Jesus is, The Unexpected King
Mark 1:14-15 (ESV)
14Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;repent and believe in the gospel.”
“Prediction Errors”
Prediction errors can be disorienting.
The Unqualified
The Undeserving
The Unclean
The Undone
THE UNQUALIFIED 1v16-20; 2v13-17
Mark 1:16-17 (ESV)
16Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
Mark 2:14 (ESV)
14And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
Mark 2:17 (ESV)
17And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
THE UNDESERVING 7v24-30
Mark 7:24-26 (ESV)
24And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden.
Mark 7:24-26 (ESV)
25But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet.
Mark 7:24-26 (ESV)
26Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
“Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Mark 7v27
THE UNCLEAN 5v25-34
Mark 5:25-27 (NLT)
25A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse.
Mark 5:25-27 (NLT)
27She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe.
Mark 5:34 (ESV)
34And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
THE UNDONE 5v21-23; 35-43
“…Do not fear, only believe.”
Mark 5v36
A man, woman, child
Demons, disease, death
“This might raise the question of why did Jesus apparently only raise Jairus’ daughter, the widow’s son in Luke 7, and Lazarus in John 11? There must have been plenty of other people Jesus encountered who had just lost someone to death. Why them and not others? Or why them and not me? This question misses the whole point of the larger story that Mark is telling us. Just as Jesus wasn’t coming to be a one man liberation movement in the traditional revolutionary sense, so he wasn’t coming to be a one man emergency medical center. He is indeed starting a revolution and he is indeed bringing God’s healing power but his aim went deeper: these were signs of the real revolution, the real healing that God was to accomplish through his death and resurrection. Signs are important, but they aren’t the destination.”
~NT Wright