Not A Hollywood Tale

Jody Winston

July 9, 2006

Sermon

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1
The story that I am about to tell you might sound as if it were invented by
Hollywood. But it was not. One of the books in the New Testament has almost
been completely ignored by Christians.
The first scene of this epic occurs in Northern African country of Algeria. It is
readily apparent from the set that we are not in the present age. The narrator in-
forms us that we are in the ancient city of Hippo and the year is around 400 A.D.
The first actor that walks onto the screen is introduced to us as Augustine, one of
the great thinkers of the early church. Through dialogue with other characters, we
hear that Augustine is working on a new book, which will prove, for once and for
all, that all four Gospels agree with each other. The intervening vignettes show
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3

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us how Augustine approaches this task. He begins by carefully reading through
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We see him painstakingly taking notes on each
of the books. Through dialog, he informs us of his three basic assumptions. First,
the title of the book indicates the book’s author. That is Matthew wrote the Gospel
according to Matthew, Mark wrote the book that has his name, and so on. Second,
each Gospel was written in the order that they appear in the Bible: Matthew is
first, followed by Mark, Luke, and John. Finally, each author has completely read
the preceding books. This means that Mark has read Matthew, Luke has read both
Matthew and Mark, and John has read Matthew, Mark, and Luke. With the re-
search behind him, Augustine draws two important and long lasting conclusions.
First, the Gospels do agree with each other. Second, Mark only summarizes what
Matthew has written. The first scene draws to a close.
During the next scene, time passes quickly through fifteen centuries. In one
set of images, we see many different universities along with people of all races
diligently researching the Bible. At all of these institutes of higher learning, no
one is studying Mark because everyone still believes Augustine’s conclusion about
Mark being a second rate book. In another set of visuals, we have several examples
of people at worship. The one common factor in all of these services is that the
Gospel of Mark is being ignored.
The third and final scene of this story occurs in Germany during the nine-
teenth century. We are back at the university since Christian thinkers are once
again carefully examining the four Gospels along with Augustine’s assumptions.
Because of their knowledge of ancient Greek writing, the researchers show us that

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the title of the Gospel more than likely is not the Gospel’s author. Through careful
analysis of the four texts, the professors disagree with Augustine’s opinion that
Mark copied Matthew. It appears to these scholars that Mark more than likely is
the oldest Gospel. Additionally, it seems to them that Matthew and Luke draw
from Mark and from another common source, which we no longer have. This true
story ends after the researchers implore us to carefully look at Mark because this
Gospel clearly contains important information that is difficult to find in the other
three Gospels.
One key way that Mark stands out from the other Gospels is that Mark under-
mines our traditional understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ.
Mark pulls no punches when describing Christ followers. One the one hand, Mark
tells us about their successes. This point is clearly shown in today’s Gospel read-
ing. The disciples were able to accomplish their given goals since they preached
repentance, exorcised demons, and cured the sick (Mark 6:13, 30). On the other
hand, Mark also tells us about their dramatic failures. Some of Jesus’ followers
think that He is insane (Mark 3:21), others will prove to be bad soil for Christ’s
Word (Mark 4:13-20), and all of the disciples are concerned about their influence
over others (Mark 9:32; 10:35-45). The two most substantial shortcomings of the
disciples include Judas’ betrayal (Mark 14:10, 42) and Peter’s three denials of
Jesus (Mark 14:66-72).
Regrettably, some people still continue to ignore the truths taught in the Gospel
according to St. Mark about discipleship. One local example of this lack of at-
tention can be found at Lakewood. Their current campaign is titled, “Discover

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the Champion In You.” Jesus never tells His followers in Mark that they will be
champions. Instead, Jesus says in three separate places that His followers must be
servants (Mark 9:35; 10:43; 12:2,4). This misuse of Scripture continues in Joel
Osteen’s teachings. Joel tells his followers that quote, “If you just keep your hope
up and stay in the attitude of faith, the best is yet to come.” Given what we know
about discipleship in Mark, this statement by Joel is completely false. The best
does not come for any of the disciples. They all abandon Jesus. None of them stay
with Jesus during His arrest (Mark 14:50) nor do any of them watch Jesus suffer
and die on the cross (Mark 15:39-40). Even the first disciple who calls Jesus the
Messiah turns around and completely denies Jesus (Mark 8:29). The last words
from Peter in Mark are “I do not know this man you are talking about” (Mark
14:71).
Paradoxically, the accurate portrayal of the disciples’ deficiencies in Mark
serves as Good News. Peter is probably the best example of God’s unbelievable
grace. Despite Peter’s betrayal and abandonment of God’s own Son, God did not
abandon Peter. Peter was forgiven and God used Peter to tell others about God’s
saving grace (Acts 2). God will do the same for each of us. In our own ways, we
will all fail God, others, and we will most certainly fail ourselves. Even with all
of our failures, God will not leave any one of us. Instead, God will come to us,
forgive us, and use us to tell others the Good News.
We can see these actions repeated over again and again for us in the Sacra-
ments. In our state of sin, God is physically there for us and God pardons all of
our sins. After receiving this precious gift from God, we go back into the world

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and there, in the world, we show others God’s gift of acceptance.
Unfortunately, the disregard of the Gospel according to St. Mark by the church
is not a tale from Hollywood. Instead, this story is one that we all know too well
because in a very real way it is our own story. None of us wants to hear the truth
about ourselves. We cannot bear to hear how we will all fail. This is the real reason
why we have tried to forget this Gospel. It hits too close to home.
Fortunately, for us God continues to tell us who we truly are, one of God’s
children who makes mistakes. Go into the world knowing who you really are, a
child of God who will stumble and fall and who then will be picked up by God.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”2

2
Philippians 4:7.