Brinton, Binham and Blakeney 08-12-02
Doesn’t it strike you as strange?
Mark 1:1-8:
Today is the second Sunday in Advent – a time that we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus two thousand years ago in a stable in an Inn in a small village called Bethlehem.
But doesn’t it strike you as strange that the birth of an obscure Jewish Carpenter has had such an impact on the Civilised World for the last 1500 years?
Who was this Man?
1. Background:
He was born in an obscure village, Bethlehem – apparently the illegitimate child of a peasant woman, in a society where illegitimacy was a terrible birthright to have to bear.
He was the member of a defeated race, a second-class citizen in his own country, with no rights at all.
He grew up in still another village, Nazareth where he worked with his stepfather in a carpenter’s shop until he was thirty.
2. His ministry:
Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher, where he chose twelve disciples to follow him around- who all in the end deserted him.
He never wrote a book. Yet what he has said has been preserved over two thousand years in a book, the Bible that has been the best seller for decades year in and year out. What is it about this book that fascinates?
His moral teaching, if you read the Gospels is phenomenal. Mahatma Gandhi, despite rejecting formal Christianity described Jesus teaching as incomparable. Had it not been for the inconsistencies of so-called Christians whom he knew, he would probably himself have taken the name of Christian.
His message, like that of John the Baptist’s in this morning’s Gospel reading called man and women to repent of their sins. This is not something today’s spin-doctors would have recommended – if you are courting popularity.
He had a brilliant, sharp and incisive mind. Let me give you an example of this brilliance.
One day, one of the finest Jewish lawyers wanted to set him up for a fall and so he asked him:
“Is it right to pay taxes the Caesar?
Jesus was in a no win situation. If he said yes, the crowds – his main support would turn against him because Caesar was their oppressor. If, on the other hand he said no he would be up on a charge of sedition before the Roman governor.
However he gave a quite brilliant answer. He asked for them to bring him a coin.
“Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s” they replied
Then he said to them: Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s. (Mt. 22:21,22)
He never held a public office. If you want to make a name for yourself, you need to get the good and the great on your side.
The good – the religious parties all united against him. The great – the Romans also did not take his part.
He never had a family to pass on his family name and, so far as we know he never owned a house.
He never went to University or college.
He never visited the big cities of the Roman Empire, Rome, Alexandria or Athens to peddle his teaching. In fact the only big city he visited was Jerusalem, which was in a backwoods of the Roman Empire.
Indeed, He never travelled more than 200 miles from the place where he was born.
He did none of the things we associate with greatness.
3. His death
He was only thirty-three years of age when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends all deserted Him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was crucified, an ignominious and painful death hanging on a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth.
When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
4. His movement
When the prophet Mohammed (the founder of Islam) died, he left a powerful empire in place to enforce his teaching.
When the Buddha died he left a powerful group of followers in the Kingdom of Nepal to propagate his teaching.
When Jesus died, his followers and disciples fled and were scattered. For example Peter, James and John his main disciples returned to fishing in Galilee
Conventional wisdom would dictate that this is not a great way to start a worldwide movement.
And then - when his disciples did get their act together - they made that apparently ridiculous claim –that Jesus had risen from the dead.
What a preposterous way to start a movement – UNLESS THAT IS WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.
5. Prophecies
Clearly Jesus’ ministry wasn’t a chance thing.
His life and death fulfilled at least 52 different prophecies to be found in the Old Testament - prophecies, which we know from the Dead Sea Scrolls, predate the life of Jesus by centuries.
His mission and his ministry had been predicted many centuries earlier. Even down to the detail of John the Baptist’s ministry as the messenger sent ahead of Jesus to prepare the way, which referred to in our Gospel reading today in Mk 1:2-3.
The first of these prophecies came from the book of Malachi -written 400 years before Christ :
"I will send my messenger before you – who will prepare the way." (Mal 3:1)
And the other was from Isaiah 40, written 700 years before Christ:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him.”
Jesus didn’t just “fall into his ministry by chance”. It had been planned years earlier by God.
Conclusion.
Who was this remarkable man, whose birth we will be commemorating in two and a half weeks time?
I would like to suggest to you that the answer is to be found in our Gospel reading this morning. Mark describes his Gospel as the
“beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the SON OF GOD.” (Mk 1:1)
What do you think?
Was He really the Son of God?
Is He God who came to earth in human form or not?
C.S Lewis summed it up like this:
“A man - who was merely a man - and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.
He would be either a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell.
You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse…
.....but let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher.
He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
As we prepare for Christmas, the time when we remember Jesus’ birth, I wonder what my response to Him will be?
