Mark passes over a full year of Jesus’ ministry in silence and begins his account with the calling of the disciples by the Sea of Galilee. But he stresses two things:
• Jesus came preaching the Message of God. His method was preaching. Preaching will never be superseded by anything else. Preaching is the revealing of reality. It is letting people see what is here in life around us, the truth about life. In the words of Paul, “We present the truth plainly. In the sight of God, we make our appeal to everyone’s sense of what is right and wrong (II Corinthians 4:2b).” That is what Jesus came to do—to open the eyes of people to what was really happening in their lives.
• Jesus’ message was, “The kingdom of God is near.” We are surrounded by an invisible spiritual kingdom, with great forces, both of evil and of good, playing upon us. In that kingdom, Jesus is Lord. And that kingdom governs all the events of history, and all the events of our daily lives and circumstances. So that when we are related to the kingdom of God, we are related to the ultimate force that governs everything we are and have, and thus we are related to reality.
Jesus came with the good news that all the power of God is now available to break the helpless deadlock into which humanity has fallen. On our own, we are helpless. No matter how much we like to think we can do something to correct our condition, we are helpless and hopeless without the aid of God.
But the good news is that a breakthrough has occurred. God’s power has broken through. Jesus came to announce that the King is at hand, the One who can master a life, put it in order, bring peace and harmony into it, and supply a power which will produce a character no one else can rival. That is the kingdom of God (Romans 14:17). The kingdom is at hand. And the place to gain it is the place of repentance, acknowledgment of need. To anyone and everyone who wants it, God’s help is available, when we are willing to acknowledge that we can’t get along without it.
(We invite your comments. Feel free to share this devotion with your friends and invite them to subscribe by forwarding their email address to the Pastor at: fredjeffsmith@gmail.com.)
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