Don’t Say Anything

Mark 8:31-38; Psalm 22:23-31

Lent 2

Psalm 22:23-31

{23} You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! {24} For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him. {25} From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him. {26} The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD. May your hearts live forever! {27} All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. {28} For dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations. {29} To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him. {30} Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord, {31} and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.

Mark 8:31-38

{31} Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. {32} He said all this quite openly.

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. {33} But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” {34} He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. {35} For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. {36} For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? {37} Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? {38} Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

The Sermon

Sometimes—sometimes—he didn’t speak to us in riddles.

There were times when what he said was not shrouded in mystery, leaving us puzzling over what he must have meant. Sometimes, he was perfectly, terribly clear.

After he was baptized, he went into the wilderness and for forty days faced down temptation. When he came out, he called us to be his disciples.

We went to Capernaum; and on the sabbath, he entered the synagogue and taught. There was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” And Jesus said, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.

That was the first miraculous thing we saw him do, and the first thing we noticed after the amazement of the miracle was that when the unclean spirit identified him, Jesus told him to be silent.

Why did he do that? Why didn’t he say, “You bet I am Holy One of God, and from now on, you’re in trouble”?

As soon as we left the synagogue, we came to Simon and Andrew’s place. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever. Jesus took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve us.

So that evening, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And once again, he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

A little later, a leper came to him, begging him, and kneeling he said to Jesus, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Jesus was moved with pity, and he stretched out his hand, and touched him—touched the leper!—and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

But Jesus sent him away and said, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Well, instead of going straight to the priest, the guy was so ecstatic to be healed by Jesus that he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

The religious authorities noticed—as they always seem to do when love is being given, heaven forbid, to everyone, not just the “right” people.

They noticed that in addition to these amazing healings, Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors, and they complained about it. When Jesus heard that, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

He went into another synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They were watching Jesus to see whether he would cure somebody on the sabbath, which was, technically, against the rules. You don’t work on the Sabbath.

And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” Then he said to them—the ones who were watching him—“Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” He looked around at them with anger; he couldn’t believe their hardness of heart. And he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored—right in front of all the religious authorities.

We went with him to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately another man with an unclean spirit met him.

This was a guy who lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain—they’d shackle and chain him up, but he’d just wrench apart the chains and break the shackles; nobody had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and Jesus said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”

And the guy shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”

And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”

On the hillside there was a great herd of swine feeding; and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.” So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and drowned in the sea.

The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country.

As Jesus was getting into the boat to leave, the man who had been possessed by demons begged Jesus to let him come with us. But Jesus said, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” But he didn’t just go to his friends; he went to the Decapolis to proclaim to everyone how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

When we had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him. And one of the leaders of the synagogue, Jairus, came and fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, “My 12-year-old daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him.

Eventually some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to Jairus, “Do not fear, just believe.”

When they came to the house, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” He took the child’s father and mother, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Little girl, get up!” And immediately the girl got up and began to walk around.

He strictly ordered the Mom and Dad that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat. She’s back and she’s gonna be hungry.

He miraculously fed 5,000 hungry families. We started with five loaves and two fish, and they all ate, I mean everybody was satisfied. And we gathered up the leftovers of bread and fish, and we had twelve baskets full.

I kind of thought, let’s just crown him king right now, right here. You feed a stray, hungry dog, you’re going to have the best guard dog you ever had sitting on your front porch that night. Think what we could have done with five thousand families! But immediately he told us to get in the boat.

Later, he fed another crowd of 4,000 families, this time on seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. This time? Seven baskets left over. And this time, like last time, he immediately herded us into the boat, and we left.

Wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Later, in the region of the Decapolis, they brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and with his hands on the deaf man’s ears, looking up to heaven, Jesus said, “Be opened.” I didn’t know if he was talking to the heavens or to the man’s ears. And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

And he ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

We came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village.

And when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Can you see anything?”

And the man looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and the man looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

And Jesus sent him away to his home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

And we went on to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked us, “Who do people say that I am?" And we said, “John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the prophets.”

And he said, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter said, “You are the Messiah.” And as sternly as I ever heard him say anything to anyone, he ordered us not to tell anyone about him.

And we had to wonder: are you telling us not to evangelize?

Then he began to teach us that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Sometimes, he didn’t speak in riddles.

Sometimes—this time—he was perfectly, terribly clear.

Don’t be distracted by the power, the miracles, the awesome, world-bending, supernatural force with which Jesus made his will known—his will for sick people to be made well, his will for parents to have healthy children who live long lives, his will for hungry people to have plenty to eat and some left over;

—his will for sinners, who, by doing what we do, separate ourselves from God, to be forgiven, and restored, and healed, and brought back.

Don’t go out and tell them there’s an amazing magician loose in the world, and that they don’t have to do anything any more to make the world a better place, because he’s going to take care of it all from now on.

Just tell them, as another evangelist said it, that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! And proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.

And may your hearts live forever.

Keith Grogg

Carolina Beach Presbyterian Church

Carolina Beach, NC

March 8, 2009