Jesus in 3D

Mr. Harris was the year six teacher at the primary school that I went to.

And Mr. Harris was a very, very, very, very scary person.

He was cranky, old.

He was the guy in charge of discipline, and he was terrifying to me as a primary schooler.

I never actually had him as my teacher.

So to me, Mr.

Harris was like a two-dimensional character.

He was scary and old and cranky, and that's all he was.

Now, in the course of time, my two older siblings had him as their teacher, and they told me crazy things.

They said that actually, when you have Mr.

Harris as your teacher, he's so kind, he's actually loving and gentle, and he's a really great teacher.

I did not believe them, because I had never encountered this three-dimensional Mr.

Harris.

To me, Mr.

Harris was only ever two dimensions.

Well, we've just had read to us by Serene a story in two dimensions, whether you're reading on a screen or a Bible or a phone, it's in two dimensions, and yet this two-dimensional story reveals to us a Jesus who is thoroughly three-dimensional.

And so, I think as we come to the scripture this morning, there is an invitation to all of us for a relationship with a three-dimensional, real, embodied Jesus.

This message is titled, Jesus in 3D, if you're taking notes.

Let me pray.

Father, thank you for your word.

We pray that the Spirit of Truth would illuminate the meaning of the scripture before us, that we may understand it, and more than that, that we may come to know you, God, and that we might have eternal life.

So speak to us, we pray, in Jesus' name.

We're in the Gospel of Mark.

This is the sixth sermon of our Gospel of New Beginnings series.

We've said Mark is the Gospel of New Beginnings.

As an author, Mark doesn't highlight so much the teachings and the words and the parables of Jesus, but he highlights the action, the action of Jesus and the way that people respond to him.

And so, across the 16 chapters of the Gospel of Mark, the first eight, the first half of Mark is driven by this question, who is Jesus?

And almost each and every paragraph is asking the question, who is Jesus?

And giving a different answer by this formula of Jesus does something crazy.

He does something amazing and people respond to him.

And then in the next story, he does something amazing and people respond.

And over and over again, in the first eight chapters of Mark, people are responding to who Jesus is.

And this pattern for eight chapters culminates in the halfway point of the Gospel of Mark.

In Mark chapter eight, it says Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi.

On the way, he asked them, who do people say I am?

They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others one of the prophets.

What about you?

Jesus asked.

Who do you say I am?

Peter answered, you are the Messiah.

Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

That's the crux, the halfway crux of Mark.

Jesus is the Messiah.

And every paragraph before that has given kind of a different dimension to the character of Jesus.

So briefly, looking through the first five paragraphs of Mark, who does each paragraph say Jesus is?

Well, firstly, in the first paragraph, Jesus is the promise of John the Baptist.

He is the one that John the Baptist was pointing towards, the one who was promised.

In the second paragraph, as Jesus is baptized and receives the Holy Spirit, Jesus is the son of the father.

In the third paragraph, Jesus announces the kingdom of God.

Jesus is the king of the kingdom of God.

In the fourth paragraph, Jesus calls his first disciples.

So, Jesus is a rabbi worth following.

And then last Sunday night, we looked at Mark 1, 21 to 28, Jesus sending out a demon out of an impure, spirit out of a man.

That would tell us that Jesus is a lord with authority.

These are all the answers that Mark has given us.

But the problem so far is all of these answers about the identity of Jesus are kind of similar types of things.

We're painted a one or two-dimensional figure of Jesus, but there's something missing in the characterization of Jesus.

And so we come to today's passage.

I'll read again from Mark 1.29.

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew.

Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her.

So he went to her, he took her hand and helped her up.

The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

That evening after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed.

The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases.

He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak, because they knew who Jesus was.

Remember, that question of who is Jesus is the driving question behind these first eight chapters.

So each paragraph, I've said, almost has an answer to the question, who is Jesus?

If you had to shout out one word that to you encapsulates who this paragraph says Jesus is, what would that one word be?

God.

That's good.

What else?

Healer.

It's compassionate.

Yeah, all of these words.

When I was brainstorming, I thought loving, healer, compassionate, caring, big-hearted.

But for me, that last word really captured, I think, what this passage contributes to our silhouette of the identity of Jesus.

Heart.

We are given the heart of Jesus in this passage.

And the reason why that's crucial is the first five paragraphs have told us Jesus is king.

He is Lord.

He is a rabbi worth following.

But none of that says anything about the character of the king.

It doesn't speak to the heart of Jesus.

And so I think Mark gets to this point in his Gospel, and he needs to tell us and show us who Jesus is, who his heart is.

And we see Jesus has a beautiful heart for people.

There is heart in this passage.

And I think the way Mark shows us the heart of Jesus is on two scales.

Firstly, the micro scale, and then secondly, the macro scale.

In my Bible, there are six verses to this passage, and it's in two paragraphs of three verses each.

So it's even, and I like that.

I think the first three verses tells us the heart of Jesus on the micro scale, and the second three tells us the heart of Jesus on the macro scale.

So firstly, the heart of Jesus on the micro scale, Mark 1.29.

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew.

Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her.

So he went to her, took her hand, and helped her up.

The fever left her, and she began to wait on them.

This is such an intimate moment.

It's vulnerable.

Simon's mother-in-law is in bed with a fever, and Jesus comes into that private room and kneels beside her bed.

This is a very private micro kind of moment that is happening.

As the disciples see, Jesus is now with a sick woman, and they wonder what is going to happen.

I think they are wondering what's going to happen, because up until this point in Mark, Jesus hasn't healed anyone that we're told of.

Yes, he's cast out demons, he's taught with authority, he's received the Holy Spirit like a dove, but he has not yet, that we're told of, actually healed anyone of any diseases.

And yet, the disciples bring Jesus to Simon's mother-in-law, and they just know intuitively, that the one who teaches with amazing authority, who casts out demons, surely this Jesus can do something about my mother-in-law's fever, says Peter.

And they're correct.

It says that Jesus took her hand and helped her up, and she was healed in an instant.

This is the first healing we see in the Gospel of Mark.

And what does it mean for us?

What does it tell us?

It tells us Jesus cares.

Jesus cares about the one.

He comes into the private room by the bedside of the one who is sick, and he cares for them because he has a heart for the small things.

He cares for us, and there's no issue too small to be brought to him.

Well, I think the second half of our passage, the second three verses, tells us the heart of Jesus on the macro scale, Mark 1.32.

That evening after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed.

The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases.

He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

The first thing I notice is the first healing that Jesus did was in a private room, so the crowds had not seen that.

Therefore, the crowds are in the same position that the disciples were in.

They've never seen Jesus heal someone that we're told about.

They've seen him cast out demons and teach with authority, but they too just intuit that this Jesus is someone special, and he can handle our sickness.

He can do something about it.

So this is the second batch of healings in the Gospel of Mark.

I think it's pretty awesome.

The text says they brought all the sick and demon-possessed people to Jesus, and he healed so many people.

When I read the Gospels, I'm struck by the fact that there are pretty much two different types of Gospel healing descriptions.

There's passages that say Jesus went to such and such a place and healed all the people who had diseases, and he cast out many demons, and then the story moves on.

That's Jesus healing the many.

But we also have descriptions of Jesus healing one person.

All throughout the Gospels, Jesus, when he heals one person, sorry Trudy, this is intense, when Jesus heals one person, he is with that person.

He is present and fully embodied, and he heals that one person.

In fact, I think Jesus resists people who come to him to get a quick fix healing and leave.

I think Jesus, in the way that he did ministry, was trying to avoid people like getting the healing and then backing off.

Remember later on in the Gospel of Mark, we'll see the story of the bleeding woman who had so much faith that she said, if I could just touch his cloak, I would be healed.

Jesus resists her trying to get the healing and then leave, as much faith as she had, because Jesus paused the entire bustling crowd that was happening, and he took a moment to be with that woman, because he doesn't want to just let her take a quick fix healing and leave.

So now when it comes to Jesus healing many people at once, I can't see Jesus who is so present when he's with one.

I can't see him then just going, healed, healed, healed, healed, healed.

Healings, ten at once, see you later.

The same Jesus who is intensely, fully embodied and present with one person, I think he does the same with the crowds.

I think he has a moment with this person.

He heals them, he changes their life, and then he moves to the next person, and then the next person, and in so doing, he heals the entire crowd.

He doesn't throw out healing.

And I think the reason is, Jesus doesn't want us to have a two-dimensional relationship with him.

He doesn't want us to come to him for our healing, or the answer to our prayer, or whatever we want, to feel good again after we've sinned.

He doesn't want us to grab that thing, and then say, see you later, Jesus, I'm off.

Instead, Jesus slows it down, and he wants to connect with us.

He wants to be in three dimensions with us.

Mark 1, 14-15, Jesus said, The time has come, the kingdom of God has come near.

Jesus is the king of the kingdom, and he brings the kingdom wherever he goes.

In every healing, whether it's in groups of people, one by one in the group, or just with one person, Jesus is bringing the kingdom of God, because the king is incarnate in Jesus.

And I think the Jesus who we encounter here, who wants to have a moment with the individual and with the individuals in a crowd, is the same one who wants to work in our lives.

He is present in your life on the micro scale, the most micro scale, and he's present in our community, even now.

He's working in the one and the many, because we see here the heart of Jesus on the micro scale and the macro scale.

And the Jesus that we find is thoroughly three-dimensional.

He is embodied and real and incarnate and full-hearted, loving people and healing them.

We've just had, obviously, the Christmas season, and a theological word which gets thrown around a lot at Christmas, and not very often after Christmas is incarnation.

Or incarnate.

The whole point of Christmas is that God wanted to take on what we have.

Take on the flesh of humanity that Jesus might live the perfect life and die for us.

And also that he might be in three dimensions embodied as he walked around this earth.

He wants to be in three dimensions.

And so as we're reading the Gospel of Mark, we see Jesus is King.

He is Lord.

He is Rabbi, Son of the Father, the Promise of John the Baptist.

But he is also loving, compassionate, big hearted, overflowing with grace and mercy to meet people exactly where they are, even when they're sick, the one and the many.

And that Jesus, the King with character, is the one who wants to be in three dimensions fully real to us in our life.

The problem is, I, and maybe you, often reduce this wonderful three-dimensional Jesus.

I reduce him to two dimensions on a page.

Jesus said in John 5, you study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.

But these are the very scriptures that testify about me, says Jesus.

Yet you refuse to come to me to have eternal life.

Jesus is saying that scripture or prayer or any of the spiritual disciplines through which we engage in a relationship with God, it's a two-dimensional thing.

Like this is two, I mean, it's three dimensions because it's fat.

But in terms of the page, it's two dimensions.

But often we come to this thinking, read, and verse 28, done.

Okay, Bible reading, done for the day.

Or the same with our prayer.

We say it as quickly as we can, say amen, and we're done.

Jesus says, this was designed, breathed by the Spirit of God in order that it may point us to a person in three dimensions and that in finding that person who is Jesus, we would have eternal life.

Scripture testifies to the eternal life that is knowing Jesus, and so I find that challenging.

I'm reading Leviticus at the moment, and many of us, I think, are reading Genesis with the Genesis Bible loop.

It's hard to find Jesus in the Bible sometimes.

And yet if we take Jesus seriously here, we believe that all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for pointing us to the one who is eternal life.

Jesus said toward the end of John that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, who will guide us into the truth.

And so as I've been reading Leviticus, I've been trying to pray that, Holy Spirit of truth, would you make Jesus real to me through this passage?

And it's really tricky when it's talking about ceremonial uncleanliness after women's monthly flow.

It's tricky.

But you read enough of scripture, and it points you to the person of Jesus, who is so holy that we can't be in the presence of God without blood to cover us.

That's what the Spirit of truth does.

There's an invitation here to encounter Jesus in 3D.

And so whoever you are, I think the application is the same.

Sometimes sermons have an application for Christians and one for non-Christians, and maybe one for young people, and it's the same application.

We need Jesus in 3D.

All of us need more than just an encounter with words on a page.

We need to know the God that these words point us to, and to know that God in three dimensions.

So the application is, when you read the Bible, when you pray, when you do any of these disciplines or practices of the way through which we engage with God, pray that the Holy Spirit of Truth would make the living, three-dimensional Jesus come alive on the page in our life.

Because we're invited to a relationship with the King, and to see his heart, and to know that he is King, he is Lord, he is the promise of John the Baptist, but he is also deeply caring and compassionate, and gracious and loving.

And he wants us, Jesus wants us to encounter both parts of who he is, every part of who he is in 3D.

To know Jesus in 3D means that as the promise of John the Baptist, we receive him.

As the son of God the Father, we listen to him.

As the King of the Kingdom of God, we honor him.

As the Rabbi who is worth following, we learn from him.

As the Lord with authority, we serve him.

As the healer with a heart, we pray to him and bring our needs before him.

And as Jesus said, he is the way, the truth and the life.

And so we believe in him.

May we encounter Jesus in 3D, meaning Jesus thoroughly real and relational, filling our life so much more than words on a page.

Let me pray.

Lord Jesus, we have before us a story that is amazing.

We are amazed at the things you did, your patience and your grace and your mercy.

And many of us know you in that way.

We know you in a very real way.

But there's always more to know, and many of us don't know you, and so I pray that you would reach out to us even now, illuminate our hearts to know you, and that as we know you, as you say in John 17, we might have eternal life.

Lord Jesus, would you make yourself real to us in 3D, changing our lives, filling us with the Holy Spirit, that we may have so much more than a shallow two-dimensional relationship with you.

We thank you for the work that you want to do in and through us, and we invite you to do that in Jesus' name.

Amen.

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