There are no shortcuts to mushrooms.  While amateur mycology is a blooming hobby, it carries severe penalties for a mistaken identity.  Consult twice, sauté once, lest wretched illness or even death lurk in the pot.

Foraging for mushrooms in the Ozarks has the same intrigue and reward as truffle hunting in France.  Itinerant mycologists are secretive about their finds.  They love to share their harvest but never their source.  They are a tight-lipped crowd. 

The addition of foraged wild mushrooms to our cuisine adds zest.  But it also adds adrenaline.  They are tasty to be sure, but are they toxic?   Only time will tell.   According to a recent study, approximately 7,500 Americans are poisoned by mushrooms each year.  Of those, on average 39 experienced major harm.  And 3 people die each year in the US from ingesting poison mushrooms.  The report concludes, “Misidentification of edible mushroom species appears to be the most common cause and may be preventable through education.”

Arkansas has a robust ecology of edible mushrooms, but it also includes some silent killers posing as edibles.   Some of our poison mushrooms such as Yellow Patches, Violet-toothed Polypore, and Lilac Bonnet have distinctive colors and odors that warn novice foragers.  But the highly toxic Jack-O’-Lanterns are often misidentified as edible Chanterelles.  While the non-descript, but extremely poisonous, Destroying Angel resembles common edible Meadow Mushrooms.   A mistaken identification is at best sickening, at worst fatal

But more deadly than serving Jack-O’-Lanterns in a soup or putting the Destroying Angel on your pizza is failing to grasp the truth of Jesus’ identity.   A mistaken identity where he is concerned has consequences that last forever.   But the struggle is real.  While the Gospel of Mark paints a dramatic picture of Jesus, the King, the Son of God, the only redeemer of God’s elect, fully God and fully man, we see his family, his childhood acquaintances, his admirers, his enemies, and even his disciples struggle with the question, “Who is this?”

In story after story, Mark shows us the consequences of a mistaken identity where Jesus is concerned.  Herod Antipas made this fatal mistake.  Of all the tragic mistakes made by this son of Herod the Great none was more damning.  The sad history of Herod’s public and private life as revealed in the Gospels and in the writings of the ancient Jewish historian, Josephus, form a litany of one mistake after another. 

His marriage was both incestuous and adulterous.  He made rash vows and caved into the social pressure, ignoring the voice of conscience.  He imprisoned and murdered the only righteous man he respected, John the Baptist.  And was compliant in the unjust murder of Jesus.  He was a weak, petty, scheming, cruel man, ultimately exiled by the Roman Emperor Caligula to France. 

But of all Herod’s mistakes, none proved more tragic or deadly, than mistakenly identifying Jesus as an avenging apparition sent from the dead to punish his murderous guilt rather than the Savior of guilty sinners, able to provide forgiveness and mercy.  Later, Jesus would become for Herod, no longer an object of fear, but of entertainment and then ridicule.  Sadly, the Bible traces for us the hardening of this man’s heart who repeatedly rejected Christ and the gospel.

Who is Jesus to you?  Is he merely a teller of iconic stories?  Is he a constant reminder of your failure? A vengeful agent of God’s displeasure and implacability?  A well-meaning, but failed revolutionary? An idealistic laughingstock?  Or perhaps a respected, moral example?  But is he your King?  Your only Redeemer?  The eternal Son of God and great High Priest?  The Savior of Sinners?  Who is this?  No question is more important.  And no mistaken identity more fatal.

Join us as we examine Mark 6:14-29 to consider the tragic consequences of unbelief regarding who Jesus is and why he has come.  We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube.