1 Corinthians 9:19-23; Mark 1:35-38; February 4, 2024; Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ – Mark 1:35-38
Isn’t it funny how often Jesus just shrugs people off; how he lets all sorts of questions and accusations just roll off his shoulders? “Everyone is searching for you!” Oh word? Really? Well, I’m off to some neighboring towns now so we can all do what we were meant to do, to proclaim the good news! … And, just what are you doing?
God, I love this guy!
“Simon and his companions hunted for him” — the Greek verb for hunt here (katadioko) is a strong one, scholars noting that it usually means something like “searching with hostile intent.” Simon Peter then, and these newest disciples of Christ, were already at odds with him (a prevalent theme in Mark); and so, they were out to get him. To admonish him. To correct him. Everyone was searching for you! Where were you!? Yes, they were unhappy with him and feeling hostile.
But really, at this early point in their gospel story, it’s kind of hard to blame them. I mean, Jesus just asked them to leave everything they had known and to follow him, and that they did. And the very first moment they closed their eyes to catch some much needed sleep, he up and disappears in the dark, off into the wilderness again, leaving them entirely alone. So, one could almost sympathize with them and their hostile demand, where were you!? Can’t you just stay in one place? Jesus!
But, of course, Jesus doesn’t, because you see, Jesus can’t.
For his mission from the beginning was and is clear: to proclaim the good news far and wide, morning and evening, in light and in dark. And I would say especially when its dark — very dark — for when the world appears darkest and when hope seems most fleeting, it’s there that we find Jesus on the move, bringing good news to those who need it most. Wherever they might be, whomever they might be.
For you see my friends, his message, the good news, just can’t be clamped down; and Amen! for that. No, it can’t be hoarded or contained, by you or by me. No, it goes with him out into all sorts of strange neighboring towns and even into the most deserted places of life. The wildernesses. So, this demand that we sometimes feel to hunt for Jesus, to be soldiers for Christ, and then to keep him there with us in our ranks for ourselves only in our churches, is just not how it works. He shrugs all that off. And then spreads out into surprising places with or without us.
You know, I often used to think of Jesus as mine. My savior. And that if he could, he would choose to hang around people just like me. Those with a mind and heart just like mine. Who could understand his parables, and maybe even, employ them. And to those who didn’t get him like I got him, well, I undervalued them, I scoffed at them, and even worse, I hunted after them with thoughts of condemnation and judgment. I’ve told you all this before. I wasn’t always (nor still) the model Christian. But, how about you?
But then, you see, he visited me – spiritually, that is — and humbled me. And said fool, I ain’t got time for you doing all that, cause I’m off to neighboring towns instead, visiting and healing others who actually want to hear the good news rather than control the good news, because that, Brian, is what I came to do.
Because that, my friends, is what he came to do.
Paul, one of Christ’s earliest and most provocative converts, understood all of this better than most. While others at first wanted to keep the message limited to a small inner circle of people, within certain and specific traditions, Paul realized that Christ’s good news was meant to also find others outside of the inner circle. And that meant, even if they were uneducated; even if they were unlearned; even if they were pagan and entirely unruly. Literally whoever, for to all this message has come, and to all the good news should be proclaimed.
But then, Paul takes it a step further saying, be whoever you need to be to spread this good news of love and peace, doing so as far and wide as possible.
Paul writes in our text today, “To those under the law I became as one under; and to those outside the law I became as one outside. To the Jews I became as a Jew; and to the weak I became weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some. And I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.” — 1 Corinthians 9:20-23
I have become all things to all people; whoever I need to be for the sake of the gospel.
Wow. Paul the first Shang-Sung, shapeshifting into whoever people needed him to be.
One of the most powerful novels that I read while in Seminary, which changed the course of my life, was called “Saint Emmauel the Good, Martyr.” By the creative and groundbreaking philosopher and writer, Miguel de Unamuno. His story featured a priest, Emmanuel, who became venerated as a saint for his unyielding benevolence to the poor in a small, impoverished neighboring town of the Spanish Empire. Sounds good, and gospel driven, right?
The only problem and conflict was…was that Emmanuel, the good priest, wasn’t sure what he believed. In fact, he had doubts about the providence of God and the resurrection of Christ. But feeling called by God all the same, he martyred his own life interests and dreams, so to proclaim the good news, helping as many people as possible through his vocation, for the sake of the gospel, so that others might share in its blessings.
Like Paul suggested here in Corinthians, Emmanuel became whoever he needed to be for the people he was trying to help. Even modeling belief where secretly harboring doubt.
Suffice it to say, this story blew me away. For in many ways, in Seminary at least, it felt like my own story. Feeling called to do something that I had real Jonah-like-reservations about.
But then, like him, I got to doing the work. Boots on the ground ministry, rather than just arguing theology up in the clouds. And you know what, I too began to share in its blessings as I became whoever I needed to be for the gospel’s sake, for the good news of Jesus’ love and peace; and in doing so, I was changed and transformed, and I hope in some ways, so were others also.
And so, though Paul’s words today might feel on the surface somewhat disingenuous… “to become weak as one who was week, under the law as one under the law…” almost like he was and can be pretending… I believe Paul has a word today for both you and for me.
That no matter your disillusionment with the modern Church; that no matter your uncertainty of the doctrines of the orthodoxy, God is yet with you (Emmanuel) and can yet use you to help spread the message of Christ’s gospel – his gospel — out into neighboring towns, far and wide, morning and evening, in light and in dark, and especially where it is very dark.
And the true gospel that is, not this warped version of the “gospel” portraying Jesus as some white nationalist gun-toting militant… no, the autographic version, the original, delivered by a poor, brown refugee who was baptized by a strange dude eating locusts, and who sought to bring peace and liberation to all who suffered from poverty and sickness, demon and disease.
It is that gospel, my friends, the true gospel of reconciliation, and not of retribution, that we need not to take up arms for, but rather link arms for, with and for Jesus who is still on the move.
Such that we all can become whoever he needs us to be, so to help mend and lighten this broken and darkening world which is in dire need of saving.
So let it be.
Amen.
