Villains

Lots of things to discover. What we are doing is we are thinking about Mark's gospel, and we are thinking about Mark's gospel as a story. I think I said a few weeks ago, by story I don't mean that it's made up. All I mean is that it's been crafted brilliantly so Mark can convey to us the message that he's intending to convey around the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what I've sought to do is to try and take a dramatic element and then try and find a passage which illustrates this really well and try and show how it works to serve Mark's purposes in communicating this to us about Jesus. And if you feel like some of my remarks are a bit trite or a bit childish, well, they probably are. But make sure you don't lose the things that are really profound which we can see there in the text. So Mark's gospel is a great story. Every great story has a hero, a quest, and action. And every great story has villains.

And Mark's story of Jesus has villains. Now if you have a Disney subscription—a Disney Pay TV subscription—you can access what is loosely called the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And if you want to see a piece of highbrow drama, can I recommend you go and watch Justice League? Superman is dead, so Batman has to assemble his heroes—Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg—to defeat Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons. Steppenwolf appears from another dimension, and like most Marvel villains, he's kind of like, "I'm an agent of chaos. I have come from another dimension. I am god of time. I come out of rock. And I also have an electro axe." He is a one-dimensional character. There's not even a Freudian backstory about how he came to be such an evil villain—you know, this is what happened to him when he was younger, that's why he's just got such a bee in his bonnet and he has to be an evil villain. There's zero backstory for someone like him.

And then you have your more layered villains, those who garner your sympathy. So, there's any number of those. Let me suggest to you Mayella Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird, who is the woman who brings the charge against Tom Robinson. And however much you think she's a villain, she's a victim of poverty and social dislocation and perhaps domestic violence. And if you happen to be watching, as in my household last night, Wicked—for good—is it Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West or Glinda the Good who are the real villains in that story, or are they both kind of villains or neither villains at all? What would a great story be without villains?

A few years ago, American pop culture writer Shea Serrano launched a podcast that he entitled Villains. Within a few hours, it had reached number 12 on the Apple podcast charts. His formula was pretty simple: each week he took a different villain—an animated villain, a gangster villain, a teenage movie villain, a DC villain—and he would deconstruct the villain. And he'd ask questions like, "Can you ever have any sympathy for Hannibal Lecter?" Or, "Is it ever possible to justify the behavior of Regina George in Mean Girls?" Or in 101 Dalmatians, why is Cruella de Vil so scary? And he often asks what's the most villainous thing that these villains do. And it's really interesting to think just how villains work in a story. Are they one-dimensional characters? Do we know much about them? Do we know their names, for example? Do they develop? Do we get a bit of a backstory? What drives them in their actions? And this is a worthwhile way of approaching Mark's gospel.

Now, if you were reading Mark's gospel up till now—and we are—you would realize that Jesus is the hero. That's pretty clear. That's playing Captain Obvious. But then we realize he's on a quest. But you also might think to yourself, what chance has this man got? Because there is a terrific amount of opposition against him. In the very first chapter, Jesus begins his ministry and immediately the devil begins his ministry against him. Jesus' family think he's out of his mind. The teachers of the law think he is possessed. His disciples don't really seem to get him. And then at the end of the passage today, there's a plot to kill him. What chance has he got?

So who are our villains today? Well, our villains today are the Pharisees. Now everybody knows, don't they? If you've been in church for a while, everyone knows when you mention the word Pharisee—even from Sunday school days—they are the ones where you're supposed to boo, hiss, and throw popcorn when they come on the scene. They're not named, which is interesting because there are plenty of people named who are clearly opposed to Jesus. Think, for example, about Herod. Think about Pilate. These people are not named. And there are three incidents, one after another, where they're involved. I'm looking at page 992, the passage that Julie read to us. Three incidents, one after the other. Let's look at them.

The first one begins in verse 18, chapter 2:18, where Jesus is questioned about fasting. John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And some people came and asked Jesus, "How is it that John's disciples and the Pharisees are fasting but yours are not?" It's kind of like they're coming to him and they're saying, "You know, you and your disciples need to be a bit more serious, a bit more solemn, a bit more sober." They don't fast. Now, fasting began in the Old Testament and, as far as I can tell, the Old Testament required that it might happen once a year on a special occasion. The Pharisees had turned it into two times a week, and they're very proud of it. They're very proud of their fasting. Now, we're not talking about dieting here because if you go onto social media, you'll discover that fasting is on trend at the moment. But that's not what we're speaking about here. We're speaking about fasting—denying yourself of something, perhaps denying yourself of food for religious reasons. And for the Pharisees, this was the platform whereby they thought they could reach God. They thought they could reach God by just following the system, keep the rules, do something external. Dare I say, it's a little bit like a monkey trying to pull on a lion skin.

Well, Jesus just ignores their rules. He says, "How can people fast when the bridegroom is here?" This makes good sense, doesn't it? I mean, if you've been to a wedding, as I was at a wedding just not too long ago, it's very, very hard to be serious and solemn at a wedding because it's just a place of absolute joy. And when the waiter comes around with the tray and says, "Champagne, sir?" it's very difficult to say, "Oh, no thank you, I'm fasting at the moment." When they bring around the hors d'oeuvres or the canapes, it's pretty obvious that it just doesn't really work with that moment of celebration. And Jesus is saying the moment of celebration is here because the bridegroom is here. Who does he think he is? Because the bridegroom is a term that God used for himself towards his people in the Old Testament. God was going to be like the husband to his people, the bridegroom. And Jesus is saying the bridegroom is here, which is like saying God is here. He keeps picking up these terms which are clear God terms, and he keeps using them towards himself.

Well, that's the first one. Jesus just ignores their rules. The second one's the Sabbath. See verse 23: one Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grain fields and his disciples walked along and they began to pick some heads of grain just because they're hungry. The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing something that is unlawful on the Sabbath?" Now the point is, the Old Testament doesn't say that it's unlawful. It's the Pharisees have created this rule that says this is unlawful on the Sabbath. If you think about the Sabbath, it began way back in Genesis where God rested on the seventh day and then it gets turned into a commandment in Deuteronomy. It's something that starts with good intent. It's meant to honor God. But by the time the Pharisees have got hold of it and taken hold of it, it just seems to be: follow the system. "Is this good for people?" Don't ask that question. Just follow the system. "Does it help me to know God?" Don't ask that question. Just follow the system.

And Jesus answers them and he says in verse 25, "Do you remember David? Do you remember what David did when his companions were hungry and in need? They were running from the threat of Saul who wanted to kill them, and they needed something to eat because they're starving." He goes to the temple and he eats the consecrated bread. He says to the high priest, "Is there any bread?" Only the stuff that's consecrated. And David says, "Well, that will have to be enough because the men needed to eat something." So Jesus is saying here what is more important is life. It's not ritual and law. What is more important in each of these situations is life. You know, God wants us to have a living, loving relationship with him, not follow a system. And I don't need to tell you that Jesus will go to the cross to die so that people can live eternally, so they can have life. It's what he wants. He wants them to have life. And then he says, "The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." That's a big statement.

Well, the third incident here is the man with the withered hand. Now the physiotherapist in me would love to speculate about what was the basis for this, and I could do that, but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to refrain from speculating. There is a man with a withered hand. And so here we go, Chapter 3:1. Another time, Jesus went to the synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. So they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with a shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone." Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil?" It's a good point, isn't it? "Is it lawful to do good or do evil, to save a life or to kill?" But they remained silent. And he looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn heart, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

Well, let's ask the question: what do you think is the most villainous thing that happens here? What is the most villainous thing they do? I'm going to give you some options. Here's option number one: they lay a trap for Jesus in order to kill him. That's pretty serious, isn't it? At the lead-up is a series of conspiracies. Jesus has not done one bad thing. He's always acted well towards people. He's a good man. He's beautiful in the way he acts. He only ever uses his power to heal and to restore. The one with the power of God, but he only ever uses it for other people. And they want to kill the Messiah of God. They want to kill the king by the end of chapter three—or by chapter three.

Option two: they use an impoverished disabled man as bait, as a trick. Now that's just nasty. Clearly, it's, "We don't care about you the man, we just want to get him." But it's kind of subtle as well, isn't it? It's not that they obviously set it up. They just waited. They could see an opportunity. They just waited. And Jesus says, verse 4, "What is lawful: to do good or to do evil?" And then verse 5, he looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." Maybe the most villainous thing they do is there in verse five. They're stubborn of heart. They are hard-hearted. What's the most villainous thing they do? They're just hard towards God. Hard towards Jesus.

And if you were able to look into their backstory, you might see how it happened. Maybe it started in small ways. Maybe it grew as they grew as a social group within Judaism. Maybe it grew bit by bit. There should have been a "yes" in their hearts towards God, but there was a "no." And maybe if they'd stopped to look at themselves, maybe they would be shocked at what they'd become. But bit by bit they'd built a system of thought and action that served them well in their own minds but had built God completely out of the system. They were hardhearted.

I might have said to you on one occasion before—I can't really remember—that when I left school I worked for Qantas for a couple of years and I worked as a very, very junior engineer. I spent two years on the tools learning to be an engineer. I've got so many really interesting stories. Seems like just yesterday but it was a long, long time ago. No, they weren't flying Tiger Moths in those days. But I remember on two—I spent two 8-hour shifts in the afternoons, which is 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. I spent two 8-hour shifts in the wing of a 747 in the middle of summer changing a cable. You might be worried that a first or second-year apprentice might be doing that, but don't worry—the senior engineer is looking through, making sure I'm doing everything just as he wants it done. It's just he doesn't want to get all hot and sweaty and greased. And what happens is when you do that sort of heavy manual work, a lot of it you've just got to use your hands and fingers for. So you need tools to tighten things up and things like that, but essentially getting them in place you just need to use your hands and fingers. And after a while, as your fingers are just moving metal all the time—moving cables, moving bolts, turnbuckles and things like that—the skin on your finger starts getting more calloused. And as that happens, you kind of notice over time as you do this that your hands start to lose sensation. And if you've got calluses on your hands, you know the sensation's not quite the same there as it is elsewhere. Your fingers and your hands start to get less sensitive.

And the Bible's view is that you can become like that with God, in your heart towards God. It can become kind of thickened and calloused toward God. Hard-hearted. Jesus used the word stubborn-hearted and you stop feeling the things you should feel and you stop doing the things you should do. What's the scariest thing about these villains? I want to suggest to you the scariest thing is it could be you or me. See, it's possible to become hard-hearted towards God. Could that be you? Could that be me? And I think Mark has carefully structured his biography of Jesus because he wants us to face up to the fact that we could—you know what it's like. You could imagine it if it's not true for you, or maybe it is true for you, where you start becoming insensitive to what God is saying to you. Insensitive to what God is doing.

Sometimes it can be a system. Sometimes we can embrace a system and in doing that we're actually saying "no" to God—not always, but it can be to have a "no" in your heart where there should be a "yes." To be far off from God, to be away from God, to, you know, as it were, you just stop reading his messages or stop reading his mail. The letters stay on the bench unopened. You know what really wrecks relationships? It wrecks any relationship: it's hardness. It's when you become hard to another entity. Hardness towards God, that will wreck the relationship.

I think I said a couple of weeks ago—I can't really remember—but I think I mentioned that little essay that John Steinbeck wrote in the late 1950s: why the good guys wear white hats and the bad guys wear black hats. And in it, he tried to unpick the tropes of the American Western. The black hats were the bad people, the white hats were the good people. But at the end of the essay, it becomes clear that most people wear gray hats. And it's a good little parable because most of us are various shades of gray. We're not black or white. We're just various shades of gray, capable of magnificent things and hardness as well. So in other words, if we're honest with ourselves, we would say that in each one of us there's at least a bit of villain in each one of us. We like to keep it under control. And it's good to keep it under control. But that is a reality that God wants us to come to grips with.

And as we'll see, Jesus' whole concept of why he came was to die for the villains, or to use the word of Paul, so that they would become new creations. Or to use the word of the gospels, that they would be born again. Jesus' whole concept is he came for villains just like you and me. But I don't want to finish with them; I want to finish with Jesus because how good is Jesus in these accounts? The Pharisees are interested in the rules; Jesus is interested in the person. The person—the people picking grain, the people who are working on the Sabbath, the man with the shriveled hand. At every point, Jesus' interest is in the person.

And I want to say to you today: could your view of Jesus and the life he brings be just a little bit too dull? What would it have been like then to have the Lord Jesus come to your house, as he came to many places? And what would it be like to be chatting to him at morning tea after church—so free, so happy, so kind? And the promise to the simple believer is that you will be with him again forever. Could being a Christian be better than you thought? Could it be happier? Could it be more carefree? Could it be more liberating? You know, there is someone who wants the best for you. There is someone behind everything who loves you and wants more than anything your freedom and your welfare and your liberty—the Son of God who would die even on the cross for you. And his delight is to set people free.

Let's pray, shall we? Our heavenly Father, way beyond what we deserve or what we grasp, we are conscious this morning that you're a God of steadfast love, of holiness. You are God. You're very great. And we thank you that Jesus showed this most clearly to us. That Jesus cared so deeply. That he lived so freely and that he died so supremely for us. And may we know that in our hearts this morning. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, let's ask the question: what do you think is the most villainous thing that happens here? What is the most villainous thing they do? I'm going to give you some options. Here's option number one: they lay a trap for Jesus in order to kill Him . That's pretty serious, isn't it? At the lead-up is a series of conspiracies. Jesus has not done one bad thing. He's always acted well towards people. He's a good man. He's beautiful in the way He acts. He only ever uses His power to heal and to restore. The one with the power of God, but He only ever uses it for other people. And they want to kill the Messiah of God. They want to kill the king by the end of chapter three—or by chapter three.

Option two: they use an impoverished disabled man as bait , as a trick. Now that's just nasty. Clearly, it's, "We don't care about you the man, we just want to get Him." But it's kind of subtle as well, isn't it? It's not that they obviously set it up. They just waited. They could see an opportunity. They just waited. And Jesus says, verse 4, "What is lawful: to do good or to do evil?" And then verse 5, He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts , said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." Maybe the most villainous thing they do is there in verse five. They're stubborn of heart. They are hard-hearted . What's the most villainous thing they do? They're just hard towards God. Hard towards Jesus.

And if you were able to look into their backstory, you might see how it happened. Maybe it started in small ways. Maybe it grew as they grew as a social group within Judaism. Maybe it grew bit by bit. There should have been a "yes" in their hearts towards God, but there was a "no." And maybe if they'd stopped to look at themselves, maybe they would be shocked at what they'd become. But bit by bit they'd built a system of thought and action that served them well in their own minds but had built God completely out of the system. They were hardhearted.

I might have said to you on one occasion before—I can't really remember—that when I left school I worked for Qantas for a couple of years and I worked as a very, very junior engineer. I spent two years on the tools learning to be an engineer. I've got so many really interesting stories. Seems like just yesterday but it was a long, long time ago. No, they weren't flying Tiger Moths in those days. But I remember on two—I spent two 8-hour shifts in the afternoons, which is 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. I spent two 8-hour shifts in the wing of a 747 in the middle of summer changing a cable. You might be worried that a first or second-year apprentice might be doing that, but don't worry—the senior engineer is looking through, making sure I'm doing everything just as He wants it done. It's just He doesn't want to get all hot and sweaty and greased. And what happens is when you do that sort of heavy manual work, a lot of it you've just got to use your hands and fingers for. So you need tools to tighten things up and things like that, but essentially getting them in place you just need to use your hands and fingers. And after a while, as your fingers are just moving metal all the time—moving cables, moving bolts, turnbuckles and things like that—the skin on your finger starts getting more calloused . And as that happens, you kind of notice over time as you do this that your hands start to lose sensation. And if you've got calluses on your hands, you know the sensation's not quite the same there as it is elsewhere. Your fingers and your hands start to get less sensitive.

And the Bible's view is that you can become like that with God, in your heart towards God. It can become kind of thickened and calloused toward God . Hard-hearted. Jesus used the word stubborn-hearted and you stop feeling the things you should feel and you stop doing the things you should do. What's the scariest thing about these villains? I want to suggest to you the scariest thing is it could be you or me. See, it's possible to become hard-hearted towards God. Could that be you? Could that be me? And I think Mark has carefully structured His biography of Jesus because He wants us to face up to the fact that we could—you know what it's like. You could imagine it if it's not true for you, or maybe it is true for you, where you start becoming insensitive to what God is saying to you. Insensitive to what God is doing.

Sometimes it can be a system. Sometimes we can embrace a system and in doing that we're actually saying "no" to God—not always, but it can be to have a "no" in your heart where there should be a "yes." To be far off from God, to be away from God, to, you know, as it were, you just stop reading His messages or stop reading His mail. The letters stay on the bench unopened. You know what really wrecks relationships? It wrecks any relationship: it's hardness . It's when you become hard to another entity. Hardness towards God, that will wreck the relationship.

I think I said a couple of weeks ago—I can't really remember—but I think I mentioned that little essay that John Steinbeck wrote in the late 1950s: why the good guys wear white hats and the bad guys wear black hats. And in it, he tried to unpick the tropes of the American Western. The black hats were the bad people, the white hats were the good people. But at the end of the essay, it becomes clear that most people wear gray hats . And it's a good little parable because most of us are various shades of gray. We're not black or white. We're just various shades of gray, capable of magnificent things and hardness as well. So in other words, if we're honest with ourselves, we would say that in each one of us there's at least a bit of villain in each one of us. We like to keep it under control. And it's good to keep it under control. But that is a reality that God wants us to come to grips with.

And as we'll see, Jesus' whole concept of why He came was to die for the villains, or to use the word of Paul, so that they would become new creations . Or to use the word of the gospels, that they would be born again. Jesus' whole concept is He came for villains just like you and me. But I don't want to finish with them; I want to finish with Jesus because how good is Jesus in these accounts? The Pharisees are interested in the rules; Jesus is interested in the person . The person—the people picking grain, the people who are working on the Sabbath, the man with the shriveled hand. At every point, Jesus' interest is in the person.

And I want to say to you today: could your view of Jesus and the life He brings be just a little bit too dull? What would it have been like then to have the Lord Jesus come to your house, as He came to many places? And what would it be like to be chatting to Him at morning tea after church—so free, so happy, so kind? And the promise to the simple believer is that you will be with Him again forever. Could being a Christian be better than you thought? Could it be happier? Could it be more carefree? Could it be more liberating? You know, there is someone who wants the best for you. There is someone behind everything who loves you and wants more than anything your freedom and your welfare and your liberty—the Son of God who would die even on the cross for you. And His delight is to set people free.

Let's pray, shall we? Our heavenly Father, way beyond what we deserve or what we grasp, we are conscious this morning that you're a God of steadfast love, of holiness. You are God. You're very great. And we thank you that Jesus showed this most clearly to us. That Jesus cared so deeply. That He lived so freely and that He died so supremely for us. And may we know that in our hearts this morning. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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