The last time I saw Mark Kelso alive was on the afternoon of March 13th, 1994. He was in a hospital bed at St. Clair Hospital, nearing the end of his 84-year-old life after a lengthy battle with congestive heart failure. He was weary and ready to die, but his faith and sense of humor both remained vibrant until the very end. On that afternoon of March 13th, 1994, Mark and I prayed together and then said our goodbyes. As I made my way to the door of his hospital room, he called out my name.
“Eric.”
“Yes, Mark?”
“Remember.”
“Remember what, Mark?”
“Remember that it’s all about Jesus.”
“What’s all about Jesus?”
“Life.”
“Life,” I asked.
“Yes,” he answered. “Life. Through and through, it’s all about Jesus.”
Those were the last words that I heard Mark Kelso speak. He died the next evening. Two days later I officiated at his funeral. At the heart of my funeral meditation that day was Mark’s final and beautiful profession of faith: “Life is all about Jesus.” One of the portions of Scripture that I read that day was Hebrews 1:1-4: “Christ is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become much superior to the angels and having inherited the name that is above all names.”
What does that scripture mean in a nutshell? Mark Kelso knew. In fact, he interpreted the scripture for me on March 13th, 1994, when he spoke these words that remain close to my heart, even fourteen years later: Life is all about Jesus.
Over the last several weeks, I have been journaling and meditating on this foundational question: What is a disciple of Jesus Christ? (I find such occasional rudimentary explorations to be good for the health of my soul.) Scripture helps us to answer the “what is a disciple” question in a number of different and significant ways. But perhaps the first chapter of Hebrews provides the most important answer of all: A disciple is someone who dares to believe that Jesus was more than a great prophet, more than a great healer, and more than an apocalyptic rebel. In fact, a disciple is someone who dares to believe (and dares to live) what Hebrews 1 proclaims—that Jesus is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being who sustains all things by his powerful word.
In other words, if I may borrow the vocabulary of Mark Kelso from back in 1994, a disciple is someone who dares to recognize that life, “through and through,” is all about Jesus.
I will share one additional reflection on this in my next post. But for now, I am left with these questions: Why is it so embarrassingly easy for me (and, dare I say it, the church) to lose a deeply Christological focus? Is it that we are distracted by the presence of the multitude of “lords” competing for our allegiance? Is it that we feel burdened to freight our proclamation with various agendas in order to make our proclamation more relevant and user-friendly? Is it that we are too eager to reduce Jesus to nothing more than an eternal passport, so that Jesus becomes our means to an end instead of the Lord of our life? Is it that the invitation to “take up your cross and follow me” simply won’t sell too many t-shirts in a culture that favors the carrying of a personal portfolio over the carrying of a cross? Or is it something else entirely?
At any rate, I am thinking of Mark Kelso today. Leave it to a dying man to teach a young preacher something important about how to live.
I was thinking about General Confernece and counting the number of times the name of Jesus was lifted up. Maybe we should all think of Mark Kelso and his words a little more.
Thanks for this Eric!
Good stuff. This’ll preach.