The Dithering of a District Diva

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” — Ecclesiastes 1:9

The more I study the Bible, the more I see that there is a relatable story to cover the core of every human conflict.  The answers, of course, are there in the Bible, but what is (frustratingly) missing, at times, is a step-by-step guide to putting those answers into practice.

Take, for example, a conflict in the book of Acts between the God-appointed leaders from the church of Antioch, Paul and Barnabas.  In chapter 12, we learn that John Mark, cousin of Barnabas and author of the gospel of Mark, has committed himself to Paul and Barnabas’ ministry, spreading the gospel of Christ throughout the world with them.  But then, in chapter  13, for no listed reason, John Mark abandons the apostles and goes home to Jerusalem.

Scholars have speculated that John Mark was afraid — the church was, after all, being persecuted for telling the truth about Jesus.  In my Bible study fellowship class, we speculated that maybe John Mark was physically tired (they were traveling rough and dangerous roads) or maybe he just missed his wife and children, or maybe he needed a mental break, or maybe…

I’ve learned that if the Bible leaves out certain details, the point is that the detail doesn’t matter. And so John Mark’s reasons for quitting don’t matter either: he quit.  He was a quitter. And there were consequences for that.

In chapter 15 we learn that John Mark wanted to come back into the ministry with Paul and Barnabas, his vacation presumably over with. And Paul said, “no way, no how”:

 ^37-41Barnabas wanted to take John along, the John nicknamed Mark. But Paul wouldn’t have him; he wasn’t about to take along a quitter who, as soon as the going got tough, had jumped ship on them in Pamphylia. Tempers flared, and they ended up going their separate ways: Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus; Paul chose Silas and, offered up by their friends to the grace of the Master, went to Syria and Cilicia to build up muscle and sinew in those congregations.

To me, Paul’s position makes total sense.  When you’re in a ministry — particularly one where you are being persecuted at every turn — you need to know that your fellow ministers have your back. That they’ll keep the commitment they made, not only to God, but also to their brothers in the ministry.  Without trust and commitment, a team ministry will fail, as did the joint ministry of Paul and Barnabas.  Since they could not agree to take John Mark along, Paul and Barnabas split up, with one team going one way and the other going another way.

Was this the right thing to do? Should they have split because of trust issues, or should they have reconciled?  And what were the consequences of their split?

I imagine that, by splitting up into two teams, they covered more ground and preached to more people, in which case it was a good thing that they split up.  But, we also learn that several years later, in 2 Timothy 4:11, that Paul and John Mark reconciled at some point, and that Paul even regards John Mark as “helpful” to him in the ministry. So was it a bad thing that they split up, wasting years of time they could’ve been effectively ministering together?

And why would Barnabas sacrifice the mission just to keep John Mark around? Yes, they were cousins, but didn’t Jesus say in Matthew 10:37, “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me”?  Was Barnabas being disobedient by splitting with Paul for the sake of John Mark?  And if he was being disobedient, was it for more than family reasons?

In Acts 13, the Holy Spirit chose Barnabas and  Paul to be the lead evangelists from the Antioch church. But as the chapter goes on, you see Paul emerge as the public leader. He is the one who preached and called out the false prophet and Barnabas seems to be taking a back seat.  Though the Bible doesn’t say this, maybe Barnabas was jealous of Paul, and Paul not wanting Barnabas’ cousin to come along was just a good cover to make the split he wanted to make, anyway.  After all, chapter 15 ends with

Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus; Paul chose Silas and, offered up by their friends to the grace of the Master, went to Syria and Cilicia to build up muscle and sinew in those congregations.

The New Life Version says it this way:

⁴⁰ Paul chose Silas. After the Christians asked for the Lord’s favor to be on Paul and Silas, they went on their way. 

It is interesting that Paul’s trip with Silas was blessed by their friends in the faith, whereas nothing is said about Barnabas and John Mark’s trip. Perhaps these objective observers disagreed with Barnabas’ decision to split. Contrarily, these friends didn’t seem angry with Paul for not wanting to take along John Mark. And Paul and Silas achieved very much in their ministry, building new churches every where they went.

But maybe the split was still wrong, irrespective of who split from whom and why. After all, Paul was a persecutor of Christians before Christ converted him to the faith on the road to Damascus! And in Matthew 26:56 ALL of the disciples quit on Jesus! Surely Paul knows that the servant is not above the Master, and if Christ suffered through quitters, yet still managed to use them for His will, Paul should’ve been able to stomach quitters, too! Can you imagine what the ministry would’ve looked like then — or now — if God only used non-quitters?!

What’s so interesting is that we learn of Paul and John Mark’s reconciliation (years later) in the same verses that we learn all of Paul’s friends in the ministry have abandoned him.  In 2 Timothy 4 he writes:

⁹ Do your best to come to me quickly, ¹⁰ for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. ¹¹ Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 

…

 ¹⁶ At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.

Though we don’t have that handy step-by-step guide to reconciliation of trust in the ministry, we do learn some important things about Paul in this reconciliation with John Mark.  At this point in his ministry, Paul is in a prison cell, waiting on certain death by execution, and he is calling out to his faithful son in the ministry, Timothy, to bring John Mark to him because everyone else had quit on him. This is clearly more than a little ironic!  It is obvious that after several years in a dangerous ministry where lives are at stake, Paul learned that the natural bend of the human heart is to quit.  He learned that everyone wasn’t as strong as  he was in his convictions about Christ, and everyone wasn’t always ready to die for Christ every second there was danger (though ultimately most all of them did). In fact, in the end, (Paul is executed shortly after this letter is written) Paul has learned to have compassion for these quitters and asks God to not hold their desertion against them.

I guess what this shows is that, because Paul and John Mark were ordained by God to work together, they reconciled — and the ministry was better for it. So, sticking to my tried-and-true Biblical analysis that if it’s not detailed in the Bible, it’s not that important, I guess the only thing that matters is that they did reconcile.  John Mark, in the end, proved to be more loyal and a trusted friend to Paul even after Paul’s initial disappointment in him.  But most of all, Paul speaks so highly of the devotion and unwavering faithfulness of his spiritual son Timothy, which shows God’s unwavering faithfulness to His children.  Paul was surrounded by quitters, constantly. But in Timothy, God gifted Paul someone who Paul could always rely on, even unto death. In spite of everything Paul faced, what a comfort and relief it must have been to be able to have that one reliable person.

It is a legitimate desire to want to have our friends in the faith be trustworthy and dependable, always keeping their commitments.  But  our situations as Christians today in America aren’t as dire as Paul’s — we can worship and evangelize in the name of Christ freely without fear of legal persecution. So, maybe all of us don’t need (and therefore don’t get) a never-wavering human being in our lives to help us in ministry. Maybe since we are naturally such a fickle bunch, there isn’t even such a thing. Maybe God places in our lives the people we need for the moments we need them. And maybe when there is no one around, that is God’s way of teaching us that really, He is all we need. He is our rock, our strength, our hope, our peace, our very present help in the time of trouble, and our unfaltering lover.

In that truth, we should find the courage and strength to continue the work God has placed in us to do — even if that means doing it alone; or even if it means working alongside a quitter; or even if it means acknowledging that we’re all recovering quitters who have been given unmerited favor by God.

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