Exploring the Word of God: 
Lessons from the Gospel of Mark
By J. Michael Feazell
Copyright 2012 Grace Communion International
Smashwords Edition
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Cover art by Ken Tunell. Copyright Grace Communion International.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com 
The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Table of Contents
1. A Lesson in Humility (Mark 1:1-8)
2. A Lesson in Transition (Mark 1:1-8)
3. A Lesson About Power (Mark 1:1-8)
4. A Lesson About Baptism (Mark 1:9-11)
5. A Lesson About Temptation (Mark 1:12-13)
6. A Lesson About Fulfillment (Mark 1:14-15)
7. A Lesson About Fishing (Mark 1:16-20)
8. A Lesson About Authority (Mark 1:21-28)
9. A Lesson About Asking (Mark 1:29-34)
10. A Lesson About Priorities (Mark 1:35-39)
11. A Lesson About Misperception (Mark 1:40-45)
12. A Lesson About Healing (Mark 2:1-12)
13. A Lesson About Assumptions (Mark 2:13-17)
14. A Lesson About Old and New (Mark 2:18-22)
15. A Lesson About God's Love (Mark 2:23-28)
16. A Lesson About Appearances (Mark 3:7-12)
17. Another Lesson About Authority (Mark 3:13-19)
18. A Lesson About Envy (Mark 3:20-27)
19. A Lesson About Damnation (Mark 3:22-30)
20. A Lesson About Hard Hearts (Mark 4:1-13)
21. A Lesson About Satan (Mark 4:1-15)
22. A Lesson About Seeds (Mark 4:16-20)
23. A Lesson About Measurement (Mark 4:21-25)
24. A Lesson About Lessons (Mark 4:30-34)
25. A Lesson About Storms (Mark 4:35-41)
26. Jesus Is Coming (Mark 5:1-18)
27. A Lesson About Hope (Mark 5:21-43
28. A Lesson About Faith (Mark 6:1-6)
29. A Lesson About Instructions (Mark 6:7-12)
30. A Lesson About Guilty Consciences (Mark 6:14-29)
31. Feeding 5,000 and Walking on Water (Mark 6:45-52)
32. The Fig Tree and the Temple (Mark 11:12-16)
About the author
About the publisher
Grace Communion Seminary 
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A Lesson in Humility (Mark 1:1-8)
The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”
And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Who would you say was the greatest man ever born? If you are a Christian, you might say, “Why, Jesus Christ, of course!” Suppose Jesus himself were asked the question. What do you suppose he would say?
You might be surprised to know that Jesus did once attribute that distinction of greatness to a certain man. He told his disciples, “I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28).
Major celebrity
John the Baptizer was an amazingly popular figure. Everybody in Jerusalem and people from all over the Judean countryside went out to listen to him preach. But they didn’t just listen--they responded; they confessed their sins and were baptized! Not only was John popular, he was also successful.
For all his popularity and success, though, John was strikingly different from the average man. Many people respond to great popularity and success with a certain degree of pride and swagger. But from the beginning, John the Baptizer was different.
‘Not about me’
Perhaps you have seen the slogan, “It’s not about me.”
That was the root of John’s message. He preached about someone else, someone who would come after him whose sandal thongs John did not consider himself even worthy to tie.
John wasn’t interested in the limelight. He wasn’t interested in the praise or admiration of others. He was interested in preparing the way for someone else, and he didn’t let personal ambition get in the way of doing his job well.
Baptism
John was a baptizer. Among the preparations he made for the coming of Christ was the task of preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. It was into this kind of baptism that the people listening to him entered.
Baptism was not an invention of John, nor was it unique to the Israelites. From ancient times, baptism was a well-known symbol, an outward sign, of a new spiritual birth, of entering into a new form of life.
For those whom John baptized, it marked their confession that they were sinners. When we admit we are sinners, we are laying aside our human pride and confessing the truth of what we really are. But we are not making that confession blindly. We are making it in the light of the revealed knowledge that God loves us immeasurably, and that he has made atonement for us in Jesus Christ.
In other words, because God has revealed to us that he is for us, we are free in Christ both to fearlessly acknowledge our sinfulness before God, and free to accept God’s gift of atonement and his new creation of us in Jesus Christ.
Because we have met with the grace of God in Jesus Christ, we can entrust ourselves to him fully and without reservation. Safe in his love, we can give over to him even the crushing burdens of our darkest sins and fears.
New creation
Within that confession of our sinfulness is our recognition that we need God’s forgiveness. We admit that we are rebels who have betrayed God’s love, and we place ourselves at his mercy, having now renounced our rebellion and pledged faithful obedience.
But actually becoming that new person, entering that new life, turning over that new leaf, is another question entirely. When we try to do that, we find ourselves failing--fighting our old ways, but losing so often we can easily fall into despair.
That is, unless we trust God to be who he really is for us in Jesus Christ! 
In Christ, we are a new creation (see 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Galatians 6:15). And we are set free (Galatians 5:1)! God has freed us to be the new, redeemed, healed and complete persons he has made us to be in Christ. We can use that gift of freedom to hear and obey our heavenly Father, or we can reject it and continue to live as though God had not made us his covenant partner, as though he had not made us the beloved recipients of his overflowing grace in Christ (verse 13).
No longer must we live in spiritual bondage, struggling in vain to grasp here and there a little respect, dignity, security and love in this heartless world. No longer must everything in life be about us and our anxieties about not getting all the things we think we want. No longer must we live in opposition to God, ourselves and our neighbor.
The Holy Spirit both gives us ears to hear God’s command and provides us our new life in Christ. In that new life provided by the Holy Spirit, we are free to choose to be the person in Christ God has already chosen us to be. To do otherwise is not freedom, but a return to bondage.
In Christ
All this repenting, believing and passing through the waters of baptism have meaning only because God gives them meaning. Only because the Son of God took the indescribable action of becoming one of us--living sinlessly as one of us, dying on the cross as one of us, being resurrected as one of us, ascending to and being received by the Father as one of us, does any of it make any sense at all.
It makes sense because God, in his divine freedom to be who he wants to be for our sakes, makes it make sense. We are saved by God’s grace--his love, his utter faithfulness to his redemptive purpose for the humanity he loves so much that in Christ he took humanity itself into himself.
A lesson in humility
God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus Christ, and through Christ to reconcile to himself all things in heaven and earth through Christ’s death (see Colossians 1:19-20).
That is the way God chose to make us into a new creation. The Son of God took humanity into himself, and in his perfect obedient sacrifice of love, he reconciled humanity to God. It is to this God, the God who in immeasurable love humbled himself to take all our burdens upon himself, including our ugliest sins, and turn us into a new and beautiful creation in his Son, that we owe complete allegiance and obedience.
John’s ministry was a ministry of humility. Baptism is an expression of humility. The Son of God humbled himself to become one of us for our sakes. And the new life in Christ that is given to us by our Creator and Redeemer is a life of humility.
It’s not about me. If it were about me, what would I do? How can I heal my own past, my present and future? How can I redeem my own faults, sins, betrayals and rebellion? How can I secure my future or the future of those I care about?
No, thank God, it’s not about me. It’s all about Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate (in the flesh) for our sakes. He is the one who heals our personal history, redeems our every dark sin, secures our future and gives us deep peace and rest.
Praise be to God that we can drop all our airs of superiority and pride, and humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God, because he is truly our all in all.
For reflection:
How did Mark describe the gospel (v. 1)?
What prophecy did John fulfill (vs. 2-3)?
How are repentance and humility related?
Why can we confess our sins without fear?
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A Lesson in Transition (Mark 1:1-8)
The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— ”a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”
And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
How would you describe the message of John the Baptist? Mark said that John preached “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” but that his message was, “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
To set the context, Mark cites the words of Isaiah, combining them with a well-known prophecy from Malachi 3:1, about the messenger whom God would send to “prepare the way for the Lord.”
What is the connection between preparing the way for the Lord and repentance for the forgiveness of sins? And what does that have to do with John’s message that one more powerful than he would come, one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit? Let’s begin in Malachi.
Time to repent
The prophecy Mark quoted from Malachi warned about a coming day of judgment against unfaithful Israel and Judah. In Malachi 2:17, the prophet declared, “You have wearied the Lord with your words ... By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”
The next verse, Malachi 3:1, is the one Mark used in describing the role of John the Baptist. It is the answer to the rhetorical question just posed by Israel. Here is what the God of justice is going to do.
“‘I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.”
But, says verses 2-5, the Lord’s coming will entail a powerful cleansing and purifying of his people. He will set things right and deliver the weak and disadvantaged from their cruel oppressors. “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.”
What can this mean, considering God’s unchanging faithfulness, but a call to repentance — a call to turn back to God? God will never turn from his covenant faithfulness despite Israel’s unfaithfulness, and for this reason Israel will not be destroyed (v. 6). Therefore God will, in his grace and love, save all who will turn to him (v. 7). It may have appeared for a time that there was nothing to gain by serving God and that only evildoers prosper (vs. 14-15), but that was never really the case (v. 16). God never leaves nor forsakes those who put their trust in him (vs. 16-18).
Therefore, God says, before this great and dreadful day of judgment comes, he would send them the prophet Elijah, who would bring together as one the hearts of the fathers and the children, that is, the hearts of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob united with the hearts of the generation upon which this judgment would fall.
Transitions
In this righteous way (see Romans 3:21-22 and Matthew 3:15), through the sudden coming of the Lord to his temple in cleansing judgment and forgiving grace, preceded by the voice of preparation crying in the wilderness, God would bring together the old with the new.
The Genesis creation would find its redemption in its transition into the new creation in Jesus Christ. The old covenant would find its fulfillment in its transition into the new covenant in Jesus Christ (see Jeremiah 31:31; 2 Corinthians 3:14).
The prophets of Israel would find their climax in John the Baptist (see Matthew 11:11 and Luke 16:16) and their fulfillment in the transition to the One whose sandals John knew he was “not worthy to stoop down and untie” (Mark 1:7). And wretched sinners like you and me would find love, forgiveness and redemption in the welcoming arms of the Father as he transitions us into his new creation in Jesus Christ (see 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Romans 8:38-39).
The “beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ” (Mark 1:1), rooted in creation itself and expressing itself unceasingly throughout history in God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises, finds its grand consummation in the One who “will baptize you with Holy Spirit” (v. 8).
In Christ, God has brought together all things in heaven and earth and reconciled them to himself in his new creation (see Colossians 1:19-20 and Ephesians 1:9-10).
That is why Paul instructed the church at Galatia, “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation” (Galatians 6:15).
New creation
Let’s be honest. It might be encouraging or even inspiring to hear that we are a new creation, but the truth is, we don’t often feel very much like a new creation. We usually feel more like a struggling creation, a tired, worried, barely-hanging-on-by-our-fingernails creation.
Don’t let that get you down. That is how things are right now, but it will not always be so. The day will come when the new creation God has already made you to be in Christ will be fully unveiled (Colossians 3:1-4). And when that happens, there will be no more crying, no more pain and no more death (Revelation 21:4).
Even now, our hope lies in this: God has proven in Christ his love for us and his faithfulness to us (consider Romans 5:6-8). He has made our cause his own. He has taken responsibility for us, sins and all. He has taken us under his wing, and he will never let us go. That is why we trust him.
God, who proved himself faithful to faithless Israel, is exactly the same God who is faithful to faithless you and me. He is the same from the beginning, which means he has and always will be for you, working to help and to heal, and not to condemn (consider John 3:17).
If you have turned your back on God, don’t ever think he has turned his back on you. Quite the contrary. He’s got the porch light on and dinner on the table, waiting for you to come home.
For reflection:
How was John the Baptist related to the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ (v. 1)?
How did John fulfill the prophecies about preparing the way for the Lord (vs. 2-4)?
What is the connection between forgiveness and judgment?
What does John’s message about a greater one to come mean for you?
For further reading:
The Mediation of Christ, by Thomas F. Torrance
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A Lesson About Power (Mark 1:1-8)
The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— ”a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”
And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Baptism is not unique to Christianity. The use of water in purification and cleansing rites is as old as recorded history, and for a devoted first-century Jew, ritual washings were a regular part of life.
Unlike ritual washings, however, baptism involved the complete bathing of the entire body, and for first-century Jews it was reserved for proselytes, or gentile converts to the Jewish faith. If a gentile became a proselyte, besides keeping the Sabbath and avoiding defiled meat, he had to undergo certain rituals. He had to be circumcised, because circumcision was the mark of the Abrahamic covenant. A sacrifice had to be made for him to make a blood atonement for his sins. And he had to be baptized as a sign of his cleansing from past pollutions and the beginning of his new, purified life as a member of the household of God.
But John was calling for Jews—already members of the covenant people — to be baptized as though they were in no better standing with God than gentiles. Indeed, John’s message was a declaration that God’s prophesied judgment on faithless Israel was near, and that only those who humbled themselves and turned back to God would be spared.
But for those who would turn to God, who would make their confession and undergo this watery sign of commitment to a new life before God, something even greater was in store. There lay ahead a baptism that was not merely a sign or a ritual, but the real thing — the actual cleansing of the heart and mind that would result not merely in new behavior but in an entirely new person!
This baptism would be one that only the Son of God could provide, and he would provide it by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell both with and in the people of God.
Power
“I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit, described in Acts 2:2 as a powerful wind and flames of fire.
It might be tempting to think about this “power” that the Holy Spirit provides as something we can use to make us stronger than others, wiser than others, braver than others, or more talented, healthier or wealthier than others. But the Holy Spirit is God, not a genie in a bottle to grant our every wish.
Indeed, God loves us dearly, cares for us tenderly and moves mountains to help us in our need. But God’s priority is to make us like Jesus Christ, and Jesus left us an example of suffering for righteousness’ sake (see 1 Peter 3:17-18), not of amassing fortune and fame.
Triune God
There is only one God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is no Holy Spirit, therefore, except the one sent by the Father and the Son to minister their presence with you and in you for your redemption. The Holy Spirit does not draw attention to himself, but leads us to the Son who presents us to the Father (compare John 14:26; 16:13-14).
The Spirit does not have his own agenda, but only the agenda of the Father and the Son, who sent him. That agenda is human redemption and salvation — the gospel agenda. The Spirit is not a prima donna, a showboat, an entertainer, a circus or a side show. The Spirit is God, and he is God with the Father and the Son and no other way.
Our heavenly Father is the Father of Jesus Christ, the Father who loved the world so much that he sent his Son to save the world (see John 3:16-17) and who, with the Son, sent the Holy Spirit so that he and the Son would always be with us and in us (see John 14:16-19 ).
That means that any other idea you have about God — about him being mad at you, for example, about him being unsure about what he is finally going to do with you, about him not listening to you or not caring about you or not loving you — is pure fiction.
The God who has revealed himself fully in Jesus Christ is the only God there is. He is the God who loves you, who sent his Son to save you and his Spirit to make you what you are in Christ. He is the God who will not be without you and there is no other God but this one — Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
That means that the Holy Spirit empowers you, not for human means and ends, but for God’s means and ends, which have to do with conforming you to the image of Christ, not with granting you the life — style of the rich and famous.
Baptism of the Spirit
To be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8) is to be baptized into the baptism of Jesus Christ. It is to enter into new life in Christ — the life of the kingdom of God. When Jesus was baptized in water, the Holy Spirit came upon him, and when we enter into Jesus’ baptism, we enter the fellowship of the Holy Spirit who ministers to all the saints the things of Christ. Our baptism in water is a sign of the baptism we receive in Jesus, which is ministered to us from the Father by the Holy Spirit.
The gifts of the Spirit, then (see 1 Corinthians 12:7-11; 27-31), whether tongues or healing or administration or teaching or whatever they might be, are for the benefit of the body of Christ, and not for personal acclaim or gain (2 Peter 4:10). They are not to enable us to stand out among people or appear to be closer to God than others. They are not to make us feel more spiritual or more saved or more righteous than others. Rather, they are to enable us to share in Christ’s work of love and redemption.
The Holy Spirit lives in us, unites us with the Father and the Son and transforms us into the image of Christ. If you are looking for riches, talk to an investment counselor. But if you are looking for hope, courage, endurance, love, mercy and help in time of need, talk to God. He’ll send you the Holy Spirit.
For reflection:
What is the meaning of baptism? 
What is baptism with the Holy Spirit? 
Who is the Holy Spirit? 
What is the Holy Spirit doing in the world? In the church? In your life?
For further reading:
The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit by Karl Barth (Church Dogmatics, vol. I, part 2, sections 16-18)
Understanding the Trinity, by Alister McGrath
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A Lesson About Baptism (Mark 1:9-11)
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” 
Have you ever wondered why Jesus, who was sinless, would need to be baptized? After all, baptism is a sign of our sins being washed away, and Jesus didn’t have any sins to wash away. Or did he?
Bore our sins
Jesus was sinless, and yet he, the sinless one, bore the sins of the whole world. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that God made Jesus to be sin for our sakes, even though Jesus himself was sinless, “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
In keeping with God’s purpose, Jesus was baptized for our sakes, not for his own. His baptism, like his death and resurrection, was a dramatic expression of God’s grace toward sinful humanity.
When we are baptized, we are baptized into the baptism of Jesus Christ — a baptism that is directly linked to Jesus’ sinless life and his death and resurrection on our behalf.
As us and for us
The Son of God became one of us in order to represent all of us before God. This is what Christians mean by “representative atonement.” Because Jesus is human, one of us, he is able to represent all of us before God. But Jesus is more than our representative. He also took all of our sins upon himself, bearing our sins and their penalty in our place. That is what Christians mean by “substitutionary atonement.” Jesus represents us before God, and he also substitutes for us before God. In substituting for us, he carries away our sins; in representing us, his righteousness is attributed to us. He is our “alpha and omega.” Our salvation is in Jesus Christ, and him only, from beginning to end.
God’s beloved
The voice from heaven said to Jesus, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” But remember, Jesus is God’s Son, beloved of God, for our sakes and as our representative. In saying this to Jesus, God says it to every person for whom Jesus died and rose again. In Christ, God says this to you and he says it to me.
In his baptism for us, Jesus embodies from both sides the promised relationship of love between God and his people. As God, he represents God to us. As human, he represents humanity to God. And this relationship that God has created between himself and humanity in the person Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of everything God promised to Israel, to the House of David, and through Israel to all of the world. In Christ, God has demonstrated in person his utter faithfulness to his covenant of love and redemption. God saves us because he loves us and wants us saved, and he did it in Jesus Christ.
Religion teaches us to think of salvation in terms of laws, i.e., God saves the lawkeepers and destroys the lawbreakers. But the gospel tells us that salvation is God’s gift to sinners, i.e., God makes sinners righteous in Christ, their perfect representative before God. That’s why we need to trust him for our salvation — it comes only through him, and not through our deeds. It is his commitment to us and his faithfulness to us that saves us, not our commitment and faithfulness to him. When we trust in Christ, we participate in Christ’s perfect commitment and faithfulness on our behalf.
It is only because we are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, that we can clothe ourselves “with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12). Because God identifies us with Jesus, and this even while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8), we are freed to walk with him in the paths of his love. God acted in Christ to make us righteous. We receive his righteousness; we do not generate our own, and in receiving his righteousness, we begin to walk in his ways.
Remember, Jesus did not come to vindicate the law, but to vindicate people — sinners, to be precise. Christians ought not fall for the religious (as opposed to gospel) idea that God is more concerned about the law than he is about people. Paul wrote: “But when the fullness of time [the “Today” of Hebrews 3:13 and 4:7] had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children” (Galatians 4:4-5, New Revised Standard Version).
When God says to Jesus, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased,” he is saying it also to all who are in Christ, because Christ has identified himself with humanity as one of us (Hebrews 2:16-17), both substituting for us and representing us in the presence of God.
A certain future
Because of sin, the only future for humanity is disaster — unless, that is, God is faithful to his covenant love. All the biblical descriptions of hell, whether pictured as outer darkness or a furnace of fire, with all its torment and anguish, are exactly what we would have to look forward to were it not for God’s absolute faithfulness to his promises of forgiveness and redemption.
It is precisely the horror of hell that Jesus took on himself in our place; but hell could not defeat him or hold him; he broke its power and disarmed it and led it captive in his parade of victory over all powers and authorities (Ephesians 3:8-9; Colossians 2:13-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22). Captivity of every sort, whether the captivity of hell, of addiction, of human tyranny or of sin, has all been led captive by Jesus, our victorious Savior.
Struggle and failure
Yet even though we know all this, and even though we are fully committed to living godly lives in the light of Jesus Christ, we still fall short and do things that are contrary to the love of God.
But don’t let that get you down. That is how things are right now, but it will not always be so. The day will come when the new creation that God has already made you to be in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15) will be fully unveiled (Colossians 3:1-4). And when that happens, there will be no more crying, no more pain and no more death (Revelation 21:4).
Trust him
Even now, our hope lies in this: God has proven in Christ his love for us and his faithfulness to us (consider Romans 5:6-8). He has made our cause his own. He has taken responsibility for us — sins and all. He has taken us under his wing, and he will never let us go. That is why we trust him.
God, who proves himself faithful to faithless Israel, is exactly the same God who is faithful to faithless you and me. He is the same from the beginning, which means he has and always will be for you, working to help and to heal, and not to condemn (consider John 3:17).
If you have turned your back on God, don’t ever think he has turned his back on you. Quite the contrary. He’s got the porch light on and dinner on the table, waiting for you to come home.
For reflection:
1. How is Jesus’ baptism related to our baptism?
2. Why did the voice from heaven say, “With you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11)?
3. Is it hard for you to accept the fact that in Christ you are beloved by God (v. 11)?
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A Lesson About Temptation (Mark 1:12-13)
At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
“I can resist anything but temptation!” says the bumper sticker. It’s funny, but as with so many things, one of the reasons it is funny is because sometimes it is all too true. As Christians, we know that temptation toward sinful, illegal or destructive things needs to be resisted, and yet we often find ourselves losing the battle. That is not only frustrating, it can get downright depressing. It can even make us start to question whether God still loves and cares about us.
More than a role model
The fact that Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are (Hebrews 4:15), teaches us at least two things. One thing it teaches us is that just as Jesus overcame every temptation, so we need to follow his example and make every effort not to fall to temptation either. But there is so much more here, and it makes all the difference. If Jesus were merely a great role model that we should follow, there would be no hope for us. Following Jesus would then just be another of the world’s many religions — humanly devised systems of coping with bad behavior and plagued consciences.
The other thing these temptation passages teach us is that Jesus overcame every temptation in our place, as one of us, both representing us and substituting for us before God. Notice where Hebrews 4 places the emphasis: First, Jesus is presented as an incomparable High Priest (v. 14). The job of a high priest is to mediate on behalf of the people toward God. He offers the sacrifices and acts as the go-between to get everything straightened out between sinning people and God. In religion, this concept keeps people mindful of the need to behave better and establishes a hierarchy of humans that can exercise control over the masses.
Gospel not another religion
But the gospel is not another religion. The gospel tells us that the real and true High Priest is God himself, the Second Person of the triune God — the one who became Jesus Christ. He died and rose from the dead in glory, and now is in heaven as a glorified man and the Son of God at once, making actual peace between sinning humans and God.
Jesus did not sin; he took all the sin of humanity onto his own head. But all the sin in the world was no match for the Son of God. In him, sin, all sin, found its demise. In Christ, God destroyed the work of the devil and defeated sin — our sin — once and for all. This is not religion; it is the gospel.
That is why Hebrews 4 emphasizes the truth that Jesus sympathizes with us in our weaknesses, and the truth that because of Jesus doing what he did regarding sin, we can come with boldness to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We find the same emphasis in Hebrews 2:17-18. He became like us humans in every respect for the express purpose of being a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God. He can help those who are being tested because he was tested like they are. How does he help them? By his sacrifice of atonement (restoration to fellowship with God) and by being merciful (he forgives you) and faithful (he’ll do it every time).
Trust him
How do you get in on all this grace and mercy? Hebrews 3 says, “Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God” (v. 12, New Revised Standard Version). It goes on to say, “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (v. 13). How does sin deceive us? One way is by telling us, in effect: “Ha! God won’t forgive you this time. You’ve crossed the line, pal, and the jig’s up. His mercy only goes so far, you know, and frankly, it’s reserved for those who clean up their act and stay in shape — not for the likes of you, sinbag.”
Look how verse 14 puts it: “For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end” (NRSV). In other words, trust him. Trust him to do what he says he does for you — forgives you. Trust him to be what he says he is for you — faithful. Trust him to know what he’s doing. Trust him to love you the way he says he loves you. Trust him to be the Creator and the Redeemer of his Creation that he claims to be.
How can you lose out on such a great salvation? The same way you would lose out on a million dollars if you got a letter from the bank telling you someone had put it in your account, but you didn’t believe the bank and never went to take it out — by not believing. By not trusting the giver of the gift. By not trusting God to love you and forgive you and transform you and make you his own child like he tells you he has already done (Ephesians 2:4-6; Colossians 1:13-14, 22; 2:13; 1 John 3:2).
Good news
The gospel really is good news! Trouble is, for many of us, it seems too good to be true. We want to have at least a short list of “do’s and don’ts” to separate the wheat from the chaff. But God gave us no list. He gave us himself. In Christ, we have everything we need for salvation. He saves us; not Hail Marys or holy days or verbose prayers or even great worship music and perfect doctrinal understanding. We’re not worth saving because we convince him we are; we’re worth saving because he decided we are and did it.
We devote ourselves to love and good works and righteous living because Christ has given us a new mind and heart, not because we figured out by intensive study that “we’d better or else.” And even so, we fall to temptation far more often than we wish we would. But in spite of our failures, it is Christ who saves, so who will bring a charge against us? Paul figured nobody could — and make it stick, that is — because nothing “in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
So, why bring a charge against yourself? The only thing charging yourself can do is erode your trust in Christ to be the Forgiver and Grace-giver that he says he is for you.
For the love of us
Consider Jesus’ temptation. First, the Spirit drove him into the desert. That reminds us that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God with one purpose for us, and that purpose is the redemption of the entire creation. Why the wilderness? Because the wilderness is the barren habitation of lizards, snakes, scorpions, barbed plants, buzzards and such like. It is representative of the world of sin, the world of the devil, the world of lies, deception and death.
It was there, on the devil’s own turf, so to speak, that Jesus encountered the devil and defanged his power to overpower humanity. Jesus was at his weakest, physically speaking, after 40 days without food, but even at his weakest, he made short work of the devil’s best stuff—satisfaction of physical appetites (“turn these stones into bread”), power, wealth and influence (“rule all the kingdoms of the world”), and self-indulgent arrogance (“show how important you are by jumping off the temple wall and making the angels catch you”).
When it was over, the angels waited on him. He ate a legitimate meal, provided from the Father by the angels, not a meal the devil offered. And all this was only the starting point of his long journey to Jerusalem to be murdered, buried and resurrected to glory — as one of us for all of us.
What more could we ask? The very God we are afraid doesn’t like us, is fed up with us and won’t forgive us again, is the God who loved us so much that he sent his Son, not to condemn the world, but to save the world (John 3:16-17).
Take heart
In Christ, God has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. He has taken our sins on himself, forgiven us, reconciled us with himself and made us a new creation in Christ—redeemed, healed in mind, spirit and body and perfectly unified with him. Though we do not yet see what he has made us to be in Christ, we can trust his word that at his appearing, we will be like him (1 John 3:2).
In our own temptations, then, we can take heart. Christ is with us, drawing us to him and away from sin, but when we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, who not only set the example for us, but also made atonement for the sins of the whole world, including ours (1 John 2:1-2).
Trust him. He did it for you!
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A Lesson About Fulfillment (Mark 1:14-15)
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ”The time has come,” he said. ”The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
John’s message of repentance was over; the time had come for Jesus’ message to begin. Jesus’ message is not identical to John’s. John was preaching about a time to come; Jesus preached that the time had come. John preached a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; Jesus preached that the kingdom itself was at hand, so believe the gospel. John did not preach the gospel; he preached that the gospel bearer was coming (for more on this, see Introduction to Mark).
Repentance and faith
Jesus preached the gospel, the good news that God had fulfilled his promises to Israel by sending the Messiah, or the Anointed One, to save the people. As a whole, however, the nation rejected Jesus as Messiah, because he did not fit the commonly accepted profile of what the Messiah should do. The Messiah was expected to lead the Jews to victory over the Roman occupation forces and restore the nation to a place of dominance in the world. Jesus showed no signs of becoming such a Messiah. Even John the Baptist finally began to wonder whether Jesus was really the one sent by God (Matthew 11:3).
The Messiah God sent was different from the one the people expected, because God’s purpose in the world was different from what the people expected. The people expected God to vanquish their enemies and make their nation great. But God’s purpose was to make a new covenant with the people, to write his laws in their hearts.
In the very midst of Israel’s rejection of God’s Messiah, a rejection in which every human shares, God chose to bring all sin to a head and destroy it once and for all. In that act of turning the pinnacle of human rebellion and opposition to himself into the means of human salvation, God not only fulfilled all his promises to Israel for their redemption (Acts 13:32-33), but also his word of promise for all the world (Genesis 22:18).
In other words, we are saved by God’s act of salvation on our behalf, not by our repentance and faith. Were it not for the righteousness and the faith of the Son of God, we would not have repentance and faith. Our repentance and faith have meaning only because they are taken up into Jesus’ righteousness and faith on our behalf and given meaning in him, for they neither have meaning nor substance on their own.
Not a transaction
It is a popular notion that repentance and faith are two different things. The idea is that a person has to repent of all his sins and then ask Jesus to come into his life, and then, on the basis of this repentance and commitment to Jesus, God will forgive the person’s sins and grant him salvation.
That is not the gospel. The gospel is not a transaction. It is not a deal. It is not a tit for tat, nor an I’ll-do-this-if-you-do-that arrangement. When we believe the gospel we are not causing God to save us. We are not satisfying some prerequisite. What we are doing when we believe the gospel is trusting God’s word that he has already saved us through what he has already done for us in Jesus Christ. Our faith enables us to enjoy the gift we already have; it doesn’t cause God to give it to us.
The gospel is good news. It is the good news that God loved everybody so much that he did something to save them from the destruction and alienation of sin. What God did — send his Son — he did purely and simply because he wanted to, not because we did something, or said something, or thought something in our hearts to bring it about.
We are saved because God already, in Christ, did everything necessary to make our salvation the reality that it is. Jesus said, “God so loved the world,” not “God so loved several carefully picked ones.” For us to repent and believe the gospel is to turn from our empty lives, ignorant of God’s love and grace, and turn to belief in God’s word about who he is for us and what he has done for us in Christ. It is a matter of believing a thing that is already true. And it is a matter of believing it because God tells us that it is true.
That is not a transaction. It is not a matter of the gospel not applying to us unless or until we do the right thing. Salvation is not remuneration for repentance. It is not remuneration for faith. It is not remuneration for anything. It is a gift, and a gift given to the world is ours, whether we like it or not.
Role of faith
To believe that God has given you a gift is not a pathway to receive the gift. It’s a gift, and it is given by grace, not by saying the magic words. But believing is the path to taking up, using and enjoying the gift. If you don’t believe you have a gift, you’ll never take it up and use it, and you’ll never enjoy its benefits.
So it is with the gospel. The gospel is true for us because God made it true for us. It doesn’t suddenly become true when we repent and believe. It does, however, suddenly become plain to us what God has given us when we repent and believe. And in belief, or faith, or trust, we can walk in the light of Christ, where we once walked in darkness because of unbelief. Our unbelief did not mean that the gospel was not so for us; it only meant that we could not sense it. We were in the dark about it. We didn’t know that God had redeemed us in Christ long before we were ever born.
Redemption
The gospel was fulfilled when the Son of God became one of us for our sakes. He was the fulfillment of all the prophecies to Israel (Acts13:32-33), and the means by which Israel became a blessing to all nations (Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:8). He transformed the meaning of human life, human history and human time. All times, from the creation to the end of the world, are redeemed in him. All of human history — past, present and future — including your personal history, are redeemed in him. Human life itself, including your human life, is redeemed in him, made new, saved (see Colossians 1:19-20; Ephesians 1:9-10).
This is not something we are waiting for — it is fulfilled already, though we do not yet experience its fullness. We still wait for the redemption of our bodies, as Paul said, when “this mortal shall put on immortality.” We still wait for the revealing of the new, clean and righteous us, which is hidden with Christ in God and will be revealed with him in glory when he is revealed (Colossians 3:3-4). But we already walk by faith in the light of the knowledge of the Son of God, tasting and drawing on today the fulfillment of the reality that awaits us with Christ in the age to come. Christ has wrought a new creation (see 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15), which we do not yet see in full, but we are part of it. In believers, the age to come has already begun to manifest itself.
Approach
It is this light, the light of the gospel, that we seek to share with all those who still walk in the darkness of unbelief. When we share the gospel, we are not saying, “You are hanging by a thread over the fires of hell; say these words and God will change his mind about you.” Instead we are saying, as Thomas F. Torrance put it, 
Jesus Christ died for you precisely because you are sinful and utterly unworthy of him, and has thereby already made you his own before and apart from your ever believing in him…. He has believed for you, fulfilled your human response to God, even made your personal decision for you, so that he acknowledges you before God as one who has already responded to God in him, who has already believed in God through him…in all of which he has been fully and completely accepted by the Father, so that in Jesus Christ you are already accepted by him. Therefore, renounce yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. (The Mediation of Christ, page 94)
When we understand the gospel of the unconditional grace of God, we no longer rely upon our faith or our commitment, but upon what Jesus Christ has done for us. Indeed, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel.
For further reading:
The Mediation of Christ by Thomas F. Torrance.
For reflection:
What is the scope of the reconciliation that God has worked in Jesus Christ? (Colossians 1:19-20; Ephesians 1:9-10).
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A Lesson About Fishing (Mark 1:16-20)
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ”Come, follow me,” Jesus said, ”and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
When I was a small boy growing up in northern Louisiana, I went fishing every chance I got. By age six, though, we had moved to Southern California, and between the rigors of big city life and my family not having a lot of money, chances for fishing were dramatically fewer. Still, there were the occasional trips to the Malibu pier with a friend, and a couple of times a year my uncle took me out on one of the off-shore barges that local fishing enthusiasts flocked to. Between sessions of untangling lines with the elbow-to-elbow crowd on board, we usually managed to hook a couple of bonita, several mackerel and if we were really lucky, a small halibut.
We fished the Kern River a couple of times, as well as Lake Isabella and Lake Piru. As a boy, I had a clear definition of the difference between freshwater and saltwater fishing: Freshwater fishing is usually more relaxing, but the fish are smaller and you’re less likely to catch one.
The kind of fishing the Zebedee boys were doing in Jesus’ day was nothing like the hook, line and sinker kind I enjoy. What they did was work, hard work. They would have thought I was crazy if I had suggested: “Hey guys, let’s take a break and go fishing. We all need some rest.”
They had huge, heavy nets to cast out, draw in, unload, clean, dry and mend. They had hundreds of fish to process and sell. They had the boat to clean and repair. Fishing was not a sport or a break. It was their livelihood, and in many ways it was their life.
We are not told whether James and John liked their part in their dad’s fishing business. All we know is that when Jesus called them, they left it and followed him. Presumably, Jesus said the same thing to them that he said to Simon and Andrew, “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.”
What did Jesus have in mind when he said, “fish for people”?
Most of us Bible types are quick to run analogies into the ground. Jesus, being a good bit smarter than we are and knowing a little something about analogies, probably was thinking more about the obvious parallels than the picky details that sometimes fill sermon time and Bible study sessions. Instead of casting nets to draw in fish for breakfast tables, these disciples would now be casting the gospel to draw in people for the kingdom of God.
In Mark’s previous paragraph, he described Jesus as preaching, “Repent and believe the good news” (v. 15). It’s a rather indiscriminate message. Like a net, it falls wherever it falls and, like fish, some people get caught in it while others swim obliviously by.
We count the fish who, by time and chance, escape the net, as lucky fellows who will grow a little bigger for the next time the net comes their way. We count the people who run from or dismiss the gospel as missing out on the best thing that could ever happen to them, and we pray that they might get caught next time the gospel splashes down around them.
However, as Jesus mentioned once in a parable, the fishing net gathers up a whole lot of stuff besides good-eatin’ fish (Matthew 13:47-48). The net does not discriminate; it picks up every kind of fish out there, good and bad alike. At the end of the day the worthless ones have to be separated out and discarded.
Likewise, the gospel does not discriminate; it applies to the whole world (John 3:16; 1 John 2:1-2). But the only ones who can join the great celebration of the kingdom of God are the ones who believe that they really are in God’s gracious net. If they won’t trust God’s word of love and grace for them, then the gospel of their salvation is meaningless to them, and they cannot even understand the kingdom of God, much less desire to be part of it. They prefer their own kingdom, the shriveled, selfish one they think is so grand. So they have to be tossed out of God’s banquet room, where he had places set for everybody.
The kingdom of God is not a matter of choice; it’s a matter of trust. Peter, Andrew, James and John trusted Jesus, which is why they followed him. It wasn’t that they sized things up and chose, like choosing ice cream over spoiled milk. It was that they trusted this person who called them. He wasn’t calling them to a finer and grander life; he was calling them to persecution and deprivation — and eventually to getting murdered.
If it was a choice issue, then only a foolish son would run off after an itinerant preacher instead of maintaining the family business and ensuring the care and security of his parents and siblings. But it was a trust issue — they trusted Jesus. Only in the light of trust can we see clearly that there really is no choice at all but to follow him.
Doubt
But let’s face it, sometimes we doubt. We sin, and we doubt our standing with God. Our plans and hopes are frustrated, and we might doubt whether God cares. Bad things happen to us, and we might even doubt there is a God. Doubt is always just a downturn away, ready to move in on our often fragile faith.
But those ups and downs in the strength of our faith are all part of learning to trust Jesus Christ. God accepted his faith in our place and on our behalf, so it isn’t a matter of how strong or weak our faith is — Jesus’ faith before God on our behalf is what matters. Again, we rely on him, not on our faith.
Likewise, our success in overcoming is not what we should use as a measure of our standing with God. God accepted Jesus’ righteousness in our place and on our behalf, so it isn’t a matter of how much progress we make in overcoming — Jesus’ righteousness on our behalf is what matters. That’s why we rely on him, not on the level or steadiness of our success in overcoming. Indeed, the Spirit leads us into right behavior, but right behavior is no measure of our standing with God. We stand right with God for one reason only — God loved us so much that his Son took humanity into himself and through his life, death and resurrection made humanity righteous in his righteousness. That is the substance, the reality, of our righteous standing before God.
In spite of our sins
A friend who grew up as a foster child who was shuffled from home to home expressed how he had trouble trusting new foster parents. In the back of his mind, he believed that once the new parents discovered the extent of his faults and problems, they would reject him and send him on. He would try very hard to please the new family, desperately trying to measure up, but eventually he would have to pack up and move again.
Sometimes, we can feel a bit like that in our relationship with God. We want to believe his good word for us, but in the back of our mind, there is the nagging doubt that God won’t really accept us in spite of our sins. So we make up all kinds of ways to keep ourselves on the straight and narrow, desperately trying to measure up to some semblance of a person decent enough for God to accept. And all the while, deep inside, we believe we are sunk, because in our most honest moments we know our sins are dark and many.
If we could only believe the gospel, we would believe that Christ died for us because we are sinners, and that in spite of our sins, he has determined not to be without us. He wants us to trust him to love us in spite of all we are, all the mess we’ve made of life, all the problems we’ve caused, people we’ve hurt, things we’ve said and places we’ve been. He wants us to trust him to be our righteousness, trust him to clean up our lives, and above all, to trust him to love us unconditionally and to never leave us nor forsake us.
The gospel is good news for bad people, and unlike fishing nets, it doesn’t need washing and mending. It’s perfect just the way it is.
Further Reading:
The Mediation of Christ by Thomas F. Torrance
For Reflection:
When have you felt as though God couldn’t really love a person like you? Have you talked to him about it?
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A Lesson About Authority (Mark 1:21-28)
They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, ”What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. ”Come out of him!” The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee. 
The teachers of the law didn’t speak with their own authority. They necessarily prefaced their comments with something like “There is a saying that...” or “Rabbi Such-and-Such said...” Even the prophets rightly attributed their pronouncements to “Thus says the Lord...” But Jesus said simply, “I say to you...”
Here was a man who spoke with his own authority, not in the name of another. That alone was amazing. But if that were not amazing enough, Jesus demonstrated his authority when he told an evil spirit what to do, and the evil spirit obeyed.
In Jesus’ day, evil spirits were considered, even by many Jewish teachers, to be numerous and powerful, hanging around everywhere and doing whatever they could to inflict trouble and suffering. When someone seemed to be possessed of a demon, the exorcists, whether Jewish or pagan, used complicated magical rites and spells to compel the demon to leave. The power was in the magic, it was believed, so whoever knew the right incantations and ingredients and methods could use them to bring about the unseen conditions that would manipulate the spirit world.
But Jesus was astonishingly different. When the demon-possessed man disrupted the meeting, Jesus simply ordered the demon to leave, and it left. The people in the synagogue had never seen anything like it. Who could have such authority that even the evil spirits have to obey his straightforward word?
Not authoritarian
Jesus, the Son of God, had all the authority in the world—in the universe. God created all things through him and put all things under him. So even these spirits that turned evil, though he allowed them to exist, were completely subject to him (see Colossians 1:16; Ephesians 1:20-21).
Yet Jesus did not use his incomparable authority the way we humans tend to use our little sprigs of authority. Man, proud man, drest in a little brief authority, wrote Shakespeare. For many humans, authority becomes merely a means of enriching oneself, of getting one’s own way, of suppressing the truth, and of getting and holding the power to keep doing those things. Witness the parade of totalitarian regimes, corporate executive, government and ecclesiastical scandals, tyrannical parents, bosses, teachers, government officials and the like.
Not so with Jesus. He has all the authority there is, yet he uses it entirely differently from the way many people would. Let’s look at a few examples:
He took action when necessary. Jesus did not stifle normal living by trying to prevent all possibility of something going wrong. He didn’t post sentries at the doors to keep all potential demon-possessed-looking people from coming in. He simply dealt with the problem decisively when it arose.
He didn’t overreact. Jesus didn’t make a Broadway production out of making the demon leave. He didn’t knock the demon around for a while, tell it off for 10 minutes, scream at it, kill it or declare war on all demons. He just made it go.
He didn’t crow about it. Jesus didn’t use the incident to further his image. He didn’t print up flyers and bill himself as the one who tossed out the demon.
Servant authority
Jesus uses authority to serve, not to be served. And that is how he wants us to use whatever authority we might have. Whether our authority is at home, at work, or somewhere else, he wants us to use it to help others, not to make ourselves into big shots.
Later in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus explained it to his disciples like this, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42-45).
What a difference it makes when the authority we’re subject to is a blessing instead of a curse. “When the wicked rule, the people groan,” says Proverbs 29:2. It is when authority is used to help, not to overpower, that those under it can rejoice.
Jesus doesn’t overpower us to make us knuckle under. He serves us with patience and mercy, helping us grow to see how much we need him. Sin is a cruel, harsh, manipulative, unforgiving taskmaster. Jesus is compassionate, gracious, patient, loving and merciful. The authority of sin is fraudulent, but the authority of Jesus is absolute.
Walk with Jesus
Why not take your needs to Jesus? Give your problems to him and trust him to see you through them.
When it comes to Jesus’ authority in our lives, how do you think he uses it? To help us, or to lord it over us? Many of us live as though we think Jesus uses his authority to lord it over us. We assume his love for us is conditioned on how well we behave. We feel discouraged and fearful that God no longer loves us when we fail to measure up in our obedience.
But Jesus uses his authority to help us, not to destroy us. He drives out the demons, not us. And literal evil spirits are not the only kind of demons Jesus has authority over and drives out for us. Sin itself is an enemy that does us damage and lords it over us. So are our fears and our doubts.
When our sins and fears start a commotion, it’s time for us to take them to the one who knows how to handle them. We can take them to Jesus in prayer and trust him to know what to do.
What’s your enemy? What habit, what sin, what fear plagues you, saps your courage and energy? What has you beaten down, enslaved? Whatever it is, it cannot withstand the authority of Jesus. When you give these battles to him, the complexion of the war changes — the enemy is on the run. When you stand close to Jesus, these enemies can’t have the last word and can’t push you around. When your attention is on Jesus, they don’t seem so fearsome, so strong, because Jesus puts them into perspective as the puny weaklings they really are. In Jesus, you are bold and strong, and these bullying, fast-talking fears and sinful habits are weak and insignificant.
Why not take your needs to Jesus? Give your problems to him and trust him to see you through them. He’s there for you, now and always.
For reflection:
Why were those at the synagogue amazed at Jesus’ teaching?
Why did the evil spirits have to obey Jesus?
How did Jesus use authority?
How can Jesus help you?
For further reading:
God Is for Us by C. Baxter Kruger, Perichoresis Press, 1995.
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A Lesson About Asking (Mark 1:29-34)
As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. 
Even Jesus needed a rest. The synagogue let out in time for the Sabbath meal at noon, and Jesus went to the home of Simon and Andrew to eat. But even in a private setting, he was ready to help those who asked him. This wasn’t a “big” miracle in terms of crowds and renown. It was a private, personal, family need. The household had come to know Jesus as one who cares and helps, so they made it a point to tell him about Simon’s mother-in-law having a fever.
Take it to the Lord
We don’t know whether Jesus knew about Simon’s mother-in-law being sick before they told him. But we do know this: as soon as they told Jesus about her, he went to her and healed her.
That sounds like a good case for telling Jesus about things. Yes, there is no question that Jesus already knows what our needs are, but he wants us to learn to ask him to help us with them. The same goes for the needs of others. Jesus already knows what their needs are. But he wants us, his people who have his Spirit in us, to ask him to help. Simon’s mother didn’t ask Jesus to come to her; others did.
Why should we go through the traumas and crises of life alone? In the Psalms, God gives us examples of his people taking personal fears and concerns to him. When we lay out our problems before God, we know we have been listened to, and we know we are in the hands of someone who will do for us what is right and good.
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).
Asking for help
When we ask Jesus to help, it shows certain things about us:
It shows that we know Jesus is the right one to ask.
It shows that we trust Jesus.
It shows that we care about the problems that Jesus cares about.
It shows that our hope is in Jesus.
It shows that our lives revolve around Jesus.
It shows that we belong to Jesus.
When we ask Jesus to help, it does certain things to us:
It reminds us of Jesus’ power.
It reminds us of Jesus’ love.
It reminds us that Jesus is in charge of everything.
It reminds us that Jesus knows our needs.
It reminds us that Jesus wants to help us.
It reminds us that Jesus listens to us.
It reminds us that Jesus does what is right and good for us.
When answers come
As soon as Jesus healed her, Simon’s mother-in-law got up and started serving others. If we were to draw a principle from this, it would be that just as Peter’s mother-in-law used the strength Jesus gave her to do good things for others, so we should devote what Jesus gives us to doing good for others. She did what she could do, and we should do what we can do. It all amounts to the same thing — taking care of each other.
Anyone can ask
After sunset the crowds arrived. The news had spread about how Jesus had cast out the demon, so the town brought their sick and demon-possessed to Simon’s door, and Jesus healed them.
Jesus is good regardless of who asks. It’s hard to imagine that everyone in town that night was a holy, righteous haloed saint.
Capernaum was like other towns, full of regular people who were regular sinners from every walk of life. But they came anyway, sins and all, and bathed in the glory of the Son of God. Jesus didn’t ask them forty questions before he healed them. He didn’t get out the sacred scales and weigh their sins against their good deeds. He just healed them. That’s how he is.
Redeemer of his creation. He created in love and he redeems in love. He wants everyone to come to him, because in him is the only place healing and life truly exist. That evening in Galilee, the people of Capernaum had a taste in the here-and-now of the kingdom age to come.
Authority to help
When the Jewish exorcists and healers tried to cast out demons or heal fevers, they followed prescribed magic-like rituals, some of which are laid down in the Talmud. For example, according to William Barclay: “The Talmud actually lays down the method of dealing with it [a burning fever like that of Simon’s mother-in-law]. A knife wholly made of iron was tied by a braid of hair to a thorn bush. On successive days there was repeated, first, Exodus 3:2-3; second, Exodus 3:4; and finally Exodus 3:5. Then a certain magical formula was pronounced, and thus the cure was supposed to be achieved.”
Jesus amazed everyone because he didn’t use any kind of ritual or incantation at all. He simply ordered demons to leave on his own authority, and they left. He simply told people to rise and walk, or touched their leprous skin, or took their hand and lifted them up and they were healed. His authority was and is the authority of the Maker and Ruler of all things.
That’s why you can bring your problems to him. That’s why you can trust him to do for you what is right and good. What’s eating away at you right now? Why not take it to Jesus and ask him to help you?
Reflection:
1. Does Jesus perform only large miracles, or will he help you in small things?
2. What do you need to tell Jesus about?
For further reading:
Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, by Richard Foster
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A Lesson About Priorities (Mark 1:35-39)
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
Jesus replied, ”Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. 
What’s important? We usually consider whatever is the most urgent to be the most important. When we need to use the bathroom, for example, that need becomes both urgent and important, something that must for the moment take priority over everything else. Many things take a priority spot in our lives. Sometimes it might be a movie or television show we’ve been waiting to see. It might be a trip we want to take, or a special event we want to arrange or attend. Sometimes it might be something we want to buy, maybe a new CD, a pair of jeans, a computer, a car or a house. The priority might be a relationship, a job, a project. It might be an illness, a tragedy or a difficult ordeal.
Prayer a priority
Prayer is the kind of priority that lies at the root of all the others — at the root of life itself. It’s a lot like eating; if we rarely eat, our physical health will suffer. We’ll be weak and sick. It will affect our ability to carry on the activities of life. In a similar way, if we rarely pray, our spiritual life will lack vitality. We’ll approach the challenges and successes of life on our own, as though we’re not totally dependent on God even for life itself.
Without prayer, we fall into fear, anxious worry and even despair.
Without prayer, we begin to take credit for the good things in our lives, chalking them up to our skill, knowledge, wisdom and hard work. We begin to forget that all our skill, knowledge, wisdom and hard work are gifts of God—he gave us the mind, body and circumstances of life that enabled us to have and develop those attributes.
On the other hand, without prayer, we fall into fear, anxious worry and even despair at the failures, frustrations and bad events in our lives. We become unsure of God’s love for us, unsure that he stands with us in our problems. We feel alone and afraid, doubtful about our ability to cope with what life is heaping onto us.
Prayer is the grease, we might say, that keeps the gears and wheels of life in good working order. Without prayer, we see ourselves as alone against the world, left to fend off the storms of life on our own wits and brawn. It is in the course of prayer that we learn to see the true state of things — that we are creatures within a creation, creatures dependent on our Maker and on all the other parts of the creation, and as such, never alone.
Hard to find time
It’s a crowded, hectic world for most people. Opportunities for time alone, much less for prayer, are limited. Life has its immediate demands, its already scheduled priorities lined up to overwhelm us and keep us forever playing catch-up—jobs, classes, homework, housework, yard work, kids, church, health problems, car problems, home repairs, accidents, ants, traffic, crowds, lines, appointments and, oh yes, sleep.
Of course, there might well be a considerable amount of time that we could devote to prayer that we use on other things — things that don’t really have the kind of priority that prayer should. For example, most of us have our favorite television show, and that’s fine. But how often do we find ourselves sitting in front of the television — watching shows we don’t really care about — just because nobody got up and turned the infernal thing off?
We make priorities out of things we care about. It isn’t that we don’t care about prayer, it’s just that it often seems like just one more chore on top of all the other chores, and since God doesn’t cry when he doesn’t get his dinner or send collection agents out to repossess the washing machine, we tend to put prayer farther down the priority list.
It might be helpful to see prayer in a different light from that of one more chore to get done before (or after) turning off the light at night. Time with God is different from other time. It refreshes and rejuvenates. It relaxes the mind and body to release to God our worries, our anger, fear and anxiety. It’s a better antidote to frustration than nibbling on donuts or chocolate bars. It fills our need for intimacy better than affairs or pornography. It’s a far more productive way to handle anger than exploding at our spouses and children. It lasts; those alternatives don’t.
Therapy, not duty
It’s easy to view prayer as a duty, an obligation. When we do that, prayer becomes hard, something to put off, a burden and pressure all by itself. What a tragedy. We’d hardly consider talking to our best friends a duty. We talk to them because we like them. It’s a lift to talk to them. It helps us feel better, reminds us we’re not alone in this world, gives us strength to carry on.
It’s harder with God. God’s invisible. And he doesn’t say much. Sometimes we wonder if he’s even there at all. We have the Bible, but a book isn’t the same as an oral conversation.
Talking to God takes place, you could say, in our heads, by faith, not by sight, touch or sound. We can’t look God in the eye, smell him, shake his hand or pat his back. Instead, we “sense” his presence in some spiritual, unseen way. We believe. We trust. The Holy Spirit, also invisible, tasteless and odorless, communicates God’s reality to us on a level other than our five physical senses. We don’t understand it; we can only experience it.
Spending this time with God is great therapy. Therapy is remedial treatment of a bodily disorder, whether physical, emotional or psychological. When we think of prayer as much needed therapy, rather than as “our Christian duty,” it puts prayer into a clearer perspective, I think. When we go through our daily, weekly, monthly routines without acknowledging God as the root and core of our lives (which he is), our attitudes, emotions, psyche, even our bodies, suffer the ill effects of trying to live as though we are self-existent — not dependent on God and his creation for our life and being.
To hand over our concerns to God, whether for ourselves or for others, reminds us that our lives and future are in God’s hands. Even our past, with all its baggage of sin, selfishness and ignorance, is in God’s redemptive hands. The act of acknowledging God as the loving, wise and powerful Being that he is is remedial treatment for fear, worry and frustration. It’s like an expert massage, removing tension and stress from our muscles, only better. Who wouldn’t like a great massage every day?
Prayer is the perfect therapy for our tense, knotted and stressed spirits, and it’s free! We can take a moment for a quick spiritual “rubdown” in the form of silent prayer just about any time we want during the day. And we can set aside time for a good, long session at times that work with our schedules. Think about it: if you had a certificate for a free full-body massage every day, you’d likely find a way to work it into your schedule as often as possible — even if you had to get up before everybody else and hightail it down to the gym at 5:30 a.m. You’d do that because you know what good therapy it is and how good it makes you feel. (If you are one who doesn’t like or can’t tolerate massages, please forgive the analogy.)
Not a substitute for action
There is another thing we can learn from Jesus’ early morning hike to a solitary place for prayer. When it’s time for action, it’s time for action. When your child or your spouse needs your attention, it is not the time to go off and pray. When you need to repair a faucet, or make a call, or prepare a meal, it’s not the time to disappear for an hour in a closet. We can and should be able to pray any time, any place, while we go about our business. The time to go to a solitary place for extended prayer is a time when we don’t have other duties, responsibilities and obligations.
How did Jesus do it? In the instance cited in this passage, he got up early, before the regular day’s activities began. You might find that other times work better for you. The point is, see prayer as a priority that will make all your other priorities more manageable and less stressful. Let your prayer time be a time to relax, to let God’s love bathe and salve your frayed nerves, your taut emotions, your exhausted and frightened heart. Let prayer time be your time to rest in God, to let him renew your strength, brighten your hope, sharpen your faith.
Has prayer slipped to the bottom of your “to do” list? Why not set aside some time today for an overdue therapy session with the Master Therapist?
For reflection:
Does prayer seem like a chore to you? Why or why not?
Do you have trouble thinking of things to pray about? Have you thought of sitting quietly with God as a valuable part of your prayer time?
What are some of the ways prayer has helped you?
How would you describe “answered prayer”?
What is your favorite place for prayer?
Suggested Reading
Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, by Richard Foster.
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A Lesson About Misperception (Mark 1:40-45)
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. ”I am willing,” he said. ”Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.
Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
We are not going to talk about begging Jesus on our knees for healing. I suppose many people have taken this passage as an example of what to do when we sincerely desire to be healed of an affliction. But just about as many people have been disappointed to find that Jesus did not respond to them in the same way as he responded to this leper. So there is no sense in our pretending that if we go to Jesus on our knees and beg for healing that we will assuredly receive it. We believe that Jesus has given us the greatest healing of all — healing from our sins — but he does not always heal our physical ailments. We trust him to do what is right and good for us and to stand with us in our suffering.
Nor are we going to talk about offering the sacrifices that Moses commanded for cleansing. Much has been said and written about the differences between the old and the new biblical covenants; there is no need to cover that again here.
To obey or not to obey
The lesson we are going to consider in this article has to do with why Jesus did not want the healed leper to tell anyone about his healing. Jesus gave the healed leper the strong warning, “See that you don’t tell this to anyone.” But the former leper did not obey Jesus. He went straight out and freely spread the news. As a result of this man’s disobedience, “Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places.” Even in the lonely places, people came to him “from everywhere.”
Should we applaud the former leper, or should we lament his disobedience to Jesus’ strong warning? I am reluctant to try to answer that question, except to say that I have found that it is smarter to obey Jesus than not to obey Jesus.
In today’s world we have the view that telling people about Jesus by whatever means we can muster is the most important activity in which we can be involved. So when we read that the healed leper went out and “began to talk freely, spreading the news,” we tend to get excited and wish we could have that same overwhelming joy and evangelistic fervor. For this reason, many of us like to magnify healings and other miracles into advertisements and publicity opportunities for the gospel.
But Jesus did not want that man to go out and spread the news. Jesus wanted his identity as healer of the sick to remain secret. In verse 34, we read that Jesus would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. Similarly, in chapter 8, Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do people say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Christ.” Jesus responded by warning the disciples not to tell anyone about him. That is the very opposite of what we might have expected. We want everyone to know about Jesus. But Jesus did not want everyone to know about him. What’s going on?
Messianic secret
Why would Jesus want his disciples not to tell anyone about him? Here was the visible, flesh and blood, miracle-working Jesus walking and preaching all over the country. What better time for his followers to lead people to him and tell them who he was? Unlike today, when we must tell people to trust an invisible Jesus in faith, here Jesus was in the flesh. But Jesus was clear, strong, and even stern in saying, “Don’t tell anyone who I am.”
Perhaps one of the reasons Jesus gave this order lay in the expectations of the crowds who followed him. What did they want? What were they looking for?
In chapter 11, we find a clue. When Jesus entered Jerusalem the week before he was crucified, “Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, ‘Hosanna!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!’ ‘Hosanna in the highest heaven!’” (Mark 11:8-10).
When people heard that Jesus was the Messiah, they were happy to receive the news. The problem lay in definitions and expectations. What the people expected Messiah to be and to do was quite different from what Jesus the Messiah came to be and to do. The people expected a king who would rally the people, and with the blessing of God, lead them to victory over their Roman conquerors and restore the kingdom of David in all its glory. They did not understand what Messiahship was all about. Their idea of Messiah was different from God’s idea of Messiah. When they heard the term, they misunderstood it, because they had been conditioned to expect something else.
With this in mind, it becomes clearer why Jesus did not want his disciples or those he healed to spread the news about him. It was not the right time for the people to hear. The right time for the news to spread was after Jesus had been executed and raised from the dead. Only then could the real purpose of God in sending Messiah be understood for what it was.
Lesson
In our world today, there are many concepts about God. If you talk to 10 people on the street, you will likely find 10 different opinions about who God is, what God is like, how God deals with humans and what God expects of us. Surveys by George Barna have shown that even among Christians, ideas about who Jesus is, what grace is and how it works, sin, forgiveness, faith, repentance, obedience, etc., vary widely. How much more do ideas about Jesus vary among non-Christians?
Suppose I approach a stranger sitting on a park bench and ask him if he knows Jesus. Suppose the stranger’s idea of Jesus is that of a long-haired, wispy-looking weakling. Suppose his mother used to tell him that Jesus didn’t like it when he played cards. Suppose his most frequent exposure to the word Jesus was on a dirty cardboard “Do you know Jesus” placard glued in the parking garage of his apartment building.
People listen to friends. People listen to those who have proven they care.
What would likely be the first impression this man would have of me and my question? Would that promote the gospel?
Suppose, on the other hand, I met the man, and over a period of time developed a relationship with him. Suppose we became friends. Suppose I was not a flagrant hypocrite and that my life and the way I treated this friend usually reflected the love of God. Suppose he found out, as friends usually do, that I was a Christian. Would that tend to change his flawed perspective on Jesus and Christianity to a more accurate one?
A time to plant…
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 points out that there is “a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven” (New Living Translation). Among these are “a time to plant and a time to harvest” and “a time to be quiet and a time to speak up.” The time to spread the news about Jesus came after his resurrection, not during his ministry; until his resurrection, there could not be sufficient understanding of who he really was. Even the disciples were consistently ignorant about Jesus’ full identity and mission until after the resurrection (Mark 6:52; 8:17).
The same principle applies today — people are often not ready to hear and comprehend who Jesus is until they experience his resurrection life in his people, the church.
“Be careful how you live among your unbelieving neighbors. Even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will believe and give honor to God when he comes to judge the world” (1 Peter 2:12, NLT). Peter does not say, “Press your unbelieving neighbors for a decision.” His focus is on believers’ “honorable behavior.” Why? Because through our honorable behavior, our unbelieving neighbors see the living Christ in action. Peter says this will result in their belief at a time when God chooses (“when he comes to judge the world” implies God’s timing, not ours).
“Most important of all,” Peter says, is that we “continue to show deep love for each other” (1 Peter 4:8, NLT). In a similar vein, Paul wrote, “As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10).
Their instruction on evangelism centered on the witness of a godly life in Christ, not a well rehearsed speech. It is our lives in him that show people who Jesus really is.
Accurate perception
“Instead,” Peter wrote, “you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it” (1 Peter 3:15, NLT). When a person asks about our Christian hope because we live as though Christ is the Lord of our life, then that person has a more accurate perspective of Jesus because he or she has seen Jesus in us. They ask because the Spirit prompts them, and the catalyst the Spirit uses is our godly behavior in Christ, the Lord of our life.
And our conversation, Paul said, should be “gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone” (Colossians 4:6, NLT). People listen to friends. People listen to those who have proven they care. People listen when the relationship is real, not artificial.
Peter wrote: “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another” (1 Peter 4:10). God has richly blessed us with active parts in his work of building up the body of Christ, the church, and reaching out with the gospel to nonbelievers. The greatest tool he has given us is his own life, ministered to us by the Holy Spirit and reflected in the way we live.
Reflection:
What gifts has God given you? How do you manage them?
Does God’s generosity flow through you?
Who is God nudging you to get to know better?
When we pray for people, we tend to show them more active care. Which nonbelieving friends or neighbors are you actively praying for?
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A Lesson About Healing (Mark 2:1-12)
A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, ”Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, ”Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
This is a story about a lame man whose friends believed that Jesus could heal him. At last they found a way to get their friend before Jesus by opening the roof and letting him down by ropes attached to his bed. But Jesus didn’t heal the man’s lameness — he forgave his sins.
The teachers of the law didn’t like that, and with good cause. How could a mere man forgive sins, something that only God had authority to do? Jesus knew their thoughts, and he asked them a question, “Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?”
It’s a rhetorical question. Both statements would be impossible for anyone but God. If Jesus had authority to make the lame walk by merely uttering the word, then he also had authority to forgive sins, because the power to do either was in God’s domain, not man’s.
Today, a team of doctors might be able to restore the ability to walk to people with certain kinds of problems. Even after the operation, however, the person would still need a long period of therapy and rehabilitation. But no one, not even the finest doctor, can simply say, “Rise up and walk,” and cause it to happen.
Which is easier?
Which is easier to say to a paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven,” or “Rise up and walk”? It seems to me that “Your sins are forgiven” is easier.
Why? Sins are between people and God, and their forgiveness is therefore invisible, like God is invisible. You can’t see or taste the forgiveness of sins. You can see a leg fixed. It’s physical. You can see the withered leg; you can see the whole leg; you can see the difference.
Anyone can say, “Your sins are forgiven,” and there is no immediate evidence that the person is a fraud. If someone says to a paralytic, “Get up and walk,” the evidence for or against the person’s authority over sin is immediate and visible to all.
Evidence
The forgiveness of sins is something that becomes real to you as you believe it, not as you see it. The lame man in this story could not see his forgiveness; he could only decide whether to believe that what Jesus said was true. To believe it would lift a great burden of guilt and fear from his shoulders. It would bring joy, peace and comfort. To not believe it would leave him feeling the same old estrangement, alienation from God and fearful expectation of judgment.
The man’s joy in being forgiven was experienced through faith, not through sight. The healing of his legs, on the other hand, was experienced through sight — he didn’t need faith to walk; he simply had to get up.
Either way, it takes God, for no human could heal the legs or forgive the sins. That was Jesus’ point. Sure, it’s easy to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” but how can anyone know for sure that the sins really are forgiven? So Jesus healed the man to show that when he says, “Your sins are forgiven,” they really are forgiven.
By grace through faith
Salvation is by grace through faith. We receive it by grace — we don’t do anything to get it; it’s God’s gift to us, free and clear. We don’t get any document, title or deed as proof that it is done. We just have to believe it or not believe it.
If we don’t believe the gospel — this amazing good news that in Christ’s life, death and resurrection we are saved — how can we experience that salvation? How can we enjoy and benefit from the knowledge of something if we don’t even believe it is so?
Unless we believe the gospel is true, we will go on living as though Christ had not died and been raised for us. But when we believe the gospel, we are overwhelmed by the joy of what Christ has done for us. We begin to live abundantly in his love — resting in his love for us as well as showing his love to those around us.
Can God heal your physical ailments? Yes. Does he heal the physical ailments of everyone who asks? No. What does he say to everyone who asks? He says what he said to the paralyzed man, “Your sins are forgiven.” Which is more important?
A sign
Jesus told the Pharisees, “But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’” To believers, this is unnecessary. We already believe that the Son of man has power to forgive sins. We don’t need a sign of Jesus’ power to demonstrate the fact that he has authority to forgive sins. We feel it and know it as the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit (Romans 8:16).
Believers didn’t need visible signs that their sins are forgiven. Signs are usually for unbelievers. Paul was an unbeliever and an enemy of the gospel, in that he persecuted believers. When Jesus appeared to him in person on the road to Damascus, he became a believer. Many others became believers when they witnessed the signs given by Jesus and the apostles.
Sometimes, though, we wish we did have a sign, because we fall into doubt about the things God has told us. We sometimes doubt whether God really loves us. We often doubt whether God really has forgiven us. Sometimes we even doubt, though we hate to admit it, whether God is really there at all. And our doubt makes us worry all the more that if God is there, he must not love and forgive sinners and doubters like us.
Our Savior is Jesus. Faith doesn’t save us, Jesus does. In our moments of strong faith, we trust him completely and all fear is gone. In our moments of doubt, we fear condemnation. May we learn to trust Jesus to have faith for us when we are in doubt, for it is his righteousness and his faith on our behalf that God accepts. Jesus represents us before God. He stands in for us. And it is for his sake that we are clean and saved. Let our faith be in Jesus, not in our faith.
Myth about physical healing
A rumor goes around that if people really trusted God for healing, they would be healed. So when people aren’t healed, they feel guilty. They look for the supposed “secret sin” that is keeping them from being healed.
Christian friends and family may tell them they need to pray that God will show them their sins so that he can heal them. They might tell the sick person that he or she needs more faith, and prescribe more prayer and Bible study and fasting as the way to get God to heal them.
That’s not gospel; it’s religion. It’s superstition. It reduces God to the level of the ancient pagan gods, tyrants, who cared little for the plight of humans and acted only when they had something to gain, or when a stronger god forced them to. The Father of Jesus Christ is not like those gods.
Religion, as a formula for getting right with God, has no place in the gospel. Our relationship with God is not a business transaction: you, human, bring me six chickens and say the magic words and then I will be good to you. Our relationship with God does not and did not start with us. It started with God, God sees it through, and its foundation is his love, not his convenience.
The reason we pray, as Jesus did, “Your will, not mine, be done,” is that God’s will for us is unwaveringly good, never bad. God is not vindictive; he is love. In this, in his commitment to love us and see us through all things, he does not change (Malachi 3:6). In this, Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). That’s what all this covenant business is about — it’s about God’s faithfulness to be our God and for us to be his people. It’s not about our faithfulness, because if it were, it would be over. God is faithful to his word of promise to love us regardless of what we do.
If we live as his enemies, in constant ungodliness, giving little or no regard to our Maker and Redeemer and his good plans for us, then our lives can never be anything more than the miserable, selfish stabs at happiness that we can conjure up for ourselves. But God is no less faithful to us, regardless of what we do. He continues to leave his door open and the porch light on, even when we are holed up in our shack with our door barred shut. He stands out there and knocks, even when we put in our earplugs and crawl under the bed.
The point is: God is faithful. That’s how he is, and that’s how he will always be. When you look at Jesus Christ, you see how God is. He sacrifices himself for sinners, and calls on the Father to forgive even those whose greed, pride, selfish ambition and jealousy led them to torture and murder him. In that, we all have a stake; we all have greed, pride, selfish ambition and jealousy. But for Christ’s sake, God forgives us. Be cause he is faithful, because he is true to who he is: Lover and Redeemer of his creation.
We pray for healing, but we trust ourselves to the One who cares for us. We believe he will do what is right and good for us. We live by faith, resting in his hands, because he is good.
The main thing
Like the paralytic, we know our sins are forgiven, and that’s what really matters. If we are healed physically too, that’s an added blessing. But we should remember that the paralytic died. Lazarus, who was raised from the dead, died. Every person who was ever healed, eventually died, and unless Jesus comes back before we die, we’ll die too, whether we were ever healed of a disease or not.
Physical healing is great, and we praise God for the wonderful healings he has given and continues to give, but we look ultimately to something that lasts forever. Like those cited as examples of faith in the book of Hebrews, we look for a better country, a permanent one, a heavenly one, promised to us by the One who is faithful (Hebrews 11:13-16). Praise God, our sins are forgiven!
Reflection
Have you doubted God’s love for you? What do you think caused your doubt?
Why do you believe God has forgiven your sins?
How would you describe God to a small child?
What is the most memorable time in your life when God gave you help?
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A Lesson About Assumptions (Mark 2:13-17)
Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ”Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. 
While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ”It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
The Pharisees assumed that if a person ate with sinners, that person was a sinner, too. Levi was a Jew who worked for the Roman government. He was a tax collector. Tax collectors were renowned for their dishonesty. If that were not bad enough, they were also ritually unclean. They rubbed shoulders with gentiles. Their clothing touched the unclean garments of gentiles. Their dishes and eating utensils weren’t purified.
Naturally, since Jesus and his disciples ate with such people, Jesus and his disciples were unclean, too. He ate not only with tax collectors, he ate with sinners in general.
Reversal
The Pharisees, of course, were right. According to the Law, an Israelite who placed himself in contact with ritually unclean people became unclean as well (Leviticus 15:7; Numbers 19:22).
But the Pharisees knew Jesus was no ordinary Israelite. They had seen his healing miracles. They had heard him forgive sins, and they had witnessed his power to cast out evil spirits. With such demonstrations, Jesus disturbed the Pharisees. Their authority was thrown into question. The applecart of their prestige and influence among the people was upset. Their agendas for preparing Israel for its Messiah conflicted with Jesus and his kingdom. Their interpretation of Israel’s law was threatened.
When they caught Jesus blatantly flaunting the Law by consorting with sinners and eating with impure hands from impure dishes with impure people, they knew such a man could not be from God.
Their assumptions prevented them from seeing what was really going on. God was not interested in cleansed appearances; he was interested in cleansed hearts. Jesus was coming into contact with sinners. But instead of the sinners making him unclean, he was making them clean.
From this passage, we learn that the grace of God ministered through Jesus Christ isn’t limited to righteous people. It extends to sinners, even to the kind of sinners that disturb righteous people.
Foolish assumption
The Pharisees were not happy. Jesus was eating with people a good man would have no business eating with. Such conduct proved to them that Jesus was not a good man.
Who could deny it? They saw it with their own eyes. They knew the facts. They knew the implications. And they were not the type to sit by and do nothing. They confronted Jesus’ disciples.
Mark does not tell us what Jesus’ disciples said. He only tells us that Jesus found out what the Pharisees were asking and answered the question himself. He told them that healthy people have no need of a physician, but rather those who have illness. It is interesting that the word Mark used here, which is translated “illness” in the NIV, and “sick” in most other translations, is kakos, which means “bad” or “evil.”
Jesus continued, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
It may be that the conversation between the Pharisees and the disciples, and the one between the Pharisees and Jesus, took place well after the meal was over. That would make sense, considering the fact that if the conversations had taken place during the meal, then the Pharisees themselves would have been present at a meal with tax collectors and sinners.
Regardless of when the conversations took place, the Pharisees made a foolish assumption. Of course, they did not know it was foolish. They assumed that they were “healthy people,” and that they had no need of a physician. They assumed that they were righteous, and that Jesus’ call to sinners did not apply to them. They had found righteousness in their diligent faithfulness to do everything they believed God had required of his people in the law.
Trust and follow
Jesus said to Levi, “Follow me,” and Levi got up and followed him. Levi found righteousness in the Son of God. He saw with his own eyes what the accusing Pharisees also saw but could not recognize. He saw what Paul described in his letter to the Romans: “In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” (Romans 1:17).
Levi made no assumptions. He saw, he listened, and he believed. He trusted the One sent from God because he trusted God. May we, too, live by faith, not by assumptions.
For Reflection
Can a person be righteous apart from Jesus? (Mark 2:17)
Are you too sinful for God to forgive?
Why did Jesus spend so much time with sinners?
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A Lesson About Old and New (Mark 2:18-22)
John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”
Jesus answered, ”How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins” (Mark 2:18-22).
The primary fast of the Jews was the Day of Atonement, one of the seven annual solemn assemblies of the Law of Moses. The Pharisees also fasted on the second and fourth days of every week. Apparently, the disciples of John were doing something similar. (The Pharisees didn’t have disciples in the same sense as John or Jesus. The term “disciples of the Pharisees” might refer to anyone who followed the example of the Pharisees.)
Although such fasting was not part of the Law of Moses, by Jesus’ day it had become an important expression of the Pharisees’ meticulous devotion to the ceremonial law. To the Pharisees, if Jesus’ disciples were not fasting, then it called into question their piety, sincerity and devotion toward the ceremonial law. Further, it called into question Jesus’ attitude toward the ceremonial law. Jesus had already healed on the Sabbath, and his disciples had already been noticed picking grain on the Sabbath and eating without the prescribed ceremonial washing. Add to that the lack of fasting, and the Pharisees must have found this upstart rabbi increasingly troubling.
Incompatible
After Jesus was gone, fasting would have a place in the Christian community. It would remind believers of their dependence on God, of their need for God’s mercy, and of the power of God for the salvation of those who believe the gospel. Until then, Jesus’ disciples had no reason to fast. In the Bible, fasting is a sign of disaster, or a voluntary abasement during times of great stress or trial. But the presence of the Son of God on earth with his disciples was a time of joy, not of sorrow. The time for sorrow would come later, when Jesus was murdered and taken away.
In any case, fasting in the manner of the Pharisees, as a sign of their devotion to the ceremonial law, was incompatible with the new covenant Jesus was inaugurating. For Jesus’ disciples, fasting while Jesus was with them would have been like sewing a new piece of cloth on an old garment — it would have been incompatible. Jesus’ point was that the old has gone, the new has come. The two are not compatible. To put new wine in old skins ruins both the skins and the wine. New wine requires new skins.
Today, it’s still easy to try to pour the new wine of the gospel into the old wineskins of the Law. Grace doesn’t come easily to us. We like to have a way of measuring where we stand with God. The gospel tells us simply to trust God that he loves us and has forgiven all our sins for the sake of Christ. But we often want something more tangible than that. We want something we can sink our teeth into.
So we run back to the Law. The Law provides a way of measuring where we stand with God. If we avoid sexual sin, for example, and lying, and stealing, and murder, then we can have a firmer basis for feeling that God isn’t mad at us. If we don’t use crude language, if we don’t watch entertainment that has sex and violence in it, if we help others, if we don’t miss church, and so on, then we can rest easier about our relationship with God. Of course, these are good behavior patterns, part of the way we naturally desire to live when we have fellowship with God.
But even when we’re successful in behaving well on the outside, a deeper problem remains. Doing good things doesn’t solve the problem of our alienation from God. Our pride, our selfishness, the sin in our heart of hearts, is still there. And every once in a while, when our guard is down, what we really are inside squirts out to remind us that we’re still sinners. Then we can either pretend we’re not really that bad, or we can admit to ourselves what we’re really like.
Not based on the Law
Fellowship with God is not based on the Law. It is based on God’s faithfulness to his word of grace. God told Israel: “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed” (Malachi 3:6; compare Deuteronomy 4:31). God’s free determination to do as he pleases is what gives us a positive relationship with him. He tells us through the words of Jesus in John 3:17: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John wrote, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). He did not write, “God is justice.” If God were after justice, none of us would survive. But God has determined to dispense grace rather than condemnation. We are told, “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). How grateful we can be that God is the way he has chosen to be! God’s devotion to us is the basis of our fellowship with him, devotion that God has demonstrated through Jesus Christ.
Rest
When we’re really honest with ourselves, we know that despite constant trying, we still sin. Where does that leave us? We can either work harder and harder to keep up the whitewashed façade of personal righteousness, or we can turn it over to God and trust him to forgive us and make us righteous. If we take God at his word, then we can rely on him to do in us and for us what he says he has.
Faith gives us rest. It transforms godly living from a duty, from a way of proving ourselves, to a joy, to a way of taking part in the good life we can have with God in Christ (referring not to physical abundance, but to spiritual contentment, to the inner peace only God can provide, which is worth more than physical riches).
Most of us can use a good rest.
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A Lesson About God’s Love (Mark 2:23-28)
One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”
He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”
Then he said to them, ”The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” 
The consecrated bread consisted of 12 loaves placed on the golden table outside the most holy place in the tent of meeting. It was a special offering to God, and was set out fresh every Sabbath. It was to be eaten only by the high priest and his sons (Leviticus 24:5-9).
Nevertheless, in the absence of any other food, David and his men ate it (1 Samuel 21:1-6). Jesus cited this incident as an example of how rules, even God-given ones, are not intended to take precedence over human need. In this way, Jesus tells us something important about divine rules: God made them, and he made them to serve humans, not to rule humans.
Love
In Jesus, God shows us that the core of authentic human life is love. The person who loves, Paul wrote, fulfills the law. We could say that the only reason the law of God exists is to point us toward the life of love. To love is to enter into the divine fellowship of the Holy Spirit, to dwell in the eternal love of the Father for the Son and of the Son for the Father.
People are more important than systems and programs. People are more important than rituals and religion. John wrote that if a person loves God, then that person will love his brother (1 John 4:20). William Barclay wrote: “The best way to worship God is to help men” (Gospel of Mark, Revised Edition, Saint Andrew Press, 1991, p. 64). It might be easy to think that loving God and loving one’s neighbor are two different things. They are not. Our love for God is expressed precisely in how we treat others. If we are mean, hateful, cruel and inconsiderate of others, that is a demonstration of how devoted (or not devoted) we are to God.
God loves all people, even the ones we have no use for, the ones we treat as though they don’t matter. When we behave poorly toward the people God loves, then we are behaving the same way toward God. God is interested in people, not in rituals for rituals’ sake.
Sabbath
When it comes to the Sabbath, an idea has gotten around that the Sabbath is greater than God. Let me explain. It is as though God is the guardian or protector of the Sabbath, making sure that people keep the Sabbath holy, and finally awarding salvation only to those who are faithful Sabbathkeepers. In other words, in this kind of thinking, the main thing is the Sabbath; God is the enforcer of the Sabbath. God made the Sabbath, then made himself subject to it, then made people subject to it.
Jesus cleared all such convoluted recipes off the dinner table. He made things plain: people were not made to be servants of the Sabbath; the Sabbath was made to be a servant of people. Furthermore, Jesus was not talking to or about all people. He was talking to first-century Jewish teachers of the law. And he was talking about Israel, the specific humans to whom God gave the Sabbath.
For Christians to assume that the Sabbath commandment is for Christians is to misunderstand the covenant between God and Israel. And for Christians to hold out the Sabbath as a criterion of the truly faithful believers is to misunderstand the new covenant written on the hearts of all God’s people, Jew and gentile alike.
Evangelism
The gospel declares God’s love. It’s interesting how carefully calculated step-by-step programs for evangelism seem to come and go, much like the latest fads in business and management.
The main reason most people come to church and keep coming to church and become believers is the same today as it was 2,000 years ago — they meet people who like them and accept them and become their friends.
Maybe one reason is that programs, by nature, are contrivances. They might work well for business endeavors, where advertising and manipulation of emotions is crucial to selling a product. But the gospel is not a product; it is a declaration of God’s love.
Love doesn’t come by programs. It comes in its own way in its own time. It is strengthened and proven in the crucible of self-sacrifice, patience and forbearance. It cannot be explained; it can only be lived. It’s something you live out, not something you evaluate on a scale of measurable outcomes. It’s messy, not predictable. Some times it hurts, sometimes it thrills. It’s never static. It doesn’t play by the rules; the rules can’t keep up.
The main reason most people come to church and keep coming to church and be come believers is the same today as it was 2,000 years ago — they meet people who like them and accept them and become their friends. Programs don’t do it — love does it.
New command
Jesus gave a new command to his disciples: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35).
That’s a novel thought in our highly organized, programmatic society. Suppose Christians were well known for being the kind of people anybody would enjoy having for a friend. Suppose they weren’t known for being pushy and judgmental. Suppose they weren’t known for well-rehearsed emotional spiels designed to press people into a so-called “decision for Christ.”
Suppose they were genuine, caring and harmless people, who in the love of Christ loved others for who they are. Suppose they didn’t make friends with people as part of some new evangelism program, but simply be cause faithful friendship is what Jesus Christ is all about.
Peter said we should always be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us (see 1 Peter 1:15). Paul said we should let our conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that we may know how to answer everyone (see Colossians 4:6). Neither Peter nor Paul said we should press people to ask. Instead, we are told to live the life of love. We are to make no secret of our faith. But neither are we asked to push it on others.
The Holy Spirit moves people to ask. And the Holy Spirit works in us to give an answer that is “seasoned with salt” and full of “grace.”
Some people call this kind of living “whole-life evangelism” or “relational evangelism” or “life-style evangelism,” etc. But by giving it a name, we run the risk of turning it into a just another program.
Imagine a young man walking up to a young woman outside Lakeside Ice Cream Parlour and saying: “Excuse me. Do you know me? Well, I know you and I know you’re miserable and pathetic and need a great husband. I can fix all that. If you’ll just repeat after me these words, “I will marry you, and we’ll live happily ever after.” She’d slap his face, of course, or call 911, or jab him someplace with her keys.
That’s not how good relationships start. Yet, something akin to that is how some Christians have been taught that a good relationship with Jesus Christ should begin. Thank God, he can and does clean up our messes and turn lemons into lemonade, but what makes us think that is how Jesus wants us to help people learn who he is for them?
Trust
Another word for what Jesus was confronting in this story is legalism. Legalism is incompatible with the gospel. Jesus Christ is who he is for us before we ever do anything. The gospel is the truth about the reconciliation God has already brought about in Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:19-20). Jesus’ work of reconciliation doesn’t depend on us. If it did, we’d never be reconciled, for our faith and our behavior are always substandard at best. God did what he did in Christ because he loved us, not because we loved him first (1 John 4:19).
That’s why we can trust him for our salvation fully, from beginning to end. That is why we do not have to carry a burden of fear that our ever-present weakness in faith or behavior is the crack in the hull that will sink our salvation.
Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath. We rest in him, not in our own works. His love binds us to himself, and he loves us for no other reason than that he wants to! He makes us new in himself, only because he loves us and has chosen freely not to be without us. Paul wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor. 5:17).
That’s good news. God has made people — including you and me — his priority. He loves us, and we can’t make him stop loving us. In that place of refuge, in the security of God’s endless love for us, we are free to make him our priority. Therein lie the unshakable peace, joy, and fullness of life we so crave. Therein lies our true rest.
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A Lesson About Appearances (Mark 3:7-12)
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.
Things are not always as they appear. That was certainly the case with Jesus. The crowd saw a miracle-worker, a remarkable man of God who could heal their diseases. They had come from all over the region, and the crowd was so thick that Jesus had a boat ready in case the crowd pressed him into the Sea of Galilee.
Crowds
Crowds are funny. Crowds don’t have brains like people do. Crowds can’t reason — they can only react, somewhat like an animal reacts. There may be voices of reason in a crowd, of course, but those voices are ordinarily as effective as shouting during a thunderclap.
Ecstatic crowds have been known to stampede and trample people at soccer matches. Such crowds have even, at times, crushed their own players in a mindless rush of bodies. Angry crowds have destroyed property and murdered people. People in crowds often suspend good judgment and do things they would never do if they were alone and thinking.
Crowds can be thrilled one moment and furious the next. Crowds are unpredictable, and for that reason, potentially dangerous. Evil people can stir up crowds to do evil things. Likewise, good people can calm crowds and set the people in the crowd back to straight thinking. A town clerk once did that in Ephesus, which saved Paul’s life (see Acts 19:24-41).
Jesus knew about crowds. He took precautions, but he also knew that his time had not yet come. He knew he would be killed, but that evening at the shore of Galilee was not the time or the place. The time would be the season of Passover, and the place would be Jerusalem.
‘Son of God’
The crowd saw Jesus as a healer of diseases. The demons saw something else. “You are the Son of God,” they called out. Jesus ordered them to be silent.
It might appear that the term “Son of God” would have meant the same thing to that first-century crowd as it means to us today. It didn’t. “Son of God” had several meanings in the ancient world. In gentile nations, it was not uncommon for kings to bear the title “son of god.” Kings of Egypt were “sons of Ra,” an Egyptian god. Many Roman emperors held the title, “son of god.”
In the Old Testament, however, the term “son of God” referred to someone especially near to God. For example, angels were referred to as “sons of God” (Job 1:6). Israel itself was called the “son of God” (Exodus 4:22; Hosea 11:1). God referred to the king of Israel as “my son” (2 Samuel 7:14). The king is referred to as the “son of God” in the second Psalm — “You are my son; today I have begotten you.”
Messiah
The demons knew that Jesus was especially dear to God. Maybe they even knew he was Emmanuel — God with us, or as John put it, “the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), or as in Hebrews, the Son by whom God made all things (Hebrews 1:2), the express image of God’s person (verse 3). In any case, Jesus told them to be silent.
Why didn’t Jesus want people to know who he was Jesus was indeed the Messiah, the anointed one, the king, the Son of David, the Son of God. But God’s idea of Messiahship was radically different from the crowd’s idea of Messiahship. Grace and truth, sacrifice and love were the marks of authentic Messiahship. But a conquering king with mighty armies overthrowing the Romans and leading Israel to national greatness was the Messiah the crowd wanted.
A crowd praised Jesus on Palm Sunday. A week later, a crowd, stirred up by evil men, demanded his execution. Jesus wasn’t what the Messiah watchers were looking for. He had the popularity. He had the people’s imagination and loyalty. He had the charisma. He had the devotion and support of God, as witnessed by his miracles.
But to the most zealous of the Messiah watchers, to men like Judas, it became more and more evident that Jesus was a fraud, a stubborn fool who for whatever reason would not declare himself and take the reins of leadership. To them, Jesus was a supreme disappointment — a man who could have restored the fortunes of Israel but wouldn’t — a man who only appeared to be the chosen of God, a charlatan who was merely giving the people a cruel, false hope.
Savior
Jesus was not the Messiah they had been waiting for. Instead, he was far more than they could have ever dared dream or hope. He was more than they were yet capable of comprehending. He was YHWH himself, Immanuel, God With Us, come to his people as one of them, come to humanity as one of us all, come to deliver us all from the greatest oppression of all, come to restore us all to the household of God.
Mel Gibson’s movie about the crucifixion of Jesus has sparked debate over whether the Jews killed Jesus. The debate itself belies ignorance of who Jesus was and why he came.
Jesus was a Jew, sent to his own people to be rejected by his own people (John 1:11). Yet others of his own received him (verse 12). Jesus was sent for the sake not only of Israel, but for the sake of the whole world (1 John 2:2). Does it make sense to blame Israel for being God’s chosen people? To do so is to blame God for choosing Israel—for choosing Israel as his precious instrument for their vital part in the ultimate salvation of the world. Jesus was the representative of all Israel, the true and faithful Israelite for the sake of all Israel, and it is as the perfect Israelite that Jesus represents before God all people in the world.
Every human is to “blame” for the crucifixion of Jesus, because every human has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). But Jesus gave himself freely, not because anyone “made” him, or because he “had” to. He did it because he loves humanity. It was God’s free grace toward undeserving sinners that led to Jesus’ crucifixion—undeserving sinners like you and me. The crowd that shouted, “Crucify him!” were no bigger sinners than those of us who sing “That Old Rugged Cross” on Easter morning. “Father, forgive them…” Jesus said. And the Father did.
Blame game
Would Christians who “blame” Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus prefer that Jesus not have been crucified? Would they prefer that he not have shed his blood for the sins of humanity and been raised from the dead? Jesus said of his life: “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (John 10:18).
Jesus’ crucifixion was God’s will, Jesus’ will. God loved the world — Jews and gentiles alike — so much, that he sent his “only begotten” (King James Version), or “one and only” (NIV) Son to save the world by dying and rising from the dead (John 3:16).
There is no sense, no logic, no Christian love, in the historical epithet “Christ-killers” that some “Christians” have leveled at Jews. Every human bears responsibility, Jew and gentile alike, for the death of Jesus, and thank God for it; it is through this self-sacrificial means, this supreme expression of divine love and intimacy with humanity, that God has saved us all and restored us to fellowship with him and with each other.
He is risen! The Jesus who in his rejection by us all cried out, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they are doing,” is the same Jesus who rose in glory and is our Advocate with the Father. He is the same Jesus whose Spirit moves us to love one another as he commanded.
Blame the Jews for killing Jesus? Blame anyone for killing Jesus? Nothing could be farther from the heart of Jesus than setting blame, for all humanity is to blame, and in Jesus, all humanity is forever forgiven for all sin. For this purpose he came, and for this purpose he lives that we all might live in him, blameless before God.
Appearances
It was an otherwise ordinary day by the sea. Except for the crowd, the healings and the shouting demons. When it was over, the people went home. They went back to work. They weren’t part of a crowd any more. They were people again; they could think and reason again.
They wondered about that day at the sea. They wondered who that amazing man was who healed the sick. They talked about him in their towns. He had inspired a sense of hope in them, whoever he was. Some said he was John the Baptist, come back to life. Others said the great prophet Elijah had returned. But things are not always as they appear. The day would come when they would hear of this man again. And what they would hear would change everything.
Maybe you need to see beyond appearances too. It might appear to you that your sins have the better of you. It might appear to you that God is fed up with you, sick and tired of your falling short, ready to spew you out of his mouth and wash his hands of you.
Things are not what they appear. God loves you and always will. Christ died for us, Paul says, while we were still sinners (Romans 5:10). Jesus didn’t wait until you were behaving better before he loved you and saved you. Sin doesn’t stand between God and you—God already took that barrier away. That means you can stop worrying and trust him. He loves you, he saved you and he’ll never let you go.
Don’t believe the lies your sins tell you — despite what your sins say, God does still love you, and he won’t ever turn his back on you. So why not take your struggles with sin to him — in faith that he’s already forgiven you — and trust him to help you become more like him? He’s right beside you.
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Another Lesson About Authority (Mark 3:13-19)
Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice,” says Proverbs 29:2 (KJV).
Who has authority over you? Do you see that person as a blessing? Or as a demon?
Jesus’ idea of authority was not the same as that of the typical human. Once, when a dispute broke out among the disciples about which one of them was the greatest, Jesus told them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who have authority over them are called ‘Benefactors.’ But not so with you, but let him who is the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as the servant” (Luke 22:25-26, NASB).
In their wrangling about authority, the disciples were fairly representative of humanity. But Jesus taught them what authority is really all about. Used rightly, authority is a blessing to those who are under it.
In the ancient world, authority could be anything but a blessing. In fact, in every age of human history, angry and self-centered humans have misused authority as a free ticket to abuse and cruelty.
Today, we have our share of tyrant dictators, corrupt corporate officers and law-enforcement officials, despotic bosses, and abusive spouses, parents and prison guards. Wherever humans have charge of other humans, there is the potential for exploitation and maltreatment.
“Masters,” Paul wrote, “provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven” (Colossians 4:1). God is just and fair. That means at least two things. One is that he will be just and fair with you and me. Another is that you and I need to be just and fair too, because we belong to him.
Deliverance
When Jesus gave authority to the apostles, he gave it to them with an explicit purpose — to drive out demons. Demons were evil spirits who tortured their victims by continual oppression that led finally to taking over their wills completely. These evil spirits saw Jesus as their archenemy — and rightly so. Jesus absolutely opposed their cruelty and subjugation of humanity. One of his stated goals was to drive them out and end their tyranny. Oddly enough, the wicked spirits perceived Jesus as the tormenter, because he would not allow them to continue their oppression of humans.
“We know you are the Son of God,” some of them said. “Have you come to punish us before it’s time?” (see Matt. 8:29). The evil spirits recognized Jesus’ authority, and they knew he would not allow their illicit, gangster-style authority to stand. Jesus gave authority to the apostles to do exactly what he was doing — bringing release to the captives.
Jesus came with all the authority in the universe not to take advantage of humans or to take over the wills of humans, but to deliver. Whether we are talking about release from the cruel domination and repression exercised by evil spirits, or about any release from other forms of oppression, authority is to be used for deliverance — to make things better for those being ruled.
Authority, God style, is for the blessing and furtherance of humans. It is to nurture others, to help them develop, improve and grow. Certainly, authority must sometimes be used for discipline. Even discipline can be a form of deliverance when it is given in wisdom. A heart that is ruled by love knows the difference between correction and cruelty.
Choices
Whenever we have authority, we have choices about how we will use it. We can use it to get our own way. We can use it for revenge or retaliation. We can use it to give favors to friends or family. We can use it to dodge responsibility for our actions. None of this is what Jesus had in mind when he gave authority to the apostles.
Jesus delegated authority so that it could be used to deliver others from bondage and oppression. Like any good gift, though, we can misuse it. We can use authority to get our own way, or we can use it to see that the right thing happens — whether it benefits us or not.
Who is under your authority? Employees? Association or club members? Detainees? Applicants? Family members? Parishioners? Children? Do they view you as a blessing? Or as a demon?
Jesus comes to us with deliverance. Part of that deliverance is that he hears the cries of the oppressed. Another part is that he changes the hearts of those who oppress others. If we are suffering, we can ask our Deliverer for relief. If those under our authority see us more as devilish than as blessed, maybe it’s time to ask our Redeemer to change our hearts, too.
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A Lesson About Envy (Mark 3:20-27)
Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”
So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: ”How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.
The Bible tells us that Jesus was made like his fellow humans in every way (Hebrews 2:17). In this passage we find that like many of our families, Jesus’ family was ready to have him committed. They came down to “take charge” of him, believing him to be out of his mind.
Blindness of envy
Among the reasons Jesus was considered out of his mind, Mark informs us, was that Jesus was running afoul of the authorities. He was banishing demons from people, and the authorities, who apparently weren’t, found Jesus’ growing popularity most irritating.
It is a little reminiscent of Saul’s jealousy over David’s military success recorded in 1 Samuel 18. You might think a king would be grateful for the victories of a top general. But not so — Saul saw David as a threat. He feared the people might get the idea that David would make a better king.
The same dynamics seem to be at work between Jesus and the authorities. Jesus was getting too popular. His power over the evil spirits was plain, which made it obvious to everyone that he had the blessing and power of God.
So the authorities saw Jesus not as a blessing, but as a threat. Jesus was better liked than they were. And he was clearly more powerful.
So what to do? Discredit him, of course. But how? Well, let’s see — suppose we tell the people that he has power over the demons because he is demon-possessed himself. Yes! That’s the ticket! The man is demon-possessed, and not just by any demon, but this Jesus whom you are cheering is possessed by Beelzebul himself!
Truth aside
Truth was not the governing factor. God’s will was not a consideration. The joy of those freed from wicked oppression didn’t matter. There was only one goal — discredit anyone who makes us feel insecure. Say whatever has to be said.
The accusation, of course, was absurd, and Jesus exposed it as such. “If Satan opposes himself and is divided,” Jesus said, “he cannot stand; his end has come.”
But Jesus’ remark was deeper than merely exposing the silliness of the authorities’ accusation. The truth was, Satan’s end had come, but not because Beelzebul was kicking out demons through Jesus.
The end of Satan’s kingdom had begun because the Son of God had walked onto the stage of history. Jesus continued: “In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.” Jesus was freeing people from demons because Satan had no power to stop him.
And the authorities knew that. They were not blind. They saw the works of deliverance. But it is possible, even for us, to become so selfishly oriented that we place the preservation of our personal goals above even the hand of God.
Redemption
John wrote, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). When our trust is in Jesus Christ (which is the same thing as walking in the light), we have fellowship with one another. This is a fellowship that breaks through the walls of self-centered living. People matter to us.
Jesus told the disciples: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). Just as light overpowers darkness, so love leaves no place for selfish envy.
Jesus was not a person to the authorities. He was an obstacle, a faceless object to be cleared out of their path. He didn’t matter. Have you ever been treated that way? Take heart: Jesus traveled that path before you. He knows what you’re experiencing.
Have you ever treated someone else that way? Take heart: Jesus has forgiven you. And if you will receive it, he gives you a heart that can see people as people, not as obstacles in your path. Let’s agree to take a look at the relationships in our lives. If there is someone we’ve been disparaging, maybe it’s time to take our concerns to Christ the Redeemer instead of the grapevine.
For reflection
Has someone received a blessing you felt should have come to you? How have you responded? How have you treated that person?
Have you been mistreated recently? How have you coped with it? Have you asked God for his peace (Phil. 4:7)?
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A Lesson About Damnation (Mark 3:22-30)
And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”
So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “... people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.”
“I think I might have committed the unpardonable sin!” The young man’s voice on the other end of the phone was frantic. I tried to rub the sleep out of my eyes and sat up in bed. “Why do you say that?” I asked. “I did it again,” he moaned. “And after I had repented so deeply. I don’t think I’ll ever overcome. I think I’m lost. I feel horrible dread.”
It wasn’t the first time we’d had this conversation. This man’s persistent struggle with sin had led him to believe that he was under God’s curse. If his repentance had truly been sincere, he reasoned, then he would not ever repeat the sin. Therefore, his repentance must not have been sincere, and since he had repented with all his heart, he decided he must not be capable of true repentance.
Another man approached me after a church service one day. “Dr. Feazell,” he whispered. “I don’t know what to do. I think I’ve committed the unpardonable sin.”
“Let’s talk about that,” I said. “What did you do?”
He looked at the ground. “I cursed the Holy Spirit.”
“How did you do that?” I asked.
“I said, ‘Cursed be the Holy Spirit.’”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I was reading the verse where Jesus said that anyone who blasphemed the Holy Spirit would never be forgiven, and I just felt this crazy compulsion to do it. Now I’m scared to death.”
I have heard many strange explanations of the unpardonable sin over the years. I have spoken to many people who fear that they might have committed it. But let us understand something — for those who trust in Jesus, no sin is unpardonable.
When Jesus said, “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin,” he was describing a specific attitude and state of mind that by nature is not true and can never be true of those who trust in him.
Mark explains, “He said this because they were saying, ‘He has an impure spirit.’” The teachers of the law had deliberately refused to acknowledge that the works of kindness and mercy that Jesus was displaying among the people were from God. Because of their own jealousy, they had rejected the plain witness of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was sent from God and was doing the works of God. They willingly blinded their eyes to God’s own testimony through the Spirit that Jesus had come in his name to bind Satan, destroy his evil works and forgive sins.
God sent the Spirit into the world to bear witness to Jesus Christ, the only name under heaven by which humans can be forgiven and saved. To reject that witness, to despise what God has done to bring about forgiveness of sins, is to reject the forgiveness itself. How can a person be forgiven who refuses to accept forgiveness? How can a person’s sins be forgiven if the person rejects the Forgiver of sins?
Are you worried that you might have committed the unpardonable sin? The very fact that you are worried about it is proof positive that you have not committed it. The unpardonable sin is unpardonable only because it is the sin of refusing to come to Jesus to be forgiven. It is the Holy Spirit who leads us to Jesus Christ. The blasphemy Jesus refers to in this passage is the rejection of the Spirit’s witness to him as the Son of God and Savior of the world.
So relax. Trust in Jesus, and rest secure in him. He forgives all sins of every kind, even repeated sins and compulsive sins. And he teaches us through the Holy Spirit, who is his witness, to renounce sin and to live uprightly in him. Remember this: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. For those who come to him, no sin is unpardonable.
For Reflection
What sin are you afraid God might not forgive you for? Have you talked to him about it?
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A Lesson About Hard Hearts (Mark 4:10-13)
Again Jesus began to teach by the lake…. The Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, ”To those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’” (Mark 4:1, 10-13)
At first glance, this passage seems to say that Jesus taught in parables specifically for the purpose of preventing people from understanding what he was talking about. A closer look, however, reveals just the opposite.
Master teacher
Jesus was not deliberately trying to prevent his listeners from understanding what he was talking about. He was doing just the opposite—using parables as a means of relating the invisible kingdom of God to everyday, visible, real life examples and situations the common person could easily relate to.
Parables were a teaching method quite familiar to Jewish teachers and audiences. They were tools for making things easier to understand, not more difficult. In the hands of Jesus, the great master teacher, these tools would have been even more effective. He came to bring good news to the poor, not confuse them with stories impossible to comprehend.
Faithful
The key to understanding this passage lies in the scripture Jesus quoted to make his point to the disciples about the use of parables. He was quoting Isaiah 6:9-10, a passage that chided Israel’s blindness and deafness to God’s love. The translation is easily misunderstood unless the context of Israel’s struggle with God throughout its history is taken into consideration.
The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, noted this problem, and took care to include the sarcastic tone of the wording in its translation. The Septuagint, we should note, was the foremost translation of Jesus’ day. In his commentary on Mark, William Barclay paraphrased Jesus’ intent this way: “Do you remember what Isaiah once said? He said that when he came with God’s message to God’s people Israel in his day they were so dully un-understanding that you would have thought that God had shut instead of opening their minds; I feel like that today” (The Gospel of Mark, Westminster Press, 1975).
Israel, as God’s own people, had already failed to keep their covenant with God and had ended up a conquered people and an occupied nation, first by the Babylonians and eventually by the Romans.
But God promised to be faithful to his covenant regardless of Israel’s unfaithfulness (compare Malachi 4:6). He promised to redeem them in spite of themselves (compare Hosea 11:8-11), and he would do it through the Messiah, the Anointed One, who would be sent to redeem the people and bring them back to God.
But God knew that in the hardness of their hearts, they would also reject their own Messiah. As John wrote in the fourth Gospel, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” But even that would not stop God from redeeming his people, and through them, the whole world.
In their rejection of Messiah, Israel’s sin against God would reach its full measure. They would kill their Savior, but God would raise him from the dead, and his death and resurrection would become the very means by which God would transform the hearts of not only Israel, but also the gentiles.
New heart
Jesus was saying that stubborn, hard-hearted people cannot understand the things of the kingdom of God even when they are taught in the plainest possible language. It takes a new heart, a heart only God can give (compare Ezekiel 36:26).
Sin alienates us from God, and since we are all sinners, we are all alienated from God — not because he rejects us (he is eternally faithful), but because we reject him. In our alienated state, we are incapable of reconciling ourselves to God. We neither know God nor want him meddling in our lives. Even our concept of God is askew; we think of him as a great butler in the sky who is not worth his salt unless he does everything we ask, or as an angry super-being who is always ready to dish out punishments.
Unless God himself takes the initiative to reconcile us to him, we remain helpless, with no future beyond death. That is exactly what he has done in Jesus Christ. In Jesus we learn exactly what God is like, because Jesus Christ is the exact representation of the Father (Hebrews 1:3; see also Colossians 1:19-20).
Gift
We learn through Jesus that God is merciful, patient and full of grace. God is not against humanity; he is for it. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,” Jesus said, “but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned...” (John 3:17-18). Through Jesus, our minds are released from the bondage of sin, and we are freed to put our trust in our Creator and Redeemer.
No one understands the things of God apart from the grace he has made manifest in Jesus Christ. “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you” (Mark 4:11), Jesus told the disciples. Yet before his ascension, even they did not understand the parables, because their hearts were still hard, too. The Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth, especially the truth of the gospel, soon melted their stony hearts into hearts of flesh, just as God had promised through Ezekiel.
God never forces us to love him, for love forced is not love at all. Instead, God frees our minds and hearts from all the barriers, rooted in sin, that would otherwise stand in the way. “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life,” Peter would later write, “through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” (2 Peter 1:3).
Freedom, however, is worthless unless it is exercised. That will be the topic of our next lesson, as we look at the parable of the sower.
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A Lesson About Satan (Mark 4:14-15)
He taught them many things by parables…. The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them (Mark 4:1, 14-15).
The parable of the sower is the first parable given in the book of Mark. In it, Jesus compares the ways people receive the gospel with the ways sown seeds grow. His first example is that of freshly sown seeds being devoured by birds before they have time to take root. Just as birds eat some of the seeds, so Satan comes to take away the word of truth that some people have received.
A few things to note. First, Satan doesn’t come to take the truth away from everyone who receives it. Second, we are not told why Satan comes to some and not others. Third, people are not actually seeds and Satan is not actually a bird; it’s only an analogy. The fact that Satan takes away the truth one time, doesn’t mean he can do it every time.
It is important to know that Satan is not all he’s cracked up to be. He’s definitely more powerful than us humans, but he is no match for Jesus Christ.
God vs. Satan
Have you ever seen a gospel tract depicting a battle between Satan and God for the souls of humans? Sometimes they are in comic book form, showing a demon sitting on one shoulder of a person and an angel on the other shoulder. All rests on the person’s decision, and the two spirits do all they can to sway the person to their side. It belongs in a comic book, because it is a parody of the truth. Satan is not on a par with God, as though he has the power to prevent God from his redemptive purpose for humanity.
In other words, there is no battle between God and Satan for your soul. That battle, such as it was, was won before the foundation of the world and was made plain to the world in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
When a person is the best at doing something, you might say, “She could do that in her sleep.” Well, Jesus not only could defeat Satan in his sleep, he defeated him in his death. Satan is a lame duck ruler. His days as corrupt, bully “prince of this world” (John 12:31) are numbered. He doesn’t have the last word; Jesus does. And Jesus’ word for humans is “Yes.”
Satan is our enemy, to be sure. Peter tells us that he “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). We are no match for a lion, roaring or not, and we are no match for the devil. But Jesus is. Jesus has already de-fanged and de-clawed this “lion.” So Peter goes on to say, “Resist him [the devil], standing firm in the faith….” (verse 9).
Peter is talking about faith in the Son of God. When we stand with Jesus, trusting him, we stand also in his victory over the devil.
Not a quitter
“As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them” (Mark 4:15). But what happens next? Does Jesus throw up his hands, sigh heavily and shake his head in defeat? Does he say, “Well, you got me on that one, Satan.”
In the parable, Satan takes away the word that was planted in the person. We are not told in the parable what the sower does about that. But we are told in the Bible that God does not change in his covenant faithfulness to redeem lost humans. “I the Lord do not change,” he told Israel, “so you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed” (Malachi 3:6).
Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17).
Jesus is a sower who does not give up. The fact that Satan might take away the word from a person doesn’t mean that Jesus won’t sow in that place again. Sometimes, in fact, he might sow in such a place through you.
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A Lesson About Seeds (Mark 4:16-20)
Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
When sowers in Jesus’ day would sow their seeds, some of the seeds would naturally wind up in places unfavorable to growth, while most of the seeds wound up in good soil. Jesus used the result of the seeds in the various kinds of terrain to illustrate the behavior of people with the gospel. He speaks of rocky places, thorny places and good soil.
It is important to note that the parable does not say that God sows people on rocky places; it says that the way some people receive the gospel is like seed sown on rocky places. It is a comparison, an illustration of how some people deal with the gospel. It is not a justification for viewing God as deliberately making it impossible for some people to embrace the gospel.
People who abandon the word of God in the face of persecution are like seeds that grow on rocky places and therefore have little root. In a similar manner, people who let the word of God take a back seat to the worries of life and the pursuit of wealth are like seeds that get choked among thorns and shrivel.
In contrast, people who hear the word of God and accept it and produce the fruit of it are like seeds that germinate in good soil where there are no impediments to healthy growth.
Listening to Jesus
People, however, are not actually seeds, and God does not actually cast people into situations that prevent them from accepting the gospel. Jesus’ parables should not be pushed beyond the point that Jesus intended them to make.
Seeds don’t think. They don’t make choices. They don’t have the ability to ask God for help. The point of the parable is not to tell us that we are hapless seeds doomed to whatever fate might chance to befall us because of the sower’s indiscriminate scattering. The point of the parable is that we should take steps to prevent ourselves from acting like helpless seeds.
When we find ourselves letting the cares of this world put the gospel on the back burner of our lives, then Jesus wants us to take note and make a change. He wants us to deepen our spiritual roots, to chop up the spiritual thorns in our lives. He wants us to nestle into the good soil of spending time in his word, of taking our issues, our hopes, our fears and our triumphs to him in prayer. He wants us to put the word of God to use in what we choose to do, to let the gospel flow out from us in kindness, mercy and peace.
It is easy to use the parable of the sower as a tool to judge others, to look down on people we think are weak in the faith and bound to fall away from the word of God. It is harder, but far more useful, to let the parable of the sower teach us and admonish us to keep an eye on our hearts, to make sure that greed, pride and anxious care about possessions and self-importance are not easing into the driver’s seat in our lives.
Are you looking for a New Year’s resolution? How about this one: Hear the word, accept it and love others as Jesus loves us. That’s the lesson of the parable of the sower.
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A Lesson About Measurement (Mark 4:21-25)
He said to them, ”Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”
“Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”
On the list of frustrating things, heavy traffic ranks pretty high. And drivers who don’t signal, don’t look, won’t move over, cut people off, speed, tailgate, go too slow, or drive incredibly noisy or incredibly large vehicles rank among the world’s most frustrating people.
I find it surprisingly easy to condemn drivers — other drivers, that is. I find it just as surprising how easy it is to forgive my own driving mistakes. I wish I could say this phenomenon only pertained to driving. But the truth is, I find it far easier to forgive myself for just about anything than to forgive the same mistakes in others.
Jesus casts the spotlight on this all too human tendency when he says, “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you — and even more.” At first glance, this might seem to be a simple matter of cause and effect: you forgive and then your act of forgiveness will merit forgiveness for you. But to understand Jesus’ statement on those legalistic terms would be a mistake.
Jesus makes a similar point in Matthew 18:35, when he says, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” It might be easy to assume from this statement that God forgives us on the basis of our forgiveness of others. But that would be a false assumption. God forgives us on the basis of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on our behalf and in our place.
In these statements, Jesus is not prescribing a new form of legalism; he is describing the nature of hearts that trust in him. For example, when we trust in Christ, we no longer have anything to hide. The day will come, of course, when nothing remains hidden (verses 21-23), and that is true whether we trust in Christ or not. But for those who do trust him, that day is in effect already here — they have nothing to hide from him.
But the reason they have nothing to hide from Jesus is not that they are suddenly sinless. It is that they trust him to love them unconditionally and to forgive their sins, sins that they are no longer afraid to show him.
In the same way, those who trust Christ are free from the craving to measure others with the stern rod of selfishness. Because they trust Christ, they can commit their fears and anxieties to him, which frees them from the need to get even or get back at others. In other words, they know they are measured by Christ’s rod of grace, which takes the starch out of their natural tendency to condemn others.
Whether it’s in traffic, at the courthouse or around the dinner table, we’re no longer slaves to our raw impulses—we are free to forgive others as God, for Christ’s sake, forgave us, and as Christ lives in us, we do.
What Jesus says in verse 25 is a condemnation only to those who don’t trust him—their selfish measuring rod is the only standard they know and the only one they understand. But for those who trust the Redeemer, there is only one measure — the ever-unfolding heights and depths of the love of Christ.
I’m learning not to listen to my knee-jerk reactions to miserable drivers. I’m learning to mutter, “God bless him” instead of … something else. It’s not only a good reminder of who I am in Christ, it’s a hazy reflection of the heart of Christ which, by his grace, dwells in me.
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A Lesson About Lessons (Mark 4:30-34)
Again he said, ”What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”
With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.
What is the smallest seed in the world?
If you said, “The mustard seed,” you wouldn’t be alone. That’s a pretty common belief among Christian Bible readers. But, as surprising as it may seem, it’s not true.
“Wait just a minute,” you might be tempted to say. “Doesn’t the Bible say that the mustard seed is the smallest seed in the world?”
No, it doesn’t. I used to think it did, just as many people still do.
Missing the point
A little study into horticulture will show that the mustard seed is not the smallest seed in the world. Poppy seeds, for example, are smaller than mustard seeds, as shown in the photo at left. For some people, those are fighting words, because they think it means that someone is calling Jesus a liar.
But Jesus did not say that the mustard seed is the smallest seed in the world. Jesus was giving a parable, and just as it has always been with his parables, the typical human response is to miss the point.
The point of the parable is not mustard seeds; the point is the kingdom of God. Mustard seeds are only part of the stage decoration Jesus used in getting across the point he was making about the kingdom. Parables use imaginary scenarios involving mundane things to make a point about something else — something spiritual and unseen.
Parables are not literal, historical stories. That’s what makes them parables. They are imaginary stories created to help listeners or readers understand a deeper concept about something else. The teller expects his listeners to know that parables should be understood as beginning with: “Imagine this.”
In Jesus’ case, he told parables to give insight into the kingdom of God. In this parable of the mustard seed, he is asking the listeners to imagine a mustard seed that is smaller than all other seeds, but then that tiny, insignificant seed grows into something so big that it can provide shelter for the birds.
Jesus was not saying that mustard seeds are the smallest seeds in the world. He was saying that the kingdom of God can be likened to a mustard seed, an imaginary one (remember, it’s a parable), that is the smallest seed you could possibly plant, but then it grows to become the largest plant in the whole garden. He was talking about the kingdom of God, not giving a science lesson.
Miraculous and amazing
Jesus wanted us to know that the advance of the kingdom of God begins in a small, practically unnoticed way with a baby born in a stable to a poor woman in an occupied country. That baby grows up to be rejected and despised by the leaders of his own people and crucified like a criminal on a Roman cross. But despite that weak, apparently insignificant beginning, he was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of God the Father as Savior and Lord, both Creator and Redeemer of all the universe (compare Colossians 1:15-20).
Speaking of both his death and his resurrection, he said, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). From smallest seed to sheltering tree.
Look for the lesson
Jesus built his parables around common, ordinary things that people knew about. Farming, business, poor people, rich people, powerful people, weak people. But parables have a point, a lesson, that goes beyond the mere details of the story. And the lesson is usually made through a surprising twist, an unusual aspect that lifts the details of the story from the ordinary to the amazing.
No wonder Jesus used parables. The kingdom of God and the grace of God are amazing. But if we spend our time trying to turn the details of Jesus’ parables into science and history textbooks, we will miss the lesson.
After reading Animal Farm, would we argue over whether pigs could really talk? After reading Les Miserables, would we scurry to French prison records to find whether there really was a Prisoner 24601? Do we get hung up on whether it was scientifically possible for things to turn to gold when King Midas touched them? Or do we simply think about the stories, ponder the analogies and learn the lessons?
Jesus told stories, good ones, that illustrated important aspects of the kingdom of God. Truth has to do with communicating a true message, and often that is done with creative stories, analogies, metaphors, similes, poems and songs. And Jesus was a master at it.
Imagine that.
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A Lesson About Storms (Mark 4:35-41)
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, ”Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ”Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
He said to his disciples, ”Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
The crises of life have often been compared to stormy seas. They come upon us whether we like it or not. They terrify us. They knock us around and threaten to destroy all our stability and security. We don’t know whether we can survive them. And we don’t know how long they will last. At least, that’s how a storm at sea would be for most of us. For Jesus, it was just a chance to grab 40 winks.
As Mark tells the story, the disciples were terrified that the boat was going to break up and everyone would die. But Jesus was asleep (on a cushion no less, Mark notes, adding to the contrast between Jesus’ tranquility and the disciples’ panic), apparently oblivious to their pending doom. They roust him and cry, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (v. 38). Of course, Jesus quiets the storm with a word, but then he chides the disciples: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (v. 40).
Some of the lessons in the story are obvious. Jesus has power over the storms of life, experiences them alongside us, loves us, saves us from them and wants us to trust him more than we do.
Let’s look at a lesson that might not be so obvious. Storms don’t worry Jesus. He’s right there with us during them, but he’s perfectly calm about them. He isn’t terrified; he isn’t impatient; he isn’t worried. In fact, he’s so calm, he’s asleep. To us, he seems to be asleep at the switch. We wonder why on earth he doesn’t get up and do something. We start to wonder whether he even knows the trouble we’re in. Whether he cares. Whether he even can do anything about it. Whether he’s really all he’s cracked up to be.
Like the disciples, we believe he’s there. In the disciples’ case, they could actually see him lying there asleep. We don’t have that luxury. We believe he’s there, but most of the time he seems just as asleep as he was during the storm that day on the Sea of Galilee. The psalmist had the same lament in Psalm 44:23-24: “Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?”
Maybe that’s why Mark included this story. The not-so-obvious lesson is that Jesus was just as much in control, and the disciples were just as safe in his hands, while he was asleep as while he was awake. Most of the time, life seems like a relentless voyage from one storm to the next. At least it does for me, and I expect it’s the same for you. One thing I’ve learned about myself is that during storms I’m usually a scared rabbit just like Jesus’ disciples were.
But I’m also learning that I can take heart in knowing that Jesus isn’t scared, and he isn’t depressed. He might be asleep, or he might not be, but either way, like the song says, “He’s got the whole world in his hands.” Even if he doesn’t wake up and quiet the storm, I’m safe with him. And if he does wake up and quiet the storm, he’s probably going to say: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
And I can live with that.
Reflection
Does it sometimes seem that God is ignoring you when you need him most?
Has a trial you’ve gone through made you stronger spiritually?
Do you feel that Jesus should keep you from going through trials?
When was your faith most tested?
Why does God let us suffer trials if he loves us?
For further reading:
Where Is God When It Hurts? by Philip Yancey
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Jesus Is Coming (Mark 5:1-18)
They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.
When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, ”Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”
Then Jesus asked him, ”What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.
Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him.
Some people feel sorry for the pigs in this story — a poor, innocent herd of snorting and grunting swine minding their own piggy business on the hillside, and Jesus lets a bunch of evil spirits enter them and run them off a cliff to their deaths in the sea.
I don’t feel sorry for the pigs. I didn’t feel sorry for the halibut I ate for dinner last night either. That halibut sacrificed its life so that I could have some protein. I don’t know how many beasts, birds, fish, trees and plants have likewise died so that I, by eating them, wearing them or otherwise using them, might live. The herd of pigs that night on the shore of the Sea of Galilee died instead of the child of God whom Jesus traveled across the dark and stormy water to save (see Mark 4:35-41).
No match for Jesus
The man’s demons, so powerful he describes them in terms of a Roman legion of 6,000 warriors, made the man torture himself (Mark 5:5). They caused him to be ostracized and chained (verses 3-4). They caused him unrelenting anguish and misery; but they could not destroy him.
Evil spirits these were, hateful and cruel, bent on destruction of whatever they possessed. The instant they entered the pigs, these demons destroyed them. But they could not destroy the one man they possessed.
Under the old covenant, the one Hebrews 10 says was fulfilled in Christ, pigs were ritually unclean, and as such were not even to be touched, much less eaten, by children of the covenant. Jesus, in effect, “sacrificed” a whole herd of swine for the sake of this one tormented man living among the tombs. To Jesus, the deliverance and restoration of one human being is worth whatever sacrifice it takes, even Jesus’ own torture and death on a wood cross at Golgotha.
How long had this man lived in the graveyard under the unforgiving power of this legion of demons? We aren’t told. But we do know this: Jesus was coming. In Mark’s story, the only reason Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee that evening—bringing the disciples through a storm they feared would kill them all, but which Jesus calmed with a word — was to deliver that poor man from his bondage.
Jesus is coming
What are your demons? What has you in self-destructive bondage? Know this: whatever your devils may be, they do not have the power to finally destroy you. Jesus is coming, he’s coming for you, to set you free. Not even death can stop him — his or yours; he conquered death itself. He can free you from anything.
The song says, “Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the waters…” Maybe that’s what the Gerasene demoniac wanted to do when he ran to Jesus after seeing him from afar (Mark 5:6). But all he could do was fall on his knees and let the demons do the talking (verse 7). It didn’t matter. Jesus came to save him, regardless of the odds, regardless of the depth of the pit the man was in, regardless of the man’s inability, because of the demons, to ask Jesus to save him.
Jesus freed him and banned his demons forever by way of the pigs drowned in the sea, symbols of the uncleanness and the end of the demons, as well as of the personal sacrifice of Jesus, who took the uncleanness of the world upon himself and cleaned it — that you and I might live free in him.
It has been said that most people have a hard time relating to the story of the Garasene demoniac, but that drug addicts relate to it easily. That makes sense. I think that anyone who takes sin seriously, like Jesus does, relates easily to this story. Like the demoniac, howling away in the dark from the tombs, even when our sinfulness darkens our hearts, somewhere deep inside we know our need, and we know Jesus is the one who has come to set us free.
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A Lesson About Hope (Mark 5:21-43)
Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, ”Who touched my clothes?” 
I hate crowds. I hate the jostling, the noise, the sense of being herded in directions I might not want to go and the frustration of proceeding at miserably tedious speeds. It’s no wonder that Jesus disciples’ were a bit sarcastic when he once asked the crush of bodies knocking him around in a Judean crowd, “Who touched my clothes?” 
As it happened, Jesus was in this crowd only because he was on his way to heal the feverish daughter of a synagogue ruler who pleaded that Jesus have mercy on his dying child. Mark likes to tell his stories about Jesus like sandwiches — one story sandwiched in the middle of another—kind of like Jesus was sandwiched in this crowd.
“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’”
Yes, that’s exactly what Jesus could ask. He could ask because he’d felt something quite different from the normal collisions of shoulders and elbows and sandals and hips and thighs. He’d felt that “power had gone out from him” (verse 30). He’d sensed that someone had touched his clothes with a definite purpose in mind, a definite need, and that this person had done so believing that through this act God would give deliverance.
And indeed God had. Mark fills in the story for us, even though at the time the disciples were in the dark about what had happened. It seems that a woman had been suffering from debilitating menstrual hemorrhaging for 12 years.
This woman had spent everything on doctors to try to find a cure, and they had done nothing but make her problem worse. Now she was out of options, but that’s when she heard that Jesus was coming to town. She decided that if she could just touch his clothes, she would be healed. So she bored her way through the sweaty bodies, came up behind Jesus, and touched his cloak. Instantly, the bleeding stopped and her suffering was over.
The mustard from Mark’s sandwich of two stories begins to leak over onto both slices of bread at this point. Jairus, the synagogue ruler, was not afraid to walk right up to Jesus, fall at Jesus’ feet, and plead for the daughter he loved. But the sick woman was different. She was just as determined and just as believing as Jairus in Jesus’ power to save. But she was too afraid to approach this mysterious man of God head on. Unlike Jairus, she sneaked up behind Jesus, flicked a finger across the wrinkles of his robe and sunk back into the anonymity of the crowd.
But despite her fear, despite her low opinion of herself, maybe because of her status as a woman, but even more likely because of her status as unclean because of the purity laws about menstrual flow, Jesus noticed her. And he called her to him. And he called her daughter.
Meanwhile, Jairus’ daughter died, and the messengers of this news told Jairus not to bother Jesus any more about it — after all, it was too late. But Jesus ignored them. He went straight to Jairus’ house and despite the scorn and disbelief at his statement that the girl was not dead, but only sleeping, he took her by the hand and gave her back her life and Jairus back his daughter.
Jesus doesn’t care who you are. He doesn’t care if you’re timid and shy, young or old, a leader or an outcast. He knows you, loves you, cares about your needs and fears and crises, and is ready to help. He listens to your up-front, head-on pleas and he senses hopeful hearts at the back of the line and behind the door. Your personality, your temperament, your status, nor even (especially) your sinful history can erect a barrier he can’t bring down like the walls of Jericho.
What’s your need? What’s your crisis? What’s your fear? Take it to Jesus. Take it to him in whatever way works for you. He loves you. He’s on your side. And he’s waiting.
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A Lesson About Faith (Mark 6:1-6)
Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
When the prophet Samuel was looking for the right man to anoint king over Israel, God sent him to the house of Jesse. Jesse’s grandmother was the Moabitess, Ruth, and his great-grandma was the infamous woman of Jericho, Rahab. An unlikely family in which to find the most famous king of Israel. But if that were not enough, when Jesse brought out his eldest and most accomplished son to meet Samuel, God said, “No, Sam, that’s not him.”
Samuel went through seven of Jesse’s boys, and God turned thumbs down on every one. Perplexed, Samuel asked Jesse, “Are you sure that’s all your kids?”
“Yeah,” Jesse said. “That’s it. Well, except for David, of course, but there’s no way he’s the one you’re looking for. He’s nothing but a sheep kid. He’s out there with the sheep now—definitely not king material.”
All Jesse’s boys nodded and a couple snickered. “Definitely not king material.”
“Listen, Samuel,” Jesse said. “These are all fine boys here. Why don’t you ask the Lord again, because you can bet your sandals that if one of my boys is going to be king, it’ll be one of these. David’s nothing special, and frankly, things are better around here when he’s off with the sheep.”
Samuel shook his head, eyeing the imposing lineup of Jesse’s boys. Tall, good looking, and probably good warriors, he figured. Why does the Lord always have to pick the low enders? He smiled. He himself was a bit of an unlikely choice too, come to think of it. If it hadn’t been for his mom’s crazy vow, he might have been a normal kid instead of growing up in the tabernacle cleaning linen and hauling water for old Eli.
“No, the Lord says it’s none of this bunch. You’d better go fetch this David out of the pasture.” He shrugged. “With the Lord, you never know. I had to pull Saul out from behind a pile of grain sacks, you know. The kid was shaking like an olive leaf.”
With a laugh, the prophet added: “The Lord doesn’t see people the way we do. He’s not into looks and all that folderol.”
You know what happened. David’s brothers must have been a little miffed that little brother David was anointed king instead of one of them. Maybe they felt a little like the sons of Jacob, who resented the way their dad made over spoiled little Joseph as if the older kids were little more than glorified ranch hands.
It was no different with Jesus. How can somebody you grew up with, somebody you might have watched grow up, somebody whose habits and idiosyncrasies often got on your nerves, suddenly start acting as though he thought he was somebody? Just who in Galilee does this guy think he is?
Woody Allen once said, “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.” Or maybe it was Mark Twain. Or Groucho Marx. Or all of them. Anyway, the people of Nazareth must have had a similar policy: “Anybody from around here has got to be a loser; just look at us. No, we don’t care if he can do miracles, this guy has got to be a fraud.”
So Jesus said his famous line: “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home” (Mark 6:4). You might not remember it quite like that, but don’t forget the King James Version is nearly twice as old as the United States; a little modern English is good for the soul. Jesus said it in Aramaic, anyway, and none of us would make that out, even if we’ve studied it, because understanding someone’s pronunciation from 2,000 years ago is different from reading it today.
But we digress. The lesson we’re drawing out of this passage is that we’re a whole lot more enamored with impressive strangers than we are with the people we already know all too well. That helps account for sexual affairs, you know. It’s all in the mystery. If you really knew the goofball you were shacking up with for the night the way his or her relatives and friends do, you’d stay a million miles away. But alas, we have more respect for people we don’t even know than for those we do.
It was in Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, that he could heal only a few people. Why? Because they didn’t believe he could possibly be a healer. They could not accept one of their own as being somehow greater than they were, even if it meant foregoing the healing he could have brought them. Faith and humility don’t travel without each other. Trusting Jesus means seeing yourself in need of him. Knowing your need for him generates trust in him. He’s in town, your town, right now. Trust him with your burdens. Let him give you rest. It’s you he’s come to see.
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A Lesson About Instructions (Mark 6:7-12)
Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two....
The first time Jesus sent out the disciples, he gave them some pretty specific instructions: Go two by two, take a staff (presumably a shepherd-style staff, not an office staff), but don’t take anything else — no food, no satchel, no money. Wear sandals, but don’t take a change of clothes. When you get to a town, stay in the first house you enter until you leave that town. And if anybody doesn’t welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet on your way out of town.
Strange stuff. Apparently they followed the instructions, and apparently they had a good trip — they drove out a lot of demons and healed a lot of sick people by anointing them with oil.
But why the unusual instructions?
Some people think those instructions should still be followed today. Not many people, thank God, but there are some who prey on unsuspecting generous people, citing this passage as their badge of authority to move in and leech off somebody by masquerading as a “servant of God.” Don’t listen to such people—they’re con artists, not evangelists or prophets or whatever else they might call themselves.
So what did Jesus have in mind with these strange rules for this first “disciplic” excursion? Mark is brief, just giving the facts, but not the background. His first readers probably knew what was behind these instructions, but a couple of thousand years down the road we have to piece it together from what we know of the religious and social customs of first century Judea.
Two by two
The command to go two by two might reflect Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15, where Israel was taught that at least two witnesses were needed to establish the truth of a matter — in this case, the veracity of Jesus’ ministry.
They were to take no food, satchel or money. It might be that Jesus simply wanted to illustrate the fact that his followers were to trust God for their needs. Or it might be that he wanted to show that his followers were not like certain speakers of the day who traveled into towns with a collection bag to gather money. Or maybe the idea is that they were to travel light to symbolize the urgency of their mission.
Beyond that, it gets pretty murky. They were to take a staff, or walking stick. We could invent a meaning for the walking stick, but it would be our invention. For example, we could say that the disciples would be shepherds of the flock one day, and the staff symbolizes that. But we would be guessing.
Shaking the dust
Why sandals? We’re not told. The shaking of dust from the feet might be easier to understand. According to tradition, when a Jew returned to Judea from visiting a foreign country, he was to shake the dust off his feet, thereby keeping the land unpolluted from the dust of gentile lands. The disciples were to shake the dust off their feet as a witness against any Jewish towns that refused them, maybe symbolizing that such a town was cutting itself off from Israel by refusing Jesus.
Whatever the reasons behind them, these instructions were not intended to be the norm for all mission style work from then on. They were unique instructions for a unique band of men on a unique mission, unique even for them. The commands were specific to that particular mission, and they probably had something to do with presenting a symbolic testimony to Jesus as Messiah, even though we’re not directly told that.
The Bible is full of instructions that we should follow, but it is also full of stories about instructions that were given to particular people for particular reasons in their particular times.
Naaman, an Aramaic general who suffered from leprosy, was told by Elisha the prophet to dip in the Jordan River seven times to cure the disease (2 Kings 5). Should we go jump in the river to heal our skin problems? The Israelites were told to go outside the camp with a shovel to relieve themselves (Deuteronomy 23:12-13). Should we avoid toilets and drive out of town when we need to relieve ourselves?
It’s a good idea to look at the principles behind a particular instruction as a way of helping us determine whether and how to apply that instruction to ourselves in our day. Some biblical instructions might not apply to us at all. Others might need to be applied in ways that are appropriate for our day and circumstances, rather than the specific ways they were applied in biblical stories.
Jesus said that what marks us as his true disciples is that we love one another (John 13:35). Now there’s an instruction that means exactly the same thing today as it did when it was first given. Wouldn’t it be great if we gave that one the most attention?
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A Lesson About Guilty Consciences (Mark 6:14-29)
But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”
Herod Antipas was a man with blood on his hands. Of all his accomplishments, great and small, during his 33-year reign as tetrarch (he was not actually a king), he is best remembered for his murder of John the Baptist.
Maybe it’s only when past deeds come back to haunt us that our consciences truly come to life. Most people spend their lives covering up their dark side, keeping their skeletons securely locked away in hidden closets under the back stairs of their minds.
Hiding from our sins
It’s a sin management thing. Keeping the shame and horror of our sins out of sight and out of mind allows us to function in the light as normal, decent human beings.
It allows us to live with ourselves. But there’s always that nagging fear that we have to keep pushing back into the shadows—the fear that somehow, some day, one of those skeletons is going to come to life, crash its way out of the closet, walk up to us in the middle of a crowd and wag its boney finger accusingly in our face.
That’s what Herod thought had happened. He had never successfully managed to keep the memory of John’s murder chained silently beyond the boundaries of his struggling conscience. Of all the people he had executed, certainly most of them enemies and criminals, this was the one he actually regretted.
It wasn’t a political assassination or an act of revenge or even retribution. It was a simple act of cowardice, of embarrassment. He had made a boast in front of two women and was ashamed to take it back. So he murdered the one bright spot in his otherwise decadent, self-indulgent life. Why not? He had bowed to the ruthless demands of his wife, Herodias, before. It was easier that way. One more time shouldn’t matter so much. But it did.
Clean conscience
What Herod didn’t know was that the man he feared was John the Baptist raised from the dead was actually Jesus the Messiah, the King of the Jews whom his father had tried to murder 30 years earlier in the massacre of the babies in Bethlehem.
But you and I do know. And we know that Jesus can clean out all the skeletons in all our closets — if we want him to.
When we trust our lives to Jesus, we no longer have to manage our sins by hiding from our consciences. Jesus cleans our guilty consciences (see Hebrews 10:22), and God erases our sins from his memory.
Why suffer the misery of a guilty conscience when we don’t have to? Isn’t it time to unlock the closets for our Savior?
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Feeding 5,000 and Walking on Water (Mark 6:30-52)
“The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught” (6:30). Jesus sent them out two by two in 6:7-13, and verse 30 is the tail end of one of Mark’s literary sandwiches. Jesus sends out the disciples on their mission, then we are told of how John the Baptist was killed, and this verse tells us that they reported to Jesus how their mission trip went. If we read the two accounts as a whole, we are reminded that carrying out Jesus’ mission may carry the ultimate price: martyrdom. Matthew’s version makes that more explicit; but here there is only a subtle hint.
They had a successful mission, and yet they are confronted with sobering news about John the Baptist. So Jesus “said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat” (6:31). The crowd was besieging them, and they needed some time to relax and recover.
So they went by boat: “And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.” But verse 33 tells us that the only down time they got was while they manned the oars: “Many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.” I’m not sure how the logistics work here – the people were able to see where the boat was headed, and they walked around the shore faster than the boat could go in a straight line. 
Jesus could have seen all the people before he landed, but verse 34 tells us that he landed anyway:  “As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” Jesus is taking on the role of a shepherd-king. The Old Testament prophets had lamented that the people were not being taken care of by their leaders, so Jesus responds by teaching them. They didn’t need a military leader – they needed a teacher.
But the main function of these verses is to set the scene for the miracle that follows. “When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat’” (vv. 35-36). It seems to me that when the hour is late, the people need to go home and sleep, not just eat. But the disciples were concerned about food. Maybe they were the ones who were hungry.
“But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’” Remember, Jesus had just sent them out on a teaching mission, and they had success. Jesus wants them to continue to be extensions of his ministry, and to be shepherds of the people. But they didn’t seem to get the hint. “They said to him, ‘Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?’” That may be a reasonable question, but I doubt that they had the money, and I doubt that village shops would actually have that much bread for sale. It was not a genuine question. It would be like us saying, “What do you want us to do, go down to the 7-11 and buy $5,000 dollars worth of bread? We don’t have that much money with us, and the 7-11 wouldn’t have that much bread.”
Nevertheless, Jesus tells them what to do: “He said to them, ‘How many loaves have you? Go and see.’ When they had found out, they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’” That’s all they could scrounge up. (Only John tells us that the food actually came from a boy.)
“Then Jesus ordered the disciples to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass.” Mark is the only one who tells us that the grass was green (which shows that it was springtime, but that is not important to the meaning conveyed by the story).
“So the people sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, Jesus looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke the loaves…” Did he bless God, or bless the loaves? Grammatically, it’s not clear.
Jesus “gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all.” This was not “everyone come and get your own” – the disciples were to be the agents of distribution. And everyone ate as much as they wanted, and presumably put a few pieces in their pockets, too, but there was still a lot left over. But they didn’t throw away the scraps – the disciples “took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.” Matthew tells us that there were also women and children. Either way, it’s more than twice the population of Capernaum! 
Why would the disciples carry that many baskets with them? I suspect that “baskets” here is functioning as a unit of measurement. The point is that they each ended up with a lot of food.
How did it happen? Mark doesn’t tell us. Nor do we know if the people perceived a miracle at all. The miracle was done not to impress people, but to impress the disciples, and to give them a role in Jesus’ ministry. 
It’s a nice miracle, but what’s the point? There is a contrast here between the feast given by Herod Antipas, and the feast given by Jesus. One was an exercise in self-indulgence, status, and murder; the other was an occasion of generosity. Jesus is the better shepherd, who actually cares about the sheep, more like Moses, who fed the people in the wilderness. (That’s why the bread is given more attention than the fish are.) 
Right after this miracle, Matthew, Mark and John tell us about Jesus walking on the water. This is what Mark 6:45 says about it: “Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.” In other places, Jesus had trouble with the crowds pressing in on him, but here it seems that he was able to disperse the people all by himself. We aren’t supposed to worry too much about logistical details like that – Mark is simply setting the story up.
“After saying farewell to them [the crowds?], Jesus went up on the mountain to pray. When evening [nightfall? – John says it was dark] came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind…” I’m not sure how well he could have seen a small boat out in the lake when there was a strong wind that would kick up big waves. But even from the shore, he could have figured out that the wind was blowing the wrong way, and if he could see the boat at all, he would know that they hadn’t made much progress.
So he goes in for a closer look: “He came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by.” That’s a strange comment, it seems to me (and Matthew apparently thought so, too, because he didn’t include it). Why did Jesus want to “pass them by”? Maybe Mark means as if he were going to pass them by – that is, Jesus wasn’t walking directly toward the boat.
“But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified.” I don’t know what it is about ghosts that make people scared (what do ghosts actually do to people??), but I suppose that if I saw something like this, I’d be a bit anxious, too. However, people back then believed that ghosts could NOT walk on water. In Greek mythology, the dead stayed in the realm of the dead because they could not walk on water. They had to pay money to a boatsman to get across the River Styx; they could not walk across.
Jason Combs writes, “Gods and divine men walk on water; ghosts do not. But when the disciples see Jesus walking on water, they believe the impossible [a ghost on water] rather than the obvious [Jesus is divine].” (Jason Robert Combs, “A Ghost on the Water? Understanding an Absurdity in Mark 6:49-50,” Journal of Biblical Literature 127 (2008): 358. ) The thick-headed disciples fail again to see who Jesus really is.
“But immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased.” Another calming of the storm! Not surprisingly, “they were utterly astounded,” But the reason that Mark gives is surprising: “for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.” Matthew and John do not have this criticism of the disciples. 
I think that walking on water, and suddenly calming a strong wind, would have astounded anybody. But Mark tells us that they were astounded because they did not understand about the loaves. It’s as if they were reacting to the wrong miracle – a bit of a time lag in their mental processing.
What is the connection? Just because Jesus can multiply bread does not mean that he can walk on water – or does it? Perhaps the thought is that if Jesus can multiply bread, then he is divine, and nothing is beyond his ability; the disciples should not be surprised no matter what. They did not understand who Jesus was, because their hearts were hard, and God had not yet revealed everything to them. But we do have to give them some credit: they continued to follow Jesus.
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The Fig Tree and the Temple in Mark 11:12-16
Jesus’ cursing of the unfruitful fig tree presents Christians with a dilemma unique in the Gospels. A cursory reading of the text portrays Jesus as acting quite out of character, using his divine power in selfish anger to curse a mere tree because it did not act contrary to nature by providing him fruit out of season to satisfy his hunger. Many ideas have been brought forward in an effort to explain the apparent anomaly of Jesus’ behavior in the fig tree incident. These range from flatly rejecting the authenticity of the account to blaming the confusion on a problem of “misplaced clauses habitual with Mark” (Cotter 66).
I believe the account is best understood, however, when it is taken just as it is written, and when it is interpreted in light of: 1) Mark’s overall goal of declaring the identity and authority of Jesus and 2) the significance of the fig tree in Jewish and Roman culture. In this paper, I will suggest that Mark intentionally designed the account as it stands for the purpose of intensifying the meaning of Jesus’ identity and authority, as well as declaring the fate that awaited Jerusalem.
The account of the cursing of the fig tree (11:12-14, 20-26) is interrupted by the description of Jesus’ cleansing of the temple (15-19). This a-b-a structure makes evident the connection between the fig tree and the temple (Lane 400). It is instructive to note, however, that even this structure is sandwiched between another—two accounts pointing directly to Jesus’ identity and authority (Hooker 261): Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the colt, declared as the one who comes in the name of the Lord (11:1-11) and the questioning of his authority by the chief priests, the scribes and the elders (11:27-33). The entire chapter, then, forms an elaborate a-b-c-b-a structure, a carefully constructed pericope that leads the reader to a greater understanding of Mark’s central issue: the identity and authority of Jesus.
First, Jesus is identified and hailed as the one who comes in the name of the Lord, who ushers in the kingdom of the Messiah, the son of David (1-11). Next, Jesus instructs his disciples, using the figure of the fig tree, about what will befall the nation that has rejected its king (12-14). He then enters the temple and cleanses it, acting within his authority as Messiah, and the chief priests and the scribes reject him and begin looking for ways to kill him (15-19). Next, Jesus and his disciples pass by the fig tree on the way back to Jerusalem and find that Jesus’ declaration that no one would eat fruit of it again had become reality, which leads to instruction about faith, prayer and forgiveness (20-26). The structure of this pericope is then concluded by the account of the chief priests’, scribes’ and elders’ refusal to accept Jesus’ authority (27-33). Chapter 11, therefore, is consistent with the overall focus of the Gospel of Mark: the identity and authority of Jesus. With Mark’s structure in mind, we will now proceed to analyze the cursing of the fig tree, beginning in verse 12.
As Mark sets up the story, he points out several facts. It was the day after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem (12). Jesus and his disciples were walking from Bethany (12), where they had spent the night (11), toward Jerusalem (15). Jesus was hungry (12). He saw a fig tree in leaf in the distance. He went to it to see if it might have any fruit, but found only leaves (13). Then Mark adds the confounding clause, “for it was not the season for figs” (13d). This is the troubling element for many who find this passage difficult. If Jesus’ purpose in approaching the fig tree were simply because he was hungry, as Mark intimates, and it was not even the season for figs, which Jesus must have known before he even approached the tree, then how can he be justified in saying to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again” (14)? Before we consider the answer to that question, we need to take note of additional facts provided by Mark.
When Jesus made the statement to the tree, Mark notes that “his disciples heard it” (14c). Picking up the story in verse 20, after the cleansing of the temple, we find that the fig tree had not only withered away, but had withered away to its roots (20). We are also told that Peter “remembered,” and that he called Jesus’ attention to the withered tree, saying Jesus had “cursed” it (21), even though the word “curse” was not used in verse 14. Then, without apparent transition, Mark says Jesus “answered” them (though no question is posed) by giving instruction about faith that can remove mountains (22-26)—another enigmatic passage for many Christians, which we shall comment about later.
Let us now consider how the facts provided by Mark serve to clarify the meaning of what would otherwise be a troubling passage. First, we need to note that “his disciples heard it” (14c). The presence of this statement indicates that Jesus’ pronouncement on the tree was a teaching situation. Jesus’ words were intended to instruct his disciples, and the incident, therefore, was intended to provide the opportunity to teach them and the reader. In contrast, we find Jesus again teaching immediately after he cleansed the temple (17), and Mark tells the reader that “when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they were looking for a way to kill him” (18). Mark often provides a reaction to Jesus’ actions and instruction —astonishment (10:51), grief (10:22), inability to understand (9:32), etc. In this case, the response from those who “heard it,” unlike his disciples in 14c, is to reject Jesus and look for ways to kill him.
Once we recognize that the fig tree incident is recorded as a teaching situation, the lesson of which is given in the events and sayings of Jesus in the following verses, the reasons for Mark’s letting the reader know that Jesus was hungry (12), that he knew the distant fig tree was in leaf (13), and that it was not the season for figs (14), begin to come into focus. The fact that Jesus was hungry provides not only the immediate reason to approach the tree (a fact essential to the narrative — approaching a fruitless tree only to be disappointed would be meaningless unless someone was hungry), it is also vital to the prophetic declaration Jesus was to make. Many scholars agree that Jesus would have had in mind such passages as Jeremiah 8:13: “When I wanted to gather them, says the LORD, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.” The fact that Jesus was hungry and approached the fig tree looking for fruit illustrates his identity and authority as the Judge of Israel who finds that the nation, despite its “leafy” appearance, has not produced the fruit God desired.
Another view of why Mark points out that Jesus was hungry is suggested by A. de Q. Robin in connection with Micah 7:1-6:
It is quite conceivable that seeing the fig tree brought this Micah passage to the mind of Jesus and in accordance with the Rabbinic practice of indicating a passage of scripture by quoting its opening words, he was heard by the disciples to say: “My soul desires the first ripe fig.” This could quite easily lead to the misunderstanding that he was hungry, when in fact he was commenting on the state of the nation and its leaders, before pronouncing the judgement of God upon them first in the symbolical action of cursing the fig tree, then in the cleansing of the Temple (280).
There is no question that Jesus had in mind the fig tree as a symbol of the nation and its leaders in accordance with the Old Testament prophets, nor that Jesus did, on occasion, indicate a passage of Scripture by quoting its opening words (as in Mark 15:34), but I would expect to find in the text the actual quotation of the opening words if that is what Mark intended. Although I agree with Robin’s assessment of the meaning of the passage, I do not find it necessary to conclude that there was a “misunderstanding that he was hungry.” Rather, I see the fact that Jesus was hungry as necessary to the unfolding of the lesson he was about to teach, and with Robin, as symbolic of God’s desire to find fruit on his beloved, but stripped “tree,” Israel.
Likewise, then, the fact that “it was not the season for figs” (13d) becomes essential to the sense of the passage. Jesus was not out to condemn a non-bearing tree; he was pronouncing judgment against the religious barrenness of the nation. The tree is not in trouble, the nation is. The tree has not rejected its Messiah, the nation has. The tree is being used as a symbol, not the object itself, of the judgment. If it had been the season for figs, then the tree would have itself borne certain responsibility, and its judgment would have applied as much to itself as to the nation, watering down the force of the symbolism. But Jesus is not interested in judging fig trees. The focus is, rather, on the nation, the temple, the Jewish leadership. Therefore, Mark makes plain that it was not the season for figs. (Matthew does not include the clause, “it was not the season for figs.” This is easily explained by the fact that Matthew’s Judean readership would know that spring is not the season for figs (Cotter 63), something that would not necessarily be evident to all of Mark’s readers.) I believe William Lane is correct when he asserts the following:
If the incident occurred in the period approaching Passover, the parenthetical statement in verse 13c is incontrovertible and suggests that Jesus had no expectation of finding edible figs. Events have meaning beyond their face value; they become significant as they are interpreted. The unexpected and incongruous character of Jesus’ action in looking for figs at a season when no fruit could be found would stimulate curiosity and point beyond the incident to its deeper significance (400).
The fact that it was not the season for figs, then, should not make Jesus appear unreasonable, as some have assumed; rather, it underscores the point of the passage: the nation has not borne fruit — its spiritual leaders are incapable of recognizing the Messiah, the temple is a den of robbers and not a house of prayer for the nations — and the Judge has arrived to pass sentence. As Cole observes, “Like tree, like temple, like nation; the parallel is exact” (177).
To gain a deeper insight into the prophetic symbolism of Jesus’ action, we must now turn briefly to the significance of the fig tree in Jewish and Roman culture. As William Telford’s extensive research demonstrates, the fig tree held a special place in both Jewish and Graeco-Roman culture (Telford 277). Its fruit, whether fresh, dried, or pressed into cakes was highly esteemed. Its leaves and other parts provided medicines. Its sap was used in the production of cheese. It gave shade, and its blossoming was a sign that winter was over.
Perhaps of greatest significance, however, in Jesus’ selection of a fig tree as the symbol of Israel’s judgment are three other factors: First, in Greco-Roman culture the fig tree was associated with various deities, primarily the tree god Dionysus (284). Jesus’ destruction of the fig tree, then, besides demonstrating his identity and authority as Judge of the nation of Israel (which is the primary purpose of the miracle) would have also demonstrated his superiority over the gods of the empire (289).
Second, in Greco-Roman culture, the sudden withering or blossoming of any tree was considered a powerful omen of coming destruction or blessing (296). The withering of a fig tree outside the city of Jerusalem would likely have been seen, especially by Mark’s gentile readers, as “a portent of disaster for that city” (300).
Third, as referred to above (and certainly the most significant factor of the three), the fig tree was regarded in the Jewish Scriptures as symbolic of the nation of Israel. Lane summarizes:
The prophets frequently spoke of the fig tree in referring to Israel’s status before God (e.g. Jer. 8:13; 29:17; Hos. 9:10, 16; Joel 1:7; Micah 7:1-6), while the destruction of the fig tree is associated with judgment (Hos. 2:12; Isa. 3:4; cf. Lk. 13:6-9). In this context the fig tree symbolizes Israel in Jesus’ day, and what happens to the tree the terrible fate that inevitably awaited Jerusalem (400).
The cursing of the fig tree, then, is not a strange and unexplainable aberration in Jesus’ character, nor in Mark’s Gospel, but a powerful and culturally meaningful pronouncement of judgment against the people who should have borne fruit by accepting their Messiah, but instead had rejected him.
The account of the cleansing of the temple (15-19) illustrates the extent to which the Jewish leadership had gone in losing contact with God’s purpose for the temple and for his people Israel. Jesus quotes Isaiah 56:7, pointing out that the temple is to be a house of prayer for all peoples (17). Yet, the High Priest had instituted the practice of selling sacrificial animals and ritually pure items in the Court of the Gentiles, a practice which made it impossible for the gentiles to worship there (Lane 404-407). Furthermore, the general corruption of the High Priesthood and the religious leadership is evidenced by the fact that they responded to Jesus’ zeal for the sanctity of the temple by deciding to kill him (18)—the supreme declaration of their refusal to accept his identity and authority.
That the issue at stake is acceptance or rejection of Jesus as Messiah is again highlighted by Jesus’ discourse on faith, prayer, and forgiveness in verses 22-26. Peter remembers Jesus’ declaration against the fig tree and calls Jesus’ attention to it (21). Mark then writes, “Jesus answered them, `Have faith in God’” (22), though no specific question had been posed. The question, however, is implied: “What is the meaning of this?” (There is no need here to answer the question, “How did you do that?” although what follows also answers that question. Jesus is not explaining how to curse fig trees, he is explaining what should be learned from this event.) Jesus’ answer is simply the encouraging admonition: “Have faith in God.” He points them to “quiet confidence in the power and goodness of God” (Lane 410). This is what the chief priests and the scribes, by contrast, did not have. They were prepared to kill the Messiah. But those who accept the identity and authority of Jesus are the ones who have faith in God. In fact, to have faith in God is to accept the identity and authority of Jesus.
Jesus’ words in verses 23-24 must be understood in light of verse 22 (rather than as a carte blanche for personal willfulness, as they are sometimes misinterpreted). Whatever is asked in faith, without doubting, will be granted, so long as it is within the context of God’s goodness and sovereignty. Even more, these verses should be understood in light of the entire chapter, and in light of Mark’s entire Gospel. Mark is emphasizing the identity and authority of Jesus, and the monumental consequences of accepting or rejecting him. Although some scholars prefer to see “this mountain” (23) as referring to the Mount of Olives (Gundry 649; Lane 410), it would be consistent with the point of the passage if it refers to the temple mount, as asserted by Hooker:
Whatever its origin, the inclusion of the saying at this point suggests that Mark is now interpreting it of the temple mount. In contrast to Jewish expectation that at the Last Day “the mountain of the house of the Lord” would be exalted and “established as the highest of the mountains” (Micah 4:1), Jesus now pronounces judgment on it and declares that it will be submerged in the sea. The sea was the place of destruction (cf. 5.13; 9.42) (270).
Through faith in Jesus, acceptance of his identity and authority, believers enter into his victorious power, and nothing consistent with the perfect will of God is impossible for them. Though it is impossible to be reconciled to God by one’s own effort, through faith in Jesus all things are possible, even reconciliation to God. It is only through faith in the power and authority of Jesus, the One who comes in the name of the Lord, that prayer in accord with the will and purpose of God can be offered in unwavering assurance. The importance of forgiveness then becomes plain (25). Faith in Jesus requires a heart of humility that forgives its neighbor, not the hateful and unforgiving heart of the chief priests and scribes. (Verse 26, while consistent with the thought, is not considered part of the original text, and is not included in the NRSV.)
The destruction of the fig tree stands as a continuing testimony to any nation, institution, church or person that God demands fruit of his creation. All blessings, resources or advantages any human or group of humans possess have been granted by God. God, like the master who gave the talents (Matt. 25:14-30), expects what he has given to be put to use in his service to bring honor and glory to him. But the lesson of the withered fig tree is not merely that God expects fruit. The vital, overarching concern here is that God expects belief. He expects faith in the one he has sent, and this life-changing faith is the fruit for which he is looking!
The central issue is twofold: 1) no fruit can be borne unless one recognizes and accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Master and 2) to accept Jesus Christ is to bear fruit for God. The leadership of Israel was barren, like the fig tree, because they refused to believe. For any variety of reasons, primarily their desire to hold on to what was most valuable to them, they would not accept the identity and authority of Jesus as Messiah and Lord. Unlike the fig tree, which was incapable of bearing fruit out of season, those who know the Lord can and will bear fruit in and out of season. The impossible becomes possible through faith in the One who comes in the name of the Lord. The mountains of institutionalized worship, of fruitless reliance on systems, formulas, and traditions of human origin to bring about righteousness melt away before the sheer power of faith in what God does in Jesus Christ.
Believe in the Lord, and we become “fig trees” that bear fruit we could never have borne of ourselves. Sins are forgiven, redemption becomes reality, and we pass from the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of God only when we forsake everything and believe in him, when we take up our cross and follow him.
The only thing that awaits those who will not accept his authority, who will not believe in him and follow him, is judgment — complete destruction, “from the roots.” Conversely, what awaits those who believe in him, who forgive as they are forgiven, who, only through faith in him, are able to remove all obstacles and barriers to true life, is eternal communion with God and all the saints — from every nation — gathered in triumphal joy in the spiritual temple that shall never need cleansing.
Bibliography
Barclay, William. The Gospel of Mark. Vol. 2 in The Daily Bible Study Series. Rev. ed. 18 vols. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975.
Birdsall, J. Neville. “The Withering of the Fig-Tree (Mark xi. 12-14, 20-22).” The Expository Times.73 (1962); 191.
Cole, R. Alan. Mark. Vol. 2 in The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Gen. Ed. R. V. G. Tasker. 20 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976.
Cotter, Wendy J. “For It Was Not the Season for Figs.” The Catholic Bible Quarterly. 48 (1986): 62-66.
Gaebelein, Frank E., ed. Vol. 8 in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. 12 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984.
Gundry, Robert H. Mark: A Commentary on His Apology for the Cross. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.
Guthrie, Donald. New Testament Introduction. Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity, 1970.
Hooker, Morna D. The Gospel According to St. Mark. Vol. 2 in Black’s New Testament Commentary. London: A & C Black, 1991.
Hull, Jr., Roger. “The Cursing of the Fig Tree.” Christian Century. 84 (1967); 1429-1431.
Lane, William L. The Gospel According to Mark. Vol. 2 in The New International Commentary on the New Testament. 18 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.
Powell, Mark Allan. What is Narrative Criticism? Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990.
Robin, A. de Q. “The Cursing of the Fig Tree in Mark XI. A Hypothesis.” New Testament Studies 8 (1962); 276-281.
Stanton, Graham H. The Gospels and Jesus. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Telford, William R. “More Fruit from the Withered Tree.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament. 48 (1981); 264-304.
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About the author…
J. Michael Feazell served for many years as Vice-President of Grace Communion International, as Executive Editor of Christian Odyssey magazine, and host of the You're Included video series. He earned his Doctor of Ministry degree from Azusa Pacific University and has written Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God (Zondervan, 2001).
Chapter 31 was written by Michael Morrison, PhD, Dean of Faculty at Grace Communion Seminary.
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