Finishing the Race – Strong! (8)

 

“Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings, and also Barnabas’s cousin Mark (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him)” (Colossians 4:10).

 

“Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers” (Philemon 23 – 24).

 

“Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service” (2 Timothy 4:11).

 

We began this series with Demas. In Colossians 4 and in Philemon, he is a fellow worker with Paul. Then in 2 Timothy 4:10 we read, “For Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me.” Demas started strong, but he did not finish well; he went from honor to dishonor. Yet, we have another story in these passages. Do we see it? We have the story of a man who did not begin very well, but who finished strong, of a man who went from dishonor to honor in Jesus Christ. His name is Mark.

 

In Acts 13:5 we see that Barnabas and Paul had John Mark with them as their helper on their first missionary journey (in Acts 12:12, 25 and 15:37 note that he is termed “John, called Mark”). After their time in Cyprus we are told, “Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia; but John left them and returned to Jerusalem” (Acts 13:13).

 

After Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch (Acts 14:26 – 28), and after they made their important trip to Jerusalem and returned again to Antioch (Acts 15:1 – 35), they decided to revisit the young churches they had planted. However, Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them, but Paul would have none of it.

 

“But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and left, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord” (Acts 15:38 – 40).

 

Mark left Paul early in Paul’s apostolic ministry, yet he would become a partner in the Gospel with Paul; indeed, Mark would come to write the Gospel bearing his name. Peter will call Mark “my son” in 1 Peter 5:13, so we see that Mark had a significant ministry, laboring alongside Barnabas, Paul, Peter, and many others. Mark may not have started very well, but he certainly finished strong.

 

Let’s recall that Colossians and Philemon were written in prison, and that Mark was with Paul when Paul wrote those letters. Being identified with Paul at that time carried with it the possibility of also being imprisoned, which in turn carried with it the possibility of torture and execution. Mark did not abandon Paul in this time of extreme danger.

 

Let’s also consider that Paul was in his final imprisonment when he wrote 2 Timothy, facing execution, and that when he instructs Timothy to bring Mark with him that he writes in the confidence that Mark will come and not avoid the danger. What a reversal from those early days recorded in Acts 13!

 

O dear friends, we can all experience redemptive reversals. Those of us who started strong but have veered off the path of faithfulness to Jesus and our brethren can return to be a blessing to others. Mark must have witnessed many miraculous things, as well as persecution, because of living in Jerusalem among disciples – see for example Acts 12:1–17. He lived through the great persecution described in Acts 8:1, and he likely knew both Stephen and James who were martyred in Jerusalem.

 

By living in Jerusalem, Mark knew about pressure; he knew there was a price to pay for following Jesus. Perhaps he should have known that going with Paul and Barnabas was going to be challenging, maybe he should have expected hardship. Was he prepared for the confrontation with the false prophet Elymas on Cyprus? What was happening inside Mark when he and his companions were before the proconsul Sergius Paulus, facing Elymas? Did he anticipate being arrested? Torture? Execution by the Roman official? Did he think that he would never see his mother in Jerusalem again? Was he relived when they finally left Cyprus? Was Mark yearning for a place of safety?

 

Well, we don’t really know the answer to all these things, but we can put ourselves in Mark’s place and ponder the possibilities, for we share a common humanity with him.

 

What do we see in Barnabas through all this? What can we learn from him? What can we learn from Paul?

 

We’ll continue to explore these questions in our next post in the series…the Lord willing.

 

 

 

 

Finishing the Race – Strong! (7)

 

Comeback Stories

 

I love comeback stories, for they give me hope. Growing up in Maryland and following the University of Maryland football team, I’ll always recall listening to the November 10, 1984 game between the Miami Hurricanes and the Terrapins. At halftime the score was Miami 31, Maryland 0. Then quarterback Frank Reich, who had been injured in a previous game, came off the bench to lead his team to 42 points in the second half, winning the game 42 – 40. At the time it was the biggest comeback in NCAA history.

 

Then on January 3, 1993, while Reich was playing for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, with his team trailing 35 – 3 early in the 3^rd quarter, he once again led his team to a remarkable comeback, winning the game 41 – 38 in overtime. At the time, it was the greatest comeback in NFL history. I can remember turning the television off in the first half, thinking the game was over!

 

Thanks to DVDs, I have watched both games in their entirety, marveling at two amazing comebacks.

 

There are comeback stories throughout history. Ulysses S. Grant was pretty much a failure at everything he did until he saved the Union. Churchill was considered an eccentric failure, out of touch with reality and blackballed from the BBC until he was called to save democracy. Lincoln, though he did have moments of success, had a long list of failures prior to being elected President.

 

Life is a marathon and we are called to finish the race on the course that our Father has set for us. If we should veer off course, it is never too late to return to our destiny and to fulfill it, finishing the race strong. If we ask, “How is this possible?” We need only look to Jesus and the redemption He has purchased for us, we need not understand how these things are possible, in fact we can’t really understand how they are possible, but we can trust in the Nature and Character of our Father and our Lord Jesus, and in that trust and by God’s grace we can finish strong.

 

In Matthew 21:28 – 32 Jesus tells a parable about two sons and their father. One morning the father asked the first son to work in the family vineyard that day and the son said “No.” Then the father asked the second son to also work in the vineyard and he said “Yes.”

 

However, the first son regretted what he had said and went to the vineyard and worked, while the second son, even though he said he would work in the vineyard, never showed up. Jesus asks a question, both of His immediate audience and of us, “Which of the two did the will of his father?”

 

It is how we finish the race that matters. The first son began the day in rebellion, but he changed course to obedience. The second son began the day in obedience, but then went off course into disobedience.

 

Some of us reading this may have led lives of consistent faithfulness to Christ and others, O how I rejoice in your testimony. Thank you for your wonderful fidelity to Jesus and the Gospel! You have been an inspiration to me.

 

But to those of us who have not been faithful in our Father’s vineyard, it is never too late to show up for Jesus, it is never too late to get back on the course of discipleship, it is never too late to make a difference in the lives of others by showing them Jesus and telling the Good News. It is never, ever, too late.

 

In the beginning of the book of the prophet Joel, God speaks of the results of sin and disobedience, in part we read, “What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; and what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; and what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten” (Joel 1:4).

 

Then, in Chapter 2, as God speaks of His redemption and reconciliation, as we see our call to repentance, He says, “Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust” (Joel 2:25). How can this be? How can God make up for our foolishness and waste? It is inconceivable. Yet, God is God and God does what only God can do.

 

O dear friends, we can trust Jesus to do the impossible, we can trust Him to redeem our lives and to lead us into a strong finish – no matter how far we have departed from the original marathon course. There are still people for us to touch in Jesus, still people for us to bless, still people for us to tell about Jesus, still people for us to love, to serve, to care for, to show mercy and grace to.

 

And so we have Hebrews 12:1–2:

 

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

 

Wherever we are today, whether on the course or off the course – in Christ we can still finish strong as we trust in Him. If we are off course, isn’t it time to return to Him…today…right now?

 

Isn’t it time for the greatest comeback of your life?

 

The Real Bridge Over the River Kwai

 

 

“Our rags were taken from us and burned. We were given green jungle shirts and trousers, soap and towel, tooth-brush and tooth-paste…Next morning, when one of the nursing sisters entered the ward, she said, ‘I’ve never had patients like these in all my nursing experience. Every one has made his own bed, and men are competing for the privilege of sweeping the wards.’ This expressed the attitude of the POWs. They lived not to be served but to serve.” To End All Wars, Ernest Gordon, Zondervan, 1965, page 217. Italics mine.

 

“Our feelings were mixed as we waved farewell to Rangoon, the East and our years of captivity. The jungle had been challenging, there had been comradeship of the highest order, and we had found a way of life that proved to be vital, meaningful, and beautifully sane. By the deaths of so many of our friends we were tied to those places with invisible cords that could never be broken.” Page 217. Italics mine.

 

“I was musing by the rail [of the ship taking them back to Great Britain] when I noticed my friend John Leckie standing next to me. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘it’s all over. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. It was rough, all right. But I learned an awful lot that I couldn’t have learned at the university or anywhere else. For one, I’ve learned about the real things of life, for another, it’s great to be still alive.

 

“I knew exactly what had made him say this. The experiences we had passed through had deepened our understanding of life and of each other. We had looked into the heart of the Eternal and found Him to be wonderfully kind.” Pages. 217 – 218. Italics mine.

 

Ernest Gordon lived the real story of the Bridge Over The River Kwai. As he wrote in his introduction to To End All Wars, “We were exhausted, sick from tropical diseases and starvation, overworked, injured, dying off at a preposterous rate. Sixty thousand Allied prisoners of war were forced into slave labour as well as 270,000 Asian workers. More than 80,000 died during the railway’s construction. That’s approximately 393 lives lost for every mile of track laid, - a hideous cost.” Page v.

 

When Gordon and his fellow POWs reached Liverpool they found that the dockworkers were threatening to go on strike for higher wages. The POWs were worried that if they did so that people in Britain would not be able to eat; for much of Britain’s food was imported. (Britain had rationing into the 1950s. Among the letters we have from C. S. Lewis are letters thanking Americans for sending food.) The POWs volunteered to work the docks but were turned down.

 

Gordon writes on page 218, “We thought we had come home to freedom. While we were prisoners we had been free to contribute to the general good, to help create order out of disorder. Here in a society which paid lip service to freedom, we were prohibited, apparently, from applying the lessons we had learned.” Italics mine.

 

Ernest Gordon and many of his fellow POWs met Jesus Christ while building the railroad of death. They learned to serve one another and to show mercy to their captors. They “had looked into the heart of the Eternal and found Him to be wonderfully kind.”

 

There is only true freedom in serving our Lord Jesus Christ and our neighbor, in laying down our lives for others. What fools we are to think otherwise.

 

The words and behavior we see around us in much of the professing church is “earthly, natural, demonic.” The “wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (see James 3:13–18).

 

There is no dual citizenship for the disciple of Jesus Christ, for Jesus said that we cannot serve two masters. We are either going to live as citizens of heaven or not (Phil. 3:20).

 

O dear friends, our neighbors need to see Jesus Christ within us, His love, His kindness, His gentleness, His mercy.

 

Are we willing to be identified with Jesus, and only with Jesus?

 

How is that Ernest Gordon and his fellow POWs lived as free men under hideous conditions, and we live as slaves in the most prosperous nation in history? Is it possible we are prisoners of pleasure and “self,” rather than prisoners of Jesus Christ?

 

Much love, much, much love,

 

Bob