Introducing Jesus

Father, we give you thanks and praise that we can gather together to be in your presence.

Father, your word is said that Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

And we ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit would fall with might and power and deep conviction upon us who are gathered here.

And upon as well those who are joining in with worship through YouTube Live.

Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would fall with might and power and deep conviction so that we might know Jesus.

And in knowing Jesus, we might begin to know and understand ourselves truly.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your son and our savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

So isn't the Bible filled with contradictions?

That's a very common thing, which most Canadians would say, and that a lot of us Christians struggle with.

Isn't the Bible full of contradictions?

Today, we're going to begin the Gospel of Mark.

And in fact, you want to turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 1, verses 1 to 13.

Mark 1:1–13

You could do that now.

And so we're going to read Mark.

And when we come to different parts of Mark, you'll notice some of you who know the Bible really well,

or those of you who might sort of flip around later on, you'll see that Mark says some things differently than other people.

For instance, Mark is going to tell us about the baptism of Jesus.

Well, all four of the ancient biographies about Jesus, known, we call them Gospels,

but they're the ancient biographies based on eyewitness testimony,

that the four different Gospel accounts, if you read them, there's some differences in them.

Three of the different accounts record the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.

And if you read them, you'll notice some differences.

And so how do we think about that?

Is it in fact the case that the Bible is filled with contradictions,

contradictions, and therefore you can't really trust any of them as being historical or true?

Well, God forbid, imagine for a moment that my wife Louise dies fairly soon,

and maybe after COVID restrictions, so there can be a really, really big funeral and all of that type of stuff,

because it would probably be very big.

And some of you might not know, but I have nine children.

So whether it's during the funeral or afterwards, we have a time when the children and the sons and daughters-in-law

and some of the older grandchildren can talk a little bit about what Louise was like.

To some of you, most people would find that interesting.

But I'm not going to let all nine and the seven sons and daughters-in-law get up and the older grandchildren.

So they end up talking about it, they sort of group themselves a bit,

and they end up deciding they pick four people who are going to get up and say something,

and they sort of represent sort of different sort of interests.

And let's say my son Tosh or Jacob gets up,

and they decide that what they'd really like to do is they'd like to share the conversations that Louise has had with them, fundamentally.

Like the private, more in particular the private sort of things, you know,

that would take place late at night or talking about some of the deep things that have been going on in their lives.

And so the first person gets up, and that's what they focus on.

They don't talk a lot about what Louise has done.

They mention very few things, but they really talk about how these particular things

and the conversation they had with Louise, how significant it was for them.

Well, that person, in a sense, is what happens when you read the Gospel of John.

That's what John's like.

Then you get another couple, and they've been really struck with how Louise has a very, very kind heart.

She's the type of person who notices the child who's unhappier by itself,

that would notice the person standing by themselves during coffee hour,

the person who really has a concern for animals, is concerned for their neighbors,

and is just very outgoing, not intimidated by somebody who's maybe like a street person

or has severe handicaps, but is really just drawn to them and is very friendly to them.

And so that person gets up and shares about Louise primarily in terms of those types of categories.

And that, in a sense, would be as if you read the Gospel of Luke.

And then some of the others just really thought that Louise had a lot of really neat sayings,

you know, like, you know, one of her sayings is if a child cries, you know, pick it up.

But she has a lot of different sayings.

And so they give a talk.

They talk about the different things that Louise maybe did,

but they primarily talk about some of these just little sayings that Louise had

or that she would be known for.

And that, in a sense, is like reading the Gospel of Matthew.

And then maybe it would be my two sons who are engineers,

and they like to have things shorter and briefer

and maybe focus on what actually happened or what didn't happen.

And they get up and they talk about Louise,

and they give you really short little brief word pictures

about the things that Louise did and how she handled things.

And in a sense, that's what happens when you're reading the Gospel of Mark.

Now, all four of the conversations flow out of the nine children

and seven sons and daughters-in-law and the older and younger grandchildren.

And none of them contradict each other.

They just want to talk about Louise in different ways.

And there'd be some overlapping.

And if you had gone back afterwards and said,

one moment, I thought you said there was two people there,

and I thought you said there was one person.

And they said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I didn't want to clutter my account up with that

because I wanted to try to communicate this about Louise.

And if you understand that,

then you understand how the four Gospels are written.

And you'll see that, in fact,

they're just telling that they have their own different type of way

they're trying to communicate who Jesus is,

just as in the funeral,

there'd be four different ways of trying to communicate who Louise is.

And none of them contradict each other.

If you ask them, the facts would all be the same,

but they just want to emphasize different things.

Now, I mention this as well

because if some of you have written,

I've read, you know, or heard sermons

or read Bible studies about different things

like the Gospel of Mark.

And some people write Bible studies or do sermons.

What they really do is they take the incident,

they look in a sense at all four of the things of the baptism

or all three of the temptations.

In a sense, they give you an overall view of all of them.

Generally speaking, when I go through the Gospel of Mark,

I'm not going to do that.

I'm just going to read Mark's account.

I want us to hear and get the sense of how Mark wants to introduce Jesus to us.

So generally, I won't do any of that.

But that's just for those of you wondering about contradictions,

that basically handles all of the apparent contradictions,

which aren't real, that take place in the four Gospels.

So what we're looking at here,

we don't know exactly when it was written,

but according to church history,

it was probably written in the early 50s,

zero 50s, not 1950s.

And it's based on eyewitness testimony.

And Mark is very self-appreciating,

but there's a little thing at the end

that shows that he was a direct eyewitness of some of these things,

and he was a very close confidant of the apostles and the disciples.

And so this is how he tells the story of Jesus,

and he introduces it like this.

Verse 1,

Now, one of the things about Mark is he's brief.

He's the shortest of all of the biographies by far.

He's brief, and he gets to the point.

Those of you who like one-page summaries of things will like Mark.

Those of you who like Victorian novels with lots of description

will find him frustrating time and time and time again.

But if you like brief and to the point,

you're going to love the Gospel of Mark.

And here you have, first of all,

this one sentence is very packed.

First of all, notice that he makes a direct claim

that Jesus is God, the Son of God.

A direct claim that he is God, the Son of God.

But the other thing here, it's a bit more subtle,

and those of you who know the Bible very well

might have picked it up,

and it's actually very obvious in the original language.

When Mark says the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,

that word beginning,

so originally it would have been written in Greek.

When the ancient Jewish people,

a couple of centuries before the birth of Jesus,

because Greek was the language,

sort of the common language of most of that part of the ancient world,

they took what we call the Old Testament

and our Jewish friends call the Tanakh,

they took it and translated it into Greek

because there were a lot of Jewish people

who could no longer read or speak Hebrew.

And they still wanted them to have the Tanakh,

the Torah, God's Word.

And so they translated it into Greek.

This is done before there were Christians.

And so if you were to go and read the Greek translation of Genesis,

the book of Genesis begins,

in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

And Mark's Gospel begins the beginning

of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And the word beginning is the same in both cases.

So what Mark is signifying here in a very, very simple way

is that God is going to do a new creation.

He made the original creation.

The original creation has been marred by sin

and death has come, evil has come.

And in this now marred and disfigured original creation,

God is going to do a new creation.

And this is the beginning of this tale

of how God brings about the beginning of the new creation

in the lives of human beings.

And it's this good news that God has created a new beginning,

a new creation.

And it's going to be about how Jesus does this,

who's the Messiah.

And by the way, he's also the Son of God.

Now, one of the things which we now need to know

is he's now going to quote the Bible.

A couple of years ago,

I came across this really neat description.

It's called, it's actually a very Canadian thing.

I just was thinking about it

when I was working on the Gospel this week

that maybe I should use it more often

because it's something which on one level would resonate,

I think, with Canadians.

It's the idea of subversive fulfillment.

Subversive fulfillment.

What the Gospel does is on one level,

it's very subversive.

You're going to see this in the beginning.

It subverts pretensions of power.

It subverts our pride.

It subverts,

it's subversive of just the way

the dominant stories of Canada

and the dominant intellectuals of Canada

want to see the world.

It subverts that.

But at the same time,

it actually fulfills our deepest longings and yearnings.

That in a sense,

what the ideologies,

the religions,

the spiritualities,

the pride and pretension,

the stories of our world,

what we really hope for,

well, the Gospel is going to subvert it.

But it's actually going to fulfill

what was really true

and the heart of the longing behind it.

So Mark gets right to this

in how he begins to now tell the story of Jesus.

Look at what he does at verses 2 and 3.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

Behold, I send my messenger before your face

who will prepare your way.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness,

prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.

Now actually,

it's sort of a longer thing

and I won't go into it.

Actually, you know,

what it is,

it's a little bit like that.

Some of you,

I used to have a bulletin.

We used to have a bulletin

and in the bulletin,

I'd always have a little blurb.

And I discovered that if I took a legal pad

and I wrote with my handwriting

and I wrote double-spaced,

that three pages of double-spaced writing

on a legal pad

perfectly fit in our bulletin for my blog.

And so that was a very, very,

it helped,

I was always conscious with every line

that the paper's running out.

And that's one of the ways

you have to understand with Mark,

you know, paper's expensive,

equivalent of paper's very, very expensive.

He has a very small bundle of papers.

He's going to be very conscious

of all of the things.

But actually what happens

is he just mentions

that the first part of this quote

is from Isaiah,

the other two parts

are from Exodus and Malachi.

It just doesn't include that.

It's sort of irrelevant.

It's a bit of a geeky thing

to be able to put all of that stuff done.

The first part's Isaiah,

the other two parts,

and sort of the bracketing bit

is Exodus and Malachi.

But the significance is this.

This new creation

that God is going to do

through the person of Jesus

is something that he,

through the prophets,

have predicted

from the first writer of the Bible,

which is Moses,

to the last writer of the Bible,

which is Malachi,

and typified by the greatest of the prophets,

which is the book of Isaiah.

And the Jewish people

who would have been very familiar

with the scripture

and picked up the fact

that this is a jumble of quotes

to create one consistent message

of Isaiah, Exodus, and Malachi,

they would have got,

whoa, he's saying

that the entire Old Testament

from beginning to end,

what our Jewish friends

call the Tanakh,

this entire bit

is being fulfilled.

And in here,

and this is where

the subversive fulfillment comes up,

one of the problems

that the Jewish people had

at the time

with understanding that,

at first,

that Jesus was actually

this Messiah,

is, well, this text,

you mean,

it says here,

prepare the way of the Lord,

in verse 3,

make his path straight.

Well, that's,

that's,

that's God.

That's the,

that's God.

And so,

the Jewish people

were aware of things like this,

and they would have just said,

well, listen,

the text,

what the texts are talking about,

this is,

this would have been

their frame of reference.

The texts are saying

that someday

God is going to fix

our problems

and bring in,

in a sense,

a new world,

a new order.

God himself

is going to fix things

someday.

And they would have

just understood that,

that,

I don't know,

that he would do miracles,

like the way he did,

made the waters part

of the Red Sea,

or some of the other miracles

that he did

in the Old Testament,

that he,

he,

he would do it that way,

and he would do it

for the Jewish people.

But what they didn't understand

is that Jesus

is subversively,

sub,

not sub,

yeah,

subvert,

he's being subversive

of their expectations,

but he still fulfills it.

He's being subversive,

first of all,

because it's not that God

is going to remain

completely and utterly distant

while he does that,

he's actually going to come

and walk amongst us.

And the second thing is

that he's going to make

things right,

not just for the Jewish people,

but for all human beings

who put their faith

and trust in him,

for every people group.

You see,

they have their,

their,

their mindset,

their way of thinking

through things,

and on one level,

Jesus is going to subvert it.

And we don't like

having our way

of thinking subverted.

But on the other hand,

if you get over it,

if you get over yourself,

what's really going on

is a profound fulfillment,

a fulfillment in a way

which is far more deep

and amazing

and beautiful

and wonderful

than you would have

even dreamed was possible.

And so how does he fulfill it?

Well, look,

verse 4,

and you can see this

right off the bat

because it's going to say

this thing that the Lord

is going to do these things,

but the Lord

has sandals.

What?

How can the Lord

wear Birkenstocks?

Yeah, I know.

Ha ha.

Socks as well

as with my sandals.

What can you say?

I am a walking

fashion disaster.

That's all I can say.

One of the reasons

I wear a clergy shirt

every week is so,

you know,

sometimes I wear a collar,

sometimes I don't,

is I say to my Baptist friends

and Pentecostal friends,

I say,

gosh, you know,

I don't have enough clothes

to wear new things.

If I had to be like you,

everybody in the congregation

would say,

didn't he wear that shirt

two weeks ago?

And that shirt,

doesn't he know

that you're supposed

to match this with that

and this with that

and you'd get lost in it?

So I just,

I basically wear

the same thing every week.

It just gets around it.

It's like uniform.

That's,

I don't have,

because I'm not a clothes horse.

Anyway,

I really got way off the track.

Look,

look what happens in verse four.

John appeared

and those of you

who are a bit puzzled,

a bit new to the Christian faith

or just trying to figure it out,

there's two important Johns

in the New Testament.

There's John the Apostle

or the disciple

and there's John the Baptist

and this is John the Baptist,

not John the disciple.

So John appeared

baptizing in the wilderness

and proclaiming a baptism

of repentance

for the forgiveness of sins

and all the country of Judea

and all Jerusalem

were going out to him

and were being baptized

by him in the river Jordan,

confessing their sins.

Now John was clothed

with camel's hair

and wore a leather belt

around his waist

and ate locusts

and wild honey.

Now just sort of pause there

for a second.

What's going on

with his dress?

So first of all,

what's going on here

is that,

well actually,

we'll back up a sec.

One of the things

which would be obvious

in our culture,

it wouldn't raise any eyebrows,

it would just,

people would just nod with it,

is that it's a common place

in our culture

and in our culture

we think it's just

reason has taught us this,

that philosophers

have reasoned

and come to an enlightened position

and in that enlightened position

something like the following

is just obvious.

And the obvious thing

is that often

the powerful and the rich

are blind.

They're blinded

by their privilege,

they're blinded

by their position in society,

they're blinded

from being protected

from what ordinary people

have to go through

and because they're blind

and blinded

by their power

and position,

the people who can

really understand

what's going on

are often the people

who are outside

of the power.

They are the people

who,

and in fact,

we'd also just take it

for granted

that in our culture

if you find out

that a politician

is saying something

or a media person

is saying something

but you also find out

that they're dependent

upon financial donations

of somebody

that you can't really

trust their word,

that the people

you can trust the most

are the people

who aren't financially

beholden

to powerful people

and that it's often

the people

who are in the weaker

positions,

the outsider positions

that can more fully

see and understand

what's going on.

And in Canada,

we would just take

this as a common place

and in fact,

for most Canadians,

if you were to ask

the editorial board

of Globe and Mail

or the National Post

or if you were to go

to university faculty,

they would just say,

well,

that's just something

that enlightened,

reasonable people

have understood.

But here's the thing,

it's not an enlightened,

and reasonable idea.

Well, I mean,

it is enlightened

and reasonable,

but it's not something

that just came

by natural human reason.

It's a Christian idea.

It's a Christian idea

to completely

and utterly separate.

Our culture has forgotten

that they got it

from the Bible.

You see,

that's what's being

signified right here.

That John is out

in the wilderness

and people are coming

and the language

of the fact

that how he's dressed,

that's signifying

that he's in a sense

modeling himself

in his dress

over Elijah,

one of the greatest

of the prophets,

and the fact

that he's eating locusts

and wild honey,

what that shows

is that he's foraging

off the land.

He's not a beggar

and he's not rich.

And here we have

this picture

of the person

who's preparing

the way for God

is somebody not

in a palace,

not in a position

at the top

of the academy,

not at the top

of the media,

not at the top

of the arts,

not at the top

of business,

not at the part

of the civil service

or the bureaucracy,

but someone

in the wilderness.

And someone

in the wilderness

who's not dependent

upon begging

and isn't rich

but is just living

off the land

and is foraging,

he is able

to speak truth

into the culture

and truth

to power.

It's a Christian idea.

That's where it comes from.

In fact,

if you just think

about it for a second,

if somebody had gone

to the emperor Nero

who would have been

or one of the Roman emperors,

I can't remember

who the emperor

would have been

at this,

would have been,

I think,

Caesar Augustus

or was the guy

after Caesar Augustus.

Doesn't matter.

If somebody had gone up

to him,

they'd go back

in a time capsule

and say,

oh, by the way,

Caesar Augustus

or by the way,

Nero,

did you know

that your position

of privilege

has blinded you

so that you can't

actually understand

what's really going on

and what the meaning

of life is

and that the people

who really have

the understanding

about the way

life is going

are the people

who don't have

any particular power.

Now,

if you said that

to a Roman emperor,

you'd have to hope

that he'd just laugh,

that he'd be shocked

for a moment

and then say,

oh,

you know,

because he's used

to having mad men

and mad women around

and he's used

to having fools

and gestures

and he'd just laugh.

But if he actually

thought you were serious,

he would just kill you.

he would just kill you.

He'd probably do both,

laugh about how stupid

you are

and then kill you.

You see,

the idea that

you have to be separate

from power

to speak truth to power

isn't a reasonable idea

that comes from

just pure reason.

It comes from the Bible.

It's a biblical idea.

And that's what's going on here.

So we have John

described as a prophet

foraging off the land

in the wilderness.

And what is it

that he says?

And here's now

where we go back

to this subversive fulfillment

of these prophecies

about what God

is going to do

to rescue

and deliver his people.

Verse 7,

And he preached,

saying,

After me,

after me comes

he who is mightier

than I,

the strap of whose sandals

I am not worthy

to stoop down

and untie.

I'm going to say that again.

After me comes

he who is mightier

than I.

And this word mightier

doesn't just imply

that he's stronger,

like he's won

the world's strongest

man competition.

It's a bigger word

of might

and it's connected

to words like glory

and majesty

and worth

and rank.

After me comes

he who is mightier

than I,

the strap of whose sandals

I am not worthy

to stoop down

and untie.

And then he says this,

I have baptized you

with water

but he will baptize you

with the Holy Spirit.

In other words,

who is this person?

Who is this God

that I'm introducing God?

I'm saying prepare

the way of the Lord.

But one moment

the Lord wears sandals.

And how do you know

that it's the Lord,

that it's actually God?

Because only God

can actually tell

the Holy Spirit,

ask the Holy Spirit

to do something

and that the Holy Spirit

can actually come upon you

and come upon you

and immerse you

in God's saving work.

Immerse you

completely and utterly.

Only God can do that.

And John the Baptist says

this person is coming

and he's going to wear sandals

and I am not worthy

to stoop down

and take a position

lower than the lowest slave

and actually deal

with his sandals.

Now let's just be frank.

This is a very, very

unattractive idea

to Canadians.

To the average Canadian,

this,

to the average Canadian,

the idea that there is one

that you are not worthy

to stoop down

and untie their sandals,

that doesn't resonate

with anybody at all,

with most Canadians.

What does resonate

with Canadians?

When they meet someone greater

or someone who's exalted?

I'm just as good as them.

In fact,

I'm probably better.

Sorry to point in that direction

just to make it all evil.

I'm just,

I'm just as good as them.

In fact,

probably even better.

Isn't that what resonates

with Canadians?

Like if you were together

having coffee

at your favorite coffee place

and you're talking

about somebody at work

who's just gotten a promotion

and who seems to now

be strutting around

as if they're

a big important person

and if you said,

you know,

I'm just as good as them,

I'm probably better.

All of the other people

would go like this

and they'd all be thinking

the same thing.

I'm just as good

as that person.

In fact,

I'm probably better.

That's what resonates

with Canadians.

You see,

in our heart of hearts

for most Canadians,

so everybody you meet,

they have real

intellectual objections

to why Christianity

can't be true,

but in our heart of hearts

as Canadians,

we don't want the gospel

to be true.

We don't want it

to be true

because what does not

resonate with me

is that he is so,

of such great worth,

of such great worth

that apart from grace,

I am not worthy

to even touch his sandals.

That doesn't resonate

with me.

What resonates with me

is I'm just as good

as you

and probably better.

So in our heart of hearts,

we don't want the gospel

to be true.

We don't want

the gospel to be true.

Now,

our Muslim friends,

and that would include

our Muslim friends

who are Canadians,

they would be

the exception to this.

Our Muslim friends

would say,

stupid Canadians,

I mean,

not obviously,

maybe in public,

what they'd think.

Of course,

the messenger of Allah

is of such great worth.

Of course,

it's a foolishness

of Canadians

to not acknowledge

the greatness of Allah

and the greatness

of the messenger of Allah.

What John says here,

that is reasonable.

But then,

the Bible throws

a monkey wrench

of subversive fulfillment

to the average Canadian

and a monkey wrench

in the way

our Muslim friends

would understand the text

with what happens

in the very next few verses.

Look at what it says

in verses 9 and following.

In those days,

Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee

and was,

just by the way,

that would be like saying,

I'm George from Brudenell.

And none of you

have heard of Brudenell.

Well,

some of you have

because I've used that

as an example

in other sermons.

But like,

Brudenell is like nowhere.

It's not like saying,

hi,

I'm George from Manhattan.

You know?

I'm George from Brudenell.

Actually,

I'm not from Brudenell.

I'm from Montreal.

But you get the point.

Anyway,

in those days,

verse 9,

in those days,

Jesus came from Nazareth

of Galilee

and was,

what?

He was baptized

by John in the Jordan.

What?

I thought John just said

that he wasn't worthy

to untie

the sandals of Jesus.

What?

Jesus is getting baptized

by John?

That's all wrong.

That's what our Muslim friends

would say.

That's all wrong.

He shouldn't lower himself

and humble himself

before John.

John should be baptized

by Jesus.

Whoa,

whoa,

whoa,

whoa,

whoa.

The only people

who are getting baptized

are ordinary people

confessing their sins.

What is Jesus doing

getting baptized

by John in the Jordan?

And then it continues

to mess up our minds.

Look at verse 10.

And when he,

that is Jesus,

came up out of the water,

immediately he saw

the heavens being torn open

and the spirit descending

on him like a dove

and a voice came from heaven.

You are my beloved son.

With you,

I am well pleased.

By the way,

remember I said

one of the things

which Mark excels at,

he's like a very,

very excellent

artist

who can

just use with a few lines

draw these wonderful

word pictures.

And for many people

it's hard for them

to understand the Trinity

but you begin

to enter into

the understanding

of the Trinity

by just looking

at this very simple

word picture

of Jesus

who's been identified

as the Lord

in the earlier texts

and as the Son of God

and that as he comes

out of heaven,

as he comes out

of the water

that the heavens,

the presence of God

are parted

and that the voice

of God the Father

speaks

while the Holy Spirit

descends on him.

You have this

wonderful little

word picture

in just a few words

of the doctrine

of the Trinity.

But then after this

thing,

it continues

to mess up

our minds.

Verse 12,

the Spirit

immediately

what?

Took him

to the editorial office

to the Globe and Mail,

took him to Oxford

or Stanford

or Harvard,

took him to

Washington

to become

the new president

or the UK

to become

the new prime minister

of England

or to Ottawa

to become

the new prime minister

of Canada

or the United Nations

to become the head

of the United Nations.

The Spirit

immediately drove him

out into the wilderness

and he was in the wilderness

40 days.

What?

Being tempted

by Satan.

How could God,

the Son of God,

allow himself

to spend 40 days

being beaten around

by Satan?

And he was with

the wild animals

and don't think

of cute deer.

I was just in Vancouver.

I didn't realize this

but you know

that they had to close

Stanley Park

for a while

because the coyotes

were running wild

and they were a danger

to the public.

It was only when

the coyotes started

actually biting people

and especially a child

that they finally realized

they had to cull it.

So don't think deer.

Think coyotes.

Think mountain lions.

Think things

that would like

to eat you

as a snack.

Not things

that you could feed

with grass.

And he was

in the wilderness

40 days

being tempted

by Satan

and he was with

the wild animals

and the angels

were ministering

to him.

Here's what's going on

in this text.

You see

on one hand

we Canadians

what we don't like

is the idea

we're conflicted.

We're conflicted

because on one hand

it resonates

deep within us

as Canadians

that I'm just

as good as you

and maybe

probably better.

but at the same time

what are the

commercials

all appeal to?

The commercials

appeal to the fact

that you should have

this luxurious holiday.

You should have

this luxurious car.

Why?

Because you deserve it.

You deserve it.

And that speaks

deep to our hearts

as well.

And what speaks

deep to our hearts

is that if we could

just have

if we could

just win the lottery

if we could

just buy

the apple shares

go back in time

and buy the apple shares

when they were

first available

and hence

make lots and lots

and lots and lots

of money

that if we could

do that

gosh we would

eat in better places

and gosh

we would have

a servant

to take out

the garbage

and gosh

we wouldn't

sully our hands

with this

and gosh

we wouldn't

do that

and that appeals

to us as well.

See all these

things appeal

to us

at different times

in the same

human being

without realizing

on one level

we would like

to be that person

who everybody

else is pointing to

and actually

in our hearts

of hearts

we would say

to ourselves

everybody else

is pointing at me

and saying

I'm just as good

as them

and maybe

I'm just as good

as you

and maybe even better

and they're all

saying that

but they're wrong.

Wouldn't we

doesn't that also

resonate?

They're wrong.

I am better.

I am smarter.

I have worked harder

and I haven't

just worked harder

I've worked smarter

because I am smarter

and that resonates

with you as well.

How is it

that both resonate

with you?

Eh?

Like what type

of a person

are you

and am I

that on one level

I'd say

no you're not

better than me

I am better than you

and then the very next

moment I'd look

at somebody else

and say

I'm better than

you're not better

than me

I'm better than you

and why is it

that it resonates

with us

that if we just

had the money

we wouldn't do this

we wouldn't do that

we wouldn't do that

we wouldn't stoop

to this

why is it

that that resonates

with us

as well

and yet

and yet

and yet

and yet

isn't it true

that at the same time

mixed with all these

things

and it's those

those first types

of things

that we all say

and all express

because in our

heart of hearts

we don't want

Christianity to be true

in my heart of hearts

before I became

a Christian

I did not want

God

I did not want

the gospel

to be true

why?

well because in a sense

I was terrified

with texts like this

that to become a Christian

I would have to become weird

like John the Baptist

and wear weird clothes

and act weird

and I didn't want

to be weird

excuse me

but at the same time

at the same time

when we look at this

here's

here's

here's the other thing

that we all sense

at the same time

and this is why

at our hearts of hearts

we really

even though you don't

we think we don't want

the gospel to be true

if you really look

at your heart

you do want the gospel

to be true

one of the things

that it gets mentioned

by occasionally

by the same reporters

who cheer on

the closures

and other things

as at different times

throughout the whole

COVID thing

over the last

two years

or whatever

it feels like forever

occasionally there have

been people

who've commented

on the fact

that the government

will make an announcement

on Tuesday

or Wednesday

and then businesses

have to close

like three days later

like

okay

like they don't

it's as if

they don't identify with

and they don't identify

with or care

for small business owners

or the people

who have to

work at the Tim Hortons

or who

you know

who work in the gas stations

the people

pushing the carts

at Walmart

and filling the shelves

at the Metro

and the Loblaws

and it's as if

what we say

part of us

is that these people

they just sit there

on their keyboards

in their really nice house

in a nice part of Ottawa

and they make these decisions

and they just make

these decisions

and then they say

I think I'm going to have

myself a nice glass of wine

and some expensive cheese

and meanwhile

a whole pile of

people that are

lower working class

or just working class

people are out of jobs

and small business owners

are out of jobs

and what do we

on one hand

really deeply

also identify with

is that we think

that if powerful people

actually identified

with ordinary people

and weak people

and broken people

that they would

they would rule

in a wiser way

that that is the

direction of wisdom

is to not just

is to identify

with the weak

and the powerless

and because we

excuse me

we understand

that it's connected

to love

you know when I was

telling those stories

about my

you know how they

talk about my wife

I mean one of the things

about my wife

is she loves children

I was staying with somebody

you know you think

with nine kids

I'd be better

I have four of my

grandchildren around the table

I'm not quite sure

what to say to them

you know one of them

is I think nine

and then one seven

like ten eight

six and four

and I'm not

you know we have

a few little things

I don't know what to say

and we're all

you know

and then my wife

sits down

she sits down

and says to the kids

if you had a parrot

what would you teach it

to say

what a brilliant thing

to ask four kids

she understands

and identifies

with what it's like

to be a kid

and all of a sudden

all four of them

are chatting away

that if they had a parrot

what they teach it

to say

that's a free gift

if you have to spend

some time with kids

just ask them

if you had a parrot

what would you teach it

to say

and we all understand

that that being able

to identify

with the small

the weak

the lowly

that that's a mark

of love

that that's a mark

of wisdom

when we see that

we say gosh

I wish I could have

thought of something

like that

and when we

we see government

or other people

just turn off

for a second

I just need to call

okay

I think I'm fine

and you see

that's exactly

what's going on

here in the text

see how the

the Bible

what happens

is we look at the

we look at the Bible

we look at the gospel

we think that we know

and we think

we can stand in judgment

and we don't want it

to be true

but we don't understand

what the Bible does

is it starts to begin

to reveal our hearts

and the contradictory

nature of our hearts

and it subverts

the things within us

that aren't good

but actually starts

to fulfill the things

because for most of us

what matters the most

is things like love

what matters the most

is things like truth

what matters the most

is to be a person

who lives out of love

and lives out of truth

none of us want to be

a person who lives

according to the lie

none of us want to be

a person who lives

out of hatred

out of envy

envy is a sin

that gives us

no pleasure

that just feels us

we feel sorrow

at another person's success

it doesn't

and we would rather

not live out of that

but be free

and what we see here

is this

what does Jesus do

Jesus identifies

with ordinary people

that's why he's baptized

and what's in fact

is even more profound

is that Jesus identifies

with ordinary people

at the very very very

depth of who they are

and that's the significance

of the fact

that for 40 days

for 40 days

he's alone

with Jesus

Jesus puts himself

in a sense

allows Satan

to hammer him

for 40 days

to be tempted

and here's why it is

that Jesus

this story is telling us

that Jesus

identifies with human beings

at the very very very

very deepest level

there's a person

who's just got a promotion

he thinks he's better

than everybody else

and I happen to have

just come across

a piece of news

that if I told it

it would really

puncture him

would make him

look foolish

and everybody

would laugh

and especially

if I exaggerate

aspects of it

and if I

exaggerate

aspects of it

I can really

put that person

in their place

and everybody

will laugh

and chuckle

and I'll feel

pretty good

now it's wrong

to do that

isn't it

how long

can I stop

from telling

a group

of people

and with a group

of people

they all don't

like this person

they would really

laugh

we would really

have a good time

I hold off

for 10 seconds

and the pressure

is too much

I just got to

say it

or maybe

I'm feeling

really

strong

and I wait

a minute

I wait

a minute

and a half

I wait

five minutes

but finally

I give in

the pressure

to do it

builds and

builds and

builds and

builds until

I give it in

and if I'm a

very very shallow

person I give in

after one second

in fact I don't

even give in

I just jump

right at it

I start to

become convicted

of the Christian

faith and I

realize I

shouldn't do

something like

that so I

wait five

seconds

as I mature

as a Christian

I can wait

a minute

I can wait

two minutes

but eventually

I give in

to the temptation

to sin

who is the

only person

who understands

human behavior

and human

motivation the

most is the

one who could

have that

temptation

and endure

the temptation

and endure

the temptation

until the

temptation has

lost its

power

that is the

only person

who actually

understands the

depth of

human experience

and is identified

with the depth

of human

experience

and that is

Jesus

who set

aside his

glory and

divine splendor

and gets

taken

remaining

fully

God

takes into

himself

our human

nature

and lives

and walks

amongst us

and identifies

with you

and me

here's the

here's the

point

the son of

God

Jesus

stooped

lower than

low for

you

so that

you

stooped

and broken

by your

sin

might stand

whole

and free

as his

new creation

before other

people

and the

triune

God

the son

of God

Jesus

stooped

lower than

low for

you

so that

you

stooped

and broken

by your

sin

might stand

whole

and free

as his

new creation

before other

people

and the

triune

God

he identifies

with us

only without

sin

he identifies

with you

to the depth

of who

you are

and he

dies

for you

it's not

going to be

on the

screen

I forgot

to ask

Claire to

do it

those of

you have

Bibles

if those

of you

aren't

you can

just

listen

can you

just flip

over to

Mark

Mark 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15

I apologize

that it's not

on the screen

but Mark

15

and if you

look at

Mark 15

it's the

text

it's at

the end

of Mark

towards the

end of

Mark 15

where Jesus

is killed

dies on

the cross

and if you

just look at

verse 37

it goes like

this

and Jesus

uttered a

loud cry

and breathed

his last

and the

curtain

of the

temple

was torn

in two

from top

to bottom

the same

word

the only

other time

in the

word

the gospels

that the

word

torn

appears

is at

the

baptism

of

Jesus

and when

the

curtain

of the

temple

is torn

after

the

death

of

Jesus

and the

beginning

of the

gospel

begins

with

this is

the

gospel

of

Jesus

the

son of

God

he's

identified

as the

Lord

and what

happens

right after

that

and when

the centurion

who stood

facing him

saw that

in this

way he

breathed

his last

said truly

this man

was the

son of

God

Mark

ties

the

beginning

of who

Jesus

is

and his

identification

with

sinners

with his

death

upon the

cross

and what

it

accomplishes

the way

to God

is open

he has

identified

with you

and not

despised

you but

loved

you

he stoops

because

he sees

your

sin

he sees

that your

sin has

stooped

you and

broken

you and

he stoops

even lower

for you

that when you

put your

faith and

trust in

him

that process

of not

being like

this

but begin

to be able

to stand

and to be

whole

that that

process can