I’m not sure what word comes to your mind when you think of describing the gospels to someone, but chances are, “disruptive” isn’t going to be on your list. I mean, would you walk up to someone who has just begun to read through the stories of Jesus and say to them, “Just so you know, what you are reading is going to be fairly disturbing?” I’m guessing you wouldn’t do that. And maybe you shouldn’t. Or at least not at first.
But here’s what I’ve discovered. And it comes from reading the Gospel of Mark specifically. What Mark writes concerning Jesus, especially when read by us long-time church folk, is in fact really quite disruptive. Timothy Gombis call’s Mark’s Gospel the “unGospel.” That is, according to Gombis, Mark “is for churches who have heard Jesus’s teaching and have grown lax in giving attention to it, with the result that their social dynamics and community patterns have gradually been shaped by cultural values of power-seeking, prestige-questing, and social-credential accumulation” (Mark: The Story of God Bible Commentary, page 6).
If you do a quick read through Mark, which is fast-paced by the way, what you are going to discover is that Jesus’s disciples become more and more confused as to who this Jesus is, a likely Messiah-figure, while the Gentiles and those on the margins understand him more and more. In other words, those on the “inside” find themselves to be on the “outside” while those on the “outside” are welcomed “in.” The disciple’s let their preconceived ideas of who they thought Jesus should be rule their hearts and minds instead of allowing Jesus’s words to reorient their thinking. And the one thing they just couldn’t seem to grasp at all was the cross.
There came a time when Jesus began to speak “plainly” about his upcoming death, but as you might recall, Peter would have none of such foolish talk. Suffer? Die? Not a Messiah. So Peter pulls Jesus aside and “rebukes” him for this is not the path to take over Rome. You march into the capital with swords, not in chains as a prisoner. You take up arms, not a cross. But Jesus sets the record straight. “Get behind me, Satan!” he told Peter. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Mark 8:31-33).
What a disruption Jesus is causing his disciples. Their worldview is being unraveled. Their understanding of the way to greatness is caving in. Their politic of governing the world is tumbling down before them. But Jesus doesn’t just stop with his own death, he calls all who follow him to the same path. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me,” he calls (Mark 8:34). We have a tendency to romanticize this verse do we not? But the heart of what Jesus is calling his disciples toward is anything but religious sentimentality.
Now though there has been many words spoken and written as to what this call by Jesus means, I want to think a bit outside the box as to what Jesus might be leading his disciples to do. Yes, there is a cost. Death and ridicule could ensue. This is what “taking up a cross” entails. But in examining the life that Jesus led, could what he is telling his disciples here also mean for them to get busy loving the unlovely, caring for the marginalized, and seeking out the disenfranchised? In other words, those in whom the religion of the day had declared “unclean” and as a result, now sit at the back of the bus in the world in which they live, Jesus is telling his followers, “Go and invite these folks in to the party! They are family.”
This is not the kingdom the disciples had in mind. Unfortunately, this is not always what the American church envisions either. But Jesus points to another way. And for many of us, it’s quite disruptive!
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