1. Jesus sends the Twelve

Today we are given the Gospel according Mark chapter 6 for the lecturing portion. The last Sunday we read the episode about villagers in Nazareth. Mark finished the passage with this ;- And they (villagers in Nazareth) took offense at him(Jesus).
It means they rejected Jesus’ words and ignored his divinity as the Son of God. Nonetheless Jesus was not discouraged and continues preaching journey in Galilee. The following part tells that Jesus sends out his disciples in order that they succeed to his ministry and enlarge the field of activities. He chose the Twelve for that purpose and gave them instructions on the lakeside of the Galilean sea. Afterwards they become the founders of the early church. The contents of today’s lecturing passage invites us to reflect upon the significance of preaching activities and the role of the church in them.

Mark describes the scene thus ;- Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits.(Mark 6:7) whereas Matthew, another Gospel writer noted Jesus’ words this way ;- Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.(Matthew 10:6)

The expression above allude to the new Israel, which replaces the old one, by establishing the church. Jesus sent them out two by two in accordance with Jewish traditional custom. It means in Jewish law more than two persons were required to justify a witness. The Twelve should spread their witness to Jesus, the savior. Jesus knew also collaboration of two makes tasks easier to curry out. Those explanations imply that ministry of the church was collective from the beginning, not individual one.

Mark continues ;- These were his(Jesus) instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic.(Mark 6:7-8)

“Take nothing for the journey except a staff” shows there was enough time to equip more matters for. Because Jesus knew that the crucial moment, or the Passion, would come soon. “No bread, no bag, no money” also means God should supply whatever they need during the voyage.

I think such a stance is desirable for preaching. Ministerial activities should be supported before all by trust in God, who accords us necessities for spreading the good news. Abundance of money for ministry might distort spiritual motivation , as the history of the church shows. As long as Christians remained minority of societies and poor , even under menaces of oppression their zeal for preaching was pure. In contrast when it obtained socially power, for example becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire, arrogance and authoritarianism corrupted it. Ministries by the poor and minor should be spiritually more fruitful than that by the rich and powerful.

Then come those orders ;- henever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them."(Mark 6:10-11)

It should be appropriate that they must stay on one place in each town but the second part seems rather unexpected. Because “to shake the dust off one’s feet” expresses the decision of breaking relationship with those who have closed mind by considering them to be pagans.

When we preach we try normally to convince those who are rejecting our words. But Jesus did not tell them to do so. He instructed them rather to leave such persons and go to other towns than to make fruitless efforts with them. Jesus might think it should be better expecting God’s direct act on those stubborn people.

Personally I, as a pastor, understand Jesus’ directives this way : – It is desirable that a pastor remains always in the the same congregation but once his words are rejected there he should seek a new place. Indeed, unfortunately in our denomination, many pastors were replaced due to discordant relationship with church members.

As a matter of fact preaching is an act empowered by God but recipients take their own decision. So we should not look for tangible fruits soon. Results are out of our hands. We should not make any subjective goal, like increasing number of church members till 50 or 100, for example. I think God won’t appreciate such human aims.

2. Preaching method in the present society

The key phrase of today’s text is the verse 7, especially this part ;- (Jesus) gave them authority over evil spirits.

According to biblical thinking “evil spirits” rule over humans by body and mind and make them sick in physical and psychological senses. Ancient people thought moral and social disturbances are generated for that reason. Today such a sickness is understood as psycho-nerotic diseases. Moreover we might say that crimes against humanity are are provoked by evil spirits. For example, behind Jewish genocide by Nazi or massacres and cruel behaviors conducted by Japanese solders in Asian coutries under Japanese military invasion through World War II we feel the power of evil sprits.

We can also say, to some extent, that the decision of US President Truman on throwing down atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki could be pushed by such demons because it is said the act was not necessary to finish the war. Even we find the same power concerning economic crises in these years. Japanese big companies managed temporal workers in the logistic division, not in that human resources. Such an inhuman attitude should be one of causes of their failure. I would like to say that “evil spirits” cause many of miseries in this world.

Mark wrote ;- When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.(Mark 6:34)

Nothing was changed from the time of Jesus. Therefore we are compelled by him to make efforts to emancipate those who are captured by evil spirits. Jesus chose and sent out to spread the good news.

Today’s invocation verse is Matthew 10:16, which concerns the similar issue to the lecturing portion ;- I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

Now we think about what can “wolves” represents in today’s society. As an answer I present you a comment written by pastor Nomura in a magazine for clergies. Pastor Nomura says it is indifference of people. He explain it further:

–Despite very small proportion of Christians in Japan (about 1% of the population) many books and music related to Christianity are very popular. It might be because of Mission-schools which play very important role in Japanese education system. Nonetheless only few pupils and students of those schools become believers. Fro them learning about the Bible is acquiring intellectual knowledge about occidental cultures based on Christianity.
Besides wedding in christian style share more than 50 % of today’s marriage service in Japan but very often the ceremony is not carried out by a real pastor. In those cases a man who wear pastor’ clothes conducts the ceremony. No theological or clerical education is required to take the role.

Mr. Nomura concluded that those phenomena reveal that the majority of Japanese people are indifferent to the good news. They praise occidental customs but ignore the faith. It is because the church is very often powerless to help those who are suffering or in difficulties. Pastors are unable to cure the ill or to find an employment for jobless persons. The worse, they won’t try to do so.

Furthermore they can not console dying persons because they are not sure about “eternal life after the death.” Yes, as Mr. Nomura remarked, the church might be powerless in the real world. Then, if so, how could the church preserve its existence for more than 2000 years ?

3. Preach with our lifestyle

Mark finished the episode with this phrase ;- They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.(Mark 6:13)

But Mark reported also a contradictory case about their spiritual capability. While Jesus was on the mountain with the Twelve other disciples tried and failed to cast an evil spirit out of a sick boy. So when Jesus came back down ;- A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not."(Mark 9:17-18)

Mark was too sincere to conceal a negative fact about disciples.

It was only after meeting resurrected Jesus that the disciples commenced courageously spreading the good news. They openly witnessed to Jesus as the Son of God. Nonetheless their ministries did not give fruitful results. Besides the authorities considered their belief to be a heresy. Jesus’ followers were arrest and execute one after another because of their faith. Even though the disciples could not threw out evil spirits they refused to deny the faith in Jesus then accepted execution.

Such a fearless faith even facing death lead many people to encounter Jesus. The word “martyr” came from “martur” in Greek, which originally meant “witness.” Tertullian, one of Church Fathers, wrote a phrase of this meaning : Shed blood of martyrs is the kernel of Christianity.

The early church achieved the ministry rather by showing faithful Christians’ life than by preaching in words. That fact gives us important suggestions. We do no convince others with biblical knowledge. We can not perform miraculous works, like throwing out evil spirits or healing the sick. We try to lead other to the faith by showing our lifestyle, free form secular estimations. We refuse to take profits from exploiting system. We won’t be devastated by sickness. We will accept calmly whatever happens to us and consider sufferings to be trials given by God. Because God leads us to blessing through those adversities. That is exactly our way of spreading the good news. At the entrance of the path to the faith we seek the salvation for ourselves. But we should go beyond till we seek it for others too. We must not remain in the first stage. We are gathered to observe Sunday worship then sent out to each place for preaching, in other words for others’ salvation. That is the lesson I share with you today.

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* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertullian