Is Washing Up God's Will? (Mark 3.20-35, 2 Cor 4.13-5.1)

At the end of our Gospel reading Jesus talks to his family. Now as we all know families can be… Complicated. He speaks about doing the will of God.

You know my Mum came up to me the other day and said ‘Graham, can you help with the washing up?’

‘Alas mother’ I replied ‘I cannot, for you see, I have prayed upon this very subject, and it is not the will of God that I should help you with the washing up. These hands were made for lifting chalices, not dishes.’

Of course, that never happened, I would never talk to my mother in that way.

But it’s an important point. What’s the will of God? What does Jesus mean?

The scribes are getting it all wrong. They know the law, they’ve read lots of books, but their hearts are in the wrong place.

The reason why there’s such a big crowd around Jesus is because he’s been going around healing people, doing good stuff, helping the poor and the outcast. You know all the usual stuff that would get you called ‘woke’ nowadays.

It’s funny that the people who often throw that word ‘woke’ around, are often the least compassionate people, a bit like the Pharisees and Scribes.

People are desperate to see him. They’re glimpsing God’s goodness through Jesus’ ministry. But the scribes can’t see it. They don’t see it as good.

The Scribes and the Pharisees have already had a go at Jesus once, not long before this passage, because Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on the sabbath. How awful!

Jesus tells them ‘Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath, to save a life or to kill?’

The scribes definitely wouldn’t do the washing up.

The will of God is about acting for the good of the other person. As a society we put all sorts of barriers against helping people ‘well, we shouldn’t give them aid, they’ll only spend it on weapons.’

‘Well, we shouldn’t be giving out free school meals during the holidays, because the kids parents will never learn how to budget.’

Doesn’t really sound like the kingdom to me. Doesn’t sound like emulating the God that had compassion on a starving crowd.

Or the God who could see the man with the withered hand was in pain, and immediately stepped in.’

‘Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath, to save a life or to kill… Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’

We can’t miraculously heal people, or create food out of nothing, but we can be like Jesus, compassionate and loving. The compassion and love that Jesus showed is the only thing we can emulate about God, yet so often we don’t.

What’s even more disappointing is when we see people acting in an uncompassionate way in the name of God. They know the law, they’ve read lots of books, but their hearts are in the wrong place.

They Present a Gospel that’s so preoccupied with sin and purity, that it forgets all about grace. A gospel that if your experience or way of expressing love is not the same as theirs, then you are condemned.

Like the Scribes, they are unable to see the inherent good in the situations in front of them, in people and in love.

Some have forgotten that none of us are truly pure, and that fundamentally the Christian gospel is about love, compassion and hope, even to those who we find distasteful.  

That when Jesus is faced with a choice between Compassion and rules, compassion always wins.

It’s the kind of hypocrisy that Jesus always stood against. These barriers that prevent people from knowing the living God, because his followers have been so awful.

Those who believe themselves better than others, above reproach and totally sure that they are doing the will of God, by denying people rights, colluding in exploitation, saying things like ‘love the sinner hate the sin’, which doesn’t work. Either you love someone or you hate them, and God loves us regardless.

The truth us I’m never sure if I’m doing the will of God. Like heaven we know more about what isn’t the will of God than what is.

During this year I’ve been pretty selfish sometimes. I’ve been afraid, and angry, and paralysed by fear. Preoccupied with my own health. Hands up if you’ve been there?

It doesn’t make you a bad person, we all get caught up in these things. As Paul said:

“Yes everything is for your sake, so that grace as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.”

Being a follower of Jesus is demanding. It demands of us ethical behaviour that we don’t always follow. The grace of God is always there. We’re supposed to love and act in certain ways as Christians, but the kingdom never stops expanding, and God’s arms they never stop reaching for us.

“So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.”

Our bodies are temporary, and we suffer, and many of us have, over our lives and over this year. But God constantly renews us inwardly. That we might do bad things, but the core of us is still saved through God’s love and grace.

So do not lose heart.

As I come to the end of my four years here, I just want to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to each and every one of you.

You as a community make me not lose heart.

Over the past four years I look back and see so many kindnesses and good things, and it has been an honour and a privilege to serve this wonderful community of people.

From when were over at Chantry Hall and I said in the introduction to the confession ‘Jesus Said, please sit down. Wait, no he didn’t.’ To all of the fun things we’ve done in the Ministry of Fun.  

You’ve loved me from the start, you’ve let me be myself, and you’ve helped me grow more confident because of your care. You’ve even put up with my jokes.

We’ve come so far together, four years and three incumbents for a start. But despite all this it’s been good.

As I leave the one thing I’ve tried to say over and over again is that the will of God is in loving one another. That God loves you, all of you, and I have loved you. And I’ve loved being here.

Take his will of love into the world, even more than you already are. Be extravagant in grace.

And sometimes do the washing up because that’s the will of God too.

God bless you. Do not loose heart. 

 Photo by cottonbro from Pexels