Gospel Journey: Part 8
I continue my journey through the gospels. Here are some throughts from Mark's gospel. Mark 6:5 says that Jesus "could not do any miracles" in his hometown. Why? I think familiarity is one of the greatest dangers to spirituality. We get used to the grace of God. We take miracles for granted. We lose the romance and mystery. We can't see what is right in front of us! I think that's why Jesus couldn't do any miracles. The people said, "Isn't this the carpenter?" They put Jesus in the carpenter category and they couldn't think of him in any other terms. By the way, Mark 6:6 is one of the saddest verses in the Bible. "Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith."
There is a tension in Mark 7 between the "commands of God" and the "traditions of man." The Pharisees let their human traditions supercede the commands of God. That is a danger every church faces. We become enslaved to our own traditions. The end result is a second-hand religion versus a first-hand faith. And we end up with lots of "sacred cows." What I love about Jesus and the disciples is that they weren't afraid to break with tradition. The Pharisees said, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders?" They were unorthodox! So here is my conclusion: orthodoxy is unorthodox!
I love the little statement embedded in Mark 7:37: "He does everything well." One of my all-time favorite quotes is what Dorothy Sayers said of Jesus. She said, "I daresay that no crooked table legs or ill-fitted drawers ever came out of the carpenter's shop in Nazereth." Jesus did everything with excellence!
There is a curious miracle in Mark 8. Jesus heals a blind man, but it's not a complete healing or complete miracle. I would call it a partial healing or half-miracle. The man says, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." So Jesus put his hands on him again. "Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything celarly." Sometimes miracles happen in stages.
There is a tension in Mark 7 between the "commands of God" and the "traditions of man." The Pharisees let their human traditions supercede the commands of God. That is a danger every church faces. We become enslaved to our own traditions. The end result is a second-hand religion versus a first-hand faith. And we end up with lots of "sacred cows." What I love about Jesus and the disciples is that they weren't afraid to break with tradition. The Pharisees said, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders?" They were unorthodox! So here is my conclusion: orthodoxy is unorthodox!
I love the little statement embedded in Mark 7:37: "He does everything well." One of my all-time favorite quotes is what Dorothy Sayers said of Jesus. She said, "I daresay that no crooked table legs or ill-fitted drawers ever came out of the carpenter's shop in Nazereth." Jesus did everything with excellence!
There is a curious miracle in Mark 8. Jesus heals a blind man, but it's not a complete healing or complete miracle. I would call it a partial healing or half-miracle. The man says, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." So Jesus put his hands on him again. "Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything celarly." Sometimes miracles happen in stages.
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