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.