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March 3/4, 2018
Jason Meyer | Mark 6:53-56
When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was.And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.—Mark 6:53–56
Introduction: Summary of Mark’s Message
The book of Mark comes bursting out of the gate with four testimonies that Jesus is the Son of God: (1) Mark (1:1), (2) the prophets (1:2–3), (3) John the Baptist (1:4–8), and (4) God from heaven (1:9–11). Then we witnessed the Son submit to the plan of the Father in the power of the Spirit to face Satan in the wilderness (vv. 12–13).
We knew the story was going here because Mark 1:3 quotes Isaiah 40:3—a voice crying in the wilderness, “prepare the way of the Lord.” God himself is coming. We celebrated together the great Trinitarian Triumph over Satan in the Temptation story. What an amazing introduction to this book!
Then we came to the body of the narrative. Most everyone divides Mark into two sections, with Peter’s confession in Chapter 8:27–30 as the watershed moment. The first half establishes that Jesus is the powerful Son of God with divine authority over everything. The second half establishes that he is the Suffering Servant come to give his life as a payment or ransom for sin.
The body of Mark opens in Mark 1:14–15 with the good news of God’s reign (announced beforehand in Isaiah). Isaiah 40:9 is finally here: “Behold your God.”
The Gospel of God: Behold Your God in Isaiah
What is the first thing Jesus does in his public ministry? He heralds the gospel of God. This point is so significant because the book of Isaiah in particular prophesies in three places that an end time preacher would come (Isaiah 40:9; 52:7; 61:1).
Go on up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!”—Isaiah 40:9
I hope the connection between this text and Isaiah 40:3 is clear. God announced comfort for his people in Isaiah 40:1. Before that comfort came, God would send a messenger to prepare the way (a voice crying in the wilderness). What is the message of the comfort—the salvation that is coming? God is coming! The messenger is going to point to the very coming of God. There he is!
John the Baptist came as the voice crying in the wilderness and he called the one to come the “Mightier One.” The next verse (v. 10) of Isaiah is where John got this description.
Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him.—Isaiah 40:10
Here is the conclusion thus far from Isaiah 40: The good news from God heralds the arrival of the Mighty God himself. Jesus is God come to earth in the flesh!
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God.— Isaiah 61:1–2
The time is fulfilled is a reference to the new beginning—a decisive moment on God’s calendar has come. John the Baptist emphasizes that something will come; Jesus stresses that it has come. The plan of God, announced from Genesis 3, but planned before the foundation of the world, is starting now!
The Kingdom of God (‘the kingdom of God is at hand’)
The expression “kingdom of God” appears 14 times in Mark (also 4:11, 26, 30; 9:1, 47; 10:14, 15, 23, 24, 25; 12:34; 14:25; 15:43). Why does Jesus connect the gospel of God with the kingdom of God? As we go through Mark, you are going to learn to answer most of my questions with this answer: “I bet Isaiah said something about that?”
You are right. This is the second text I skipped earlier, but bring up now.
How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”—Isaiah 52:7
I love how the Gospel of Mark forces us to connect the Son of God with the gospel of God. Mark 1:1 connects the beginning of the gospel of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. The good news of the gospel is not a random series of true statements or propositions. The gospel is not a mere proposition; it is about a person: Jesus. There would be no good news without Jesus. The good news is the story of salvation in Jesus. Remember that the name Jesus means “the Lord saves.”
Today we are going to see another Isaiah text come to the forefront, as our text today is a summary sketch of the healing grace of Jesus. The Gospel of Mark follows a perennial purpose in all of these stories: they all point to who Jesus is – what is his identity?
Outline
When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment.
Many echoes here in this text that cause us to recall prior moments in this Gospel. First, this story reminds us of the story earlier in chapter six when Jesus tried to get away with his disciples and the people recognized him and ran ahead of the boat and got there ahead of Jesus and the disciples. And Jesus had compassion on them and taught them many things (Mark 6:34). He didn’t turn any of them away, he even miraculously fed them in the wilderness (just like the story of Moses in the wilderness). This story does not mention any teaching that Jesus did.
Second, the people brought the sick people on their beds (v. 55). This reminds us of the story in Mark 2:1–12 of how the friends of a paralytic lowered him through the roof and Jesus healed him in order to show that he had authority to forgive sins. This story does not have the point about authority to forgive sins.
Third, people implored him that they might touch the fringe of his garment. This recalls the story of the woman with the flow of blood. She came to him saying even if I touch the fringe of his garment, I will be healed. She learned that she needed more than healing, she needed a family. Jesus called her “daughter” and she was an outsider no more. This story does not have that extra personal touch of giving these people a family.
Mark’s point is that these brief stories scattered throughout Mark thus far are only a small-scale glimpse into the grand-scale healing grace of Jesus. We could have story after story of healing. But there is also something that the crowd is missing about Jesus as they come to him for healing. More on that in a moment.
And as many as touched [the fringe of his garment] were made well.
Jesus healed everyone who came. Why does Mark present Jesus as an unprecedented healer? These verses show that Jesus is Yahweh Raphi – the Lord my Healer. Listen to Exodus 15.
Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”—Exodus 15:22–26
I want you to feel the difference that the coming of Christ makes. God delivered the Israelites from Egypt. He brought many plagues upon them, but he protected his people all the while in the land of Goshen. He brought them into the Promised Land. But he warned them. If they became like the nations that God drove out of that land, he would declare war on them as well. Instead of the Lord being a healer, the Lord would be a warrior.
It is not as though the people were now righteous and had kept all his statutes or had diligently listened to his voice and done what was right in his eyes, or given ear to his commandments. Far from it. Jesus said that they were like the people Isaiah warned about who had ears but could not hear, and who had eyes but could not see.
What did they need to see? What were they missing? I bet Isaiah has something to say about that. Listen to Isaiah 35.
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
it shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.—Isaiah 35:1–7
That is the point of this story. Jesus is the One promised in Isaiah 35 who has come to heal and save. We are back to the message of “Behold Your God.” The healings of Mark 6 powerfully declare: Behold your God. He has come to save.
But it all raises a big question. Isaiah 35 says much more.
And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.—Isaiah 35:8–10
Yes, the lame are leaping. The blind are seeing. The deaf are hearing. The mute are singing. But the problem is that they are still sinners and they are unclean. How will they find the highway called the Way of Holiness? The unclean can’t walk on that way. The fools will not find it. The redeemed shall walk there. The ransomed of the Lord obtain gladness and joy.
This is getting us ready for the turn in Mark’s Gospel that takes place in Mark 8–16. We hear a sneak preview of the answer in Mark 10.
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”—Mark 10:45
He has come to give spiritual healing. Their sins need to be paid. Their stains need to be washed away. Will people come to him for that healing? By his wounds they are healed.
Application: Healing in History
This story raises a question about what this should look like today. There is a false version of church history that some seem to assume. It goes like this: The Gospels are charismatic. There are healings everywhere. The Book of Acts is charismatic. There are many healings and many different people heal others, but always in the name of Jesus. First Corinthians 12:9 talks about people with gifts of healing. So it continued while the apostles were alive.
But then the church went dark. For 19 centuries there were no healings. Then we had the charismatic movement and people started seeing healing happen again.
Andrew Wilson gave a two-part theology of healing at the Convergence Conference in Oklahoma City that I found tremendously helpful. In one of the sessions, he quoted from five of the pillars in the Early Church.
The Bible does not divorce the way that God’s kingdom addresses the spiritual and the physical. If we divorced the physical and the spiritual work of God in the kingdom of God, we would be departing from the Gospels, Acts, and the way the church fathers understood the holistic work that Jesus came to do.
Then Andrew Wilson pointed out an irony:
Here is the fascinating thing: If you say that you are going to preach on God’s kingdom and power you will sound like a Charismatic. If you say that you are going to preach on God’s sovereignty, then you will sound Reformed. Yet the two mean exactly the same thing. His kingdom, his power, his sovereignty—they mean the same thing. It is because we have a God who is sovereign over all things that we can ask him and even expect him to break into situations with miraculous power. And it is because we have a God who is able to do whatever he wants that we are trusting that he is sovereign over all that happens and that nothing is beyond his control.—“A Charismatic Theology of Healing, Part 2,” Convergence Conference
Here is an important text on the sovereignty of God as it relates to spiritual gifts.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.—1 Corinthians 12:7–11
Why would we be resistant to the sovereignty of the Spirit? We cherish God’s sovereignty at Bethlehem—spiritual gifts fall under the category of his sovereignty. One more text has become a defining text for me.
So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.—1 Corinthians 14:12
Spiritual gifts are manifestations of the Holy Spirit (they give us more of God—don’t we want that in our midst?) And they build up the church—they are an expression of love. That is the perspective we should take on spiritual gifts—not that they are spooky or strange, but that they are loving!
These things are not abstract for me. When I was in Louisville, I was talking to my next-door neighbor. She was retired and would spend all day in her bathrobe because she had such arthritis and joint pain. As I was talking to her one day, the Lord seemed to prompt me saying, “Pray for her to be healed.” Because I am so perceptive to the Spirit, I said, “No, I’ve never done that before.” But then the prompt came back stronger and pushed me harder. “Pray for her.” Fine. Would you mind if I prayed for you in the name of Jesus? She said, “Oh, that would be nice.”
I prayed for her and she said that it felt like there was a burning sensation throughout her entire body. She said, I think I am healed. I checked with her for a few days in a row after that because I was having a hard time believing what just happened. But she would always tell me that Jesus healed her.
Later, I had something similar happen when I was a professor in Louisiana. One of my students had a child that had a liver that was breaking down. It was full of holes, and she needed to miss class the next day to take the child to the hospital for surgery. Once again, I felt that same prompt. Pray for the child. Pray for healing. I will be frank. My heart sank a little. I felt like she would take it hard if we prayed and nothing happened. But I wanted to be obedient. So I prayed. She called me the next day so, super excited. She said that the doctor’s did an x-ray and it was like the liver was brand new. They didn’t have a category for what happened. But she told them all about how Jesus healed her child.
So these things are not abstract for me, but neither are they simple. God can heal by giving a prompt to pray for healing, but he can also give a command and a pattern for healing. An example would be James 5:14.
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
Many of the pastors at the Convergence conference told stories of how they prayed for people after worship services, and people were healed. We have seen people healed when the elders pray for the sick. But sometimes in post-service prayer or elder gatherings, the Lord chooses not to heal. It is striking how many times he will give a very personal word that he lays on someone else’s heart to give to the person praying for healing. The sickness gave them an openness to hear about something in their life that needed to be addressed. We can’t control God, and we can’t control healing. How do we think process God’s sovereignty in healing?
Beware the Ditches: All Sickness Is God’s Will (Don’t Pray); No Sickness Is God’s Will
In the theology of healing that Andrew Wilson laid out, he then made me feel right at home by talking about two extremes. He referred to Martin Luther saying that you could fall off a horse on both sides. Here is the way that he sketched the extremes.
First, beware of the claim that “God’s exhaustive sovereignty over all things means that he doesn’t heal people today because all sickness is actually his will. Every time you get sick, its because God wants you to be sick.” He called this view bogus on a few different levels. But in a practical sense, he said an awful lot of people—a suspiciously high number of people who do that—go to the doctor. Which instantly reveals that they don’t even believe what they are saying.
We also have to beware of falling off on the other side. We need to beware the claim that says, “Because God heals people today, no sickness is ever within his will or even under his control. There is nothing that escapes God’s power—even Satan in the book of Job has to get permission from God to afflict Job.”
One side would say, “Never pray for anybody.” The other side would say, “God is not even in control of what is happening in the world.” We need a robust vision of the power of God that both sees him as utterly sovereign over all things that happen (Reformed view), while at the same time seeing him as utterly opposed to the works of the devil and committed to drive him out because he is mighty to save.
They seem to pull in different directions. He goes to Daniel 3:16 to put the two together in harmony.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.—Daniel 3:16–18
God can heal you. God will heal you (eventually). If he doesn’t, and God is using this sickness to train me or someone else, and this sickness is a “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” thing, I don’t understand why, but I am going to hold on and I am going to keep asking and trusting, and one day the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and incorruptible, and sorrow and sighing will flee away, never to be seen again.
Conclusion: Communion
Communion helps us look back, look up, look around, and look ahead. First, we look back and see Communion as a covenant in blood. Look back and see Jesus purchased our forgiveness. He paid the price for our sins. He took our place—the righteous for the unrighteous, the Son of God for the children of wrath, the sinless for the sinful. His blood was poured out so that though our sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as all the snow we have all around us as a reminder of the power of the blood. He did all of this so that we can be the ransomed of the Lord. Redeemed—how I love to proclaim it!
Second, looking back causes us to look up. Jesus died not merely so we would be forgiven. Why do you want to be forgiven? When you want your wife to forgive you for something stupid you said, why do you want that? Because you want your wife back. You don’t want the ice in the air and the chill in the relationship. You want the warmth of intimacy and the love of communion together. Jesus died to bring us to God so we can be children of God who enjoy communion with God as our Father forever. This is not something we earn; we receive it.
Third, once you look back and look up, then look around. Jesus redeemed us to bring us to God so that we could be part of the family of God. He brought us together. Paul told the Corinthians that they were eating the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner because they were using it to call attention to divisions in the body—some were elevating themselves and highlighting their superior social standing in society: The rich eat and drink and are full, while the poor have nothing.
The Lord’s Supper is a time when the church looks around and says, “We are children of God together, people from many different ethnicities, different socio-economic places—but one together in Christ.” Only Christ could do that. Only the plan of God and the purchase of the blood of Christ, and the power of the Spirit could do that. The same blood gives us the same status as children of God together: The same Spirit indwelling us, causing us to cry, Abba, Father: One body and one Spirit—just as we were called to one hope of our calling, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4–6).
Fourth: Look back, look up, look around, now go ahead and look ahead. As long as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Let your faith face the eastern skies. Christ has come and Christ will come again. He is coming to make all things new. He said he would come back. He said he has been preparing a place for us to live together in sinless harmony. All the works of the devil will be destroyed, including the devil himself thrown into the lake of fire. All sin, all sickness, all sorrow, will be no more. Look at all the Lord has done; look what he is doing, but O look ahead to what he will do. The future for the children of God is so sure that we can sing about it now—because it is all true at the sound of Christ’s great Name.
Outline
Main Point: The healings of Mark 6 powerfully declare: Behold Your God Has Come!
Discussion Questions
Application Questions
Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to see the glory of Christ as “the Lord, my Healer,” and pray for a grace to grow in the discipleship truths of spiritual gifts.