Churching Today

  After Jesus attempts to teach the disciples about the Pharisees additions to the law but has to re-direct them from worrying about bread and filling their stomachs, Jesus arrives in Bethsaida this was the place that Jesus had sent the disciples in Mark 6:45 when Jesus came walking on the water. Bethsaida is just north of Decapolis. Our Roman reader has learned much about Jesus, but these next several verses are going to open up a whole new perspective for the Roman and introduce concepts that he will have to ponder and maybe do some extra education about. If there is anything about the Christian faith that our Roman ruler has learned is that Christianity does not treat you like an infant, it does not hand you information on a platter and explains everything like you are 5. God expects you to engage that brain of yours, to work through the text, and to seek answers to the questions that the text presents. This would be the case here; Jesus is going to ask questions and is going to...

  Jesus leaves the Decapolis area and returns to Galilee, and it is not long before He is confronted by the Jewish leadership. We will see these encounters become more frequent. This our course is out of concern that Jesus has been in the areas of the Gentiles teaching them. Our Roman reader already understands and sees the tension between Jesus and the Jewish leadership, it is only how hard each are willing to push the other. Mark 8:11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. Miracles have a specific reason, everything that Jesus does has a purpose, and the healings, the casting out demons, the feeding, the raising from the dead, it all has a purpose of giving a sign to people namely the Jews to demonstrate that not only is Jesus sent from God, but that He is the prophesied Messiah. However, the Pharisees are asking for a specific type of sign that comes directly from heaven. They wanted an Elijah moment, when Elijah c...

Last week we have the deaf and mute man given the ability to hear, speak and understand, and while Jesus had asked him not to say anything, that of course did not happen, so now Jesus is seeing the crowds in Decapolis that he was seeing in Judah. But these people are different, they are not Jews, they do not have the same theological system that Jesus has, Jesus does not need to teach the Jews certain concepts, they understand that there is but One God, not many gods. The Jews understands that God created all things, these Gentiles think that the earth and the universe are eternal, so there is a lot of stuff that Jesus needs to teach these people, and because they are Greeks mainly they are going to want details, lots and lots of details. This is why Luke’s Gospel is much longer than Mark’s. While Jesus was teaching the Jews how to properly interpret the Old Testament, Jesus here to these Gentile is giving an introduction to the Old Testament. And as we read this account we see the tim...