If only we persisted!
by Pastor Matt Bishop
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He was amazed at their lack of faith. Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village (Mark 6:6b).
Read Mark 6:1–13
‘If only … ’ It’s a phrase heard at every level of the church. ‘If only our church building was more comfortable, we would have more people.’ ‘If only the pastor preached better, people would flock here.’ ‘If only our church modernised our teaching, we would not be dying.’
Even if the above were all true, they wouldn’t necessarily lead to more believers. In fact, there is an old joke that when congregations think about the pastor they want, they start with Jesus and then have to make a series of drastic compromises until they end with the person in front of them. Yet today’s reading shows that even if you got Jesus as your pastor, that would still not be enough. It wasn’t 2000 years ago in his hometown. It still isn’t today. How many caring, impressive and intelligent colleagues, family and friends do you love who have heard his message but simply take offence at it? Not even Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of the world, could convert everyone to believe in his promises.
What Jesus does next is a beautiful encouragement, though. Amazed at their lack of faith, he then goes around teaching from village to village. In other words, he doesn’t give up. He persists. Despite the rejection, scorn and ridicule, Jesus goes even deeper into his mission. And not just alone in a sort of ‘I think I’m right, but I respect others may not, so I’ll just go on my own’ kind of way. Instead, he puts stubborn, must-be-obeyed calls on people’s lives, drafting them into the very work he knows won’t succeed with everyone. And beyond drafting us in, he personally keeps persisting all the way to his ultimate rejection embodied in his trial, torture, nailing, death and grave.
Thank God our dear Lord did. Risen eternally from death, he asks us also to keep persisting out of his living witness and power. He knows our ineptitudes, fatigues, distractions and sins. But he also knows they have been covered in his blood and new life. And he knows this message is worth a crack for every single person. For he knows his own brothers James and Jude eventually got with his message.
So rather than ‘If only’ as a precondition to faithfully doing his work, how about ‘Let’s persist in the one who now lives in us’?
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for bringing us Christ, who persisted to death for our sins and now persists in making us alive in him. Give us your spirit of might that we may persist in his wisdom when our ‘wisdom’ says to give up. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Matt Bishop serves at St Paul Lutheran Church and primary school at Blair Athol SA. He is having a pretty full year supervising Vicar Sean Hotinski and chairing the General Pastors Conference planning committee and conference. That’s why he goes fishing to unwind – the beautiful Venus Bay on the Eyre Peninsula being a favourite spot.
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