Title: Jesus and the Nobodies

Focus: To Jesus everybody was somebody regardless of their finanical, social, or moral status.

Function: To motivate the hearers to recognize all people as someone made in God's image

Intro:
1.  Fascinated by lives of famous extraordinary
2.  People magazine (usually only about a type of people)
3.  Show, “Lifestyles of the rich and famous”
4.  No one wants “Lifestyles of the poor and obscure”
5.  People often go so far as despise the nobodies
	a.  Keep them on their own side of the tracks
	b.  People do not want to look at or think about them
	c.  Too easy to write them off
6.  These attitudes not Christ like


I.  Who did Jesus rub shoulders with?
	A.  Sometimes it was the upstanding respectable promintent folks
		1.  Rich Young Ruler
		2.  Nicodemus
		3.  Religious leaders and Pharisees
	B.  Jesus did not have a whole lot of good things to say about these people
		1.  Hard for rich to get to Heaven
		2.  In parables, rich, upstanding man usually the bad guy
			a.  Rich man and Lazarus
			b.  Parable of Pharisee and the sinner
		3.  The conflict Jesus had usually from reglious leaders
		4.  Irony - Jesus deliberately confronted and irritated the very class of 
		      people we try to appease & accomodate in today’s society
	C.  Nature of God’s kingdom
		1.  Everybody counts in the body (1 Cor 12)
		2.  Everybody needs salvation


II.  Bartimus (Mark 10:46-52)  A Financial Nobody
	A.  Handicapped like this considered a corn on the bottom of the foot
		1.  No welfare programs, rehabilitation, etc.
		2.  Prevailing attitude - Sickness a result of God’s judgement
		3.  The blind and such had to beg.  Lived one day to the next
	B.  What is Mark trying to tell us by including this story?
		1.  Context:  Mk 9:32 - Going to Jerusalem to fulfill God’s plan (busy man)
		2.  Mk 10:45 - Jesus came to serve
		3.  Attitude of people:  Be quiet.  A nobody
		4.  Attitude of Jesus:  He is a somebody.
	C.  Movie:  Patch Adams
		1.  Trained to be a doctor
		2.  Unlike other doctors, referred to patient by name rather than disease
	D.  In much the same way, Jesus viewed sinners as people, not just sinners
		1.  The narrator of this story wants to portray him as somebody
		2.  He gives his name, and name of his father!


III.  Matt 15:21-28 - Cannanite Woman (A social nobody)
	A.  Here is a gentile, and Jesus treats her in a way we would not expect
		1.  At first Jesus ignored her
		2.  Disciples ask Jesus to send her away
		3.  Jesus even calls her a dog!
	B.  What is going on here?  This seems so unlike him.
		1.  First of all, note where he is at
			a.  He is no longer in Judea or Galilee, but further north in Phonecia
			b.  Reminds me of John 4, when he purposely goes to Samaria
			c.  Is it possible they will have contact with gentiles here?
		2.  Lo and behold, her one comes, calling out for him to heal here daughter
		3.  v.24 - His comment directed at her or the disciples?
			a.  Notice, he didn’t send her away
			b.  He expressed the common Jewish notion toward gentiles
			c.  Even used the same word, “dogs”
		4.  Imagine the reaction his disciples might have
			a.  We don’t deal with dogs - Thrown them for a loop
			b.  As far as we know, they didn’t say anything - stunned. “uh yea”
			c.  Woman was sharp, she responded with faith
		5.  What disciples learn that day?  Anyone with faith can come to Jesus
		6.  Appears that he heals other gentiles (v.29-31)
			- The glorified the God of Israel
	C.  ILL  Campaign in Gautier, MISS
		1.  Group with map, tried to find nice neighborhood, avoided bad ones
		2.  Discouraging.  But other groups kept having great stories
		3.  Finally, I said I want to go with other group
		4.  Was in working class neighborhood, trailer parks, etc.
		5.  Guess which neighborhood more fruitful?  
	D.  That nobodies were more receptive, Jesus spent a lot of time with them
		1.  Many of the 12 apostles were nobodies
		2.  God made the nobodies somebodies


IV.  Mark 12:38-44 - A poor widow
	A.  Everyone else noticing the rich putting in large sums of money
		1.  Imagine all the good the money will do
		2.  They do so much
	B.  Here she comes, quietly, and invisibly
		1.  2 cents, what good would that do?
		2.  She was invisible to everyone but Jesus
		3.  She gave much more than the others
	C.  No matter what it is, Jesus notices.
	D.  You are somebody.

Concl:
1.  In the kindom, there is no such thing as the poor and obscure
2.  We are all made in God's image, therefore we are somebody
3.  In the kindom we are all "re-made" in God's image
4.  The nobodies are somebodies