Churching Today

  As we have seen Jesus has started to touch on some personal subjects, and these have come out during discussions with others and with His disciples. These open types of discussions are very normative in the Middle Eastern culture of the 1 st century and still very much today. As we stated before our Roman Reader would have also recognized such public debates and discussion, the practice was very much the norm. Sadly, this has become something that the modern American cannot seem to stomach. Either the person cannot defend their views, they just want to force those views onto others, and they do this by means of shaming to outright violence, because they believe that nonacceptance is violence towards them, hence they feel justified using violence against others. This is a form of not only intellectual terrorism, but it also becomes actual terrorism when those who are offended decide that they are justified in the use of violence to silence others. And because of this many Christi...

  We touch on last week what Jesus said was the greatest in the kingdom of God. Our Roman reader might have had problems connecting the dots on that concept. His world, like our world today, is based on power, wealth, status and being able to use those things to have others do your biding. So, when the disciples had been having a discussion among themselves of who is the one that holds that power and status within the groups, Jesus corrects their understanding of what it truly means to be great, which is sacrifice, sacrifice to God and sacrifice to others. And within that teaching, Jesus opens the door what is really happening in the hearts of the disciples, which is prideful sin, them wanting to put themselves at the forefront, rather than the ministry of God as the focus. This comes out in these next couple of verses. Mark 9:38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” John was usin...

As Jesus continues His ministry work we should notice that the tone o the conversations will take on a more personal nature. Jesus had introduced the concept of the death burial and resurrection to the disciples, and we see that Peter had an emotional response, and as we see the narrative start to change, we will see how Jesus wants His disciples to react, but because they have their minds towards the things of this world, they continue to be distracted. Mark 9:30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, The need for more secrecy is that the Jewish leadership is tracking Jesus, and Jesus also needs time alone with His disciples, the matters that need discussing are of a deep theological nature. Jesus has to get the disciples to unlearn what they have learned about the Messiah. Remember to these men the Messiah is a political military figure, one who comes to throw out the Romans and reestablish the Kingdom of Israel. Mark 9:31 for ...

  In the prior verse of Mark 2 Jesus starts to work on dismantling the traditions and practices of the Pharisees, these man-made regulations, rule and traditions push the bounds of what God had given the people of Israel by which to govern their lives. What most likely had started off with good intentions by the Jewish leaders after the exile to Babylon, the traditions of the elders had become a yoke on the people, one Jeus intended on removing, and His next target was the Pharisees teaching on the Sabbath. Mark 2:23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. Mark 2:24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” Now our Roman reader may have some questions about this concept of the Sabbath, and frankly I do not think that the average Christian today is in any better position than the Roman. The concept of the Sabbath is a widely misundersto...

Jesus, Peter, James and John return to the rest of the disciples from the mountain where the transfiguration had taken place. Let’s remember that not all the disciples went on this trip, they had stayed behind still doing the ministry work that Jesus had called them to do. That’s right, the boss has gone away, you are still expected to do the same work that you did when the boss was with you. But when they get back do they find them doing the work of the ministry? Well, sort of. Mark 9:14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. Our Roman reader would not find this strange at all, open public discussions was a hallmark of the Roman people, one could normally see crowds of people gathering around two individuals having a discussion, and others in the crowd peppering the two with questions to either support or challenge one of the speakers. This is an age old practice, free and open speech at its best. As many of you...

Jesus is starting to reveal more and more to the disciples, last week our Roman reader discovered that Jesus had flipped the script, going from a very positive message to one that was based on suffering and death. Jesus did also mention raising from the dead, but it is hard to believe in such a thing, one would remark such things as the ranting of a mad man, because we know that dead people stay dead, and yet Jesus raised the little girl from the dead, ok well that was Him doing it for someone else, how does one raise themselves from the dead, how does that even work, they are dead. At the end Jesus reminds them not to focus on the things of this world, gaining everything that this temporal existence has to over, what good is it if you forfeit your eternal soul. Now Jesus is closing out that teaching here in the beginning of chapter 9, but to our Roman reader it is a seamless story. Mark 9:1 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste d...