Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 10-11.

When the Pharisees asked Jesus about divorce, He asked them what Moses had commanded concerning divorce.  The Pharisees answered that Moses allowed a man to write a woman a certificate of divorce and send her away, referring to Deuteronomy 24:1-4.  The implication being that Moses had given that as a command on how to divorce.  However, when we read the passage it says, “If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house,…”  Notice that Moses does not say it is OK to do so, he just issues a command concerning what happens afterwards under certain circumstances.  Which means that Jesus is NOT superseding (or, as the Muslims like to say, abrogating) the Law of Moses with His command concerning divorce.  So, Jesus is exactly correct, Moses was making allowance for something he knew was going to happen (perhaps it would be more accurate to say that God was making allowance for something that was going to happen).  In any case, looking at both what Jesus said about divorce, and what God commanded through Moses, gives us insight into how the Church today should deal with divorce.  It happens, but it is wrong and those who have joined themselves to Christ should make every effort to avoid the ending of their marriage.   There is forgiveness for those who divorce, but it would be better if they had remained married.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 10-11.

It is interesting the things which we almost never notice.  In today’s passage I have never before noticed that the rich man in today’s passage fell to his knees before he asked Jesus his question.  For that matter, I don’t think I have ever heard anyone comment upon that fact.  It adds a bit of nuance to several elements of the story.  My first thought was that it makes his walking away from Jesus even more stark.  But, it also puts a new look on Jesus’ response about being called “good”.  There are two possible explanations for the man falling to his knees before Jesus.  First, it could have been an expression of sincere supplication.  Second, it could have been an effort to put on a show of sincere supplication.  In the first case, it makes it much sadder that the man was unwilling to give up his wealth and follow Jesus.  In the second case, it suggests that the man came to Jesus to ask the question in order to appear righteous.  The more I think about this incident the more I am convinced that the man was posturing more than he was truly seeking guidance.  In which case, it makes more clear the point which Jesus was making when He asked why the man called Him good.  The man approached Jesus with an appearance of worshipful supplication.  Jesus points out that only God deserves such a worshipful approach.  I want to highlight one other thing about this because Muslims often use this exchange as evidence that Jesus denied that He was God.  In fact, I think this passage does the exact opposite.  By asking why the man called Him good, Jesus is highlighting that when people called Him good they were acknowledging His divinity.  This same reasoning applies to those today who want to say that Jesus was a good teacher but not divine.  Jesus said that only God is good.  Therefore if you call Him a good teacher you cannot also say that He is not God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 10-11.

When Jesus was questioned about divorce He quoted from Genesis chapter one and chapter two.  First He states that from the beginning God created them male and female.  I try to avoid controversial topics of discussion going on about us today, but this clearly runs contrary to the idea many today have that there are multiple genders.  He then continues to say that this duality of mankind is why a man leaves his parent and gets married, with the man and woman becoming one.  This contradicts the idea that same sex marriage can be the same sort of union as traditional, heterosexual marriage.  Up until this point, Jesus merely paraphrased what Genesis said.  However, He then reaches a conclusion about what these facts about God’s design mean for us.  Jesus brought up these facts when He was asked His position on divorce.  Jesus tells us that these basic facts of Creation tell us that divorce is wrong.  Which leads me to conclude that if we want to address the issues of today we must first address an issue which the Church in America “passed” on in the 1970s: divorce and heterosexual infidelity.  God calls us to either abstain from sexual acts, or to remain faithful to the one we marry.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 10-11.

The other day I wrote about how people came and listened to Jesus teach for hours on end.  I think that today’s passage gives us an insight into how Jesus taught, and why people were willing to sit and listen to Him teach for hours on end.  In today’s passage we have three separate incidents described which I want to cite.  First, while Jesus is teaching some Pharisees asked Him a question about divorce.  Second, some parents brought their children to Jesus for Him to lay His hands on them.  The timing on this incident is less clear, but it appears to also occur while Jesus is teaching.  The third incident occurs as Jesus has finished teaching and is about to go on His way.  At that point a man runs up and asks what he must do in order to receive eternal life.  So, what do these three incidents tell us about how Jesus taught?  Well, the first and last incidents involved people coming up to Jesus and asking Him questions about how they should live their lives.  The middle incident involved parents bringing their children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them.  In each incident, people felt welcome to approach Jesus.  He would then speak to what was most on their hearts at the moment.  Yes, we know, and those watching probably knew, the Pharisees were merely asking Jesus their question as a test, but it could have been a man(and in that society, it would have had to be a man) in a bad marriage struggling with what he should do.  The only one of these incidents where Jesus gave the people the answer they were looking for was when the parents brought their children to Him.  I think there is more we can learn about how Jesus taught from the story about the children.  But I want to point out that all three of these incidents involved Jesus teaching about a subject which someone in His audience brought up.  Even the answers He gave to the questions asked of Him were approachable, were phrased in ways which those listening could easily understand.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 10-11.

I know this will come as a surprise to those who regularly read this passage, but I am not sure where I am going to go with this today.  I will start with Jesus’ commentary on marriage and divorce.  He tells us that at creation God made humans male and female and for this reason a man leaves his parents and is joined with his wife.  From that He concludes that one should not separate that which God has joined.  I think this speaks pretty clearly to several issues in our society today.  Then we have the account of parents bringing their children to Jesus, which His disciples thought was a waste of His time and attempted to block.  Jesus rebuked them for that and told them that they needed to receive the kingdom of heaven in the same way that children do.  I have seen many debates on what that means, but I have always seen it in the context of later in this passage when Jesus told His disciples that anyone who wants to be great in God’s kingdom must serve others.  So, in the same way that children generally do not think of themselves as being in charge, we too should not take the attitude that we are in charge.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 10-11

In response to the question about divorce, Jesus responded that from the beginning of creation God had made people male and female.  There is so much there about many of the social issues facing our society today.  Further, He said that Moses only gave a commandment allowing divorce as a concession to humanity’s hard hearts.  So, as I read this, many of the problems we have in our society today can be directly traced to our society, and even our Churches, deciding that sometimes divorce is a good thing.  Divorce is never a good thing, but that does not mean that those who have divorced cannot be forgiven.  Divorce is never OK, but sometimes the other options seem worse.  I have two more things to say about divorce.  First, while I believe that those who are married should always seek another option other than divorce, I will not tell others what price they should pay to avoid divorce.  Second, those who are divorced cannot go back and make it so that they did not get divorced, they can only move on from where they are now in the knowledge that God will forgive us our sins.  Certainly, I have failed to be faithful to God to at least as great a degree as anyone else and have no place to consider myself better than those who have gotten divorced.

I really did not intend to spend so much time on Jesus’ comment about human sexuality.  What I really wanted to focus on today was Jesus’ reaction to annoying people.  We have two stories about people who annoyed those around Jesus, the parents who brought their children to see Him, and blind Bartimaeus.  When the parents brought their children to Jesus, the disciples considered the children to be an annoyance and scolded the parents.  When blind Bartimaeus called out to Jesus for healing, the others around Jesus considered him an annoyance and told him to be quiet.  In both cases, the “gatekeepers” thought that Jesus was too important to spend time on those seeking His attention.  Also, in both cases, Jesus was willing to make time for them.  Both of these instances provide an illustration on Jesus’ teaching about leadership.  Neither the children nor Bartimaeus were of “value” to Jesus.  They could bring nothing to Him which made His life better.  Nevertheless, He was willing to make time for them because, by doing so, He could make their life better.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 10-11

I see a connection between Jesus’ interaction with the rich man and His teaching about leadership.   The rich man came to Jesus because he felt that something was missing in his life.  He felt this way despite the fact that he had kept all of the commandments from a young age.  Yet despite the feeling of emptiness he felt, he was unwilling to take that next step.  We usually read Jesus’ instructions to the rich man as being about wealth.  However, in light of Jesus’ teaching about leadership a few verses later, this teaching appears to me to be more about serving others than about wealth.  Actually, that is not true.  Jesus’ instructions to the rich man were to use his wealth to serve others.  Those same instructions apply to all of us.  We should use whatever gifts we have, whether that be wealth, a skill, or something else, to serve others.  We miss that Jesus’ teaching about wealth is really the same as His teaching about leadership.  In order to accumulate wealth as God measures wealth we must use our material resources to help others.  This is the same as Jesus’ teaching about leadership.  Those with authority as God counts it use their authority to serve others.  True leadership is service.  True wealth is giving to others.