Sermon Tone Analysis

Jesus keeps us grounded (Mk 9:14-16)

And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them… Now it might be helpful to get some context as to who “they” is.

Just before this passage Mark wrote of the Transfiguration where Peter, James, and John were up on a high mountain with Jesus, away from the other nine disciples.

And on this mountain, they experienced what was probably the most incredible and amazing experience of their life up to that point.

Jesus began to glow.

His clothes began to radiate white light.

And not just an absorption and reemission of photons, because his clothes were shining whiter than the sun.

Two men appeared, and Peter, somehow recognizing them as Moses and Elijah.

Then a cloud overshadowed them and they heard a voice from the cloud say “this is my son, listen to him”.

And then it was all gone.

And Jesus was like, ok, lets go… And on their way down Jesus is says hey fellas, um…lets keep all this to ourselves, don’t tell anyone ok…at least not yet.

And as they are approaching the disciples, and yet still at a distance they hear yelling and shouting, and they see a large crowd has gathered and that there are scribes there.

I love Mark’s juxtaposition of these incidents and how he uses this one little detail of an argument to capture the feel of the situation.

Peter, James, and John are coming down from a figurative and literal mountain top experience.

They just had one of the most amazing times of worship where Peter didn’t even want to leave.

He wanted to remain in that experience of peace and preserve that moment.

And they were coming down the mountain I can imagine the whole encounter was welling up inside them an exuberance and ecstaticism for what they are a part of.

To then reach the bottom and immediately be confronted with reality, an argument with the teachers of the law.

It’s like coming back from a conference where the worship was amazing and the teaching and workshops were at 100 to getting back home with the laundry and dishes, and back to work with the day-to-day grind.

It’s like leaving church on Sunday morning where you feel refreshed and connected to getting in the car and instantly getting complaints about being “hungry” or about “he won’t stop looking at me”.

This coming down off the mountain is Mark setting the scene for Jesus keeping us grounded.

In fact, that is our first point you can write down this morning.

Jesus keeps us grounded.

Some of you out there might be faithfully and diligently writing that down on the outside but thinking on the inside that it wasn’t really Jesus who grounded their expectations, but the scribes.

Well, take a look at what happens next.

Here in verse 15 we read “immediately all the crowed, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeting him.

And he asked them, what are you arguing about with them?” Jesus keen to recognize this moment and looks to ground or anchor not only Peter, James, and John, but also the others.

He asked, “what are you arguing about with them”?

This question cut through all the clutter.

But who was he talking to?

Who is “you” and who is “them”?

We saw in verse 14 that there were the 9 disciples, the crowd gathered around them and the scribes.

To answer this question, Mark gives another interesting and vivid detail as to what they did when they saw Jesus.

He wrote that they were greatly amazed.

This greatly amazed is a word that can mean overwhelmed with awe or fear.

Given the reaction of running towards Jesus it would seem that awe was more of the effect.

It is a word used to describe encounters with divine manifestations, that is often translated “afraid”.

There is a sense of loosing all rational thought and response.

So, when they saw Jesus, they were overcome with a desire to be near him, and they took off running.

It’s like Jesus is some sort of rock star here and there are people screaming and fainting and everyone pressing in to get closer to him.

As you read through the Gospels, you’ll see this is not an uncommon occurrence, in fact it happens again in our passage later on.

When people see Jesus, they just want to be near him.

They want to be where the action is.

They want to be present and involved and a part of what is happening.

And what better place to be then to be where God is yeah?

To quote Henry Blackaby, to see where God is working and join him.

Their desire to be with Jesus isn’t wrong.

Our desire to be with Jesus isn’t wrong.

To be a part of a small group that earnestly prays for one another.

To serve together in Harvest Kids.

To have late night Deacon meetings doing tours of the facility so as to run thoughts by one another and invite God’s wisdom to intervene through the collective ideation.

Sometimes, we do want to go where everybody knows our name, and what better place to go then where God knows our name.

So here this crowd is chasing Jesus and we at least know they were close enough to Jesus for him to ask this question.

And as far as the argument goes, maybe they joined in on the side of the disciples, or maybe they came to the aid of the scribes.

Chances are there was probably both reactions.

Yet Mark specifically tells us that the scribes were arguing with the disciples.

So, he must be asking one of those two groups.

Now, given the apparent hostility of the scribes, who are often lumped in with the pharisees, it seems odd for them to chase after Jesus in some fanatical sort of fashion.

Therefore, it would make more sense that Jesus is asking his disciples, what were you arguing about with the scribes?

But then, where is their answer?

After Jesus question, Mark tells us that someone from the crowd answered.

Why were the disciples quiet?

We will see as we go on that this whole circumstance revolves around a son who is afflicted with an unclean spirit.

And this man who spoke up stated that Jesus’ disciples could not cast out the spirit, even though Jesus empowered and commissioned the disciples to do that very thing.

If we turned back a few pages we could read Mark 6:7, where Jesus “called the twelves and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits”.

This is something they should have been able to do, something they should have done.

But when this father asked his son to be cured, the disciples offered silence…silence from God, silence for help, silence in the place of hope.

And when their teacher, their mentor, their Lord asked them about what was going on, there was no response, only silence.

Silence in shame, silence in anger, silence in doubt, silence in confusion.

The silence of failure.

We can feel that at times too can we not.

When it seems things should have turned out different.

A prodigal child that should have followed the path laid before them.

We feel defeated in failure through that do we not?

Or when we muster up the courage to talk to someone about Jesus and they respond with good for you.

We can feel a sense of letting Jesus down.

(PAUSE) So, for those who like the comfort and security in life and to stay in those moments, Jesus keeps us grounded by reminding us conflict is inevitable.

For those who seek after being where the party is, Jesus keeps us grounded by pressing us to go deeper in our interactions.

For those dedicated to action and mission, Jesus keeps us grounded by reminding us it sometimes takes more than what we have available.

And for those of us who need and thrive on order and following laws, like the scribes, Jesus has not forgot about you either.

It might make sense the scribes did not follow, but Mark stated all the crowd.

And just as the disciples were silent in answering Jesus question, so were the scribes.

So, Jesus keeps those of us trying to keep things right grounded by showing us sometimes we learn more through the experience than we do through a rule book.

Jesus is our desperate hope (Mk 9:17-24)

It’s not only through the mountain top experiences that we learn of Jesus grounding us, but also in the spiral of self-doubt and the abatement of delusions concerning our own capabilities.

In these moment’s Jesus grounding actually lifts us up.

Jon Guerra came out with a new song called Tightrope where he sings Sometimes I feel like I'm walking | A tightrope from Heaven to Earth | Walk steady, walk straight, don't grumble, don't be late | Get better or you're going to get hurt | So I try to walk balanced and healthy | I say I'm fine, wobbles and all | But some things I can't fake, it's a curse I can't break | No, the tightrope's no match for the fall | No, the tightrope's no match for the fall.

Guerra sings “teach me to fall in your direction” pointing us towards looking at Jesus in these failures.

He goes on You danced on the tightrope like nothing | Made all of the walkers look stiff | You forgave the sinner and you condemned the winner | So they took that rope and hung you with it | But on the third day something happened | You rose up and looked for your friends | You told them you forgave them and that you'd always be with them | And that falling is how you ascend | You said falling is how you ascend.

Teach me to fall in your direction | When I can't go on, teach me to climb | When I can't get up, teach me to rise | And when I fall, teach me to fly.

It is in the moments where we feel the utter failure of our efforts that Jesus becomes our desperate hope.

You can write that down as our second point this morning.

Jesus is our desperate hope.

Looking back to our text in verse 17 we read “And someone from the crowd answered him, ‘Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute.

And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grids his teeth and becomes rigid.

So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.”

Now I want to point out a few things that are unique to Mark’s writing and discuss the description here which seems to be someone who lives with epileptic seizures and appears to be non-verbal.

In our western naturalistic culture this would seem to be someone who has life challenges and is probably in need of communal support.

Mark does not equate the two.

In his writing he never communicates Jesus to have healed people when dealing with “unclean spirits”, but he does communicate Jesus’ healing when dealing with mental and physical challenges.