Monthly Archives: July 2020

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – HE DID A GOOD JOB THIS TIME!

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HE DID A GOOD JOB THIS TIME!

31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.

33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.


36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Mark 7:31-37

Why is it that, when good things happen to us, we can so easily attribute them to God’s goodness and yet, when things go wrong, God gets the blame as though He were some capricious, malevolent being who plans bad things to punish us or to make us uncomfortable for His own pleasure? It seems that, deep inside human beings, there is an inclination to find a scapegoat for our ills instead of taking responsibility and acknowledging that the sequence of human choices plays a big part in human circumstances. God gets blamed because He is thought to be a divine puppeteer who manipulates people and circumstances according to His whims.

In this story, a man who had the misfortune to be deaf and mute as a consequence, was brought to Jesus for healing. Unlike the way He resisted the Syros-Phoenician woman’s request, He took the man aside and opened his ears so that he could hear and speak. There were no dead pigs involved this time to ruin their economy, so the people of the region were delighted with what He had done. In spite of His urging them to be quiet, they spread the story everywhere and the verdict was, “He has done everything well.” No blame this time because the outcome of His presence was good!

Why did Jesus want them to be quiet about this miracle? Did He really believe that a deaf-mute who could suddenly hear and speak would go unnoticed? There must have been a deeper reason for urging the people not to talk about it. What is this “Messianic secret” that appears in the gospels?

Jesus was not seeking popularity for its own sake; His miracle ministry had a much deeper significance than that. His “works” were part of a body of evidence to display who He was and why He came. He brought into the world system directed by the devil and his minions, another order of things that put the rightful owner and ruler of this world on display and to reveal the true nature of the Father and His original and ultimate purpose for all creation.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – A DOOR OF HOPE FOR THE GENTILES

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A DOOR OF HOPE FOR THE GENTILES

31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.

33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”). 35 At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Mark 7:31-37

Although Jesus came primarily to bring His own people back on track with God’s plan for them, He seemed to gravitate to Gentile areas wherever the Father directed Him towards a need and towards people who would bear witness to His compassion and mercy. He went from Tyre and Sidon in Syo-Phoenicia to the Decapolis, a region of ten Greek towns on the east side of the Jordan, most probably where He had delivered the demon-possessed man earlier. Although the people of the region had chased Him away because of the pigs, He left behind a man with a powerful testimony who no doubt sang His praises wherever he went.

When Jesus returned on this occasion, He was no longer a “persona non grata”. As soon as He arrived, a deaf-mute was brought to Him for healing. Forgotten were the lost pigs and the ruined economy. This time there was more concern for a man in need than for a herd of demon-demented pigs that ran themselves into the lake!

Jesus led him away from the crowd. He was not there to entertain them. He was there on a mission of mercy. Why was there a heavy weight on Him on this occasion? He was in a region where there was no awareness of God. All the focus and worship were directed towards Caesar, a puppet of Satan and usurper of Jesus’ name, position and honour. He was locked in an ever-on-going conflict with the devil – rescuing and freeing his slaves and redirecting men’s hearts towards the true God. He was never on a road show and He shied away from people who treated Him as an entertainer.

As He reached out in pity towards this afflicted man, a deep groan of anguish rose up in Him, perhaps a cry of sorrow for suffering humans whose ignorance and rejection of the true God had robbed them of experiencing the life and peace that flowed from Him along the channel of faith. What opened that day was more than the man’s ears. His heart heard and recognised truth.

God’s promise, through Isaiah, that His Messiah would be a light to the Gentiles, was beginning to shine in His encounters with the despised people on the periphery of the Promised land, but the full blaze of God’s glory would only shine in their hearts when the Holy Spirit was given.

ONE CANDLE LIGHTS THE DARKNESS

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ONE CANDLE LIGHTS THE DARKNESS

24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

27 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

28 “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. Mark 7:24-30

This is a remarkable story of deliverance from a tormenting spirit in a child. The fact of its presence in the young girl is not explained. How did the spirit get there? Did the child have a traumatic experience that opened her to demonic oppression? Was it a familial spirit she inherited from a parent or grandparent? Did she meddle with the occult through ignorance? Did pagan religious practices open her to demons? There is no way of knowing how the demon entered her and Jesus did not try to find out from her mother.

From the many healing and deliverance miracles recorded in the gospels, we realise that it was never an issue with Jesus how people got into situations that needed His help. Time after time He healed and set people free from their afflictions regardless of how they got there. That implies that He is more concerned about the present and the future than the past.

Healing is not about guilt and blame. It’s about freedom. It’s about overcoming and overthrowing the work of Satan in people’s lives. It’s about undoing the devil’s work and setting people on a new path towards God. It’s about making “up there” come “down here” so that people can taste the beauty and joy of God’s kingdom right here in the world where the dominion of darkness has reigned for millennia.

What transformation did Jesus’ mercy bring into that home? Although His focus was on “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, this was only the beginning. His light would shine to the ends of the earth through the new life that He would bring to His own people It’s always like that, God renewing the life of His own people so that they will shine the light where there is darkness and death in the earth. Jesus lit a candle in a pagan community and only eternity will reveal just how far that tiny light shed its beams across the pagan world.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – A MOTHER’S DESPERATION

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A MOTHER’S DESPERATION

24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

27 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

28 “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. Mark 7:24-30

Why did Jesus respond to the Syro-Phoenician woman in this way? Was He testing her faith or trying to put her off? Did He have no intention of healing her daughter or was He trying to find out what was in her heart? Knowing His love and compassion, it would seem that He was testing her faith. Did she view Him as some sort of magician or did she recognise something in Him that was not in the gods of her people?

The exchange that took place between them shows a mother’s desperation, confidence and persistence. Although she was not Jewish, she had confidence enough in Jesus, probably because of what she had heard about Him, to know that He would do something for her child even if she were not entitled to anything from Him.

Jesus was using the imagery of His day to test her trust in His nature. He called the Jews “children” and the Gentiles “dogs”. Did He really mean that He regarded her as a “cur”? The Jews did but I don’t think Jesus did. What was her reaction? Was she insulted by the title? It seems not. In her humility, she simply requested a few crumbs from the table!

Jesus melted at her reply because her compassion for her daughter matched His compassion for oppressed people. Her child, and we don’t know how old she was, was being oppressed by the devil. (God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power and He want about doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with Him,” Acts 10:38) and she would not pass by this opportunity of getting help for her.

Does God sometimes hold out on answering our prayers and meeting our needs or someone else’s need because He wants to know how serious our intention is? Does our compassion match His compassion for desperate, tormented, oppressed people? Does our desperate cry for help melt His heart and move Him to action?

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – THE PROBLEM OF THE HEART

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THE PROBLEM OF THE HEART 

17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:17-23

The question the disciples asked Jesus shows how deeply they were influenced by the thinking of their day. Fortunately, they had the sense to ask Jesus for an explanation that put the issue of dietary practices into its correct perspective. Perhaps this was also a revelation for Roman readers because their pagan religion was expressed in many ungodly practices which defiled them.

Jesus went straight to the “heart” of man’s problem – the problem of the heart. There is nothing we have to do to introduce pollution into us because it is already there, in the heart, awaiting the opportunity to expose itself to the outside world through words, actions and attitudes. All it needs is a little prompting through circumstances or through someone else’s words or actions.

The Pharisees, who were so meticulous about their observance of dietary taboos, were a case in point. Their over-scrupulous consciences about external cleanliness made them oblivious to the real issues that showed up the condition of their hearts: arrogance, pride, contempt for those who were not like them, hatred, murderous thoughts etc. They were too busy polishing the outside of the cup to acknowledge the condition of their hearts. Rather than take note of the issues Jesus was exposing in them, they chose to silence Him and hold on to their guilt.

What should our response be to the situations that cause pollution of our hearts to be exposed? The Bible is full of examples of wrong responses that only exacerbated the problem instead of dealing with it. How often, in the Old Testament, God’s faithful prophets exposed sin, only to pay the ultimate price for their obedience to God.

One man was different – David. Nathan’s exposure of his guilt brought David’s humility to the surface. “I have sinned,” he said. What a different place even the church might be in if God’s people recognised God’s grace in exposing our polluted hearts. The humiliation of exposure produces the peace of forgiveness and freedom from guilt. Instead, we hold on to our guilt, and punish others with our cruel words and deeds rather than eat humble pie by admitting, “I have sinned.”