Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Mark 12:1-12 in our “Journey Into The Night” series. He said that the light of resurrection only comes after a journey into darkness. Lector: Asia Filipiak
Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Mark 12:1-12 in our “Journey Into The Night” series. He said that the light of resurrection only comes after a journey into darkness.
Lector: Asia Filipiak
A journey into night requires you not only to face THE darkness, but also YOUR darkness.
If you want healing, if you want wholeness, a journey into night is required.
There is no other way. There is no resurrection apart from crucifixion.
The light of resurrection comes ONLY after a journey into darkness
So, if healing and wholeness is something you're interested in, you will have to face the darkness.
And this will mean facing the most difficult darkness of all: the one inside each of us.
Here's one example. By the time I was 30, I had enjoyed 3 particularly close friendships
Each at a different time in my life, but I perceived each to be like brothers.
And each of them, at different times, abruptly told me we could not be friends anymore
One said "i don't have room in my life for you" after I spent 6 months trying to get him on the phone.
It was brutal. Heart breaking.
After the 3rd one, I was talking to an older mentor of mine trying to process.
He asked me to describe the friendships, describe the patterns, he listened well.
I was waiting for him to tell me what was wrong with these guys.
Very calmly, he said to me "it sounds like they're giving you everything you ask of them."
Without thinking, I blurted out "but they gave ME NOTHING!"
Very calmly, he leaned in and said to me, "it sounds like they're giving you everything you ask of them. I wonder how you learned to do friendships like that."
I wanted to see their darkness. My friend encouraged me to see my own.
A journey into night requires you to face YOUR darkness.
The light of resurrection only comes after a journey into darkness
And this is at the heart of Jesus' invitation to each of us, as we see in our story today.
Remember, he's just indicted Jerusalem's system of temple worship.
He's just left the religious elites in an absolute pickle with one poignant question.
And now, he turns to teach the crowds who likely just witnessed it.
A man planted a vineyard.
-Mark 12:1
Please notice that Jesus' most difficult lessons often come as stories.
First, because stories can lead us into painful realities before we need it.
Stories are the back-door to the soul, sneaking behind the defenses of our right-answers and well laid plans.
But second, stories as the most gentle form of instruction.
Stories take a long time to unravel. A lot of reflection, and the best stories, like this one, have incredible depth. So you carry them with you.
Jesus has something difficult for us to hear, and because he is patient, kind, and gentle, he tells it to us in a story.
He goes on to describe how the vineyard is built, all very normal.
Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country.
-Mark 12:2
This would have made everyone in the crowd's heart rate increase.
This would be like me starting a story by saying, "there once was a man who lived on the US's southern border. A family of undocumented immigrants knocked on his door."
What's he going to say?! Which side is he on!?
It was common practice in those days for a wealthy person to buy land, plant a vineyard, and then move out.
For some 300 years to this point, this issue of "absentee landlords" was particularly volatile in Jewish culture.
It was a hot-button political issue.
So Jesus goes from indicting the temple to telling a story about one of his culture's most volatile social/political issues.
By that time, the common belief was that living on the land equated possession.
So, if they lived on the farm long enough, it just became theirs.
The focus of the problem was on the landlord who wasn't there.
The problem was on the policy, the law. The problem was out there.
Listen to how the story goes.
At the time of the grape harvest, he sent one of his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers grabbed the servant, beat him up, and sent him back empty-handed. The owner then sent another servant, but they insulted him and beat him over the head. The next servant he sent was killed. Others he sent were either beaten or killed, until there was only one left—his son whom he loved dearly. The owner finally sent him, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’
The astute listener would have been very curious here, because the same word Jesus says for "servant" here is the one use for "prophet" in the OT.
Prophet-servants come to collect the owner's share, not all of it!, just his portion...
And the prophet-servants were beaten up and eventually killed.
How do you think the crowd may have felt about Jesus and the Religious elites before he started telling this story?
"Boy, he stuck it to them!" "He put them in their place"! "He had them all tied in knots!"
Do you think any of them thought about the problems in their lives as being out there?
Those guys did this? It's THEIR fault?
Why do you think Jesus might have used a story like this, in a circumstance like this, using such a familiar and loaded word as "PROPHET"?
They thought the problem with absentee landlords was the landlord, right?
He's out there in the Mediterranean on a yacht getting fat off all our hard work
We're working the land, why shouldn't we own it?
I don't know what they were thinking...but they probably thought the problem was wicked landlords.
But that's not what this story is about, is it?
It's about evil farmers. The land isn't bad, the landlord isn't bad...in this story, it's the farmers.
Perhaps some in the crowd heard "PROPHET" and remembered how the people of God responded to prophets like Jeremiah and Amos.
That's where this same word Jesus uses comes from.
Two prophets rejected by God's people and God's priests.
And so the story continues:
'Here comes the heir to this estate. Let's kill him and get the estate for ourselves!' So they grabbed him and murdered him and threw his body out of the vineyard.
-Mark 12:9
What do you think the religious elites, who were actively plotting to kill Jesus, heard?
What do you think the crowd heard?
I think those with ears to hear heard the same thing: the darkness is in you, too.
This heir was not only killed, he was humiliated, body thrown outside the vineyard.
This Son, Jesus, will soon not only be killed, he will be humiliated.
He is facing his darkness, and his story is inviting us to do the same.
The light of resurrection only comes after a journey into darkness
And it the invitation comes with a warning, too:
"What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do?" Jesus asked. "I'll tell you — he will come and kill those farmers and lease the vineyard to others. Didn't you ever read this in the Scriptures? 'The Stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful to see.'"
-Mark 12:9-11
The implication here is clear: whoever rejects the owner's son has rejected the owner himself.
Jesus' indictment is clear: those who had been entrusted with the land have abused it. They have committed egregious acts of violence against God himself and they will face judgment.
Jesus invitation is clear: face your darkness so you can find healing.
The light of resurrection only comes after a journey into darkness
In other words LISTEN. TO. JESUS!
He is the Son come from afar, he is the son who will be killed and humiliated, so that he can be the SAVIOR who brings you home.
And just as he left the elites in a pickle last week, he leaves all of us in one this week: will we keep pointing the finger out there, like the farmers did, like the elites did, like the crowds did, like we all do, or will we receive Jesus' words?
He's trying to show them the problem isn't with the landlord, and it's not with the vineyard.
The problem is with the hearts of those living in the land.
Those who don't listen, who don't share, who don't trust, who don't love.
The problem is in here.
yes, there are problems out there. Yes, there are many, many things wrong out there.
But listen, how much can you do about any of those problems?
I'm not saying don't deal with stuff out there...but so many of us focus on stuff out there as a way of avoiding our own darkness.
So start where we have the MOST influence, ourselves.
You know how little you can make your spouse change, or your parents change, or your friends change.
You can influence your kids some, but then they become teenagers.
You are the person you have the most influence over in your whole life, and one can face your darkness for you.
The only way to experience the light of resurrection is by first taking a journey into night.
Avoid the example of the religious elites here. They wouldn't listen. They kept the finger pointing out:
The religious leaders wanted to arrest Jesus because they realized he was telling the story against them
-Mark 12:12
This is not the way of Jesus. He journeyed into night, we're seeing it now.
And because he faced our darkness for us, he can now go through our darkness WITH US.
We do not journey into night alone.
So the question for each of us is first:
What is the darkness in me I am trying to avoid?
It wasn't fun to hear I had played a part in my friends' abandoning me.
It wasn't fun to hear that, and it was even worse to see that.
That's some darkness I avoided for 30 years.
What is the darkness you are trying to avoid?
And second: How is Jesus inviting me to respond?
When I realized I didn't ask anything out of my relationships, what might you guess the invitation became?
"Oh just keep getting walked over and pretend like you don't need anything?"
No, of course not. It was so simple.
See, when Jesus walks into our darkness with us, he also leads us out.
What is the darkness you are avoiding? Then take some time and ask Jesus "how are you inviting me to respond?"
Listen to him. Let him lead you.
The light of resurrection only comes after a journey into darkness
Let's pray.