Advent Two - The Gospel of Peace (Mark 1:1-8)

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Mark’s Gospel is not where we tend to hang out at Christmas time. Mark has no angels, no shepherds, no wise men. And, to be frank, not a lot of peace. Mark starts his story of Jesus’ life by dropping us in the middle of the action, and he ends with a cliffhanger—he skips the opening credits and starts the movie in the middle of a car chase. We don't know who anybody is. We have to figure out who the characters are, and who to root for. Then he shifts from event to event. He includes some of Jesus’ teachings in his Gospel, but Mark focuses most on the things that Jesus did: how He lived His life as a man in the world. 

But having taken time to do some reading about Mark and about his Gospel—about his account of Jesus’ life and ministry, I started to catch a glimmer of how peace fits into Mark's account of “the good news of Jesus Christ.” I landed on three questions. “What is Mark's Gospel?” “What is peace?” “Are we there yet?” 

First, what is Mark's Gospel, this piece of writing that has been passed down to us? It is the account of Jesus’ ministry written by Mark. Mark was not one of the twelve first apostles, but he was close to some of the people who moved in that circle. Mark turns up in a few places throughout the Gospels (plus the book of Acts and some of Paul's letters).  

Mark's Gospel is much shorter than the others. It's nearly half the length of Matthew’s and Luke’s, largely because of the teaching and sermons that Matthew and Luke include. It's the events, the actions of Jesus, that dominate Mark’s perspective. He's focused more on action than on speech. As for the Christmas story, Mark does not begin with that long, slow silence and waiting of the prophets, Jesus’ infancy, and youth. Mark gets straight into the action. Buckle up your seat belts. Here we go. Jesus healed the sick. He gave sight and hearing and speech to those who asked. He raised the dead. He produced food out of thin air. He walked on the water. He cast out demons. He turned the temple court inside out with a whip. He killed a tree for some reason. He rose from the dead. Mark focused on what Jesus did. Not what He said.  

Mark’s perspective also includes who his audience was. Each writer in the Gospels was focusing on a particular audience, somebody in their head who was going to be reading this, and to whom they were writing. This is where I really started to get a handle on how peace relates to Mark's Gospel...

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For the decade between approximately year 60 and year 70, Mark was mostly in the city of Rome. He was living with, caring for, being cared for by, sharing life with the believers in Rome. He was there as a support and a co-worker with Peter, and with Paul. At the time, the world was said to be at peace—what was known as the Pax Romana (Latin for Roman Peace). To give you an idea of what that means... The kind of peace that was built in the Pax Romana is the same kind of peace that Russia is hoping to create in Ukraine. This is the kind of peace, as one writer put it, “that results when all opponents have been beaten down and have lost the ability to resist.” In that peace, Christians were relatively safe. They were occasionally criticized. They were sometimes looked down on by the people of Rome, but they were tolerated because legally Christians were Jews, and for the most part in that period of history, Judaism was permitted in Rome. Christians were protected. 

Until the fire.

Beginning on July 18, 64 CE (or AD, whichever you prefer) Rome burned for six days. It started small and blew out of control and couldn't be knocked back. It destroyed entire sections of the city. Hundreds were killed, thousands left homeless, businesses destroyed. Mark and Peter and Paul would have been there when that happened.  

Nero, who was emperor at the time (and unpopular because he was sadistic, greedy, and kind of insane) was accused of starting the fire on purpose to clear some land he wanted for a palace. He tried to undo this further attack on his popularity. He tried to clear his name by helping the homeless, by providing tax relief, by mandating fireproof construction for some of the new buildings. But Tacitus, a historian living at the time, wrote,

Neither human resources, nor imperial munificence, nor appeasement of the gods eliminated sinister suspicions that the fire had been instigated. To suppress this rumour, Nero fabricated scapegoats and punished with every refinement the notoriously depraved Christians... They were sacrificed to one man's brutality rather than the national interest.

Nero tried to shift the blame onto this small, unpopular group of people who had no political power, no wealth, no influence, figuring that if he gave the people a scapegoat it would take the pressure off. In the aftermath of which, we understand that Peter was crucified. That Paul, because he was a Roman citizen and exempt from crucifixion, was beheaded. That hundreds of our brothers and sisters died deaths of torture and humiliation.  

That is the world, that is the city, that is the neighbourhood in which Mark sat down—surrounded by grief, and violence, and pain, fear, injustice, and betrayal—that is the neighbourhood in which he sat down, picked up a pen, and wrote, “This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.” That's where the Gospel of Mark comes from.  

Second question. What is peace? Rome was ‘at peace,’ but the believers in Christ who lived there definitely were not. And like hope, joy, and love, peace is most palpable in its absence. We are most aware of it when we don't have it. When we hunger for it, when we remember it with longing.   

In our world often we talk about peace in terms of freedom from disturbance. We are at peace when nothing is disturbing us. We see peace in a ceasefire, when hostages can be exchanged and supplies can be replenished. We find peace in our office with the door locked and the phone off the hook. Or in the bathtub when nobody is asking us questions and we can read a novel. We find peace on our coffee break, sitting still long enough to rest our feet and think our own thoughts. But our understanding of peace is only a hint of what the writers of Scripture mean when they write about peace. The peace of God is something so much greater. When Scripture talks about Jesus as the Prince of Peace, they're not saying he's the guy in charge of coffee breaks and days off. They're talking about the man, the God, the One who is in charge of an eternity of wholeness and health, sufficiency and harmony in relationship between people, between us and our planet, and between us and our God. In Romans 8:19 Paul writes,

The creation waits in eager expectation in hope that creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay, and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

That is peace.  

Peace is wholeness. It is freedom. It is everything and everyone as they were created to be, in harmony with each other, and in harmony with God. Jesus, yes, is the Prince of Peace. He promises us His peace unlike anything the world can offer.  

But His peace is not just something that we receive. It's not just something that happens. It's not just something that settles daintily on Whoville, just in time for the roast beast. For the believer in Jesus, for the follower of the Prince of Peace, peace is something that we do. In Matthew's Gospel (one of those teachings that I was talking about before) Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” That means we have a job to do. Making peace in this broken world. Sometimes that looks like what Paul describes Romans 12:17: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. If it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone.” Sometimes making peace in the world means stepping back. Staying silent, even when the perfect comeback or insult pops into your head.   

But sometimes (and I think this is where Mark lands on this) peace means engaging. Peace means getting involved. In Ephesians chapter 6:13-17, the apostle Paul tells us to take up the full armor of God, standing firm with the belt of truth buckled around our waist, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit... “And with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace.” Paul is describing a warrior who is fighting for peace. Paul also says in Romans 16:20: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”

The God of peace is going to crush Satan under our feet. We are peacemakers.  

But it is vitally important to remember who we are in battle against.  

The peace of the gospel, the peace of the good news of Jesus Christ, is a peace that fights on and into hostile territory. The peace of Christ, not unlike the Pax Romana, will keep on until all opponents have been beaten down and lost the ability to resist. In opposition to the peace of Christ stand violence and grief, pain, fear, injustice, betrayal, abuse, hatred, selfishness, self importance, mockery, greed, dishonesty, divisiveness, nationalism, loneliness, and behind it all stands the one who inflicts those things on humanity.

The peace of Christ is an unstoppable force that pushes its boundaries out into the world against that enemy, and the peace of Christ carries with it a reality in which, as God says in Leviticus 26:11-12, “I will make my dwelling place among you... I will walk among you and be your God and you will be my people.” Jesus says in Revelation 3:20, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him and he with me.” And in John 13:35, Jesus says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples: if you love one another.” When we are at peace with God, with each other, and with our world, that is the gospel of the peace of Christ that will crush the one who corrupts. Who divides. Who wounds. Who separates.  

Third question. Are we there yet? Clearly not. We do not live in a world where the enemies of peace have been beaten down and lost the ability to resist. The enemies of Christ are still resisting. For our brothers and sisters in Rome whose names and faces Mark had in his mind as he wrote, our fellow believers who were living in this same world of fear and injustice—he doesn't sugarcoat it. He's honest with his audience, and I find it really interesting that among the teachings of Jesus that Mark includes in his Gospel, he includes the words,

If anyone wants to come after me, they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. (Mark 8:34) 

When we hear those words today, they urge us to follow Jesus’ example of surrender to God's plan, following Jesus’ footsteps as the Lord of our lives. We picture ourselves picking up our cross and following Jesus to Calvary. But I think it would have sounded very different to those people in Rome.  

These are people who have seen in person, in real time, crucifixion. And the interesting thing is that Roman citizens were exempt from crucifixion. A Roman citizen did not need to fear being crucified. Peter was crucified. Paul was not. The difference was their citizenship. So Mark drops this challenge to people who are living in fear and injustice, but who at least know that they're not going to be crucified. At the very least, it's not going to be that. If someone knocks on my door and arrests me for being a Christian, at least it's not going to be that. But what does Mark do? He includes these instructions of Jesus: take up your cross, deny yourself.  

Mark drops the challenge, asking,

Who do you belong to? Whose are you? Where does your citizenship lie? To what ruler are you answerable? Are you ready to set aside your privileged identity to walk this path?

 No, we are not there yet and no they were not there yet... but yes we clearly are there. 

We are in a world where we are equipped and empowered to do battle against the enemy. Mark begins his Gospel at full tilt in the middle of the action, and he ends it, as I said, with a cliff hanger.  

At the end of Mark’s Gospel, it is agreed by many scholars that the final words actually written by Mark himself are in chapter 16, verse 8, with the next section being added later by another writer. This does not undermine its credibility or its place in scripture. It just means that someone was explaining what happened next. But Mark himself concludes his writing with the words:

So the women left the tomb and ran away, trembling and bewildered and they said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.

Curtain.

He leaves us wondering what happens next, in suspense just as the believers in Rome (living in fear and under injustice) wondered what would happen next.  

Well, the answer to that question is... We happen. What happens next? Us! We are the sequel. We are Chapter Seventeen. Us, speaking out for peace, in spite of our fear.  

More often than not, God works by first telling us to obey, promising us His strength to see through the task He's given us, and then... Someday, maybe we find out exactly why.  

Today, the task that we have been given as peacemakers is to stand up against the enemies of peace and do battle. To stand firm with our feet in the boots of the readiness of the gospel of peace.  

You and I cannot make peace for Ukraine. We cannot make peace for Israel and Palestine.  

We can refrain from sharing and commenting on certain things in social media. We can say no to a racist or a misogynist joke. We can sit with a grieving friend, sometimes in silence, so they know they're not alone. 

We can sometimes take up our cross—do the things that we think we shouldn’t have to do. Like biting our tongue. Like forgiving. Setting aside our rights to help with building God's kingdom of peace in the world. Making peace sometimes means letting go of something you desperately want to keep. Sometimes it means speaking out and telling a friend or neighbour about the good news of Jesus Christ. We are equipped together to do battle against the enemies of the good news of the God of peace.  

To hear the full message: