Monthly Archives: September 2020

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM

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NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM

32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. Mark 12:32-34

It’s a pity we meet characters in the Bible who appear for a moment and then disappear forever and no-one knows what happened to them. This man would be worth following up if we could. His response to Jesus’ answer to his question suggests that he was either being terribly sarcastic or that he was beginning to understand what Jesus represented.

Was he a secret supporter who was trying to show up the Pharisee’ and religion scholars’ hypocrisy?  Perhaps he knew what Jesus’ answer would be but he wanted Him to verbalise it for His opponents to hear. Was this concept dawning on him through following, watching and listening to Jesus?

What did Jesus recognise in this man’s reply? Was his question a cover-up for a hunger in his heart which he would not admit but was nevertheless real to him?  I wonder how he perceived “loving God”. Perhaps Samuel’s words to Saul were in his mind when he responded to Jesus: “To obey is better than sacrifice.”

Jesus connected with this man. He assured him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” What would the final step be that he had to take in order to experience kingdom life? To acknowledge Jesus to be the Son of God and to commit to following Him as his only Master would have put him on the right way to the Father.

Jesus made no attempt to pursue him, to sit down and explain stuff to him or to try to convince him to follow Him. The evidence was unfolding before his eyes and it was up to him to weigh it up and make a judgement for himself. Once he had been brought into contact with Jesus, he could not remain neutral. Being in the very presence of the Master would have affected him forever. It was up to him to open his heart and receive the revelation of truth that surrounded him, and move into a new realm of living, or to do nothing and waste his potential to become a mature son of God.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – HOW CAN WE LOVE GOD?

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HOW CAN WE LOVE GOD?

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31

The preamble to their question seems to suggest that this man was more sincere than the rest. It isn’t clear whether this was another trick question or whether he really wanted an answer. He questioned Jesus about the greatest commandment and Jesus, as a fully-trained rabbi, responded with the Shema which He would have learned at His mother’s breast.

Those who deny the Trinity have lost the significance of the statement, “the Lord is one”. ECHAD is not a numeral but an expression of unity, of loving submission and interaction between beings, a unity of essence, vision and purpose, a team expressing unity in diversity, and this cannot happen outside of a plurality. Even if there were twenty beings in the Godhead, they could still be one if we understand the meaning of ECHAD.

The response God yearns for from His sons is the love that He has for His offspring, the human beings He has created voluntarily to receive and return the love He has for us. In The Message, Peterson uses the expression “passion and prayer, intelligence and energy”, which conveys the idea of action rather than thought and emotion. Love, correctly understood, is an action word. It has an emotional content but, without the active response, it is without meaning and power.

The way love is expressed to God is by directing that love toward our fellow human beings. If we love God’s children, and that includes those whom we consider “outsiders”, we have an outlet for our love for God which God Himself has chosen and approves. Outside of that, loving God has no expression and loses its energy and outcome.

Every other commandment is a practical way of showing and expressing our love for God. Like God’s love, our love does not need to take into account the worthiness of its object. Love is an expression of who we are, not the worth of who we love.

How is this love possible from people who have an inborn selfishness which does not respond to mere will power? The Old Covenant provided the prescription but not the power. Only faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus can transform us from selfish to loving people because we are made new by the power of the Holy Spirit.

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:7-11

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – MARRIAGE AN APPRENTICESHIP

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MARRIAGE AN APPRENTICESHIP

8 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” Mark 12:18-27

Some of the most profound truths that Jesus ever spoke came from the debates He had with His opponents. So much of what He revealed about Himself came out of His altercations with the “Jews” as recorded in John’s gospel. Isn’t it also true to say that a great deal of what we learn of God comes out of our own personal struggles?

On this occasion, it was the Sadducees who were questioning the truth. They rejected belief in the resurrection because they were the political pragmatists of their day. They believed what they saw. Their question about the resurrection was also intended to expose what they thought was false teaching, but instead it exposed their ignorance of God’s word and His ways.

What Jesus revealed in response was profound truth that must be part of the brain power we develop in our thinking. Marriage is an aspect of the earthly apprenticeship we serve in our life from the womb to the grave. It prepares us, if we understand and practise marriage as God intended, for the eternal union of our spirits with God’s Spirit where “all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God.” The more we understand and practise that truth in this life, the more prepared we will be for the union we experience and express with God in the life to come.

But what of those who do not experience the union that marriage promises in this life? Do we miss out on a vital part of growing unity in a relationship if we are not or have not been married? Not according to Paul. Mutual submission is the key to unity. In the church, we are called to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. In all our interpersonal relationships, we are to live at peace with one another.

However, it is in our relationship with God Himself, through prayer and submission, that we learn to live in ECHAD with God. This is the ultimate goal of this “marriage” that we have with Him, so that all our ecstasies and intimacies will be with Him.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – ALL OUR ECSTASIES AND INTIMACIES

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ALL OUR ECSTASIES AND INTIMACIES

8 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. (“All their ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God.”  – The Message). 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” Mark 12:18-27

“All their ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God.”  If only we could catch and lock that thought in our spirits forever! That about sums up the entire purpose for our existence! In the final phase, when God has completed His restoration of everything to its original purpose, the entire universe will be ECHAD and eternally worshipping God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in the purity and perfection of their original creation.

But there will be an element to complete, the revelation of the nature of God which was unseen before the fall – His mercy. In spite of man’s tortuous journey from the sixth day of creation to the Day of the Lord when He will execute judgment on all who have refused to embrace His plan, God’s full-orbed character will be clearly visible to the entire universe, and His wisdom clearly recognised.

Everything will be revealed, including the subtleties of Satan’s deception and the folly of our ways. Will an aspect of hell be the eternal regret of lost potential? What of all the opportunities unbelievers had to embrace the truth but they refused and chose to pursue the lies Satan sold them for the passing pleasures of this world? What of the wasted opportunities we as believers will clearly remember?

According to Jesus, in spite of our fumbling and failing, we will be embraced by the Father with no accusation or condemnation. All our sin has been swallowed up by the cross. Perfect love receives all His sons with perfect acceptance. All our suspicion and misgivings will melt away in an instant. Mercy triumphs over judgment. John wrote, with awakening assurance, “If anyone does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence, Jesus Christ the Righteous One…”

Will not our worship forever be that much richer because of the revelation of God’s mercy! Gratitude will enhance our capacity to lose ourselves in the ecstasies and intimacies of loving God.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – YOU DO NOT KNOW THE SCRIPTURES

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YOU DO NOT KNOW THE SCRIPTURES

8 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”
24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” Mark 12:18-27

Now it was the Sadducees’ turn to have a go at Jesus. How sincere were they? If questions are a revelation of the way a person is thinking, then the question asked by the religious leaders via the Pharisees etc., as well as the Sadducees’ question, revealed how little understanding they had about things relating to the kingdom of God. None of these people were on a quest for truth. They were on a mission to indict Jesus but, instead, they were indicting themselves.

The Sadducees’ question about resurrection was probably intended to expose what they believed was error – the fact of the resurrection, but instead it exposed their own faulty belief system. They were obviously of the opinion that resurrection life, if there was such a thing, was merely a continuation of this present system, in which case, the law of Levirate marriage posed a problem. Were they trying to prove how ridiculous resurrection appeared to them?

Jesus was quick to pounce on their error. He brought two truths about resurrection life to the surface.

  1. Marriage was intended to be a visual aid and a human experience of ECHAD on earth as a preparation for our eternal experience of ecstasy and intimacy with God in the kingdom. Therefore, there will be no need for marriage in the hereafter. Its purpose will have been fulfilled.
  2. Death does not end our human existence. It is merely the process by which we pass into the third and final stage of life. God does not have dead sons but living sons, those who have fulfilled their apprenticeship on earth and move into the eternal realm where they are fully alive forever.

How did Jesus know this? Was it merely through the study of the Scriptures? No. Many times during the course of His public ministry He repeated His claim to have come from the Father. All their questions about the source of His authority were answered if they had only listened to Him. He had personal experience of the truth He proclaimed because He came from the other side.