On the Cutting Room Floor
- Date: Sunday, August 22, 2010
- Speaker: Jason Smith
- Series: Jesus in 3D: Seeing Jesus through the Gospel of Mark
- Scripture: Mark 6:1–6:29
Live for nothing or die for something: your call. That was the challenge laid down in 1933 when Karl Barth wrote his discouraged colleague Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Disgusted with the German Christian response to Hitler, Bonhoeffer had fled Germany to pastor a German-speaking parish in England. Listen to what Barth said to Bonhoeffer, “What is all this about "going away," and "quietness of pastoral work," etc., at a moment when you are wanted in Germany? You, who know as well as I do that the opposition in Berlin and the opposition of the church in Germany as a whole stands inwardly on such weak feet!… Why aren't you always there where so much could depend on there being a couple of game people on the watch at every occasion, great or small, and trying to save what there is to be saved?… I think that I can see from your letter that you, like all of us—yes, all of us!—are suffering under the quite common difficulty of taking "certain steps" in the present chaos. But should it not dawn on you that there is no reason for withdrawing from this chaos, that we are rather required in and with our uncertainty, even if we should stumble or go wrong 10 times or a hundred times, to do our bit?… One simply cannot become weary now. Still less can one go to England! What in all the world would you want to do there?… You must now leave go of all these intellectual flourishes and special considerations, however interesting they may be, and think of only one thing, that you are a German, that the house of your church is on fire, that you know enough to be able to help and that you must return to your post by the next ship.” Bonhoeffer answered Barth’s call and returned to Germany 16 months later. His opposition to Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and his subsequent execution by hanging in April 1945, shortly before the war's end.
Throughout history, there have been many men and women who have laid down their lives for the sake of Christ. All of the apostles, with the exception of John who was boiled in oil and exiled, were killed for their faith in Jesus Christ. Throughout the gospel of Mark we have been seeking to see Jesus in 3D. We have come to understand that in order to see Jesus for who He is and to understand what He came to do we have to be equipped with the 3D glasses of faith. Once we have this faith, we are compelled to an uncompromising commitment to follow Jesus wherever He leads and no matter what it costs. Throughout the history of the church, the cost has been great. Many have faced opposition as they have sought to live out their faith in Jesus Christ. They have lost property, lost families, lost jobs, and lost lives. Yet, most of them would tell you that it was worth the cost, because they made the choice to stop living for nothing (an empty, meaningless life apart from God) and embrace death (to self, to stuff, to everything the world holds dear). They state like the apostle Paul, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” Today, as we continue our study in Mark 6:1-29, the hall of faith of those Christ followers that have gone before us want us to know that we must BIG IDEA: Expect Opposition if we are going to live a life of genuine faith.
