Morning Musing: Mark 3:16-19

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“He appointed the Twelve: To Simon, he gave the name Peter; and to James the son of Zebedee, and to his brother John, he gave the name ‘Boanerges’ (that is, ‘Sons of Thunder’); Andrew; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.”‬ ‭(CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Who is the church for? Everybody, right? That’s the “right” answer. But is it really? I mean, look at most of our churches. While there are a very few that are truly a blend of races and ethnicities, most are largely, if not entirely homogenous. And for folks who spend much time in a contest in which everyone is pretty much just like you, it becomes easy to start to think that the church is really only for people who look like you. What we see here, though, points us back to that right answer and helps us understand why it is so right.

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Digging in Deeper: Mark 3:7-8

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“Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a large crowd followed from Galilee, and a large crowd followed from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and around Tyre and Sidon. The large crowd came to him because they heard about everything he was doing.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

It’s amazing how much power a crowd of people has. When we see a crowd of people there is something in us that wants to do whatever the crowd wants to do. Think about a concert. Things are drawing to a close and someone shouts, “One more song!” Suddenly, the whole room is stomping their feet and clapping their hands chanting for more. Every kid tries at least once to justify something he wants with the reasoning that “everyone is doing it.” A large enough mob can overcome just about any force. Crowds are powerful. And Jesus could draw them like nobody could. What does that mean for us?

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Getting in Line

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What do we do when we are facing leaders we don’t want to follow issuing orders we don’t want to keep? The response by most people throughout history has been either passive acceptance or else violent rebellion. As followers of Jesus, though, there is another option. As we continue our series, Being Good Kingdom Citizens, this week, thinking together about how we need to respond to the current political climate as followers of Jesus, we are going to join the apostle Paul as he lays out what this third way is. Thanks for being a part of the conversation.

Getting in Line

Have you ever been faced with a rule you didn’t want to follow? I suspect so. I remember when I was a sophomore in high school, and we took the standardized science tests for the state at the end of the year. I remember thinking the whole test was a joke in terms of covering ideas and topics we hadn’t touched on at all in the previous nine months, but the question that took the cake for me was this: Draw a picture of the universe and mark the approximate location of the earth. By this time, I was beyond frustrated with the content. We had never even come close to talking about the shape of the universe. I was a science geek and didn’t know the shape of the universe. Modern astrophysicists only have guesses about it (incredibly educated guess, yes, but guesses all the same). The rule was, though, that you had to answer all the questions. So, I sat there and for five continuous minutes put dots all over the page with my pencil, added a random X, and then moved on to the next question. I’ll confess that it was not one of my finer moments in academia.

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Morning Musing: Mark 3:6

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“Immediately the Pharisees went out and started plotting with the Herodians against him, how they might kill him.”‬ ‭(CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

So, we’ve been talking for the last couple of days about Jesus and the Pharisees debating the rules that governed Jewish life in the first century. Specifically, they were at odds over the Sabbath command. The original command was simple: Don’t work on the Sabbath. In the centuries since, though, much had been added to make clear exactly what that meant. By Jesus’ day, that “much” had come to carry more weight than the original law itself. This new law and the Law in general had come for them to be more important than the people it governed. Well, what happens when the rules become more important than the people they govern? We get a glimpse of that here.

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Digging in Deeper: Mark 3:3-5

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“He told the man with the shriveled hand, ‘Stand before us.’ Then he said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. After looking around at them with anger, he was grieved at the hardness of their hearts and told the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ So he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.” (CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Why do we have rules? Sound familiar? We started there yesterday too. But here at the beginning of Mark 3, we find Jesus debating the same issue yet again with the Pharisees. Here, though, things are starting to get a bit hotter. The last lesson He taught them was that the rules are first for our good, not simply to be followed because they are there. Here…He teaches the same lesson but in a much more graphic way. Let’s see how.

Continue reading “Digging in Deeper: Mark 3:3-5” →