Monthly Archives: June 2020

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – GREATER THAN HUMAN TIES

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GREATER THAN HUMAN TIES

31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” Mark 3:31-35

There is a relationship that supersedes even the closest of family ties. It’s difficult to pick up the mood of Jesus’ human family in this short record. Why were they here, as a family, to see Jesus? Were they on some kind of rescue mission, seeing that they had all come together? Did they think He needed protection from Himself because His popularity was getting out of hand?

Once again Jesus emerges as the sanest of all the people in this scene. His agenda was long term. This earthly life was only a passing phase in the scheme of things, and He knew it. His mission was to restore and rebuild His Father’s family – those who would reconnect with God by faith through His redeeming sacrifice. He would have to endure this early paranoia in His ministry because there would come a time when people would either become offended by Him because of the cost of following Him, or they would go on seeing and believing who He really was and become connected to Him regardless of the cost, because they understood His long-term mission to reunite them with the Father.

Hence Jesus did not set as much store on the relationship He had with His natural family as He did on His passion to win back God’s forever family. It may have initially seemed like rejection but, in the long term, every one of His natural family members had the same invitation and the same opportunity to become even more intimate members of His faith family.

Paul declared that, when we are “in Christ”, everything changes. The old scheme of things is replaced by the new. Old family ties are replaced by new ones; our old nature with its bent towards independence, is replaced by a restored connection with God as our Father and its accompanying sense of identity and security because we now belong to a universal family forever under the benevolent control of our eternal Father.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF

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A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF

20 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

23 So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. Mark 3:20-25

So set on discrediting Jesus in the eyes of the crowd were these religious leaders that they did not think about the implications of their accusations. Jesus was smart. He got it immediately, and shot their own foolishness back at them. Unity is a powerful force and Jesus knew that. God disrupted the unity of Babel right in the beginning of history because there was no telling what those who rebelled against Him could do if they did it together. By contrast, disunity is destructive. For Satan to have divided forces would spell doom to his kingdom.

However, there was something far more serious in this accusation. To attribute to Satan the work of the Holy Spirit was to cut themselves off from every benefit of Jesus’ incarnation and work on earth. What Jesus came to reveal and to do is useless without the inward work of the Holy Spirit. He brings light and understanding, and enables a person to believe and to embrace the life and work of Jesus.

God is one – ECHAD – but He is also three persons, each distinct in His function within that unity. The Holy Spirit administers and applies the work of Jesus to the human being. He comes to indwell and release all the benefits of Jesus’ sacrifice. To deny Him is to be cut off from every facet of Jesus’ work.

There is no conviction of sin, no understanding or experience of grace, no forgiveness, no hope of glory, no knowledge of God as Father, no fruit of the Spirit, no guarantee of the resurrection or eternal life, no being made alive, no understanding of the Word of God, no knowledge of the truth, no revelation of Jesus, no help in prayer, no comfort or consolation and on and on, without the Spirit.

What terrible consequences for the person who denies the Holy Spirit! The Spirit is responsible for every bit of connection we have with Jesus and the Father and everything we understand and experience of increasing wholeness in our lives. Wow! To deny Him and His work is to end up with nothing,,,zero… including God Himself!

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – WHO ARE MY MOTHER AND BROTHERS?

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WHO ARE MY MOTHER AND BROTHERS?

20 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

23 So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. 28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”

30 He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.”

31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.
34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” Mark 3:20-35

They thought He was out of His mind but He could not have been saner! It was not Jesus’ behaviour that was the problem. It was the madness of the crowd. They wanted what He could do for them. In typical mob fashion, they had no respect for Jesus or for one another, everyone pushing and shoving, everyone trying to get near Him for what they wanted, impatient, disorderly, rude and demanding.

Family and friends heard about it and tried to get Him out of there as though He were incapable of taking care of Himself. They thought He was helpless to do anything about it. They wanted to disconnect Him from the suffering and need of the unruly crowd but they could not. Mark’s record tells us nothing about the outcome. They wanted to rescue Him, by force if necessary, but did they? No! Jesus would not permit anyone to do anything to Him that was not sanctioned by His Father. Even though they were not aware of it, no-one could do anything to Him that was not part of the Father’s plan.

Jesus revealed His total command of the situation by His response to the Pharisees’ accusation and His family’s attempted intervention. The religious leaders read the whole episode as having demonic overtones. He was using black magic to con the people. He was deliberately stirring up this irreligious mob because He had a hidden agenda. By seducing them with magic, He wanted to raise an army of followers who would stir up trouble against Rome!

Jesus’ reply was masterful. With the deft strokes of a master artist, He painted a word picture of the implications of their accusation. It was not Rome that was their problem but dark spiritual forces that held them captive; deformities, diseases, and depravity held them in their grip. Would Satan be that foolish that he would use someone in league with himself to break his power over them? Not likely! Think again, you fools! Jesus was no magician!

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – HE APPOINTED TWELVE

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HE APPOINTED TWELVE

13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons. 16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), 17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Mark 3:13-19

Although these few verses read as a casual occurrence in Jesus’ life, they constitute one of the most significant moments in His public ministry. According to Luke, He spent the night in prayer before He chose the men to whom He would entrust His friendship, His love and the entire future of His mission on earth. If there were any bad apples in this box, His mission would be in jeopardy.

What about Judas Iscariot? What about Peter, James and John whose characters He knew so well that He gave them nicknames? What hope did He have of molding this diverse mob into disciples – learners and imitators of Himself? How was He going to persuade them that His yoke – gentleness and humility, love compassion and mercy – was more powerful than the yoke of the other rabbis in Israel whom the Pharisees slavishly followed?

Mark mentions His strategy in a single sentence. “The plan was that they would be with Him, and He would send them out to proclaim the Word and give them authority to banish demons.”  Mark 3:14, 15 (The Message). Simple, yet effective! The key was “that they would be with Him”. They would accompany Him day and night. They would listen, watch, follow, copy until His thoughts became their thoughts and His ways became their ways – no easy task as their behaviour, words and questions revealed their ignorance.

Jesus often showed His frustration with them because of their faithlessness and their slowness to learn. But with great patience and infinite love, He gave them opportunity after opportunity to practise what they saw Him doing. He had faith in them even though, at that time, they didn’t seem to merit it. He knew that His Spirit in them would energize all they learned and practised so that they would become powerful imitators of their Rabbi. His call was a simple one. “Follow me,” but held in it a world of possibilities.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – IGNORANCE AND GULLIBILITY

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IGNORANCE AND GULLIBILITY

7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. 8 When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. 9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. 10 For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. 11 Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him. Mark 3:7-12

Something else flows out of this passage. Although the demons knew who Jesus was, and blurted out the truth in His presence, their avowed intent was to lie, deceive and pervert the truth to as many people as they could, to discredit Him so that people would not believe Him. It is not the testimony of demons that should convince us of Jesus’ identity but the conviction that He is the son of God, based on the evidence.

Because human beings are frail and transient, (Psalm 103) we are vulnerable to demonic influences. If we are not convinced for ourselves who Jesus is, we will fall prey to deception because of our ignorance and gullibility. The people ran after Him from all over Israel and the surrounding territories because of what He could do for them. Everyone wanted a piece of the pie.

John warns (in 1 John 2:15-17), that the world and its concerns are as transient as humans are. If we attach ourselves too closely to the world and what it stands for, we are in danger of being swept away with it when it finally disappears. Our only guarantee of being part of the everlasting realm where God is, is to attach ourselves to Him and to shelter in Him where we cannot be lured away by deception (Psalm 91:1).

How do we do that in practice? By learning to become one (ECHAD) with God in what He desires. The domain where we experience oneness with God is in our thinking which ultimately influences our deciding, choosing and doing. When we begin to think like God, we begin to take shelter in Him and dwell in His protective shadow by faith in the truth.

If we are vulnerable to deception, then we can also be influenced by the truth and, when we believe the truth, our lives are secure in God who is from everlasting to everlasting. Our thoughts of truth bind us to the truth. As long as we think what is true, we are secure in God; we dwell in God and He dwells in us and we are part of His indestructible eternity.