From reading the Gospels we may be left with the impression that all the religions leaders were opposed to Jesus and out to get him, read Mark 12:38-40 for an example of what Jesus had to say about them. But even amongst those who were opposed to him Jesus reached out in love to draw them to himself. One such person asks Jesus a simple question, or so it seems to us: “Which commandment is the most important of all?” In our minds we may think he is asking which of the 10 Commandments was most important, but the Jewish leaders had identified over 600 commandments from the Old Testament laws, of these about 250 were positive commands and the remainder were prohibitions. Of these commands they had placed greater emphasis on some rather than others.

The scribe is not asking which must we obey and which can we ignore, he was asking which are the foundational commands on which all the other individual commands depend. Jesus replies with the Jewish daily confession known as the Shema. This is based on passages from Deuteronomy and Numbers but mainly on Deuteronomy 6: 4-5. Jews today still consider this their most important prayer and it is repeated twice daily as part of morning and evening prayers.

The scribe replies to affirm what Jesus has said and then goes further to show that there is at least some understanding and support for what Jesus was teaching amongst the religions leaders. He says that to obey the Shema is far more important than the sacrificial system that was around them. The Jewish religious system was built around the sacrificial system, yet here one of their own religions leaders affirms that the heart of love is far more important than the outward actions.

You might have expected Jesus to reply – well done – come and join the gang! Instead he replies “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” Or to put it another way, your not there yet, but you are very close. I suspect this religions leader was confused and maybe upset by Jesus’ reply, he was a good Jew and a religions leader why was he not already in the Kingdom of God, what else was needed? The simple answer is that intellectual agreement with the truth is not enough, it is whether we truly love God with all we are and have and love our neighbours as ourselves, saying we believe this is not sufficient we must live it as well.

Sadly today I believe there are all too many people who may be in the same position as this scribe. Some attend Christian services, some pray, some read the bible, some may even be in positions of leadership within the church. However they have not made the move from head to heart, they agree with the theory, but have not experienced the reality in their own lives. As a Christian leader I feel a great responsibility for that. I have a responsibility not just to convey, explain and teach truth, but to call those who hear to repentance and a living faith that affects how we live Monday to Saturday and not just on Sunday.

Think today of someone you know who may say I agree with all you say, but has not found the reality of a living faith for themselves, then pray for them for the love of Jesus to move the agreement in their head to an experience of his love in their hearts resulting in a changed life.

In the previous chapters Jesus has taught and warned his disciples as to what is about to happen, and now we have the start of those events. They start with a step of faith by two disciples going to fetch a donkey, trusting Jesus’ words the find the donkey, respond in the way that Jesus has told them and return to Jesus with it.

We then have what is often called the ‘Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem’ but how triumphal was this. Jesus was not riding a white charger, had no massed armies behind him and no war trophies to present. Instead he rides a donkey and is followed by a motley crew of friends and onlookers and they all chant religions quotes! So what was going on?

The meaning and symbolism of what happened would not be lost on any good Jew, they knew their scriptures and knew what was happening. Jesus had moved out of the shadows and was now courting public recognition. The act of riding a donkey, especially on a donkey who had never before been ridden, was a clear reflection of Old Testament prophecy. See for instance Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

This act was a clear claim that he was the Messiah who had come to free Israel from their captivity.

The local choir welcomed Jesus with one of the Hallel or Thanksgiving Psalms (Psalm 118:25-26) and in their words they too knew what Jesus was doing – this is the coming of the Kingdom of David.

So Jesus knew exactly what he was doing, the disciples knew what he was doing, the crowd knew what he was doing – and the religious leaders, where are they? Well I think they were conspicuous by their absence. Jesus’ actions were a direct claim, and a threat to their position. This was not the Messiah they anticipated, or wanted. Jesus was far more radical than they could cope with.

Remember the crowd who were singing Halleluiah – what were the same people shouting less than a week later? Which crowd would I have been in and what would I have been shouting?

In Mark 10 we have a rich man man walking away from Jesus – why – because he had many possessions and Jesus had just told him that in order to inherit eternal life he needed to sell all his possessions and give them to the poor and then follow Jesus. We don’t know then end of the story, perhaps this man did sell what he owned, perhaps he didn’t, but whatever the case on that day he walked away grieving because his possessions owned him and he couldn’t let go of the easily.

Jesus says it is impossible for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God! He goes on to use the satire of a camel going through the eye of a needle. I have heard the needle described as a small gate in the wall of Jerusalem through which a man could walk, but a camel needed to shed it’s whole load and go through on bended knee. Although this analogy is rich in meaning the commentaries however say there is little evidence for this being true. We are left with the impossible. Or in the description of Canon J John, even if you were to liquidize the camel you still couldn’t get it through the eye of a needle!

His disciples were astonished at his saying. It was shocking to them because in their times riches were seen as a sign of God’s blessing, and poverty was seen as a sign of God’s curse.

Some of Jesus’ sayings are tough and hard, but we must not try to explain them away. There is however hope – what is impossible with man is possible to God, I am so glad about that because in terms of today’s world I am rich. The question that I struggle with is do I use my riches for the glory and benefit of God and his kingdom, or do my possessions own me and prevent me holding them loosely?

“Everything is possible to the one who believes.” Read that statement again, dwell on it and meditate on it. Allow it to roll around your mind. “Everything is possible to the one who believes.”

Who was the one who needed to believe? Is that a silly question? Was it the father or Jesus? Well the father takes it as referring to himself and responds with the encouraging statement I started with: “I do believe, help my unbelief.” I find it tremendously encouraging that Jesus took that seed of faith and the result was the healing of the child. God can do the same for you, and he can do the same for me.

What do I need to believe him for today? Ask him to take our small seed of faith and to help the areas where we doubt, he is good at that, and even with the smallest seed of faith we can see miracles  in our lives and the lives of others around us.

Two other things struck me from Mark 9. The first is how our attitude as Christians should be quite different to many in our society today. Many of us and many in our society have a desire and a drive to be first in what we do, within our workplace, our sport, our street. Interestingly Jesus does not say this is wrong, but what he does say is totally upside down logic to our minds. The way to be first is not to push to the front of the queue, it is not to boss others around, it is not to get bigger and better possessions than others. Rather it is to go to the back of the queue and be happy to be there, to lead others by serving them, to use our possessions for the benefit of others first and ourselves last.

This attitude and approach to life is one that is in direct contrast to much that we see and experience in our lives. You will see very little of this depicted on our TV screens, often too little of it within many workplaces and sadly sometimes too little of it within the life of the church.

If that last statement strikes you as odd, or you disagree with it let me ask each of us a question – does the church today exist to serve you? What would a church look like that existed to serve you? And in contrast what would a church looked like where each member served the life and mission of the church? I feel that too often today we are consumers of church rather than servants of the life and ministry of Christ in his church.

The second thing that struck me today was the place of children in the life of the Christian faith. Jesus is extremely strong in his encouragement to welcome children and his judgement on those who stand in the way of children. Again a question for each one of us. How well do we welcome, embrace and encourage children as full members of the Kingdom of God alongside adults? Do we need to do more?

In Mark 8 the entire direction of Jesus’ life turns in a new direction out of a really innocent question: “Who do people say I am?” The disciples answer and then Jesus asks a far more searching question – “Who do you say I am?” By this stage and time they had probably been with Jesus for 18 months to 2 years, living with him, sleeping with him, eating with him and experiencing almost everything alongside him. So it was a fair enough question, Jesus wanted to know if they had actually got it yet, did they truly recognise Jesus for who he was?

The immediate answer from Peter says yes – at least Peter, if not all of them, recognised Jesus for the Messiah, the Christ, the one who would redeem and save Israel. So Jesus accepts the answer, tells them not to pass that on to others, and then proceeds to teach them what will happen in the coming months. It is here that we learn that either Peter had accepted the falsely optimistic and wrong interpretation of their scriptures of a Messiah who would rid them of Roman rule and would come as the victor to defeat all their earthly enemies, or that Peter had recognised Jesus as the Messiah in his head but not in his heart. Peter would have known the Jewish scriptures far better than we know the Bible we have today. Young Jews learnt the scriptures by heart, and they would have especially focused on the Messianic prophecies in the scriptures.

As Jesus turns to talk about his death and resurrection he was simply bringing into reality the prophetic words in the scriptures about the Messiah, but Peter was not able to hear or accept them.

I wonder how many people today in our churches have been around the teaching of the scriptures for years, even decades, but have never seen the reality and truth that is in them. I feel a personal and high responsibility for that as a preacher, teacher and church leader. If Jesus was to ask you the question today “Who do you say that I am” how would you reply? And as you reply is it with an intellectual answer, or is it that intellectual answer backed up by your heart and the commitment of your life?

If your reading Mark with me this Summer, well done, we're now 1/4 of the way through this amazing story. We've been introduced to John and Jesus, we've seen how Jesus challenges the way we think about our world and we've looked at the three key perspectives of Up, In and Out.

The two key questions in being a disciple, or apprentice, of Jesus are: What is God saying to you? What are you doing about what God is saying to you?

In Chapter four we've come to one of Jesus' best know parables, or stories, the parable of the Sower. Perhaps this should better be called the parable of the Seed, or perhaps the parable of the Soil. So we're thinking about the Sower, the Seed and the Soil.

Who is the Sower? God I hear you cry! Read the passage again – we're not told who the sower is. Yes God does sow into our lives and the lives of everyone in his world, but he isn't the only sower, he also calls us to sow his seed into the lives of others.

What seed have you sown in the past week, and whose lives has it been sown?

What is the seed? This one's easier as the passage tells us – the seed is the word of God. Each and every day God is sowing his seed into our lives. What does that mean – it means each and every day God is speaking to us. He speaks through this Bible, he speaks through other people, he speaks through nature, he speaks through our circumstances and situations and he speaks through his 'still small voice.' The big question is: are we listening?

What has God been speaking to you about in the past week?

Final question: What kind of soil are you? There are four options.

Option one: totally unreceptive. As soon as the seed is sown it is stolen away. I would suggest if you are reading this blog then your not this kind of soil, so let's move on.

Option two: rocky & rootless. Perhaps we may be in this category. When we hear God speaking we think great, that sounds good. Maybe on a Sunday, or in a small group, you hear God speaking and your response is one of joy. But you walk out of the church building and return home and the realities of a challenging life reassert themselves and God is forgotten, the joy is gone and normal life is resumed. If that's you then there is some work to do in tilling the soil, getting rid of the rocks and creating a lifestyle that allows God's word to take root. Reading the Bible every day, for instance, is part of that lifestyle.

Option three: a thorny world view. The Sunday sermon that you think is great, but by the time you get to the car your thoughts are on whether lunch will be ready in time and the sermon is forgotten. You read the Bible's radical teaching on wealth and generosity but still keep your wealth for yourself. You enjoy playing football, cricket, rugby or whatever your sport is, and your team plays on a Sunday morning so you put your enjoyment of sport before meeting up with your Christian family. There are so many things today that will distract, divert and subtly or blatantly drag us away from God and his word. The only way to avoid this is to pull up the thorns, and you may have noticed, thorns have thorns, so pulling them up will be painful.

Option four: good soil. This is the best, the soil has been turned over and the stones removed. The thorns have been dealt with and they are also gone. This soil is open and receptive to God's word. Not only do these people hear what God is saying, they do something about it. And the result? A good crop that multiples the seed that was planted to produce it. The sign of good soil – a good crop. If the soil is good there WILL be a crop, if there is no crop the the soil isn't good.

Looking back at the last week, month, year: is ther a crop resulting from the seed God has sown in your life? If so celebrate and thank God. If not perhaps we need to look at the condition of the soil.

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As we look back at Mark 3 I want just to pick out two verses (maybe because when I looked back at my last post it was quite long!).

When Jesus called the twelve he called them with a threefold focus: Up, In and Out. He called them firstly to be with him. Mk 3:14 “And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him.” The first calling of the disciples was to be with Jesus and so it is with us, our first calling is to be with Jesus (Up). For the first disciples that meant they spent time walking with Jesus, talking with him, eating meals with him, listening to his teaching and watching & experiencing the miraculous with Jesus. What does it mean for you to be with Jesus? It isn't something for one day a week or for an hour on a Sunday morning in a Victorian church building. It means being with Jesus every day, it means reading his love letters to you in the Bible, it means spending time talking to him every day.

Are you spending time with Jesus, what does it look like for you?

Notice that Jesus didn't just call one disciple, he called a group of disciples, their next calling was to be with each other (In). Jesus never told people to be or to work on their own, when he sends the disciples out in Mark 6 he sends them out in pairs. He even sends two disciples to fetch a donkey in Matthew 21! We are not to be on our own, we need to be with others. Be in a small group, meet with other Christians, work with other Christians, drink coffee with other Christians, eat meals with other Christians, live life with other Christians.

Are you living life with other Christians, what does that look like for you?

The third part of the calling of the first disciples, and our calling, is to witness in words and deeds to the love and power of Jesus (Out). Mark 3:14-15 “And He appointed twelve … that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons.” Our calling is the same: to preach, proclaim or be a herald of God's love and life. So we are called to use words, and speak of Jesus to others. But not just to use words, we are called to demonstrate God's love in the power and authority he gives us as his ambassadors here on earth.

Sadly many Christians live a two dimensional life, living Up and In, but not Out. What we don't realise is that it is only as we live Out that we can truly live Up and In. I've heard Christians say they need more teaching, more nurture, they need to get to know God better before they witness to others. But that is back to front, it is only when we open our mouths and reach out our hands to those who don't know Jesus that we really grow and get to know God better.

How are you proclaiming and demonstrating God's live to those who don't know him? What does that look like in your life today?

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