Ministry By Controversy

  1. Jesus declares that the time promised by God had come.
  2. He separates son’s from their father’s fishing business.
  3. Taught with authority in the synagogue.
  4. Cast out an evil spirit.
  5. Heals many people including Peter’s mother-in-law.
  6. Touches and heals a man of leprosy.
  1. Forgives a man of his sins then heals him of paralysis
  2. Brings a criminal (tax collector Levi) into his close followers.
  3. Dines with numerous criminals (Roman tax collectors) and challenged the Pharisees.
  4. Challenges the religious customs of the day concerning fasting.
  5. Challenges the religious customs of the day concerning the Sabbath.
  1. Further challenges the religious customs by healing on the Sabbath.
  2. Upsets the status quo by the numbers that followed him.
  3. He chooses 12 very ordinary men to be his apostles including a Roman sympathizer and a zealot.
  4. Challenges the experts in religion.
  5. He places his followers above his family of birth.
There was a TV show that was on for only three seasons, from 1964 to 1967, that most everyone is familiar with.  It seems that a small island in the Pacific ocean was easily found by many people except for the seven castaways the show is about.  Gilligan’s Island.  The S. S. Minnow left Hawaii for a three-hour tour that took far longer.  The three hours lasted years.  The theme song is running through my head as I type.  “A three-hour tour.  A three-hour tour.”  The beginning of Mark’s Gospel could have a similar theme song.  In three days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) Jesus begins his ministry on earth like a typhoon that creates controversy upon controversy.
I have broken out above my counts from the first three chapters of Mark covering the first three days of ministry the controversies Jesus encountered or created.  That is Jesus’s ministry in just a few days at the start.  He was very acquainted with controversy.  Where there was no controversy, he brought it.  Where he brought controversy, he explained it.  And where there was controversy already, he dismissed it.  Jesus didn’t flee from controversy.  Jesus didn’t hide from controversy.  Jesus embraced controversial ministry.  He did because people were involved.  He does because we are involved, and we are worth it.
Controversy is hard and dirty.  It is so much easier to just go along and get along.  That is not the life I have been called to or the ministry I have been given.  The life and ministry that my Lord calls me to are not easy.  It is challenging.  To my way of thinking.  To your way of thinking.  To the world.  To those who think themselves religious.  To those who think themselves pagan.  The ministry we are given reaches out to all.  Our nets are to cast out to the deep water to reach those who are far from God.  We have been called to love the unlovely.  No matter their race, sex, addiction, sexuality, or gender identity.  I have been called to love people because they are people, regardless.  I don’t have to accept or agree, I just must love.
  1. What controversies are you avoiding?
  2. How can you love through controversies?


--Zine Smith

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