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Weekly sermons and Bible studies led by a retired pastor of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Episodes
Monday May 24, 2021
Monday May 24, 2021
This week’s lesson contains some of the most important teaching of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. We began with more comments on Mark 10:13-16. People were bringing children to Jesus for a blessing, and the disciples were trying to keep them away. Maybe they thought Jesus was too busy to be bothered with children or that children were not that important to Him. Jesus was very upset and said, “Let the children come to Me... for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Mark 10:13-14).
Some churches and groups believe that children are sweet and innocent and sinless, or at least are not responsible for any sins until they are older. They are therefore automatically eligible for and belong in heaven. There was a book series some years ago, Left Behind, where all the children on earth were suddenly raptured directly into heaven.
This idea is not at all what Jesus means in this passage. The Scriptures teach that ever since the fall of the first people into sin, everyone is conceived and born in sin and has a sinful nature. See passages like Genesis 6:5 and Psalm 51:5 and Ephesians 2:1-3.
That is why Jesus said that everyone needs to be born again, born from above, in order to enter the Kingdom of God. That new spiritual birth is a gift from God and comes by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God and by the Word connected with water in baptism. See John 3:3-6 and 1 Peter 1:23, for example. Baptism is the means by which little children, as well as older children and adults, can receive that new birth - and they need it, too. See the promise of Acts 2:38-39, for example.
What Jesus is really emphasizing in this passage is in Mark 10:15. We receive the Kingdom of God as a gift, by simple childlike faith. There are many things little children cannot do for themselves. They are dependent and trusting and simply receive most things. The Kingdom of God is also received by God’s grace and not earned by our work and efforts. Jesus showed His care and concern for the children, too, by picking them up and personally blessing them (Mark 10:16). We are thus reminded that children are important to our Lord and need to be baptized and taught and spiritually cared for.
We see what Jesus is saying even more clearly in the verses that follow. Jesus was journeying closer to Jerusalem, with the last week of His life coming in Mark 11. A man then ran up to Him and knelt before Him, with a question: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He was a typical Jewish man of his time and was thinking about himself and his own efforts to make himself acceptable to God (Mark 10:17).
Jesus replied with His own question, as He often did. “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” Jesus was actually good, perfectly good, as the sinless Son of God and a true man, the only person without sin (Mark 10:18). (See also Hebrews 4:14-15, for example.) The man did not realize this, though, and was focused only on his own goodness and what he needed to do. Jesus then listed many of the 10 Commandments, focusing upon those having to do with life with other human beings.
The man knew these commandments and quickly responded, “Teacher, all these I have kept since my youth" (Mark10:20). Like many Jews, he focused on the literal letter of the laws. If one had not literally killed someone or committed actual adultery with someone, then he was acceptable to God and had kept those commandments. Jesus had taught, as the Son of God, that these commandments meant much more. One could break these commandments by thoughts and words, too, that harmed others. And everyone does in some ways. (See Matthew 5:21-28, for example, and Matthew 5:48. See also Galatians 3:10 and James 2:10 and the blunt words of James in James 3:2.)
Jesus loved this man and wanted him to know the truth about himself and his real spiritual weaknesses and sins. He focused then on commandments having to do with coveting and having another “god,” something more important than the one true God. Jesus told him, “You lack one thing; go sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Jesus knew that this was a rich man and that his actual “god” was his great possessions. He would not come and follow Jesus or his Heavenly Father, unless He was willing to put God above all his wealth and possessions. The man was shocked and dismayed by what Jesus said, and he went away sorrowful (Mark 10:21-22). Maybe at some point he woke up and realized what Jesus was telling him; but at this point, he was not about to give up his possessions, no matter what. His wealth was the barrier to the really important thing - following Jesus in faith. He was a sinner, much more than he realized.
Jesus went on, then, to tell His disciples how difficult it was for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of heaven. (Other Scriptures say the same thing about the danger of riches. Jesus had given the same warning earlier in Mark 4:18-19, in the parable of the sower and seeds that fell among thorns. See also James 2:5-6 and James 5:1-6.) The disciples were shocked and amazed. The general Jewish attitude was that if you were rich, you must be good and are being blessed by God.
Jesus went on to say that it was easier for a camel (the largest animal around those parts at the time) to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. That was clearly an impossible situation. Jesus went even farther in adding, “Children, how difficult it is (period!) to enter the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:23-25). For anyone!
The disciples were “exceedingly astonished” and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible.” It is impossible to save ourselves by our own works and efforts, no matter what we do. If wealth is not a problem, then some other weaknesses in us would be and are. “All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). (Read also Romans 3:9-20.) It is a hopeless situation for us all, left on our own. There is nothing we can do for ourselves to enter the kingdom of God (Mark 10:26-27).
But then Jesus added, “With man, it is impossible to be saved - but not with God. For all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27). What we cannot do, God has done for us, in Jesus and His saving work for us. And the Holy Spirit then comes to us and gives us the gift of faith in Him by His grace, through the Word of God and Baptism. (For more on this, listen to the latest sermon posted on the podcast site, based on John 15:26-27 and 16:4-15 for Pentecost. You can also read Ephesians 2:1-10.)
And we receive this good news with childlike faith in God’s work and His promises. (Other Scriptures that speak of the fact that with God nothing is impossible are: Genesis 18:14, Job 42:2, Jeremiah 32:17,27 and Luke 1:37. Jesus also prayed in Mark 14:36, knowing that all things are possible with God, but that His Heavenly Father’s will must happen, not our will and desires.)
Peter heard all this and began to say, “See, we have left everything and followed You.” He seems to have been ready to add, “We did what you asked the rich man to do. What reward do we get?” (Mark 10:28). He was still thinking in terms of what he and the others would do and what they would earn from God. He was missing the point Jesus was making - salvation by grace as an undeserved gift of God.
Jesus went on to say that blessings would come, by God’s mercy, for those who trusted in Him and in the Gospel. They would come through the church, the family of Christian believers. Persecutions would also come to them; but by God’s grace they would also receive eternal life (Mark 10:29-30).
We will see more of how this all works out in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, we trust, not ourselves and our efforts, but God and His work in Jesus. It is not, ”What must I do?” but “What has Jesus done for me?” With Him, our future is secure, now and into eternity.
Sunday May 23, 2021
Sunday May 23, 2021
Monday May 17, 2021
Monday May 17, 2021
Last week’s study ended with Jesus telling his disciples once again that He had to be killed and three days later He would rise. And the reaction of the disciples was: “They did not understand the saying and were afraid to ask Him” about it (Mark 9:30-32).
This lack of understanding is very clear in the verses which follow. Jesus and the disciples went back to Capernaum, and Jesus asked them what they had been discussing along the way. They kept silent, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. Maybe this argument came because some of the disciples were jealous that Jesus had taken only Peter, James, and John to the Transfiguration event, and as Jesus had directed (Mark 9:9), no one was saying what had happened. Or maybe there was trouble because the disciples had just failed to cast out the evil spirit from the boy in Mark 9:16-18. Whose fault was it? Could some have done better than others? Who was better and greater than others (Mark 9:33-34)?
We read that Jesus sat down and called the disciples to Him for a serious talk. In the Kingdom of God, Jesus said, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). The goal is not personal greatness, but service to others. Jesus Himself was the best example of that. He was willing to sacrifice everything, even His life, for the sake of others. He was willing to be “last,” dying like a criminal for the sins and failings of everyone else in the world, in order to bring forgiveness for them, though they and we did not deserve it.
Jesus then took a small child and set him in the midst of them and picked him up in His arms. Receiving and serving and helping even a little child in Jesus’ name is a “great” service, Jesus was saying - and then it was as if one were serving and receiving Jesus Himself and God the Father, Who sent Him to be our Servant Savior (Mark 9:36-37). (This is why Martin Luther emphasized that we can have different vocations or “callings” in this life, and all can be important service to God and others. Being a good parent and helping a child is a great thing, even when getting a child a drink of water, as we shall soon see. The same is true for being a teacher or doing our work well, whatever it is, in a way that serves and helps others. Greatness is not in trying to make ourselves look better than others or be above others, for the sake of personal gain.)
Again, the disciples did not seem to get what Jesus was teaching. John soon brought up the issue of someone else casting out demons in the name of Jesus. This person was not even one of the close disciples following Jesus. How dare he do that! And they tried to stop him, as if he were stealing from their power and authority and honor. Jesus replied with the opposite view. “Do not stop him.”
This must have been a person who had seen and heard Jesus and His disciples and trusted the power of Jesus and wanted to help battle Satan and evil in Jesus name. Such a person would not quickly turn to oppose Jesus. He was doing some good, and even the smallest good was a blessing, even it was just giving a a cup of cold water to someone, because of a relationship to Christ, as Jesus went on to explain (Mark 9:39-41).
This is somewhat like what Paul talked about in Philippians 1:12-19. He rejoiced that the good news of Jesus was spread, even if not always with the best of motivations or even as a result of persecution. Jesus is not talking about people who try to use the power of God for personal gain or try to earn or buy God’s power in some way. (See the bad examples of Simon the Magician in Acts 8:9-24 or the sons of Sceva in Acts 19:13-16.)
Jesus went on, in Mark 9:42 and following, to warn about the seriousness of leading ourselves or others astray, away from trust in Him and His will. Jesus began with the example of a very little child (literally, a “micron”) who believes in Him. How terrible it would be to cause such a little one to sin (literally, to stumble and fall, away from the Lord). It would be better, Jesus said, in a very dramatic way, for a person to die before leading someone astray, away from the faith (Mark 9:42).
These words remind us that even small children can receive the gift of faith and believe. That is one of the reason we practice infant baptism, as well as baptism for older children and adults. God can give that gift of faith to anyone of any age. The promises of baptism are “for you and for your children and for all who are far off” (Acts 2:38). How important it is to teach and strengthen baptized children or adults, then, with the Word of God and encourage them in faith in Jesus.
Likewise, Jesus went on to say how important it is to battle sins and evil in our own lives, before they cause us to stumble in sin and fall away from faith. He used very dramatic language here, too. He is not literally calling us to cut off feet or hands, etc. We heard Jesus already teaching that evil does not come from our hands or feet, but from within, from our sinful nature and hearts (Mark 7:20-23). We can use our hands to do evil, stealing or hurting others or doing other harmful things. We can use our feet to go places that are dangerous or harmful for us. Our eyes can read or look upon things that encourage evil or lustful desires. We need, with God’s power, to battle against such temptations to evil of all kinds, or we could lose our faith and end up not in heaven, in eternal “life," but in hell (Mark 9:43-48).
Jesus is actually the one who speaks more about hell than anyone else in the Bible. He does not want anyone to go there. He is the Savior who rescues us from sin, eternal death, and hell. Yet, He warns that people can resist and reject Him and His gracious gifts of life earned for us. Here, hell is described as unquenchable fire, and the picture image of “gehenna” is used. This is a reference to the Valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, where there was a huge garbage dump, which was continually on fire.
In earlier times, some of God’s people went so far astray that they worshipped false gods and even sacrificed their children, burned them for these gods in this valley. (See Jeremiah 7:31-32 and warnings about judgment and unquenchable fire (v.20, 32, etc.) King Josiah also brought reforms, trying to stop what had happened in that valley, in 2 Kings 23: 9-10.) This area eventually became the garbage dump of Gehenna, a symbol of hell. See also the Old Testament passage that Jesus quoted from Isaiah 66:24, describing hell as a place where “their worm shall not die and their fire shall not be quenched” (Mark 9:43-48).
Jesus gave all these warnings, because He wanted no one to end up in hell, by rejecting Him and His saving work for the world. Jesus went on to speak of "salt" that He provides to preserve and protect His believers who trust in Him. “Have salt in yourselves," Jesus said. As every Old Testament grain offering needed to be salted, as a sign of “the salt of the covenant with your God” (Leviticus 2:13) and as a preservative, so also we need the preserving gifts of God to keep us in faith in Christ.
In the New Testament we think of the Word of God and the blessings of our baptism and the Lord’s Supper, by which the Holy Spirit brings us to faith but also keeps us in the faith. We can then be “salt” to the world around us, as witnesses for Jesus. (Mark 9:50. See also Matthew 5:13 and Colossians 4:5-6.)
Jesus added the idea that we can also be “salted with fire” (Mark 9:49). This is a reference not to the fire of hell, but to the fire of trials and troubles we might suffer in our lives as believers. These troubles can also be a means by which our faith can be strengthened and purified, over time, as we live our lives for our Lord. (See what Peter says in 1 Peter 1:3-7, and the words of James 1:2-4 and Romans 5:3-5.) Finally, Jesus ended these words to His disciples by calling them to “be at peace with one another" instead of having arguments and disagreement with one another, in Mark 9:33-34.
As Mark 10 begins, Jesus was traveling toward Judea and His ultimate suffering and death and resurrection, around Jerusalem. Wherever He went, crowds gathered and “He taught them, as was His custom.” He taught God’s Word wherever He could, as long as He could.
Very quickly, Jesus was also confronted again by Pharisees, who “tested” Him by the question, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” This was likely a kind of trap for Him, no matter how He answered the question. If He said “Yes," they could accuse Him of approving of divorce and being too liberal in His views, like the Sadducees. If he said “No," they could say He was rejecting Moses and his allowing for divorce in Deuteronomy 24:1.
Jesus knew what they were trying to do, and He asked them a question of His own instead: “What did Moses command you?” They quote the Deuteronomy passage. Jesus then had the chance to explain that it was only because of sin and hardness of heart, that Moses gave the command about divorce, “putting away” one’s spouse, in some circumstances (Mark 10:2-5).
Moses had written the whole first five books of the Old Testament by inspiration of God, and Jesus then quoted God’s original command, given early in Genesis, through Moses, about marriage. God made the first two people, one a male and the other a female, and brought them together in marriage (Genesis 1:27 and 2 :24). There were only two genders, and the male was to marry the female. Jesus quoted these passages from Genesis. As the Son of God, He was there at the creation and involved in all this, and knew what this meant. So Jesus added the word of explanation. “What therefore God has joined together, let man not separate.” This was the original high standard that God had for marriage, and Jesus supported and emphasized that (Mark 10:6-9).
Later, the disciples asked Jesus about this issue again. Jesus repeated His high view of marriage and His desire that marriage commitment not be broken (Mark 10:10-11). (Jesus obviously also knew of the reality of sin and “hardness of heart” and that not every marriage would work as intended by God. There are some grounds for divorce allowed in Scripture, and Jesus also taught the forgiveness of sins. If you want to pursue this more, there is more discussion of this in an earlier podcast on the Book of Malachi, Chapter 2.)
This study ends with Mark 10:13-16. The disciples again were not listening very closely to Jesus. They tried to keep parents from bringing children to Jesus for a blessing, as if He would not want to be bothered by children. Jesus was “indignant” and insisted that they “let the children come to Me, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” In fact, He said, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” We will talk more about what this means next week and how it leads directly into the key passage in next week’s lesson.
For now, we need to ask how much we are like those first disciples. How well have we been listening? Where have we fallen short and need God’s forgiveness? May the Lord forgive and strengthen us all, that we may be better “salt” to the world, in service to Him and to one another.
Monday May 17, 2021
Monday May 17, 2021
Sermon for the 6th Sunday of Easter, based on:
Sermon originally delivered May 20, 2012
Monday May 10, 2021
Monday May 10, 2021
Last week we heard of Peter rightly calling Jesus “the Christ,” the promised Savior, but misunderstanding what that meant for Jesus. Peter was thinking of earthly power and glory and “the things of man” and even of Satan. Instead, Jesus would follow His heavenly Father’s will and began even more clearly to speak of His suffering and death, as key to His saving work for the world. Glory and honor would come only later, in His resurrection and the events that followed.
In Mark 9:1, Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God coming with power, but that not all the disciples would see that. This most likely refers to the resurrection of Jesus, which Judas would miss out on, by his suicide. See Romans 1:4, for example, for the “power” of the resurrection.
Jesus would also give three of His disciples a glimpse of His glory in the event described in Mark 9:2-10. He took Peter, James, and John up a high mountain. We don’t know just where that was, but likely it was north of Caesarea Philippi, where they had last been, in the far north of Israel. Jesus was “transfigured before them” (Mark9:2). His clothing became radiantly white, beyond what anyone on earth could bleach or clean them (Mark 9:3). (See references to the purifying prophesied when the Lord, the messenger of the new covenant, would come, in Malachi 3:1-2. See how the transfigured Jesus looked like the “Ancient of Days,” the heavenly Father described in Daniel 7:9, also. It is a glimpse of Jesus in His glory, as the true Son of God.)
Two great leaders of the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah, also appeared with Jesus, talking with Him. Somehow, Peter was enabled to know who these people were, and he began to talk of a plan he had. Tents could be built for these three - Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.
There was an Old Testament festival where people built temporary outdoor enclosures and stayed in them for 7 days, remembering their days in the wilderness with Moses. (See Leviticus 23:42-43.) Maybe Peter was thinking of this and how this amazing time could be prolonged. More likely, though, Peter was just saying whatever came into his head, because he and the others were “terrified” at what they saw, as Mark tells us (Mark 9:5-6.) (Remember that Mark learned much from Peter and likely is recording just what Peter told him, as God inspired him to do. Fear and terror are often reactions when sinful people see an angel or even a glimpse of the glory of God. See Luke 1:11-13, 26-30, Exodus 20:18-19, etc.)
Right after that, “a cloud overshadowed them” (Mark 9:7). Clouds were often a way of showing that God was coming among His people in the Old Testament, even as He dealt with Moses. See Exodus 24:15-16 and 40:34-35, for example. Then the voice of God the Father came from the cloud, clearly identifying Jesus as His Son: “This is My beloved Son.” It was the same message as at the baptism of Jesus. See Mark 1:11. The Father also added, here at the Transfiguration: “Listen to Him” - Listen to Jesus! (Mark 9:7) This was also in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy given long before by Moses, who was standing with Jesus at that moment. (See Deuteronomy 18:15.) Then we hear, “Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only” (Mark 9:8).
The message of the Transfiguration was to listen to Jesus - His Words and the Words of His Holy Scriptures, the Bible - and to believe them, because He was the true Son of God. Even if His Words did not make sense to them and their human way of thinking, the disciples were to believe Him, “Jesus only,” above everything else. This is the message for us, too - to keep listening to the Words of Jesus (as we are doing right now in this study), even if we do not fully grasp what Jesus is telling us.
In fact, as we read Mark 9:9-13, it is clear that Peter, James, and John were still not getting many things that Jesus was teaching them. They did not understand what “rising from the dead” meant (Mark 9:10).
They did not understand that John the Baptist was the “Elijah to come," even though Jesus had already told them that. (See Matthew 11: 10-14, for example.) Jesus repeated again that John was the one prophesied to “restore” God’s people and get them ready for the Savior. People “did to him whatever they pleased” - rejecting him and Herod even putting him to death - even as the original Elijah had been persecuted, “as it is written of him” (Mark 9:11-13). (See also 1 Kings 19:1-3,10.)
Sadly, the scribes and other Jewish authorities had added many things beyond what the Old Testament said about the Elijah prophesied to come. “The expectation was that Elijah would first teach the Jews, settle all their disputed questions, give them again the pot of manna and Aaron’s rod, (which had been in the Ark of the Covenant), etc.” (Lenski’s Commentary). No wonder the disciples were confused, having been taught these wrong ideas by others!
Jesus had to repeat again that He, as the “Son of Man,” would also “suffer many things and be treated with contempt,” just as Elijah and John the Baptist had been treated (Mark 9:12). (See also comments in an earlier study portion, on John 2:10, about Jesus as the “Son of Man.”)
Jesus knew that confusion was still there in the disciples’ minds, so He also told them not tell anyone about the Transfiguration until after His resurrection (Mark 9:9). Later on, they would better understand about all this. Peter wrote about the Transfiguration, for example, in 2 Peter 1:16-21, and explained accurately about Jesus, after the resurrection, in Acts 3:18, 22-26, by the power of the Holy Spirit and quoting Moses.
The weakness of the disciples and the strength of Jesus and the need to rely on Him are emphasized again in the story which follows in Mark 9:14-28. Jesus, Peter, James and John returned to the other disciples, after the Transfiguration, and found another big argument between the Jewish scribes and those disciples. Jesus asked what was going on, and a man explained that he had brought his son to the disciples for healing. The son was possessed by an evil spirit, so that he could not speak or hear and often was thrown into what we might today call an epileptic fit. The disciples could not cast out the evil spirit from the son, though, even though they had been given power from Jesus earlier to do so (Mark 9:14-18). (See also Mark 6:7-13.)
Jesus was frustrated with so much evil around in His “faithless generation” and with the lack of faith in His own disciples, too, and all that He had to bear with (Mark 9:19). He asked for the boy to be brought to Him, and the demon in the boy immediately recognized Jesus and convulsed the boy, seeking to harm him, as he had often done before, ever since the boy was a child. (The goal of Satan and all his evil angels is always to harm and not to help.) The Father pleaded for compassion and help from Jesus, if He could do anything for the boy (Mark 9:20-22).
Jesus wanted to increase the faith in the father, as well as heal the son. So, He said, “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.” The man has some faith or he would not have brought his son to the disciples and Jesus; but he answered very honestly and quickly: “I believe; help my unbelief!” (This is a good prayer for all of us, as our faith is imperfect and not always so strong, either.)
Jesus quickly then commanded the “deaf and mute spirit” to come out of the boy and never return. The evil spirit cried out and convulsed the boy again terribly and finally came out of him, leaving the boy looking as if he were dead. Jesus lifted up the boy and he arose and was well (Mark 9:23-27).
The disciples then asked Jesus why they could not cast out the evil spirit. Jesus had already spoken of a “faith” problem and now he talked about the need for prayer, as well (Mark 9:28-29). It might be that the disciples were so proud of casting out other demons that they began to think that they were doing this themselves and forgetting that it was only by the power of Jesus, delegated to them, that any of this healing was happening. They were trying to do the healing by their own power, instead of leaning upon Jesus and asking for heavenly help for what they did, through prayer.
Don’t we sometimes do the same thing? We have a problem, and we try to solve it by ourselves, by our wisdom and using every other human means possible, and only later remembering to pray and ask God’s help. Jesus is teaching us to combine faith with prayer, asking God for His help early on, not at the end, when nothing else has worked. Jesus has taught us, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). God does not answer every prayer as we wish; but James tells us, “You do not have because you do not ask" (James 4:2). Prayer is simply talking with God, and is a sign of our faith in our Lord, as dear children ask their dear Father for what they think they need.
In Mark 9:30-32, Jesus continued to teach His disciples. He knew that they needed to hear and hear again what He was teaching, even as we do. He repeated again about His coming death and resurrection. This time, He added that He would be ”delivered into the hands of men” and be killed. Someone would help this to happen, and Judas was the person who most clearly did that, as he arranged for and then betrayed Jesus with a kiss. We will hear more of this in Mark 14:10-11 and 43-45. It was all clearly predicted, and yet Judas ignored these warnings of Jesus, for him.
In Mark 9:32, we hear again that the disciples were not understanding these direct words of Jesus and were afraid to ask Him, to pray to Him for His help in understanding. (Again, how often do we do the same? Lord, we believe. Help our unbelief and indecision and fear and weakness, as we are so much like those disciples. We can live only by Your grace and mercy and patient help for us.)
Monday May 10, 2021
Monday May 10, 2021
Sermon for the 6th Sunday of Easter, based on:
Sermon originally delivered May 13, 2012
Monday May 03, 2021
Monday May 03, 2021
As we heard last week, Jesus spent some time outside Galilee and the land of Israel, where He preached and did miracles for the benefit of non-Jews and showed His care for Gentiles, as well as Jews. As soon as He returned to Galilee, though, where more Jews lived (Mark 8:10), He was confronted again by Jewish religious authorities, Pharisees, who “began to argue with Him” again. This time, they wanted Him to show them “a sign from heaven” as a kind of “test” of His authority and His right to speak and do what He did. Already Jesus had done many miracles and taught the Word of God to them; but that was not enough. They wanted something more, and He knew that they would never be satisfied, no matter what He did. So, He “sighed deeply in His spirit," sorrowful at their reaction, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly (literally, Amen), I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation” (Mark 8:11-12).
Later on, Jesus would call that generation an “adulterous and sinful generation” (Mark 8:38), because it was not being faithful to the One True God and His Word and His will for His people. (See also Matthew 12:38-41, where Jesus would give only “the sign of the prophet Jonah.” As Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days, so Jesus would be in the grave for three days before His mighty resurrection. See also 1 Corinthians 1:22-25, where Paul, who was a Jew, saw the continuing demand from Jews for more signs and proof, but he would preach only Christ crucified, the Power of God for salvation.)
Jesus soon left that Jewish territory again for the other side of the Sea of Galilee with His disciples. As they traveled by boat, the disciples realized that they had forgotten to bring any food with them, other than one loaf of bread. Jesus used this discussion to given them a warning. “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” The disciples seemed to have no idea of what Jesus was telling them and they kept talking about their lack of bread (Mark 8:14-16).
As Jews, they should have remembered Old Testament stories about “leaven” - a word for “yeast,” a substance used to make bread dough rise. When God’s people were rescued from slavery in Egypt, they were to sacrifice a lamb and put blood from it on their door posts and lintel of their homes, so that judgment against the Egyptians would pass over their homes and families. (The sacrificed lamb was a symbol of the sacrifice that Jesus would later make on the cross, so that we would be forgiven and judgment for our sins would pass over us and not come to us.) That night Jews were to eat a meal, including unleavened bread, because they would not have time to wait for their bread to rise, but would leave Egypt quickly, when they were allowed to.
In coming years, then, they were to remember these rescue events from God with a yearly Passover meal, including unleavened bread, and then seven more days of eating unleavened bread. No leaven was to be in their homes or their land during those days. (See especially Exodus 12:1-20 and 13:3-10.) Over time, leaven (yeast) became a symbol for evil or for moral influence, usually bad but sometimes good. (See Matthew 13:33 for an example of good leaven, good moral influence, as the kingdom of heaven starts small in people, yet has great influence over time.)
Jesus was warning, in Mark 8:15, of the leaven, the corrupt moral influence of Herod, who killed John the Baptist and did so much other evil, even though he was powerful and influential. Jesus also warned of the evil moral influence, the leaven, of the Pharisees, with whom they had just been speaking. The Pharisees seemed to be so morally good, but were actually far from God’s will, especially in their opposition to Jesus. (See also 1 Corinthians 5:1-2,6-8 as another example of the leaven of evil, if it is allowed to corrupt even a church.)
The disciples of Jesus were missing what He was saying, though, because of their concern for themselves and their lack of enough bread to eat. Jesus strongly accused them of not being able to see or hear what was really important for them and not listening to and understanding Him, because of hardness of hearts. Surely they should remember how Jesus could take care of their physical needs if necessary, as He had done before in the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000. Watch out for spiritual blindness, He is warning, when the focus is on the wrong things (Mark 8:17-21).
Right after this, Jesus and the disciples arrived in Bethsaida, where a blind man was brought to Jesus for healing. Jesus took the man away by himself and put spit on his eyes. This was, as in an earlier story, a way of communicating to the man that healing was coming for him. Maybe to emphasize the healing of blindness, the miracle happened in two stages; but the man finally “saw everything clearly.” As often before, the man was to go home and not spread the news about what had happened (Mark 8:22-26). This was a real healing of a man, but may have had some symbolic meaning, too. If Jesus could heal physical blindness, could He not also cure spiritual blindness, which was ultimately an even greater problem for people?
Jesus then went with His disciples to Caesarea Philippi, which was in the far North of Israel, almost out of the country, where a mixed group of Jews and non-Jews lived. This was a more isolated area, where He could do more teaching with His disciples. As they traveled there, Jesus asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” The disciples gave the usual responses. Some said Jesus was John the Baptist, come back to life after he was killed by Herod. (That is what Herod thought, at times, because of his guilt over putting John to death. See Mark 6:16.) Others thought Jesus was Elijah, though we have heard that John the Baptist was actually the Elijah predicted, who prepared the way for Jesus. Others said that Jesus was a prophet. He did have prophetic power, but He was far more than a prophet (Mark 8:27-28).
Then Jesus asked the disciples the most important question, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter, as usual, quickly answered for all the disciples, “You are the Christ.” Peter was exactly right. The word “Christ” is the Greek form of the Hebrew name “Messiah,” the “Anointed One,” the promised Savior from God. (See Part 1 of this study of Mark for more on this.) Jesus then told Peter not to tell people this about Him. The time for Jesus to be very open about Himself and to complete His saving work was getting close, but not just yet (Mark 8:29-30).
From this time on, though, Jesus was very open with His disciples about what it really meant to be the Christ. He had told them before, but not so directly. “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He said this plainly” (Mark 8:31-32). This was not at all what Peter and the others expected or wanted to hear. They were still thinking that the Christ would be a glorious conquering hero, bringing great honor to Himself and His followers. They were not thinking that He would suffer much and be rejected and die. And it was as if they never even heard the part about rising from the dead. Peter took Jesus aside and began to “rebuke” Him - to criticize Him and tell Him to stop this talk about suffering and dying (Mark 8:32).
Jesus right away rebuked Peter, saying very strongly, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Jesus must suffer and die. That was the plan of His Heavenly Father from the beginning. He had to pay the penalty for the sins of the world by His suffering and death. If Peter and the others opposed that, they were opposing God and doing the work of Satan. That is a challenging statement for us all. Do we sometimes think we know better than God and that he ought to do things our way, instead of His way? Do we too much set our minds on the things of man and our own human desires, rather than on God’s way, according to His Word (Mark 8:33)?
Jesus went on to speak to the crowd of people around Him, as well as to the disciples. Read Mark 8:34-38 very carefully. Following Jesus means self-denial and cross-bearing and might even mean losing our physical life for the sake of Jesus and His Gospel. (It actually did mean that for most of Jesus’ original disciples, eventually, and it could mean that for some, even today.) But following Jesus also means gaining life - life and hope in this world and eternal life with Him and through Him. There is no other way to eternal life and heaven than through Jesus and what He promised to do and did do for us. If we gained everything this world had to offer, that would not be enough to save our own souls. (See Psalm 49:7-9.) The key is trusting Jesus and His Words and work for us and not being ashamed of Him and His ways and plans for us. We cannot attain this on our own (Mark 8:34-38). This a gift of God to us, as we come to faith in Him, as we shall see, in weeks ahead. There is joy and glory also in Jesus; but before it, Jesus now heads to the cross to do what He must do to save us.
The disciples heard all this, but they still did not understand what it all meant, as we shall see. May we also follow Jesus to the cross and grow in our own faith and understanding in Him.
Monday May 03, 2021
Monday May 03, 2021
Sermon for the 5th Sunday of Easter, based on:
Sermon originally delivered May 6, 2012
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
We began with a few additional thoughts from our previous study. When we heard that Jesus came to “villages, cities and countryside” last week, teaching and helping people (Mark 6:53-56), this was a direct fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy that the Lord God Himself would come as Shepherd for His people. See Ezekiel 34:11-16. “I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country... I Myself will be the Shepherd of My sheep... and will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong (the ones who take advantage of and harm the other sheep) I will destroy.”
Jesus was God the Son, Who became a human being, one of the sheep, in order to help as many sheep as possible in His ministry (Mark 6:53-56), and to battle those who were being bad shepherds and leading people away from God’s truth (Mark 7:1-23). Jesus came from the line of King David and was (and is) the “one Shepherd” predicted to come (Ezekiel 34:23).
As True God, as well as a real man, He was able to interpret God’s will perfectly, and even change some things under the “New Covenant” He was bringing in - including “declaring all foods clean” (Mark 7:14-19). He was able to identify our sinful human nature and hearts, out of which come all kinds of evil (Mark 7:20-23). And later, Jesus would declare, “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep,” predicting His death on the cross to pay for all sins and bring new life and hope to His people, His sheep, in His resurrection from the dead (John 10:11, 17-18).
Opposition to Jesus was growing, though, from the false shepherds, the religious leaders, because of what He was saying and doing. Even the people in Galilee were focusing too much on His miracles and misunderstanding His teachings. So, as we hear in Mark 7:24, Jesus went away, outside of Galilee and the land of Israel to “the region of Tyre and Sidon” to the north. Most of the people there were Gentiles, non-Jews; but even there, people had heard about Jesus and what He was doing. A Greek woman from that area came to Jesus, begging that He would cast a demon, an unclean spirit, out of her little daughter (Mark 7:25-26).
At first, Jesus seemed to be very harsh with her, reminding her that He had come “first” for the children of Israel. (Most of His time was spent within Israel, reaching out to fellow Jews. His suffering, death, and rising from the dead all had to happen within Israel, too, as predicted in prophecy.) Then He seemed to be calling her a “dog,” which was a derogatory term some Jews used for non-Jews. He did not use the term for a wild dog or a street dog, though, dogs that people disliked very much. He used the term for a little dog, one that might be kept as a pet, a part of the family.
The woman did what He really wished her to do - to keep asking and believing that that He could and would help her and her daughter. She said, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” She was willing to accept that Jesus came first for the Jews; and she trusted that even a few crumbs from Jesus would be enough for her daughter.
It was a great statement of faith in Jesus; and this was the only person in all of Mark’s Gospel to call Jesus “Lord,” other than Jesus speaking about Himself. “For this statement,” Jesus said, “you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” The daughter was healed (Mark 7:27-30). This humble, persistent prayer was prayed “from under the table,” the commentator, Martin Franzmann, says. Jesus was showing that He came to be the Savior of all people, not just the Jews. All nations could be supplied with His blessings.
Jesus then traveled back, avoiding Galilee, to the region of the Decapolis - another largely non-Jewish area, where He had been earlier and cast out many evil spirits from a man (Mark 5:1-20). That healed man and others had spread the news about Jesus; and soon, some people brought to Jesus a man “who was deaf and had a speech impediment,” begging that Jesus would heal the man (Mark 7:31-32). Jesus took the man away to a private place and put his fingers in his ears and spit and touched the man’s tongue. The man could not hear, and this was probably a way of letting the man know that He was going to heal him, so that he could both hear with his ears and speak with his tongue. Some Jews thought that spit had some curative power, too; but Jesus needed only to look to heaven in prayer and say with a deep sigh “Be opened” in Aramaic, and the man could hear and speak plainly.
It was a great miracle, and the people could not help but tell others, even though Jesus told them to keep quiet about it. You can imagine that the healed man was eager to use his new powers of speech and hearing. He was likely a non-Jew, among mostly non-Jews, too; but the people spoke with honor of Jesus and more accurately than many Jews, “He has done all things well” (Mark 7:33-37).
These were exactly the kind of miracles predicted in the Old Testament for the time when the Messiah, the Christ, the promised Savior came. (See Isaiah 29:18-19 and 35:2-6. Note that “the poor among mankind would exult” in the one true God (29:19). The Savior, Jesus was coming to help all peoples, as He was demonstrating in helping non-Jews, too, on this trip outside Israel. This too had been predicted. See Isaiah 42:1, 5-9 and 56:7, for example.)
This care for non-Jews shows itself again in Chapter 8 of Mark. Jesus was most likely still in a non-Jewish area, when a great crowd gathered and listened to Him for three days. The people had run out of any food that they brought with them, and still they wanted to keep hearing more from Jesus. Jesus was concerned about the people, that they might become ill and faint before getting back home. He asked his disciples about this, and as before, they say, “How can one feed these people in this desolate place?” They had seen the feeding of the 5,000 men, plus women and children, by Jesus; but they can’t even seem to remember or to turn to Jesus for help.
As before, Jesus had the people sit down and took the seven loaves of bread and a a few small fish, gave thanks to God and blessed that little bit of food, and fed about 4,000 people. In this case, again, the crowd was mostly Gentiles, non-Jews; yet Jesus helped them all with His spiritual and physical food. Seven baskets of food were left over.
Numbers often have some symbolic significance, too. Some think that the seven baskets represent God’s care for the seven Gentile nations around Israel, while the 12 baskets at the feeding of the 5,000 Jews represent God’s care for the 12 tribes of Israel. Clearly, Jesus was caring for both Jews and non-Jews. That means that He cares about us, too, no matter who we are and where we come from.
Jesus dismissed the crowd and quickly went back across the Sea of Galilee to a part of Galilee that we cannot identify for sure. This is the only mention of Dalmanutha in the Bible, and we don’t know where it was. Next week, we will hear how Jesus was quickly confronted with the same problems he had earlier, among His own people. He faithfully carried on His ministry, though, in spite of many challenges; and he did it for us all.
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Easter, based on:
Sermon originally delivered April 29, 2012