The First Gospel - w/Pastor Jenn Swift

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

I had a sinus infection this week.

Is that so fun?

I just put in a cough drop, and it's actually

making my mouth drier than it was.

My throat is better, but my mouth is drier.

So that's fun.

Anyway, I'm going to be, if I remember,

to drink a lot of water.

I will do that.

I hear a lot of people are dealing with sinus-y things

right now.

We're all in it together.

So fun.

We've been doing this series on the Book of Mark.

I have loved this series for a lot of reasons,

but keeping in mind that it was the first gospel that

was written, that was put out as a story

to circulate as a way to tell others about Jesus

now that the church was growing and getting bigger.

I've spent a lot of time in the last year

thinking about what an absolute miracle it is that the Church

of Jesus exists at all, that these faithful people wrote

this stuff down and encouraged other people that

were trying to figure out what kingdom living looked like

and trying to figure out what it meant to follow Jesus

and understand some of the weird things he said

and live out some of the really blatant things he said that

didn't make sense in their world.

And the distances that they cross themselves

to move around the ancient world to get these stories out,

the things that they did to get these things written down

in a time when literacy was not high,

and the ability to get the stuff down on materials

to make sure that this story got spread and circulated.

I am amazed at the fact that we're here 2,000 years later

getting to experience the life that we have in Christ

because of these really faithful people that just understood

how urgent it was to get this message out

about this man who came to tell us

the way to the kingdom of God.

That's an extraordinary thing to think about.

And so thinking about Mark's gospel or the gospel of Mark

and the fact that it was the first of the gospels

and that he laid down this template for how we remember

Jesus is amazing to me.

It's just amazing.

So I've appreciated getting into reading each week's verses

and putting myself in the frame of mind that remembers,

this was it.

This was the only narrative circulating.

There wasn't Matthew.

There wasn't Luke.

There wasn't John.

This was it.

And so what would it have been like to read these words when

I couldn't cross-reference other gospels

and other parallel accounts?

It's amazing to think about.

So that's where my brain has been

going a lot in reading and working through this series.

And we're in the 11th week of it.

And we've got a few more weeks to go.

It'll take us up till Easter.

But yeah, I've loved digging into it.

I would actually enjoy hearing from you guys

too what your experience has been in this book

as you've encountered it.

Has there been anything new jumping out at you,

things that you've read in a fresh way

or heard in a fresh way that really surprised you?

Feel free to share those things with myself or Pastor Chris

or talk about them with each other.

I would love to hear those conversations.

But I want to remind you, because I preached in January,

I think it was the third week, and I gave you

sort of a setup for the Book of Mark.

I gave you the breakdown of the three sections

that Mark used to guide his narrative.

And when I say Mark, we don't actually

know if there was a person named Mark who wrote this book.

It is the gospel that has been attributed

to somebody named Mark.

But it doesn't actually say, I'm the writer Mark.

And so we have speculation and really authoritative accounts

that have pointed towards Mark.

But when I say Mark, I don't actually

mean a person named Mark who is writing this book.

It's just an easy way of referencing the writer.

So in part one, the writer establishes Jesus

as the way to the kingdom.

That was his focus when writing this book.

I am pointing out that Jesus was the son of God

and that he is the way to the kingdom.

That was primary for Mark to establish

and to establish it quickly.

So you heard Pastor Gray talk about the baptism

a few weeks ago and what happened there.

In part two, we encountered the disciples and others

along the way from Galilee down to Jerusalem.

And what that journey was like, Mark

is setting up stories to show that others were invited

to Jesus in the way as he showed them glimpses of the kingdom

through how he cared for children, which Scott shared

with us last week, how he healed the blind,

how he relieved people of oppressive spirits,

how he lifted up the marginalized,

and how he fed the thousands out of few resources,

how he responded to those that were weighed down

by their religion.

And then in part three, where we find ourselves this week,

specifically, we're going to be moving through chapters 11

through 13, Jesus and company have made it to Jerusalem

and we have entered into Jesus's final week of life.

So before we get fully into it, I

do want to remind you of some context that is really

important to this account.

So I'll remind you that this book dates, the writing of it

dates from around 66 to 70, Common Era.

You may remember that I talked about a revolt that

had sprung up around this time led by a Jewish faction.

It took Rome by surprise, but Rome

was not going to let it slip.

And so they shot back devastatingly

in order to remind the Jews to keep things quiet,

or we will destroy you.

Church members fled Judea at that time.

The warnings about false messiahs and prophets

that Mark would talk about would certainly

have fit the historian Josephus's account of Judea

before and during that revolt as well.

So we are reading this account 35 to 40 years

after the events of Jesus's life.

And it's amazing to think about how

they had the staying power that they did,

that somebody 30 to 40 years out is writing these things down.

Because there's truth to them and there's power in them.

And the stories were important.

They're not fairy tales of the past,

but empowering accounts for the Jews of the present era

and for those who have chosen to follow Jesus in the way that

weren't of the Jewish faith.

The writer of Mark is addressing his readers

in their current context and highlighting stories

that mean something to them in their time.

Mark emphasized stories that identified Jesus

as the way to the kingdom.

And he was the way because he was recognized by God as such

at his baptism in Mark.

He said, when Jesus was baptized,

a voice said, you are my son, whom I love.

With you, I am well pleased.

And I do encourage you.

I mentioned this just a moment ago,

but I do encourage you to go back to Pastor Greg's message

on week two.

This was such a great message on Jesus's baptism

and how it was set up and the literary devices

that Mark uses to connect Jesus's baptism

with the creation of the world.

Jesus's sonship was a contentious thing

during this time because the Roman Caesars were

the ones that were identified as sons of God or sons of gods.

So it's a problem that Jesus is identified

as the son of God.

And the writer needs his readers to understand that Jesus

is the true son of God.

Additionally, it's helpful to remember that this gospel was

read as a single source.

As I said, there were not the other gospels available

giving context.

Luke and John and Mark, excuse me, Matthew,

their accounts did not exist for another possible 10

to 20 years after this.

When I preached in January, I highlighted five stories

of conflict in which Jesus had run ins

with the local religious authorities up north

in Galilee.

Mark was using these stories as a foreshadowing

of what was to come and the conflicts that

would lead to Jesus's death.

And this is where we find ourselves today.

We are here at said conflicts.

So I'm going to invite you to pray with me

before we move forward.

And I'm going to take a drink of water.

Jesus, thank you so much for how you've preserved

these words throughout time, that there

have been ancient writings that tell of you

and tell of who you are.

And the people who helped keep the message moving,

God, it's extraordinary.

I'm so grateful.

I'm so grateful for their sense of urgency

and sense of need for your message to be shared

and for your truth to be known as far and as wide as it

could go.

So thank you that it has reached us here in our lives,

in continents that people were not

aware of in the ancient world fully,

and that you've made these things available to us.

You reached us.

And that, in consideration of the original first century

church, seems impossible.

So God, we are grateful for who you are

and how you've made this message move globally.

Teach us today more about this.

Your name?

Amen.

Amen.

This cough drop's got to go.

Super done with it.

So on Sunday of this week that we are now

in in this passage in chapters 11 through 13,

on Sunday of this week, Jesus entered Jerusalem

to cheers of Hosanna while riding on a colt.

We are really familiar with that story.

That day, he enters the temple, presumably the outer courts,

where he will spend some time over the next few days.

Passover is approaching.

And we can imagine that the temple is getting busier

than it usually is.

People would come early for any number of ritual cleansings

that they needed to do ahead of time,

arrange for sacrifices to be purchased, conduct business.

It is estimated that 200,000 to 300,000 people

would come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover

in the days leading up to this holiday.

That's a lot of people.

That's the size of the Quad Cities,

descending upon Jerusalem in the ancient world.

That's a lot of people.

So Jesus and company were there.

Maybe they were looking for friends.

Maybe they were also doing the cleansing rituals.

Maybe they were also arranging for sacrifices.

But they were there.

They just spent some time.

They looked around for a while.

And then they left to walk back to where

they were staying in Bethany, which is about a two-mile walk

outside of the city.

And they were staying at a place near what's

known as the Mount of Olives.

Again, you will hear about this.

But that is day one of Holy Week.

It's fabulous procession and then just a real boring day

after that.

But I can't help think that Jesus really

got thinking about what he saw that day while at the temple.

Because the next day, when they head back to Jerusalem

for one of the days of purification,

they entered the part of the temple precincts

where worshipers exchanged coins to pay the annual temple tax.

Who's being taxed here?

Not everyone, just those who use the temple.

And if you're a Jew, you're required to worship and bring

offerings to the temple.

So who is the empire taxing?

Just the Jews.

Happy empire.

So you can see why the Jews had some tension with Rome.

So they were there observing these things.

And Jesus becomes so beside himself

at this point with what he names a den of thieves.

He starts overthrowing tables and disrupts the whole thing.

Expectedly, there are religious leaders there witnessing this.

They do not like it.

And they start thinking of ways to get rid of Jesus.

Jesus is a problem.

He's disruptive.

They don't like his teachings.

I've kind of heard about this guy up in the north.

Word has spread.

And so they start really thinking

through how he's a serious problem.

And there's a reason.

Jesus is not an outlier.

As I've said, there have been revolts and pushback

to the empire before.

They're sort of categorizing him in a similar way.

He's a revolutionary.

He's a problem.

We need to end this.

So after that incident happens, Jesus and his friends

go back to Bethany another night.

And then we are now at Tuesday, where

we're going to find ourselves for the bulk of this passage.

So on Tuesday, the crew heads back to Jerusalem,

back to the temple courts, where they just

disrupted a whole bunch of things the day before.

And they find that the events of the last few days

have riled up enough of the religious leaders in Jerusalem

that they happen to be there bright and early,

ready for Jesus, and with the intent

to put an end to all of this nonsense.

So Mark 11, 27 says, 27, 28.

It says, they arrived again in Jerusalem.

And while Jesus was walking in the temple courts,

the chief priests, the teachers of the law,

also known as scribes, that's useful to know,

and the elders came to him.

By what authority are you doing these things, they asked?

And who gave you the authority to do this?

Jesus responds by asking them a question, which his answer to

them is contingent on.

They refuse to answer, fearing it's a trick, which

is exactly what Jesus was worried about.

And so it means that they also don't get their answer.

So they kind of do this circulating thing.

He's like, I won't answer you if you don't answer me.

But then Jesus begins to speak to them in parables

as a way to reply to their question.

And so at chapter 12, verse 1 through 12,

if you're following along, it reads,

Jesus began to speak to them in parables.

A man planted a vineyard.

He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the wine press,

and built a watchtower.

Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers

and moved to another place.

At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants

to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.

But they seized him.

They beat him, and they sent him away empty-handed.

Then he sent another servant to them.

They struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully.

He sent still another, and that one they killed.

He sent many others.

Some of them beat, others of them killed.

And he only had one left to send, a son whom he loved.

He sent him last of all saying, surely they'll respect my son.

But the tenant said to the other, this is the heir.

Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.

So they took him and killed him and threw him

out of the vineyard.

I don't know if they don't realize that that's not

how inheritance works.

But nonetheless, they went forward.

They took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

What then will the owner of the vineyard do?

He will come and kill those tenants

and give the vineyard to others.

Haven't you read the passage of scripture?

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

The Lord has done this, and it's marvelous in our eyes.

Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law,

and the elders looked for a way to arrest him,

because they knew he had spoken the parable against them.

But they were afraid of the crowd,

so they left him and went away.

This does not go well.

This is not a good way to start off the week in Jerusalem.

The chief priests, the scribes, that whole crew,

what they want to do is have him arrested,

but they need to first discredit him with the crowd,

because the crowd likes him too much.

Why?

Because Jesus is a champion of those

that are unseen and oppressed.

And the crowd happens to like what he's been saying.

But the religious leaders, they fail.

People like this guy too much.

So however not to be outdone, they seemingly

join forces with each other, all of these religious leaders.

So what unites enemies?

A common enemy.

And so they have decided that Jesus

is an enemy to their establishment,

an enemy to their positions, because they have been set up

very conveniently from the Roman Empire.

The high priest was installed by the Roman Empire.

The officials that are in these positions

have done a really good job on keeping things very

chill with the Jews in Jerusalem,

because they know it'll go badly for them.

They'll lose their positions if the Roman Empire has problems

with the community.

So they're just basically trying to maintain

for their own heads.

But what follows here is a parade

of these assembled folks trying to ensnare Jesus

and trip him up.

And so I'm just going to run through sort of these headlines

at chapter 12, verse 13.

Later they sent some Pharisees and Herodians

to catch Jesus in his words.

1218, then the Sadducees, who say there's no resurrection,

came to him with a question.

1228, one of the teachers of the law

came and heard them debating, and he added a question.

So here's Jesus hanging out in the temple.

He actually starts teaching.

And then each of these groups just

starts throwing people at him to ask him questions, all of them

trying to trick him.

They all try to take a hit at him.

They swing, and they miss.

And so I want to look at these encounters that take place.

So at Mark 12, 13 through 17, this

is about paying the imperial tax that I mentioned before.

And it's only the Jews that are having to pay this.

So the verse says, later they sent some of the Pharisees

and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words.

They came to him and said, teacher,

we know that you are a man of integrity.

You weren't swayed by others, because you

pay no attention to who they are.

They're so slimy, right?

Because you're so good at this.

Teach the way of God.

Oh, wait, because you pay no attention to who they are.

But you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

Is it right to pay this imperial tax to Caesar or not?

Should we pay, or shouldn't we?

Here's something to pay attention to.

So please note, Jesus overturned the tables in the temple

where this was happening the day before.

They saw that he probably is anti-imperial tax.

This is not a random question.

This isn't snarement.

What you should know is that a number of years

before, in 6, 7 Common Era, a prophetic leader named Judas

organized a movement to worship God alone

and refuse to pay the tax to Caesar.

Acts 537 tells us that this guy was killed for this.

He opposed the imperial tax, set up a whole faction of people

against it, and as the leader of that faction,

was put to death because he refused

to pay the imperial tax.

So if they were looking for a way to get rid of Jesus,

I'm certain that they believed this was all they had to do.

This was it after they had witnessed what they

had witnessed the day before.

In fact, it is this same Judas and his related acts

of rebellion who's credited with the beginning of what's

been identified as the fourth philosophy

or the offshoot of Judaism known as the Zealots, which

the historian Josephus blames for,

incidentally, a disastrous war with the Romans at around 66

BC, or AD, rather, the time of the writing of this book.

Also, did Jesus have a known zealot by the name of Simon

within his band of merry men?

Yes, he did.

Can you see why they were terrified?

Can you understand, too, that the readers of Mark

would have understood the importance of this moment?

They would have known about this revolt of the Zealots

and what the result of it was.

They were living in the results of it at the time.

They were living in the results of it at the time of the reading.

So Jerusalem at Passover was really dangerous.

It was well known to both Caiaphas, who

is the high priest, installed by Rome, and Pilate,

the prefect or governor to whom the high priest was

responsible, also installed by Rome,

that the time of festivals were likely times of uprisings.

It is not unreasonable that people were nervous,

and it is not surprising that they were targeting

the jugular here.

This was not a sly exchange between low-key rivals

of opposing teams.

This was a grenade with the hand on the pin.

Jesus had to answer just right, or they

could kill him on the spot.

So verse 15 goes on to say, but Jesus knew their hypocrisy.

Why are you trying to trap me?

He knew.

He absolutely knew what he was being set up for.

All of this history was known.

Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.

They brought the coin, and he asked them,

whose image is on this, and whose inscription?

The inscription would have said, Caesar, son of God.

Caesars, they replied.

Then Jesus said to them, give back to Caesar,

what is Caesar, Caesars, and to God, what is God's.

That's an amazing response.

So, so, so good.

And I mean, it's kind of mind-blowing

when you think about all that's wrapped up

in what they were trying to do.

Again, this was not just a low-key,

oh, let's just ask him when he thinks about this,

like, oh, the imperial tax.

No, this was the question that was going to get him,

and he responded so beautifully.

little bit of a

I wish we could actually spend more time

in this particular moment, but we do need to move on.

But I encourage you to dig into more around that.

It is, it's fascinating.

So moving on to the second interaction,

chapter 12, 18 through 27, marriage at the resurrection.

So the writer begins with the following statement,

then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection,

that's important.

For a few, for a few reasons,

this is a distinction worth making,

and also tells us that the book's audience

may not know that there's a distinction to be made,

which means that the reader may not be exclusively Jewish.

And that tells us something about

the Christian church at this point.

The recognition that Christianity is now

distinct from Judaism, which it wasn't for a long time,

but this recognizes that Christianity

is now distinct from Judaism at this point in time,

and that it's not just Jews that are following in the way,

but it's also Gentiles.

And so Mark had to say, the Sadducees,

who don't believe in resurrection, that matters.

The Sadducees were an aristocratic party

who observed the written laws of Torah,

the first five books that we have of the Bible,

the books of Moses.

They're the books of the law.

That's what they observed, only, not the prophets,

not the books of wisdom, not the other books.

They were only about the Torah.

And so they believed a person lived on

through their children and broader lineage.

That was what extended life past life,

like life after death, looked like for them,

because they would say there's nothing about resurrection

written in the books of Torah.

However, the Pharisees, different group,

did recognize the scriptures beyond the books of the law,

and therefore also read the scriptures of the prophets,

and what we define as the books of wisdom, for example.

So resurrection of the dead was not a belief

in early Israel, like long hundreds and hundreds

of years ago.

There was a shield, and the Greek idea of Hades was adopted,

but these were not like, these are not places

where you have a body inside of you,

you have a body and soul existing.

They were just sort of like these like,

places of darkness.

But resurrection as an idea showed up

in the prophecy books of Isaiah and Daniel,

writings that the Pharisees acknowledged,

but the Sadducees did not.

So when the Sadducees come at Jesus,

they have a question about resurrection,

which they don't believe in.

So temple Jews of the first century were more in alignment

with the Pharisees than on the Sadducees at this point,

so it's important that Jesus knows

that he's dealing with a Sadducee and not a Pharisee.

So the scripture says, then the Sadducees,

who say there is no resurrection,

came to him with a question.

Teacher, they say, Moses wrote for us

that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife

but no children, the man must marry the widow

and raise up offspring for his brother.

That's the law.

Now, there were seven brothers.

Here's the story.

Here's the conundrum.

The first one married and died without leaving any children.

The second one married the widow,

but he also died leaving no child.

It was the same with the third.

In fact, none of the seven left any children.

Last of all, the woman died too.

At the resurrection, which they don't believe in,

whose wife will she be since the seven were married to her?

Jesus replied, I love this,

are you not an error because you don't know the scriptures

or the power of God?

Jesus is pointing out that they failed to perceive

and comprehend that their Mosaic scriptures

did in fact teach the doctrine of the resurrection

and that God has the ability to accomplish the resurrection.

In verse 26, Jesus goes on to say,

now about the dead rising,

have you not read the book of Moses?

Ding.

A book of the law, of course they've read the book of Moses.

They would have been like, excuse me,

are you trying to school us in the books of Moses?

Are you trying to school us in the books of the law?

So Jesus goes on to say, in the account of the burning bush,

how God said to Moses, I am the God of Abraham,

the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

You are badly mistaken.

Jesus points out that God stated, I am, not I was,

I am indicating that the Lord has a continuing

covenantal commitment to Abraham,

even though Abraham had died centuries before

this testimony, died centuries before this testimony

made in the time of Moses.

God addresses Moses with a present and ongoing recognition

of a relationship and covenant with Abraham.

Furthermore, the fact that God originally created man

as a unity of body and soul, Genesis 2, seven,

book of the law, indicates that the future resurrection

is necessary for Abraham and his children to be restored

to a full covenantal relationship, a fellowship,

and blessing with God, for God to say,

I am the God of Abraham.

So here's this backwater rabbi who is well below

their class in every way, opening up their sacred

scriptures to them by way of an irrefutable reply,

and it levels them instantly.

Again, these are not just schoolyard games being played.

There are high stakes involved.

Jesus is disrupting massive constructs

with these encounters.

The last encounter is not so fragile,

but on the tails of the other two, it is important.

So here we find ourselves at chapter 12, 28 through 24,

the greatest commandment.

So here we encounter a teacher of the law,

also known as a scribe.

In the book of Deuteronomy, we are told that the Levites,

were the teachers of the law, but under the influence

of Greek Hellenized world, which is anything

from Alexander the Great in the early 300s BC,

to about this time period, these people, Roman Empire,

but Hellenized world, Greek-influenced world.

During the time of Hellenization, non-priests were added

to the scribal class in greater numbers,

so it started mixing with the original intent

that the Levites, the priestly class,

were the ones that were preserving the law,

and now we have people just keeping it,

like looking for the problems, and then pointing out

the problems, and then reporting on those

who are making problems with the law.

So at this time, scribes were also philosophers,

sophists, counselors, and teachers.

Jewish scribes were basically bureaucrats.

They were experts on Jewish life and law,

they would spend their time making contracts,

drafting documents, and serving as government officials.

But they mostly lived in Jerusalem

and associated with the priests.

They were experts in judicial procedures,

helpful in the enforcement of Jewish law and custom,

and even joined the governing class,

and served on the Sanhedrin.

Because they depended on the wealthy for their training,

and their positions, they were loyal

to the chief priests and the leaders, installed by Rome.

You can see how this might be a problem, right?

So one of the teachers of the law, scripture says,

came and overheard them debating,

and noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer,

he asked them, asked him, of all the commandments,

which is the most important?

That's a question.

Is there a right answer?

Oh gosh, what are you looking for,

is what you wanna say to this guy.

What are you wanting to hear?

The commandments are the original law,

straight down from God.

How does one answer that?

What Jesus says in response,

will trigger all manner of Sunday school lessons,

and possibly even Christian art,

maybe 100 sermons you've heard in your life.

But please remember this.

This was the first time it was being presented this way,

and it was no small thing that Jesus was about

to call these things out as the first and second

of the greatest commandments.

Jesus says, the most important one is this.

Hear, oh Israel, the Lord your God is one.

Love the Lord your God with your whole heart,

and with your whole soul, and with all your mind,

and with all your strength.

The second is this, love your neighbor as yourself.

There's no commandment greater than these.

You asked for one, I gave you two.

Jesus is reciting Deuteronomy six, four and five,

for his recognition of the greatest,

and Leviticus 19, 18 for the second.

He knows who he's talking to.

He's pulling from the books of the law.

But he's not talking about law, is he?

No, he's talking about the core of the message.

The core of Deuteronomy as a book is to talk about

the covenant that binds Yahweh and Israel

by oaths of fidelity and obedience.

God will give Israel blessings of the land,

fertility and prosperity so long as Israel

is faithful to do God's teaching,

disobedience will lead to curses and punishment.

That's the book of Deuteronomy.

One of the main messages imparted from the book

of Leviticus though is that it is for those

who have already accepted the presence

of God in their lives.

This indicates that the starting point

is not with learning about the laws,

but about living the relationship with God that you have.

And so Jesus spoke in a language to this scribe.

He spoke in a language he would understand.

So in this case, the teacher of the law responds,

in a way you actually would hope one might.

There's a turning point here.

In fact, it's actually a really beautiful exchange

and I wonder, I wonder if at this moment

we see a heart change.

That perhaps as this man was approaching,

he would have known full well that these guys

are trying to entrap Jesus.

He would have known full well that he has also

participated in helping keep things calm and quiet.

But I'm wondering that as he was approaching,

did he come and have his heart change on the way?

It would be easy to assume because oftentimes

the scribes and Pharisees come as a package deal

in scripture, it would be easy to assume

that this would go as badly as the other two encounters.

But I think we instead witness someone who chose

to open themselves up to the moment and the message

and the way of Jesus and truly saw the kingdom

as it was being offered to him.

And Mark may have been saying, even a scribe,

even a teacher of the law can be welcomed in.

When the kingdom is at the heart of the message.

And I think it would have been a big deal to the readers

that Mark highlighted this scribe as somebody

who had this sort of warm encounter with Christ

because the teacher responds by saying,

you are right in saying, he said, well said teacher,

that's actually really important, well said teacher,

well said, Rabbi, I acknowledge you as a teacher

and I acknowledge you as a Rabbi.

The man replied, you are right in saying that God is one

and that there is no other but him,

to love him with all your heart

and with all your understanding, with all your strength

and to love your neighbor as yourself.

And he adds, the scribe goes on to add

that these are more important

than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.

He's saying that in the temple on the week of Passover,

that to love the Lord your God with your whole heart,

soul and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself

is more important than burnt offerings and sacrifices.

That dude could have gotten his head cut off.

That's a bold statement, but it shows what can happen

when somebody understands the kingdom and the way of Jesus.

He was listening to these encounters.

So when Jesus saw that he had answered wisely,

he said back to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.

And from then on, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

I have no further questions, your honor.

I love that this series of encounters,

because if you were a reader at this time,

you would have read this like, is this it?

Is this how it went down?

And of course, these are the encounters

that lead to Jesus' arrest and crucifixion.

We are not far, but Jesus still had some work to do.

And I think that these encounters are so critical.

How Mark sets these up is really stunning.

The way he orders them and the way he ends them

with that encounter with the scribe.

That not all is lost.

That even among you, you might be suspicious

of the people that are coming alongside of you in the way.

You don't know.

You don't know if they're spies.

You don't know if they're people

that are trying to entrap you.

But how Jesus responds to this gentleman

is just like he treats them,

in the fact that he treats all of them the same.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

I will respond in a way

that does, it will bring you honor

or it will bring you recognition of who you are.

I'm not trying to dismantle you,

I'm trying to dismantle your system.

Trying to tear down the things that you hold to.

I'm trying to tear down your kingdoms

while we are building another one.

Let me show you the way.

And if you wanna join in the way, you can.

There's nothing holding you back but you.

I find that so powerful in these exchanges.

Jesus wasn't dismantling the Sadducees.

He wasn't dismantling the people.

He wasn't targeting them.

He was targeting their constructs.

I think that's an important distinction to make.

And so as we leave it,

with this gentleman saying, love the Lord your God,

we're recognizing this is it.

You're right, this is exactly it.

I said before that the readers of this book

would have needed encouragement.

It was a scary time for them.

There was a lot of tension with the empire.

There was a lot of tension even with the people

that were supposed to be their religious leaders.

They were meant to be the ones

that were holding the core of their religion together.

And it wasn't going well.

And so people really had to address the fact,

what kingdoms am I participating in?

What kingdoms am I putting my faith in?

What kingdoms and institutions am I holding to

or selling myself out for or buying into?

And Mark, I think, was trying to tell his readers,

be brave, follow in the way.

This, this is the way.

I just, my brain went there

if you're a Mandalorian person.

This is the way.

But follow in the way to God's kingdom.

This is how you do it.

Hold fast, hold steady, stay focused.

Because all the other kingdoms are gonna fall.

We've already watched some things falling apart.

They already knew the Roman Empire was getting shaky.

Things were not going well.

And so they had already seen what it could be like

when empires are in a fragile state.

And I think Mark was like, just hang on.

I wanna add just briefly,

when I do these trips that I take for work,

I am often in places that have a lot of ancient sites.

And so I was in Greece this summer for a conference,

and then I was in Turkey, and in both of these places,

I had an opportunity to travel

to some of the ancient cities like Corinth and Ephesus,

Laodicea, Pergamum, Hierapolis,

and walk these streets that were the Roman Empire

at one point.

And they are in ruins.

You know, that's not a surprise to us.

It's been 2,000 years.

We expect empires to fall.

We can name off.

We've studied them.

But when you're living in one,

it feels like it's never gonna end,

and you can't find a way.

You can't find a way.

In the city of Laodicea,

there is a church that's been excavated there.

It's a Byzantine-era church,

which is the era that sort of came

as the Roman Empire was falling,

centralized in what was Constantinople,

became Istanbul.

Some of you are also thinking about that song.

Istanbul.

But the church there,

it's large.

It's a large church, and it's really amazing.

It's set on top of this hill in the city of Laodicea,

which in the Book of Revelation, God said,

you are lukewarm, and I will spit you out of my mouth.

And here is this church that made it

to the first and second century AD.

And I have to say, when I walked up to,

the baptismal is incredibly well-preserved and excavated,

and I got emotional walking up to that,

because again, what I said at the beginning of this message,

it's astounding that the message has received us

when you think of all the things that it encountered.

And it is a true miracle.

And so thinking about the people that were baptized

in that baptismal, and it's in true Eastern fashion.

You go in one side, and you come out on the Eastern side.

It's facing, it's oriented with the passage of the sun.

And you die and you rise with the rise of the sun.

And it's just, it's incredibly powerful

to think about the intentionality of that,

and also the people that walked through that,

that built the church, that built what we now understand

as building into the kingdom of God.

And it got to us, and that is extraordinary.

And so as you guys go forward,

I want us to take these encounters

that Jesus had with these people

to recognize that the systems themselves,

it's not the people that have built the systems

or are participating or upholding the systems

that are our challenge, it's the systems themselves.

But if we treat the people as people

who could join us in the way,

that could be a part of the kingdom,

we will, I think we will find these encounters,

like with the scribes at the end,

where they actually caught a glimpse of it,

and they understood, oh yeah,

to love the Lord your God

with your whole heart, strength, and mind,

to love your neighbor as yourself is better

than any other sacrifice or burnt offering

that you could offer.

Let's pray.

Jesus, help us hold these truths in our heart today.

Help us be people that also have this sense of urgency

of sharing your kingdom with others,

what it means to tell others about you,

to share your hope, your life, and your love with them.

What a life looks like when it is loving others

and loving you fully with our whole selves.

Will we see, will we see believers on this earth

in a thousand years because of how we built the kingdom?

And did we follow you faithfully,

and did we follow you faithfully in your way of kingdom life

and how we interacted with others?

I pray that you help us, strengthen us as a community,

strengthen us as individuals, God,

we need your help for this.

We pray this in your name, amen.