Mark 8:22-38, Learning Christ! (2)

Today’s passage begins with a unique miracle of Christ.  It is the only one that is performed in stages.  We suppose Jesus led the man out of town to reduce the crowd issue.  Jesus was headed through Bethsaida to the area of Caesarea Philippi (another Gentile area, north of the Sea of Galilee).  His aim was to be with the Twelve and to have important conversations.  Nevertheless, He did take time to heal the man, and to do it in such a way as to make a point for the disciples.  The man’s eyes were opened in stages: first he could see men like looking like trees, and then after Jesus touched him again, he could see clearly.  Mark is the only Gospel to record this story.  The placing of it before the next event was strategic. 

In the next event, Jesus’ conversation with the Twelve, we see that Peter was like that blind man: he could see some truth he had not seen before (8:27-30), but he was still a long way from seeing things clearly (8:31-33).  You may think there should be more to this story because we are familiar with Matthew’s account (Mt. 16) where he speaks of Peter knowing the truth about Christ because God revealed it to him.  Jesus went on to talk about building His Church and so forth.  But that is all missing here: Mark is led by the Spirit to simply note that Jesus correctly answered, You are the Christ. 

Peter may have spoken for some of the others.  It does seem that Jesus uses this important moment to “begin” to teach them something new: the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.  With that, Peter took it upon himself to “rebuke” the Christ!  Don’t be too hard on Peter, because Jesus did that for you: Get behind Me, Satan!  What a powerful statement.  But it’s not so much that Peter seems to have pointy ears and a pitchfork for a tail.  It’s that Satan is using Peter to attack Jesus.  Peter was thinking like normal men.  It was the “leaven” of the Pharisees and Herod that Jesus had warned them about while crossing the sea.  Peter was seeing a great movement, people constantly coming to Christ for healing and so forth.  He was not thinking that rejection and death was the way the movement should go.  This is the common way we think.  But Jesus had in mind the “things of God.”  Would the Twelve ever come to that point, where they saw life and events and history through the key to knowledge, Jesus Christ?

Thus, like the healing of the blind man in stages, Peter and the Twelve and all who follow Christ need to understand that growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ comes in stages.  In the concluding verses (v34-38), Jesus calls anyone who wants to, to follow Him in such a way that you will not be stagnant but will grow.  In a nutshell, Jesus says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).  We, of course, will open many nutshells as we seek to hear Jesus’ critical teaching.  May I suggest: memorize Mark 8:34-38.

Mark 8:11-21: Learning Christ! (1)

Let’s think about how it is that we learn Biblical truth.  It is clear from today’s reading that the disciples were not getting what Jesus thought should have been obvious truth from His ministry (8:17).  Before we get into the passage, let’s review some Biblical principles about gaining knowledge.

·       Luke 11:52 (24:25-27; John 5:39; Rev. 19:10): Jesus accused the lawyers of taking away the key of knowledge so that those they taught were actually hindered from learning the truth.  The Bible makes it clear that the “key” to knowledge is Jesus, the Savior, the One who is at the center of the message of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  Jesus chided the two disciples of His, after His resurrection, about the fact that they didn’t realize the Messiah had to suffer and die before entering His glory.  Jesus chided the Jews, who loved to quote Moses, but failed to understand that He, Jesus, was what Moses was talking about.  John, in the Apocalypse, said that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”  To understand OT prophecy you have to realize that it is fulfilled in Him.  Jesus is the key of knowledge!

·       Eph. 4:20-21: Paul, encouraging Christians to live repentant lives, not like their former life (v17-19), reminded them that, you have not so learned Christ.  The fullness of truth that we need to learn as Christians is bound up in Christ!

·       2 Peter 3:18: Peter had the same emphasis, encouraging believers to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

·       Mark 4:24-25: We thought it good to remember the principle we saw earlier in Mark: use it or lose it!  Christ is the key to knowledge.  Obedience is the key to being renewed in our minds so that we naturally think in the Bible way.

With these things in our background, we need to think a little bit about “stagnating” rather than “growing” in the knowledge of Christ.  It might seem strange that the Pharisees asked Jesus to show a sign from heaven.  Jesus had been performing many signs, and even though He tried to stop people from telling everyone about the signs (instead of the message of the gospel He preached), people continued to tell about the healings and so forth for all to hear.  No wonder Jesus “sighed deeply in His spirit.” 

Just as strange is the disciples’ concern for bread after the miraculous feedings.  Jesus warned them of the “leaven” of the Pharisees and Herod, the perspective they had that did not recognize Christ as the key of knowledge.  Be careful, Jesus said, that you don’t think like they do.  And the disciples concluded that Jesus was upset because they forgot to bring bread on the boat.  Are we spiritually stagnant because we are failing to see Christ in the mundane events of our lives?

Mark 7:31-8:10, Jesus Among the Gentiles

Perhaps you are wondering why we spent a couple posts on God’s love for the Gentiles, even as He sent His Son to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  The reason is that in our journey through Mark’s Gospel we have come to some stories that took place in Gentiles areas.  The woman with the demon-possessed daughter was Syro-Phoenician, from the area of Tyre and Sidon (7:24-26); the deaf-mute (7:31-37) was in the region of the Decapolis (lit. Ten Cities), east of the Sea of Galilee, a predominantly Gentile area; and the feeding of the 4000 occurred in this area, and has Gentile references that differentiate it from the feeding of the 5000.  Here is a map showing these areas.  In today’s post let’s consider the deaf-mute and the miraculous feeding.

·     7:31-37: Jesus heals a deaf-mute.  The story is not difficult.  As is always the case, Jesus doesn’t heal in the same way twice.  He put His fingers in his ears, He spat, perhaps wetting His finger, before He touched the mans tongue.  I said that no two stories is alike.  But we should note that, that quite often Jesus touched those He healed, something that the serious Jew would find objectionable.  You didn’t have such connection with “handicapped” people.  Then Jesus called out to His Father, “Be opened!”  The healing was immediate, complete, and astonishing.

·       8:1-10: Jesus feeds the 4000.  If you compare this story with the feeding of the 5000 (Mark 6:30-44), there are several similarities.  Jesus was moved by compassion for the hungry people (6:34; 8:2).  Jesus put His disciples on the spot of not being able to feed the crowd (6:37; 8:4).  Jesus worked with a small amount of food (6:38; 8:5).  Jesus blessed the food (6:41; 8:7).  And Jesus involved His disciples (6:41; 8:6).  But the locations were different, one on the predominantly Jewish side of Galilee (6:31,45) as opposed to the east side (7:31).  We are not saying the crowd on the east side was Gentile.  There may have been some, but the miracle was for the benefit of Jesus’ disciples.  We know this from the baskets used to pick up the “left-overs,” the Jewish kophinos in 6:43 and the smaller Gentile spuris in 8:8.  And the number of baskets is significant: 12 which goes to the 12 sons of Jacob and tribes of Israel as to the 7 which goes to the days of creation of all things. 

If you think we are making something big out of something small, come back for the next post and you will see that Jesus was teaching the Twelve, and is teaching us, an incredibly important message in all this.  It is not about feeding physically hungry people.  It is about taking the gospel to the Jew first, and then the Gentiles! 

Psalm 48

God is exalted by His faithfulness to the nation of Israel in Psalm 47.  In Psalm 48 He is exalted by His choice of and faithfulness to Jerusalem. 

God had promised to choose a city where He would put His name (Deut. 12, esp. v5).  For the first several hundred years Israel was in the land the tabernacle was at Shiloh in the tribal area of Ephraim.  But God eventually rejected Shiloh and Ephraim and instead chose David of Judah and Jerusalem (Psalm 78, esp. vs59-60,67-72).  God’s choice brought together Israel’s King (David) and Israel’s High Priest (Aaron but with ultimate fulfillment in the One who was of the line of Melchizedek as well as the Davidic King, Psalm 110).

As the sons of Korah exclaim, Jerusalem is an amazing city (Psalm 48:1-3).  At 2474’ elevation it defies the stereotype of the Middle East as a hot and dusty place.  As we are currently in a pattern of spending 2-3 months a year in Jerusalem we can attest to the fact that it is quite pleasant, even when the rest of the nation is sweltering.  The Old City today is certainly nothing like what it was in the days of David and Solomon; yet it is a joyful place to be.

But what is important in v1-3 of our Psalm is the connection between Jerusalem and her God.  It is His city, His holy mountain.  The Davidic King was the head of a theocracy, a nation ruled by God through the King.  Thus it was the city of the great King, meaning the city of God.  Verse 3 notes this connection: God was in her palaces.  And not only that, God was her refuge.  This is an amazing statement given the fact that Jerusalem itself was a strong, natural refuge.  The song writers seem to say that Jerusalem by its very location is a picture or reminder of God Himself.

The second stanza (v4-7) says that the kings of the earth understood how special this city of God was.  And Israel trusted in God’s faithfulness that this city would forever be established as the city of our God (v8).

Now we come to the call to worship in this Song.  First, the locals are called to rejoice in God and His judgments.  When they think of Jerusalem they are reminded of God’s lovingkindness (often translated mercy;  Heb checed).  This is the prime attribute of God in His own expression of His Name in Exodus 34:6-7.  God’s mercy or grace or lovingkindness is evident in His choice of Jerusalem to be the location of His dwelling place, the mercy seat in the holy of holies in His temple.  The people of Jerusalem should rejoice, not simply that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel but because it is the City of God!

Perhaps the call to “walk about Zion” goes beyond the locals to any who would come to this city.  Again, I know the city today is not as glorious as it was in days gone by or as it will be in the future.  But a walk around the outside of the Old City today still provides an amazing view.  One still sees the natural refuge, the mighty rock foundation for the wall on the northern side, the glorious Damascus and Jaffa gates and the temple mount where stood and where will stand the House of God.  But the closing verse is very clear: the glory of the city and its location points to the glory of her God.  “FOR THIS IS GOD, OUR GOD FOREVER AND EVER.”

I am not shy about encouraging people to come to Israel and to spend a few days in Jerusalem just to get the picture of what the Scriptures speak of concerning this amazing city.  You don’t have to in order to trust the Scriptures but it sure opens the eyes of most people.  But keep in mind: Jerusalem is meant to remind on-lookers of the simple truth of verse 1: Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised!  Perhaps in lieu of being in Jerusalem today you might think on the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ in Titus 2:13 (our great God and Savior), Heb. 4:14 (our great High Priest), and 13:20 (that great Shepherd of the Sheep.)

Mark 7:27; Rom. 11:11-24, For God So Loved the World

Here is the question: Does God’s choice of one man (Abraham), one family (descendants of Jacob), one nation (Israel) show favoritism?  He did, indeed, make this choice.  Read Deuteronomy 7 if you doubt this.  But to understand how God so loved the world that He chose one nation, let’s spend some time in the OT.

·       Gen. 12:2-3: the one man, Abram, was promised to be a blessing to all nations.

·       Gen. 25:1-6: Abraham, the one man, was the father of many nations. Notice in this passage how he was gracious to those nations (other sons he had) while recognizing the special place of his son Isaac and his family.

From the beginning God’s choice of Abraham was intended to be God’s way of bringing salvation to the world, to all the nations (Gentiles).

·       Isaiah 42:1-9: The prophet Isaiah recorded four Servant Songs, as they are called.  They speak of the Messiah, the Savior, as God’s Servant.  This passage contains the first of those Songs.  Note what it says about the Savior.

o   v1: He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

o   v4: He will not stop until He has established justice in the earth, the “coastlands”.  This is a reference to Gentiles.  Israel was on the Mediterranean Sea, and all around that Sea were nations.  Thus they are the “coastlands.”

o   v5: God gives breath to the people on earth.

o   v6: His Servant will be “a light to the Gentiles.”

·       Isaiah 49:1-13: This is the second Servant Song.

o   v1: The “coastlands” again.

o   v3-4: The Servant was not rewarded much from Israel.

o   v5-6: He, the Servant, the Savior, the One who became Man, being formed in the womb, and sent to gather Jacob (Israel) back to the Lord, will also be rewarded “to the ends of the earth.”

You can read more on these wonderful Songs (Isa. 50:4-9; 552:13-53:12 which emphasize the suffering of the Servant).  But notice what the prophet Isaiah is telling us.  He reveals how Abraham would be a blessing to all the nations.  Through Abraham, and then Isaac, and Jacob, and through one son of Jacob named Judah, the Savior, the Son of God would come, so that the entire world full of people would not perish but could have eternal life. 

As Paul explains in Romans 11, the Savior had to come to earth in a real, historical setting.  God chose Israel to be that setting.  But then, it was necessary for Israel to reject that Savior, so that through their rejection the Savior would suffer, even to death on the cross.  In His death He provided atonement or a “covering” for the sins of the whole world.  This was and is God’s plan, so that the good news of salvation could be preached to all the world.

Mark 7:24-30, Why Did Jesus Come to Earth?

Today’s question might be considered a “no-brainer.”  Just go to the “golden verse of the Bible,” Jn. 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  Jesus came to die for our sins that, through faith in His blood (Rom. 3:21-26), we might receive the free gift of eternal life (Rom. 6:23).

But there are several times that Jesus told us why He came that we should always pay attention to, of course.  They do not conflict with Jn. 3:16 but they do give us important truth about the purposes of God.  For example …

·       Matt. 5:17-18: to fulfill the law and the prophets.  Because of the revolutionary nature of Jesus teaching the Jewish leaders suggested He came to destroy the OT law and prophets.  For example, Mark 7:19 says Jesus purified all foods.  This might suggest He came to destroy the OT dietary laws.  But Jesus said that He came to fulfill the OT.  He fulfilled all the prophecies of the prophets.  And He fulfilled the Law in that He lived a life of perfect obedience to the law of God. 

·       Matt. 9:13: to call sinners to repentance.  Jesus said this in the context of the sanctimonious religious leaders who criticized Jesus for hanging out with “sinners.”  Likely these men assumed that if Jesus was really the Messiah then He would be spending His time with them.  But Jesus said the exact opposite.

·       Matt. 10:34-36: to bring a sword (to divide people).  Read these verses.  Jesus really said this.  He understood that His ministry and message would be divisive, even bringing a serious rift into families as well as into the Jewish nation.  And this was not just “incidental.”  Jesus said that this was why He came.  None of these things contradict John 3:16, but rather tell us the effect of John 3:16.  God’s Son came to bring salvation, and He was the only source of this salvation.

·       Matt. 15:24: to offer Himself to Israel.  The context for this statement in Matthew is the story in today’s reading.  The woman, a Gentile from Lebanon, asked Jesus to heal her demon-possessed daughter.  In 7:27 Jesus said, Let the children (the Jewish people) be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs (Gentiles, non-Jewish people).  According to Matthew Jesus also said to the woman, or perhaps it is Matthew’s paraphrase of what Jesus said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  Again, this is why Jesus came.  When Jesus sent out the Twelve, He instructed them not to go to the Gentiles but to the lost sheep of Israel (Mt. 10:5-6).  Paul said, Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision (Jewish people) for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers…

To be sure, Jesus healed the daughter.  His words were a test of her faith, which He acknowledged.  But this could be seen to contradict John 3:16, that God’s love for the world was the reason Christ came to earth..  Let’s think about this.

Mark 7:18-23, Deceitful and Desperately Wicked (4)

We began this study by quoting Jer. 17:9: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?  As we come to the end of the passage, Jesus very clearly teaches the incredible sinfulness of the heart born once, in sin, and not born again by the Spirit of God! 

Jesus made a profound statement when He said that what entered a man was not what defiled the man.  At the end of v19 is a phrase, thus purifying all foods.  Either Jesus said this (my NKJV has this in red indicating Jesus said it) or it could have been added by Mark under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  What this does say is that the issue of “clean and unclean” foods in the OT (Lev. 11) was not a concern in the Kingdom of Christ.  This is profound, not just because it made a change for the Jews.  It is profound for what it said about Jesus Himself: He was able to make such a pronouncement because He was and is the source of all truth.  He did not teach on this at this point; it is a New Testament truth (e.g. 1 Tim. 4:1-5).

But Jesus specified the kinds of things that come out of a man, that come from the heart of a regular, normal, average human being.  Meditate on the list!

Evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications

Murders, thefts, covetousness

Wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye

Blasphemy, pride, foolishness

All these evil things come from within and defile a man.

We have often heard people talk about “cheap grace,” that we make light of the grace of God when we accept and trust in His forgiveness for repeated sins.  You can think about that.  His forgiveness for repeated sins is actually proof of the greatness of His grace.  If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1:9).  I would suggest that we cheapen the grace of God when we make light of the sinfulness of our sins.  The Pharisee praying in the temple did this: I thank you that I am not like other men (Lk. 18:10-14).  The older brother to the prodigal did this: Many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time (Lk. 15:21).  The rich ruler did it: All these things I have kept from my youth (Mk. 10:17-22).  But Jesus reproved the Pharisee and commended the immoral woman, saying she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little (Lk. 7:36-50).

God promised to Israel, and fulfilled the promise through His Son, to give them a heart to know that “I am the LORD” (Jer. 24:7).  In Christ, we have been born again.  We are new creations.  All things are new (2 Cor. 5:17).  By God’s Spirit and His grace, may we keep our heart out of which are the issues of life (Pr. 4:23).