Mark 9:1: to not taste death...

  As we reach the middle of Mark, Jesus drops something of the bombshell on His disciples.  He tells them, "there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power."  (Mark 9:1)  In Mark's gospel "power" is used to describe Jesus' miracles (Mark 6:2, 5, 14; 9:39); to refer to God (Mark 12:24; 14:62); and also when the heavenly "powers" and the coming Son of Man are referred to (Mark 13:25-26).  Since we all know that Jesus disciples all died, some very soon after Jesus' death, others decades later, Jesus referring to the coming of the kingdom of God must somehow be anchored in the time during or shortly after Jesus ministry.  After Jesus' resurrection, when the subject of the timing of the kingdom and it's restoration comes up again, he tells them plainly "it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.  But you will received power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:7-8)  Just one chapter later, in Acts 2, we see the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus' disciples as they are gathered together.  Armed with the power of this Spirit, Jesus' disciples not only witness the inauguration of God's kingdom on earth, they become agents that actively spread it's message.  The phrase "not taste death" is a Semitism, or Jewish way of referring to martyrdom.  Several of Jesus' disciples tasted death, in fact, a few of their deaths are vividly recounted in Acts.  The amazing thing is not that true to Jesus' promise, they saw the advent of the kingdom of God, but rather that their deaths came as a result of their efforts to spread that kingdom's message.  Who would have ever imagined that these disciples, timid and lacking in understanding throughout most of Jesus' ministry, would be transformed into martyrs for the kingdom they so longed to see.  The transformation is nothing short of amazing, and points to something at work greater than the disciples themselves.  As I mentioned before, they had done far more than witness the coming of the kingdom of God, they had been imbued with it's power, the power of the Holy Spirit.  Oh that we would be not just witnesses of the kingdom, but agents as well!  

Mark 8:27-38: I've got a confession to make...

Part of following Christ is coming to a greater understanding of who He is.  Just as a married couple spends a lifetime learning about one another, so we should spend a lifetime learning more about Christ.  That was certainly the case for those who followed Jesus day after day during His earthly ministry, and it should continue to be the case for His disciples 2,000 years later.

When Peter makes his confession, proclaiming who he believes Jesus to be, he uses a word that we haven't seen since the very first verse of Mark's gospel- Christ.  The Messiah, the Anointed One, Peter seems to have rounded a corner with his ability to correctly identify who Jesus is.  The significance of Peter's confession is found not just in what he says, but in where he says it.  Caesarea Phillippi was named after two men, Augustus Caesar and Herod the Great's son Philip.  Before it was named Caesarea Philippi, the town was called Paneas, in honor of the pagan god Pan.  It was also home to a shrine for the cult of the emperor, and at one point was a site where the god Baal had been worshiped.  In a town named for Augustus-  a man who claimed to be god, and yet was now dead- Jesus is first identified publicly as the Messiah.  In a city with a history of worshiping false gods, Jesus is revealed to be the Anointed One of the one true God.

I had a government teacher who, when lecturing us on the ins and outs of the political process, was fond of saying "the devil's in the details."  That maxim takes on new meaning when we see that Peter's proclamation was correct, but his understanding of what that proclamation meant was quite the opposite.  Jesus begins to hint at the fact that the part of the Messiah won't be the triumphant role that His disciples have envisioned.  In what becomes a theme, Jesus' refers to Himself indirectly as the Son of Man, and tells of the suffering that the Son of Man must undergo.  Jesus uses this title for Himself each of the three times that He foretells of His passion, or suffering.  Much of what Jesus' will endure is revealed in Isaiah 53, in one of the sections that deals with the "Suffering Servant" who is to come.  When speaking of this Suffering Servant, the prophet states that "surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed...Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53:4-5, 12)  Peter is rebuked because in essence he is trying to alter the Messiah's mission.  Just a few chapters after the Suffering Servant section, Isaiah writes "my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord." (Isaiah 55:8).  Peter sees, but only partially, just as the man who was cured of his blindness just a short time before saw only partially at first.  Peter rejects Jesus' suffering because that's all he sees, suffering.  He doesn't see redemption, and he isn't yet at a point where he can see the empty tomb.  For Peter, at least for the time being, the cross looms so large as to obscure his view of anything but the death that suffering will bring.  Peter will benefit from hindsight, when after Jesus' resurrection he looks back and sees how God can bring eternal salvation from death on a cross, seeming to snatch life and victory from the jaws of death and defeat.    

Being the master teacher, Jesus takes this opportunity to not only reveal His own path, but to also teach His disciples what their path will be like as well.  By calling the crowd over for this teaching, Jesus' is showing that the cost of discipleship is not to be born by only the "super-Christian", that the cross isn't just for the apostle, minister, or prophet.  The expectation of suffering for Jesus' disciples is universal.  The commentator William Lane would say "Jesus stipulated that those who wish to follow him must be prepared to shift the center of gravity in their lives from a concern for self to reckless abandon to the will of God...the central thought in self-denial is a disowning of any claim that may be urged by the self, a sustained willingness to say 'No' to oneself in order to be able to say 'Yes' to God."  If we wish to get in on Christ's resurrection, then we have to also endure His suffering.  When writing to the Roman church, Paul would put it this way: "the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him." (Romans 8:16-17)  Lest the Romans become discouraged by the task ahead, Paul reminds them, and us, that the way of Jesus is not a road that we travel alone.  "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." (Romans 8:26)

In your walk with Jesus, have you come to a deeper appreciation of who He is, and what He has accomplished?  Are you still trying to force your idea of what the Messiah should be on Jesus, or have you embraced the irony that life comes through death, and that victory comes through what by all accounts seems like defeat.

Mark 8:22-26: when you're a fan, you don't have to be told when the game is starting

Have you ever noticed what comes right before Peter's confession in the gospel?  A miracle story, or more specifically a miracle story involving the healing of a blind man.  The story is told in just a few verses, but I can't help but wonder if there is a connection between this healing, and the confession that Peter is emboldened to make.  Upon seeing Jesus' heal the blind- yet again I might add- does it finally hit Peter like a ton of bricks, that Jesus really is the Messiah.  Perhaps for Peter the healing of this blind man served as an announcement that the kingdom of God was at hand.  Indeed, that is how the prophets would have seen it.  The prophet Isaiah writes that "in that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see" (Isaiah 29:18), and that "the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped." (Isaiah 35:5)  The psalmist declares that, "the Lord opens the eyes of the blind."  (Psalm 146:8)

The whole thing reminds me of my time at the University of South Carolina.  More specifically, it reminds me of my time spent in the stands of Williams-Brice Stadium, cheering on my beloved Gamecocks.  In the southeast, football is more than a game, it's a passion.  Each school has it's own pregame rituals that border on the religious.  For Carolina fans it's the blasting of "2001" over the loud-speaker and the swaying of the crowd, all culminating in the team running through the smoke-engulfed tunnel, and out through the band.  It's a moment that sends a chill up the spine of any died-in-the-wool Gamecock fan.  Such a fan knows what is about to happen, as soon as the band begins to march to the end of the field where the tunnel is located.  Certain movements and songs serve as markers, announcing what is about to take place.  The murmur of the crowd, and it's thousands of individual conversations begins to quiet, or more accurately it begins to redirect it's energy to the coming task of screaming and jumping up and down.  For someone that knew the signs, for a Jew who had read the prophecies of his or her own religion, Jesus' healing of the blind was a marker that the game was about to start.  I think that in our day we have become accustomed to seeing Jesus' ministry, and particularly His death, burial, and resurrection, as the happy ending that the story had been waiting for.  In reality, it is just the beginning.  Jesus' healing of the blind, and ultimately His resurrection, is a sign that God's counter-attack against the forces of sin and death is about to begin.

Lest we become too critical of the disciples and others who failed to see the signs of what Jesus' ministry was really about, we should be prepared to hold ourselves to the same standard.  We might not be living during the time of Jesus' earthly ministry, but as I said, His earthly ministry was just the beginning.  We find ourselves squarely in the middle of a story still being written.  Do we notice signs of God's love that we encounter everyday, or more importantly, do we live our lives so that they are a living breathing testimony to God's work in the world?  What God has done, and continues to do, is far more exciting than any football game; and if you know me, you know that's saying a lot!   

Mark 8:11-21: the story is the sign

Have you ever tested God?  Most of us would say, "of course not!"  But if we are truly honest with ourselves, there have probably been times in our life where we bartered with God to some extent, asking Him to confirm His presence with a sign, or to reveal the proper path on which to proceed.  Asking for wisdom and insight from God is certainly acceptable, even commendable!  And yet, sometimes what we are doing is less asking for insight, and more trying to commandeer God's agenda so as to make it look more like our own.  When we ask for signs to confirm God's presence, it's usually a sign that we have forgotten the story of God's work in our world.
That's what the Pharisees were doing when they asked for a sign.  Even though Jesus had just fed 4,000 people, they want a sign to specifically confirm that Jesus' is indeed who He claims to be.  What's so wrong with that you may ask?  Many of us are asked to confirm our identity every day, sometimes multiple times a day.  Why would it be so hard for Jesus' to simply give the Pharisees what they want?  To start with, the Pharisees were asking for a form of I.D. that would prove nothing.  If you dig back in your Old Testaments to Deuteronomy 13, you will see that God tells the Israelites that the ability of a prophet to give a sign is not grounds for accepting his message.  A prophet who performs a sign, but then advocates the worship of other gods is to be opposed (read executed).  In other words, the final word on the validity of a prophet's message is not the ability to do signs.  Jesus knows this, and so he refuses to fall into the Pharisees trap.  In fact, in denying their request Jesus' uses language that draws comparisons between the Pharisees, and the generation of the exodus.  He asks "why does this generation demand a sign?  Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation."  It doesn't seem like much on the surface, but the only time the word generation is used in the Bible is when it is referring to a particularly faithless generation.  In referring to the exodus generation, the book of Deuteronomy says "they have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation." (Deuteronomy 32:5)  In Psalm 95:10 it is said that for forty years God loathed that generation because "they are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways."  Now, by referring to "this generation", Jesus is drawing attention to the similarities between His contemporaries and that faithless group of Israelites from the exodus.
That exodus generation, despite their lack of faith, was promised a new prophet like Moses.  When speaking to Moses, God said "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers.  And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.  And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.  But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die."  (Deuteronomy 18:18-20)  As Jesus hung on the cross on that Friday the Pharisees and His other opponents, indeed the entire world, thought that Jesus had been exposed for who He truly was, a false prophet.  Little did they know that Friday's false prophet would become Sunday's Messiah, as God in a twist of irony would use His resurrection to prove- using the Pharisees own logic- that Jesus' message was more than true, it was the very word of God.
So how could they get it so wrong?  How could the Pharisees ask for a sign after Jesus' miraculously feeds 4,000 people?  How can the disciples fails to understand who Jesus is after not one, but two miraculous feedings?  Jesus' warning to avoid the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod is a reference to their constant desire for a sign, it's a warning against a faith based on miracles.  We can see with our eyes and hear with our ears, but if the message never makes it's way to our heart, then faith will never take root.  The imminent preacher and New Testament scholar Fred Craddock once remarked, "the longest distance is that from the head to the heart."  I'm not sure if Craddock came up with that on his own, I suspect he didn't, but it aptly illustrates what Jesus is trying to say here.  The words of Israel's prophets show that this wasn't just an issue in Jesus' day.  Jeremiah would say, "hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but see not, who have ears, but hear not." (Jeremiah 5:21)  The word of the Lord came to prophet Ezekiel saying, "Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not, for they are a rebellious house."  Finally, God commissions Isaiah saying: "Go, and say to this people, 'keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." (Isaiah 6:9-10)
The words to the prophet Ezekiel are the ones I find ringing in my ears, "for they are a rebellious house."  God's story is forever unfolding before us, if only we have eyes to see.  By asking for a sign, the Pharisees were ignoring the story and instead going in search of a sign.  They were rebelling by seeking to make God work according to their agenda.  God's work in our world is much larger than one event, however miraculous it may be.  The disciples lived the story, but failed to recognize it's significance.  It wasn't until Jesus' resurrection that we see them finally beginning to understand the scope of what was playing out before their very eyes.  We may know the story, we may have read our Bible cover to cover several times over, but do we grasp it's significance?  More importantly, do we understand that God is continuing to write page after page of the story, all the while longing to see us play our part in the drama as it unfolds according to His plan?

Mark 8:1-10: Encore!

It was as if the crowd had shouted "encore!", and in response Jesus' had again fed a large crowd, just a short time after His first miraculous feeding.  Some Biblical scholars have argued that this is a re-telling, with a slight twist, of the same story.  Their opinion emerges from an effort to explain why there would be two stories, so similar in nature, in such close proximity within Mark's gospel.  I think to truly understand why there are two feeding miracles- and I do believe that these are two distinct stories- we must look at the differences rather than the similarities.

Whereas Jesus' first miraculous feeding was to benefit a group of Jews, here Jesus is feeding a mixed group of both Jews and Gentiles.  As we have seen previously, by taking His power and authority beyond the traditional boundary of Judea at the time, Jesus is sending a powerful and unmistakable message.  When the disciples ask Jesus', "what do you intend to do?", He responds with a question, "how many loaves do you have?"  It is clear that Jesus already has a plan in mind to respond to the hunger of the crowd.  How He goes about distributing the food takes into account that this is not a strictly Jewish audience.  Whereas in Mark 6 Jesus blesses (the Greek word eulogy) the bread, here He gives thanks (the Greek word eucharist) for it.  To bless the bread would have been a very Jewish way of acknowledging God's provision, to give thanks is more of a Gentile way of praying.  Obviously whether he blesses or give thanks, the object of Jesus' gratitude is the same, God.  And yet, He is showing that as God's kingdom breaks out of the confines of Israel, there will be new ways of accomplishing the same task.  It is telling that in Mark's account of the Lord's Supper, Jesus blesses (eulogy) the bread and gives thanks (eucharist) for the cup.  If Mark really did write this gospel with a Gentile audience in mind, perhaps even the church in Rome, how encouraging would it be for them to see Jesus tending not only to needs of Jews, but also of Gentiles.  In many ways, this second feeding is a sign of things to come.

Think about a church like the one in Corinth, which Paul writes to in his first Corinthian letter.  A church of Jew and Gentile would have looked very similar to the audience of Jew and Gentile that Jesus' ministers to in this story.  It makes me think of today.  When we gather on Sundays and take part in Communion, how many other Christians are doing the exact same thing all over the world?  Some call it the Lord's Supper, some Communion, some the Eucharist (which as we have seen is a Biblical way of referring to it).  Whatever we call it, through this meal the story of Jesus is being recounted in dozens, if not hundreds of languages.  Imagine the amazing diversity, in not only appearance, but also social status, wealth, and occupation.  So many differences, and yet one thing in common that makes all the difference in the world, Jesus Christ.

Mark 7:24-37: Jesus, healing holistically before holistic healing was cool

When we enter into the heart of Mark 7, we see Jesus begin to operate outside the defined limits of Israel or Judea, both culturally and geographically.  In healing two people Jesus' shows that the scope of God's kingdom is much broader than we might imagine at first.  In fact, God's kingdom isn't about restoring the political fortunes of Israel, but instead about reconciling all of creation with the God who created it.

In the first case, that of the Syro-Phoenician woman, we see that faith can be found in a variety of places.  Jesus' contemporaries would not have chosen a woman, and especially not a Gentile woman as a model of faith. And yet, here she is, in a way anticipating the universal nature of Jesus mission.  When she asks for Jesus blessing in the life of her daughter, he first responds by saying "let the children first be fed."  While the gospel is for all, it was first for the Jew, and Jesus' statement implies that the moment for the Gentiles has not yet arrived.  The woman's response opens up an intriguing possibility, when in her own way she asks if the moments must be sequential?  Would Jesus healing of this woman impinge on the Jews and their ability to hear the good news proclaimed?  This is what the woman means when she says "yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."  In a profound way, this woman was expressing faith not just in Jesus, but in the fact that His mission is to bring salvation to all.  Eventually the disciples themselves would come to embrace the universal aspect of Christ's mission.  Paul would say when writing to the Romans that, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)  When preaching to a group in Antioch of Pisidia, Paul and Barnabas would say that "it was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first.  Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles." (Acts 13:46)  The position of this woman's story between the two feeding miracles, one performed for a group of Jews, the other for a group of Jews and Gentiles, points to it beginning a new phase in Jesus ministry.  The occurrence of the words "bread", "eat", and "satisfied" echoes the first feeding miracle, and foreshadows the second.  The exchange between the woman and Jesus also serves to demonstrate that God is never distant.  The woman's daughter is healed without Jesus touching her, or even explicitly saying anything to heal the girl.  He governs reality so that by simply stating that it has happened, the little girl is in fact healed.  Even more remarkably, the woman's faith extends so far as to allow her to trust in His word when he tells her, "go your way, the demon has left your daughter."
Jesus' second encounter is with a deaf-mute man.  Those with disabilities, those shunned by society, are allowed to approach Jesus.  In fact, His compassion for and ministry to them is a hallmark of His identity as the Messiah.  When speaking of the time when the Lord would restore the fortunes of Israel, the prophet Isaiah says "then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute shout for joy." (Isaiah 35:5-6)  It is a tragic irony that those of Jesus' day were looking for demonstrations of military might, when they should have been looking for gestures of kindness and compassion, accompanied by signs of healing and restoration.  Indeed, Jesus' actions were meant to be a way for Him to enter the man's world, and communicate and sympathize with Him.  The author of Hebrews would take note of Jesus' compassionate demeanor when he wrote that "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, and yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15)  Notice the response of the crowd to this miracle, when Jesus brings words to the mute and hearing to the deaf.  They say, "he has done all things well.  He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."  In the original Greek, their statement bears a striking resemblance to one in Genesis from the account of creation: "and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." (Genesis 1:31)  Jesus does more than save us spiritually, he also restores us physically.  By restoring sight and speech, Jesus is putting things back the way God intended them to be from the start, and in the process showing that God's future for us is brighter and grander than we ever imagined.

Mark 7:14-23: follow your stomach...or is it heart?

I remember in graduate school learning that when archaeologists dig in the Holy Land, one of the things that helps them determine if the site is the remains of a Canaanite or Israelite city is the presence, or indeed the absence of pig bones.  It's telling that such was the adherence of the average Jew to their religious dietary laws that thousands of years later academics bank on that devotion to help form conclusions about the identity of places.  All this not withstanding, a cursory reading of the Old Testament reveals that there were still murders, rapes, swindling, and all types of immorality to be found, even in the very midst of God's chosen people Israel.
Jesus addresses this reality when he states something that, to most of us in a contemporary secular society, would seem obvious.  The food you eat doesn't determine the person you become, at least not in a moral sense. It may add real estate to your waistline- as a diet and exercise-free holiday season has proven in my case- but your menu for each meal doesn't make you righteous or unrighteous.  It seems so evident as to barely be worth mentioning to us, and yet it was a highly controversial statement for Jesus to make in His context.  Jesus is reversing the social convention, insisting that if we truly want to be pleasing to God, we should pay less attention to what we put in our mouth, and more attention to what comes out of it.
The psalms, the prayer-book of the Bible point us in the right direction when it comes to considering how our heart informs our relationship with God and those around us.  In several instances, it speaks of worship as being a giving of our entire selves to the Lord:
"I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds." (Psalm 9:1)
"But I have trusted in your steadfast love, my heart shall rejoice in your salvation." (Psalm 13:5)
"Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure." (Psalm 16:9)
"the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." (Psalm 19:8)
"The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am healed; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him." (Psalm 28:7)

The story of humankind's origins shows that from the beginning, our actions were governed by the disposition of our heart:
"The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Genesis 6:5)
"And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, 'I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.  Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done." (Genesis 8:21)

I draw two things from this.  First, perhaps we should spend more time in prayer.  If references to the importance of the heart in worship are prevalent throughout the psalms, and yet people in Jesus' day put so much more emphasis on the stomach, perhaps that is an indication that people weren't reading psalms, or more likely they were hearing them, but they weren't listening to them.  Prayer, whether it be through the words of a psalm or words crafted by our own mind, reminds us of who we are, and whose we are.  Second, maybe we should spend less time learning all the rules, and more time learning our own story.  The list that Jesus gives is one that can be easily drawn from the record of human experience as it is recorded in scripture.  Notice that in Jesus' list, evil thoughts come first, symbolizing their role in causing the following sins, which range from every type of sexual immorality, to stinginess.  There is something remarkably different about Jesus' list, when compared to contemporary Hellenistic lists' of vices in His day.  Rather than focusing on sins against God or one's country, Jesus' highlights sins we commit against others.  In a marvelous way, Jesus is using the composition of His list to make abundantly clear that when we sin against others, we do in fact sin again God.

It's funny, if you want to know how I am doing with my diet, you can log into the website I use and quickly scan the list of foods I have eaten that day, or even over the past several days.  It will tell you a lot about my physical health.  To learn about my spiritual health however, much more is required.  If taking the time and the effort to evaluate our physical health is wise, then checking the disposition of our heart, the home of our spirit, is an even sounder investment.  A bad diet and poor physical health can cause a host of problems for our bodies, but a sick spirit harms not only ourselves, but our relationship with God and those around us as well.    

Mark 7:1-13: right game, wrong field

Have you ever been to a professional baseball game?  One of my favorite things to do when I lived in Atlanta was to go to Braves games.  Sometimes they would let Little League teams come and play games on the Braves field.  Of course, things would be a little hard to manage if you had t-ballers trying to play on a field designed for professional adults, so they usually divide the field up and let them play four or five games at a time.  No one judges the children because the bases aren't the standard 90 feet apart, nor do they downplay their ability to hit the ball because it's on a tee.

I mention all of this because in some ways that's what the religious leaders of Jesus day were doing.  They were taking professional standards, and applying them to people who practiced their faith out of joy and devotion.  In this section of Mark, we find the Pharisees and some of the scribes asking Jesus why His disciples eat with "unclean hands."  After all, the Old Testament is very clear about the fact that one should wash up before supper.  

Or is it?  In fact, the practice of ritually washing one's hands was begun for members of the priesthood, and then extended by the Pharisees to all Jews in an effort to produce increased holiness.  While they had good intentions, the end result was the scene we read of, with the Pharisees placing an undo burden on men who were never meant to bear it.  The scribes own response shows that the disciples hadn't actually violated the law, but the oral interpretation of the law given by respected elders and Jewish leaders.  The prophet Isaiah spoke against such legislated morality when he said:

 "because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden." (Isaiah 29:13-14)

God would send the same message thought Amos, as he railed against a faith that worships God with words, while dishonoring others, and God, with actions:

"I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.  Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.  Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.  But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." (Amos 5:21-24)

Jesus sums up how he sees such behavior by referring to the Pharisees and scribes as hypokrites.  The meaning of the word hypocrites for us in English literally comes from the Greek word which described an actor in a Greek drama who would wear a mask.  If our worship is with words only, and not actions, then all the hymns, songs, and spiritual songs are nothing but a mask hiding the true disposition of our heart.

The attitude described by Isaiah and Amos and condemned by Jesus leads not to faith, but rather to a religion centered on litigation and the letter of the law.  Jesus refers to instances where men were "pledging" money to God or the temple, and because of this preventing it's use in meeting the needs of one's own father and mother.  An interesting note is that in pledging the money, the man retained possession of it.  In other words, the man had in his possession money that could be used to meet the needs of his own parents, but it had been "earmarked for God", so he refused to use it.  Jesus makes it explicitly clear that this is not what God had in mind.  Jesus is not saying that a man should break his vow, but that the vow should never have been made it the first place, because it violates the spirit of God’s law.  Obedience to one commandment was never intended to nullify another.  Rather than using the law to withhold things from one another, the people of Jesus day should have seen the law as a driving force for justice and compassion.  If they had read the entire law, they would have come across sections like Leviticus 19 that not only list the rules, but also God's reason for giving them, "but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord." (Leviticus 19:18)  Jesus insists on viewing the whole law, especially in light of its purpose, to be a blessing to mankind.  Hopefully we can same the same thing about our faith.  

Mark 6:53-56: the irony of strangers knowing you best

In the previous passage we saw that the disciples failed to recognize Jesus as He came walking towards them on the water.  Their failure was rooted not in an inability to recognize Jesus' face, but in a lack of familiarity with the actions and character that scripture said would define the Messiah that were so anxiously anticipating.
In the movie "Hook", Robin Williams plays a grown-up Peter Pan who returns to Neverland with no recollection of ever having lived there, or indeed ever having been Peter Pan.  One of the more touching scenes of the movie is where one of the Lost Boys, humorously named "Thud Butt", runs his hands over Peter's face trying to find a semblance to the Peter Pan they once knew.  For the Lost Boys, the connection was made when they saw the adult Peter regain his natural ability to wield a sword quite effectively.  When in a moment they see this bumbling adult go from klutz to expert swordsman, they know that somewhere buried inside is the Pan they once knew.  It is then that Thud Butt runs his hands over Peter's face, trying to find their lost friend.  Eventually Thud Butt looks into Pan's eyes and exclaims with a look of startled amazement, "there you are Peter!"
It's odd to think that these children, these Lost Boys who seemed to Peter to be strangers, actually knew something about his past.  They knew something about his true identity that those closest to him, including his wife and children, knew nothing about.  This is the situation Jesus' finds Himself in when He reaches the shore and the people "immediately recognize him."  Strangers see in Jesus what His own disciples were incapable of noticing.  I pray that is not the case in our own time.  I pray that the Jesus we follow, that the Jesus' we preach is one who is clearly recognizable both to disciple and stranger alike.  

Mark 6:45-52: Jesus Walks, and I'm not talking about the Kayne West song

In addition to being one of the most well-known stories in the entire Bible, Jesus' walking on water has even made its way into our popular vernacular.  "I don't walk on water" is an oft heard way of expressing ones’ human limitations.  How ironic is it that people with no discernible religious conviction, who wouldn't claim any advanced level of Biblical literacy, even they see walking on water as an identifying characteristic of divine person-hood.  All the while, Jesus' devout disciples fail to recognize in Jesus what the prophets of their own Jewish tradition had proclaimed from the beginning.  Jesus' didn't walk on the water as a means of providing some cool parlor trick.  In fact, I would argue that Jesus' walking on water wasn't actually a miracle at all, at least not so far as we consider miracles to be unnatural things.  What happened when Jesus walked on the water was actually quite natural, at least if you truly understand who He is.  

The text says that the disciples failed to recognize Jesus' walking toward them.  I don't think that Mark means that they didn't catch a good glimpse of His face.  Seeing someone's face on a wind-whipped, storm-tossed sea was probably next to impossible that night.  The disciples’ failure was on a much deeper level, and because it had nothing to do with Jesus' physical appearance, it is a failure that we can find ourselves guilty of as well.  People were able to recognize Jesus' as the Messiah, God's Son, not because He bore a resemblance to photos they had seen of King David.  It also wasn't because He donned the trappings that we associate with royalty.  His hand never clutched a scepter, and the only crown He ever wore was a crown of thorns.  He clutched the hand of the ill, the paralyzed, the sinner, and even the dead.  He wore on His face the marks of love and compassion that can only be found in the eyes of our Creator.  Recognizing Jesus' has nothing to do with what He looked like, and everything to do with seeing God at work in human flesh.    

If the disciples had remembered what they had undoubtedly heard from their own scriptures about who God was, their eyes surely would have recognized Jesus in a powerful way that night.  Job describes God as the one “who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea.” (Job 9:8)  The psalmist would describe the works of the Lord, saying “He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.  Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.” (Psalm 107:29-30)  In case in the heat of the moment they don’t pick up on the subtle connection between scripture and Jesus’ actions, He even speaks to them saying “I AM”, invoking the divine name that we first hear used by Yahweh when speaking to Moses in Exodus 3:14.  (In my opinion, many translations miss the mark here by simply translating it “It is I”.)  The point is, Jesus actions and words come together to provide a powerful witness to His identity. 

I mentioned earlier that recognizing Jesus has nothing to do with His physical appearance.  That’s why we can’t simply chide the disciples for their failures, while breathing a quiet sigh of relief that it was them and not us who was thrust into the spotlight of history.  The question comes to each person, in every generation, just as it came to the disciples on that stormy night.  Our answer is determined not by our eyesight, but by whether our hearts have been molded so as to be able to discern the image of God.  Do you recognize Jesus?  Do you see working in Him the very power of God?  The answer to our questions about Jesus and His identity are there in plain sight, but we must look with more than our eyes if we ever hope to see them.