Mark 1:1-8

The book of Mark starts with an odd figure.  Hanging out in the wilderness near Judea is this guy wearing camel skins and yelling at people.  Now crazy is nothing new, there have been crazy people as long as there have been…well, people.  But there’s something different about this guy – people are listening to him.  There’s something about him that is drawing people in.  Now on a diet of just locusts and wild honey I can’t imagine that it is his breath, but there is something about him that is attracting the masses.  Now I don’t know exactly what the crowds were thinking, I’m not positive on what it is that attracted them, but I have a hunch that for at least some of them – this wild man in the wilderness – John, offered them hope.

John offered hope because he told a dangerous story.  He told the story of a man prophesized about by Israel’s prophets who was still to come.  He told the story of a man far greater than himself, one of whom he was not worthy to even tie the sandal straps of.  And it was this man that Israel yearned for, a man who would return the small backwater nation of Israel back to its former glory, a king whose reign would bring God’s Glory back to Israel.  That once again Israel would be a mighty nation.  And so the people clung to the hope offered by this man in the wilderness.

As followers of Jesus we also have a dangerous story to tell.  The book of Mark is one of my favourites because it is exactly that, a dangerous story.  Jesus is awesome, the disciples are the sidekicks who don’t quite get it and the Pharisees are Jesus’ arch enemy.  It’s dangerous because it tells the story of the author of creation who was willing to become His own creation.  It’s dangerous because Jesus invites us out of our ordinary existence to live extraordinary lives.  It’s dangerous because it’s the beginning of a revolution.  It’s dangerous because in the end we are invited to share the story with others.  In a world that so often seems to be without hope, are you willing to share with others the dangerous story that gives you hope.

Now: Read Mark 1:1-8

Then: Go Swedish (what’s this?)