Monthly Archives: July 2020

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – DEFILED FROM INSIDE

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DEFILED FROM INSIDE

14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” [ 16 ] Mark 7:14-16

These words of Jesus cut right across the practices of man-made religion. Why did God give the Jews dietary laws in the first place? The nation of Israel was nurtured in the cradle of Egypt – a pagan nation which had no notion of clean and unclean foods, i.e., foods which were good for the body, or health risks because they were unhealthy or not prepared properly.

God built His health laws into His religious system to ensure that the people would obey them for their own sake. But, as in all religious systems, they began to interpret the prohibition of certain creatures for food as religious taboos, and they built an entire religious superstructure on these taboos. This became part of the heavy religious yoke they were wearing that weighed them down.

Jesus exposed their foolish thinking and lifted the yoke in one sentence. “It’s not what goes in that pollutes but what comes out of the ‘belly’ – the inner being.” How does this work? What one eats has no effect upon one’s spirit unless it is the expression of the “yetzer harah” as in the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The evil and corruption of sin is already in the heart, and the mouth becomes the instrument which reveals what is inside.

Surely this makes a whole lot more sense than believing that what a person puts in his mouth defiles him. It is only the foolishness of men’s hearts and the blindness caused by sin that distorts the understanding, producing a senseless belief that something amoral and neutral, as food, can somehow pollute a person’s soul.

By declaring all food clean, Jesus pulled the rug from under the Pharisees’ feet. Much of their ammunition against Him and His disciples was based on their food taboos and their scrupulous washing of hands and cooking utensils. Jesus made it clear that human need took precedence over religious food taboos and the Pharisees hated Him for exposing their hypocrisy.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – JESUS IN A DISTURBING DISGUISE

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JESUS IN A DISTURBING DISGUISE

9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 11 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.” Mark 7:9-13

If you want to, there’s always a way around God’s commands so that you will not be inconvenienced or that you will be able to do what you want. In this instance, Jesus was saying that the Pharisees made disobedience look “holy” by giving to God what should have been used to take care of needy parents. I say “you” on purpose because it is easy to dump guilt on other people and not look at ourselves and ask whether we are doing the same thing!

In what ways do we weasel out of doing God’s commands by redefining truth to suit ourselves? There is something very subtle about “religious” thinking that we have to be careful about. Jesus makes it clear here that it is more important to take care of parents than to “give to God”. God sets as much store on looking after other people’s needs as He does on honouring and worshipping Him. To do the one and neglect the other is equally unacceptable to Him. According to John in his first letter, the two are so closely intertwined that we cannot do the one without the other.

We express our love and obedience to God by doing practical acts of caring like clothing and feeding the poor. From Jesus’ perspective, whatever we do for the least of people, we are doing for Him. Mother Teresa called the poorest of the poor “Jesus in a disturbing disguise.”

How would we respond to people differently if we were aware that they were representatives of Jesus in disturbing disguises? How clearly do we see His face behind the person who draws out contempt in us?

We have been encouraged to cultivate an awareness of God’s presence in our everyday lives and in our fluctuating circumstances, but we also need to focus on seeing His face in the faces of the people around us, especially in those with whom we can find no connection. This calls for grace beyond us and a serious intention that engages our will and our determination to deny ourselves and to take up our cross daily.

THE GOSPEL OF ,ARK – THEY JUST DIDN’T GET IT!

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CHAPTER 7

THEY JUST DIDN’T GET IT!

​1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)

5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’

8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” Mark 7:1-8

What would life have been like for Jesus without the Pharisees? He said that we’d always have the poor with us. We’ll always have the Pharisees with us too! There’ll always be religious people around us who will pick holes in kindness, generosity and love because these show up the heart of the fraud. If it was not Jesus who was the target of their criticism, then it was the disciples because they did not measure up to the Pharisees’ standard of “holiness”.

Unfortunately the internet has become the platform for “religious predators” to hold Christian leaders up to scrutiny before the world. They prowl the pulpits and platforms of God’s people to sniff out anyone who doesn’t line up with what they believe to be the truth according to their specific “religious” spectacles. We call it “religious” because it’s mostly about externals or about stuff that they misread, misunderstand or misinterpret.

Jesus had a lot to say to people who attacked others because they didn’t understand their heart. Instead of exposing someone else’s heart, they were exposing their own. What is the core of the problem?  In a quote from Isaiah, Jesus uncovered the heart of the issue. Firstly, they were focussing on behaviour, not on motive or intention.  It is easy to judge someone’s behaviour if one has no idea what lies behind it.

Secondly, they bent the rules to suit themselves so that they could either make themselves look good or try to evade their own guilt. Jesus stated that what they were doing exposed their own evil hearts. It’s never about externals which are only an indication of what’s going on inside. God is not concerned about externals because they cannot change the inside. It’s the other way around. It’s the inside that produces change on the outside but the Pharisees didn’t get it.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – THEY TOUCHED THE TALITH

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THEY TOUCHED THE TALITH

53 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed. Mark 6:53-56

How did Jesus manage to keep up a schedule like His? Interrupted by a huge crowd when He was trying to get some “me time”, He put aside His own needs and taught the people all day. After feeding them and sending them away, He prayed all night, and then walked a distance on the water to catch up with His disciples. Then He was met by another crowd clamouring for attention, and many for healing. It seems that He moved around in that area from village to village and town to town, healing and preaching day after day.

There is another reference to His “talith” in this passage. “They begged Him to let them even touch the hem of His coat (the tassels of His talith) and all who touched Him were healed” (Vs 56). What was the significance of this? Malachi 4:2 – “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will with healing in its wings.” Were the people aware of the powerful imagery of Messiah in this prophecy? The tassels on His talith symbolised God’s name, God’s nature, God’s word and God’s presence.

The “kanaph” – the corners of the talith – are translated as wings which held the tassels. To touch the “hem of his garment” implied that their faith rested in everything the tassels represented. Jesus became the channel through which the healing power of God flowed by the power of the Holy Spirit. The faith of each person touching Him opened them up to the healing power of the Spirit flowing through Jesus.

In all this frantic activity around Him, how did He experience rest and replenish His strength? He maintained a constant awareness of the Father’s presence and tapped into God by remaining in the Father. He counsels us to do the same in the midst of demands, busyness, interruptions and responsibilities. To remain in Him keeps us connected to the source of strength and rest. We become channels that are constantly being replenished, not reservoirs that can run dry with no permanent inlet from God.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – HE WAS ALWAYS WITH US

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HE WAS ALWAYS WITH US

They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified.
Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened. Mark 6:49-52

What a difference understanding makes to the whole process of renewing our minds! This incident (feeding the 5,000, Jesus walking on the water and calming the wind) left the disciples no nearer to knowing who He was or understanding their circumstances than before. There was a block in their experience of God that left them bewildered and hardened in their hearts.

What is needed in our present understanding of God so that our circumstances contribute to our knowledge of Him and His ways rather than adding to our confusion? The problem with our thinking is that we associate God’s presence in our lives only from the time we acknowledged Him as our Saviour. We think that this is when He began to involve Himself with us, not realising that He knew us from before the foundation of the world. He was always with us even though we did not know it.

If that is true, then He was with us (and for us) when bad things happened although we saw ourselves as useless, worthless or abandoned. The disciples had not yet reached that point in their understanding and therefore could not grasp how secure they were in Him. They had not yet entered the rest of God where they could relinquish themselves to His perfect love for them.

Jesus intended this entire set of circumstances to be a learning opportunity for them. They had experienced His intervention when they were almost swamped by the storm on their way to Gadara. They saw Him unfazed by physical danger, by confrontation with the spirits of darkness, by a hungry crowd of people and even by a huge stretch of water He had to cross without a boat but, at this point, they just didn’t get it. They were still spectators in this unfolding drama of God.

Jesus wanted to write them into His story. He wanted them to be players in this magnificent story of God but, at that moment they were still watching and listening. They had yet to enter in.