Moment of Clarity With Rev. Lorrie Daly-Price

Palm Sunday Jesus resolves to ride into Jerusalem and expose himself publicly, even though he realizes the dangers he will face since the Jewish leaders have been clamouring for his arrest. From the Roman Governor’s view, this was a dangerous time to keep peace and order with the impending Jewish Passover festival and the last thing the Roman authorities wanted was a riot  stirred by religious intolerance. So when Jesus enters Jerusalem the atmosphere is tense. 

 

As Jesus set out from the Mount of Olives for the final descent into the holy city many people had gathered on the roadside to welcome him. Many of these had no doubt witnessed his healing, and listened to his preaching, but some perhaps were there to have a  glimpse of this man who had been causing a stir by his radical teaching. As crowds go this would not have been much different from any other crowd then and ever since. The majority found themselves going along with the general consensus, which was to acknowledge joyfully Jesus as king. Yet we know, that within five days this consensus would drastically change. 

 

On this wonderful day of waving palm branches and processing into Jerusalem it is easy to get caught up in the excitement of it all and get carried along by the moving parade. Our test however, comes the next day. Are we prepared to stay with Jesus as the atmosphere changes? Do we dare to stand as he faces constant conflict? Are we there for all the encounters that he will face this week?

During the Jewish feast of Passover, some Greeks arrive in town and approach Philip. They come with a request that the disciples must have fielded many times during Jesus's ministry. Had they traveled all the way to Jerusalem just to ask their question?

           "Sir, we would like to see Jesus."

Philip shares their request with Andrew, and together they tell Jesus. But their query fizzles out and the story then takes a new turn. We never learn if they actually get to see Jesus, the one have heard so much about.

Were these Greeks genuine seekers or mere gawkers? What did they hope to see or want to hear from Jesus?

The passage from John‘s gospel that we hear this week begins in the midst of Jesus’ nighttime conversation with Nicodemus. Nicodemus has gone to Jesus because of a deep yearning. What do I need to do to be closer to God? To be right with God? How can I have more meaning in my  life? 

 

Though he was a religious leader, something was lacking. He was educated, well connected and respected. He is unlike some of the Pharisees that Jesus has criticized for their hypocrisy, the ones who thought they had nothing left to learn, that there was no room for growth, that they never made a mistake and that God was on their side. Nicodemus is far less certain. He wanted something more. 

 

And so, Jesus gives him a long answer with many moving parts that have to do with loving what God loves and as God loves. What are our expressions of loving as God loves?

This morning we hear a story from John’s gospel that takes place in a courtyard the size of a football field. This is part of a complex of temple buildings that are beautifully crafted of the finest materials. It is in outer courtyard that we hear about the merchants selling animals for sacrifice. There are also the moneychangers who are changing money into authorized temple currency. This currency was called shekels or temple coins and was needed to purchase a sacrifice or pay annual dues. The problem that we hear about though, is that an unfair exchange rate is being charged and puts an additional burden on the people who were already struggling. The noise in this place would have been incredible. Thousands were gathered because of the Passover and they would be talking and laughing together. For some, they may not have seen each other since the year before. There were birds cooing and squawking, cows mooing, sheep bleating and goats doing whatever goats do. It was in the midst of all this that Jesus took action. If he had tried to protest verbally no one would have heard him. It was a dramatic moment in his history, perhaps the most dramatic. Here, Jesus arrives and upsets the moneychangers and then drives them out of the temple.

In this week’s Gospel reading from Mark, Jesus predicts his death for the first time. “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering,” Jesus tells his disciples quite plainly. He must “be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Standing on this side of resurrection history, we too easily miss the bombshell effect these words must have had on Jesus’s disciples. Their great hope, cultivated over the three years they had followed Jesus, was that he would lead them in a military revolution and overthrow their Roman oppressors. After all, they had seen his miracles, and witnessed firsthand his charismatic ability to draw huge crowds. They had heard him proclaim loud and clear the arrival of a new kingdom. He was their longed-for future. Their cherished dream. So what could be more disorienting, more ludicrous, than the news that their would-be champion was determined to walk straight into a death trap? To surrender without a fight to a common criminal’s death? Peter scolds Jesus for his horrifying prediction. And Jesus, in what might be the sharpest and most surprising rebuke in all of Scripture, puts Peter in his place.

On this first Sunday of Lent our reading from Mark’s gospel is about a long and treacherous stint  in the wilderness. Unlike his counterparts, Matthew and Luke, Mark offers his readers no colourful details about Jesus’s experience in the wilderness.  We don’t learn what the specific temptations were, or how Jesus responded to them. Mark doesn’t even assure us that Jesus “passed” his desert test.  All he gives us are two abrupt sentences: “And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.”

I don’t know about you, but this terse version of events leaves me buzzing with questions. How exactly did Jesus spend his time?  Was he tempted 24/7?  Did he walk for miles each day, or camp out in one spot?  Where did he sleep?  What was the silence like, hour after hour after hour?  Did he break it up by humming, laughing, or shouting?  Did he star gaze?  Play with birds?  Chase lizards?  As the days stretched on and on, did he fear for his life?  Question his sanity?  Wish to die? 

 

Mark, given, as ever, to conciseness, leaves all of these questions unanswered.  But the few details he does include in his account are telling, and they give us much to cling to as we face deserts in our own lives.

It has been said that Science teachers never tire of that moment when a student first looks into a microscope. What had seemed like nothing more than a speck of dirt, suddenly becomes something full of colour, patterns and interest. That student will never look at things the same way again; in that moment everything now has the potential to be more than it was.  

 

This same thing happens elsewhere too. Telescopes have the ability to transform. Just think of the night sky when you look through it, it has the ability to turn it into a world of awe. 

 

This morning we hear the story of Jesus’ transfiguration in Mark’s gospel. If you were to take those quite common experiences and move them up a few notches on the scale, this would certainly top the list. The transfiguration of Jesus describes an event in which the deepest significance of everyday reality and overwhelming confronted his disciples Peter, James and John.

In our reading from Mark’s gospel we find Jesus after a long day of preaching in the synagogue, healing a man who had been possessed by an unclean spirit and who knows what else. As the day comes to a close Jesus, with the disciples, head over to Simon Peter’s house for a warm meal and some time of rest. When they arrive Jesus is quickly directed to Simon’s mother-in-law who is deathly ill with a fever. We read that Jesus, “came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her and she began to serve.” 

He lifted her up. Who do we lift up?

Or to look at it another way, when do we need lifting up?

In our reading from Mark’s gospel Jesus encounters a man with an unclean spirit. In ancient times, mental health issues were often identified with spiritual possession. Something was  believed to “take over” a person’s psyche, imprisoning them by forces greater than themselves. While we cannot rule out spirit possession, we know that we are possessed by many things that need to be cast out. Virtually all of us have behaviors that we struggle with that are large and small.

 We know often what’s best for us, but often also succumb to temptation. Like the man in the story, we need assistance from an energy and wisdom greater than our own.

In today’s reading, the unclean spirit is more perceptive than the synagogue audience or Jesus’ first followers. The unclean spirit clearly knows who Jesus is, and the nature of Jesus’ power. Was the unclean spirit recognizing Jesus as a threat or was there something in the spirit’s make up that was seeking healing and wholeness?

This week we hear the call of the first four disciples from Mark’s gospel. After forty days in the wilderness, Jesus begins his ministry proclaiming the good news of God.  Jesus goes to Simon and Andrew and then James and John and says, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately, they went and followed Jesus.  There wasn’t a well let me think about it or a let me get permission from this person or that person, or will you pay better than what I’m getting right now. They just immediately follow Jesus.