Paying Taxes to Caesar
13Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? 15Should we pay or shouldn't we?"
But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." 16They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
"Caesar's," they replied.
17Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."
And they were amazed at him.
BACKGROUND READING:
Genesis 20:4-6
Psalm 105
Luke 20:20-26
Dig Deeper
On of the most infamous and reviled days in the United States of America has come to be April 15th. We all know what that day is, although you won’t find it marked on many calendars. It is, of course, tax day. Most people hate taxes. The Jews were no different, only they had a lot to hate. They had to pay taxes to the Romans, local taxes, the Temple tax, and if they lived in Galilee, taxes to Herod Antipas.
It was, however, the taxes to Rome that were particularly troublesome. The regular tax to the Romans was called the vectigalia, although extra taxes, called the tributum could also be raised. The Jews reveled in and rejoiced over the fact that they were God’s free people, only there was one problem: It wasn’t a reality. Over 500 years before the time of Jesus they had been taken into exile by the Babylonians. Even though they had returned, in large part, to their homeland, they were still in exile for two reasons. One was that the presence of God had not returned to the Temple. The second and more tangible reason was that for nearly all of the last half millennia they had been under the rule of other nations; they were not free. Paying taxes to Rome, then, was a reminder of that fact, and so, Rome was hated.
On top of all that, the coins themselves were like adding insult to injury. They contained the image of Tiberius Caesar, and for the Jews, images of people were a clear violation of the commandment that forbade graven images. On the outside of the coins was the inscription "Tiberius, Son of the Divine Augustus." On the other side it referred to Tiberius as the "High Priest." Put that all together: graven images; son of god; high priest. The Romans couldn’t have been more insulting and offensive if they had tried. We shouldn’t miss the irony here either, as Mark has already let us know that Jesus, the man fielding these questions, is the true king and the real high priest.
Many Jews were so offended by this that wouldn’t even touch these coins, and would make every effort to only use Jewish coins. In asking them to produce a coin, Jesus is giving them a mild goosing. Once again, we see two groups, the Pharisees and the Herodians, that were normally opposed to one another, working together to try to trap Jesus. If he says that they should not pay taxes, he offends Rome, a dangerous thing to do. If he made a statement like that, he could immediately be taken to Pilate and charged with a capital crime. If he says that they should pay, then he alienates the crowds.
Two hundred years before this incident, the Maccabeans had led a revolt against the Syrians with the slogan "pay back the Gentiles what they deserve, and obey the commands of the law." In other words, if the Gentiles act with violence and vengeance, then give it right back to them. This is clearly not what Jesus is saying, but what is he saying?
One thing that he is definitely not doing is laying down a timeless principle for the relationship between church and state. The first thing that he is saying here is, in essence, for them to pay the tax but in doing so they were only giving Caesar his property back, they weren’t submitting to the Romans as their masters. It’s like saying, ‘send this garbage back to the dump’. Yet, he has said, basically, to pay the tax, so he couldn’t be accused of offending Rome overtly. To discover the second point Jesus is making we must consider what he meant by saying to give to God what is his. Does he mean that men are made in God’s image and should give themselves to him? Is he referring to the idea that the sacrificial system of the Temple needed to be replaced by a more complete system of worship? Did he mean that truly giving oneself to God would reveal that the normal revolutionary tactics of violence and aggression won’t work? He probably meant all of that.
Devotional Thought
What does giving to God what is his mean to you? What in your life belongs to God? What wuld your life look like if you gave everything to God that was his?
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Friday, May 04, 2007
Mark 12:1-12
The Parable of the Tenants
1He then began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 2At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
6"He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, 'They will respect my son.'
7"But the tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9"What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10Haven't you read this scripture:
" 'The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
11the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"
12Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.
BACKGROUND READING:
Isaiah 5
Psalm 118
Dig Deeper
Mark doesn’t record many of Jesus’ parables in his gospel, at least not as many as Luke and Matthew. Most of Jesus’ parables are what could be classified as comedies, that is they work out to some degree in the end. With the parables of the seeds that Mark described in chapter 4, one grouping of seed after another goes to waste, until finally the last batch described takes root and produces fruit. Many of Jesus’ other parables recorded in other gospels also work out in the end. They have to do with something lost being found in the end, a victim being finally helped, or a wayward son coming home.
Up until verse 6, this parable seems like it’s going bad, but will turn out well in the end. Then things go terribly awry. Rather than welcoming and respecting the son, the tenants kill him and throw him out of the vineyard. Jesus’ final words of the story are rather ominous: He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.
Notice that the disciples don’t need to pull Jesus aside and ask him the true meaning of this parable. It would have been pretty obvious, in part, due to the fact that everyone would have been familiar with Isaiah 5. In this poem, Isaiah describes God carefully and lovingly planting Israel like a vineyard, hoping for a crop of grapes, but instead, finds bad grapes throughout the vineyard. Despite all of God’s hopes, the vineyard has gone bad, and the only thing left is judgment. The vineyard will be left as a wasteland.
Jesus takes this metaphor and adds to it with details that the people would have readily understood. God is the man who planted the vineyard who has gone away for a time. From time to time he sends the prophets, his servants, but they had all been treated shamefully and rejected. Now he was at last, sending one who was doing the job of a servant, but was more than just a servant, it was his son.
By this point in Mark, the readers should know exactly what Jesus is saying. Jesus is the beloved son of God. He is the one that was set apart at his baptism and confirmed at the transfiguration as the one and only son of God. What Jesus has already said straight out three times, he now confirms through parable. The story is not going to turn out well for him (not from the human standpoint at least).
The tenants believe that the inheritance will either go to the heir or them, it’s a ‘him or us’ mentality. So they take his life. What they don’t realize is that it is this action of self preservation that will seal their fate. In this parable, Jesus not only hints at his own death, he also hints at the judgment that will befall Israel for their rejection of God’s son. Jesus’ actions in the Temple were meant, like the prophets that preceded him, to be a grave warning to Israel, but Jesus knows that they will not listen to him.
Jesus caps this all off by quoting for the crowd from the very Psalm 118 that the crowds had quoted from when they welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem. In the Psalm, the stone that the builders rejected for the Temple because it wouldn’t fit any other part of the Temple, is the only stone that will fit for the capstone, which is the stone at the summit of a corner or arch.
That’s exactly what Jesus is saying about his own work. His vocation cannot be fit into the pre-existing categories and expectations that they have. They are more worried about their own interests in mind, as they are trying to hold onto their power, their inheritance, so to speak. They want to arrest Jesus then and there, because the point of his story has not escaped them one bit.
There is much in this story for us to learn as Jesus’ followers. He has passed on part of his vocation to us. The kingdom that he announced and brought into the world is ours to spread and advance. That s our vocation. We are often called to speak in ways that those around us won’t understand and won’t like, and it is not ours to shrink back from that vocation.
Devotional Thought
Are you truthfully more motivated by God’s call to your vocation to spread his kingdom or the potential rejection of the world? Do you embrace your calling to share the gospel regardless of the fact that people around you may not like, accept, or understand what you are saying?
1He then began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 2At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
6"He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, 'They will respect my son.'
7"But the tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9"What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10Haven't you read this scripture:
" 'The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
11the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"
12Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.
BACKGROUND READING:
Isaiah 5
Psalm 118
Dig Deeper
Mark doesn’t record many of Jesus’ parables in his gospel, at least not as many as Luke and Matthew. Most of Jesus’ parables are what could be classified as comedies, that is they work out to some degree in the end. With the parables of the seeds that Mark described in chapter 4, one grouping of seed after another goes to waste, until finally the last batch described takes root and produces fruit. Many of Jesus’ other parables recorded in other gospels also work out in the end. They have to do with something lost being found in the end, a victim being finally helped, or a wayward son coming home.
Up until verse 6, this parable seems like it’s going bad, but will turn out well in the end. Then things go terribly awry. Rather than welcoming and respecting the son, the tenants kill him and throw him out of the vineyard. Jesus’ final words of the story are rather ominous: He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.
Notice that the disciples don’t need to pull Jesus aside and ask him the true meaning of this parable. It would have been pretty obvious, in part, due to the fact that everyone would have been familiar with Isaiah 5. In this poem, Isaiah describes God carefully and lovingly planting Israel like a vineyard, hoping for a crop of grapes, but instead, finds bad grapes throughout the vineyard. Despite all of God’s hopes, the vineyard has gone bad, and the only thing left is judgment. The vineyard will be left as a wasteland.
Jesus takes this metaphor and adds to it with details that the people would have readily understood. God is the man who planted the vineyard who has gone away for a time. From time to time he sends the prophets, his servants, but they had all been treated shamefully and rejected. Now he was at last, sending one who was doing the job of a servant, but was more than just a servant, it was his son.
By this point in Mark, the readers should know exactly what Jesus is saying. Jesus is the beloved son of God. He is the one that was set apart at his baptism and confirmed at the transfiguration as the one and only son of God. What Jesus has already said straight out three times, he now confirms through parable. The story is not going to turn out well for him (not from the human standpoint at least).
The tenants believe that the inheritance will either go to the heir or them, it’s a ‘him or us’ mentality. So they take his life. What they don’t realize is that it is this action of self preservation that will seal their fate. In this parable, Jesus not only hints at his own death, he also hints at the judgment that will befall Israel for their rejection of God’s son. Jesus’ actions in the Temple were meant, like the prophets that preceded him, to be a grave warning to Israel, but Jesus knows that they will not listen to him.
Jesus caps this all off by quoting for the crowd from the very Psalm 118 that the crowds had quoted from when they welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem. In the Psalm, the stone that the builders rejected for the Temple because it wouldn’t fit any other part of the Temple, is the only stone that will fit for the capstone, which is the stone at the summit of a corner or arch.
That’s exactly what Jesus is saying about his own work. His vocation cannot be fit into the pre-existing categories and expectations that they have. They are more worried about their own interests in mind, as they are trying to hold onto their power, their inheritance, so to speak. They want to arrest Jesus then and there, because the point of his story has not escaped them one bit.
There is much in this story for us to learn as Jesus’ followers. He has passed on part of his vocation to us. The kingdom that he announced and brought into the world is ours to spread and advance. That s our vocation. We are often called to speak in ways that those around us won’t understand and won’t like, and it is not ours to shrink back from that vocation.
Devotional Thought
Are you truthfully more motivated by God’s call to your vocation to spread his kingdom or the potential rejection of the world? Do you embrace your calling to share the gospel regardless of the fact that people around you may not like, accept, or understand what you are saying?
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Mark 11:27-33
The Authority of Jesus Questioned
27They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28"By what authority are you doing these things?" they asked. "And who gave you authority to do this?"
29Jesus replied, "I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30John's baptism—was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!"
31They discussed it among themselves and said, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' 32But if we say, 'From men'...." (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)
33So they answered Jesus, "We don't know."
Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things."
BACKGROUND READING:
1 Kings 6:11-13; 8:22-66
Dig Deeper
Many years ago I was the commissioner of a high school athletic conference for about six years. I stepped down from that position after six years and handed the reigns over to someone else. At the end of his first year, he had run into some problems organizing everything, so he resigned. The next year someone else had taken over and they were also having problems. They asked me to come back in and help organize and run the playoffs for the conference. During one of the games, the fans were a bit out of control, so I went down on the floor to clear things up. I sent a few people out of the gym, asked others to move, and began to restore order. Because of my absence, though, most of the fans had no idea who I was. The main question on their minds was, "who did I think I was to order people around"?
This is kind of what is happening here. For years, things had been running according to normal tradition under the authority of the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders. Into that, comes this young man who has taken charge of the entire Temple system, and the people are listening to him. Who does this guy think he is? By what authority does he think he has the right do this?
As Mark’s readers, we already know the answer that the chief priests do not. Since David planned the Temple and Solomon built it, the monarchy and the Temple had been closely related in Israel. It was the king who had ultimate authority over the Temple. This is what Jesus is doing here. Mark has already demonstrated that Jesus is the real king of Israel, and now Jesus is doing what true kings do, he is exercising authority over the Temple.
Jesus, of course, won’t say that outright. But what he won’t say in words, he will act out. The authorities get the point of what he is doing, but they don’t understand why he thinks he should be doing that. Jesus, in a very Jewish style, turns their question around on them into another question. He’s not, however, simply firing a tougher question back at them in order to get them to shut up. He is, in a rather coded way, answering the question that they are asking.
In asking them about John’s baptism, he is not only putting them in a difficult situation, he is answering their question about his authority and from where it comes. John had proclaimed Jesus as the One about whom he spoke, the One that would act with power, the One that he then baptized. At his baptism, Jesus was anointed by the Spirit, and the voice had confirmed that he was the true king, God’s beloved Son. He was the long-awaited Messiah for whom Israel had been waiting for over a thousand years. If they had really understood John’s vocation and what had happened at Jesus’ baptism, they would have the answer to their question.
Mark makes it clear, though, that the chief priests were not truly interested in the real answer to his question. They were angry, and they wanted to expose Jesus and save political face. But Jesus does something brilliant here. He not only answers their question in code, he also exposes their faulty logic and unwillingness to take a stand. His question puts them in an untenable situation, one which they finally answer, we don’t know. In doing so, they have let Jesus off the hook for the moment. He has managed to do the very thing they were questioning him about. He has once again demonstrated his authority in the situation, and so he walks away. They would have their day with him, but it would be in Jesus’ way, in Jesus’ time.
The question of Jesus’ authority was really the issue during his entire career. There was never a question over whether he was really doing the things he was doing, the controversy was over who he thought he was. The people had always been impressed by the amount of authority with which he taught (Mark 1:22, 27; 2:10; 3:15). Now he was turning that theoretical authority into realized authority over the highest institution in the land of Israel. This will all come to a head in chapter 14, but this scene in the Temple is the key to this unfolding drama.
Devotional Thought
Jesus gave his followers the authority to complete his mission, and the Spirit to carry it out. Are you being like Jesus in this area of your life? Are you intentionally going straight to the heart of the place or institution in your world that symbolizes people’s separation from God? What are the Temples that need to be challenged and warned? Are you prepared to question and answer the people like Jesus did?
27They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28"By what authority are you doing these things?" they asked. "And who gave you authority to do this?"
29Jesus replied, "I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30John's baptism—was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!"
31They discussed it among themselves and said, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' 32But if we say, 'From men'...." (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)
33So they answered Jesus, "We don't know."
Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things."
BACKGROUND READING:
1 Kings 6:11-13; 8:22-66
Dig Deeper
Many years ago I was the commissioner of a high school athletic conference for about six years. I stepped down from that position after six years and handed the reigns over to someone else. At the end of his first year, he had run into some problems organizing everything, so he resigned. The next year someone else had taken over and they were also having problems. They asked me to come back in and help organize and run the playoffs for the conference. During one of the games, the fans were a bit out of control, so I went down on the floor to clear things up. I sent a few people out of the gym, asked others to move, and began to restore order. Because of my absence, though, most of the fans had no idea who I was. The main question on their minds was, "who did I think I was to order people around"?
This is kind of what is happening here. For years, things had been running according to normal tradition under the authority of the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders. Into that, comes this young man who has taken charge of the entire Temple system, and the people are listening to him. Who does this guy think he is? By what authority does he think he has the right do this?
As Mark’s readers, we already know the answer that the chief priests do not. Since David planned the Temple and Solomon built it, the monarchy and the Temple had been closely related in Israel. It was the king who had ultimate authority over the Temple. This is what Jesus is doing here. Mark has already demonstrated that Jesus is the real king of Israel, and now Jesus is doing what true kings do, he is exercising authority over the Temple.
Jesus, of course, won’t say that outright. But what he won’t say in words, he will act out. The authorities get the point of what he is doing, but they don’t understand why he thinks he should be doing that. Jesus, in a very Jewish style, turns their question around on them into another question. He’s not, however, simply firing a tougher question back at them in order to get them to shut up. He is, in a rather coded way, answering the question that they are asking.
In asking them about John’s baptism, he is not only putting them in a difficult situation, he is answering their question about his authority and from where it comes. John had proclaimed Jesus as the One about whom he spoke, the One that would act with power, the One that he then baptized. At his baptism, Jesus was anointed by the Spirit, and the voice had confirmed that he was the true king, God’s beloved Son. He was the long-awaited Messiah for whom Israel had been waiting for over a thousand years. If they had really understood John’s vocation and what had happened at Jesus’ baptism, they would have the answer to their question.
Mark makes it clear, though, that the chief priests were not truly interested in the real answer to his question. They were angry, and they wanted to expose Jesus and save political face. But Jesus does something brilliant here. He not only answers their question in code, he also exposes their faulty logic and unwillingness to take a stand. His question puts them in an untenable situation, one which they finally answer, we don’t know. In doing so, they have let Jesus off the hook for the moment. He has managed to do the very thing they were questioning him about. He has once again demonstrated his authority in the situation, and so he walks away. They would have their day with him, but it would be in Jesus’ way, in Jesus’ time.
The question of Jesus’ authority was really the issue during his entire career. There was never a question over whether he was really doing the things he was doing, the controversy was over who he thought he was. The people had always been impressed by the amount of authority with which he taught (Mark 1:22, 27; 2:10; 3:15). Now he was turning that theoretical authority into realized authority over the highest institution in the land of Israel. This will all come to a head in chapter 14, but this scene in the Temple is the key to this unfolding drama.
Devotional Thought
Jesus gave his followers the authority to complete his mission, and the Spirit to carry it out. Are you being like Jesus in this area of your life? Are you intentionally going straight to the heart of the place or institution in your world that symbolizes people’s separation from God? What are the Temples that need to be challenged and warned? Are you prepared to question and answer the people like Jesus did?
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Mark 11:12-25
Jesus Clears the Temple
12The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.
15On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written:
" 'My house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"
18The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
19When evening came, they went out of the city.
The Withered Fig Tree
20In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"
22"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."
BACKGROUND READING:
Isaiah 56:5-7
Jeremiah 7-8
Dig Deeper
Once again Mark has given us two stories in sandwich form. The outer story has to do with a fig tree, while the inner story concerns the Temple, with each part of the story helping us to understand the other part. This passage is central, in many ways, to this gospel and to what Jesus was trying to do, but unless we can begin to appreciate the situation Jesus was in, we will easily misunderstand what is going on here.
The first incident with the fig tree has been cited by some critics of the Bible as proof that Jesus was mentally imbalanced. How could he get upset at a fig tree for producing leaves and not fruit during the time of year when all fig trees produced leaves and not fruit? That’s what fig trees do. The fact is, Jesus was not being unreasonable with the tree, he was acting out a parable. He was in fact, acting out Jeremiah’s prophecy against Israel. It was Jesus’ way of announcing the coming judgment on the Temple and all that it had become for the Old Covenant people.
Many have supposed that Jesus’ actions in the Temple were a rampage against commercialization in the Temple, that he wanted to simply clean up the Temple and stop all the non-religious activity. The story of the fig tree that surrounds his actions, though, make it clear that this was not the case. This was an act of symbolic judgment on the Temple.
Jesus uses quotes here from the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah which give another clue to what Jesus was doing. The Temple was supposed to be a house of prayer but had always been more a den of robbers (a word which would be much better translated as revolutionary or brigand). His point was that the Temple had always been an ambiguous thing. Even when it was dedicated, Solomon stressed that it could never be God’s final dwelling place (1 Kings 8:27). God had promised to bless his people through the Temple, but if they began to abuse and take for granted that blessing, then the Temple itself would and could be judged. This is what the early chapters (including chpts. 7-8) are all about.
How had it become a brigand’s or revolutionary’s cave? Because Israel had a vocation to be the light of the world, but they had abused that calling and used it to become narrowly nationalistic to the extent that the rest of the world was not seen as needing to be enlightened but condemned. Rather than symbolizing God’s welcome to the nations of the world, it had, for the Jews, become a symbol of his exclusion of them. The Temple had become the very sort of place that it was meant to subvert. So, like the fig tree, the only thing Jesus had in store for it was judgment. The Temple would be taken from the people who had abused it.
The next question to ask is how did Jesus’ actions mean that he was pronouncing judgment on it? The purpose of the Temple was as a place of sacrifice. Money was exchanged as people bought animals to sacrifice. Thus, the sacrificial system depended on the exchange of money and the purchasing of animals. Jesus stopped that process, if only for a few minutes, and enacted a deeply symbolic moment. He was saying more clearly than perhaps even words could, that the Temple was under God’s judgment. The very reason for it existing was being taken away.
The sacrificial system had not only come to signify that for which it was not intended, it was also going to be unnecessary. Jesus had already, ii using sacrificial language, said that he had come to be the ransom for many (Mark 10:45). The Temple was meant to be something that pointed to what was to come, and now it was here: the work of Jesus on the Cross.
The message for the Church today is more far-reaching and far more terrifying than just being a comment on commercialization. It is a warning for us to take our vocation as the new light of the word seriously. It means remembering that the Church must always be seen as a place to enlighten the nations not merely condemn them.
This is seen even in Jesus’ words about telling the mountain to throw yourself into the sea. The mountain was a long-standing symbol for the Temple, so this is clearly what Jesus was referring to here. Yet, even in encouraging his disciples to pray for the destruction of the Temple and everything it stood for (including the enemies of God) he reminded them to forgive. It is only when we learn to forgive that we can act with Jesus’ authority against the wickedness and corruption of our day.
Devotional Thought
Jesus often used deeply symbolic ways to get his points across, in ways that were far more meaningful and memorable than words could ever be. How can you do that in your life, school, or place of work? Think about the areas of culture and life in your social circles that have become deeply unpleasing to God. How can you symbolically demonstrate that God has a new and better way of doing things?
12The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.
15On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written:
" 'My house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"
18The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
19When evening came, they went out of the city.
The Withered Fig Tree
20In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"
22"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."
BACKGROUND READING:
Isaiah 56:5-7
Jeremiah 7-8
Dig Deeper
Once again Mark has given us two stories in sandwich form. The outer story has to do with a fig tree, while the inner story concerns the Temple, with each part of the story helping us to understand the other part. This passage is central, in many ways, to this gospel and to what Jesus was trying to do, but unless we can begin to appreciate the situation Jesus was in, we will easily misunderstand what is going on here.
The first incident with the fig tree has been cited by some critics of the Bible as proof that Jesus was mentally imbalanced. How could he get upset at a fig tree for producing leaves and not fruit during the time of year when all fig trees produced leaves and not fruit? That’s what fig trees do. The fact is, Jesus was not being unreasonable with the tree, he was acting out a parable. He was in fact, acting out Jeremiah’s prophecy against Israel. It was Jesus’ way of announcing the coming judgment on the Temple and all that it had become for the Old Covenant people.
Many have supposed that Jesus’ actions in the Temple were a rampage against commercialization in the Temple, that he wanted to simply clean up the Temple and stop all the non-religious activity. The story of the fig tree that surrounds his actions, though, make it clear that this was not the case. This was an act of symbolic judgment on the Temple.
Jesus uses quotes here from the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah which give another clue to what Jesus was doing. The Temple was supposed to be a house of prayer but had always been more a den of robbers (a word which would be much better translated as revolutionary or brigand). His point was that the Temple had always been an ambiguous thing. Even when it was dedicated, Solomon stressed that it could never be God’s final dwelling place (1 Kings 8:27). God had promised to bless his people through the Temple, but if they began to abuse and take for granted that blessing, then the Temple itself would and could be judged. This is what the early chapters (including chpts. 7-8) are all about.
How had it become a brigand’s or revolutionary’s cave? Because Israel had a vocation to be the light of the world, but they had abused that calling and used it to become narrowly nationalistic to the extent that the rest of the world was not seen as needing to be enlightened but condemned. Rather than symbolizing God’s welcome to the nations of the world, it had, for the Jews, become a symbol of his exclusion of them. The Temple had become the very sort of place that it was meant to subvert. So, like the fig tree, the only thing Jesus had in store for it was judgment. The Temple would be taken from the people who had abused it.
The next question to ask is how did Jesus’ actions mean that he was pronouncing judgment on it? The purpose of the Temple was as a place of sacrifice. Money was exchanged as people bought animals to sacrifice. Thus, the sacrificial system depended on the exchange of money and the purchasing of animals. Jesus stopped that process, if only for a few minutes, and enacted a deeply symbolic moment. He was saying more clearly than perhaps even words could, that the Temple was under God’s judgment. The very reason for it existing was being taken away.
The sacrificial system had not only come to signify that for which it was not intended, it was also going to be unnecessary. Jesus had already, ii using sacrificial language, said that he had come to be the ransom for many (Mark 10:45). The Temple was meant to be something that pointed to what was to come, and now it was here: the work of Jesus on the Cross.
The message for the Church today is more far-reaching and far more terrifying than just being a comment on commercialization. It is a warning for us to take our vocation as the new light of the word seriously. It means remembering that the Church must always be seen as a place to enlighten the nations not merely condemn them.
This is seen even in Jesus’ words about telling the mountain to throw yourself into the sea. The mountain was a long-standing symbol for the Temple, so this is clearly what Jesus was referring to here. Yet, even in encouraging his disciples to pray for the destruction of the Temple and everything it stood for (including the enemies of God) he reminded them to forgive. It is only when we learn to forgive that we can act with Jesus’ authority against the wickedness and corruption of our day.
Devotional Thought
Jesus often used deeply symbolic ways to get his points across, in ways that were far more meaningful and memorable than words could ever be. How can you do that in your life, school, or place of work? Think about the areas of culture and life in your social circles that have become deeply unpleasing to God. How can you symbolically demonstrate that God has a new and better way of doing things?
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Mark 11:1-11
The Triumphal Entry
1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.' "
4They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?" 6They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
10"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"
"Hosanna in the highest!"
11Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
BACKGROUND READING:
Psalm 118
Zechariah 9:9-17
Matthew 21:1-11
Luke 19:28-44
Dig Deeper
When I was a teenager my parents took me on a trip to Washington D.C. Getting there was a long trip, so when we finally arrived at the city I was already filled with a great deal of anticipation. This was the place where so many incredible things had happened. It was the place where so many of America’s great men had lived, worked, and were now memorialized. To be there induced excited feelings of hope and enthusiasm for me.
Take these same feeling that I felt as a young man and increase that exponentially. Now you’re beginning to understand the feeling that most Jews would feel as they entered into Jerusalem. This was the sit of God’s holy Temple. It was the place where God had assured his people that His presence would dwell with them. It was the place where daily sacrifices were done to invoke God’s promised forgiveness and to renew the hope of a renewed future. When Jews came to Jerusalem for the festivals, they were coming, full of excitement, to celebrate and remember the great things that God had done in the past. These were the stories of hope and freedom, two concepts that first-century Jews were clinging to.
Jesus’ followers must have been feeling all of those same feelings of celebration, hope, and freedom, plus one additional very exciting item. For them it was time for the kingdom to finally come. Jesus has completed his long, intentional, and highly symbolic march towards Jerusalem. (The gospel of Luke particularly stresses this theme of Jesus marching towards Jerusalem, a new Exodus of sorts, that is a fulfillment of God’s promised return that most Jews were expecting).
Mark stresses all those excited feelings in this story of Jesus’ reception upon his arrival in Jerusalem. Everything in this scene speaks of royalty. People in the first century didn’t throw their cloaks on the ground and wave palm branches for just anybody, even if it was an important somebody. Mark’s point is clear: the people were receiving the man that they though was going to be the true king. Two hundred years earlier, Judas Maccabeus had defeated the Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanes, restored Jerusalem, and rebuilt the Temple. The people at that time, waived palm branches and ivy and sang hymns of praise as they ushered in a new royal dynasty that lasted a hundred years. We can’t miss what Mark is telling us. From chapter 8 on, the disciples have understood Jesus to be the Messiah, the true king. This is his royal reception.
The shouts of the crowd further stresses the point that this is a royal reception. Theologian N.T. Wright says, "’Hosanna’ is a Hebrew word which mixes exuberant priase to God with the prayer that God will save his people, and do so right away." The chant, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, comes from Psalm 118, a Psalm that is about going up to Jerusalem and the Temple. The next line in their chant is a rather dangerous one: blessed is the coming of the kingdom of our father David. This is exactly what they believe they are welcoming into the city; the crowds are now confirming what Bartimaeus had already been shouting. For Herod Antipas and the other authorities in Jerusalem these were indeed fighting words, words which would get Jesus killed.
The scene ends rather anti-climactically with Jesus entering the Temple, taking a look around, and then returning back to Bethany for the night. Nothing happens for the moment. What Mark will do in the remaining chapters is show us exactly what Jesus was trying to tell his disciples in the previous chapters. Jesus is going to radically redefine the Jews’ concept of kingship and Messiahship; he was going to turn all that on its head.
Devotional Thought
Have you truly made Jesus the King of your life, willing to offer your property, resources, and talents to however he would use them? Or have you reduced and trivialized your commitment to him to the point that you simply see Jesus as a force that will help you get through and be more successful in doing the things you really wanted to do anyway? Is Jesus your King or a comforting religious experience?
1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.' "
4They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?" 6They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
10"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"
"Hosanna in the highest!"
11Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
BACKGROUND READING:
Psalm 118
Zechariah 9:9-17
Matthew 21:1-11
Luke 19:28-44
Dig Deeper
When I was a teenager my parents took me on a trip to Washington D.C. Getting there was a long trip, so when we finally arrived at the city I was already filled with a great deal of anticipation. This was the place where so many incredible things had happened. It was the place where so many of America’s great men had lived, worked, and were now memorialized. To be there induced excited feelings of hope and enthusiasm for me.
Take these same feeling that I felt as a young man and increase that exponentially. Now you’re beginning to understand the feeling that most Jews would feel as they entered into Jerusalem. This was the sit of God’s holy Temple. It was the place where God had assured his people that His presence would dwell with them. It was the place where daily sacrifices were done to invoke God’s promised forgiveness and to renew the hope of a renewed future. When Jews came to Jerusalem for the festivals, they were coming, full of excitement, to celebrate and remember the great things that God had done in the past. These were the stories of hope and freedom, two concepts that first-century Jews were clinging to.
Jesus’ followers must have been feeling all of those same feelings of celebration, hope, and freedom, plus one additional very exciting item. For them it was time for the kingdom to finally come. Jesus has completed his long, intentional, and highly symbolic march towards Jerusalem. (The gospel of Luke particularly stresses this theme of Jesus marching towards Jerusalem, a new Exodus of sorts, that is a fulfillment of God’s promised return that most Jews were expecting).
Mark stresses all those excited feelings in this story of Jesus’ reception upon his arrival in Jerusalem. Everything in this scene speaks of royalty. People in the first century didn’t throw their cloaks on the ground and wave palm branches for just anybody, even if it was an important somebody. Mark’s point is clear: the people were receiving the man that they though was going to be the true king. Two hundred years earlier, Judas Maccabeus had defeated the Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanes, restored Jerusalem, and rebuilt the Temple. The people at that time, waived palm branches and ivy and sang hymns of praise as they ushered in a new royal dynasty that lasted a hundred years. We can’t miss what Mark is telling us. From chapter 8 on, the disciples have understood Jesus to be the Messiah, the true king. This is his royal reception.
The shouts of the crowd further stresses the point that this is a royal reception. Theologian N.T. Wright says, "’Hosanna’ is a Hebrew word which mixes exuberant priase to God with the prayer that God will save his people, and do so right away." The chant, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, comes from Psalm 118, a Psalm that is about going up to Jerusalem and the Temple. The next line in their chant is a rather dangerous one: blessed is the coming of the kingdom of our father David. This is exactly what they believe they are welcoming into the city; the crowds are now confirming what Bartimaeus had already been shouting. For Herod Antipas and the other authorities in Jerusalem these were indeed fighting words, words which would get Jesus killed.
The scene ends rather anti-climactically with Jesus entering the Temple, taking a look around, and then returning back to Bethany for the night. Nothing happens for the moment. What Mark will do in the remaining chapters is show us exactly what Jesus was trying to tell his disciples in the previous chapters. Jesus is going to radically redefine the Jews’ concept of kingship and Messiahship; he was going to turn all that on its head.
Devotional Thought
Have you truly made Jesus the King of your life, willing to offer your property, resources, and talents to however he would use them? Or have you reduced and trivialized your commitment to him to the point that you simply see Jesus as a force that will help you get through and be more successful in doing the things you really wanted to do anyway? Is Jesus your King or a comforting religious experience?
Monday, April 30, 2007
Mark 10:46-52
Blind Bartimaeus Receives His Sight
46Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
48Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
49Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." 50Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
51"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see."
52"Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
BACKGROUND READING:
Matthew 20:29-34
Mark 10:35-45
Isaiah 35
Dig Deeper
As we have seen previously, one of the major themes that Mark has stressed throughout his book is the topic of sight. In particular, he has raised questions about seeing and understanding who Jesus is. His disciples have had difficulty in understanding who he is, and what his kingdom movement is about. When Jesus asked James and John what He could do for them, their response was to ask for favors. They were only thinking about themselves and did not yet understand what it meant to give up everything and take on a Kingdom way of thinking and viewing the world.
Now, Mark will bring all of those themes and threads together in this one, brief story about a blind man named Bartimaeus. Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho. It is important to note that Jericho is a usually very warm city. On their way out, they see Bartimaeus by the side of the road, begging. When he sees Jesus he begins to shout: Jesus, Son of David. The crowds react negatively to his pleading, but the question is why. "Son of David" means that this man was calling Jesus the rightful king of Israel. This is the kind of thing that could get you killed in a province that was controlled by the fearsome Roman empire. There was also a danger that they might kill several people in the crowd, thinking that this was some sort of revolutionary movement beginning. They don’t want Bartimaeus drawing any unnecessary attention to them. Bartimaeus, however, doesn’t seem to care. He realizes that this Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. Mark’s point in conveying this story to us is that this man has the kind of faith and understanding of who Jesus is, that took his disciples so long to understand.
Jesus eventually has the man called over to him, and then Mark draws our attention to a small but remarkable detail. He says, throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. Why would a man need a cloak in such a warm town? It is because he was using it to spread on the ground to collect donations. In understanding who Jesus is, Bartimaeus has demonstrated a tremendous amount of faith. He has cast aside everything he has to come to Jesus. There is no hint of clinging to his past life for security. He’s not worried about what might happen to him without his cloak, his faith has been put in Jesus. Thus, rather than picking up his cloak and bringing it with him, he has very intentionally cast it aside. He seems to know that he will no longer need it. In Mark’s eyes, Bartimaeus is showing us the kind of faith that Jesus has said is necessary to be a part of his Kingdom. Bartimaeus has truly laid aside everything he has to follow Jesus.
When he comes to Jesus, Jesus asks him a familiar question: What do you want mean to do for you? Does this question sound familiar? It is the same question that Jesus asked James and John. Their response was to ask to be honored by Jesus when he came into his glory. Mark draws a clear distinction between these men and Bartimaeus by recording his response. He does not ask to be given any position of glory, He just says, I want to see. Mark has made such a point to tie in the concept of sight to understanding the nature of Jesus as Messiah and the purpose of his Kingdom, that we can hardly miss his point. Bartimaeus is displaying the kind of faith and understanding that followers of Jesus need to. In asking Jesus for his sight, he has demonstrated that he understands more than most people who can physically see.
In the end of this passage, Jesus tells him to go, your faith has healed you. The text here, though, says that Bartimaeus follows him down the road. Did this man that just demonstrated so much faith, turn around and disobeye the Messiah? I don’t believe so. The original language actually says that "he followed Jesus in the way." In trying to make the text understandable, the NIV has actually obscured Mark’s meaning. "The Way" was the term used by the early Christians to refer to Christianity. Mark’s point is that Bartimaeus went and followed Jesus in his new Kingdom way of life. He does not mean to imply that he simply followed Jesus down the road. The meaning is much more significant and profound.
Devotional Thought
Take some time to meditate on this passage; imagine that you were one of the people in the crowd that day. What would you have thought? What would you have done? Now imagine the story from the perspective of Bartimaeus. What would that have been like? What would you have been feeling before, during and after this incident? Although Mark wants us to identify with Bartimaeus, that is not his ultimate goal. The place Mark wants to ultimately take us, takes a great deal of courage: He wants us to live out this story on a daily basis from the perspective of Jesus. What would it look like if you began to spread the Kingdom of God in your own way, just as Jesus spread it in his way?
46Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
48Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"
49Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." 50Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.
51"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see."
52"Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
BACKGROUND READING:
Matthew 20:29-34
Mark 10:35-45
Isaiah 35
Dig Deeper
As we have seen previously, one of the major themes that Mark has stressed throughout his book is the topic of sight. In particular, he has raised questions about seeing and understanding who Jesus is. His disciples have had difficulty in understanding who he is, and what his kingdom movement is about. When Jesus asked James and John what He could do for them, their response was to ask for favors. They were only thinking about themselves and did not yet understand what it meant to give up everything and take on a Kingdom way of thinking and viewing the world.
Now, Mark will bring all of those themes and threads together in this one, brief story about a blind man named Bartimaeus. Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho. It is important to note that Jericho is a usually very warm city. On their way out, they see Bartimaeus by the side of the road, begging. When he sees Jesus he begins to shout: Jesus, Son of David. The crowds react negatively to his pleading, but the question is why. "Son of David" means that this man was calling Jesus the rightful king of Israel. This is the kind of thing that could get you killed in a province that was controlled by the fearsome Roman empire. There was also a danger that they might kill several people in the crowd, thinking that this was some sort of revolutionary movement beginning. They don’t want Bartimaeus drawing any unnecessary attention to them. Bartimaeus, however, doesn’t seem to care. He realizes that this Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. Mark’s point in conveying this story to us is that this man has the kind of faith and understanding of who Jesus is, that took his disciples so long to understand.
Jesus eventually has the man called over to him, and then Mark draws our attention to a small but remarkable detail. He says, throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. Why would a man need a cloak in such a warm town? It is because he was using it to spread on the ground to collect donations. In understanding who Jesus is, Bartimaeus has demonstrated a tremendous amount of faith. He has cast aside everything he has to come to Jesus. There is no hint of clinging to his past life for security. He’s not worried about what might happen to him without his cloak, his faith has been put in Jesus. Thus, rather than picking up his cloak and bringing it with him, he has very intentionally cast it aside. He seems to know that he will no longer need it. In Mark’s eyes, Bartimaeus is showing us the kind of faith that Jesus has said is necessary to be a part of his Kingdom. Bartimaeus has truly laid aside everything he has to follow Jesus.
When he comes to Jesus, Jesus asks him a familiar question: What do you want mean to do for you? Does this question sound familiar? It is the same question that Jesus asked James and John. Their response was to ask to be honored by Jesus when he came into his glory. Mark draws a clear distinction between these men and Bartimaeus by recording his response. He does not ask to be given any position of glory, He just says, I want to see. Mark has made such a point to tie in the concept of sight to understanding the nature of Jesus as Messiah and the purpose of his Kingdom, that we can hardly miss his point. Bartimaeus is displaying the kind of faith and understanding that followers of Jesus need to. In asking Jesus for his sight, he has demonstrated that he understands more than most people who can physically see.
In the end of this passage, Jesus tells him to go, your faith has healed you. The text here, though, says that Bartimaeus follows him down the road. Did this man that just demonstrated so much faith, turn around and disobeye the Messiah? I don’t believe so. The original language actually says that "he followed Jesus in the way." In trying to make the text understandable, the NIV has actually obscured Mark’s meaning. "The Way" was the term used by the early Christians to refer to Christianity. Mark’s point is that Bartimaeus went and followed Jesus in his new Kingdom way of life. He does not mean to imply that he simply followed Jesus down the road. The meaning is much more significant and profound.
Devotional Thought
Take some time to meditate on this passage; imagine that you were one of the people in the crowd that day. What would you have thought? What would you have done? Now imagine the story from the perspective of Bartimaeus. What would that have been like? What would you have been feeling before, during and after this incident? Although Mark wants us to identify with Bartimaeus, that is not his ultimate goal. The place Mark wants to ultimately take us, takes a great deal of courage: He wants us to live out this story on a daily basis from the perspective of Jesus. What would it look like if you began to spread the Kingdom of God in your own way, just as Jesus spread it in his way?
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Mark 10:32-45
Jesus Again Predicts His Death
32They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33"We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."
The Request of James and John
35Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask."
36"What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
37They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."
38"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"
39"We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared."
41When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
BACKGROUND READING:
Isaiah 51:17-23
Jeremiah 25:15-38
Dig Deeper
This is the third time now that Jesus has warned his disciples of his coming fate in Jerusalem. Whatever else his vocation may include, it is clear that Jesus fully realizes that his own death is part of it. In repeating Jesus’ warnings about his death, warnings that the disciples still don’t grasp because they think Jesus is speaking in code, Mark is doing at least three things that will become more and more clear as his gospel unfolds.
The first is Jesus’ firm belief that he is to become the suffering servant of Isaiah 40-55. His mission as Messiah will involve dying at the hands of his enemies in the city of Jerusalem, the very city that should be embracing him as king.
The second thing is that Jesus was determined to speak plainly and openly about his death, and continue to march straight towards it. This might shock us, but it is no more shocking than it was for his disciples. They were frightened and confused by what he was doing. A proper understanding of all this, however, should end the ministries of those who attempt to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ without making the Cross the central aspect of his mission. The point of Jesus’ ministry was not about healing, happiness, or fulfillment. The point was about the kingdom of God bursting into the present age, an event that could only happen because of Jesus’ brutal death, the very thing that many today would like to forget or ignore.
The third thing that Mark wants us to begin to see is the far-reaching implications of Jesus’ vocation. Many that do acknowledge the Cross, want to relegate it to a personal level, where it has deep meaning, but has virtually no effect on the rest of life. This is precisely the point that the next passage will address. James and John clearly see this trip to Jerusalem as a march to glory. All of this talk about death and suffering, they assume, must mean that things will be tough but they will come out on top. The Cross, though, is not a difficult thing that must be gotten through so that the happy ending can come. It is the point. It is precisely the way that God is dealing with the world’s power and authority and standing it on its head, turning it inside out.
One of Mark’s primary statements about the Cross is a political statement. It is isn’t just about God forgiving sins, although that is central to the Cross. This is the way that God is putting his fallen world to rights, and that means that it is a direct challenge to all rulers, authorities, and powers throughout the world. It challenges and undermines all human systems and governments that make claims to be able to set things to rights. The point that James and John missed is the same point that so many today still miss: The Cross and the kingdom repudiate all attempts at human pride and glory. They turn it upside down in a way that carries dangerous political meanings for those who would embrace them.
James and John have other visions of the kingdom in mind. When Jesus asks them, what do you want me to do for you, (a phrase that will be stressed in the next passage) they want to be glorified in his kingdom. When Jesus asks them about the cup, he is referring to the cup of God’s wrath that is about to be poured out on him. God’s wrath was what happened when he poured out his judgment on the wicked; Jesus would take the full brunt of that judgment. His reference to baptism here, probably refers to his coming death; going beneath the waters of death, but soon to be raised up. This is precisely how the early church saw their own baptism (Romans 6:1-4).
James and John wanted to sit at Jesus’ left and right when he came into his glory. What they didn’t understand was that those places had already been determined. Following Jesus didn’t mean glory, it meant that they would eventually drink from the cup and participate in the same baptism of death that Jesus did, but now right now. But what about his right and left? Was he referring to places in heaven? Absolutely not; the answer to the question lies in realizing when Jesus came into his glory. He did it on the cross and the places to his right and left had already been prepared for two other men. He was not going to come into glory in a manner that they had imagined.
Again, Jesus tries to stress to them that they need to change their thinking about the kingdom. It is not about status and glory. It is about turning all of those ideas upside down.
Devotional Thought
Following Jesus means turning all the world’s concepts of power and glory on their head. It means being a servant in the kingdom of God. Have you let go of the world’s values or do yo still cling to them? Is your life about serving others for God’s glory or about lifting yourself up and being comfortable whenever possible?
32They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33"We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."
The Request of James and John
35Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask."
36"What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
37They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."
38"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"
39"We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared."
41When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
BACKGROUND READING:
Isaiah 51:17-23
Jeremiah 25:15-38
Dig Deeper
This is the third time now that Jesus has warned his disciples of his coming fate in Jerusalem. Whatever else his vocation may include, it is clear that Jesus fully realizes that his own death is part of it. In repeating Jesus’ warnings about his death, warnings that the disciples still don’t grasp because they think Jesus is speaking in code, Mark is doing at least three things that will become more and more clear as his gospel unfolds.
The first is Jesus’ firm belief that he is to become the suffering servant of Isaiah 40-55. His mission as Messiah will involve dying at the hands of his enemies in the city of Jerusalem, the very city that should be embracing him as king.
The second thing is that Jesus was determined to speak plainly and openly about his death, and continue to march straight towards it. This might shock us, but it is no more shocking than it was for his disciples. They were frightened and confused by what he was doing. A proper understanding of all this, however, should end the ministries of those who attempt to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ without making the Cross the central aspect of his mission. The point of Jesus’ ministry was not about healing, happiness, or fulfillment. The point was about the kingdom of God bursting into the present age, an event that could only happen because of Jesus’ brutal death, the very thing that many today would like to forget or ignore.
The third thing that Mark wants us to begin to see is the far-reaching implications of Jesus’ vocation. Many that do acknowledge the Cross, want to relegate it to a personal level, where it has deep meaning, but has virtually no effect on the rest of life. This is precisely the point that the next passage will address. James and John clearly see this trip to Jerusalem as a march to glory. All of this talk about death and suffering, they assume, must mean that things will be tough but they will come out on top. The Cross, though, is not a difficult thing that must be gotten through so that the happy ending can come. It is the point. It is precisely the way that God is dealing with the world’s power and authority and standing it on its head, turning it inside out.
One of Mark’s primary statements about the Cross is a political statement. It is isn’t just about God forgiving sins, although that is central to the Cross. This is the way that God is putting his fallen world to rights, and that means that it is a direct challenge to all rulers, authorities, and powers throughout the world. It challenges and undermines all human systems and governments that make claims to be able to set things to rights. The point that James and John missed is the same point that so many today still miss: The Cross and the kingdom repudiate all attempts at human pride and glory. They turn it upside down in a way that carries dangerous political meanings for those who would embrace them.
James and John have other visions of the kingdom in mind. When Jesus asks them, what do you want me to do for you, (a phrase that will be stressed in the next passage) they want to be glorified in his kingdom. When Jesus asks them about the cup, he is referring to the cup of God’s wrath that is about to be poured out on him. God’s wrath was what happened when he poured out his judgment on the wicked; Jesus would take the full brunt of that judgment. His reference to baptism here, probably refers to his coming death; going beneath the waters of death, but soon to be raised up. This is precisely how the early church saw their own baptism (Romans 6:1-4).
James and John wanted to sit at Jesus’ left and right when he came into his glory. What they didn’t understand was that those places had already been determined. Following Jesus didn’t mean glory, it meant that they would eventually drink from the cup and participate in the same baptism of death that Jesus did, but now right now. But what about his right and left? Was he referring to places in heaven? Absolutely not; the answer to the question lies in realizing when Jesus came into his glory. He did it on the cross and the places to his right and left had already been prepared for two other men. He was not going to come into glory in a manner that they had imagined.
Again, Jesus tries to stress to them that they need to change their thinking about the kingdom. It is not about status and glory. It is about turning all of those ideas upside down.
Devotional Thought
Following Jesus means turning all the world’s concepts of power and glory on their head. It means being a servant in the kingdom of God. Have you let go of the world’s values or do yo still cling to them? Is your life about serving others for God’s glory or about lifting yourself up and being comfortable whenever possible?
Friday, April 27, 2007
Mark 10:17-31
The Rich Young Man
17As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
18"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 19You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'"
20"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."
21Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
22At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"
24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
26The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"
27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
28Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you!"
29"I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
BACKGROUND READING:
Exodus 20:1-21
Isaiah 2
Dig Deeper
Most Jews in the first-century believed that the history of the world could be split into two ages. The one they were living in was the 'present age'. This was characterized by sin, hate, violence, rebellion against God, and the fact that Israel was still in exile. They believed that Israel was in exile because, although they had returned to their homeland, God had not yet returned. The ancient promises of the prophets of old had not been fulfilled, their sin had not yet been forgiven.
So, most Jews waited anxiously for the next reality, the 'age to come'. This is when righteousness would be restored. God would set things to right. Israel would be restored as God's people and the righteous would be raised to this new life. This great event in history would bring justice, peace, ultimate freedom for Israel, and punishment for all evildoers, be they Jew or Gentile. All the lying, anger, and hatred of the present age would pass away and be gone forever once the age to come had burst forth into history.
This all meant that there was one main question on the mind of every Jew who believed in all this: "How can I know that I will be one of the righteous that will inherit the age to come?" Talking about the kingdom of God was another way of referring to the age to come in the mind of most first-century Jews.
This is the very question that the young man asks Jesus in this scene. Most people tend to think that the man is asking Jesus about how he can go to heaven. This is not the case, however. There was no thought of an existence in 'heaven' somewhere apart from one's body and the physical world. The 'age to come' would be here on a restored earth. No Jew would want to be in a disembodied heaven when God brought the new earth to fruition. The phrase that is translated eternal life here, literally means 'belonging to the age'.
Another potentially confusing situation here is Jesus' response to being called good teacher. What Jesus is not doing is somehow denying that he is divine. He has taken the man where he is at, and tried to challenge his thinking at that point. If Jesus is just a teacher, then he should not be called good. Only God is good.
The question this man asked, then, was a fairly common question at that time. If anyone asked a Pharisee or a member of one of the other sects, they most likely would have first received a detailed interpretation of the law, and second, been encouraged to join their particular group so that you could be assured of gaining life in the age to come.
Jesus' response was no doubt a bit confusing to this man. All he did was recite commandments 6 through 9, adds do not defraud, and then goes back to number 5. He makes no mention of 1 through 4 and number 10. What Jesus does masterfully is bring the rest of the conversation back around to the commandments that he has left out (with the exception of the Sabbath), which concern honoring God, not having idols, not misusing God's name, and not coveting. Jesus is not calling for a stricter observance to the law, he is calling for this man to radically rethink what putting God first, having idols, misusing his name, and coveting might really mean. He is drastically redefining what it means to be the people of God, to follow the law of Moses. Because the Messiah is here, the 'age to come' is not just some future hope. It is a present reality that is breaking through now.
The man leaves, saddened and disappointed by Jesus' response. In fact his own disciples seem shocked by his words. This is because in the Jewish mind, wealth was a sign of God's blessing in upholding the Covenant. Jesus challenged one of the very things that they held dear as a sign that they were God's people. Jesus is clear, wealth can't come into the age to come anymore than a camel can go through the eye of a needle (which is use of a typical Jewish hyperbole to make a point).
Everything will be upside down in Jesus' new kingdom. The first will be last, the last will be first. Those who have given up all the old identifiers as the people of God (family, wealth, etc.) will not only inherit the age to come, they will find that they have come into an ever-enlarging family of fellow disciples with homes that will be open to them wherever they go (and persecutions, Mark is careful to point out, lest they think that everything will be rosy in God's kingdom). The belief of the early church was that with Jesus' death and resurrection, the age to come had broken into the present age, pointing to the time when it would be fully consummated at his Second Coming.
Devotional Thought
The rich man had tightly held beliefs and traditions that were coming in direct conflict with Jesus' vision of the kingdom. What are some of the most prevalent beliefs and traditions that people in our culture have that keep them from truly seeing the kingdom for what it is? How can you tailor a message that will challenge their beliefs and show them that what we often hold so dear is actually the very thing keeping us from God's kingdom?
17As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
18"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 19You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'"
20"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."
21Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
22At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"
24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
26The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"
27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
28Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you!"
29"I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
BACKGROUND READING:
Exodus 20:1-21
Isaiah 2
Dig Deeper
Most Jews in the first-century believed that the history of the world could be split into two ages. The one they were living in was the 'present age'. This was characterized by sin, hate, violence, rebellion against God, and the fact that Israel was still in exile. They believed that Israel was in exile because, although they had returned to their homeland, God had not yet returned. The ancient promises of the prophets of old had not been fulfilled, their sin had not yet been forgiven.
So, most Jews waited anxiously for the next reality, the 'age to come'. This is when righteousness would be restored. God would set things to right. Israel would be restored as God's people and the righteous would be raised to this new life. This great event in history would bring justice, peace, ultimate freedom for Israel, and punishment for all evildoers, be they Jew or Gentile. All the lying, anger, and hatred of the present age would pass away and be gone forever once the age to come had burst forth into history.
This all meant that there was one main question on the mind of every Jew who believed in all this: "How can I know that I will be one of the righteous that will inherit the age to come?" Talking about the kingdom of God was another way of referring to the age to come in the mind of most first-century Jews.
This is the very question that the young man asks Jesus in this scene. Most people tend to think that the man is asking Jesus about how he can go to heaven. This is not the case, however. There was no thought of an existence in 'heaven' somewhere apart from one's body and the physical world. The 'age to come' would be here on a restored earth. No Jew would want to be in a disembodied heaven when God brought the new earth to fruition. The phrase that is translated eternal life here, literally means 'belonging to the age'.
Another potentially confusing situation here is Jesus' response to being called good teacher. What Jesus is not doing is somehow denying that he is divine. He has taken the man where he is at, and tried to challenge his thinking at that point. If Jesus is just a teacher, then he should not be called good. Only God is good.
The question this man asked, then, was a fairly common question at that time. If anyone asked a Pharisee or a member of one of the other sects, they most likely would have first received a detailed interpretation of the law, and second, been encouraged to join their particular group so that you could be assured of gaining life in the age to come.
Jesus' response was no doubt a bit confusing to this man. All he did was recite commandments 6 through 9, adds do not defraud, and then goes back to number 5. He makes no mention of 1 through 4 and number 10. What Jesus does masterfully is bring the rest of the conversation back around to the commandments that he has left out (with the exception of the Sabbath), which concern honoring God, not having idols, not misusing God's name, and not coveting. Jesus is not calling for a stricter observance to the law, he is calling for this man to radically rethink what putting God first, having idols, misusing his name, and coveting might really mean. He is drastically redefining what it means to be the people of God, to follow the law of Moses. Because the Messiah is here, the 'age to come' is not just some future hope. It is a present reality that is breaking through now.
The man leaves, saddened and disappointed by Jesus' response. In fact his own disciples seem shocked by his words. This is because in the Jewish mind, wealth was a sign of God's blessing in upholding the Covenant. Jesus challenged one of the very things that they held dear as a sign that they were God's people. Jesus is clear, wealth can't come into the age to come anymore than a camel can go through the eye of a needle (which is use of a typical Jewish hyperbole to make a point).
Everything will be upside down in Jesus' new kingdom. The first will be last, the last will be first. Those who have given up all the old identifiers as the people of God (family, wealth, etc.) will not only inherit the age to come, they will find that they have come into an ever-enlarging family of fellow disciples with homes that will be open to them wherever they go (and persecutions, Mark is careful to point out, lest they think that everything will be rosy in God's kingdom). The belief of the early church was that with Jesus' death and resurrection, the age to come had broken into the present age, pointing to the time when it would be fully consummated at his Second Coming.
Devotional Thought
The rich man had tightly held beliefs and traditions that were coming in direct conflict with Jesus' vision of the kingdom. What are some of the most prevalent beliefs and traditions that people in our culture have that keep them from truly seeing the kingdom for what it is? How can you tailor a message that will challenge their beliefs and show them that what we often hold so dear is actually the very thing keeping us from God's kingdom?
Mark 10:1-16
Divorce
1Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.
2Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"
3"What did Moses command you?" he replied.
4They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away."
5"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 7'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
10When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."
The Little Children and Jesus
13People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." 16And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.
BACKGROUND READING:
Genesis 2:18-15
Deuteronomy 24:1-4
Matthew 19:1-12
Dig Deeper
Recently, I was watching a television show in which a major evangelical TV evangelist was being interviewed. He was asked a question concerning whether he thought that George W. Bush had been chosen by God to be the President of the United States. He quickly answered in the affirmative, he did believe that to be the case. This was not the real point of the question from the talk show host, however. He was carefully laying a trap. He followed up this question with another. "Was Bill Clinton also God's choice to be president or is God not powerful enough to choose every president?" Sufficiently caught in the trap, in the mind of the commentator, the evangelist nervously joked that God wanted to drive the nation to their knees, but the trap had been sprung, and the commentator proceeded to hammer the pastor's shaky logic.
This is something of the sort of question asked here by the Pharisees. They are asking Jesus about divorce, but that is really not their primary agenda. This question seems innocent enough, though. So why does Mark say that this was a test (the word can also be translated as 'trap')? Why does Jesus not give the same stinging answer in public that he gives to his disciples in private?
The key to understanding all of this is in the location of this incident. This account takes place near the Jordan river in the Judean wilderness. This is where John the Baptist used to teach and baptize. Why was John imprisoned and beheaded? Because he had the nerve to criticize Herod Antipas for marrying his brother's wife. Now the shadows of the trap begin to come into focus.
This doesn't mean that Jesus' words about divorce aren't still insightful and true, it's just that understanding the situation brings everything into better focus. It was obvious, however, to John the Baptist, and many other faithful Jews that Herod's behavior had made it obvious that he was not the true king of the Jews. Plus, any kingdom announcement like the one that Jesus was making was already an affront to Antipas. There was no point in falling into the trap of the Pharisees here and making some sort of treasonous statement.
Jesus can see the trap from a mile away and loses no integrity in his answer. He answers their question in public, but in private gives a stinging rebuke against divorce. He also, seemingly, specifically addresses Antipas' wife Herodias, who divorced Antipas' brother. It is important to understand that ordinary Jewish women would not have been able to get a divorce. This likely means that Jesus' only point in saying anything about a woman divorcing her husband was as a specific commentary on Herodias.
Jesus' public discussion on divorce is quite interesting. The question from the Pharisees is whether divorce is lawful. Jesus asks them a question which they don't really answer: What did Moses command you? They respond by citing the exceptions to divorce that were contained in the law, but that is not what Jesus asked them about. Jesus' then answers his own question by quoting for them what had been commanded about marriage in the law. This was Moses' command concerning marriage and it speaks for God on the subject: What God has joined together let man not separate. This isn't to imply that Moses was wrong in his exception, but that one needs to go back to the account of creation itself to see what God's will for marriage is. Marriage creates not a new partnership but a new human being that should never be separated. In Jesus' mind, what Moses wrote in Genesis (Jesus assumes that Moses was the author) spoke for God on the subject of marriage and divorce.
Moses gave exceptions because of the hardheartedness of the Israelites. They were unwilling and unable to hold to God's intentions. This has implications for Jesus' own ministry. In Moses' day, Israel was unable to fulfill God's intentions and needed laws that represented the second best reality. In the same way, Israel was to have been God's light to the world, but hardheartedness had foiled that ideal as well. In suggesting a return to the strict ideal standards of Genesis, Jesus is either hopelessly idealistic or believes that his work of inaugurating the kingdom will somehow offer a cure to this hardheartedness of human beings.
Jesus' final words in this section, concerning children make more sense when we keep in mind the low first-century views of children. The key words here are such as these. He is not talking specifically about children (although he certainly loved and was concerned about children), he is saying that the kingdom of God is not about personal status, it is about humility.
Devotional Thought
Jesus had a great deal of wisdom in realizing that it was not always the time and place to say everything that he believed. What can we learn from this? Has there ever been a time when you shared your feelings on a subject, but in retrospect realized that it was not the best time to say it? What can you learn from Jesus' actions here to apply your life?
1Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.
2Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"
3"What did Moses command you?" he replied.
4They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away."
5"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 7'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
10When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."
The Little Children and Jesus
13People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." 16And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.
BACKGROUND READING:
Genesis 2:18-15
Deuteronomy 24:1-4
Matthew 19:1-12
Dig Deeper
Recently, I was watching a television show in which a major evangelical TV evangelist was being interviewed. He was asked a question concerning whether he thought that George W. Bush had been chosen by God to be the President of the United States. He quickly answered in the affirmative, he did believe that to be the case. This was not the real point of the question from the talk show host, however. He was carefully laying a trap. He followed up this question with another. "Was Bill Clinton also God's choice to be president or is God not powerful enough to choose every president?" Sufficiently caught in the trap, in the mind of the commentator, the evangelist nervously joked that God wanted to drive the nation to their knees, but the trap had been sprung, and the commentator proceeded to hammer the pastor's shaky logic.
This is something of the sort of question asked here by the Pharisees. They are asking Jesus about divorce, but that is really not their primary agenda. This question seems innocent enough, though. So why does Mark say that this was a test (the word can also be translated as 'trap')? Why does Jesus not give the same stinging answer in public that he gives to his disciples in private?
The key to understanding all of this is in the location of this incident. This account takes place near the Jordan river in the Judean wilderness. This is where John the Baptist used to teach and baptize. Why was John imprisoned and beheaded? Because he had the nerve to criticize Herod Antipas for marrying his brother's wife. Now the shadows of the trap begin to come into focus.
This doesn't mean that Jesus' words about divorce aren't still insightful and true, it's just that understanding the situation brings everything into better focus. It was obvious, however, to John the Baptist, and many other faithful Jews that Herod's behavior had made it obvious that he was not the true king of the Jews. Plus, any kingdom announcement like the one that Jesus was making was already an affront to Antipas. There was no point in falling into the trap of the Pharisees here and making some sort of treasonous statement.
Jesus can see the trap from a mile away and loses no integrity in his answer. He answers their question in public, but in private gives a stinging rebuke against divorce. He also, seemingly, specifically addresses Antipas' wife Herodias, who divorced Antipas' brother. It is important to understand that ordinary Jewish women would not have been able to get a divorce. This likely means that Jesus' only point in saying anything about a woman divorcing her husband was as a specific commentary on Herodias.
Jesus' public discussion on divorce is quite interesting. The question from the Pharisees is whether divorce is lawful. Jesus asks them a question which they don't really answer: What did Moses command you? They respond by citing the exceptions to divorce that were contained in the law, but that is not what Jesus asked them about. Jesus' then answers his own question by quoting for them what had been commanded about marriage in the law. This was Moses' command concerning marriage and it speaks for God on the subject: What God has joined together let man not separate. This isn't to imply that Moses was wrong in his exception, but that one needs to go back to the account of creation itself to see what God's will for marriage is. Marriage creates not a new partnership but a new human being that should never be separated. In Jesus' mind, what Moses wrote in Genesis (Jesus assumes that Moses was the author) spoke for God on the subject of marriage and divorce.
Moses gave exceptions because of the hardheartedness of the Israelites. They were unwilling and unable to hold to God's intentions. This has implications for Jesus' own ministry. In Moses' day, Israel was unable to fulfill God's intentions and needed laws that represented the second best reality. In the same way, Israel was to have been God's light to the world, but hardheartedness had foiled that ideal as well. In suggesting a return to the strict ideal standards of Genesis, Jesus is either hopelessly idealistic or believes that his work of inaugurating the kingdom will somehow offer a cure to this hardheartedness of human beings.
Jesus' final words in this section, concerning children make more sense when we keep in mind the low first-century views of children. The key words here are such as these. He is not talking specifically about children (although he certainly loved and was concerned about children), he is saying that the kingdom of God is not about personal status, it is about humility.
Devotional Thought
Jesus had a great deal of wisdom in realizing that it was not always the time and place to say everything that he believed. What can we learn from this? Has there ever been a time when you shared your feelings on a subject, but in retrospect realized that it was not the best time to say it? What can you learn from Jesus' actions here to apply your life?
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Mark 9:38-50
Whoever Is Not Against Us Is for Us
38"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us."
39"Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40for whoever is not against us is for us. 41I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.
42"And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.
43If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. 45And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 47And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48where
" 'their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched.' 49Everyone will be salted with fire.
50"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other."
BACKGROUND READING:
Leviticus 2:13
Numbers 18:19
2 Chronicles 13:4-7
Matthew 5:13-16
Dig Deeper
This is one of the few passages in Mark in which he takes a series of sayings from Jesus and puts them together in one section without giving much context to most of them. That doesn't make them less important. It simply means that Mark has most likely taken them from their original contexts to make a more complete point. This point is not exactly clear at first, but when we realize that these all have to do with the idea of a battle being joined and the serious consequences that might follow, this string of three short sayings makes more sense.
In the first account, John sees a man that has been driving out demons in Jesus' name. Jesus tells John to leave the man alone. Someone who drives out a demon in Jesus' name in one moment, will certainly not be speaking against Jesus in the next. Jesus seems to assume that all of Israel is taking sides as to whether his mission is from God or not. John wants the mission of Jesus to be limited to only those who are part of the 'official' group of followers. This isn't so much a disagreement between an inclusive or exclusive view of Jesus' mission, as it is difference in seeing Jesus' work as a private and privileged operation or a war that is quickly moving toward a showdown.
This is a warning, for us, however, to never think that we 'own' the kingdom of God. It is far too easy to come to think of the way that we worship or do things as the only way to do it. There are probably many Christians out there that Jesus would include in the category of 'little ones' and woe to those of us who might exclude them because we think we have things all figured out.
This gives us the proper focus for what comes next. The immediate point of Jesus is for his disciples. If their desire to be exalted and honored gets in the way of them being disciples, they should be careful lest they find themselves not being disciples of Jesus at all. Whatever might get in the way needs to be eradicated.
The wider issue, though, is what does this saying about cutting off feet and hands have to say to us? It has become quite popular these days to present Christianity as a feel-good philosophy, one that is all about developing a way of living that promotes health, wealth, and comfort. If you are at all unhappy, they say, then you don't have enough faith, because God wants you to have a life that is all peace and prosperity. Yet, this is not the version of God's kingdom that Jesus presents here (or anywhere else for that matter). His is a mission that is real and dangerous. A way of life where evil and sin are real and dangerous. A war is on and there is no room for philosophies that shirk any hint of personal cost, and argue that all desires are God-given, and so, must be realized.
The second lesson we can learn is that what they are asked to cut off are not sinful or bad things, in and of themselves. Rejecting sin is an obvious task for most of us, but Jesus tells us that there is more to it than just that. We must also be prepared to cut out things that might be good in another context, but which steer us down the wrong path. This is the only wise way of behaving when you are in the middle of a war.
Those who can't or won't grasp the danger of sin will be in danger of being thrown in Gehenna (translated hell here). Gehenna was a valley that served as garbage dump for ancient Jerusalem. It was perpetually smoldering and had, by Jesus' time, become a metaphor for the lake of fire that was prepared for Satan and his angels (Matthew 25:41), but to where all who reject God will eventually go.
At the end of this passage, Jesus returns to speak directly to his disciples, which implies that the primary meaning of the rest of these sayings was also for them. They were being called to be the salt of the earth. This had been Israel's job but they had failed. Now it was up to the disciples. If they lose their flavor like the rest of Israel had, they are in danger of becoming worthless to God in the same fashion that Israel had.
Devotional Thought
Are there any 'good' things in your life that are, in reality, leading you away from a full commitment to the kingdom of God? What do Jesus' words in this passage mean for you when it comes to things like that?
38"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us."
39"Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40for whoever is not against us is for us. 41I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.
42"And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.
43If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. 45And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 47And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48where
" 'their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched.' 49Everyone will be salted with fire.
50"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other."
BACKGROUND READING:
Leviticus 2:13
Numbers 18:19
2 Chronicles 13:4-7
Matthew 5:13-16
Dig Deeper
This is one of the few passages in Mark in which he takes a series of sayings from Jesus and puts them together in one section without giving much context to most of them. That doesn't make them less important. It simply means that Mark has most likely taken them from their original contexts to make a more complete point. This point is not exactly clear at first, but when we realize that these all have to do with the idea of a battle being joined and the serious consequences that might follow, this string of three short sayings makes more sense.
In the first account, John sees a man that has been driving out demons in Jesus' name. Jesus tells John to leave the man alone. Someone who drives out a demon in Jesus' name in one moment, will certainly not be speaking against Jesus in the next. Jesus seems to assume that all of Israel is taking sides as to whether his mission is from God or not. John wants the mission of Jesus to be limited to only those who are part of the 'official' group of followers. This isn't so much a disagreement between an inclusive or exclusive view of Jesus' mission, as it is difference in seeing Jesus' work as a private and privileged operation or a war that is quickly moving toward a showdown.
This is a warning, for us, however, to never think that we 'own' the kingdom of God. It is far too easy to come to think of the way that we worship or do things as the only way to do it. There are probably many Christians out there that Jesus would include in the category of 'little ones' and woe to those of us who might exclude them because we think we have things all figured out.
This gives us the proper focus for what comes next. The immediate point of Jesus is for his disciples. If their desire to be exalted and honored gets in the way of them being disciples, they should be careful lest they find themselves not being disciples of Jesus at all. Whatever might get in the way needs to be eradicated.
The wider issue, though, is what does this saying about cutting off feet and hands have to say to us? It has become quite popular these days to present Christianity as a feel-good philosophy, one that is all about developing a way of living that promotes health, wealth, and comfort. If you are at all unhappy, they say, then you don't have enough faith, because God wants you to have a life that is all peace and prosperity. Yet, this is not the version of God's kingdom that Jesus presents here (or anywhere else for that matter). His is a mission that is real and dangerous. A way of life where evil and sin are real and dangerous. A war is on and there is no room for philosophies that shirk any hint of personal cost, and argue that all desires are God-given, and so, must be realized.
The second lesson we can learn is that what they are asked to cut off are not sinful or bad things, in and of themselves. Rejecting sin is an obvious task for most of us, but Jesus tells us that there is more to it than just that. We must also be prepared to cut out things that might be good in another context, but which steer us down the wrong path. This is the only wise way of behaving when you are in the middle of a war.
Those who can't or won't grasp the danger of sin will be in danger of being thrown in Gehenna (translated hell here). Gehenna was a valley that served as garbage dump for ancient Jerusalem. It was perpetually smoldering and had, by Jesus' time, become a metaphor for the lake of fire that was prepared for Satan and his angels (Matthew 25:41), but to where all who reject God will eventually go.
At the end of this passage, Jesus returns to speak directly to his disciples, which implies that the primary meaning of the rest of these sayings was also for them. They were being called to be the salt of the earth. This had been Israel's job but they had failed. Now it was up to the disciples. If they lose their flavor like the rest of Israel had, they are in danger of becoming worthless to God in the same fashion that Israel had.
Devotional Thought
Are there any 'good' things in your life that are, in reality, leading you away from a full commitment to the kingdom of God? What do Jesus' words in this passage mean for you when it comes to things like that?
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Mark 9:30-37
30They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." 32But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
Who is Greatest?
33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
36He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."
BACKGROUND READING:
Jonah 1:17-3:10
Matthew 12:38-42
Luke 11:29-32
Dig Deeper
Shortly after graduating from college with a degree in secondary education, I was asked if, as a favor, I could come in and substitute teach at an elementary school for a day of summer school. I agreed and showed up the next day for my one-day as the third-grade teacher of the class. To this point, I had never worked with children of that age, and had no idea of what I was in for. Two particular incidents that I will highlight that day both involved unfortunate choices of language on my part. In one instance, an especially rowdy student asked if he could move his desk. I responded that he could take it wherever he wanted. On another occasion, a student asked me if they could get a pencil, to which I said, "sure, knock yourself out." On both occasions, the rambunctious little souls found it amusing to take my words quite literally.
A great deal of confusion and frustration can result if there is a misunderstanding between speaker and listener as to whether the message is to be received as literally or figuratively. This is the problem here as Jesus again tells his disciples that he will be killed and then raised from the dead. He has been speaking so often to them in parables, that when he does finally speak plainly, they are trying to figure out what he means. The assumption is that he is giving them another parable, but they don’t want to risk looking foolish and asking yet another question. They are quite possibly assuming that the three days is a reference to the story of Jonah, to which Jesus has alluded in his teaching (Matthew 12:39; Matthew 16:4; Luke 11:29). Perhaps Jesus is saying that he will be swallowed up by the authorities in Jerusalem for three days, before bursting out into his glorious kingdom and preaching repentance the way John did with the Ninevevites. The idea of one person experiencing the resurrection before God came fully in his kingdom just would not have been on the radar screen for a Jew in the first century. So, if they did think he was talking about literal death, they would have likely taken the phrase, after three days he will rise, to be a code that they didn’t understand.
We can, of course, sympathize with the disciple here. Taking in the radical new message of Jesus, and deciphering between his literal and figurative language was no easy task. In our own lives, think of how often we see something new in Scripture, or hear it in a sermon and we just aren’t prepared to have our old way of understanding something taken apart so that a new way of understanding can be opened up?
A sure sign that the disciples still weren’t completely seeing and understanding the new concepts Jesus was announcing with his kingdom is shown by the disciples on the way to Capernaum (pay special attention here because it is often this same kind of response in us that demonstrates that we haven’t grasped the new way of understanding what God wants form us). The disciples have a disagreement about who is the greatest among them. This is a clear indicator that they understand that Jesus is the Messiah, the king, but they still haven’t grasped what his kingdom is about. They think they have won the lottery, and the only thing to be decided is how to split up the power and glory of Jesus’ kingdom.
When Jesus confronts them about what they were talking about, they realize that there is no honest response that they care to give Jesus, so they simply don’t say anything Jesus must have been disappointed that all they were thinking about was themselves. That’s usually the problem when we only understand half of the message; it’s usually the half that benefits and concerns us. At this point, however, they think that they are going to be the inner circle of the true king of the world. It will be awhile yet before the truth dawns on them.
Jesus tries to shake them out of their backward thinking here, by using a child as an example. Children were seen quite differently in the first century than they are now, which often leads 21st century readers to misunderstand Jesus’ words. Children had no real status or social rank in the ancient world; they were not highly thought of, nor were servants. So when Jesus says that must become like a servant or like a child, his point is not that hey need to hear the teaching of the kingdom with great innocence. His point is that being associated with Jesus means that they will not be thought highly of in the world. They need to get visions of glory and grandeur out of their head and realize that being kingdom bearers in this new type of kingdom means being the servant of all and accepting people into the kingdom that are not the sharpest, best, and brightest by the world’s standards.
Devotional Thought
Many people seem to think that becoming a Christian somehow means that all of their needs will be met. Jesus made it very clear, however, to his first disciples that this should not be the focus of being a disciple. He wanted his disciples to realize that their needs would be met but not at all in the way that they had imagined. What are the areas in your life in which you tend to focus on yourself and your needs rather than being a servant?
Who is Greatest?
33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."
36He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."
BACKGROUND READING:
Jonah 1:17-3:10
Matthew 12:38-42
Luke 11:29-32
Dig Deeper
Shortly after graduating from college with a degree in secondary education, I was asked if, as a favor, I could come in and substitute teach at an elementary school for a day of summer school. I agreed and showed up the next day for my one-day as the third-grade teacher of the class. To this point, I had never worked with children of that age, and had no idea of what I was in for. Two particular incidents that I will highlight that day both involved unfortunate choices of language on my part. In one instance, an especially rowdy student asked if he could move his desk. I responded that he could take it wherever he wanted. On another occasion, a student asked me if they could get a pencil, to which I said, "sure, knock yourself out." On both occasions, the rambunctious little souls found it amusing to take my words quite literally.
A great deal of confusion and frustration can result if there is a misunderstanding between speaker and listener as to whether the message is to be received as literally or figuratively. This is the problem here as Jesus again tells his disciples that he will be killed and then raised from the dead. He has been speaking so often to them in parables, that when he does finally speak plainly, they are trying to figure out what he means. The assumption is that he is giving them another parable, but they don’t want to risk looking foolish and asking yet another question. They are quite possibly assuming that the three days is a reference to the story of Jonah, to which Jesus has alluded in his teaching (Matthew 12:39; Matthew 16:4; Luke 11:29). Perhaps Jesus is saying that he will be swallowed up by the authorities in Jerusalem for three days, before bursting out into his glorious kingdom and preaching repentance the way John did with the Ninevevites. The idea of one person experiencing the resurrection before God came fully in his kingdom just would not have been on the radar screen for a Jew in the first century. So, if they did think he was talking about literal death, they would have likely taken the phrase, after three days he will rise, to be a code that they didn’t understand.
We can, of course, sympathize with the disciple here. Taking in the radical new message of Jesus, and deciphering between his literal and figurative language was no easy task. In our own lives, think of how often we see something new in Scripture, or hear it in a sermon and we just aren’t prepared to have our old way of understanding something taken apart so that a new way of understanding can be opened up?
A sure sign that the disciples still weren’t completely seeing and understanding the new concepts Jesus was announcing with his kingdom is shown by the disciples on the way to Capernaum (pay special attention here because it is often this same kind of response in us that demonstrates that we haven’t grasped the new way of understanding what God wants form us). The disciples have a disagreement about who is the greatest among them. This is a clear indicator that they understand that Jesus is the Messiah, the king, but they still haven’t grasped what his kingdom is about. They think they have won the lottery, and the only thing to be decided is how to split up the power and glory of Jesus’ kingdom.
When Jesus confronts them about what they were talking about, they realize that there is no honest response that they care to give Jesus, so they simply don’t say anything Jesus must have been disappointed that all they were thinking about was themselves. That’s usually the problem when we only understand half of the message; it’s usually the half that benefits and concerns us. At this point, however, they think that they are going to be the inner circle of the true king of the world. It will be awhile yet before the truth dawns on them.
Jesus tries to shake them out of their backward thinking here, by using a child as an example. Children were seen quite differently in the first century than they are now, which often leads 21st century readers to misunderstand Jesus’ words. Children had no real status or social rank in the ancient world; they were not highly thought of, nor were servants. So when Jesus says that must become like a servant or like a child, his point is not that hey need to hear the teaching of the kingdom with great innocence. His point is that being associated with Jesus means that they will not be thought highly of in the world. They need to get visions of glory and grandeur out of their head and realize that being kingdom bearers in this new type of kingdom means being the servant of all and accepting people into the kingdom that are not the sharpest, best, and brightest by the world’s standards.
Devotional Thought
Many people seem to think that becoming a Christian somehow means that all of their needs will be met. Jesus made it very clear, however, to his first disciples that this should not be the focus of being a disciple. He wanted his disciples to realize that their needs would be met but not at all in the way that they had imagined. What are the areas in your life in which you tend to focus on yourself and your needs rather than being a servant?
Monday, April 23, 2007
Mark 9:14-29
The Healing of a Boy with an Evil Spirit
14When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. 15As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.
16"What are you arguing with them about?" he asked.
17A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not."
19"O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me."
20So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
21Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"
"From childhood," he answered. 22"It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."
23" 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."
24Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
25When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. "You deaf and mute spirit," he said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again."
26The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He's dead." 27But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
28After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"
29He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer.
BACKGROUND READING:
Matthew 17:14-23
Luke 9:37-45
Dig Deeper
By this time, Mark has made it clear that the disciples have understood at least part of the point. They have begun to grasp that Jesus is the promised Messiah. They also comprehend that he is announcing a very different type of kingdom than anyone expected. For that matter, he is a very different type of Messiah than anyone expected.
As Jesus comes down from the mountain, he encounters the remainder of his disciples engaged in an argument. Apparently, the father of a demon-possessed boy has brought his son to see Jesus. With him unavailable, the disciples took a shot at it, and why not? They had cast out demons before. The problem is, they find, that they are unable to cast this demon out.
When the man comes to Jesus to ask him to drive the demon out, Jesus is a bit frustrated. After answering a few questions from Jesus, the father says if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. Jesus response is priceless: If you can? He seems to be saying that he can do anything. The issue is not his ability, it is the faith of this man. The man’s response shows that faith is difficult for him, but he is trying.
After healing the boy, the disciples ask Jesus in private why they couldn’t drive this demon out. Jesus responds with a somewhat enigmatic response: This kind can come out only by prayer. What could this possibly mean? Does he mean to imply that the disciples have been slacking on their quiet times, and thus were unable to perform? They had cast out demons before and hadn’t realized that some are more powerful, more difficult to deal with than others (Paul said as much in Ephesians 6:12). We can assume that the disciples have, of course, been praying, and so that Jesus is referring to a special level of prayer. We are, perhaps, meant to assume that the time on the mountain was a particularly intense time of prayer (the type of prayer in which heaven and earth overlap) which allowed him to face a challenge of this magnitude.
Let’s go back a bit, though, and look at this from another perspective. When Jesus comes down from the mountain, things have changed. Mark has told us that the disciples have finally figured out that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus has begun a new level of teaching. Now he goes up into the glory cloud, in the very presence of God, the place where heaven and earth have overlapped. When he comes down he finds many things, but strong faith is not one of them. This seems to cause some consternation on Jesus’ part. He wonders how much longer he will be with them.
A powerful demon that wouldn’t come out, disciples that weren’t up to the challenge, a confused crowd; what is Mark trying to tell us? Up to this point, the faith required has been pretty easy. People come to Jesus or the disciples and they are healed. Now, though, things are getting difficult. Mark is emphasizing the point that the mission is serious now. Things are going to get more difficult, and Jesus knows it. Now that the disciples have begun to understand who he is and what the mission is, things are going to get much more difficult. This is quite the opposite, perhaps, from what we (and his disciples for that matter), would have expected.
It’s the same for us, really. Things can seem pretty easy while we are coming to understand who Jesus is, and what his kingdom is really about. Once we have begun to comprehend it, though, we often expect things to get easier as we coast into heaven. We have all, at some point, however, discovered the very point Mark is making: When we really understand what Jesus is calling us to and take up his mission, it gets much harder, and the forces of evil become far more challenging.
Devotional Thought
When situations get really intense and difficult what do you do? This is where the words of the father, I do believe, help me with my unbelief, can be helpful. The words are a mixture of faith and despair. The next time things are seemingly more challenging than you can handle, turn to God and pray faithfully not for him to deliver you, but for him to increase your faith.
14When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. 15As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.
16"What are you arguing with them about?" he asked.
17A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not."
19"O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me."
20So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
21Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"
"From childhood," he answered. 22"It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."
23" 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."
24Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
25When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. "You deaf and mute spirit," he said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again."
26The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He's dead." 27But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
28After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"
29He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer.
BACKGROUND READING:
Matthew 17:14-23
Luke 9:37-45
Dig Deeper
By this time, Mark has made it clear that the disciples have understood at least part of the point. They have begun to grasp that Jesus is the promised Messiah. They also comprehend that he is announcing a very different type of kingdom than anyone expected. For that matter, he is a very different type of Messiah than anyone expected.
As Jesus comes down from the mountain, he encounters the remainder of his disciples engaged in an argument. Apparently, the father of a demon-possessed boy has brought his son to see Jesus. With him unavailable, the disciples took a shot at it, and why not? They had cast out demons before. The problem is, they find, that they are unable to cast this demon out.
When the man comes to Jesus to ask him to drive the demon out, Jesus is a bit frustrated. After answering a few questions from Jesus, the father says if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. Jesus response is priceless: If you can? He seems to be saying that he can do anything. The issue is not his ability, it is the faith of this man. The man’s response shows that faith is difficult for him, but he is trying.
After healing the boy, the disciples ask Jesus in private why they couldn’t drive this demon out. Jesus responds with a somewhat enigmatic response: This kind can come out only by prayer. What could this possibly mean? Does he mean to imply that the disciples have been slacking on their quiet times, and thus were unable to perform? They had cast out demons before and hadn’t realized that some are more powerful, more difficult to deal with than others (Paul said as much in Ephesians 6:12). We can assume that the disciples have, of course, been praying, and so that Jesus is referring to a special level of prayer. We are, perhaps, meant to assume that the time on the mountain was a particularly intense time of prayer (the type of prayer in which heaven and earth overlap) which allowed him to face a challenge of this magnitude.
Let’s go back a bit, though, and look at this from another perspective. When Jesus comes down from the mountain, things have changed. Mark has told us that the disciples have finally figured out that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus has begun a new level of teaching. Now he goes up into the glory cloud, in the very presence of God, the place where heaven and earth have overlapped. When he comes down he finds many things, but strong faith is not one of them. This seems to cause some consternation on Jesus’ part. He wonders how much longer he will be with them.
A powerful demon that wouldn’t come out, disciples that weren’t up to the challenge, a confused crowd; what is Mark trying to tell us? Up to this point, the faith required has been pretty easy. People come to Jesus or the disciples and they are healed. Now, though, things are getting difficult. Mark is emphasizing the point that the mission is serious now. Things are going to get more difficult, and Jesus knows it. Now that the disciples have begun to understand who he is and what the mission is, things are going to get much more difficult. This is quite the opposite, perhaps, from what we (and his disciples for that matter), would have expected.
It’s the same for us, really. Things can seem pretty easy while we are coming to understand who Jesus is, and what his kingdom is really about. Once we have begun to comprehend it, though, we often expect things to get easier as we coast into heaven. We have all, at some point, however, discovered the very point Mark is making: When we really understand what Jesus is calling us to and take up his mission, it gets much harder, and the forces of evil become far more challenging.
Devotional Thought
When situations get really intense and difficult what do you do? This is where the words of the father, I do believe, help me with my unbelief, can be helpful. The words are a mixture of faith and despair. The next time things are seemingly more challenging than you can handle, turn to God and pray faithfully not for him to deliver you, but for him to increase your faith.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Mark 9:2-13
The Transfiguration
2After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
5Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." 6(He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
7Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!"
8Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what "rising from the dead" meant.
11And they asked him, "Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?"
12Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? 13But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him."
BACKGROUND READING:
Exodus 34
Revelation 1:9-20
Leviticus 23:33-44
Dig Deeper
This event, known as the transfiguration, was such an intense and overwhelming experience that it seems that even those who were there had difficulty in fully comprehending or describing what happened. We can be sure of one thing, this was not a case of hallucination as some critics have claimed. How can we be sure? For the simple fact that there were three witnesses. Three people simply cannot have the same hallucination any more than they can share a dream.
The three disciples are no doubt frightened, and Peter, as we are coming to see as a pattern, blurts out the first thing that comes to his mind. From our perspective his offer to build tents for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses, is a bit amusing. He probably had two motivations for doing so. First, was his desire to prolong the moment and keep Moses and Elijah with them for as long as possible. Second, was the fact that this was most likely at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, where Jews would build a tent called the sukkoth, to remember when God brought them out of Egypt. It’s hard to imagine that Peter’s response is a later invention by Mark. No one inventing this story would include such a funny response, and risk lowering the magnitude of the moment. No, we are left to conclude, reasonably, that this incident really happened.
Let’s look at this account from the perspective of the gospel as a whole. Jesus has led his disciples up the mountain of viewing God’s kingdom from a whole new perspective. He has unveiled God’s work in new, shocking, and profound ways. Those on the outside can look, but they don’t really ‘see’. The disciples, though, had their eyes opened for the first time. They are seeing the reality of God’s kingdom, and the truth that even though it was not at all what they expected, this is the Messiah. Once again, Mark is telling us a story about their eyes being opened. Mark is, again, brilliantly telling the larger story through one incident.
Now Jesus takes his disciples up this mountain and opens their eyes, on a whole other level. Our Western minds tend to view heaven as a separate entity from our reality, but that was not the way the Jews of Jesus’ time viewed it. For them, it was more that heaven was another dimension, that would break into ours at certain times and places. There were literally, in their worldview, times when heaven and earth overlapped. This is what they believed was happening when Moses saw the burning bush or when God’s presence descended in the glory cloud. Here, the disciples were being allowed to see one of those times when heaven broke into our realm.
This did not, however, necessarily demonstrate in Mark’s mind (or the disciples that were present) that Jesus was divine. Mark is yet to explain to us why they believed that. If this incident, in itself, demonstrated Jesus’ divinity then it would also be demonstrating the divinity of Moses and Elijah. No, this incident was demonstrating God’s approval of the inner reality of Jesus’ work. He was continuing and completing the work of the two great prophets of the Old Testament. Theologian N.T. Wright says, "this is a sign of Jesus being entirely caught up with, bathed in, the love, power, and kingdom of God, so that it transforms his whole being, in the way that music transforms words that are sung. This is the sign that Jesus is not just indulging in fantasies about God’s kingdom, but that he is speaking and doing the truth. It’s the sign that he is indeed the true prophet, the true Messiah."
This is why God says that Jesus is his beloved Son. Jesus is the full revelation for which Moses and Elijah paved the way. God has always wanted to reveal himself in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and Moses and Elijah were simply forerunners to make that possible. Again, we must understand that these words of God would have confirmed that Jesus was the Messiah, yet the disciples still haven’t grasped his divinity.
Jesus’ words concerning keeping quiet about this incident until he was risen from the dead were very confusing for a first-century Jew. The expectation was that the resurrection would happen when God transformed the whole world and raised all the righteous from the dead. They simply had no concept of one person being resurrected ahead of and pointing to the resurrection of everyone else. Like many things that Jesus said, they really didn’t understand the significance of what Jesus was saying until after his death.
The disciples are still trying to figure things out when they ask about Elijah having to come before the Messiah. Was this the event? Had Elijah come in fulfillment of Scripture? Jesus’ response indicates that Elijah has already come in the work of John the Baptist; that job is done . Now the only thing left is the messianic vocation, which Jesus has already announced will involve his suffering and death.
Devotional Thought
None of us will probably ever experience anything like what Peter, James, and John did here, but there are times when God reveals things to us. When Jesus speaks to us about our own life, we are called to listen to God’s words just as the disciples were. This is God’s Son, in whom he is pleased. Listen to him; Follow him.
2After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
5Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." 6(He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
7Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!"
8Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what "rising from the dead" meant.
11And they asked him, "Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?"
12Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? 13But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him."
BACKGROUND READING:
Exodus 34
Revelation 1:9-20
Leviticus 23:33-44
Dig Deeper
This event, known as the transfiguration, was such an intense and overwhelming experience that it seems that even those who were there had difficulty in fully comprehending or describing what happened. We can be sure of one thing, this was not a case of hallucination as some critics have claimed. How can we be sure? For the simple fact that there were three witnesses. Three people simply cannot have the same hallucination any more than they can share a dream.
The three disciples are no doubt frightened, and Peter, as we are coming to see as a pattern, blurts out the first thing that comes to his mind. From our perspective his offer to build tents for Jesus, Elijah, and Moses, is a bit amusing. He probably had two motivations for doing so. First, was his desire to prolong the moment and keep Moses and Elijah with them for as long as possible. Second, was the fact that this was most likely at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, where Jews would build a tent called the sukkoth, to remember when God brought them out of Egypt. It’s hard to imagine that Peter’s response is a later invention by Mark. No one inventing this story would include such a funny response, and risk lowering the magnitude of the moment. No, we are left to conclude, reasonably, that this incident really happened.
Let’s look at this account from the perspective of the gospel as a whole. Jesus has led his disciples up the mountain of viewing God’s kingdom from a whole new perspective. He has unveiled God’s work in new, shocking, and profound ways. Those on the outside can look, but they don’t really ‘see’. The disciples, though, had their eyes opened for the first time. They are seeing the reality of God’s kingdom, and the truth that even though it was not at all what they expected, this is the Messiah. Once again, Mark is telling us a story about their eyes being opened. Mark is, again, brilliantly telling the larger story through one incident.
Now Jesus takes his disciples up this mountain and opens their eyes, on a whole other level. Our Western minds tend to view heaven as a separate entity from our reality, but that was not the way the Jews of Jesus’ time viewed it. For them, it was more that heaven was another dimension, that would break into ours at certain times and places. There were literally, in their worldview, times when heaven and earth overlapped. This is what they believed was happening when Moses saw the burning bush or when God’s presence descended in the glory cloud. Here, the disciples were being allowed to see one of those times when heaven broke into our realm.
This did not, however, necessarily demonstrate in Mark’s mind (or the disciples that were present) that Jesus was divine. Mark is yet to explain to us why they believed that. If this incident, in itself, demonstrated Jesus’ divinity then it would also be demonstrating the divinity of Moses and Elijah. No, this incident was demonstrating God’s approval of the inner reality of Jesus’ work. He was continuing and completing the work of the two great prophets of the Old Testament. Theologian N.T. Wright says, "this is a sign of Jesus being entirely caught up with, bathed in, the love, power, and kingdom of God, so that it transforms his whole being, in the way that music transforms words that are sung. This is the sign that Jesus is not just indulging in fantasies about God’s kingdom, but that he is speaking and doing the truth. It’s the sign that he is indeed the true prophet, the true Messiah."
This is why God says that Jesus is his beloved Son. Jesus is the full revelation for which Moses and Elijah paved the way. God has always wanted to reveal himself in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and Moses and Elijah were simply forerunners to make that possible. Again, we must understand that these words of God would have confirmed that Jesus was the Messiah, yet the disciples still haven’t grasped his divinity.
Jesus’ words concerning keeping quiet about this incident until he was risen from the dead were very confusing for a first-century Jew. The expectation was that the resurrection would happen when God transformed the whole world and raised all the righteous from the dead. They simply had no concept of one person being resurrected ahead of and pointing to the resurrection of everyone else. Like many things that Jesus said, they really didn’t understand the significance of what Jesus was saying until after his death.
The disciples are still trying to figure things out when they ask about Elijah having to come before the Messiah. Was this the event? Had Elijah come in fulfillment of Scripture? Jesus’ response indicates that Elijah has already come in the work of John the Baptist; that job is done . Now the only thing left is the messianic vocation, which Jesus has already announced will involve his suffering and death.
Devotional Thought
None of us will probably ever experience anything like what Peter, James, and John did here, but there are times when God reveals things to us. When Jesus speaks to us about our own life, we are called to listen to God’s words just as the disciples were. This is God’s Son, in whom he is pleased. Listen to him; Follow him.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Mark 8:31-9:1
Jesus Predicts His Death
31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."
Mark 9
1And he said to them, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power."
BACKGROUND READING:
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Zechariah 1:7-17
Dig Deeper
Danger and death were a fairly regular part of life in first-century Palestine. The people were pretty used to harsh leaders, rebellions, and executions. Anytime a new leader popped up with a new message, death was always the possible end of things. If Jesus wasn’t already sure of that, the death of John the Baptist would have confirmed it for him.
Although that was always a possibility, this is seemingly something different beyond the usual danger. Following his disciples’ realization that Jesus is the Messiah, things quickly change in the mind of Jesus. It is only once they begin to grasp who he is and what he is truly doing that he can begin to teach them some of the things that he is about to reveal. The new lesson seems to be not that there may be danger ahead, but that they will be walking straight into it. There are, of course, lessons from this point that Mark wants us to pick up on. Once we begin to understand who Jesus is and what he wants from us, the stakes are raised and things begin to change drastically. Jesus calls us, just as he called his disciples, to go on the mission with him, and true discipleship always involves walking right into the middle of difficult situations.
This cannot be what the disciples had in mind from Jesus, though. Maybe they had already put together that he wasn’t going to be a military leader, but they had no conception of him marching straight towards his death. He seemed to be saying that he was going to fail and that they were going to fail with him. There also seems to be a degree to which they were totally confused. Jesus had been speaking rather cryptically to this point, and it appears that although, they understood that he was predicting failure at some level, they didn’t understand the references to him being killed. Perhaps he is speaking in parables again?
Whatever he was saying, though, it had to be wrong. A Messiah doesn’t get killed by the authorities. There was no conception of the Messiah predicted by the prophets and sent by God experiencing failure. A Messiah who did that was no Messiah at all, he was a false Messiah. So what was he saying? Mark will answer that more fully later, but he does give a hint in verse 38. Dying and rising again is the way that Jesus will come into his Father’s glory. This is clearly the way that Jesus saw his vocation. This was his destiny as Israel’s representative (which is what the Messiah was), and his disciples would have to be prepared to follow in his footsteps.
Any opposition to that plan, as vital as it is, must be seen as satanically inspired, even if it comes from one of his closest disciples, Peter. Peter, no doubt, challenged him on his dismal view of his mission. Perhaps, in his own mind, Peter was even trying to challenge and encourage Jesus. It is always a challenge for those who would follow Jesus to view the world from heaven’s standpoint rather than an earthly one. This is what Peter failed to do. He had the wrong worldview.
Jesus then clears things up for those who would follow him on this mission. Following him would mean denying themselves and picking up their cross. This was not just a metaphor for a first-century Jew. They all knew he was saying that they might die on this mission. Yet, he reminds them that those who hold on to what they have and reject discipleship, will forfeit their place in the kingdom. Those who accept the kingdom will get it, and the life of the ‘age to come’ to boot. Jesus makes it clear by verse 38, that this was a particular message for those sitting there that day contemplating whether they would follow him or not.
Jesus continues to demonstrate that he thinks all this is going to happen soon, in the lifetime of many of those listening to him on the day he uttered these words. He is not talking about some misplaced hope of a future existence. What Jesus is saying is that he believes that the kingdom of God will come with power through his own death and suffering.
Again, there are lessons from all of this that Mark wants us to learn. Although the mission that we are called on is not identical and does not usually involve the same kind of immanent danger, following Jesus still involves denying our own agenda and picking up Jesus’. It means that we commit ourselves to following him no matter what that might mean. In the end, this is what being a Christian is all about; this is how we too can enter into the kingdom of God.
Devotional Thought
Mark’s concept of being a Christian is that of following Jesus. In order to do that though, Jesus, said his disciples must abandon their own agenda in life and pick up his. Have you truly done that? In what areas of your life do you still cling to your own agenda? What will it take for you to truly sacrifice every area of your life to Jesus and his kingdom?
31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."
Mark 9
1And he said to them, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power."
BACKGROUND READING:
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Zechariah 1:7-17
Dig Deeper
Danger and death were a fairly regular part of life in first-century Palestine. The people were pretty used to harsh leaders, rebellions, and executions. Anytime a new leader popped up with a new message, death was always the possible end of things. If Jesus wasn’t already sure of that, the death of John the Baptist would have confirmed it for him.
Although that was always a possibility, this is seemingly something different beyond the usual danger. Following his disciples’ realization that Jesus is the Messiah, things quickly change in the mind of Jesus. It is only once they begin to grasp who he is and what he is truly doing that he can begin to teach them some of the things that he is about to reveal. The new lesson seems to be not that there may be danger ahead, but that they will be walking straight into it. There are, of course, lessons from this point that Mark wants us to pick up on. Once we begin to understand who Jesus is and what he wants from us, the stakes are raised and things begin to change drastically. Jesus calls us, just as he called his disciples, to go on the mission with him, and true discipleship always involves walking right into the middle of difficult situations.
This cannot be what the disciples had in mind from Jesus, though. Maybe they had already put together that he wasn’t going to be a military leader, but they had no conception of him marching straight towards his death. He seemed to be saying that he was going to fail and that they were going to fail with him. There also seems to be a degree to which they were totally confused. Jesus had been speaking rather cryptically to this point, and it appears that although, they understood that he was predicting failure at some level, they didn’t understand the references to him being killed. Perhaps he is speaking in parables again?
Whatever he was saying, though, it had to be wrong. A Messiah doesn’t get killed by the authorities. There was no conception of the Messiah predicted by the prophets and sent by God experiencing failure. A Messiah who did that was no Messiah at all, he was a false Messiah. So what was he saying? Mark will answer that more fully later, but he does give a hint in verse 38. Dying and rising again is the way that Jesus will come into his Father’s glory. This is clearly the way that Jesus saw his vocation. This was his destiny as Israel’s representative (which is what the Messiah was), and his disciples would have to be prepared to follow in his footsteps.
Any opposition to that plan, as vital as it is, must be seen as satanically inspired, even if it comes from one of his closest disciples, Peter. Peter, no doubt, challenged him on his dismal view of his mission. Perhaps, in his own mind, Peter was even trying to challenge and encourage Jesus. It is always a challenge for those who would follow Jesus to view the world from heaven’s standpoint rather than an earthly one. This is what Peter failed to do. He had the wrong worldview.
Jesus then clears things up for those who would follow him on this mission. Following him would mean denying themselves and picking up their cross. This was not just a metaphor for a first-century Jew. They all knew he was saying that they might die on this mission. Yet, he reminds them that those who hold on to what they have and reject discipleship, will forfeit their place in the kingdom. Those who accept the kingdom will get it, and the life of the ‘age to come’ to boot. Jesus makes it clear by verse 38, that this was a particular message for those sitting there that day contemplating whether they would follow him or not.
Jesus continues to demonstrate that he thinks all this is going to happen soon, in the lifetime of many of those listening to him on the day he uttered these words. He is not talking about some misplaced hope of a future existence. What Jesus is saying is that he believes that the kingdom of God will come with power through his own death and suffering.
Again, there are lessons from all of this that Mark wants us to learn. Although the mission that we are called on is not identical and does not usually involve the same kind of immanent danger, following Jesus still involves denying our own agenda and picking up Jesus’. It means that we commit ourselves to following him no matter what that might mean. In the end, this is what being a Christian is all about; this is how we too can enter into the kingdom of God.
Devotional Thought
Mark’s concept of being a Christian is that of following Jesus. In order to do that though, Jesus, said his disciples must abandon their own agenda in life and pick up his. Have you truly done that? In what areas of your life do you still cling to your own agenda? What will it take for you to truly sacrifice every area of your life to Jesus and his kingdom?
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Mark 8:22-30
The Healing of a Blind Man at Bethsaida
22They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?"
24He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around."
25Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village."
Peter's Confession of Christ
27Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"
28They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."
29"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "You are the Christ."
30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
BACKGROUND READING:
Isaiah 2:1-5
Micah 4
Dig Deeper
If we put together the scene from yesterday’s reading along with these two passages, we find another Mark sandwich of sorts, in which he puts one scene inside of another one. The only difference here is that verses 11-21 and 27-30 are not really one story, but for Mark they are closely related, and really continue the same thought. The question is then: why would Mark include this somewhat odd story of Jesus healing a blind man in between two passages that speak to the ability or inability of the disciples to understand who Jesus is?
When he arrives at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus. They are begging Jesus to heal this man, so he takes him outside of the village. Jesus then spits on his eyes, places his hands on him and seemingly heals him. But we find that something is wrong. The man says that he can see, but not in the right way. He says that the people look like trees walking around. After putting his hands on the man for a second time, he can see everything clearly. What just happened here? Did Jesus have a small power outage? Was he unable to completely heal the man the first time? This is the only miracle recorded in any of the gospels in which Jesus must perform an act twice to complete one miracle. So, we go back to the original question: Why does Mark include this strange story here in the middle of a discussion of who Jesus is?
As we said earlier, in Mark’s thinking, seeing is a related concept to understanding. With that in mind, this story begins to become clearer. This blind man had some contact with Jesus, yet he still couldn’t fully see. He needs to re-engage with Jesus. Once he does that he finally receives his full sight. And this is the point that Mark doesn’t want us to miss. The previous passage described the disciples inability to understand who Jesus was and what he was doing. Jesus is demonstrating for his disciples, and Mark is telling us that they needed to re-engage with Jesus, to be touched again by the Master, in order to truly see who he is.
The crowds, the disciples, they haven’t really been able to see who Jesus is. They think that he’s just a prophet. But now the disciples are touched by revelation from God; some things begin to come clear. He is not a prophet, he’s not John the Baptist; he’s not Elijah; he is the Christ. They finally are beginning to see clearly (Mark will continue to show us that they still don’t have everything figured out, but at least now they are on their way.)
This understanding that Jesus is the Messiah is not the disciples comprehending that Jesus is divine or the second person of the Trinity. This is more about them understanding the politically dangerous and theologically risky claim that Jesus is the true King of Israel. In claiming him the Messiah, they are naming Herod Antipas, and others like him, as imposters. No one was expecting a divine redeemer of mankind. They were looking for a king, and the disciples think that they have finally found him. To this point his behavior has been strange and un-king like, so this revelation was probably a bit of a relief for them. Now they think they understand who he is. Jesus is not just announcing the kingdom, he believes he is the king.
We shouldn’t miss Mark’s point, however. I believe in one sense he is letting us know that this is the second touch and the disciples finally get it. But his main thrust is that this is, in many ways, the first touch. They didn’t really see at all before; now they can see, but not yet as clearly as they will.
The understanding that he is the Messiah changes things. A Messiah that was announcing God’s kingdom was a direct challenge to and slap in the face of the Jewish leadership and of Rome. Things were about to change for Jesus and his disciples, as we shall see in the next passage.
But first, let’s review a few things about this idea of Messiah. The disciples now see that the miracles and things that Jesus has been doing have been pointing to the fact that he is, indeed, the Messiah that is announcing the kingdom of God. Not all Jews wanted or were really expecting a Messiah, but those who were, expected him to do three things. The Messiah would rebuild the Temple, defeat the enemy of God’s people, and he would bring God’s justice to Israel and then the world around Israel. In other words, the Messiah would restore the kingdom of God through the kingdom of Israel.
Jesus had bee going around completely redefining those tasks. He wasn’t assembling an army, nor was he announcing an agenda that would take down the Jewish leadership. Jesus has been doing the things that people thought the Messiah would, but in a radically different way. Now, Mark tells us that the disciples have grasped the first point, at least, they realize he is the Messiah, with a new way of doing things. Just how new that way is, is yet to fully emerge.
Devotional Thought
What is it about Jesus or his kingdom that you don’t yet understand? What area of your life have you not turned over to him? You will find, just as this blind man, and the disciples for that matter, found that if you allow him, Jesus will touch you again and help you to understand things fully.
22They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?"
24He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around."
25Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village."
Peter's Confession of Christ
27Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"
28They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."
29"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "You are the Christ."
30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
BACKGROUND READING:
Isaiah 2:1-5
Micah 4
Dig Deeper
If we put together the scene from yesterday’s reading along with these two passages, we find another Mark sandwich of sorts, in which he puts one scene inside of another one. The only difference here is that verses 11-21 and 27-30 are not really one story, but for Mark they are closely related, and really continue the same thought. The question is then: why would Mark include this somewhat odd story of Jesus healing a blind man in between two passages that speak to the ability or inability of the disciples to understand who Jesus is?
When he arrives at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus. They are begging Jesus to heal this man, so he takes him outside of the village. Jesus then spits on his eyes, places his hands on him and seemingly heals him. But we find that something is wrong. The man says that he can see, but not in the right way. He says that the people look like trees walking around. After putting his hands on the man for a second time, he can see everything clearly. What just happened here? Did Jesus have a small power outage? Was he unable to completely heal the man the first time? This is the only miracle recorded in any of the gospels in which Jesus must perform an act twice to complete one miracle. So, we go back to the original question: Why does Mark include this strange story here in the middle of a discussion of who Jesus is?
As we said earlier, in Mark’s thinking, seeing is a related concept to understanding. With that in mind, this story begins to become clearer. This blind man had some contact with Jesus, yet he still couldn’t fully see. He needs to re-engage with Jesus. Once he does that he finally receives his full sight. And this is the point that Mark doesn’t want us to miss. The previous passage described the disciples inability to understand who Jesus was and what he was doing. Jesus is demonstrating for his disciples, and Mark is telling us that they needed to re-engage with Jesus, to be touched again by the Master, in order to truly see who he is.
The crowds, the disciples, they haven’t really been able to see who Jesus is. They think that he’s just a prophet. But now the disciples are touched by revelation from God; some things begin to come clear. He is not a prophet, he’s not John the Baptist; he’s not Elijah; he is the Christ. They finally are beginning to see clearly (Mark will continue to show us that they still don’t have everything figured out, but at least now they are on their way.)
This understanding that Jesus is the Messiah is not the disciples comprehending that Jesus is divine or the second person of the Trinity. This is more about them understanding the politically dangerous and theologically risky claim that Jesus is the true King of Israel. In claiming him the Messiah, they are naming Herod Antipas, and others like him, as imposters. No one was expecting a divine redeemer of mankind. They were looking for a king, and the disciples think that they have finally found him. To this point his behavior has been strange and un-king like, so this revelation was probably a bit of a relief for them. Now they think they understand who he is. Jesus is not just announcing the kingdom, he believes he is the king.
We shouldn’t miss Mark’s point, however. I believe in one sense he is letting us know that this is the second touch and the disciples finally get it. But his main thrust is that this is, in many ways, the first touch. They didn’t really see at all before; now they can see, but not yet as clearly as they will.
The understanding that he is the Messiah changes things. A Messiah that was announcing God’s kingdom was a direct challenge to and slap in the face of the Jewish leadership and of Rome. Things were about to change for Jesus and his disciples, as we shall see in the next passage.
But first, let’s review a few things about this idea of Messiah. The disciples now see that the miracles and things that Jesus has been doing have been pointing to the fact that he is, indeed, the Messiah that is announcing the kingdom of God. Not all Jews wanted or were really expecting a Messiah, but those who were, expected him to do three things. The Messiah would rebuild the Temple, defeat the enemy of God’s people, and he would bring God’s justice to Israel and then the world around Israel. In other words, the Messiah would restore the kingdom of God through the kingdom of Israel.
Jesus had bee going around completely redefining those tasks. He wasn’t assembling an army, nor was he announcing an agenda that would take down the Jewish leadership. Jesus has been doing the things that people thought the Messiah would, but in a radically different way. Now, Mark tells us that the disciples have grasped the first point, at least, they realize he is the Messiah, with a new way of doing things. Just how new that way is, is yet to fully emerge.
Devotional Thought
What is it about Jesus or his kingdom that you don’t yet understand? What area of your life have you not turned over to him? You will find, just as this blind man, and the disciples for that matter, found that if you allow him, Jesus will touch you again and help you to understand things fully.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Mark 8:11-21
11The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. 12He sighed deeply and said, "Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it." 13Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.
The Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod
14The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 15"Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod."
16They discussed this with one another and said, "It is because we have no bread."
17Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? 19When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"
"Twelve," they replied.
20"And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"
They answered, "Seven."
21He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"
BACKGROUND READING:
Jeremiah 5
Dig Deeper
Mark clearly includes this brief exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees in order to set up the following passage which contains a pivotal conversation between him and his apostles. Things were beginning to move quickly now, and were getting serious. The Pharisees demand that Jesus give them a sign of his authority, as if he hadn’t been doing that all along. That’s the real point of their question. It wasn’t that Jesus hadn’t been performing signs that would demonstrate that he was the true Messiah, it was that they weren’t the type of signs that they wanted the Messiah to perform.
Jesus’ responds to their request for a sign as a sign, of sorts, in itself. It is representative of the Jews of that generation. They were determined not to hear the message of the kingdom that Jesus was announcing. They didn’t want his version of the kingdom; they were still clinging to the vision that they had of what it would be and how it would come. Jesus was operating in the belief that his vocation was to announce the kingdom through the signs that he was performing. They were refusing that kind of kingdom, and thus, were in reality, refusing God’s kingdom itself.
Picking up from there, Mark brings us into one of those great, very human moments that help make the gospels so authentic and personal. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and evidently, this fact reminds Jesus of the Pharisees and their yeast that is oozing through the whole society. They think that Jesus is upset about the bread, but that’s not his point at all. Jesus wants them to watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. In other words, he wants them to be careful that they don’t buy into the kingdom vision that the Pharisees preferred, or the one that Herod is trying to pass off. This is the kingdom that is brought about by getting rid of the sinners in their society, in holding harshly to the law; the one that will exalt Israel and the Temple above all nations, and get rid of Israel’s enemies, namely Rome. In warning his disciples about this, Jesus implies (and of course Mark wants us to see) that they have not fully grasped what his kingdom message is all about. If they did, there would be no need for his warning.
It is becoming increasingly urgent that they understand what they are a part of, yet it is still of such a nature that it is something they must discover on their own, with the help of the Holy Spirit (every good teacher knows that a student must discover truths for themselves in order to really grasp the material). Word is clearly leaking out about what Jesus is doing, which means the situation is about to get more dangerous. The more the authorities know about his mission, the more dangerous it becomes. The time is drawing near, when they will they will accompany him to Jerusalem with a mission, not of feeding and healing, but of challenging the very system itself. They will only be willing and able to come if they can understand that he is more than a healer or prophet, but that he is much more than that. The time of intense confrontation between Jesus and his rivals is coming fast and the disciples need to be ready.
Jesus then quotes from Jeremiah 5:21. His point is not that he is frustrated at how blind they are, the point is that they do not understand (again, Mark draws a parallel between seeing and understanding) and are in danger of going down the same path that the Jews in Jeremiah’s day did. They were so distracted with their own concerns that they forgot about injustice and evil in their society. God had little alternative but to abandon them to their fate in the hands of pagan nations. They had worshiped things other than God, and gave those things the power in their lives. In the same way, most Jews had come to put their own version of God and his kingdom in place of the real God, and so it had become a stumbling block.
Jesus then asks them about the significance of the fact that there was twelve and then seven baskets of bread left over after his miraculous feedings. He seems to have expected that they should have known what those signs meant. Some scholars have put forth the idea that perhaps the 12 baskets represent Jesus’ ministry to the Jewish world (with its 12 tribes), while the seven baskets left over represent his promise to the Gentile world (according to Jewish idioms, the rest of the world contained 70 nations). Perhaps this is it, or one of the other viable theories that have been put forth. What we ultimately are left with, however, is the need for humility and to admit that, like the disciples, we might not fully understand the meaning of the left over bread either.
Devotional Thought
Many Jews made the mistake of limiting God and his kingdom to the perceptions that they had of what it was and how it would work. As a result most of them missed out on the kingdom altogether. God wasn’t working outside of the Scriptures, they had simply missed the point of the Scriptures due to preconceived notions. Is it possible that we, too, tend to limit God and put his kingdom in a box with our preconceived notions? Make a determination today to approach the Scriptures and to approach God, with a fresh and humble approach and see if you have been limiting his power and how he desires to work in your life.
The Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod
14The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 15"Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod."
16They discussed this with one another and said, "It is because we have no bread."
17Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? 19When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"
"Twelve," they replied.
20"And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"
They answered, "Seven."
21He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"
BACKGROUND READING:
Jeremiah 5
Dig Deeper
Mark clearly includes this brief exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees in order to set up the following passage which contains a pivotal conversation between him and his apostles. Things were beginning to move quickly now, and were getting serious. The Pharisees demand that Jesus give them a sign of his authority, as if he hadn’t been doing that all along. That’s the real point of their question. It wasn’t that Jesus hadn’t been performing signs that would demonstrate that he was the true Messiah, it was that they weren’t the type of signs that they wanted the Messiah to perform.
Jesus’ responds to their request for a sign as a sign, of sorts, in itself. It is representative of the Jews of that generation. They were determined not to hear the message of the kingdom that Jesus was announcing. They didn’t want his version of the kingdom; they were still clinging to the vision that they had of what it would be and how it would come. Jesus was operating in the belief that his vocation was to announce the kingdom through the signs that he was performing. They were refusing that kind of kingdom, and thus, were in reality, refusing God’s kingdom itself.
Picking up from there, Mark brings us into one of those great, very human moments that help make the gospels so authentic and personal. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and evidently, this fact reminds Jesus of the Pharisees and their yeast that is oozing through the whole society. They think that Jesus is upset about the bread, but that’s not his point at all. Jesus wants them to watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. In other words, he wants them to be careful that they don’t buy into the kingdom vision that the Pharisees preferred, or the one that Herod is trying to pass off. This is the kingdom that is brought about by getting rid of the sinners in their society, in holding harshly to the law; the one that will exalt Israel and the Temple above all nations, and get rid of Israel’s enemies, namely Rome. In warning his disciples about this, Jesus implies (and of course Mark wants us to see) that they have not fully grasped what his kingdom message is all about. If they did, there would be no need for his warning.
It is becoming increasingly urgent that they understand what they are a part of, yet it is still of such a nature that it is something they must discover on their own, with the help of the Holy Spirit (every good teacher knows that a student must discover truths for themselves in order to really grasp the material). Word is clearly leaking out about what Jesus is doing, which means the situation is about to get more dangerous. The more the authorities know about his mission, the more dangerous it becomes. The time is drawing near, when they will they will accompany him to Jerusalem with a mission, not of feeding and healing, but of challenging the very system itself. They will only be willing and able to come if they can understand that he is more than a healer or prophet, but that he is much more than that. The time of intense confrontation between Jesus and his rivals is coming fast and the disciples need to be ready.
Jesus then quotes from Jeremiah 5:21. His point is not that he is frustrated at how blind they are, the point is that they do not understand (again, Mark draws a parallel between seeing and understanding) and are in danger of going down the same path that the Jews in Jeremiah’s day did. They were so distracted with their own concerns that they forgot about injustice and evil in their society. God had little alternative but to abandon them to their fate in the hands of pagan nations. They had worshiped things other than God, and gave those things the power in their lives. In the same way, most Jews had come to put their own version of God and his kingdom in place of the real God, and so it had become a stumbling block.
Jesus then asks them about the significance of the fact that there was twelve and then seven baskets of bread left over after his miraculous feedings. He seems to have expected that they should have known what those signs meant. Some scholars have put forth the idea that perhaps the 12 baskets represent Jesus’ ministry to the Jewish world (with its 12 tribes), while the seven baskets left over represent his promise to the Gentile world (according to Jewish idioms, the rest of the world contained 70 nations). Perhaps this is it, or one of the other viable theories that have been put forth. What we ultimately are left with, however, is the need for humility and to admit that, like the disciples, we might not fully understand the meaning of the left over bread either.
Devotional Thought
Many Jews made the mistake of limiting God and his kingdom to the perceptions that they had of what it was and how it would work. As a result most of them missed out on the kingdom altogether. God wasn’t working outside of the Scriptures, they had simply missed the point of the Scriptures due to preconceived notions. Is it possible that we, too, tend to limit God and put his kingdom in a box with our preconceived notions? Make a determination today to approach the Scriptures and to approach God, with a fresh and humble approach and see if you have been limiting his power and how he desires to work in your life.
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