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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed, alleluia.)
“Very useful to me for ministry”: that is how St. Paul describes St. Mark in today’s Second Reading. In the context of St. Paul’s charge and personal instructions to St. Timothy about St. Timothy’s ministry, St. Paul describes St. Mark as “Very useful to me for ministry”. If you know the back-story at all, you know how surprising St. Paul’s description of St. Mark is! For, on his so-called “First Missionary Journey”, when St. Paul and his companions came to Perga in Pamphylia, St. Mark left them and returned to Antioch (Acts 13:13). That does not sound too useful for ministry! So, on St. Paul’s “Second Missionary Journey”, when St. Barnabas wanted to take his cousin St. Mark with them, St. Paul disagreed so sharply that they separated: St. Barnabas took St. Mark and sailed away to Cyprus, and St. Paul took St. Silas and went through Syria and Silicia (Acts 15:36-40). Yet, despite what is usually referred to as St. Mark’s “desertion” at Perga in Pamphylia (for example, CSSB, ad loc 2 Timothy 4:11, p.1862), St. Mark learned steadfastness (for example, Kretzmann ad loc 2 Timothy 4:9-15, p.416). Later St. Paul commended St. Mark to the Colossians (Colossians 4:10); in writing to St. Philemon, St. Paul described St. Mark as a “fellow worker” (Philemon 24). And, as we heard in today’s Second Reading, St. Paul wanted St. Timothy to get St. Mark and bring St. Mark with him, for, St. Paul said, St. Mark was “very useful to me for ministry”.
Today’s Second Reading is one of only three places that the New Testament uses the particular Greek adjective translated “very useful” (confer 2 Timothy 2:21 and Philemon 11). The particular adjective is a compound of the adverb meaning “well” and the adjective meaning “fit” or “fit for use” (Strong’s #2173). In this case, commentators debate whether St. Paul is describing St. Mark as “very useful” for “personal service” (so Kelly, ad loc 2 Timothy 4:9-18, p.214) or for the “public ministry” of the Gospel (so Knight, ad loc 2 Timothy 4:11, p.466). Given St. Paul’s other uses of both the adjective translated “very useful” and the noun translated “ministry”, it seems better to understand St. Paul as referring to the public ministry of the Gospel when describing St. Mark as “very useful for ministry”.
You and I certainly may not always, if ever, describe others—such as pastors in our Synod, District, and Circuit—as “very useful for ministry”. Even if they are not as bad as the “deserter” Demas, whom St. Paul describes in today’s Second Reading, we may consider their teaching and practice and wrongly think that there is no possible way that God could work through them in order to accomplish anything good. Maybe we would not even describe ourselves as “very useful for ministry”. In some cases, members of our respective congregations may see our professional and personal shortcomings better than we see them ourselves. Whether or not those members ever say anything to us, we likely see enough of our failures to minister as we should minister to know that we are not always as useful for ministry as we should be, and, of course, God sees all our failures, even the failures that others and we ourselves do not see. As Jesus in today’s Third Reading rebuked His disciples for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw Him after He had risen (Mark 16:14-20), so the Holy Spirit calls and enables us to repent of our failures in ministry and all of other sins—for which sins, apart from such repentance, we deserve temporal and eternal punishment. But, with such repentance, God forgives our sinful natures and all our actual sins by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
On this Commemoration of St. Mark, Evangelist, which Commemoration dates back to the ninth century, we might easily fixate too much on St. Mark. We know that his mother Mary’s house in Jerusalem was where early Christians gathered together and prayed (Acts 12:12), and some surmise that earlier in a large upper room of that house, furnished and ready, Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples on the night when He was betrayed (Mark 14:12-16). Some think that the place called Gethsemane where they went after that meal (Mark 14:32), perhaps to spend the night, might have belonged to St. Mark’s family, and that St. Mark himself was the young man following Jesus with nothing but a linen cloth about his body, who, when they seized him, left the linen cloth and ran away naked (Mark 14:51). And, according to an unsupported tradition, St. Mark was the first bishop of Alexandria and was martyred there in A‑D 64 for attempting to stop false worship (Pfatteicher, Festivals and Commemorations, 168).
Yet, the Gospel account that bears St. Mark’s name is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God in human flesh (Mark 1:1). Out of God’s great love for even the fallen world, including you and me, Jesus Christ lived the perfect life that we fail to live, and, on the cross, He died in our place the death that we deserve for our failure to live that perfect life. The Gospel is about Jesus Christ: about Him is the Good News that, in the words of today’s First Reading redeems and so comforts and brings salvation, joy, and singing (Isaiah 52:7-10). Redemption, salvation, joy, and singing are ours as we trust in Him! As we sang in today’s Psalm, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down (Psalm 146; antiphon v.5). When we are bowed down in repentance, then the Lord forgives us for Jesus’s sake. The Lord forgives us through His Means of Grace, His Word and His Sacraments.
Today’s Third Reading mentioned various miraculous signs that for a time accompanied those who believed, the Lord’s confirming their message by the accompanying signs: casting out demons, speaking in languages that they had not learned, picking up serpents with their hands, drinking deadly poison and not being hurt, and laying their hands on the sick so that the sick recovered. Now, God’s Word has its own authority, and His Sacraments are the only miraculous signs that we need. Today’s Third Reading itself mentions that those who believe and are baptized will be saved, and we also believe, teach, and confess that God creates faith through our hearing the words of individual Holy Absolution (for example, Apology of the Augsburg Confession XII:42), and we also know that the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Supper strengthens and preserves us in body and soul to life everlasting. In all of these ways, God awakens and strengthens faith in those who use them (Augsburg Confession XII:1). In all of these ways, He creates faith when and where He pleases in those who hear the Gospel (Augsburg Confession V:2).
As St. Paul wrote to St. Timothy before today’s Second Reading, if one so cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, very useful to the Master of the House, ready for every good work (2 Timothy 2:21). We might reasonably conclude that St. Mark had confessed his sin and so had been forgiven and made “Very useful for ministry”, whether for working with St. Barnabas, St. Paul, or St. Peter. Likewise, we confess our sin and so are forgiven and made “Very useful for ministry”, whether for working here in East Texas, somewhere else in Texas, or somewhere else altogether. Ultimately, of course, our usefulness depends on God Himself, Who dwells in and works through us, by way of both His Word that we preach purely and His Sacraments that we hand-out rightly.
As God makes us “Very useful for ministry”, no matter what persecution we might face, we can be sure that, like St. Paul in today’s Second Reading, the Lord will rescue us from every evil deed and bring us safely into His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever.
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed, alleluia.)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +