setting for this first scene is a worship setting. Going to the synagogue on the Sabbath was the rough equivalent of us going to church on Saturday or Sunday.
In this synagogue on this particular day is a man with a shriveled up hand. Now we don’t know how this guy’s hand got that way; perhaps he had a stroke, or was born with some kind of birth defect, or maybe he’d been in some sort of terrible accident. But for whatever reason, his hand was shriveled and paralyzed. According to Jewish law, this man couldn’t visit the Jewish temple in Jerusalem to worship God because of the condition of his hand. So for him to be in a synagogue took some courage.
The religious leaders are also present. In fact, you almost get the sense that this disabled man is a plant, placed there by the religious leaders like a piece of bait in a trap. This has all the marks of a staged scene, a carefully crafted con designed to incriminate Jesus. After all, this episode is the fifth of five conflict stories in Mark starting back in the first chapter, and each time the conflict with the religious authorities gets more intense.
So Jesus forces a confrontation, perhaps seeing the trap, by asking the religious leaders a question. Now if he asked, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath, working or not working," it would’ve been an easy question to answer. But Jesus goes to the deeper issue, which is whether the purpose of the Sabbath was for doing good and saving life or for doing evil and destroying life. In other words, "Why did God give us a special day for worship and renewal? Was it so we could seek other people’s good and save lives, or was it so we could find an excuse for doing evil and destroying life?"
The religious leaders refuse to answer the question.
Their very silence shows us the condition of their hearts. Mark tells us in v. 5 that Jesus looked around. The Greek verb here is very strong; it means Jesus took it all in, perhaps seeing every motive, every trap, every heart present at worship that day. And Jesus grows angry, angry at the people who’ve set the trap, angry at their calloused hearts, angry that they don’t seem to care about this disabled man. Jesus sees that the hearts of these religious leaders are far more shriveled than disabled man’s hand is. He sees that they view this disabled man as a pawn in their religious game, a piece of bait, good for nothing else but to trap Jesus. Once the trap is sprung, this man’s usefulness is gone and he can be flung aside.
But in addition to be angry, Jesus is also heartbroken. The word "deeply distressed" in v. 5 means "sorrowful" or "deeply grieved." It means brokenhearted, filled with a kind of sorrowful compassion that longs for things to be different. The hardened hearts of these religious leaders is cause for sorry, for grief. Jesus feels as much compassion for the leaders with shriveled hearts as he feels for the man with a shriveled hand.
So Jesus heals the man, perhaps in hopes that he’ll also heal the men with shriveled hearts. But to the religious leaders, Jesus has walked into their trap.
This is a crossroads for them. They walk out the door to plot Jesus’ destruction. Remember what Jesus asked them before he healed the man? He asked, "Is it lawful to do good or evil, to save life or destroy life on the Sabbath?" Jesus did good and saved a life, but in their fanatical zeal they see no hypocrisy in taking that holy day of worship and planning evil, plotting the destruction of Jesus’ life.
And although we’re not Jesus, and we probably won’t heal very many people with withered hands in our lifetime, what we see happen to Jesus here is also likely to happen to us when we pursue the good of others. When we pursue other people’s good, WE WILL INFURIATE PEOPLE WITH HARDENED HEARTS.
We talk a lot in our church about finding your place of ministry so you can experience the joy and fulfillment of serving God. And of course, that’s true. But there’s another side to the story, the side that says when you get involved in the lives of other people, you’ll make some people angry.
We live in a society that has objectified people. What I mean by that is that our culture treats people as objects rather than persons. Retailers treat people as consumers. Businesses treat employees as machines. Researchers treat people statistics. As the Russian leader Joseph Stalin once said, "When one person dies it’s a tragedy; when a thousand people die it’s a statistic." He should know since he ordered the execution of 14 million of his own countrymen. Political parties treat people as votes. Even churches can tend to objectify people. When we treat people as potential converts, members, or donors we objectify people.
But Jesus treated people as persons, and when we follow Jesus, we view people differently, through his eyes. When you view people as persons rather than objects you see people as creatures made in God’s image, desperately in need of God’s love and grace. You longer you follow Jesus, the less you’ll be able to treat people as statistics, consumers, donors or even potential converts.
And when you treat people as persons, pursuing their good, some people get mad. Imagine you have a job that involves selling a product. You’ve been following Jesus, and that’s leading you to view your contacts as more than potential customers, but as persons made in God’s image. You’re talking to a person, and as you talk you begin to realize that this person can’t really afford your product. You graciously suggest that perhaps your product isn’t right for this person, and you stop your sales pitch. How does your boss respond to that?
William Wilberforce was an eighteenth century Christian living in England. William believed his calling was to work toward the abolition of slave trade in England, so he served his entire career on the British Parliament. Parliament was his place to seek the good of others. William turned down promotion after promotion that would’ve brought him much more wealth and much more prestige. Other politicians called him a fool, because William Wilberforce pursued the good of others.
I’ll be honest: If you pursue the good of others, the same thing might happen to you.
2. A Lakeside (Mark 3:7-12)
Now the scene shifts from the synagogue in Capernaum to a lakeside in vv. 7-12. The decision made by the religious leaders on that Sabbath day was a turning point, both for them and for Jesus. From this point on in Mark’s story, Jesus stays on the move, traveling from place to place. Jesus knows that from this point on the clock is ticking for his eventual arrest and execution.
Here Jesus withdraws to the lakeside shore of the Sea of Galilee. Yet a crowd from Galilee follows him there. In fact Mark tells us that people traveled from throughout ancient Israel to find Jesus, everywhere from Jerusalem to Idumea, from Tyre and Sidon to the region of Judea.
The crowd of people is overwhelming. Jesus has his followers get a boat ready, just in case they rush him like a mob. That boat is Jesus’ escape hatch, just in case things get out of control. Yet in the midst of the chaos of human suffering and clamoring for his attention, Jesus gives his attention to the people, healing many of them, delivering those held captive to evil.
What an irony we find in this lakeside scene. The enormous crowd represents people who come to Jesus out of need, but who aren’t yet followers. You might call them seekers, men and women who hope Jesus holds the answers, yet who aren’t yet committed to following Jesus. Perhaps that describes some of you here today. This crowd come out of desperation, out of pain and affliction, out of bondage to evil and anguish. Yet in Mark’s gospel a person doesn’t become an authentic follower of Jesus until he or she steps out of the crowd and trusts in Jesus, becoming his disciple. So the crowd represents seekers, not believers. They don’t really understand who Jesus is, that he’s God’s chosen Messiah, the unique son of God. Yet the demonic spirits Jesus casts out of people immediately recognize who Jesus is. Those who hate and oppose Jesus the most know more about who Jesus is than those coming to Jesus out of need. That’s the irony of this scene.
Here we find another thing that happens when we seek the good of others. When we pursue other people’s good, HUMAN NEED CAN OVERWHELME US.
The sheer volume of human need we encounter in life can be overwhelming. Just as Jesus was almost crushed by the crowd, we can feel crushed by the needs of people around us.
I feel this way every week when I read through the prayer requests people write on their Keep In Touch cards each week. I’m glad people are asking for prayer, and I’m glad our leadership spends time praying for these needs, but many of the needs are overwhelming. Sickness, despair, broken marriages, doubts, desperate situations. I feel overwhelmed when I walk through San Antonio hospital or when I visit someone at West Valley Detention Center. I feel overwhelmed when I’m on a ride-along with the police department in my role as a chaplain. As I go out with police officers on patrol late at night, I see the desperation and evil that engulfs so many people in our community. When I walk into homes where husbands and wives are beating each other bloody, when I talk to juveniles running the streets with no one missing them, when I go into bars and see lonely people trying to make some kind of connection, even if it’s only for the night, I feel overwhelmed. I feel overwhelmed when I’m coming to church like I was this morning and I stop for a bagel and cup of coffee, only to see a homeless woman picking through the trash for a meal.
You see, it’s this feeling of being overwhelmed by human need that keeps many of us getting involved in other people’s lives. We’re afraid of being swallowed by another person’s neediness. So it’s easier to insulate ourselves, to cocoon in our homes, to make jokes about other people’s misery. We change the channel when we see images on our TV of poverty and misery, so we can watch a nice sit com to get our minds off such disturbing thoughts. But when we do that our hearts wither like the hearts of the religious leaders in the synagogue. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a withered heart.
Now one thing I notice about this episode by the lake is that Jesus meets people’s needs where they are. He doesn’t question people’s motives or scold them for coming to him out of desperation. He doesn’t test them to see how sincere they are or give them a theology quiz to see if they understand who he is.
And as I think about this, I think about our church. I hear some Christians criticize churches like ours that try to meet people where they are. Some Christians say the church should preach the Bible and not worry about things like helping people through divorce or helping them conquer an addiction. In the mind of these people, churches shouldn’t concern themselves with people’s loneliness, hunger and brokenness, about their problems as parents and as spouses, their frustrations at work and in their community. They say that churches that focus on people’s felt needs are watering down their message, pandering to people’s consumerism. And I suppose that does happen sometimes. But I notice that Jesus starts with people’s needs right where they are. He doesn’t tell the blind person that he should be more concerned about his spiritual blindness. He doesn’t chide the hungry person for wanting a meal. He starts where people are, and then he shows them that their felt needs are really symptoms of a deeper need, a spiritual need. He starts with people’s felt needs, but he doesn’t stay there. He helps people get to the root of their needs, to the spiritual void that only he can fill.
I want to be part of a church like that. I want to be like that. But when we do that, we often feel overwhelmed.
3. The Mountaintop (Mark 3:13-19)
Now the scene shifts again, this time from the lakeside to a mountaintop in vv. 13-19 Most likely the mountain here is one of the hills on the northern shore of the sea of Galilee. Jesus calls some people to come of the crowd and to climb the mountain with him. These are the people who’ve become followers, disciples, men and women who’ve come to believe in Jesus. It’s impossible to know for sure exactly how many people in this group by this time, perhaps as many as seventy men and women. Now Luke’s account tells us that Jesus spent the entire night in prayer before selecting out of this group 12 men to be apostles.
From this community of followers, twelve are selected by Jesus and named "apostles." Now the word "apostle" means "an official representative of someone who speaks and acts with the authority of the person they represent." Jesus is going to give them authority to proclaim his message, to deliver people from evil, and Matthew’s account of this event tells us that Jesus also gives them the authority to heal every kind of sickness. These twelve apostles are to be "with Jesus," which means that they travel with him from town to town. The number 12 is significant because this symbolizes the 12 tribes that made up the people of Israel. By designating 12 leaders as apostles, Jesus is symbolically saying that he’s creating a new Israel, a new community of people centered around himself and his message.
And of course it’s highly significant that the people he selects to be apostles are a socially diverse group. From fishermen to tax collectors, from business owners to revolutionaries. Not one of the twelve apostles was a leader within any of the institutions of Judaism. Not one scribe or priest, not one Pharisee or religious leader. No theologians or religious experts. Just ordinary people who’ve come out of the crowd and responded to Jesus in faith and trust.
Jesus appoints these twelve men as apostles so they can share his ministry. Here we find another thing that happens when we pursue the good of others. When we pursue other people’s good, WE NEED TO SHARE THE LOAD WITH OTHERS.
Now in one sense, Jesus’ appointing of these twelve apostles is a unique, one-time event. I don’t believe we have apostles today in the same sense as that these twelve men were apostles. So the unique authority of these twelve apostles wasn’t passed on to the church or to other church leaders. Their authority was written down in the apostolic writings, the 27 books of the New Testament. So in that sense these twelve apostles are unique.
However, in another sense, we see a principle at work here about how Jesus empowered other people to share his ministry. It’s no accident that Jesus selects these twelve individuals right on the heels of his experience at the lakeside. Jesus sees his need to empower others, to share his message and authority with others. And in this respect, although none of us here are apostles today, all of us who’ve trusted in Jesus are empowered by Jesus to share his ministry.
Do you know the number one obstacle that keeps churches from empowering church members for service? I believe the number one obstacle is pastors. When we as pastors go to school to learn theology and ministry skills, we often become arrogant. After three years of graduate school, we can tend to think that no one can do it like we can. We feel the need to stay in control, to make sure everyone does it our way, according to our specifications. The subtle message is that only pastors can do real ministry. Volunteers can clean the church or fold bulletins, but the real stuff is for the clergy. That’s a horrible lie that contradicts the Bible.
We want to have a church were all the members are empowered to serve. Whether you’re seven years old or seventy years old. We want a church where we as pastors and leaders aren’t holding people back but we’re empowering people to invest their lives in things that will make a difference.
Conclusion
If you follow Jesus, you’ll pursue the good of other people. You won’t be able to help it, because Jesus will rub off on you. But let me warn you, that if you pursue the good of others, you’ll infuriate some people, you’ll feel overwhelmed at times by the needs, and you’ll need to share the work with others.
I remember sitting where you’re sitting when I first starting coming to this church back in the early 1980s. I remember our teaching pastor back then, Pastor Ray challenging us in his sermons to invest our lives in things that last forever. I remember him saying that our jobs will pass away, our homes and our possessions will one day crumble, but that people last forever. I remember thinking about how God might use me to invest in people, to spend my time, my energy, my passion, my resources, my time investing in people’s life for the sake of God’s kingdom. It’s that challenge that eventually brought me to this pulpit.
That challenge may not bring you to a pulpit, but it will bring you into the lives of people, to pursue their good even when it’s inconvenient, even when you disagree with their lifestyle. It will bring your life into contact with people so you can pursue their good because a little bit of Jesus has rubbed off on you.
