The apostles returned to Jesus excited, energized, eager to tell Him all about their little adventures. Demons exorcised, diseases healed, good news preached. It was a smashing success. They were tired and excited at the same time. So many stories to tell. Jesus takes them on a little retreat, off to a wilderness place, far from the clamoring crowds. A chance to recharge and reflect and rest. And so they went away in a boat, off by themselves. But the crowd followed them.
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See what happens when you mess around with politics and marriage? You lose your head to Herod. John wasn’t martyred for preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God. He lost his head for criticizing Herod’s shabby morals for shacking up with his brother’s estranged wife Herodias. John calls him out on it and gets in dutch with Herodias, who’s probably more of a political player than anything else. Her daughter does a seductive belly dance for Uncle Herod and his buddies at his birthday party and, in a fit of probably drunken magnanimity, offers the girl up to half his kingdom. She goes off to Mom who seizes the opportunity and asks for John’s head on a platter. So much for John. Exit stage left, down the stairs of moral activism.
Jesus returns home with his growing entourage of disciples. The local boy made good has come to the home congregation to preach to the hometown folks. The place was probably packed. The word had gotten back to Nazareth. He teaches with authority. He heals the diseased, casts out demons. He’s the complete messianic package. And who would have thought it? Jesus, Mary’s kid. The carpenter from Nazareth.
In Nomine Iesu
Today’s Gospel is a story of two daughters. A 12 year-old girl, the daughter of a synagogue ruler named Jairus, and a woman who had suffered from a bleeding for 12 years, whom Jesus strangely calls “daughter.” Their lives are inextricably bound together by sickness, by death, by Jesus, who is Life and Healing, for them and for you too.
In Mark’s version of the Gospel, everything happens “immediately.” In the Greek, euthus. At once. Without hesitation. “And immediately they left their nets and followed Him.” “And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed Him.” Immediately. If all you had was Mark’s version of the Gospel, you’d think it all happened in six months or so. One thing immediately after another.
“Follow me.” That’s today’s word from Jesus for you, in your hearing, and in your Baptism. Those are the words that make you His disciple. Although the word “disciple” does not appear in this morning’s reading from the Gospel according to St. John, the text and theme is about discipleship. Jesus calls His first disciples, who happen to be Philip and Nathaniel. Not the front-running disciples we are used to hearing about - Peter, James, and John, but the somewhat “lesser” (if one can use such a term) and lesser known disciples Philip and Nathaniel. And in the encounter between Jesus with Philip and his brother Nathaniel, we learn a great deal about discipleship, about what it means to be a disciple, and also about the disciple-making mandate of the church.
Baptism is creative and creation is baptismal. That’s the connecting link in our readings this morning. Baptism is creative, a new creation, in which we are united with the death and life of Jesus, die to Sin and rise to life in Christ so that we can now consider ourselves dead to Sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. To be baptized is to be in Christ, and if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come.
A joyous and blessed new year to all of you, and a happy 11th day of Christmas as we make our way with the wise men to Epiphany and then the Baptism of our Lord. By now many of you have packed away Christmas, I’m sure. Those nativity scenes with the baby Jesus have been safely wrapped up and put back in the garage or the attic until next year, though hopefully you haven’t done that with the Gospel of Christmas, the good news of the Word become flesh to save you. That remains when everything else is packed up and over.
Gal. 4:4 But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
The true gift of Christmas for each one of us is an inheritance. The Son of God was born of woman under the Law so that we might become heirs together with Christ of His kingdom.
It happened in the fulness of time. At just the right moment in human history. It was a perfect storm of variables that all came together at one time. Roman rule established peace for the first time in centuries. Roman technology and government brought roads and plumbing. Greek culture brought a common language and a love for learning. Israel, God’s nation of the Old Testament, was in a kind of protective custody, held as a territory under Roman rule. It wasn’t the splendor of Solomon by any stretch, but it wasn’t bad either. Protected from her ancient enemies, Israel was free to pretty much carry out its business as usual, providing it rendered to Caesar the appropriate taxes. Nothing new there. The synagogues were thriving under the rabbinic teaching of the Pharisees. The temple was clicking along under the Sadducees, while King Herod was busy rennovating the temple to secure the favor of the Jews.
It’s beginning to look at least a little bit like Christmas around here. Some Christmasy decorations trickling in on this fourth and last Sunday of Advent. And our Gospel reading shifts from John the Baptist in the Judean wilderness to a young woman named Mary in the north country of Nazareth. Before there is going to be a birth to celebrate, there must be a conception nine months earlier. This is Jesus’ conception story, and it is filled with wonderful things.
“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.” Luke packs it all into the opening sentence - six wonderful things in two sentences.