GracePointe Church of Christ in Elizabethtown, PA

Jesus enters Jerusalem, which should be a feast for the hungry soul searching for God, but when Jesus arrives he sees disappointing things like a temple full of items for sale and more questions from chief priests and elders.  These things are narrated by a story of the fig tree cursed to not produce fruit any longer because Jesus was hungry and it had nothing to provide him.  Thus, Jerusalem                 is Going to be known, not as the city of God, but as the city that killed the Son of Man, the Christ, the Davidic king, Messiah, and therefore twelve disciples will feed the nations and not the religious leaders of Jerusalem. To Grow, we must eat from the good food of Jesus…abundant life and transformation! 

In this text, Jesus is challenged in four distinct ways, all showing the difference between the way human’s tend to go about business and the way the Kingdom of God operates.  First, Jesus is asked about how to get out of a marriage, and Jesus response shows that this should not be a desire of pliable, faithful people. Second, Jesus’ disciples are keeping children away from the high and holy                 Christ, to which Jesus rebukes them for thinking that children shouldn’t have access. Third, a rich person comes up and falls at Jesus’ feet wondering what must be accomplished to gain eternal life, but what Jesus requires is beyond his capabilities.  Then finally, James and John want to sit at Jesus’ side when he enters his throne room, but Jesus calls them to be servants, not rulers.  Theabundant life of rebirth is found in rethinking our tendencies, to look to the Heavenly way of thinking.  Maybe that is how we receive our sight…like Bartimaeus.

This sermon focuses on Mark 8:31-9:50. Jesus, right after Peter confesses who he really is, predicts his suffering and death at the hands of the religious leaders at the time.  While his death is pending, he goes on a mountain where he stands with Moses and Elijah, the two men that those who are trying to kill Jesus would say are the most respected spiritual leaders in Judaism.  The final episode of the healing of the demon-possessed boy shows Jesus’ power to the point where Jesus’ predicts his own resurrection.  We are in desperate need of this type of heaven-focused spiritual leadership from Jesus.

This sermon is from the text of Mark 8:1-30. We have established that Jesus is the Christ, the promised one of God who is going to change everything for the better, and yet we see a continuing feud building with some of the most religious people in that area.  And so, we are left to watch as Jesus lives out the mission of this “Messiah” and see what are the consequences of such a Mission of God.