Deeds of Power

Mark 6: 1-6

Roger Lynn

July 5, 2020

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Jesus shows up in his hometown and people take offense. He tries to share his understanding of God and people turn away. In the end, because of the people’s refusal to listen or understand, he is unable to do any “deeds of power,” except for healing a few sick people. This story is packed full of insights about Jesus and his mission, and yet it is easy to miss the importance of what is being said.

First of all, even Jesus doesn’t work alone. He is in partnership with the people he seeks to serve. The gift can be offered, but unless it is also received it remains ineffectual. Unless the people participate in the process, the Good News of God’s love remains merely theoretical. In the words of Frederick Buechner, “God will not . . . ravish. God will only court.” (from Wishful Thinking) And then, immediately following the incident in Nazareth, Jesus sends his disciples out on a mission and instructs them to expect a similar reception. “If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet...” (Mark 6:11) Not everyone is going to be receptive. Don’t let it get to you. Spend your energy where it will make a difference.

But there is something else hidden in this story from Mark’s Gospel. We see it in the phrase “deeds of power”, which shows up twice in this brief passage. The people are looking for something flashy. They want to be wowed. And it is precisely this kind of thinking which causes them to miss what Jesus has to offer. They are looking for him to do something to them, while he is trying to do something with them. The real “miracles” that Jesus seeks to accomplish have to do with breaking down the walls which separate people and prevent true community. At the end of Jesus’ experience in Nazareth, Mark tells us that “he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.” (Mark 6:5) Interestingly, the implication is that healing people is not primarily how we should understand “deeds of power.” Instead, we can look to the theme of transformation which undergirds much of Jesus’ life and message. Over and over again we find Jesus promoting, encouraging, and enabling a radical transformation of the ways in which life is experienced. Yes, this involves healing of physical disease and disability which detracts from life. But more significantly and more fundamentally, it involves healing of personal, societal, and cultural brokenness which prevents us from experiencing the fullness of life which God intends. The Gospels are full of examples of Jesus reaching out to the last, the lost, and the least. He speaks out against those in positions of power when they abuse that power to disenfranchise others. Jesus’ real “deeds of power” are about seeking to transform life in ways which make a real, lasting, far-reaching difference.

2,000 years later we still have the capacity to act like the people in Jesus’ hometown. We want to see something spectacular, and we wonder why it doesn’t happen (at least it doesn’t seem to happen as often as we want or in the ways we want). Where are the big “miracles” like we read about in the Bible? Why are sick people still dying? Why isn’t God doing something? But what if the real miracles still require our cooperation? What if the deeds of power God is seeking to accomplish here in the midst of us are still about transforming the world by creating genuine community where barriers are eliminated and true acceptance is the norm? If that is, indeed, the case (and I believe that it is), then we need to look very carefully at the ways in which we are similar to the people of Nazareth. By looking for the big, spectacular miracles that happen to us, we distract our attention away from the fact that the truly spectacular miracles are the ones which God does with us, and they can’t happen until we begin to participate in the process.

On this week-end when we celebrate our freedom as Americans, we would do well to spend some time examining how we tend to think about faith and power. It is clear that in our culture power is frequently equated with force. Time after time we as a country have sought to solve problems through the use of military might and/or the imposition of “power over”. We drop bombs. We send troops. We enforce our will whenever and wherever we deem necessary. And it is becoming increasingly clear that “faith” is often used to justify and support such an approach. Because we are a “God-fearing” country, because our leaders are “faithful” people, then God must be on our side. Faithful “deeds of power” are thus understood in increasingly violent terms. And to the extent that this is an accurate description of how we, as a nation, think and act, we are undermining Jesus’ vision of “deeds of power” as acts which create true community. Jesus was famous for shaking up the status quo. We must be very, very concerned when we see Jesus being co-opted to provide support for our own status quo. What might it mean, for our country and for our world, if we began to think of deeds of power in the same ways Jesus seemed to understand the phrase? What might begin to happen if we started putting as much time and energy and resources into pursuits that brought people together as we currently put into efforts which divide and destroy? What might life look like if reaching out to the last, the lost, and the least became our first instinct and our primary aim? God is seeking to perform just such deeds of power among us, but that requires our participation. What are we waiting for?