Monthly Archives: August 2020

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – NOT THE ACT BUT THE MOTIVE

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NOT THE ACT BUT THE MOTIVE

1 Jesus 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.
2 Some 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.
4 They 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, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11 He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.” Mark 10:1-12

What Jesus said about divorce and the way it is generally interpreted are two different things. He focussed, not on the act of divorce but on the motive or reason for divorce. Long before divorce separates two people who have been married, ECHAD has been ruptured by thoughts, attitudes and actions that have already destroyed the unity in the heart. The act of divorce is merely the confirmation and completion of what has already happened in the heart.

In Matthew 19, Jesus pointed to marital unfaithfulness as the reason for breaking the ECHAD, not only adultery but anything that violates the marriage agreement entered into freely by both parties antenuptially. Jesus made it clear that the marital unfaithfulness was not as much the issue as the reason for it. It seems that the Pharisees were looking for a legal loophole to legitimise divorce on the grounds of marital unfaithfulness. He recognised their hard-heartedness as the reason for divorce. They were not looking for ways to uphold the ECHAD but to break it so that, according to them, divorce could be “legal”. For Jesus, in line with His teaching in Matthew 5, what constituted adultery was what lay in the heart long before it was acted in the behaviour.

It is not the act of marrying someone else that is adultery but divorcing one’s spouse in order to marry someone else that is the problem. It was this inward thing that Jesus was exposing in the religious leaders and this was what they hated most about Him. He was able to see right into their wicked hearts and tell them the truth that offended them so that their hearts were exposed.

God established marriage as a visual aid of the ECHAD that exists within the Godhead. To protect the love that fosters unity and the unity that reflects the image of God should be our highest priority because it is God’s priority. When we look for excuses and make choices that destroy ECHAD, we attack the very essence of who God is and how the entire universe functions.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING

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CHAPTER 10

GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING

​1 Jesus 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.
2 Some 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.
4 They 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, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Mark 10:1-9

Something that stands out in this passage comes clearer as we go through this gospel. The religious leaders focussed on the way things are now. Jesus always went back to God’s original intention. It is clearly seen here in this discussion about divorce. The rabbis concentrated on the law – the boundaries God set to regulate the people’s behaviour so that they would understand God’s character and not live in a way that unravelled their lives and caused chaos.

Jesus held up the pattern that God had set up in the beginning. He asked a question to answer a question. Their question: “Is it legal…” His question: “What did Moses command?” This question was designed to expose the heart of the matter. Moses’ command was a concession to man’s hard-hearted attitude to his spouse. The ketubah (marriage contract) entered into before a couple married was not intended as bondage but as freedom. Its purpose was to protect the love and ECHAD that marriage embodied. The provisions of the ketubah were a fleshing out of these two qualities in marriage that was intended to reflect the image of God.

God’s command is that a man and a woman break their connection with their birth family and create a new unit with a new loyalty that overrides their original family loyalty and develops a safe place for a new family to grow. This is not possible unless both parties:

  1. Leave and cleave – no unity with their spouse is possible until they do that;
  2. Understand that the goal of marriage is unity in diversity – self-centred and selfish attitudes will hinder that process;
  3. Keep their focus so that this bond remains intact. God has done the joining. It is not man’s right to break it.

If two people make the choice to marry, it must be with the understanding that marriage is not about living together for legal sex; it’s not about compatibility or incompatibility. It’s about two people choosing to become one and then meeting each other’s needs at their own expense to grow and express that unity.

The Pharisees’ question revealed how far they had moved from understanding God’s purpose for marriage to looking for loopholes to satisfy their lustful intentions. How tragic that many in the church today follow the attitudes of the Pharisees rather than the purpose and intentions of the Father.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – BE LIKE SALT

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BE LIKE SALT

42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, 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. [ 44 ] 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. [ 46 ] 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, 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, 48 where
“‘the worms that eat them do not die,
and the fire is not quenched.’
49 Everyone will be salted with fire.
50 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.” Mark 9:42-50

There are two ways in which to hinder a potential disciple from connecting with Jesus and living in vital union with Him. The disciples’ action against the man who was casting out demons is one way. There is an even more ungodly way of causing offense, by actively opposing the person whose faith is simple and incomplete.

Jesus regarded such action in such a serious light that He recommended that that person be drowned in the sea rather than be permitted to carry on. He made a radical statement that illustrated the way God views it when one harms the simple trust of a “little one” in Him. One should rather amputate an offending hand or foot or enucleate an offending eye than continue with such destructive behaviour that it lands one in hell.

What is the refining fire He is talking about here? Is He talking about offenses that bring painful emotions to  of the offender being exposed by the very offenses he causes other people? Perhaps it is both.

Jesus’ counsel is to be at peace. Peace within a person’s heart is the measure of confidence in God that doesn’t need to compete with anyone else, that doesn’t need to force one’s beliefs and convictions on others, that is completely secure in who he is and who God is. When peace like that is in control of a person’s heart, he can give other people room to be themselves, to make their own choices without interference, to influence people by the power of love and by accepting them fully just as they are in the full confidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in them.

The disciples had a long way to go in learning to let their own will and opinions go and to rest in their confidence in God and in His passion for the well-being – shalom – of all people, not only them.

Jesus’ use of salt as an illustration had a profound meaning for the disciples. Some of them were fishermen. They lived in a hot climate which made preserving their catches imperative. Without refrigeration, the only way was to pack the fish in salt. So, for them, salt was a precious and useful commodity. Like the salt that kept their fish from spoiling, they were to be like salt to one another. They were to nurture and build one another up by their attitudes and actions instead of destroying each other by competition and criticism.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – ARE YOU BRINGING “UP THERE, DOWN HERE?”

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ARE YOU BRINGING “UP THERE, DOWN HERE?”

38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone 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. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us. 41 Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward. Mark 9:38-41

Although discipleship is exclusive, Jesus made it clear that it is open to everyone. No-one is excluded provided they fulfil the conditions. On the other hand, the disciples were still competitive in their attitude and unwilling, at this stage, to open ranks and include “outsiders” with the same big-hearted generosity as their Master. They saw a potential disciple as competition and stopped him from driving out demons in the name of Jesus.

Who was this person? The Bible does not say. It was obviously someone who had been in the crowd, had witnessed Jesus’ miracles, heard His teaching, acknowledged who He was and understood His authority. He may not have grasped everything about Jesus, but enough to imitate Him with astonishing results – and the disciples didn’t like it so they squashed the beginnings of his discipleship.

Isn’t that exactly what Jesus had been illustrating by embracing a little child? There was potential in that man because he had “got” something of what Jesus was modelling and put it into practice. Jesus was annoyed with His disciples for trying to extinguish the small flame of faith in the man’s heart. If someone is not an enemy, he is an ally. If he acted in the disposition and yoke of Messiah, he should be encouraged and nurtured, not squashed and discarded like an unwelcome bug.

Jesus added a tender touch that is so like Him and reflects the heart of God. On another occasion He commented that the Father notices when a sparrow falls. Here He reveals God’s heart again – the Father notices and rewards the simple act of giving someone a cup of cold water in His name. The key is “in my name”. Acting out of the disposition of Jesus, authorised by His command, connects us with the source of energy that empowered Jesus to bring “up there down here”. Jesus brought the other world with Him when He came. He showed it to His generation and now He wants us to show it to ours in the same spirit as He did.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – TRUE LEADERSHIP

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TRUE LEADERSHIP

33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
36 He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child 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.” Mark 9:33-37

What is the significance of receiving a child in the name of Jesus? A child is like soil, full of potential – for both good and evil. What is sown in a child in his formative years will grow and reproduce in adulthood. Above all the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter, a child needs love, acceptance and a safe place to be himself so that he can learn and grow in the four dimensions of his being, in body, in spirit, in favour with God and men. To deny a child these basic needs is to leave his soul vulnerable to the intrusion of the enemy.

Why did Jesus draw His disciples’ attention to a child in the context of their argument over the pecking order in the kingdom? Was it because, once again, they had not grasped the essence of true leadership? Their underlying focus in this on-going contest was selfish. They wanted to make their own mark on this kingdom, wanting to have a position in the limelight where they could have influence over the realm and its subjects. Jesus made it clear that the only influence of value was their willingness to create enough space in a child’s life for him to grow to his full potential.

What does this mean in the context of the church? Although Jesus used a child as an example of someone with no rank or significance in the scheme of things, “child” can refer to any person who has been side-lined by society. Everyone deserves the opportunity to develop their potential in a safe zone where he is free to be himself without being afraid of criticism, judgement or rejection.

There are two contexts where this is possible – in the home and in the church. This can only happen in the atmosphere of unconditional love where those in leadership are willing to set their own position and interests aside in order to develop the potential of those in their care. This kind of greatness is unconscious and unsought and is the result of, not the reason for leadership.