On Line Bible Study for the week of June 15-22, 2009

Lesson 392

Mark 8: ²⁷Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?" ²⁸They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." ²⁹"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

Peter answered, "You are the Christ." ³⁰Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

We have arrived at the centerpiece of the Gospel of Mark. As noted in the previous lesson, everything has been leading up to this question: Who do you say I am? For those who have grown up in the church, who are accustomed to thinking of Jesus in "messianic" terms, we might miss the literary power of this moment in the writing of Mark. There were many reasons to associate Jesus with John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the other prophets. Jesus was baptized at the hand of John, and their theology and teaching has many common points. Jesus was looking for that "coming day of the Lord" and thus could be associated with Elijah (see Malachi 4:5). And he certainly spoke in ways clearly identified with the prophets of Israel.

But is Jesus different from all of these? Obviously, Mark says "Yes!" But he also puts the question directly to us who read his Gospel: Do we have the eyes to see it? (See Mark 8:22-25.)

One of the challenges for those who "believe" is to continue to grow in our comprehension of this statement of faith. In the First Century there were many who laid claim to the title of "messiah". In fact, it was part of the way people would speak of kings and leaders. So, Mark has to help us to see that Jesus breaks away from the pack, so to speak. And this is going to be a hard lesson for the disciples to learn - not only that Jesus is the messiah, but just what exactly his brand of "messiahship" is going to look like.

So, Mark brings us to the point of decision; then once the proclamation of faith is made, we have to learn the key to understanding the kind of "messiah" Jesus is going to be. Look at the very next verse in Mark 8:

³¹He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. ³²He spoke plainly about this.

Do you need to be told how the disciples responded to this stark - and frightening reality?

We'll talk more about that in the next lesson.

On Line Bible Study - For the week June 8-14, 2009

For the week June 8 - 14, 2009

In lesson 390 we considered Mark 8:22-26. You may recall we listed a number of "interesting characteristics" regarding that passage, and then focused on Jesus having to touch the man twice for the healing to be complete. At the conclusion of that lesson I said this was a pivotal story and that we would give it further consideration.

So now we have to jump around a bit. Following Jesus' healing of the blind man at Bethsaida, Jesus poses a question to his disciples as they traveled around the villages near Caesarea Philippi. Let's review what has happened in the gospel so far, recalling that Mark's gospel is something of a template for at least two of the other gospels in the Bible (Matthew and Luke):

• (1:1-45 John appears preparing the way. Jesus is baptized, tested; then he announces the Good News and calls his first disciples. Jesus drives out evil spirits and heals many people - his reputation spreads, and crowds surround him. (All this in the first chapter!)
  
• (2:1-28) - Jesus heals a paralyzed man. Teachers of the law are concerned about what Jesus is saying and question why he keeps company with sinners. Jesus claims to be "Lord of the Sabbath".
• (3:1-34) - Jesus heals on the Sabbath, appoints the Twelve, and is accused of being "out of his mind" by his family, and possessed by Beelzebul by the teachers of the law.
• (4:1-41) - Jesus tells the parables of the Sower and the Mustard Seed. Then he calms the storm at sea.
• (5:1-43) - Jesus delivers a man from demons, sending them into a herd of pigs; he heals a woman suffering with bleeding, and raises a dead girl to life.
• (6:1-56) - Jesus is rejected in his home town, sends the Twelve out to preach. We are told of the beheading of John. Jesus feeds the five thousand, then walks on the water.
• (7:1-37) - Pharisees and teachers of the law confront Jesus regarding rules of washing and eating. Jesus delivers the daughter of a Syrophoenician woman from an evil spirit; he heals a man whois deaf and mute.
• (8:1-26) - Jesus feeds the four thousand; he warns the disciples of the "yeast of the Pharisees and Herod". He then heals the blind man at Bethsaida.
  

We have to delve a bit deeper into this. Jesus' first "miraculous" act is to drive out an evil spirit (1:21-28). His acts of physical healing occur in this order:

1. Simon's mother-in-law, healed of a fever. (This is followed by unspecified physical healings and deliverances.)
2. A man with leprosy (outcast from the community - this healing restores him physically as well as spiritually and socially).
3. A paralyzed man is healed (and forgiven).
4. On the Sabbath (this ups the ante significantly) Jesus heals a man with a withered hand.
5. A demon called "Legion" is cast into the pigs.
6. A woman is healed of bleeding.
7. A girl, claimed to be dead by the people, but only sleeping by Jesus, is raised.
8. The daughter of the Syrophoenician woman is delivered.
9. A deaf and mute is healed.
10. And finally, the blind man is healed.
    

So, the lame walk; the blind see; the deaf hear; the mute are given a voice; the outcast are brought back into the community. Gentiles are healed along with Jews. Burdensome rules are tamed. From something as simple as a fever to something as dire as death itself - all come under the power and authority of this Jesus. The devil flees at his command.

It is at this point that Mark puts the question to all of us - Jesus asks: "Who do people say I am? Who do you say I am?"

What do you think .... Did Mark put the question to us too soon in the Gospel? Do we need more stories, more testimonies, more information? What more do we need before we can make up our mind concerning this Jesus? All of the gospel has been building to this point, bringing us closer and closer to the moment of decision.

In our next lesson we will look at the decision the disciples make, and consider the implications for their lives.

On Line Bible Study - For the week June 1-7, 2009

Lesson 390

We concluded last week's lesson with the words: Guess what happens next ... Jesus had expressed ... what was it, frustration? ... with his disciples - Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? In Mark 7:31ff Jesus touched a man's ears and then spit and touched the man's tongue. (We made only a passing reference to that incident in Lesson 387.) The result was the deaf mute was able to hear and speak. This week we look at Mark 8:22-26:

²²They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. ²³He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" ²⁴He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." ²⁵Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. ²⁶Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village."

Some of the interesting characteristics of this pericope:

• "Some people" - unnamed people have amazing faith in Jesus' power to heal.
• Jesus leads the man outside the village, perhaps even away from the friends who had brought the man to him.
• As in Mark 7:33, Jesus "spits and touches the man's tongue"; in the text we are looking at today he spits on the man's eyes. In the passage from John 9 when Jesus heals a man born blind we are told he spit on the ground and made mud, with which he anointed the man's eyes.
• The healing doesn't "take" the first time. This story doesn't occur in Matthew or Luke, and some commentators speculate they intentionally left it out because of the failure of the healing to be immediately effective.
• Notice - the man's sight is restored. This is an individual who used to be able to see, then was made blind, and after Jesus is finished, he is able to see again.
• Don't go into the village ... Why not? We are not given a reason. (Some manuscripts read: Don't go and tell anyone in the village.)
  

One of the challenges of these studies each week is to decide which points to pick up on! Each story is literally its own world of lessons. Let's talk about the gradual healing that takes place, not so much from the perspective of questioning why Jesus didn't or "couldn't" effect the healing immediately, but from the perspective of our own spiritual growth. How many of us "get it" the first time around?

A number of years ago I began to pray a very specific prayer: Lord, please let me learn the lessons you are trying to teach me today so that I don't need to re-take the same test tomorrow! It's not a difficult prayer to pray; but it is a most difficult desire to accomplish!

When I was a music student majoring in piano performance, every day I would spend two hours practicing scales and arpeggios. It was monotonous work, and my classmates learned that the practice rooms next to mine were not the rooms they wanted to be in! One day, a friend of mine burst into my practice room - I had been doing the scales for about an hour and a half at that point - "Mark", he said with great agitation in his voice, "you have to practice something else! You are driving us crazy!"

Any teacher knows that a big part of learning is repetition. But maybe one of the reasons repetition is necessary is because we don't focus on the lesson at hand. In some cases, it is a matter of training muscle, and that takes time and repetition. In other cases it is a matter of taming our spirit, re-directing our priorities. That takes concentration and a willingness to change. It takes faith.

In this story Jesus is tenacious. He probes, questioning the man as to the clarity of his sight. Would we be as honest as the man? Can we admit that we do not see things as clearly as we know we should? Are we willing to submit to repeated lessons in order to learn what Jesus is trying to teach us?

You have eyes but fail to see ... It doesn't have to be that way! Jesus is tenacious. He won't quit. The question is: Will you?

Next time we will consider another reason why this is not only an important story, but a pivotal one.