Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 8-9.

Every time I read this passage I identify with the father of the boy whom Jesus’ disciples could not heal.  I do not identify with him as a father, since I have no children.  Rather I identify with his response when Jesus tells him that everything is possible for one who believes. “I believe; help me overcome my unbelief.”  More than anything else that is my prayer every day.  I believe that when Jesus told His disciples that they would do even greater things than what they saw Him doing He was making a prophecy which applies to His followers today.  Yet I do not do such things, and my faith wavers.  Fortunately, the rest of this passage gives me some comfort in that those who walked with Jesus on this earth also suffered faith issues.  They had failed to heal the boy.  At the beginning of this passage, just a short time after witnessing Jesus feed five thousand, they could feed a crowd which turned out to be only four thousand strong.  Peter, who had just proclaimed Jesus the Messiah, had to be rebuked for not having sufficient faith to accept that Jesus would die on the cross.  So, I will join the child’s father and cry out to God, “I believe, help me overcome my unbelief.”

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 8-9.

Today’s passage ends with Jesus telling His disciples that they should maim themselves before they allow a part of their body to cause them to sin.  I have seen some quote those verses in order to support the idea that they have no responsibility to not act in a manner which might lead others to have impure thoughts (I want to note that even though we usually mean thoughts about sexual immorality when we say “impure thoughts”, I am using it here to mean thoughts about committing any sin).  However, Jesus prefaces His words about cutting off our hand, or gouging out our eye, by saying that it would be better to have a millstone cast around our neck and be cast into the sea than to cause one of those who believe in Him to stumble.  This leads me to believe that Jesus’ words about taking extreme action to avoid stumbling were meant to warn us to be extremely cautious not to lead others to sin.    We should be careful not to dress, or act in a manner, which will lead others to lust.  We should be careful not to act in a manner which would lead an alcoholic to think about drinking, a drug addict to consider taking drugs.  To reiterate: I believe Jesus point here is that we should go to great lengths to be sure that we do not cause our fellow believers to stumble.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 8-9.

I want to start by Jesus’ use of yeast as a metaphor for hypocrisy.  Here He makes it clear that a little bit of hypocrisy can spread through, and transform, a group just as much as the righteous acts of a small number can transform society around those who do them.  However, the part of this passage which resonates the most with me is the account of the father who brought his son to Jesus’ disciples for healing.  The disciples were unable to heal the boy and the father was beginning to lose hope.  When Jesus told him that anything was possible for the one who believes, the father responded, “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.”  That has been my prayer for many years.  I know that my faith is less than it should be, but this story leads me to believe that it is enough, and my prayer is that God cause it to increase.

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 8-9

When we read about Jesus telling His disciples about the suffering He would soon suffer and Peter taking Him aside to talk to Him, we don’t often really think about what Peter was thinking.  It seems to me that Peter took Jesus aside for one of two reasons, both of which were noble.  First, Peter may have thought that Jesus was becoming too negative.  Perhaps, Peter thought that Jesus was becoming depressed over the opposition which He was facing.  Second, Peter may have thought that Jesus’ statements about the suffering He would soon experience would unnecessarily discourage others.   In either case, Peter misunderstood what Jesus was saying.  Jesus was not being a “Debbie downer” when He spoke of his coming suffering and death.  He was preparing His disciples for what was coming.  Peter saw Jesus’ predictions of His coming suffering and death as a sign that Jesus thought He was failing.  Jesus saw His coming suffering and death as signs of His success.

Jesus uses Peter’s attempt to “buck him up” as a teaching moment.  He tells us that if we strive to avoid pain and suffering, we will fail.  And not only will we fail to avoid pain and suffering, we will fail to serve God.  A Science Fiction writer whose work I love has her main character say something similar to what Jesus says here.  The character has been desperately seeking something, then at one point, when he seems close to getting it, he walks away from making any further effort to get it.  When asked why, he responds that he realized that it does you no good to obtain your heart’s desire if you give up your heart to get it.  Spoiler alert, he gets what he was seeking anyway.  In fact, he gets it because he refused to compromise his ethics to get it.  That is similar to Jesus’ point here.  If you are not willing to face suffering and death to do what is right, you will still face death and suffering with the knowledge that you did not do the right thing.  On the other hand, if you do the right thing in the face of suffering and death, any suffering you experience will bring you joy.

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 8-9

Today’s passage starts with the feeding of the four thousand.  Just a short time earlier, Jesus had fed the five thousand.  This time starts much the same way: with Jesus more or less instructing the disciples to feed the crowd.  Despite having seen Jesus feed the five thousand the disciples responded much the same way they had the first time, “How can we find enough food to feed them here in the wilderness?”  Even after this, they still worried about not having enough food and argued over whose fault it was that they did not have enough with them.  How often are we guilty of the same lack of faith?

After Peter, speaking on behalf of the Twelve, declared that Jesus was the Messiah Jesus began explaining how He would die and rise from the dead.  Perhaps I am reading this wrong, but it seems to me that Jesus was likely explaining to the disciples how His death in this manner and then resurrection was necessary in order to accomplish God’s purpose.  Reading further into the passage, Peter thought that Jesus was saying these things because He thought His ministry was a lost cause and Peter sought to lift His spirits.  I suspect that Peter told Jesus that He should have more faith in His ministry and warned Him that such negative talk would discourage His followers.  Jesus responds to Peter by telling him that Peter’s view goes directly counter to God’s.  Then Jesus gathers His disciples and the crowd to tell them that those who wish to follow Him must be willing to suffer and die to do God’s will.  Often times, serving God will lead to suffering and death.  In fact, sometimes accomplishing God’s purpose in our lives will require us to suffer and perhaps die.  We should embrace those situations as opportunities,  If we believe Jesus’ teaching we will be eager toe experience the suffering which so often accomplishes doing His will.