Ched Myers – Grits and Grains

This is the question I explore with a small congregation in rural Warwickshire for the 2nd Sunday after Trinity (year B) at the end of a week where we have celebrated the bravery of the boys involved in the D-Day landings in Normandy, who forced their way to a toehold in the strong man’s stronghold. The gospel, binding the strong man, is printed below – Mark 3:20-end.

D-Day 75 Garden at Arromanches-les-Bains – photo by Alan Wilson, picturing a 97 year old veteran looking back at himself as a 22 year old climbing on to the beach.

The Ins and Outs of the gospel.

Today’s gospel passage is crucial for the gospel of Mark. It is so crucial that one of the most important commentaries on Mark’s gospel lifts words from today’s passage for its title, Binding the Strong Man, as if this sums up Mark’s gospel and the mission of Jesus (and work of God).

In the week we’ve celebrated the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings it becomes appropriate to explore this understanding of Mark’s gospel and the particular verse: no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man. By doing so we will honour the bravery of those involved in the D-Day landings – and the bravery of Jesus.

The strong man, Hitler, was always driven by his need for lebensraum (living room) and his occupation of France was a mighty extension of his living room. The D-Day landings were very much about the allied forces breaking and entering the strong man’s house, getting a foothold in his door on the beaches of Normandy, to tie up the strong man and free France.

Those who break into the houses of the strong man are brave – some, as we see in today’s gospel, think them foolish.

Mark wants us to know the ins and outs of his gospel.

Mark’s gospel is a journey. It starts in the wilderness, then working its way through Galilee (land of the poor and weakened) and then onto Jerusalem, the capital, the heartland of the STRONG MAN, with its fine buildings, its temple and its palace. Mark’s gospel follows Jesus all the way into the house of the strong and oppressive man.

These are the ins and outs of our gospel reading for today.

On the inside is Satan
and his demons
and Jesus
and those around Jesus.

On the outside
are the demons cast out by Jesus
and Jesus’ family – his mother, brothers and sisters.

The scene is set inside a house.
It’s the strong man’s house that somehow Jesus has got into.

Satan is a mythic figure who stands for actual people.
The demons too are mythic figures, and we know them in real life too. We often have to fight them.
The house too is metaphorical – just a domain name.

The actual people Satan stands for according to Mark is the STRONG MAN – who needs tying up and binding.

Our popular imagination easily goes to the likes of Putin when casting for the villainous strong man.
But if we cast our search wider

The strong man is the cruel man,
the ruthless man,
the exploitative, oppressive, abusive man.
The strong man is the boss man.
He takes over our lives,

our opportunities and freedoms.
He grooms us, traps us,
and uses us
to build his empire
his power, his glory.
The strong man is the human trafficker,

with his demons his agents.
He is the scammer, the bully, the tyrant.
He’s the media mogul who hides the truth.
He’s the guarded.
He’s the first, the entitled,
and the one who puts himself first.
He’s the one we’re afraid of
in all his guises, the liar,
the master of disguise.

He’s the one
who sets his people onto people,
or against people.

But if truth be known
he’s also you and me,
no longer pronoun HE,
but you, me, she, we
whenever we are cruel like him

whenever we speak like him,
act like him, profit like him.
He’s #metoo, #wetoo,
with our power and strength
crying out for love’s binding.

This is how Mark portrays Jesus – as breaking and entering the house of the strong man, to bind him and tie him.

This is what God does.
This is what our scripture witnesses –
the binding of the strong man:
the Pharoah,
the Emperor,
the Dictator,
the Tyrant,
the High Priest,
the Devil incarnate,
the ones who come first
and the ones
who put themselves first.
This is what God does:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
in perfect unity
they break into the house
the strong man has made
his strong hold
and makes it their kingdom,
the kingdom of God.

It reminds me of the way Jesus speaks in John’s gospel of the house he prepares for us. You know, “the house with many rooms”, the house with enough room even for us – with all our differences and diversity.

Mark takes us inside the house.
We’re his readers on the inside, the inside of the house seized from the strong man and Satan.
(I’d call it “the house of Israel” were it not for the cruelty that has taken over the strong men acting in Israel’s name in Gaza.)

Mark takes us inside the house.
We’re with Jesus, on the inside.
There’s an air of celebration.
We can sense victory.
We can see the end of the strong man.

But then comes an incoming call,
from the outside.

Outside the house are Jesus’s mother,
his brothers and sisters.
They want to see Jesus.
They call him OUT.
They think he’s gone out of his mind,
breaking into the house of the strong man
like that. They’re worried for him.
They’re worried for themselves,
and their reputations
and what the strong men
will do to them and their village.

They don’t hear Jesus’ response because they’re outside and Jesus is inside.
Inside, Jesus looks at those sitting around him, in the room he has prepared for them by binding the strong man.
Looking at those sitting round him he says: “Here are my mother and brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

With all its “ins and outs”, Mark’s gospel begs the question of where “the strong man” is now, and whether we are insiders or outsiders.
Are we on the inside? Are we among those doing the will of God, in that place of bravery with Jesus, binding the strong man – even the strong man in us – with Jesus?
Or, are we outsiders, along with the outcast demons, amongst the scoffers and accusers of Jesus?

Mark 3:20-end
and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’ And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons’.
And he called them to him and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’ – for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’
Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’
And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’

This sermon was prepared for a group of churches coming together to celebrate Easter. The gospel is the ending of Mark’s gospel (16:1-8 (printed below))- the last spoken words being the first Easter sermon.

March 31st 2024

This is how Mark’s gospel ends – with three women (call them the spice girls!) fleeing from the tomb, seized by terror and amazement, saying nothing to anyone because they were afraid. There is nothing else.

People have wondered about this ending. Some have said that we’ve lost the ending. Some have tried to change the ending: we can see when we look in the print versions of our Bibles. Those false endings attempt to correct what they see missing but are so out of character of Mark’s gospel that they have been dismissed by one commentator as “betrayals”.

They’re also misleading – they take our eye off the ending of Mark’s gospel. Instead of seeing a line drawn under the fear of those three women, our eye is taken elsewhere. If only we could take scissors to those false endings, then our eyes would be taken by what’s there in Mark’s ending, not by what is missing.

What’s there for us to see? There are three women. Mark names them. They are Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Salome. And there’s a young man. He plays the lead part. I’ve never paid any attention to him before – my apologies to him. There is no one else.

(There is the usual power dynamic with the young mansplaining to the women – but let’s not get distracted by that, I say mansplainingly!). Mark wants us to see the interplay between them to finish the gospel.

So, the young man. He’s wearing white linen. Seeing that gives us a smell. There is a perfume called White Linen – a costly fragrance. According to the Estee Lauder website, White Linen captures the very essence of a perfect day: early Spring breezes tinged with the fragrance of fresh flowers and endless blue sky. Blissful. It smells like Easter!

In my mind I’ve called this sermon White Linen because the threads of that white linen weave themselves through Mark’s gospel and on into our own lives.

We’re going in deep this morning – we have to to bring this gospel to life. I hope you will bear with me in following the threads of this white linen worn by the young man.

The young man is the last person with anything to say in Mark’s gospel. (The women are too afraid to speak.) We’ll look at those words later.

I wonder where he got the linen from. Could it be the grave clothes left behind by Jesus? And where did Jesus get the white linen from?

Mark tells us that Joseph of Aramathea (one of the ruling council and authorities responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion) bound Jesus’ body in linen refusing him the proper burial rites so that they could bury him in a hurry before the sabbath. Is the young man wearing the linen cloth abandoned by the risen Jesus who was no longer there?

And where did Joseph of Aramathea get the cloth from? Well, Mark tells us that when Jesus was arrested all his followers “deserted him and fled”. Mark singles out from among them “a certain young man”. “A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked.”

Is this the same young man to whom Mark gives the last words of his gospel? Is this the same young man the women find? And if so, what happened to the linen cloth that he ran off naked without? Was that what the crowd, with their swords and clubs got hold of? And is that what they gave Joseph to bind Jesus in death when they sealed him in the tomb?

You might think rightly that this linen cloth would be anything but white. It would have been dirty with dust and sweat – and it passed into the grubby hands of the authorities. But Mark tells us about Jesus’ transfiguration earlier in his gospel, when his own clothes became dazzling white such as noone on earth could bleach them. (9:3)

Do you see the connection? If Jesus’s clothes became dazzling white at his transfiguration, why not at his resurrection?

So we see the young man in white linen in the intentional ending of Mark’s gospel.

He is sat at the right hand of the empty tomb. That’s where Mark places him for our imagination to feast on – the seat at the right hand being the seat of power. He’s become the person of power for the church Mark is writing his gospel for. Even though, (even if), this is the same young man who three days earlier was last seen fleeing – deserting Jesus along with all the others, in this last scene of Mark’s gospel, he is highlighted as seated in the seat of power at the scene of glory.

He stands for all those who flee, including those who leave everything behind, even going naked. He stands for the disciples who failed and betrayed Jesus. He stands for those too frightened to speak.

Mark gives his last spoken words to the young man. They are a challenge and invitation to the frightened, fleeing, failing friends of Jesus to follow again. He says: “Do not be alarmed: you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

And after that there is not a single word spoken. In spite of the young man’s instruction, “Go, tell”, all there is is a telling silence, and the only sound is the sound of fear. The women, “they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

The ending of Mark’s gospel is abrupt. The other gospel writers detail resurrection appearances in contrast to Mark, who in just a few words, the last words of the young man, promises his followers that they will see him if they follow him. He says “He is going ahead of you to Galilee, there you will see him.” He is going ahead of those who follow. They will see him in Galilee – down to earth, not pie in the sky.

I wonder who the young man is. I wonder if the young man also stands for the church. When the church shares the young man’s words, identifying Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, who has been raised and who goes before us, who we follow and often fail. Is Mark picturing the church, in the form of the young man, at the right hand of the tomb as the power of God for as long as we say to one another, “Go. Tell. Follow.”

Is that the white linen churches are bedecked with? Is the dazzling white linen on the altar the cloth that draped the young man, that was first snatched from him when he fled naked, that was picked up by the powers that be and used to bind the body of Jesus?

Is what the young man said to the women also intended for us? Surely so. “He is going ahead of you to Galilee, there you will see him.” Galilee was their home. Galilee was where they had come from. Galilee was the place they were troubled, impoverished, exploited and where life was never easy. According to the young man that’s where Jesus headed – to their homes, to their work, to their villages, to their neighbours, to their enemies. There they would see him if they followed him – not anywhere else.

Galilee isn’t our home. But if we trust the gospel which is Mark’s, we can surely trust that the risen Jesus goes before us to the places where we are troubled, impoverished and exploited, to our workplaces, to our street corners, to our shelters. We will see him there, only ever there, only ever down to earth.

The ending of Mark’s gospel raises so many questions. They’re glorious questions.

But one thing is for sure. That is that Jesus won’t be wearing white linen. He shed that at the tomb for the young man who had failed and fled, and for the women who failed to tell, for all of us who fail and yet still want to follow – and for the church – to pick up the threads. Jerusalem and the tomb was never Jesus’ final destination. He went ahead to Galilee inviting followers. His destination is our everyday. We will find him there, in the rest of our lives, if we follow. Promise.

Mark 16:1-8

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

PS I am grateful for the insights of Ched Myers in his commentary on Mark’s gospel, Binding the Strong Man, and for insights from Alan, Jeanette, Karen and Lesley.

Tag: Ched Myers

Who is the strong man who needs binding and casting out?

The young man in white linen – and the first Easter sermon