Finishing the Race – Strong! (9)

 

 

“But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him [Mark] along who had deserted them…and there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another.” (See Acts 15:36 – 41).

 

When Barnabas and Mark showed up in Cyprus and folks wanted to know where Paul was, I wonder how Barnabas responded? When Paul and Silas traveled through Syria and Cilicia, and the brethren asked about Barnabas, I wonder how Paul responded?

 

Not only would Mark come to be a trusted fellow worker with Paul, but Paul and Barnabas worked through their sharp disagreement. While we don’t know the details of this, can’t we surmise that for Paul to come to value Mark, that he also must have valued Barnabas’s firm commitment to Mark in Acts 15? Perhaps Paul looked back and thought, “I didn’t see what Barnabas saw”?

 

Subsequent to Acts 15, Paul writes this to the Corinthians, “Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?” (1 Cor. 9:6). Paul could have used an example other than Barnabas, but he chose his old friend and fellow laborer.

 

Little did Paul realize that in the sharp dispute with Barnabas over Mark, that Barnabas was preserving the calling of a brother who Paul would come to value and desire to be with him during his last days on earth. “Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service” (2 Tim. 4:11). Can we imagine the conversations that Mark and Timothy had when they traveled together? Did Timothy say, “Mark, tell me what happened in Antioch between Paul and Barnabas”?

 

What did Mark learn through the experience? How did he think and feel to see two dear friends argue over whether they should include him or not? Did he feel remorse at his earlier abandonment of Paul and Barnabas? Was he yearning for a second opportunity to be faithful in ministry?

 

O friends, Barnabas’s faithfulness to Mark brought us the Gospel of Mark.  

 

Isn’t this what we would expect from Barnabas? In Acts 9:26-27 we see that after Paul’s conversion, when he went to Jerusalem to meet with disciples, that “they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.”

 

Later, when Barnabas arrives in Antioch, after assessing the situation with the new disciples, we read that “he left for Tarsus to look for Saul [Paul], and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch” (Acts 11:19 – 26).

 

Barnabas was committed to people, and he was gifted in bringing people together – he saw gifts and graces in others that perhaps they did not see. Not only did his faithfulness to Mark result in the Gospel of Mark, his faithfulness to Paul resulted in much of the New Testament.

 

We are called to be committed and faithful to one another as we run the race and finish strong. We cannot tell what the future holds, we seldom see clearly and then not for a great distance. We do not know the full stories of others in our lives, but we ought to know that we are called to faithfulness – faithfulness to Jesus and faithfulness to one another.

 

Let it never be said of us that we abandoned a brother or sister. Let it rather be said that we were committed and faithful to others as we ran the race and finished strong – helping others to cross the finish line.