A famous Japanese statesman during World
War II once said, "We do not worship our emperor, we love him
completely.”
One day a commander at
Port Arthur called for volunteers to cut the barbed wire entanglements.
He said, “You will never come back. Nor can you carry a gun. You will
take your place and cut one or two wires and fall dead. Another will
take your place and cut one or two wires more. But you will know that
upon your dead bodies the armies of your emperor will march to
victory."
Total regiments
volunteered for these 'sure death' parties. And, he added, "If your
Christians loved your God as we Japanese love our emperor, they would
have long since taken the world for him."
Such devotion and
commitment is unusual. Those of us who lived through World War II
remember all too well the commitment and fierce patriotism of the
Japanese to their cause. They would dive bomb our ships at sea wasting
both pilot and plane to make a kill.
This devotion was unlike the fanaticism of the
Moslem extremists who sacrifice themselves in terrorist acts because the
Japanese did not believe as do the Moslem terrorists that they would by
their act earn the right to instant paradise. The Japanese were
motivated by a love and devotion to their emperor to whom they accorded
divinity.
Commitment is expected
of us. One can scarcely be a Christian without being committed to
Christ. Once we understand Christ's commitment to the Father we are
inspired to imitate him.
James McConkey related seeing this happen: "The
winter was ending and the ice was breaking up in our nearby river. The
fresh lets were piling up in great gorges along the banks. Just a few
miles above our home was a little town at which an immense ice gorge had
imprisoned eleven men, women and children. The instant this huge ice
gorge should break, it would sweep those lives out of existence. My
brother learned of the situation. Putting fifty dollars in his pocket he
hurried to the little town. Arriving there he found the people waiting
on the banks of the river for the catastrophe, which seemed inevitable.
Stepping up to the crowd he offered the fifty dollars to any man who
would attempt the rescue of the imperiled people. But not a man stirred.
Then he sent a little boy to a nearby store for a line. When he brought
it out, my brother tied one end of it around his waist, and offered to
join with any man who would rope himself to him in an effort to rescue
the lives that were in instant jeopardy of death. Immediately four men
leaped to his side. They roped themselves to the same line of peril with
himself and these five men, picking their way over the dangerous gorge
at the imminent hazard of their own lives, brought in safety to the
shore every man, woman and child upon the ice. When McConkey's brother
offered money, not a man stirred. But when they saw him give himself and
saw the love for those imperiled, it drew them to his side in an
instant.
The Christian is drawn
to make a commitment because of Christ's great commitment and because of
the thousands of others who have followed in his train. There is born in
the heart of a believer in Christ a desire to go all out, to make a
complete surrender to service even when it involves hardship and danger
with little or no hope of earthly reward.
But making such a commitment is a serious and
responsible step of faith. It is not just saying to the Lord, "I will go
where you want me to go, dear Lord, and do what you want me to do." It
is actually getting out where the action is and doing just that.
John Mark found that out
when he committed himself to following Jesus. When he set out with his
uncle Barnabus and Paul the Apostle on that first missionary journey, he
may have viewed it as a chance to make a trip and have some excitement.
But somewhere along the way he got weary of the trip.
Have any of you been on
a trip with one or more small children? If you have you know that the
trip begins to seem long and wearisome in a very short time. They can
begin asking very soon, "How long till we get there?" And that is when
you are in an air-conditioned car with sandwiches and punch or soft
drinks and lots of games in the car.
We don't know what got to
Mark at Pamphylia but he grew tired of the trip. It may have been the
hardness of the journey. It could have been the dangers they
encountered, it may have been he got homesick for his mother. We are not
told exactly why John Mark left and returned to Jerusalem, but it didn't
set well with Paul or Barnabus. He just quit on them and left the work.
Maybe he didn't feel his presence was needed. Maybe he thought they
would get along just as well without him. I don't know what caused John
Mark to turn back and go home.
Maybe we should mention
at this point that John Mark is identified as the young man who was
following the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed and arrested. The
authorities seized him and he escaped from them. (See Mark 14:50-52).
But this time it was different because he wasn’t in imminent danger. It
was just the prospect of going on in the difficult journey that made him
take off. Commitment to Christ has to consider the dangers and hardship.
Jesus said that a man should count the cost before he becomes his
disciple.
And we must expect
commitment to be tested. John Mark's commitment went through its time of
testing and so must ours. His temptation may not seem very serious. It
was simply to quit his place on the team and go home. But nevertheless
it was a breach of his commitment. He had committed himself to the
missionary journey but right in the middle he turned around and went
home. Some people might not view that as a lapse of faith, but it was.
Perhaps you can better
understand the apostle Paul’s disappointment with Mark at that point if
you remember his own determined commitment. Nothing daunted the great
apostle in his own life and he expected his associates to have a similar
commitment. When Mark was again ready to resume his ministry and try
again, Paul didn't want him along. He felt so strongly about it that he
refused to take Mark along. He considered Mark a deserter, and the
scripture tells us that the disagreement was so strong between Barnabus
and Paul that they parted company.
Barnabas felt that Paul
was being too harsh on Mark. But Paul felt that Barnabas did not see the
issue clearly. For him being a Christian meant suffering whatever
privation, enduring any discomfort, suffering any indignity. He would
later write to the Corinthians that he had been often imprisoned; five
times he received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. He was stoned. Three
times he was shipwrecked and he spent a night and a day in the sea. He
had been on frequent journeys. He had been in danger from robbers,
dangers from the Jews, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city,
dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false
brethren! He had spent many sleepless nights, had known hunger and
thirst. He had been exposed to the cold and he had the pressure of
concern about all the churches. Paul didn’t expect anything from Mark
that he did not demand from himself.
A story is told about the
great halfback, George Cafego during the early days of pro football.
Playing for the old Brooklyn Dodgers football team against the New York
Giants one day, Cafego brought the ball up field practically by himself.
Just before the half ended he broke away over left tackle. First one man
hit him, then another. But Cafego kept going. Finally, about five Giants
ganged up on him, and still he plowed goal ward. At last he started down
-- just as the timer's gun exploded.
"My gosh!" a spectator
shouted. "They had to shoot him to stop him.
Paul had that kind of
determination and he just assumed that every other Christian would have
it too. He simply didn't believe Mark was ready for service in Christ's
army as a front line soldier. A man who would desert his post was not
going to get the second chance with him.
Mark had lost his
credibility with Paul. But there is good news in the story of Mark. Mark
was accepted by Barnabus and given a second chance.
God says two things
through this incident. He says that we should be totally committed: that
anything less than total commitment is unworthy of Christ. He says this
very clearly through the apostle Paul. But through Barnabus he says, I
am the God of a second chance. You may backslide and still come back to
useful service. This same Mark wrote the gospel of Mark.
This same Mark was later
accepted by Paul and commended for his usefulness. We should learn from
this scripture that we ought to press on, even when we are discouraged,
even when we don't like the work we have been assigned, even when we
feel that we are not necessary to the business at hand.
A. K. Chalmers has
written: "On the rock near the top of Mt. Washington there is a marker
on the trail to show the spot where a woman climber lay down and died.
One hundred steps more and she would have reached the hut at the summit
-- the shelter she sought.
The army that can hold
out minutes longer than the foe, so the strategists say, wins a battle.
A man cannot do
everything, but he can keep going. He has energy for one more step. He
has a bit of resource left, even when he thinks all is spent. Paul knew
that Mark could have kept on at Pamphylia.
Those who ride bicycles
say that it is easier to ride up a hill at night than it is during
daylight. Hills that are practically impossible of ascent may be
negotiated at night. At night the cyclist can see but a few feet in
front of him, and the faint light of his lantern gives him the illusion
that the hill is either level or not steep. He feels that he can go the
few feet more than his light shows, and in this manner keeps on and on.
Mark later learned that.
He may have learned it from Paul. Whoever taught it to him, it is a
lesson that he needed to learn and that each of us needs to learn. We
cannot give up when the going gets tough.
It is tough to be
committed to Christ. But we must become determined in the Christian
life. We cannot be weak-kneed and wishy-washy. We must press on for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Are you commuted to
Christ today? Have you counted the cost and said, I am ready Lord to go
where you want me to go and be what you want me to be. Anything less
than that is not worthy of him.