From the Daily Lectionary for Monday in the Second Week after the Epiphany
Mark 3:7-19a
Jesus departed with his disciples to the lake, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him; hearing all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon. He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him; for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him. Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, “You are the Son of God!” But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.
He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons. So he appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
There is more going on in this seemingly inconsequential passage than meets the eye. Jesus’ ministry begins in Galilee, which is a part of the ancient “Northern Kingdom” of Israel. Here, people from the South, Jerusalem and Judea, are coming to see what Jesus is all about as well. Judea was the “Southern Kingdom” of Israel. The united kingdom forged by the legendary King David split in two in the late eighth century B.C.E. So much of the biblical history of Israel has to do with the promise and possibility of the two disparate kingdoms one day uniting. The establishment of God’s kingdom implied a restored unity in which Israel, God’s chosen people, would retrieve their critical mass, so that they indeed would fulfill their mission to be “a light to the nations.” Mark sees the Jesus movement as a renewed possibility for the restoration of his people.
Such a possibility will be opposed. The demons are on to Jesus’ mission. They call him out, as if to forewarn him of their resistance. Indeed such resistance will become incarnate in the form of betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion.
Next in the narrative Jesus’ calls his disciples. He calls twelve (that we know of) emblematic of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the consummate symbol of unity. Jesus goes up a mountain to do the calling, not unlike Moses in Sinai ascending the mountain for his encounter with God. This is a cosmic battle afoot between the forces of good versus the powerful forces of evil. Collaboration is needed. Jesus cannot wage this battle alone. He knows the power of collaboration, the exponential power of love.
Our world is in crisis; our democracy is under siege. Perhaps the question is not “what can I do?” but, “what can we do?” I am reminded of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on this day celebrating his birth: “hate will not be overcome with hate; hate can only be overcome with love.” As Christians, the mission we are on is a collaborative one. We, as community, must be creative, imaginative, in how we love our world. There are allies whom we have not met, possibilities yet to explore, and a renewed urgency that calls us. We will be opposed. That is plain as day in these times, but love will triumph in our sacrifice for the good, whatever that sacrifice may be. Take courage, good people, our work, a noble calling, begins yet again.
A Prayer for a Martyr (BCP p. 246)
O God, who gave to your servant Martin Luther King, Jr. boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of the liberating Gospel. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
