I'm in New Testament this semester. It's a G.E. class, the class is about 90% freshmen, and the professor is very VERY structured... but I love it. Minus the freshmen? Yes. Only kidding. We're going through the book of Mark right now and I decided to post some of what we are reading and my thoughts (mainly questions here).
Last night I read Mark 5-8 (NIV).
Mark 6:4-6 -- Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor." He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith.
Why would Jesus be without honor in His hometown? Why in this one area did no one believe? It can't be just coincidence. My guess is that the people who lived there still saw Jesus as the little boy he once was. Could they not reconcile the little toddler they remembered with the man (healer, prophet, "Son of Man") that now stood before them?
Mark 6:14-29. I'm not going to post the passages just because they are long but this is where Herod has John the Baptist beheaded. Was anyone else confused by the placement of this story? It seems so random and like it was just tossed in the mix. What's the significance here?
Mark 7:6-8 -- He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
" 'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.' You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."
BAM! Jesus completely destroys the Pharisees (in a loving way? :). This is such a great passage and where I think we all need to be SO careful. It's so easy to fall into a pattern of worship that feels comfortable and completely leave out hearts out of the whole process.
Mark 7:14-23 -- Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.' "
After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")
He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' "
This must have been a complete SHOCKER to the Jews in that day. There are whole chapters in the Old Testament that are dedicated to ritual food preparation to make it "clean"... and here Jesus seems to say to forget about them. But don't the Jewish people still have foods that are considered to be "unclean" like pork? Or is that something different?
There are a lot more questions here than anything... but that's what I've been thinking about for the past couple of days. Let me know your thoughts. :)
2 comments:
Hey there and good work on the blog, thought i'd leave ya a comment and leave my website and if you want to check it out here's the link, it has tips on farmville and mafiawars for facebook, also books for sale. Click Here
That part about John the Baptist actually is interesting. I never thought about it. I think at the time, John was a little more well known than Jesus himself since he did start his ministry before Jesus. Some even called him the messiah. It kind of seems like Mark put it in as one of those "oh yeah, see, that's what happened to John and why people thought he was back from the dead." Kind of like a little tidbit mark tried to squeeze in there.
The Jews still abide by a list of Kosher food. Pork is definitely not Kosher. Alot of processed stuff isn't either. This would've been a hot topic at the time and was heavily debated in the early church. Paul held firmly to the belief that gentiles didn't need to abide by jewish law to be saved where as the other apostles believed they should. It isn't till later do they officially allow all foods to be consumed when Peter has a vision. Pretty interesting. So I think Jesus really laid down the foundation for reaching out to the gentiles there.
HE really did throw down right there with the pharisees who were the radical followers of tradition. I'd check out Matthew 23: 25-28. He pretty much throws down with the Pharisees in the same way. Definitely something we could all learn from.
Post a Comment