I have admittedly a Marcan bias. I appreciate this gospel – like no other. Historically, it was the first to be written. It is closest in time to the actual events. It is probably by far, “the most historical account.”
Mark is pure genius. It is the first-of-a-kind writing style…
He writes a gospel – “gospel” meaning “good news.” This good news was usually the good news of a “military victory” – shouted by some courier…at the top of his lungs. Mark used the terminology – to express the “good news” of “what God is doing.”
In it – he includes a “tale within a tale,” or he “bookends” his stories or he gives us a two-fer, a bogo (a buy one get one free) kind of a deal. Mark used this “sandwich technique” – of weaving more than one story together. He begins one story, breaks in with another, and then completes the first. This technique heightens tension and utilizes both stories to interpret one another. It is a way cool – literary device!
And, today’s lection is a case in point.
We live in a day and an age when people “scoff” at God. They “mock,” “deride,” “ridicule,” “make fun of,” “dismiss,” “belittle,” “jeer” and “revile” God. They speak “contemptuously” about him.
2 Timothy 3.2ff, in the (New Living Translation) says, “For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.”
Maybe you know some people like this, maybe some – are even family members or loved ones…
In our gospel text we have people laughing at Jesus. LAUGHING AT JESUS… Which says, people like this – have always been with us…they have always been around…
God loves them. (You know that he does) – “they too,” are a part of his tremendous creation.
Laughing at God, scoffing at him, deriding him is even Biblical. Remember how old father Abraham and Sarah (his princess) each in their turn, laughed when they heard God’s promise that they would bear a son and become forebear-ers of a great and mighty nation? They laughed at God. They scoffed at God. The derided God. They did not believe in his word. They had to laugh because the promise was impossible from a human point of view.
If you will remember, they even went so far as to name their son, Isaac, a name meaning “laughter or joke!” Well, the joke was on them!!!
In our Gospel text for today, the “professional or hired mourners” – the wailers- didn’t take Jesus seriously either.
Why should they? Death is a common enough occurrence. We all know about death. Death happens. Death is an “all too frequent and unwelcome intruder” in the homes of the old and the young.
The little girl was dead. She had expired.
What could Jesus, or what could anyone do about death? There is nothing to do…except say our goodbyes, prepare the body and accompany it to its final resting place.
What the people did not know or what the people did not believe – is that with God all things are possible.
And God, working through Jesus was about to prove them all wrong.
So in spite of scoffing, ridicule, disbelief Jesus boldly enters into the house with his “inner circle of three” and restores the little girl- back to life.
This is a huge story. This is a major story…of great import.
It is interesting because both of the woman highlighted and the father of the little girl –obviously take Jesus – seriously! Both believe that Jesus can restore their lives. Both humbly kneel before him.
At the end, those who doubted, those who were in disbelief, those who scoffed and those who laughed were all left speechless and amazed.
Never underestimate the power of God.
Never underestimate what God can do.
Mark awakens us to the “abundant healing grace” of God in Jesus. Laugh if you must, laugh if you will. But wait!
In Jesus there is hope. In Jesus there is life. In Jesus there is community for all. And, in Jesus, there is always room for one more to come and join his family.
Let those who laugh, come and join us! They are welcome here! Amen.