Category: Bible studies

Did you ever see one of these “optical illusion” pictures? I saw one recently that looked like wavy lines, until I looked at it much more intensely – and then I could actually see a face peering through the lines back at me! It was a bit unnerving, but it reminded me of an important truth… our eyes can play “tricks” on us. We cannot always trust what we see…Did you ever have someone you trusted do something that was unbelievably hurtful, and you found out they were actually being deceptive? If you have ever hurt over such a broken relationship, then you have experienced the painful “learning curve” that taught you to put away the lie that “seeing is believing” – because sometimes it is NOT. Clearly we live in times where “image sculpting” occurs in advertising – changing the literal dimensions of a face or body to offer us an “ideal” that isn’t the model at all. We see it in the political world, where a bill passes that is given a snappy title that is often the very opposite of what the bill contains. As voters, we are increasingly treated to fashioned images of leaders that are carefully choreographed by consultants and pollsters.

As web users, we encounter people who make avatars, or personal icons, and then sculpt an image of their “identity” that bears no resemblance to who they are in real life. Look further, and you will see that study after study shows that online identity is significantly and often deliberately different than actual identity, and dating sites in particular have been repeatedly found to be filled with lies by those looking for someone with whom they would like to connect. Closer to home for most of us, let me ask a question in a room full of believers about how many have been ‘stung’ by passing on information that originated from a satire site that someone reported as a ‘real’ news site” – and the room will be filled with painful groans.

Recently a number of friends contacted me about the “great new archaeological finds by the Egyptian antiquities authority of some ancient chariots in the Red Sea”. The story began with a satire site that deliberately posts items on the web to trap people into looking stupid online – a way to mock the “naivety” of people who would believe the Bible in the first place. Thousands of believers chimed in to share on Facebook how excited they were about the find – but it was a deliberate hoax – and many were embarrassed. The bottom line is this: We live in a time when we must recognize that what we see may not be the truth.

This is not a new problem. We noted in our previous lesson following the life of Jesus that the Savior was surrounded by people who did not see Him clearly, and did not recognize Him for Who He is. He didn’t sculpt His image – they just see Him clearly. They didn’t see each other clearly either. They saw only part of what was truly right in front of their eyes. We noted the first two of seven stories that help us recognize an important truth. It is so important, we broke the seven stories into two lessons – but both offer the same insight…

Key Principle: In order to represent Jesus well, disciples need to see some things clearly – the depravity of the world (the extreme neediness of people) and the complete sufficiency of the Savior.

Our world has been irreparably broken since the Fall of man – it could not right itself. The immeasurably powerful Creator was our only hope – and He saved us!

The truth is that not everyone is blind to these truths. Some people are able to see their need of a Savior, and their desperate condition– though they aren’t often the people we would expect to be able to do so. We noted that in Mark 7:1-23, neither the Pharisees, nor the disciples of Jesus could reliably see that man was so desperately broken inside – and that Jesus was their only hope. Pharisees thought they could change the inside of men by making them conform to religious cleansing and behavioral practices. The disciples bought into the same idea (because their world view up to that point overwhelmed their mind to prejudice them about what Jesus taught), and they needed to be corrected by the Savior. You would think that a doctor in the Law would be able to pick out the truth about the inner problem of man – but that isn’t true – because proximity to truth doesn’t guarantee understanding. A scientist can look at the extremely well-ordered structure of a cell in a microscope, but still conclude that it happened by random forces without any purpose – it happens in laboratories all over the western world today.

At the same time, proximity to those who carry the truth, though positive, is no guarantee that one will think correctly. Some of the greatest opponents of the church are those who grew up in one. The disciples remind us that you can spend significant time near to Jesus and His Word, and not see things more clearly. It takes an open heart that leads to a transformed mind to recognize what God is doing.

Here is the surprising part…As the passage continued, Mark showed the most unlikely people often see things more clearly than those who we think “ought to see”. Let’s observe one who DID see the truth…

The Syrophoenician woman saw things clearly (7:24-30).

Mark recorded:

Mark 7:24 Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre . And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice. 25 But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.” 29 And He said to her, “Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” 30 And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.

Let’s look a bit more closely at these verses for a moment. As we do that, note that Jesus left the region of the kosher villages of Galilee, and set off north and west to the coastal regions of what today would be southern Lebanon. He made His way to a “retreat” or “withdrawal” with the disciples, and made an attempt to do so quietly – without any fanfare or crowds. The Master apparently saw the “handwriting on the wall” with the Pharisees and recognized His disciples needed to be removed from their midst in order to have their default ideology reshaped.

Mark was careful to identify the woman who approached Jesus as a local Gentile woman. He was careful to identify the need she presented as well. Her daughter was afflicted by a demonic presence and the mother begged to have Jesus send it away. The very first thing we see about the woman is her IDENTITY, but the next thing we learn is her BELIEF SYSTEM. Our last story about the Pharisees and the disciples made clear that those who had the right identity didn’t necessarily have the right belief system – and this story is a direct contrast with that one. This woman trusted that Jesus was able to deliver her child. She knew desperation – but she believed in hope. When Jesus resisted because she was a Gentile (and salvation was of the Jews), the woman replied that she was not under the impression Jesus was there for her, but humbly would accept any scrap the Master may throw in her family’s direction. Her voice rang with humility, in direct contrast to the Pharisaic voices of presumption. One of the problems of living around so much Biblical truth is that we begin to be puffed up and presume that our knowledge of God is actually a way to control His actions – and that is wrong.

The Syrophoenician woman made clear that she saw the people Jesus came to reach as the children of the message, but she was willing to accept whatever He gave her family – and the Master gave her what she craved – the child was freed. Mark reported that she left Him, but went home to discover the child made well, free of the demonic presence. Let me posit a thought: the hesitation to heal the child was both to make clear Jesus’ message and ministry, as well as to keep His ministry quiet in the region. When the child was made well, the whole area heard and began to respond, forcing Jesus to move to another location to do what He planned – to spend alone time with the disciples. He needed time to teach them quietly, and the enemy did everything possible to keep that from happening. We will see that unfold in the next story, as Jesus tries to stay quiet and instruct the disciples…

The healed didn’t recognize obedience clearly (7:31-37)

Changing from his approach in this series of stories on understanding through “eyesight”, Mark dropped in a story about a man that couldn’t hear, and when his ears were unblocked, he still couldn’t hear in his heart well enough to obey the Master. It was still a “truth perception” issue, but this time through the hearing. Mark wrote:

Mark 7:31 Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis. 32 They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him. 33 Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva; 34 and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!” 35 And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly. 36 And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it. 37 They were utterly astonished, saying, “He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

Like the last story, this one began with a journey. He left the region of what is now southern Lebanon, and proceeded past Galilee into the east side of the Sea of Galilee, where the Gentile cities of the Decapolis were located – an area He was less well known and a place He was looking again for some quiet time. Some of the people of the region had heard of the Nazarene, and brought to Jesus man who could not speak well, because he was deaf. They asked, just as the Syrophoenician had, for a healing. Jesus took the man to a secluded spot because He wasn’t trying to call attention to His work – that wasn’t why He was there. He miraculously healed the man’s hearing, as well as his speech impediment – and the man was changed.

After not being able to hear for an extended period, the Master spoke to him directly – and the first clear sentences he heard were those that ordered him to keep quiet about the Healer, so that Jesus could spend time there is seclusion. The man heard the words with his renewed ears, but disregarded them because his heart was not new. He promptly disobeyed what he was told – probably thinking he was serving a “good purpose” by ignoring the word of Jesus and doing what he “thought” would please God.

In our day, we see this all the time. We see a buckling from standing by the expressed word of God for some “compassionate reason”. We see people ignoring the written text and violating the standard “for love” or “for outreach”. What is essential for us is simple humility: We don’t know more than God, and we aren’t more compassionate than He is. If He gives an instruction, we may not understand all the reasons why He did – but ours isn’t to evaluate God’s abilities – just to obey God’s Word. The man didn’t obey – and he will ever be remembered for that response to God’s goodness.

The Disciples didn’t readily recognize the Savior’s ability to provide (Mark 8:1-10).

As Mark continued to show us “some who perceived truth and many who did not” – he offered another story about the disciples in the string…

Mark 8:1 In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them, 2 “I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 “If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a great distance.” 4 And His disciples answered Him, “Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?” 5 And He was asking them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven.” 6 And He directed the people to sit down on the ground; and taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and started giving them to His disciples to serve to them, and they served them to the people. 7 They also had a few small fish; and after He had blessed them, He ordered these to be served as well. 8 And they ate and were satisfied; and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces. 9 About four thousand were there; and He sent them away. 10 And immediately He entered the boat with His disciples and came to the district of Dalmanutha.

The scene, by now, is all too familiar to us. People were in a place where there were no kosher bakers – they weren’t far from cities – but they were Gentile cities. Jesus ministered and crowds came. They loved hearing His words, and they wanted to spend time near Him – but they didn’t bring sufficient food with them. Truthfully, away from home there was little they could do to keep food preserved well, so a bit of bread, some olives and some dried fish may have been the best they could hope to get. This time, people were there for three days – at least some of them. They were out of food and hungry – and Jesus didn’t want to send them home with stomachs empty, for fear they would collapse along the way from hunger and exhaustion.

Jesus saw hungry people on a hillside – and so did His disciples. What Jesus did next is what He often did; He drew the disciples into the situation, so that He could include them in His solution. The remarkable thing is that problems are often God’s way of blessing us – because He invites us into His miraculous power to solve issues we cannot. Jesus deliberately enlisted the help of the men, for this is what God does. He could have simply sent a full-grown man as Messiah, but He enlisted a young unmarried girl who had “never known a man”.

The only kind of people God truly wants working for Him are the people who don’t think they are worthy, and clearly don’t have the ability to solve the issues apart from the empowering of God. People who are arrogant repel the Spirit of God. People who see themselves as self-sufficient make themselves ineligible to be used. The great mystery of God is that He chooses to use most mightily the humblest and least able among us. That is how we can so easily see His fingerprints on what is accomplished in and through us.

The disciples did exactly what many of us would have done – they looked at the physical assets and concluded they didn’t have an answer. What they forgot – what is so easy to forget – is that they were ADDRESSING THE ANSWER. Jesus didn’t point out the problem because He needed consultation on how to fix the problem. He called them to see the problem so that He could show them what was on his heart, and how they could be used of Him. That is why Jesus directed them back to the loaf count. He said in 8:5: “How many loaves do you have?” They had seven, and Jesus told them to have the people sit on the ground, and to give the loaves to Him. In the Bible, God sometimes brings water from a rock, or drops manna from the wind – but most of the time He asks us to bring what we HAVE first, and let Him use whatever that is to solve the problem. As they were serving the bread, they discovered some salted fish, and Jesus told them to add them to the day’s menu!

The people were fed and were satisfied, and the four thousand were then sent home. Jesus traveled by boat across the Sea of Galilee to the area west of Capernaum called Dalmanutha. On the trip back, I am quite sure the disciples reflected on what Jesus did through them and for them. The lesson had much more impact and was deeply personal – because they participated in the miraculous distribution. Herein is the great privilege of the work.

We don’t save people – but we bring the message that can. We don’t heal marriages – but we offer the family-saving, living Word that is able to light the broken path for the hurting couple – even if the wounds are self-inflicted. We can’t conquer addictions, but we can watch God bring power to a person once resigned to weakened victimization. We can’t break the stubborn heart and turn it to God – but the kindness, power and piercing truth of God’s Word can do all of that work – and we get the opportunity to share it. The only requirement God has for us is that we do all that we can not to hinder the work of the Spirit by adopting the world’s attitudes, and by participating in the lost world’s unholy actions. When we present ourselves to Him – the collaboration begins, and the lessons we gain from the participation are deep.

Mark wasn’t finished… there were two more short illustrations about the ability to see clearly…

The Disciples didn’t see how the Pharisees’ teaching hurt them (Mark 8:11-21).

Our world has an impact on us, and the world view of the teachers who have attempted to teach us about life and its purpose have left an etching on our heart. Sometimes they have done this to our benefit. Often, they have done it to our hurt. Let me show you through something Mark 8 shared long ago…

Mark 8:11 The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him. 12 Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”13 Leaving them, He again embarked and went away to the other side. 14 And they had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. 15 And He was giving orders to them, saying, “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” 16 They began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? 18 “HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE? AND HAVING EARS, DO YOU NOT HEAR? And do you not remember, 19 when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” 20 “When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?” And they said to Him, “Seven.” 21 And He was saying to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

The story opened with a conflict – an argument the Pharisees raised with Jesus – a demand that He produce a sign to validate the words that He taught. Jesus flatly refused to be led by them, and took the disciples away from them. The disciples didn’t know this was going to happen, and the trip came upon them suddenly. As a result, they forgot to pack bread, as they rushed to the boat and out onto the water. Jesus turned and told them: “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” When He finished teaching them, they were quietly chatting amongst themselves about what the Master was talking about, and Jesus corrected them.

Here is the truth: The world around us IS having a devastating impact on the modern believer, just as the Pharisees – with their wrong world view – was having an impact on the disciples of Jesus in the beginning. We are all very susceptible to the world’s standards. We laugh at what our world does. We hunger for the foods prepared in a fallen world. Not everything is wrong, false and harmful – but much of it is. Worse yet, it is all prepared on a foundation at enmity with God.

John later wrote these words from the Spirit of God: 1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and [also] its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. 18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”

Don’t misread what John wrote in those words. He didn’t say, “Hate the people of the world.” He said that the “world” he was speaking of was three prevalent attitudes that exude from the broken world system led by fallen men. First, there was the “lust of the flesh”. Second, there was the “lust of the eyes”. Finally, there was the “boastful pride of life”. What are these attitudes? If we are to refuse to love them, to coil away from them and refuse to let them lead us – we must know more of them.

• The “lust of the flesh” is: the word “lust” is “epithumia” – and denotes an intense desire or a burning hunger for something. This is something that captures the mind and intensely yearns to be satisfied. It is a want, a desire, and in most cases it is something that masquerades as an immediate need. The term “flesh” is “sarx” – a Greek term that isn’t necessarily a negative one at all. It is the word for “things of this world” or “material things”. The whole phrase simply means this: “A burning hunger to satisfy one’s self with things that are entirely of the material world.” No believer is to frame satisfaction from things found here, apart from their direct connection to the God that made them. Food is good, but it cannot satisfy us for more than a few hours, and must not become the focus of our life beyond celebrating God’s provision. Every desire of a physical nature is to be placed under the Spirit’s control and not to drive our behavior. We must be controlled in thought and action. We must be submitted to God and ready for His approval and call to service. Let me say it simply: “Don’t intensely yearn for things of the flesh, or they will lead you away from the things of God.” Be careful how much time you allow yourself to dwell on the pleasures of this world – because we are easily trapped into feeding our flesh while starving our soul.

• The “lust of the eye” is: Like the intense burning after all things physical, the lust of the eye is a creative idiom for a covetous, greedy or self-consumed mind. We “see” things that we want all the time (that is what a buffet line is for!) – but this is about craving things not given to us. This is about dwelling on things we want but cannot afford, things we dream of “owning” but could easily become “owned by”. This is the automobile that you buy that costs more than you can afford, so you enslave yourself to extra hours at work to get. It is about the house that you “simply must have” that swallows up your life. It is the boat you dream about, until it becomes the time-sucking idol of every sunny day.

• The “boastful pride of life” is: the term “boastful” is a translation of the Greek term “alazoneia” (al-ad-zon-i’-a), which could be accurately termed “an arrogant display”. The idea is one who lives the values of our day arrogantly, boastfully and without hesitation. If Jesus’ followers were called to be humble and meek (strength under control), those living the “boastful pride of life” would be living the opposite values.

In C.S. Lewis’ The Weight of Glory, he summarized a great many of us: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (Lewis, C.S., The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses. San Francisco: Harper Collins).

There is yet one more short story – the end of the series of “clear sight” that may be the most obvious example of all.

It may take MORE for some men to see clearly (Mark 8:22-26).

Mark capped off the set of stories with a “two-stage” healing – the only one in the Gospels of this kind when he wrote:

Mark 8:22 And they came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him. 23 Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?” 24 And he looked up and said, “I see men, for I see them like trees, walking around.” 25 Then again He laid His hands on his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly. 26 And He sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.“

Someone brought a blind friend to Jesus to have his sight restored. Jesus took him aside to a quiet place and spit on His eyes, laid hands of him and asked him if he saw anything. Notice, Jesus didn’t ask if he saw things clearly, only if he could see something at all. Jesus was healing, but He was also teaching. The man replied that he saw people walking around, but they were fuzzy, unfocused… in fact they looked more like trees. Jesus touched his eyes a second time, and clarity came. The scene ended with Jesus telling the man, as He told others before, to be quiet about it – but this time He went the extra step of telling him to go somewhere other than the village he was brought from – so Jesus could get more time to be alone with His disciples.

The “two stage” healing was purposeful – not for Jesus, and not for the blind man – but for the disciples. The whole series of stories has been about their inability to see Jesus clearly. They listened to the Pharisees and didn’t truly grasp Jesus’ teaching. They avoided Gentiles, and didn’t see that some of them were more in tune with what Jesus was doing than His own countrymen. They watched Him multiply loaves for crowds on a number of occasions, and yet they seemed unsure of how they would face a lack of bread on an afternoon boat trip. They didn’t see clearly. They thought Pharisees were holy and Gentiles were useless. They thought that a lack of bread was a big problem for the One Who could calm the seas and feed the masses.

The truth is that many believers don’t really see things as they are. They don’t see lost people as truly and perilously facing a Christ-less eternity and a horrible end. Their next door neighbor seems so good and moral – they forget that depravity is a state of being that cannot be breached by good behavior – or the Messiah need not have died. Believers panic privately and online that sickness may overtake them or senseless evil may befall them – while they forget the Jesus is standing by watching over them.

Beloved, we must pick up the truth of the Word and see it clearly, while we proclaim it unceasingly. We must represent the Gospel as it truly is. Man is lost – good men and bad men – for the standard isn’t “goodness”, but “righteousness”. That cannot be attained by religion, right behavior or wrestling with self-discipline. There is no hope for the brokenness of the human condition apart from Jesus.

In order to represent Jesus well, disciples need to see some things clearly – the depravity of the world (the extreme neediness of people) and the complete sufficiency of the Savior.

Many years ago, Pastor John Piper gave an illustration that is worth considering when thinking about our need of a Savior…

Picture two people in a car out for a drive along the north shore. The rider knows that there is a time bomb in the trunk and that any second might blow the car to pieces. The driver doesn’t believe there is one, and thinks that his rider is insane. The state patrol has been alerted that the car is indeed loaded with a bomb that will soon go off. They begin their search and pursuit. The rider suddenly sees the State Patrol far in the distance to the rear racing toward the car. His heart leaps with hope for possible rescue! If you are the rider who knows that there is a bomb in the trunk, the flashing red lights in the distance are very precious, and the closer they get, the more precious they become. But if you are the driver and you don’t think that there is a bomb in the trunk, the flashing red lights are a threat.

Many in our world don’t believe the time bomb is set to go off – but the Bible is clear. They are running out of time. They are losing time with each beat of their heart – facing a certain end. The whole planet is running out of time. The rider who knows must do all he or she can to make that clear – the danger is certain and the Rescuer is ready to deliver them.

If you liked the old clunky digital watch, and you have a special place for the songs from the musical “Grease” in your heart, you probably lived through and remember 1972. That was the year that video games entered our American homes, and PONG became all the rage! The Swedish group “Abba” was formed that year, and it was also the year Johnny Nash wrote and performed the song “I Can See Clearly Now”. It reached all the way to the number one position on the Billboard top 100 chart. The song was optimistic, and said: “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone, I can see all obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind. It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright), Sun-Shiny day.” What a nice thought…Who can’t get excited about seeing obstacles move from your path and sun light up your way?

I mention the song, because the title sets up a series of stories from the life of Jesus that are about that very concept – seeing clearly. As the popular ministry of Jesus was waning by the time recorded in Mark 7 and 8 the disciples were still seeing Jesus in a “blurry way”, and the people in the society – especially leaders like the Pharisees, were still utterly blinded when it came to recognizing Jesus. Our text offers seven short snapshot stories (in this lesson we will see two of them), each that show something important about clear sight and recognition of Jesus.

Key Principle: In order to represent Jesus well, disciples need to see some things clearly – the depravity of the world (the extreme neediness of people) and the complete sufficiency of the Savior.

The first two snapshots of the passage indicate that neither the religious leaders nor the disciples of Jesus saw the utter depravity of people – and these two are what we want to examine in this lesson. It is an essential idea for the Gospel to make sense – people must know they are LOST to recognize the need to be SAVED…

Story One: The Pharisees couldn’t see depravity clearly; they thought they could “fix” people from the outside.

This is the common problem of religious people. Religious people honestly believe that if they change the behavior of people, they can get access to their heart and can make real and lasting change. Look at how the Gospel records the issue:

Mark 7:1 The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, 2 and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.) 5 The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?” 6 And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. 7 ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’ 8 “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” 9 He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. 10 “For Moses said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER ‘; and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH ‘; 11 but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ 12 you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; 13 thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

As you scan the passage, look at the Pharisees closely. What do you see? First, you will probably notice they were intensely watching what other people were doing, and they were all too ready to get offended at behaviors to which they didn’t agree (7:1-4). Though some could argue that these men felt particularly responsible for other Jews as leaders, the way they handled the situation demonstrated they were more concerned with being offended than correcting behavior. If you have been around religious people often, you may recognize that impulse.

As believers, we need to be very careful not to emulate this. It would be easy for us to waste our energy scanning the internet to get enraged by bad behavior. We may actually believe we are “staying informed” when we are, in fact, staying “unbelievably grumpy” because we hit the “enraged button” a hundred times a day. I encourage you to get up and talk to real people in your life. More people are changed by what you are FOR than what you are against, if you communicate it with passion and maintain a more positive sense of people. In every age since the Garden man has lived in a continual state of rebellion, and it is not healthy for you to keep binoculars focused on sinners so that you can be sufficiently upset at the “darkness of our times”.

If you keep reading, you will note that verse five (7:5) the question on the heart of the Pharisees was directly exposed when they asked Jesus a question, but the words were laden with presuppositions. The words were: “Why don’t they wash their hands?” That is safe enough. It is the end of the sentence that betrayed their thinking when they said: “Why do they eat with impure hands?” In other words, they spoke as though Jesus agreed that if they hadn’t washed their hands the way the Pharisees taught, they were eating with impurity. The truth is, they hadn’t made their case. They assumed that what they believed, because they believed it strongly, was evident to everyone – but it wasn’t.

In this, we also need to be careful not to mimic the ancient Pharisees. Frequently on Facebook or Social Media, I notice that a Christian will enter a discussion and throw their “Bible verse” into the discussion as if it is evident to all that if the Bible says it is true, everyone else agrees to that idea. The truth is that in our society most people don’t think the Biblical answers are any more than interesting ancient anecdotes. That isn’t my view, and it is probably not your view – but it is MOST people’s view. When we speak as though the verse we believe ends the discussion – they look at us with a puzzled face. I would argue that we aren’t connecting with them when we do that – but rather we sound dissonant, judgmental and bossy. Because the Word is true doesn’t mean everyone sees it that way – so we will need to remember the other ingredient in our presentation: “speaking the truth in love”. Bible verses that settle issues in our midst don’t settle issues in the local PTA.

There other way – far more effective and every bit as true – is to use care and grace to explain why what the Bible instructs has proven to be effective at making society work. Remember, you will always reach many more people with grace than with a dogmatic sound.

Take, for example, this story passed to me the other day. A woman wrote a story about a sad song Garth Brooks sang about motherhood. It was a real tear-jerker – and if you have seen it I know you agree. They posted a YouTube of the song on a morning show. Beneath it, someone wrote a comment that said something like: “I hate this. I grew up without a mom, and I am just fine. I wish people wouldn’t shove that in our faces like we all need something they think we need. I didn’t and I don’t care what he thinks!” Well… Christian friends…start your engines… Out came the Bibles. She was scolded for mocking God’s design. She was derided for whining. She was “set straight” by many who had good moms. What no one did was stop and write to her and ask her what was hard about the experience. What no one did was show her LOVE and offer her GRACE. At the end of the discussion, the Christians scored all the points on the board, but the woman was not reached. I submit that Satan kept his grip on her life, and the Christians did little but pat themselves on the back that they “held the fort of truth”. Can you see the Pharisee in the story?

Jesus answered the “Kosher Police” with a few words that are worth the time to really soak in. In verse six he quoted a prophet from long before and told them their mouths were doing a better job of sounding pious than their heart was doing actually BEING PIOUS. Can anyone relate to that problem? Would you love me less if I admitted that I live with that problem every day? I can teach truth much easier than I can live truth – how about you? Jesus’ words sting me often: “THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.”

The Master went on to make plain that these men did more than live as hypocrites (since we all do that!). They elevated their own teaching to the level of God’s Holy Word – and that emptied the value of their worship – since God desires obedience over any ritual men put together. He made clear that while they emphasized their own teaching, they neglected the teaching of God’s commands, and even felt comfortable “setting aside” the commands of God when they didn’t fit into their lives comfortably.

In verses ten to thirteen, Jesus used an illustration of exactly what they were doing. They were commanded to honor their parents and care for them. Some of them, when they made money, instead of caring for their parent’s needs, gave large gifts and set aside large endowments in the public eye to get better positions and be affirmed as “benefactors” by men. They traded what was good for their parents for what was good for THEM and THEIR REPUTATION – all the while looking like it was for a reverent cause.

Jesus said they were, in effect “invalidating the word of God by their tradition” and that they were guilty of “many things such as that.” Here is another important lesson for the believer of our time. We may believe some pretty detailed theology. We may have a very good chart that explains what we believe and how we came to that point. What we cannot do, what we MUST not do – is forget to keep the main things central to our teaching and our behavior. Red-faced screaming of theological truth is invalidated by our method of delivery. You can say the right thing the wrong way – and it will become useless and vain.

The Pharisees cloaked their selfish desires for importance and affirmation in religious robes – but God was not fooled by their pious sound. Believers who truly want to please the Master must be warned – for there were several things the Pharisees didn’t seem to see that Jesus made plain.

First, purity doesn’t come from cleaning only the outside of anything. Sin is an issue of the heart, not the hands. You can be an effective sinner while paralyzed from the neck down. All you need to be able to rebel against God and His Word is a mind set to do so. Wash the outside of the hands and thoroughly clean the pots – that will deal with behavior and conformity – but won’t change the heart. That requires INSIDE cleansing of the spiritual variety – and God alone can effectively do that when we surrender to Him.

Second, no human tradition, no matter how carefully constructed, matters like obedience to the principles found in God’s Word. King Saul’s biggest post-Amalekite barbeque couldn’t make up for simple, clear disobedience. God isn’t interested in vast and elaborate religious displays made by un-surrendered people. Many people in the history of the church could just as well have stayed home as opposed to the production they put on to curry the favor of a God they didn’t worship nearly as much as they did their own appetites.

Third, the amount of rules we keep don’t equate to simple heart surrender – just religious busyness. It is possible to be incredibly busy serving a God you have little or no relationship with – people in church do it all the time. We have an elder who will tell you he was incredibly busy in church, serving for years a God he did not personally know. Serving replaces loving when serving is all we have to show with our lives.

Fourth, it is entirely possible to use religious tradition to hurt people, while ignoring my Word completely. In the case of the Pharisees, they literally took from their own parents to feed their own ego and gain in public popularity. “What kind of person would do that?” you might ask. The kind that would rather work the extra hours that spend time with their children, because their kids are “such a pain to deal with” – they would be the type we are reading about.

The bottom line was that Jesus knew what the teachers of the Law didn’t know – men weren’t innocent until ruined by society, or left behind simply by insufficient teaching on righteous practices – men and women were born irreparably damaged – apart from a move of God! The brokenness is referred to as utter depravity. The passage moved past the Pharisees, but it is clear that the disciples had learned what the Pharisaic culture was teaching well….

Story Two: The Disciples couldn’t see depravity clearly.

Look at the way Mark made clear the disciples didn’t get the picture any more clearly….

Mark 7:14 After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. 16 [“If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”] 17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable. 18 And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, 19 because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated ?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.) 20 And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. 21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy , slander, pride and foolishness. 23 “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

When you read the account of Jesus’ words – you must be very careful. Remember that the one problem with Jesus’ sayings are that they were likely translated from the Hebrew and Aramaic forms that had poor construction for COMPARATIVES. In other words, when one wanted to say, for instance, that “Mary chose the better part” by sitting at the feet of Jesus while Martha served the meals – the way to phrase it was “Mary chose the good part” – as if Martha was somehow deficient for keeping the place together instead of letting the pot boil over as she listened to Jesus. Semitic language doesn’t have the variety of ways of constructing comparatives. As a result, Jesus will urge people to love the Lord and “hate their mother and father”, when all He wanted people to do was love the Lord with so much more intensity than any earthly relationship. This passage is another comparative problem…

The truth is that there is MUCH that can go into a man or woman to defile them – and any clear reading of the Law would force you to conclude that. Jesus wasn’t actually trying to argue against those laws – only to say that the problem is minor by comparison to the HUGE PROBLEM people already have – the rebellious heart inside. Pharisees thought external practices could fix internal rebellion – but that doesn’t work. There are no rules that can be applied to a rebellious person that will make them truly obedient – only compliant. They may do what you ask because they don’t want a hassle over it.

Just like you “can’t make someone love you if they don’t”, so you “can’t make someone submissive to God if they won’t”. You can make them do what you want, but that isn’t the same thing as relieving them of the burden of a rebellious heart.

When Jesus went inside, He explained again the saying to the disciples – because they still could understand what He was truly saying. When you have been brought up in a world of religious externals, simple spiritual truths can be hard to grasp. Jesus told them the problem wasn’t defilement of the life through the stomach, but defilement by means of things that enter the heart that encourage its continued rebellion. He went on to say that even without outside help, the heart could pump out its own sewage.

Jesus taught that man was NOT basically good; he was not then subsequently ruined by poor social models and an improper upbringing. He didn’t simply “lack opportunities” that caused him to behave so badly. Jesus made clear: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts…” that we are going to see described. In other words – “the troubles between men come from the troubles within men”. Sinners don’t become sinners because of what they do – they do what they do because of what they already are. We all have sinful and rebellious inner natures – and so we rebel as naturally as we breathe. To learn to do otherwise requires the Spirit’s work of transformation.

Jesus spelled out the things that men have seeping out of the cracks of their stubborn heart in twelve sad symptoms. Look at the ways the sin nature shows:

1. He began with the term “fornications”, translated by Mark with the Greek word porneia. That term means promiscuity or if it is used in imagery it can mean idolatry. It is essentially selling myself to something that has become more important than a relationship with God. Jesus said people will easily put their sexual desires before a love for God.

2. Jesus said the sin nature causes “thefts” – the word “klopay” comes from a word that means “sneaky or under cover” and is usually used to mean dealing someone out of what is rightfully theirs. Jesus said people will try to trick people to get stuff that they didn’t rightfully earn.

3. The Master used the term “murders” and made clear that intentional, unjustified homicide came from a sinful heart. Men and women have an unbelievable capacity for cruelty to one another. Jesus said people will kill just because they can.

4. The Savior used the term “adulteries”, a word that means a casual breach of the marriage covenant – and there is little I need to say about this. Jesus said people will trash their most carefully worded commitment for a short season of pleasure because they are broken inside.

5. Jesus used the term “deeds of coveting” (pleonexia) which is a the term that comes from “counting numerically more” but is really about unbridled greed. Jesus said people will make a voracious appetite for “more” something to be admired – because of their sin nature.

6. The Savior used the terms “deeds of wickedness” (ponayria) to denote people who will deliberately causing pain and suffering. Jesus said human torture came from the rebellion in the Garden, and that we have it in the human condition because of our fallen state.

7. Jesus used the term “deceit” (dolos), a term that means deliberate “baiting” or “hooking” of people into something that will cause excessive emotional pain. Jesus said the weak would be trapped by the stronger because of the sin nature.

8. The Master spoke of “sensuality” (aselgia), which is a term for outrageous lewdness that rejects restraint. Jesus said people would become more and more vulgar and brazen about sin because they are broken inside.

9. The Lord spoke of “envy” (opthalmos: the word for the eye) by using an image word that meant excessive “gazing” at other’s things. Jesus said people will watch what everyone else has and be jealous if they don’t think they got as much – even if they don’t work for it – because we are sinners.

10. Jesus mentioned “slander” (blasphemia) which is an interesting term. Literally it is taken from the word “slow” (sluggish) to call something “good” (that truly is good). In the Christian Scriptures it is used for “switches” as in “right for wrong” (and wrong for right), i.e. One who calls what God disapproves, “right” which “exchanges the truth of God for a lie”, as in Romans 1. Jesus said people will make their own rules and trash God’s law – because they are sinners.

11. The Savior used the term “pride” (huperayfaneia)- a term that literally means “excessive shining” – but He used it to mean self-exaltation and self-absorption. Jesus said people will put themselves first because their heart is broken from the Fall of Man.

12. Finally, Jesus used the term “foolishness” (aphrosune), which is sometimes used to mean “impiety” but often should be thought of as a “lack of perspective”, emphasizing its quality (foolishness). Jesus said people will give their whole lives to things that don’t really matter because their sin nature blinds them.

He finished by making clear to the disciples the problem was already inside. In verse twenty-three (7:23) He said: “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.“

Stop and consider what the Lord was saying for a moment. Jesus wasn’t under the impression that if we offered people enough social programs, spent enough money on education and made everyone prosperous, we would live in utopia. People still would not be made well. Spiritual change – inner cleansing was absolutely essential to outer peace and harmony. People can be cruel and will be cruel until they are fixed inside. Let’s be absolutely clear: Jesus didn’t have an optimistic view of humanity apart from God’s intervention and transformation.

Another very important point to make before we close this lesson is this: The disciples were not much clearer on the true source of sinfulness than were the Pharisees that taught them in the synagogues as they grew up. That is a TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT TRUTH for followers of Jesus even today. We must RECOGNIZE man’s brokenness inside – it is the backdrop of all that we do.

Because of the Fall of man and the truth that we are all sinners, we must ever recognize that we aren’t good – even as followers of Jesus. We cannot trust in ourselves to fix ourselves or anyone else. Believers who forget their own sinfulness get haughty and hard to live with. Pharisees of old have nothing on Christians of the present. Some of us act as if we never have sinned when we deal with the co-worker who is obviously floundering, or the brother who has clearly fumbled their testimony. We do well to remember that we are among the sinners Jesus was speaking of when He talked about the fallen condition and its symphony of sounds.

There is another reason we should recall the sin nature that is just as important, and related intricately to our mission. We must not see the lost as our enemies but as victims of God’s enemy chained to their own fallen nature and in need of the key that will open the lock – that will keep our presentation gracious. When we see ourselves as broken, we don’t talk down to the lost – but across to them. We whisk with a cool and refreshing wind of freedom instead of stifling the room with fetid condemnation.

In order to represent Jesus well, disciples need to see some things clearly – the depravity of the world (the extreme neediness of people) and the complete sufficiency of the Savior.

We have mentioned much in this passage about the PROBLEM of man – the brokenness of his heart and the wickedness that lurks beneath the surface of the masks that we wear – but we would be remiss if we didn’t speak of the GOOD NEWS. God has broken the curse of sin in Jesus!

Paul told the Galatians:

Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.” 11 Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” 12 However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us– for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”—14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

• The law leaves me with a need to perform, and I am not consistent.
• The law leaves me with atonement – a covering – but not truly clean. The dirt is under the covering.
• The law leaves me needing to do right things again after I do wrong things – it never stops.

Then came Jesus. He became the curse. He embodied it. He grabbed it and wore it for me. He was a condemned man – even though none of the punishment was for His own wrongdoing. He was ME.

Now I can have what I couldn’t manufacture – His righteousness. His complete cleanliness of spirit. His child-place in the Father’s house.. because of Jesus.

There was a certain old recluse who lived deep in the mountains of Colorado. When he died, distant relatives came from the city to collect his valuables. Upon arriving, all they saw was an old shack with an outhouse beside it. Inside the shack, next to the rock fireplace, was an old cooking pot and his mining equipment. A cracked table with a three-legged chair stood guard by a tiny window, and a kerosene lamp served as the centerpiece for the table. In a dark corner of the little room was a dilapidated cot with a threadbare bedroll on it. They picked up some of the old relics and started to leave. As they were driving away, an old friend of the recluse, on his mule, flagged them down. “Do you mind if I help myself to what’s left in my friend’s cabin?” he asked. “Go right ahead,” they replied. After all, they thought, what inside that shack could be worth anything? The old friend entered the shack and walked directly over the table. He reached under it and lifted one of the floor boards. He then proceeded to take out all the gold his friend had discovered over the past 53 years – enough to have built a palace. The recluse died with only his friend knowing his true worth. As the friend looked out of the little window and watched the cloud of dust behind the relative’s car disappear, he said, “They should have got to know him better.

In order to represent Jesus well, disciples need to see some things clearly – the depravity of the world (the extreme neediness of people) and the complete sufficiency of the Savior.

One of the most important things a boxer needs to know is how to “take a punch”. Without that knowledge, the rest of his or her boxing abilities won’t amount to much just after the “ding” of the bell at the beginning of round one. It isn’t only about how to deliver a blow to the opponent (though that will help score points for the judges), it is about how to receive a blow and remain standing. Judges take a dim view of boxers who take naps during the fight, and there are no famous narcoleptic boxers. In opening our lesson from the life and ministry of Jesus today, I don’t have in mind the sport of boxing, at this moment, as much as the way this truth about “taking a punch” plays in everyday life. I especially like the words of Bill Cosby, when he said: “Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it.” Humor is certainly one great way to cope with the troubles and tough situations of our lives – but there are others. Sometimes the punch hits so hard, laughing isn’t really an option.

In this lesson, we want to look at another way to cope – one taught by Jesus to His Disciples before His departure from them. Jesus helped the men learn endurance in the face of bad news and rising troubles – and He did it primarily through His example. He modeled endurance and poise when bad news arrived so that His disciples had ample opportunity to see how to face adversity and its accompanying fear with a sober but positive spirit. The setting in the Gospels is a time nearing the end of the “Popular Ministry” and the beginning of a series of “withdrawals” of Jesus to the regions further afield from the shores of the Kinnerret (the Sea of Galilee). The stories from this period of ministry can help us understand what a disciple needs to see and experience in order to be matured and ready for a life of service to Jesus – and that is the point of the record. In this section of the Gospel of Mark (found in chapter six), five stories were deliberately strung together to help us examine even further how Jesus trained the Disciples for the work they had ahead in the face of devastating news. None of them knew the scope of the work of the Kingdom – but Jesus did. He knew how to prepare them, and how to leave a record behind that helps us understand how to prepare the “diamond in the rough” follower of Jesus and make him or her into an ambassador for the King of Kings. This string of accounts led to a singular truth…

Key Principle: Real ministry looks past the personal hurt of bad responses to faithfully represent God’s message to people. Some will respond positively, others will not. Our work is the representation – not the outcome.

Let’s face it, that is easier to say than to do. We all want to be affirmed by people around us. At the same time, Jesus didn’t train the men to do what they would naturally do, but what was counter-intuitive. Look at the “training stories”:

Story One: Jesus Returns to Nazareth

After refusing to go out and see His family while preaching in Capernaum, Jesus probably expected a “chilly reception” back in Nazareth – but He went for another visit:

Mark 6:1 Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed Him. 2 When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man [get] these things, and what is [this] wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? 3 “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him. 4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his [own] relatives and in his [own] household.” 5 And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He wondered at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching.

There are three parts to the story recorded in these short verses, and each part offers a practical lesson to the modern believer:

The Learning Situation (6:1-2)

The first part of the record recalls the teaching work of Jesus for His Disciples: Jesus intended a learning situation and the disciples were observers of the lesson (6:1). They observed the way people responded to Jesus, because in the future they would need to recognize proper and improper responses. In this case the responses were (6:2-3):

• They were amazed but not open: “From where did He get these things?” They weren’t in disagreement as much as in disbelief of the source.

• They saw wisdom but not its source: “What is this wise teaching given to Him?” They acknowledged the wise words, but not as from God.

• They saw power but it was blunted by familiarity: “What are these miracles wrought by His hands?”

People readily admitted what Jesus said and did caused marvel beyond their expectation. Yet, they assumed He must have taken His teaching from somewhere (or someone) else, as if to discount the message. Here is the truth: One of the oldest methods the enemy has used against truth is to “tag” the bearer with some deficiency (which is usually easy) and thereby discount the message they bring. This is effective against the church – because, after two thousand years of both good and bad works, with both true but errant followers as well as some hucksters that claimed to be followers – there is plenty to complain about in Church history. In modern witness for Jesus, most people aren’t offended at Jesus and what He taught – but rather the flawed and ragged witness of the church over time raises their complaints.

What can we do? Some proclaim the church must somehow make greater strides to “adjust the message of Jesus” to make it more palatable – especially when Jesus doesn’t offer sound bites that fit into the current flow of tolerance laced thinking. Yet, I believe that isn’t the solution at all – because it is focuses on the wrong problem. Let the church focus more on the “proclamation with clarity” of the actual message of Jesus as He gave it, and the world will have opportunity to be invited to Him or offended at Him – that is their choice. In other words, our job isn’t to make the message easier to receive – but nor is it to make it more difficult by living in conflict with His words. The believer must make his or her life choices stay out of the way of clear proclamation of Jesus and His Word. As a result, the believer who lives for Jesus quietly may well help remove an obstacle for the Gospel, while the loud believer who shouts from the street corner the Gospel but does not live in harmony with God’s Word actually detracts from the Gospel. The lesson for the first part of the story is that we must not be derailed when someone attempts to push aside the message of Jesus because someone they know has lived out Jesus badly. We must insist on making the message about what Jesus said and did – for therein is the Gospel. The truth isn’t always found in the church (sadly) but it is always found in the Savior.

The People Reacted (6:3)

The second part of the story recalled the people’s reaction to Jesus. Don’t forget the Disciples were watching and learning from the Master’s responses. The objections to listening fully to His message were simply about His “familiarity” to them. They couldn’t accept that the spectacular words and works were a result of anything His family could have taught Him since they knew His father and mother, sisters and brothers; and they were nothing special. This was instructive, because the Disciples needed to know that it would happen to them in the days ahead – people would see deep truth in their message, but write it off out of familiarity.

It is easy to miss the mistake in the people’s thinking, but critical that we do so. The issue was the identification of the SOURCE of the power and proclamation of Jesus. The people of His town rightly discerned that neither came from Jesus’ family or upbringing (though there is no suggestion that Mary and Joseph hindered the development of Jesus’ righteous path). The issue was one of assumptions on their part. The people didn’t believe GOD was at work in the room where Jesus was – and couldn’t see past their human connections. This was, and is, a common mistake. When one wants an explanation for the Person and work of Jesus – they must look beyond the earth and into the Heavens. The Gospel of John reminds us that “The Word (which was always with God and from the time before time) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.” Jesus wasn’t a man who discovered God or Divine power – He was God who put on human skin. His coming, according to the New Testament, was deliberate and purposed. The source of His power wasn’t Mary or Joseph – quite the opposite. The “parents” were given the opportunity to participate in the work of the Son- not the other way around.

The Savior Responded (6:4-6)

The third part of the story highlighted what the Disciples truly needed to see – because they would experience the same response later in their respective lives on their different fields of mission. In a word, that is “rejection”. Instead of following Jesus, Mark recorded four details:

1. “The people of Nazareth took offense (Gr. skandalízō – properly, set a snare (“stumbling-block”); (figuratively) “to hinder right conduct or thought; to cause to stumble” – literally, “to fall into a trap”) at Jesus.”
2. “Jesus could do few miracles, only a few healings for the sick.”
3. “Jesus wondered (Gr: thaumázō: in this case a proper translation may be – “He was stunned”) at their unbelief.”
4. “Jesus left them and traveled, teaching in other places nearby.”

The words are much clearer in Greek than in English. The people didn’t merely ignore Jesus, they actively hindered His work among them – so Jesus took His work elsewhere. Perhaps they heckled Him, it isn’t clear. Maybe they told Him they didn’t want “His type” in their town. We simply don’t know what was involved, but we know that rejection by people you love is always painful. In fact, that was the story of Jesus’ whole life. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not,” the Scriptures remind. At His birth, He was rejected by some of Joe’s family as illegitimate. Now He was rejected as working from and in the power of God by His family friends.

Though what the people did isn’t clear, one of the important truths that IS clear, is that the people did not understand is that Jesus was not pushy – and He still isn’t. He offered life, healing and comfort – but He didn’t shove it down their throats if they didn’t want it. When people didn’t want Him – He withdrew. Consider this: That is the tragedy of our time – that we have seen America open its doors to false thinking and dismiss Jesus from our public square. His exit won’t change His power or His Person – but it will change our public square. It will reduce our ability to spread freedom – for that comes as a byproduct of peace within. It will increase our turmoil as a state, and draw out the most degraded passions of men and attempt to legitimate them as palatable and acceptable. If He stays true to past form, Jesus will quietly move off the scene and take His message to people who want to hear it. The difference between God accomplishing incredible work in your midst and not doing so often comes down to this: Will we see our lives from His perspective and live as though what He said is really true?

We press to keep that message here by inviting Jesus to live in us and through us. We show that we are serious about our desire when we live with Him as our Master. We want to so live, that men and women will see our good works and “glorify our Father in Heaven” – because that is what Jesus told us to do. At the same time, if Jesus withdraws, it will be because the nation asked Him to do so. He will withdraw our sense of moral clarity. He will withdraw our ethical certitude and clear thinking. In our arrogance, we will make arduous rules that will nag us with their basic unfairness. Nationally, we will be reduced to bickering, division and dull thinking in regards to the challenging moral issues of our day. Consider this story from the news this week:

Lizzie Deardon of the British publication “Independent” wrote: “Germany’s national ethics council has called for an end to the criminalization of incest between siblings after examining the case of a man who had four children with his sister…Sexual relations between siblings or between parents and their children are forbidden under section 173 of the German criminal code and offenders can face years in prison. But on Wednesday, the German Ethics Council recommended the section be repealed, arguing that the risk of disability in children is not enough to warrant the law and de-criminalizing incest would not remove the huge social taboo around it. The chairman of the council, Christiane Woopen, was among the 14 members voting in favor of repealing section 173, while nine people voted for the ban to continue and two abstained.”

Notice the word “taboo”, because you will be seeing it more and more as we fade away from “right” and “wrong” thinking, and into the morally relative “stigma” thinking. That is what happens when the truth is dismissed and lies are adopted. The writer doesn’t ask WHY the west has upheld in her past rules on human relationships, because they know the answer – it is in the Bible, and was taught by the church for generations.

Now, when we recognize the direction, we needn’t despair. God sees the hearts of His people, hears our prayers, and knows what we do not! The darkness of a society that embraces lies as truth will set up a clearer distinction between those who follow Jesus and those who do not. God is watching! Consider this story:

“One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, “Jump! I’ll catch you.” He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: “Jump! I will catch you.” But the boy protested, “Daddy, I can’t see you.” The father replied, “But I can see you and that’s all that matters.” (Story as told by Donner Atwood).

The simple fact is that some people will reject Jesus – we need to expect this. They did it in front of Him, and they do it now. The Disciples saw it, and they needed to recognize that it wasn’t a rejection of THEM, but a rejection of God’s work among them.

Story Two: The Twelve Sent Out

Continuing with the training of the twelve, Mark explained that after a bad reaction of His hometown crowd, Jesus made His way into the surrounding region with His Disciples watching Him as He taught the crowds. After a short time, He called them together. Mark put it this way:

Mark 6:7 And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits; 8 and He instructed them that they should take nothing for [their] journey, except a mere staff– no bread, no bag, no money in their belt—9 but [to] wear sandals; and [He added], “Do not put on two tunics.” 10 And He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. 11 “Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them.” 12 They went out and preached that [men] should repent. 13 And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.

The Disciples were in need of some personal training on the ground, and some of the personal affirmation and excitement that came from participating in care ministry that allowed God’s power to flow through them. Jesus knew what the men needed, and He prepared them to go out with an added endowment of power – for them to have the thrill of God using them (6:7). At the same time, it was necessary to instruct them further in how to prepare themselves. Those instructions included

• Take only a staff to help you walk.
• Don’t take extra food, an extra bag, or extra money.
• Put on your sandals, but don’t take an extra cloak.
• Stay in a home where you are invited.
• Don’t push in a place where your message is not wanted, shake it off and move on.

The men went out. They were preaching a message that sounded like the one some of the men heard from John near the Jordan River some time ago – a message of life change in anticipation of the coming of the King to them. The men validated that the message was “from God” by the signs God empowered them to do in the spiritual realm, as well as the healing God did through them. They were exhilarated by the experience, but more training was necessary.

• They had seen the Master rejected by some and accepted by others.
• They were empowered and saw God use them – but there was more they needed to learn, and Jesus was ready to teach them.

In addition to seeing that some would reject Jesus (in the first story), the Disciples needed to see that some would recognize the power of Jesus, and they would be used of God to lead them to Him!

Story Three: Bad News

Mark 6:14 And King Herod heard [of it], for His name had become well known; and [people] were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.” 15 But others were saying, “He is Elijah.” And others were saying, “[He is] a prophet, like one of the prophets [of old].” 16 But when Herod heard [of it], he kept saying, “John, whom I beheaded, has risen!”

When Jesus sent out the twelve to spread the news of the Kingdom, King Herod Antipas of Galilee heard about the movement that was spreading from the northwest shore of the Kinneret, and now was being preached in communities around the Galilee region. Villages were being stirred in a way they hadn’t seen since Jesus’ cousin preached repentance with dramatic fervor – and I am certain that Herod was having a few “déjà vu” moments as he heard about the work of Jesus. Crowds were gathering and lives were being changed, and that got his attention and started him wondering about the rising teacher’s identity. His relationship with John probably made that interest even more intense. Bleeding through the narrative of Mark 6:14-16 were the three critical issues:

There seemed to be a sustained fame for this popular teacher: “…King Herod heard of it, for His name had become well known. (Mark 6:14). Second, speculation about the identity of Jesus was becoming problematic to Herod Antipas, because it was “rattling old skeletons” in his royal closet as the “bones of John the Baptizer” haunted his memory. Finally, there seemed to be a rising suspicion about the intent and message of Jesus, especially as it regarded Herod and his immoral actions (Mark 6:14b-15).

We will not take the time to delve into the “back story” Mark explained in Mark 6:17-32, because the lesson learned by the Disciples is what we are following. In truth, Mark explained the reference to John the Baptizer in a “parenthesis of historical notation” (a story to clarify past events about John and his arrest, etc). The account includes the sad story of “corrupt” parent and a child who became a pawn for a parent’s sick purposes. Mark recorded four important historical notes:

First, John had been illegally arrested some time before by Herod. Mark 6:17 For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. 18 For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”

Second, the scorn of Herod’s wife was a major part of the motivation. Mark 6:19a Herodias had a grudge against him…”

Third, there was a rift in the couple because of John which was just the “tip of the iceberg” from what we know of the history: Mark 6:19b “…and wanted to put him to death and could not do so; 20 for Herod was afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him.

Fourth, the King’s new wife waited for a perfect TIME to make her request – when her husband was feeling particularly macho, and perhaps a bit sensitive about his fear of John. See Mark 6:21: “A strategic day” came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his lords and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. Note the awkward terms “strategic day” for his birthday. The unfortunate terms lead a reader to conclude something more than a party was planned. The term “eukairos” was simply “the right time” – a sign that John’s murder was premeditated by the wife before the celebration, but not the husband.

John’s head was delivered as a part of the promise of the King, not for any true state purpose (Mark 6:22-25). The King was wealthy and powerful, and appeared to believe the lie that fame and power dismissed them from living by the rules all others have. This is a phenomenon we can observe in powerful and famous people even now. The royal couple was offended that John spoke out and called their sin what it was. They used their power to quash criticism, because they wanted to play by their own rules. They could read the Torah, but they didn’t feel subject to it. What is more, they didn’t want others to have the right to use the Biblical rules to in any way criticize what they were doing. Ultimately, they wanted the freedom to change wrong into right, and force those who knew it was wrong to shut up and start accepting it. They were happy to use the “justice system” and prisons to press their point.

Herod Antipas’s standards were made by what pleased him. You can see that in the stealing of his brother Philip’s wife, by the relative protection he afforded John for a time, and the deal he made with his adopted daughter. People who are led by their appetites are people who weaken any resolve to consistently do right.

The news was heartbreaking to Jesus and was sure to discourage and intimidate His followers. The disciples needed to know that some – particularly people of power – wanted to hear of Jesus, but not to yield to Him. Perhaps they wanted to control His message, or even co-opt it to further their own acceptability.

Story Four: Five Thousand Fed

Another story is dropped into this string:

Mark 6:32 They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves. [The people] saw them going, and many recognized [them] and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. 35 When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and it is already quite late; 36 send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But He answered them, “You give them [something] to eat!” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them [something] to eat?” 38 And He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39 And He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass. 40 They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. 41 And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed [the food] and broke the loaves and He kept giving [them] to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. 44 There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.

The Disciples felt they needed to take “alone time with Jesus” to face the news as well as to share the experience they had just come through, but the crowds met them at the retreat place – and that disheartened them further. Tired from travel and ministry, discouraged over bad news, and promised a day off – the boys were captured in this little story uttering the words: “Send them away!” as if it was FOR the crowds they offered that advice. It wasn’t. They wanted rest. Jesus, on the other hand, gave them a job – meeting the needs of the crowd! The twelve baskets gave the disciples what was LEFT OVER, when they truly desired what CAME FIRST.

The Disciples needed to recognize that though some were rejecting God’s message (like King Herod Antipas) there were still many who were desperate for the touch of God – but they were the people that were often overlooked because they came with needs and at a personal price to the bringers of the message.

Story Five: Jesus Walks on the Water

To drive that message home graphically to the disciples, Jesus sent them into the boat to go home, while He made a plan to pray alone on the hills of the northeast slope of the Sea. Everything changed when the men got in trouble:

Mark 6:45 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of [Him] to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. 46 After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray. 47 When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. 48 Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them. 49 But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; 50 for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, “Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.” 51 Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, 52 for they had not gained any insight from the [incident of] the loaves, but their heart was hardened.

The end of the story tells the key truth instructed in the event. Jesus was going to walk across the Lake on His own and meet them, but they needed help – and that need was given to them to remind them not to look past the needy, and not be arrogant about having God use their hands and feet in the lives of others. They were people – only people – and they could be imperiled in a moment. The Disciples needed to recognize that Jesus came for the needy – and they were needy at their core as well.

Story Six: Healing at Gennesaret

The final account offered a quick snap shot of Jesus back at the grind of ministry:

Mark 6:53 When they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore. 54 When they got out of the boat, immediately [the people] recognized Him, 55 and ran about that whole country and began to carry here and there on their pallets those who were sick, to the place they heard He was. 56 Wherever He entered villages, or cities, or countryside, they were laying the sick in the market places, and imploring Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were being cured.

Why include this last little story? The issue was that the Disciples needed to see the ministry didn’t change – just their perspective on people did. They were learning, as we are, that people matter. The “easy to bypass because they are so needy” types abound in our day – but they matter to God. He wanted those who wanted Him – and He still does.

Disciples who know His love and share His love will find there are people who hunger for His love – even if they have been cast off by others who represented Jesus poorly. Consider this lesson about showing the world the Master:

“Many years ago, an evangelist by the name of Jakov arrived at a village in Serbia. He met an elderly man there named Cimmerman, and Jakov began to talk to him of the love of Christ. Cimmerman abruptly interrupted Jakov and told him that he wished to have nothing to do with Christianity. He reminded Jakov of the dreadful history of the church in his town, where church leaders had plundered, exploited, and killed innocent people. “My own nephew was killed by them,” he said, and angrily rejected any effort on Jakov’s part to talk about Christ. He told Jakov, “They wear those elaborate coats and crosses, but their evil designs and lives I cannot ignore.” Jakov replied, “Cimmerman, can I ask you a question? Suppose I were to steal your coat, put it on, and break into a bank. Suppose further that the police sighted me running in the distance but could not catch up with me. One clue, however, put them onto your track: they recognize your coat. What would you say to them if they came to your house and accused you of breaking into the bank?” “I would deny it,” said Cimmerman. And Jakov countered, “‘Ah, but we saw your coat,’ they would say.” But the analogy annoyed Cimmerman, and he ordered Jakov to leave his home. Even so, Jakov continued to return to the village periodically just to befriend Cimmerman, encourage him, and share the love of Christ with him. Finally one day Cimmerman asked, “How does one become a Christian?” Jakov taught him the simple steps of putting his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Cimmerman got down on his knees and surrendered his life to Christ. As he rose to his feet, wiping his tears, he embraced Jakov and said, “Thank you for being in my life.” And then he pointed to the heavens and whispered, “You wear His coat very well.” (Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God? Word, 1994).

Real ministry looks past the personal hurt of bad responses to faithfully represent God’s message to people. Some will respond positively, others will not. Our work is the representation – not the outcome.

The eighteenth century brought our world a number of revolutions, including the one that formed our own “American experiment”. In addition to country creation, the British colonists (who seemed to have some extra time on their hands) also busied themselves by creating new English terms. One of the words that caught my attention was the word “daredevil” from that period (which makes me want to know what they were doing that was so much fun way back then). The term first showed up in the middle of that century. Another one was inaugurated in about 1751 – the phrase “har•um–scar•um” –which means “irresponsible” or “reckless”. Some may know this term, because they recall the comedy made by Cecil B. DeMille with Elvis Presley that was called by that name.

This comedy movie, “Harum Scarum” was released in 1965 and was supposedly set in Baghdad (but was actually the used set of the blockbuster movie “The King of Kings”). Those were different times. Baghdad was a place you could still laugh about, and Hollywood was making movies celebrating Jesus. The movie was about an American movie star named “Johnny Tyrone” who traveled to the Near East and Persian Gulf to premiere his newest picture. He met a slave girl who was actually the king’s daughter in disguise. Johnny saved the King and married the princess – and then whisked her off to Las Vegas with a whole entourage of the princess’ dancing girls. I confess to you that nothing about the movie plot sounded even vaguely interesting to me, so I didn’t even think of watching it! Yet, there is a movie clip that floated past me on YouTube of Elvis singing a heartfelt song called “So close and yet so far” to Paradise. It was shot through the window of a barred cellar room. Inside sat a misty-eyed and singing man who gazed out of the barred window dressed like a cross between Sinbad the Sailor and Prince “Ali of Babwa”. Apparently he was longing to hold the object of his affection in his arms, because, it seems, when she was in his arms, the world around him was transformed into the Garden of Eden…along with other “mushy” sentiments.

I mention the song because the truth is that we all know what he meant when he said “So close and yet so far!” …The runner that missed the gold by .001 seconds, the pitcher that threw the curve just outside the strike zone – they know what it means. Some things can’t be “close” – they have to be exact. “Almost” works well in horseshoes and hand grenades, but not so much in surgery or anything that has to do with the accounting area. Today’s lesson is about a group that stood next to Jesus, but hadn’t quite understood the role of taking on the ministry after Jesus was gone. They were an “almost” group of disciples – a “half-baked” kosher dozen not yet ready to take over. Jesus was wrestling on a number of fronts, and they weren’t being terribly helpful on any of them – partly because they really didn’t seem to understand what they were supposed to do. Let’s stroll up to the campfire and sit beside them for a few minutes and see if we can get a good view of what was happening with them. This was a group “so close” to Jesus, and yet “so far away” from His purposes, from possessing His heart for the world… BUT WAIT… perhaps as modern disciples we still are in this condition… Many of us have seen Him redeem us; yet we still carry so many problems with us! Follow this truth through the stories we will look at together…

Key Principle: Disciples need to recognize that we serve our Master, we don’t lead Him, and we don’t always understand what He is doing – but we must learn to listen and trust Him. That is what a real disciple does.

In our last lesson (in Matthew 12 and 13) we saw parallel stories of Jesus having a series of Sabbath controversies, and feeling pressured by His family to step out of the limelight, while His disciples struggled with what appeared to be falling numbers and some muted grumbling in the crowds. We pick up the story in Mark’s account explaining the end of that day, as Jesus is tackling a series of problems – all at the same time…

Problem One: Disciples can be more tuned to earthly acceptance than to spiritual truth (Mark 4:33-34).

Mark 4:33 With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; 34 and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.

This connects us to last study in Matthew. Jesus is tired, and His teaching has been going on all day. The crowd has been pressing Him and people have been watching, not only His teaching, but His demeanor. The disciples were unhappy because He didn’t seem to be immediately responsive to what they told Him about the parables and the lack of comprehensible teaching. They wanted Him to LISTEN to them, and get the crowds back on a growth curve by speaking “straight talk” and doing miracles. They weren’t following everything, so they were pretty sure the crowd wasn’t understanding everything either. Jesus pulled them aside and explained His message again, but that didn’t make it clear to the crowd.

Problem Two: Disciples can conclude trouble is a reflection of some lack of care on the Master’s part. (Mark 4:35-41).

While the Master still hadn’t addressed how He was going to adjust His public presentation, He told them to get into the boat. Maybe they thought He would explain there, but He was tired, and He found a pillow on the elevated platform at the stern and took a nap. The text noted it this way:

Mark 4:35 On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. 37 And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. 38 Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” 39 And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. 40 And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

Trouble struck. Look how the disciples reacted! They immediately exclaimed: “Don’t you care about us?” How like us they were! The lack of faith appeared to be in Jesus’ ability and in His goodness – and that is at the heart of much of our sin. When we don’t believe God is looking out for us, we start doing it ourselves – and we do a lousy job.

I want to stop and consider something, because we all seem to be at a time of significant worries. The fuel for worry, abundant today in the news, is only active when we burn it inside. We have a choice – we can let it consume our hearts or cast it out to the fire pit through prayer. My God offers a place I actively cast my fears, and face life with His peace. The truth is that my peace isn’t found in the fact that I will be kept from the fires of trouble, but rather from the realization that I will not go into the fire without Him, and cannot be tossed there by any force without His Divine stamp of approval. That is just one of the many great resources of God’s Spirit that is easy to overlook in our day as we succumb to the deception that because something is happening somewhere, I need to stop and fixate my life on it.

For most of the history of the world people didn’t know what was happening all around the globe. The digital age has left people more informed, but doubly stressed. They are convinced they must become everything from qualified CDC consultants to Supreme Court experts – when they have little to do with the outcome of any of those bodies. Let me say it kindly: many of us need to stop. We need to do what we can to be sufficiently informed in prudent behavior – to do what we can to be safe and not stupid, but we need to leave the rest in the hands of the One Who controls what we do not. If I am not part of the solution, then I need only enough information to inform my ‘knee mail’ time.

So, full of worry, the boys took the matter to the Master – but they did it with ATTITUDE. “You don’t care, do You?” Where did they get that idea? I suspect it was because He wasn’t jumping through their hoops before they got on board. He wasn’t changing His presentation, and now they were struggling and He was snoozing.

Note three things about these verse and Jesus’ response:

First, He didn’t bat an eyelash at the trouble before He told it to “knock it off” and the wind and water obeyed. We must say it again and again: “He’s got the whole world in His hands!” We cannot forget that God has not lost control!

Second, Jesus looked right into the eyes of His disciples and called them out: “Why are you afraid? After all we have been through, how can you STILL not believe things are the way I say they are!” Oh how we need to remember, the REAL NEWS doesn’t come on cable or satellite, but from the King of Glory. Things are what HE says they are. Platitudes aside, He isn’t taken by surprise by disease, desperation or desert maniacs.

Third, Jesus let the men alone as they re-gathered their thoughts, and they decided they hadn’t really understood the depths of their Master. That is a good thought for the next time we want to hit the panic button. Perhaps we should stop and ask: “What is God doing right now about this? If I am in distress, my Father is doing something. Have I not considered His power to deliver me? If He doesn’t, what may He be doing? When believers face problems, the test tells them how far they have truly come in their walk with Jesus.

Problem Three: Disciples bring deep and negative prejudice to our walk and don’t see the real issues of contention that are more often in the spiritual world (Mark 5:1-20).

The waters flat and the winds quiet, they arrived at their destination – a Gentile side of the Lake where they never wanted to be after dark.

Mark 5:1 They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. 2 When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, 3 and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. 6 Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; 7 and shouting with a loud voice, he said, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” 8 For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he said to Him, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” 10 And he [began] to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. 12 [The demons] implored Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.” 13 Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand [of them]; and they were drowned in the sea. 14 Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And [the people] came to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the “legion”; and they became frightened. 16 Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and [all] about the swine. 17 And they began to implore Him to leave their region. 18 As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was imploring Him that he might accompany Him. 19 And He did not let him, but He said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and [how] He had mercy on you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

When we studied the Gospel of Mark together, I made note that: “Great teachers give students an opportunity to learn truth by DOING SOMETHING. Jesus placed the Disciples in an awkward position when He told them to move their eyes from judging the current crowds to looking beyond the small world of their ministry to a lost world. Jesus shook up the boys by doing four things in this passage:

First, He told them to go to a place they felt unsure about as the evening was coming on – the Gentile side of the Lake.

Second, He allowed them to face a problem without appearing to be concerned at all (He was asleep).

Third, He let them draw their own mistaken conclusions: “Master don’t you care?”

Fourth, He solved the problem by addressing using His Word.

The point of the whole exercise was to get the men ready! God always has a point for our suffering, though we don’t often know what it is. Why do “bad things” happen to “good people”? I can think of five reasons without really working very hard at it:

• Sometimes it is the result of MY SIN. As Galatians 6:7 reminds: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”

• Sometimes it is because I live with other sinners and they mess up. Paul noted in Romans 3:9 “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10 as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;”

• Sometimes it is because I live in a fallen world. No one was TRYING to fail, and no one did anything in particular that was wrong, but the fallen world is broken. Consider Rom. 8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

• Sometimes it is so that God can test me – that I might see who I am and who I am not. Think of passages like Deuteronomy 8:2 “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”

• Sometimes it is so that God can prepare me to comfort others. Paul noted in 2 Corinthians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

The Disciples in this story were being prepared for a great lesson – that God has work going on well outside of the places they may have considered. God was at work in a battle against both a brutal and vicious enemy, and a fallen world that does not work the way He Created it to work. It was, and still is, fallen and struggles against what God intended.

Follow the progression of Jesus’ encounter with the demoniac for a moment – because it is the closest thing to a “Jewish nightmare” that you will find in the Gospels!

• They went to an unclean area filled with pagans after dark (5:1).
• They were met by a demon-empowered man who was living in the constant defilement of tombs (5:2).
• He was uncontrollable with broken chains hanging from him (5:3-4).
• He was gashed and bleeding (5:5).
• He ran abruptly toward them (5:6).
• Demons spoke from his throat (5:7-8).
• Pigs were eating along the nearby slope (5:11).

And my absolutely most favored part of the story…

• The healed man wanted to come home with them (5:18)!

The point of the sequences of the stories of the “storm on the sea” and the “cemetery demoniac” was this: One story set up the trust that the men needed to place in Jesus so that when the second situation occurred – an open struggle against the enemy – Jesus’ men would be “with Him” and more confident. The disciples needed to have confidence in the power of God before they could see the power of the enemy face to face in a place far from home’s security.

With little time to reflect, Jesus turned them around and pushed them to the next encounter…

Problem Four: Disciples get excited when “important people” seem to get on board with the Savior, but don’t understand that to Jesus, everyone counts (Mark 5:21-43).

With only a little nap before He wrestled with demons, Jesus hit the shore again running…Jesus stepped on shore and was met be a crowd, in short order He was approached by a hurting and desperate dad.

Mark 5:21 When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He stayed by the seashore. 22 One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up, and on seeing Him, fell at His feet 23 and implored Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.” 24 And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.

When you look at the story of Jairus, don’t look at it in theory – look at this man. He was one of the synagogue leaders of Capernaum, but he was not like many of the religious elite of his day.

There was no pride in him as he came to Jesus: The words of 5:22 “and on seeing Him, fell at His feet” say it all – Jairus was a broken man; just as the demoniac the night before had been. All ego was sidelined because of a gaping wound – his precious little girl laying on a bed.

He counted on Jesus’ power: The words of 5:23 “come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live” show that he was completely clear about what he thought could and would happen. He believed, hoped, and was relieved that Jesus came back to Capernaum in time to save his little girl!

He was give reasons to waver in his belief: If you skip down to Mark 5:35, you will note that the news that came that would have made even the close followers of Jesus (like Mary and Martha later) doubt “While He was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?”

His peers didn’t really share his confidence in Jesus: Only a few verses later, Mark reminds us that the NEWS was bad, but their friends and peers were a second reason they easily could have doubted. Mark 5:40 They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and entered the room where the child was.

Jesus encouraged the man to believe in spite of the appearances, and later in spite of the crowd. Mark recorded that when the bad news came, Jesus countered it:

Mark 5:36 But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.” 37 And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James. 38 They came to the house of the synagogue official; and He saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing.

When the man’s peers jeered, Jesus countered: Mark 5:39 And entering in, He said to them, “Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep.”

Don’t miss the point in all the detail. Jesus offered HIS WORD, and the belief in HIS WORD and HIS PERSON are all that separated the powerful event from the wounded parents. The parents were surrounded by people who didn’t believe Jesus could raise the child to new life. Jesus raised the child off the sick bed because the parents saw the world the way God said it was – they recognized Jesus as God’s powerful changer. I am making NO STATEMENT that implies that everyone who recognizes the Jesus is Lord will be healed. Nor am I saying that the parent’s belief that God could raise their child was the only factor in the child’s raising. What the passage teaches is this: Jesus is in control of the story of my life – because it isn’t really MY life at all.

We live and die to tell the Master’s story. There is no other greater purpose than to be what I was called to be. When I recognize that God alone has the right to give and take my life – then I can rest in the face of disease and death. I am not absolved of maintaining my body, but in the end neither I, nor any sickness is the master of my life – Jesus alone is. I do not leave the earth one minute before God intends that I should. When we see the world through the Master’s eyes – we see it correctly and His power becomes more obvious to us.

Remember these words…“Faith for my deliverance is not faith in God. Faith means, whether I am visibly delivered or not, I will stick to my belief that God is love. There are some things only learned in a fiery furnace”. ~Oswald Chambers in Run Today’s Race.

Jesus closed the incident with instructions to the family. Help the girl; get her food. Maintenance of the body is still important even though life is given by Jesus.

Mark 5:41 Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded. 43 And He gave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that something should be given her to eat.

You haven’t yet reached the HEART of the story.. I skipped over it in the reading:

Go back to the broken woman we passed by in the street on the way to Jairus’ house… The woman had a traumatic twelve-year bout with illness, was now financially broke and had nothing more she could pursue on her own. Her description was a graphic one:

Mark 5:25 A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26 and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse—

Look at the verbs in that verse: ENDURED, SPENT, NOT HELPED, GREW WORSE. The bleakness of her plight draws a dark shadow over her story.

She approached the Master from behind: Mark 5:27 after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. 28 For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.”

Because of her status in the society, she dared not approach Him directly – she was ceremonially unclean. She believed God left her the way she was – and she tried her best to deal with that understanding. Mark used the word “touched” (‘epsato, fr. ‘apto) in reference to Jesus’ garment. There are a half-dozen Greek words translated “touch” in English in the New Testament (Vine). ‘Apto is the word used when a burning lamp or candle is used to ignite another that is unlit. This isn’t simply a passing glance, but a deliberate reaching that continued for a time.

She grabbed a part of His garment called in Greek the “himátion” – His outer cloak; the outer garment worn over the xitōn (“the under-garment worn next to the skin”). Many scholars believe that she was reaching for the tassel of His garment, for it was the symbol of His authority. It may have been that “power” that Jesus recognized He was missing – His tassel that acted also as His ability to charge against the clan’s name and account. The effects were immediately apparent.

First, the woman experienced a healing and recognized that she was now well. Mark 5:29 records: “Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.”

At the same time, Jesus also recognized something – that He was missing something! The Gospel writer recalled: Mark 5:30 Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” 31 And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” 32 And He looked around to see the woman who had done this.

The story in Near Eastern terms may indicate that she accidentally removed the tassel from His garment, and needed to return it. She didn’t mean to take the tassel, but Jesus needed to have it returned. Mark doesn’t elaborate enough to tell for sure, but the story simply offers in Mark 5:33 “But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.”

Now the point of the story, and the reason it is included… the response of Jesus. The answer is in Mark 5:34 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

The woman had a choice to cynically reject another opportunity for healing – but she came to Jesus. She could easily have hidden from her answer and protested to God in her pain – but she came to Jesus. She could have acted like she was not the one who grabbed Him out of embarrassment and a sense of shame because she was unclean – but she came back to Jesus. She believed He could transform her if she could just get close to Him – and He did. It wasn’t PROXIMITY that changed her – it was belief.

Jesus made it clear – it was not the tassel, the top coat of His tunic, or any powerful aura around Him that made the difference – it was her absolute belief in His power and person that made the whole thing work. Jesus was exactly who the Father declared Him to be. He was exactly who He claimed to be. She didn’t need to know HOW Jesus did what He did. She needed to come close and trust Him.

The disciples that saw the whole exchange needed to see it. They were CLOSE but still so FAR from understanding…Maybe this story will help make it clearer:

David, a 2-year old with leukemia, was taken by his mother, Deborah, to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, to see Dr. John Truman who specializes in treating children with cancer and various blood diseases. Dr. Truman’s prognosis was devastating: “He has a 50-50 chance.” The countless clinic visits, the blood tests, the intravenous drugs, the fear and pain–the mother’s ordeal can be almost as bad as the child’s because she must stand by, unable to bear the pain herself. David never cried in the waiting room, and although his friends in the clinic had to hurt him and stick needles in him, he hustled in ahead of his mother with a smile, sure of the welcome he always got. When he was three, David had to have a spinal tap–a painful procedure at any age. It was explained to him that, because he was sick, Dr. Truman had to do something to make him better. “If it hurts, remember it’s because he loves you,” Deborah said. The procedure was horrendous. It took three nurses to hold David still, while he yelled and sobbed and struggled. When it was almost over, the tiny boy, soaked in sweat and tears, looked up at the doctor and gasped, “Thank you, Dr. Tooman, for my hurting.” ~Monica Dickens, Miracles of Courage, 1985.

There is no way the little boy understood the reasons for the medical treatments and the pain they caused – he didn’t need to. He needed to trust the one who DID understand what he needed to go through.

Disciples need to recognize that we serve our Master, we don’t lead Him, and we don’t always understand what He is doing – but we must learn to listen and trust Him.