Mark 4:21-25

Jesus continues to speak to His disciples in these verses, pushing the theme already elaborated upon - that of hearing/seeing is liken to one who takes Jesus' words and puts them into practice. He speaks of concealment and disclosure - what He has said by way of theology is expounded and better explained through parables. Verses 21-23 help explain why Jesus was so upset with His disciples; they heard His theology, but they couldn't make the connection with the parables, and furthermore had difficulty putting some flesh and blood to those parables (living them out).

In verse 24, we have an interesting sentence structure in the Greek. In English, "Consider carefully what you hear." A more literal translation, "See what you hear." Maybe a good English rendering would be, "Are you getting the picture?" And He continues that the person who gets what He is speaking of will continue to get more and more. The person who does not "get it" (or put it into practice), even what he/she gets will be taken away (or forgotten). Hence, hearing is doing. The person who hears but does not do does not truly hear. It's a call to action, similar to the Sh'ma in Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear [Do!], O Israel...."

But Jesus is soon to give a twist to this action in the next parable.

Older Blog from My Time in Israel

Dear readers,

In case you are new to my blogs, you may have no idea about the blog I kept in Israel:

http://ge-offnisrael.blogspot.com

Upon visiting that blog, you will notice that I switched to blog-city because of the emailing benefits. Blog-city, however, began charging for their services, so I created the one you are reading now. I saved all of my posts from blog-city, so I will begin to re-publish blogs from my time in Israel on that blog.

I hope you enjoy it!

Mark 4:13-20

I have asked you what you think about Jesus' parables; now I will give my opinion (based on Brad Young and others).

Jesus intention with His parables was NEVER to confuse His audience. His intention with parables was to make His teaching easier to understand. Again, parables were meant to aid in understanding for His audience, not hide something from them.

"Then Geoff," you may ask, "why does Jesus say those who see don't see and those that hear don't hear?"

Jesus' statement is a matter of action on those who are in the audience. Will they be like people who hear His words and then do nothing with them, or will they hear His words and practice them in real life. Actually, Jesus is simply expounding on the parable of the soils He just told. What will people do when they hear the His words? Will they put them into practice (and produce a crop yielding 30, 60, or even a 100 times), or will they hear His words and do nothing with them (like seed on the path, or on rocky places, or among thorns)?

In the case of the disciples, they know Jesus' theology, and so when He speaks to the people in parables, they are expected to understand (because they have the "secret"). However, when they hear the parables (especially in Mark, by the way), they can't put the two together - His theology and His teaching.

And Jesus doesn't appreciate that. One can feel the tension when He explains the parable to His disciples.

The reason I brought up Mark 4:33-34 is that the audience shifts from His disciples to the crowd. Notice that Jesus used parables to help the people understand His theology. Unfortunately with the disciples, Jesus has to draw the connecting lines for them.

So the question still remains: what kind of soil are you? Or put another way, what are you DOING with what you KNOW? Are you connecting your theology with your actions?

Mark 4:9-12

I find it interesting that this "secret" of the kingdom was given to the disciples, yet Mark makes it very clear that Jesus was quite frustrated with them. And why does Jesus teach in parables? So that those on the outside will be ever seeing but never perceiving, ever hearing but never understanding, or they would turn and be forgiven.

Jesus quotes Isaiah 6 here - when Isaiah is asked who will go for Him. Isaiah responds, "Here I am. Send me!" And then the words get difficult because G-D informs Isaiah that he will be preaching to a dense crowd who will be ever hearing but never understanding, and ever seeing, but never perceiving (Jesus reverses them in Mark 4).

Just the kind of message and welcome you want to have, right? And Isaiah asks for how long, and G-D says - until everything is completely destroyed except for stumps.

Great. So Isaiah gets to preach a message that people don't want/can't hear until they are completely destroyed. Every young preacher's dream job.

So what does this have to do with Jesus? Perhaps Jesus is sarcastically speaking of His less-than-brilliant disciples at the moment? Is He comparing Himself and His message to that of Isaiah, drawing on that prophetic image? Or is He speaking against "the outsiders" - the very people He was sent to call? Or perhaps to the hypocrites in the audience?

What do you think? (Also pay attention to 4:33-34.)

Mark 4:3-8

In Jerusalem exists a school of thought that believes in Lukan priority instead of Markan (they believe Luke was written first and not Mark), and they base this on several reasons. One reason they believe this is that Luke appears to be so Hebraic, and thus, closer to the original sources. I remember sitting in a class one Shabbat and the teacher used this parable as an example of Lukan priority. Luke uses different words. (For example, notice that the seed fell on a rock in Luke, not on rocky soil.)

The example I want to emphasize regards the amount the farmer reaps when the seed falls on good soil. We see in Mark that it yields 30, 60, or even a 100 times. Luke only mentions a hundred times. That's a lot of produce! In Genesis 26 we see that G-D blesses Isaac with a great crop that yields a 100-fold...in a time of drought! So when all other's are dying, Isaac's not only survives but thrives.

What is difficult about this parable is that we are provided 3 bad kinds of soil and only 1 good kind. (Dividing things in four [in regards to how people behaved] was very common in Jesus' day.) The obvious question at the end of the parable is, "What kind of soil are you?"

Mark 4:1-2

Jesus goes from having a meal in a house to having to teach from a boat because the crowds were so large. Not bad. I imagine the acoustics worked well also. (And notice that the Teacher is sitting, while the crowds are probably standing.)

And because of this massive crowd, He decides to speak to the people clearly to allow them to understand the basic message of G-D's grace...right? Why does He NOT do that? Why instead does He speak to the mass of people in parables? What is it about Isaiah 6 (verse 12) that He wants to get across?

I will provide, L-RD willing, some thoughts on why Jesus speaks this way to the crowds when I get down to that verse in my memorization.

In the meantime, what implications do these verses have on our lives and churches? Should our vocabulary be particular? Should our actions and liturgy (church service) be one that is comprehended by all, or should there be a tinge of mystery within it?

Mark 3:31-35

So we've already looked at Jesus' strained relationship with His family at this point. (Notice that they sent someone into the house; they did not go in.) And since they would not give Him the time of day, He ignored them.

And in so doing, he expounded on the relationship of a rabbi/teacher with his disciple/student. The relationship is familial, and everyone who does G-D's will is part of that family.

(An interesting note: the people around Jesus are sitting. What was Jesus doing? Jesus invites so many to the table, yet not everyone has to accept. He does not force His blood family to eat with Him; He simply turns the tables on them by calling His disciples His true family. Reminds me of a parable in Matthew 22.)

Mark 3:22-30

Several things caught my eye while memorizing this section.

First, notice that the people who accuse Jesus of demon-possession are from Jerusalem. (I love how people always "go up" to Jerusalem or "go down" from Jerusalem in the Bible. I hope to expound on that some other time.) These teachers of the law are not from Galilee but from Judea - very different places religiously - and these are the ones who accuse Jesus.

Second, the name Beelzebub in Hebrew means lord/master (baal) of a fly(zebub). It is the name of the deity in Ekron (II Kings 1:2).

Third, Jesus "calls" them. He does not berate them, chastise them, or ignore them. In the story just before, Jesus "calls" His disciples to Him. It's the same word.

Fourth, Jesus uses three parables to plead His case: divided kingdom, divided house, robbing a super-hero. Yes, He could have answered the question directly, but He rarely EVER does; why change that now? And notice that He uses "common sense" in His reply. Who would divide the house to accomplish something? How can a kingdom divided function? And why would you rob someone without first making sure he was taken care of? In the same way, Jesus says that He cannot be possessed because that would completely destroy the Enemy (and they are smarter than that).

Last, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. What is it?

Mark 3:20-21

Can you imagine people considering you crazy? "Well, there goes the nut-job!" And if you've gone crazy for something you absolutely believe in, it gets more upsetting. You've given your life whole-heartedly to something, and people call you possessed.

What makes it really difficult in Jesus' case is that His family thinks He's lost His mind. Now on one hand, that's almost humorous; the created call their Creator crazy. But on the other hand, we may have a picture here of what Jesus' family really thinks of Him. We can only speculate what Jesus' early life looked like. Was He appreciated? Was He loved?

In Judaism, Jesus comes from an affair between Mary and a Roman soldier (I forgot his name). Though we as Christians believe otherwise, what was the thought in Jesus' day? We don't know for sure, but I suppose that most people considered Him a second-class class citizen and possibly illegitimate. He came from an unwed mother and father. The mother says she got pregnant through the Holy Spirit. That whole story sounds ludicrous and bizarre.

And now, your crazy mother calls YOU crazy! Apparently, Jesus did not have the greatest relationship with His family.

Which then makes me wonder....

Am I sold out for Jesus; obsessed with Him to the point that people call me weird? Are you?

Mark 3:13-19

Jesus designates twelve apostles (missionaries/emissaries) to hang out with Him, preach, and have authority to drive out demons. We know these twelve are not the only ones to drive out demons (Mark 9:38-41), and we also know that not everyone who drives out demons is known by G-D (Matthew 7:21-23). (Even some of these twelve [and/or other disciples] could not drive out a demon [Mark 9:14-18].)

We do know from church tradition that nearly all of the twelve went out all over the world driving out demons and preaching the Gospel, and because of them, those of us who follow the Christ are here today.

Several interesting things about this list:

1) Jesus changes Simon's (hearing) name to Peter (rock)
2) James and John are called boanerges (which Mark says, "means Sons of Thunder") - they were probably rather prone to emotional outbursts
3) Matthew (a.k.a. Levi) - a tax collector
3) Simon the Zealot - a Zealot being one who wanted Rome out of Israel and was willing to use physical force to achieve that end. He and Matthew probably had some issues.
4) Judas Iscariot (Judas, the man from Kariot - a city 20 miles south of Jerusalem) - the only Judean (not Galilean) we know of in this list

Quite a spread demographically, yet Jesus calls these twelve to change the world.

Mark 3:7-12

So Jesus goes to a more solitary place (to keep from being killed?), yet even in remote areas, people come to Him from all over the area - Jerusalem (center of Judaism), the rest of Judea (South), Idumea (Southeast), Regions across the Jordan (East), and Tyre and Sidon (North). That just about covers it.

What is it though that draws people to Jesus? It could be His teaching. But he also ostracized a lot of people with that. It could be His personality. He's compared to Elijah, John the Baptist, Zechariah, or one of the prophets. But we all know what happened to almost all of them in the end.

Mark answers simply: "For He had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch Him."

In my experience, many of us in the Western world want to be like Jesus, but when it comes to the spiritual gift of healing (specifically physical healing), we quickly label that as "the past" (died with the closing of the Bible) or impossible - G-D doesn't work like that anymore.

To which I respond: "There are too many examples of healing all over this globe today, especially in the Southern Hemisphere." I preach to myself when I say, "Maybe it's time to be like the crowds who followed Jesus and GO there!" We don't have to do it physically. Perhaps you have missionaries you can contact. Go online and find out some things. Check in your neighborhood (you might find a revival or service just around the corner).

If miraculous physical healing is too drastic, then recognize G-D's work (and GIVE HIM THE GLORY) when He uses medicine to heal a simple headache. Recognize Him when the cancer is suddenly gone. Praise G-D when the surgeon takes off his/her gloves and gives a good report.

But there is another side to this healing. Unclean/Evil spirits surround the diseases that Jesus healed. Exorcism was a part of the picture. As part of the healing process, Jesus drove out many demons.

Now I am not saying that the next time you go to the hospital a demon exists in every patient, but know that is how they viewed it in Jesus' day. One of Jesus' goals was to cleanse people - not only of their sin, but of their physical illnesses. Unclean/evil spirits do not promote healing, but suffering, and thus, Jesus got rid of them. And all of this leads me to this resounding question:

What would happen if we actually BELIEVED Jesus healed those people?

This would change the way we pray!

Jesus did not heal everyone. Not everyone for which we pray He heals, and the ones He does choose to heal, He does so sometimes in a way that may seem contradictory to us. So what? Should that change our plea? Would that not move us closer to the heart of G-D? If only we BELIEVED.

"L-RD, help us with our unbelief."