Jesus - A Hard Act to Follow - Mark 6:7-30

Sermon Series: Spare Me the Details - Just Give Me Jesus

Have you ever thought about the sacrifices that you would be willing to make for someone that you treasure?  I think back on college when I first started dating my wife.  At the time I was a cheerleader at NC State and between classes, practices, and both football and basketball games I didn’t have time for a job.  So I had to work hard to save money during the summer and then work hard to make it last throughout the school year.  In order to do that I had to make some personal sacrifices.  One of the things I did was eat at the dining hall every chance that I had (and trust me eating at the dining hall all the time is a huge sacrifice).  While my suite mates might have been ordering pizza or making a run to a nearby fast food restaurant I would go to the dining hall.  That’s because my meal plan was already paid for and I could go and eat at the dining hall without any extra out of pocket cost.  I also went without cable TV, internet access in my room, and a cell phone.  Instead I would watch whatever came on that I could pick up with my rabbit ears, go to the computer lab to check email and surf the net, and used a pre-paid calling card to make long distance calls.  Why did I do all of these things?  So that when I was with Amy I could do things for her.  I wanted to be able to take her out for ice cream every once in a while.  I wanted to be able to take her to the $1.50 movie theater on occasion.  And I to be able to get her a gift on her birthday and at Christmas.  Because I loved her I was willing to deny myself some of the things that I wanted so that I could show her that I loved her.

Now consider this - there are a lot of different ideologies in our world today.  Some of those ideologies involve ideas about who Jesus is and what He wants for us.  In fact there are many today who believe that God and Jesus are longing to pour out their blessings on people so that we as individuals will be better off physically and financially and have a much more comfortable life.  They believe in the goodness of God, but they believe the goodness of God is manifested in making much of us.  And any time we begin to think that the Creator’s job is to exalt and make much of His creation our theology gets a little backwards.  Instead we need to understand that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is the only One worthy of worship.  He is our greatest treasure.  And we need to strive to love and treasure Him above all else and then live in a way that reflects that.  With that being said let’s ask this question as we dive into the text, “Does Jesus present his followers with anything that can help them identify what the life of one who treasures Him might look like?”  Based our text this week the answer is a resounding ‘yes.’  According to Mark 6:7-30 we will see that Jesus presents three things that will help us identify what the life of one who treasures Him might look like.

Let’s begin by turning our focus to chapter 6, verses 7 and 12-13 and notice the call that Jesus presents.  Last week we saw Jesus arrive in His hometown of Nazareth and saw the astounding disbelief of the people in light of the remarkably clear evidence He gave regarding who He was.  At the end of verse 6 it says that Jesus “went about among the villages teaching.”  And as we pick-up the text this week we are reminded that Jesus’ intent was not that He alone would be involved in the work of ministry.  In Mark 1:16-20 He called others to follow Him, in 3:13-19 He designated some as apostles, and in 4:10-12 He taught that select group of followers.  Now in verse 7 Jesus calls the 12 apostles and sends them out on mission to do the work of ministry.  The call is somewhat of a surprising one.  Jesus has proven in the preceding chapters to be incredibly equipped for the work of ministry.  He teaches with authority and performs extraordinary miracles demonstrating His power over creation, spirits, and death.  But by the readers’ estimation, the apostles aren’t ready for such a call. In 1:36-39 Peter and the others impeded Jesus’ ministry, in 4:38 and 5:31 they seem exasperated with Him and question Him.  So it seems somewhat odd that Jesus would entrust such an important ministry to those who are far less qualified than He.  However, at the end of verse 7 we see that Jesus equips those apostles, giving them authority over unclean spirits.  And in verses 12 and 13 we see the nature of the call as we see the apostles going out, proclaiming repentance, casting out demons, and healing.  Mark makes it clear for his readers that Jesus presents a call for His disciples to serve Him, providing his readers with both the nature of the service that we are called to and the promise of equipping that Jesus makes.  This is great news for those who are followers of Christ.  While none of us will ever be as equipped and prepared as Jesus was (or as equipped or prepared as we would like to be) our call to serve Him is defined by Him and our equipping comes from Him and is based on His authority.  Like the apostles we need to be going out and like the apostles we need to be proclaiming salvation through Jesus.  Keeping to ourselves and celebrating the message of salvation with those who have already received it isn’t enough.  Jesus presents a call to serve Him to His followers and when we really treasure Him our lives will be marked by obedient service, regardless of how well prepared or equipped we think we are.  James Edwards in his commentary on the Gospel of Mark wrote this, “The sending of these particular individuals – and at this stage of their understanding of Jesus – testifies to the beleaguered believers in Mark’s church, indeed to believers of every age, that the fulfillment of the word of God depends not on the perfection or merit of the missionaries but on the authoritative call and equipping of Jesus.”  When we treasure Christ above all things we will want to make much of Him and the way Jesus calls us to do that is through serving Him making Him known.  He’s not concerned about how equipped or prepared we may be.  He simply desires our obedience and promises that He will provide the equipping we need.

The text causes us to get a little uncomfortable in verses 8-11 because in addition to presenting the call to the disciples, Jesus also presents the cost of their service.  He tells the apostles in verses 8 and 9 that they aren’t to take anything with them.  No bread, no bag, and no money.  All Jesus permits them to take is a staff and their sandals.  That seems a little extreme doesn’t it?  But going with just the essentials would ensure that the apostles put their trust in Jesus alone.  They couldn’t rely on or put their trust in their supplies.  They would have to have faith in and they would have to depend on Jesus.  Hear another thought from James Edwards, “If they go with an elaborate support system and provisions for every eventuality, then they need not go in faith, and apart from faith their proclamation is not believable.”  In verses 10 and 11 Jesus continues to present the cost of their service.  Here He speaks to the reception that the apostles may receive.  In some of the places they go they will be received well (and in that case they are to continue on staying with those individuals who put them up – moving from house to house would have dishonored their hosts.)  In other places they would not be received and the people would not listen to them.  That’s exciting, right?  Jesus says, “I’m sending you out to serve me, but I don’t want you to take anything with you.  And, oh, by the way, some of the places you go won’t receive you, listen to you, or help you out.”  In that case Jesus instructs the apostles in how they are to respond.  In order to understand what Jesus was instructing the apostles to do we first have to consider the meaning of the act.  In Jewish culture Jews who were traveling outside of the Promised Land were required to shake themselves free of dust when returning home because they weren’t to pollute their inheritance with the dust of a pagan land.  So when Jesus tells the apostles to shake off the dust from their feet, the disciples would have been communicating that that specific Jewish community or village was no different than a pagan community.

Jesus doesn’t pull a bait and switch here with His apostles.  He presents them with a call to serve, but He also presents them with the cost.  Being a follower of Christ and acting in obedience to His call to service will mean denying ourselves some of the things that would make us more comfortable.  Being a follower of Christ and acting in obedience to His call to service will mean serving without having all the things that might make us more confident in our service.  And being a follower of Christ and acting in obedience to His call to service will mean that we will sometimes be rejected by our peers.  This is hard for us to swallow sometimes because this is the exact opposite of what the American dream says is possible.  The American dream says that we live in a place where we work and serve to make ourselves more comfortable.  The American dream says that we live in a place where we can have all the technology and advancements that will make us more confident in the work we do.  And the American dream says that we can do this in a place where we will be accepted and celebrated just for being us.  We live in a culture and a context in which coming to grips with the cost of service to Christ is incredibly hard.  Does serving Christ really cost so much?  Does Jesus’ presentation of the cost of following Him really mean that we should go without some of those things that the American dream tells us are rightfully ours?  And if so, how do we, who have had the American dream impressed upon us so much, come to grips with such a costly service.  The answer is we have to treasure Christ above all things.  And the way we come to treasure Christ above all things is by continually putting ourselves before the truth of who He is, what the real condition of our heart and soul is, and what Christ has done for us to give us new life.  When we are constantly reminded of that incredible news Christ becomes our treasure – not the comforts, acceptance, and confidence that the American dream promises.  When we are constantly reminded of that incredible news our desire won’t be to live for ourselves, but our desire will be to live for and make much of Him.  And when that becomes our ultimate treasure and our ultimate desire (and not ourselves) service that costs us doesn’t become so hard to swallow, because life is about making much of Him, not making much of ourselves.

Mark makes this point incredibly clear when he inserts the next narrative, because there we see along with the call and the cost Jesus presents, we also see the model that Jesus presents (verse 14-29).  [Hang in there with me through this narrative because on the surface we see the life of John the Baptist as a model for costly service, and it most certainly was.  But we’re also going to see some points in this narrative where we see Mark using John the Baptist’s death to foreshadow Jesus’ death and the model that Jesus, Himself gave to us who would follow after Him.]  Verse 14 begins with the statement that “King Herod heard of it . . .”  It’s unclear exactly what King Herod heard about.  It could be that King Herod heard from a team of the apostles about Jesus or it could be that he was simply getting other reports of Jesus as news about Him and opinions about Him circulated through the towns by the people who had been a part of the crowds who had heard Him teach and seen Him perform the miraculous signs and wonders which He had done.  In verses 14 and 15 it seems that the people had formulated some interesting opinions about who Jesus was – some saying He was John the Baptist risen from the dead, some saying Elijah, and others saying that He was one of the other prophets.  This shouldn’t surprise us too much since last week we saw the people of Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth not really understanding who Jesus was.  But these ideas of Jesus being John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the other prophets must have been very widely spread.  We have records in Matthew 16:13; Mark 8:27; and Luke 9:18 of Jesus asking His disciples the question, “Who do people say that I am?” and these are the same three responses that the disciples give.  Verse 16 tells us that Herod was choosing to believe that Jesus was John the Baptist risen from the dead.  And in verses 17 and following Mark presents his readers with an account of how John the Baptist was killed.  History tells us that Herod persuaded Herodias to divorce his brother Philip, who she was married to, to become his wife.  Herod had to get rid of his own wife as well in order to marry Herodias.  Mark tells us that John the Baptist was speaking out against Herod for the unlawful thing he had done in making Herodias his wife (Lev. 18:16; 20:21).  It seems that neither Herod nor Herodias particularly cared for John’s vocal disapproval and that Herod had John arrested and thrown into prison.  However, Herod’s relationship with John wasn’t one entirely of hate.  While Herod did not care for John’s disapproval concerning his marriage it appears that he was intrigued with John’s teachings and that he enjoyed listening to him.  In listening to John, Herod knew that John was a righteous man so he was unwilling to put him to death (which is what Herodias wanted) but because of Herodias strong disapproval of John, he was unwillingly to set John free and to give him the opportunity to speak against them in a public setting.

In verse 21 Mark tells us how that situation changed.  Herod threw a banquet to celebrate his birthday and invited the most powerful men in and around the area.  As part of the banquet Herodias’ daughter comes in and dances for the men and the dance pleases both Herod and his guests in an extraordinary fashion.  He was so pleased by the dance that he promised Herodias’ daughter whatever it is that she wants.  After a brief consultation with her mother she returns to Herod and asks for John the Baptist’s head on a platter.  It seems that Herod realizes the folly of his promise in verse 26, but because of the pressure of his guests to make good on his vow, Herod sends an executioner to John who cuts John’s head off and then brings it on a platter to Herod so that he can present it to Herodias’ daughter. 

John’s martyrdom inserted into the narrative of Jesus sending the twelve out on mission becomes a clear model of what the consequences of following Jesus may entail.  And while John’s model would stand as a strong example for followers of Christ, John’s model in this passage also foreshadows the model of Jesus.  Notice how Mark draws out certain similarities in the deaths of John the Baptist and Jesus.  Both John and Jesus are sentenced to death by political figures who are influenced more by peer pressure than they are their own understanding of innocence.  Both John and Jesus are presented as victims who go to death quietly, rather than arguing their innocence and fighting for life.  And both John and Jesus are put to death as righteous men, free of any wrong doing.  So even more than John the Baptist, Mark was pointing to Jesus, Himself, as the ultimate model for those who would believe in and follow Him.  If Jesus suffered in a manner like this for His ministry it should not come as a surprise that we might have to endure hardships in like manner.  His experience of self-denial, suffering, and even death serve as evidence that He doesn’t call His followers to anything that He Himself has refused to endure.  And His faithfulness throughout His great suffering should strengthen our faithfulness and resolve to serve Him well even in the midst of the difficulties and trials that we will endure.

The presentation of this kind of call, cost, and model aren’t limited to this passage of scripture.  Three times in the NT gospels (Matt. 16:24; Mark 8:34; and Luke 9:23) we hear Jesus say, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”  And again, Jesus is presented as our ultimate model.  He calls for His followers to deny themselves, but we also know that He denied Himself the riches and glories of Heaven for a time to take on flesh and come to our sinful and broken earth.  He calls for His followers to surrender their ‘right’ to life and to follow Him when He calls for us to take up our cross.  But we know that He did the very same thing for us, in a very literal sense, giving up His right to life, taking up His cross, and dying as our substitute.  This kind of service and the cost it involves, and the model which Jesus presents don’t sound like or look like typical American Christianity.  We value comfort and acceptance because we have been told that life should center around us.  But we have to recognize the deceitfulness of that message.  Life doesn’t and shouldn’t center around us.  The greatest treasure in this world is God!  And His greatest gift to us is Jesus!  And each one of us has at one point or other has failed to honor God as the only One who is worthy of worship and praise.  We have loved and treasured and chased after other things.  And in so doing we have exchanged the worship of God for the worship of other things.  The Bible calls that sin and it tells us that the consequence of our sin is our separation from God for all eternity.  But God, in His great love for us, pursued us while we were chasing after those other things.  He made a way for us to be reconciled to Him by sending us One who would rescue us from our sin.  He sent His Son, Jesus, to us.  And while here on earth He lived a perfect life of righteousness.  He, in His love for us, chose to take the punishment for sin which we deserved upon Himself.  On the cross He became our substitute.  He exchanged His righteousness for our sin and made a way for us to have forgiveness and cleansing from the sin that we had committed.  When we come to grips with the majesty of Jesus and the love of Jesus and the great sacrifice of Jesus so that we might once again be reconciled to God, then we will truly treasure Him.  When we come to grips with these truths we’ll realize that it no longer makes sense to try to make much of ourselves but that we ought to be living to make much of Him.  And when we understand that life is really all about making Jesus and His salvation known and not making ourselves more comfortable, then it won’t be a big deal to us if we have to deny ourselves some things so that we can be more effective in making Him know. 

The call, cost, and model that Jesus presents in Mark 6:7-30 certainly make one thing very clear – Jesus is a hard act to follow.

Questions for Small Group Discussion

1. Read Mark 6:7,12-13.  In these verses Jesus presents His followers with a call to serve Him.  What are some of the challenges that we face or obstacles that get in our way of serving Him?  How would your day be different if you were serving Him more enthusiastically tomorrow - what would your day look like?  How do we get there - is the answer simply to do more things?  Why or why not?

2. Read Mark 6:8-11.  In these verses Jesus presents His followers with the cost of serving Him.  Why do many Christians and many churches cringe at the idea of going without something or being rejected by our peers?  What are some of the things we have that bring us comfort, but that we could go without?  How can going without those things help in the service of Christ?  Is the answer for us simply to sell all of our things?  Why or why not?

3. Read Mark 6:14-29.  In these verses we saw in John the Baptist the potential outcome for those who faithfully serve Jesus, but we also noted that John the Baptist's death foreshadowed Jesus', making Jesus an even stronger model for us.  While we will probably never face the threat of death for serving Christ in America, we are still called to surrender the 'right' to our own life to serve Him.  How would surrendering your life to Christ change the way you work in your job?  How would surrendering your life to Christ change the way you live in your family?  How would surrendering your life to Christ change the way you serve as a part of your church?

4. What step of faith does this passage of scripture require us to take as individuals and as a small group?  How do we work this out on mission?