Gospel of Mark Study #23

“Run That Play Until You Get It Right!”

Mark 8:1-21

Study #23 in Mark Series

INTRODUCTION:

I am not an athlete and never have been. Growing up, my only claim to athletic fame was as a swimmer, although not in competitive swimming. I enjoyed skin diving, body surfing, spear fishing, shell collecting, and other ocean water related activities. But oddly, even though I am not a big sports fan, several sports movies are among my all-time favorite films:

·         “Hoosiers” with Gene Hackman, a great basketball film

·         “Rocky” films starring Sylvester Stallone, about a boxer

·         “Remember the Titans” with Denzel Washington,

·         “Rudy” 1993 film starring Sean Astin, about Daniel Ruettiger who dreamed of playing for Notre Dame

·         “Radio” with Cuba Gooding Jr., and Ed Harris,

·         “Facing the Giants” 2006 Christian film about a local high school football team

·         “The Blind Side” 2009 film, true story of Michael Oher of the Baltimore Ravens

·         “Invictus” 2009 film with Matt Damon about the S. African Springboks in the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Why do I like these pictures? For two reasons: First, it is because of the thrill of seeing an underdog turn things around and come out on top. It gives us hope that hard work and dedication might pay off. Second, it is inspiring to see a coach or trainer fill his athletes with the belief that they can be winners after all, no matter what odds are against them.

A good coach is a thing of beauty! To take a ragtag bunch of yahoos and turn them into a game-winning force is a wonderful thing to watch. It is inspiring! But their success comes through hard work. In “Remember the Titans” the new head coach, Herman Boone, played by Denzel Washington, ran the legs off his boys in back-breaking practices and drills at all hours of the day and night. At the same time, he worked hard to integrate his black and white players, and to teach them to ignore the color of people’s skin and to look at their character instead. He was relentless. If his players messed up, he would say, “You guys are going to run that play until you get it right!” He made them do it over, and over, and again until it was second nature to them. He forced them to do it until they figured it out and got it right every time. That is what a good coach does for his players.

TRANSITION: But good coaching provides some lessons in other areas of life, too. Jesus was a great life-coach. But He had a bunch of lunkheaded rookies on His hands, and it took a lot of teaching, training, and practice to get them ready for the big game. He worked with them every day for 3½ years. He took them everywhere He went. He taught them. He let them ask questions. He used them as helpers when He performed His miracles. And He sent them out to the field to gain experience.

Like a great coach, He ran them through the plays repeatedly. But they kept screwing up. They did not get it. They messed up time after time. So, He would make them run the play again, and again, and again. So much was riding on them getting things right. He knew that one day He would go to the cross and would rise on the third day and ascend to the Father, and then the ball would be in their hands for the rest of the game. They had to get it right! So, after every failure Coach Jesus would say, “You are going to run that play again, until you get it right!” That is basically what is going on in our text for today’s study, Mark 8:1-21.

NOTES on the Text:

Verses 1-3: During those days, another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, ² “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. ³ If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”

·         “During those days...” What days? In the section preceding Jesus and His disciples left Tyre and Sidon and returned to Israel, traveling down through Galilee into the region known as the “Decapolis,” where Jesus met and healed a man who was deaf and mute. Apparently, this next story happened around the same time.

·         “During those days, another large crowd gathered.” Matthew is the only other Gospel writer to include this account. He gives us a little bit more background in Matthew 15:29ff, “Jesus...went along the Sea of Galilee. Then He went up on a mountainside and sat down. ³⁰ Great crowds came to Him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at His feet; and He healed them. ³¹ The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.”

·         At this stage of Jesus’ ministry, he could not go anywhere without attracting multitudes of people. This was a problem because it drew a lot of attention both from the civilian authorities as well as from the religious bigwigs.

·         We do not know exactly where the feeding of the 4,000 took place but once again they were out in the hills, away from their homes or anyplace to buy food. Jesus had been teaching them and preaching to them. They were fascinated by Him and were hanging on to His every word. But this had been going on for three days. Some of them may have had a little food with them when they left home, but all of that was gone by now.

·         “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat.” Notice who initiated this conversation. It sure was not the disciples. Jesus looked at the people and He saw their needs. I look at people and usually see their problems. Jesus looked at people and saw their value and potential. I look at people and see their faults and failures. Jesus looked out at the crowd and saw people that needed Him and needed His help. I look at people and hope they will go somewhere else looking for help. Moreover, I think that the disciples were like me. They were not very compassionate toward the crowd, but Jesus was. 

Verses 4-5: His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?” ⁵ “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied.

·         The disciples, ever practical, immediately started figuring out the angles, how they could come up with enough bread to feed the crowd. It apparently never crossed their minds to ask Jesus to make up a batch of fresh bread. Had they suggested that I think Jesus would have turned handsprings out of sheer joy. He would have loved to honor their faith in Him by whipping up a batch, but all they could think about was how many miles it was to the nearest “Grocery Outlet.” They were still clueless, even after witnessing the feeding of the 5,000! 

Verse 6: He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When He had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, He broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before the people, and they did so.

·         This must have been like déjà vu all over again for the disciples. This is almost exactly what happened not long before when Jesus fed the 5,000 in the same way (cf. Mark 6:33-44).

Verses 7-9a: They had a few small fish as well; He gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. ⁸ The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ⁹ About four thousand men were present.

·         Are we seeing a pattern here? So why were the disciples so blind? (cf. 6:52)

Verses 9b-10: And having sent them away, ¹⁰ He got into the boat with His disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha.

·         Dalmanutha was a place on the west side of the Sea of Galilee and is mentioned only here in Mark 8:10. In the parallel passage in Matthew 15:39 Matthew records, “After Jesus had sent the crowd away, He got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.” Some have suggested that Dalmanutha was close to the village of Magdala, but no one knows for sure, and it does not really matter. Many of those little villages have long since passed from history and from memory.

Verses 11-13: The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test Him, they asked Him for a sign from Heaven. ¹² He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.” ¹³ Then He left them, got back into the boat, and crossed to the other side.

·         You could run, but you could not hide from these self-righteous religious nuts. They found Jesus no matter where He went. They must have had their spies out reporting back constantly.

·         Here they asked Jesus for a sign from Heaven. Why? Because He claimed to have come from Heaven to do the will of the Father, but they knew that was a lie! So, in their hatred and unbelief they devised a request trying to trip Him up and prove once and for all that He was a fraud. Their request was driven by their agnosticism, not by faith. Matthew fleshes out the story a little more in 16:1ff: The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested Him by asking Him to show them a sign from Heaven. ² He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ ³ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. ⁴ A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.

·         So, what was the “sign of Jonah” that Jesus mentioned? He stated it clearly in Matthew 12:39-41 when He said: “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.”

Verses 14-16: The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. ¹⁵ “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” ¹⁶ They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”

·         “The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat.” Given their recent experiences this should not have been a problem for them. However, they were apparently whispering among themselves, trying to figure out what to do about this lack of bread. He could undoubtedly hear them talking for crying out loud! More than that, He could even read their minds. He knew exactly what they were worried about.

·         So, He made this somewhat cryptic statement: “Be careful! Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” What did that mean? The disciples were bright enough to guess that it had something to do with them forgetting to bring bread, but they could not connect the dots to make heads or tails of it.

·         Let’s break it down. What does yeast usually illustrate in the Bible? - Answer = SIN. What was the major sin of the Pharisees and of Herod with respect to Jesus? Answer = the sin of unbelief, of lack of faith in Him. Unbelief and rejection of Jesus will send you straight to Hell! So, let’s extrapolate. What was Jesus warning the disciples about? – Answer: The sin of unbelief and of not seeing Jesus for who He was. The Pharisees called Him a sinner and said His powers came from Satan. Herod saw Him as nothing but a political wannabe and wrote Him off as a crank who would try to steal his throne.

·         So, what was the sin that the disciples were being warned away from? Answer: The sin of not believing that Jesus was God in the flesh who had come to save the world; missing the point that Jesus was the Promised Redeemer, the Lamb of God who had come to die for the sins of men, the Bread of Life, the source of Light and Truth and Love, the Righteous Judge before whom every knee would one day bow.

Verses 17-19: Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸ Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied.

·         Jesus begins to bore in with pointed questions. He starts by quizzing them about the recent feeding of the 5,000, asking how many baskets of food were left over. They remembered that there were 12 baskets full of leftovers.

·         If we break Jesus’ statement down into its component parts, we see that Jesus is saying that the disciples are...

1.       Lacking in understanding (“Do you still not see or understand?”)

2.      Revealing their hardened hearts (“Are your hearts hardened?”)

3.      Spiritually blind (“Do you have eyes but fail to see?”)

4.      Spiritually deaf (“Do you have ears but fail to hear?”)

5.      Exhibiting memory loss (“And don’t you remember?”) 

Verse 20: “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.”

·         They remembered the incident clearly but did not grasp its significance.

Verse 21: He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

·         The answer to that question is, “NO!” They were starting to get a little glimpse of the truth, but it still had not hit them yet.

·         Jesus Himself was the Bread. He was the source of grace, mercy, and truth. He was the Living Bread that came from Heaven to feed all who were hungering after righteousness. Bread was a metaphor. The Syrophoenician woman got it. She understood that with Jesus there was plenty of Bread to go around—for the Jews and for the Gentiles. She was confident to ask, even for crumbs, knowing that there was no shortage of Living Bread. The bread miracles were done not just to feed hungry audiences, but to illustrate the fact that there was no shortage of Bread when Jesus was around because He himself was the Bread of Life. He could have turned stones into bread and field mice into dried fish. He could have made bread appear out of thin air. He could have made bread come out of the disciples’ ears, for crying out loud! This was not about physical bread!

·         But how ironic! Even after witnessing the two miracles of the multiplication of the loaves the disciples were still obsessing over the fact that they had forgotten to bring bread with them for their journey. WHAT? Yes, they were still worrying about what would happen to them, if they would go hungry, if they could find someplace close by to stock up on groceries, etc., never stopping to realize that the God of the Universe, the One who could make anything out of anything, was sitting beside them there in the boat.

·         Their worries about bread revealed the fact that they still did not get it! They still did not really know who they were dealing with. No wonder Jesus was put out with them, and more than a little frustrated, and perhaps even a bit disheartened.

CONCLUSION:

Do you think that the Lord ever gets frustrated with us? Does He ever get to the point of saying to Himself, “How long will it take them to understand, to comprehend who I really am? How many times will I have to run them through the plays before it all finally sinks in?”

Some of you may remember Gene Maclellan’s popular song composed and recorded in 1970, “Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man Who Stilled the Water.” One of the verses says:

Every time I look into the Holy Book I want to tremble,

When I read the part where the Carpenter cleared the temple.

For the buyers and the sellers were no different fella’s than what I profess to be,

And it causes me shame to know I’m not the man that I should be.

Jesus warned His disciples not to fall into the sin of the Pharisees, the sin of unbelief. But how could that ever happen to us. We are believers and, by definition, we believe in Him. Do we not? Yes, but we can choose every day whether we are going to trust Him, or if we are going to walk by sight, by the things we can figure out on our own. We can trust in ourselves, or we can trust in Him. We can live by our wits, intelligence, and ingenuity or we can walk with Him by faith. We can scramble to come up with bread, or we can turn immediately to Him, who is the Bread.

The Lord put His disciples through a lot of experiences to teach them to put their complete trust and confidence in Him, to walk by faith and not by sight. They eventually caught on, but it took quite a while, and they got a lot of knots on their heads in the process. To the degree that we learn to live every day by faith, our life will be less stressful and more joyful. But if we do not learn this lesson, the Lord will keep putting us through our paces with one painful experience after another, all the time saying, “You are just going to have to keep running that play until you get it right!” The apostle Paul said it very well in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Gospel of Mark Study #22

“Tyre Troubles”

Mark 7:24-37

Study #22 in Mark Series

INTRODUCTION:

When I was a pastor one of the hardest things for me to do on a weekly basis was to come up with good, catchy, meaningful titles for my sermons. A sermon title should inspire interest, whet the appetite of the hearer to learn more, and encapsulate the basic message of the text. However, it is not always easy to do. I struggled with what to call this week’s study. I came up with several titles and rejected them one by one. Finally, I chose to call this one, “Tyre Troubles.”

TRANSITION:

I chose this title, not because Jesus had a flat tire on His Jeep “Cherokee” while He and the boys were traveling through the rough country of Galilee. I chose it because in our text for this study we learn that Jesus and His guys left the Capernaum region in Israel and traveled to the city of Tyre in the neighboring country of Phoenicia (modern day Lebanon), to get away from all the hubbub and hassles they were experiencing in Galilee. To my knowledge, this was the only time during Jesus’ public ministry that He left Israeli territory. It was also the only time that He went into a totally Gentile province.

NOTES on the Text:

Verse 24: Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet He could not keep His presence secret.

• “Jesus left that place.” What place? Probably either Capernaum or Bethsaida, but certainly the Northern Galilee region. And He went where? Northwest of there to the Mediterranean coast and the region of Syrophoenicia. At that time Tyre and Sidon were the two major cities of that country, which today makes up the majority of modern Lebanon. But back then Phoenicia was part of Syria. Tyre sits on a narrow peninsula that juts out into the Mediterranean. It is located about 50 miles south of today’s capital city, Beirut. Syrophoenicia became a Roman province in 64 BC. The inhabitants of Tyre were Phoenicians, Canaanite Gentiles. Most of them had little knowledge of Judaism or Christianity, although back many years before, during the time of King David, there was a very lively trading relationship between the Phoenicians and the Israelites.
• By the way, it was no leisurely stroll from Capernaum to Tyre. Traveling by the route Jesus probably took it would have been a journey of about 60 miles on foot, over some very rough, rocky terrain.
• Jesus was apparently staying there with a Tyrian family (perhaps Jews, or maybe even Christians), but He did not want anyone to know where He was staying. Why? I believe that this was primarily a training mission for the disciples, rather than a ministry mission focused on preaching and teaching. Remember that the previous incident recorded in Mark (i.e., 7:14-23) was about Jesus wiping out the distinction between clean and unclean foods. Is it possible that Jesus is here wiping out the difference in His disciples’ minds between clean and unclean people? And maybe too, He just wanted some time for the disciples and Him to be away from the press of the crowd and the responsibilities of ministry. But Mark records that it did not work out that way for them.

Verses 25-26: In fact, as soon as she heard about Him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at His feet.  ²⁶ The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia [i.e., Syrophoenicia]. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. 

• I wonder if the woman of the house where Jesus was staying leaked word to one of her friends that the Master was staying under her roof. We do not know how word got out, but it obviously did.
• Mark records that this lady was a “Greek,” born in Syrian Phoenicia. What does that mean? In that day, Jews used the term loosely to refer to any Gentile. She may have been a Greek speaker and follower of the Greek religion, but certainly she was a Gentile of Canaanite descent. She was just an ordinary lost, unsaved person from that area.
• She came to Jesus and fell at His feet and begged for His help. She begged Him to cast the demon out of her young daughter. How did the woman know that Jesus could even do such things? Somebody who believed in Jesus must have told her. That is the power of a testimony!
• Matthew records this story as well, in 15:21-28. He describes the events this way: “And behold, a Canaanite woman came out from that region, and began to cry out, saying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.’ But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came to Him and kept asking Him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she is shouting out after us.’ But He answered and said, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, ‘Lord, help me!’ And He answered and said, ‘It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.’ But she said, ‘Yes, Lord; but even the little dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.’ Then Jesus answered and said to her, ‘O woman, your faith is great; be it done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed at once.”

Verse 27: “First let the children eat all they want,” He told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their [little] dogs.”

• This encounter between Jesus and this woman has for many years provided fodder for sceptics of Christianity. They assert that Jesus showed gross cruelty toward this woman, that He ignored her completely at first and that when He did finally address her, He did it using a racial slur calling her a “dog,” and that He showed total disregard for her problem. Is that true?
• We need to unpack this story and examine it piece by piece to understand their conversation.
• First, we need to recognize that there may have been more to the conversation than what Mark records here. He is just hitting the high points. Secondly, we need to be careful not to read our own feelings and values into the story. You will notice that the woman did not for one minute seem offended by Jesus’ remarks to her. She accepted what He said but offered a counterargument.
• “First let the children eat all they want,” He told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their [little] dogs.” What does that mean? Who are the “children” that He refers to? By that, He means the Jews, the Children of Israel. You must remember that during Jesus’ earthly ministry He concentrated all His time and effort on communicating the Gospel to the Jews. And even when He sent out His disciples to preach the Good News, He told them to go only to the Jews. Matthew records His words to them: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:5-6).
• Also, after His resurrection just before He ascended to Heaven, Jesus told the apostles: “And you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). That sequence of places where the apostles would witness shows the order in which the Gospel was to be preached (i.e., to the Jews first, and then to the Gentiles). Moreover, the apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, said: “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek [i.e., Gentiles]” (Romans 1:16). Jesus’ statement here to the Syrophoenician woman merely indicated that the Jews were Jesus’ primary target for evangelism during His earthly ministry, but that the Gospel would eventually be carried by His disciples to every continent, nation, language, and people group.
• In a sense Jesus was saying to the woman, “Lady, you need to get back in line and await your turn.” But I believe He said it with a sweet smile on His face and with a kind, gentle voice. This was a test of faith for this dear troubled woman, and she passed the test. She did not cave in and run away. She pressed into Jesus, by faith, to get what she needed for her little daughter.
• Jesus was not a chauvinistic sexist. He was not mean and cruel. He was not stingy with His miracles. And He was also not a bigoted racist. Although Jesus used the Jewish term commonly applied to Gentiles, He softened it by using the diminutive form meaning “little dogs” or “puppies.” These were the beloved family pets that lived in the house, not the foul scavengers that roamed the streets. For this reason, the lady did not take offense. Jesus was just giving this woman an opportunity to show what she was made of, and what kind of faith she had in Him. I think Jesus often does the same to us, to strengthen our feeble faith. Rather than immediately give her what she needed, He made her plead her case and display her faith in Him. This was a test, and she passed it! Should it surprise us if He does the same thing to us sometime?

Verse 28: “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the little dogs [i.e., puppies] under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

• This was a very astute woman. She obviously understood the priority in the order of things. But her need drove her to advocate on behalf of her daughter, and she did this with a confidence that revealed her trust in the Lord’s goodness and mercy, and perhaps even in His sense of humor. She used Jesus’ own words to build her argument and to plead her case. It took a lot of courage in that culture for a woman to argue and disagree with a man, no matter how great her need might be. But Jesus was not offended by her argumentativeness. It delighted Him!

Verse 29: Then He told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

• I love this! Jesus seems to be genuinely surprised and pleased by her courageous faith. Here is a Gentile woman, not of the house of Israel, yet she is showing more faith in Jesus than the people in His own hometown of Nazareth did.
• Look again at Matthew’s account: “O woman, your faith is great; be it done for you as you wish.”
• But Mark adds a tidbit of information. “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.” Jesus dismissed her with the promise that she had already received from Him that for which she had asked. Jesus used the perfect tense of the verb indicating that the miracle had already occurred. “The demon has left your daughter.” Isn’t that great! Jesus could command the demons by long distance. Moreover, He did not even need to say the words of command. Apparently, He just thought them, and the demons took off running.

Verse 30: She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

• Can you imagine the joy in her house that night? Her child was well, the demon was gone, life was good, and all because of Jesus!
• Do you think that woman might have told a few of her close friends about what happened that day? The Bible does not tell us if she had a husband, or was a widow, or was perhaps even an unwed mother. It does not matter. I believe that for months and years to come she told everyone with whom she came in contact the story of what Jesus had done for her and her daughter. And most precious of all, I am certain that she recounted again and again to her little girl the story of how Jesus had healed her and set her free from the dominion of Satan.

Verses 31-32: Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.  ³² There some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Him to place His hand on the man.

• It sounds like Jesus did not hang around Tyre for long. He and the boys headed north, traveling approximately 25 miles along the beautiful Mediterranean seashore up toward the city of Sidon. However, they were in no hurry. This whole trip from Galilee to Phoenicia and back likely took a couple of months. It was the calm before the storm. It was time away that Jesus invested in His disciples. Finally, from Sidon they headed eastward and then cut south back toward Galilee. But they did not return to the villages on the northern shore. Instead, they continued down the eastern side of the lake to the region known as Decapolis. This was a province made up of 10 Greek-culture-and-language cities on the eastern and south-eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. The word Decapolis is just Greek for, “ten cities.” The text does not tell us which of the cities they went to, and it is of no great concern to us.
• So how long was this whole trip? Let’s add it up. Jesus walked about 60 miles to get from Capernaum to Tyre. Then it was another 25 miles between Tyre and Sidon. From there it was another 85 miles or so back to the Capernaum region. But Jesus did not stop there. He went on another ±30 miles south to the Decapolis region. That all adds up to approximately 200 miles of walking. That is quite a trek!
• “There some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk.” This tells us several things:
• The man had friends who loved him and who believed in Jesus’ power to heal. They were the active agents in bringing the man to Jesus. This is much like the story of the paralytic and his friends in Mark 2:1-12.
• The man had probably not been born deaf but had gone deaf as a small child. This is proved by his limited ability to speak.
• Very possibly the man did not even understand where his friends were taking him. Being deaf, he probably knew nothing about Jesus until after he was healed. Remember, American Sign Language had not yet been invented.
• Jesus was this man’s last hope because there was no medical cure for his infirmity.

Verses 33-35: After He took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spat and touched the man’s tongue.  ³⁴ He looked up to Heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” which [in Aramaic] means, “Be opened!”  ³⁵ At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak plainly.

• “[Jesus] took him aside, away from the crowd…” Why did Jesus do that? It was not His normal way. We do not really know, but for some reason Jesus isolated the man while He worked on him. And based on verse 36 I believe Jesus allowed only the man’s friends plus His twelve disciples to be present during the healing. That is much like what He did when He healed Jairus’ little 12-year-old daughter in Mark 5:35-43.
• “Jesus put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spat and touched the man’s tongue.  ³⁴ He looked up to Heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” As interesting as it is for us to speculate why He did all of this, in a sense it makes no difference. Jesus never followed a healing formula. He did not use incantations. He did not use sorcerer’s spells. Sometimes He used words and sometimes He did not. Sometimes He touched the person and sometimes He did not. It is interesting that of all Jesus’ healing miracles described in the NT no two of them were ever alike. I am certain that He could have stood on His head on an apple box and healed that man just as easily. He could have done it while riding a galloping horse. It was not about His technique—it was about His authority and His power and His Person.  

Verses 36-37: Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more He did so, the more they kept talking about it.  ³⁷ People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

• “Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone.” Who does the “them” refer to? To the man and his friends, I think. Jesus did this several times, always with the same result. He was trying to avoid excessive publicity, but the people would not be deterred. The more He tried to shut them up, the more they spread the word about what He had done for them. Literally the text says in verse 36 that they “kept proclaiming” (Greek imperfect tense) the miracle “all the more exceedingly.”
• I think that the important thing here is to note that the people still were not getting it—they still did not understand who He really was. Oh, they were “amazed,” all right. They were “overwhelmed” by the wonder of the miracle. They were pleased with Jesus’ performance— “He has done everything well,” they said. Like the judges on “The Voice” or “Dancing with the Stars,” they gave Jesus a score of “10!” because He had done everything so well.

CONCLUSION:

The question is, did they really believe that He was God in flesh, the eternal God of very God, the Savior, the Messiah of Israel, the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world?  Some of them believed that and put their complete faith and confidence in Him as their Savior and Lord. Those people were saved, and we will see them in Heaven someday. But most of the others merely saw Him as a genuinely good prophet who knew how to pull off a good miracle, and who “did everything well.” Those people died in their sins and will not be in Heaven.

In the end, what we believe about Jesus is the only thing that really matters. What we believe about Him, who we believe Him to be, and how we act on that faith will determine where we spend eternity.

Have you come to know Him personally, or do you just know about Him? To you, is He your Savior and Lord, or is He just the teacher/healer who went about doing good things? The answer to that question will determine where you go when you die. You cannot afford to get the answer wrong. There are no “mulligans,” no “do-overs,” and no “make-up tests.”

Acts 4:12 – “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

Acts 16:31 – “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 

Gospel of Mark Study #21

“Rotten in the Middle”

Mark 7:1-23

Study #21 in Mark Series

INTRODUCTION:

I am an unabashed fruit-lover. I think that I like fruit better than any other kind of food. Having lived for many years in Oregon I love all kinds of temperate zone fruits—i.e., strawberries, peaches, apricots, plums, grapes, prunes, pears, berries of all sorts, a hundred different varieties of apples, and all the different kinds of sweet, succulent cherries. But I also lived in the tropics for many years, on Guam and Oahu, and in Brazil, where we got mango, papaya, passion fruit, guava, umpteen varieties of bananas, oranges and all the other citrus fruits, pineapple, lychee, tamarind, sweetsop, carambola, coconut, avocado, pomegranate, and jackfruit, just to name a few.

My problem is that I love fruit too much. When I go to the store, I often end up buying more than we can eat before it starts to go bad. The problem is that I get busy and forget to eat the fruit, and before I know it, it has started to get too ripe, and then to rot. But sometimes fruit fools you. Apples, for example, can look fine on the outside but they are already starting to go bad on the inside. Mangoes are like that too. Mangoes start rotting from the seed outward. It may still look fine on the outside, but next to the seed it has already started to turn black.

People are like that too. A person’s life can look great on the outside, but he or she can be rotten on the inside. In our text for today Jesus takes up this very issue with some religious leaders who from their outward appearance seemed fine, but they were rotten in the middle, just like the rest of humanity, although they would never admit it. This led Jesus to a discussion about the real nature of defilement and cleansing. But the other issue that Jesus was dealing with had to do with religious authority. Does religious tradition carry divine authority? Is it equal to, or superior to, the written Word of God? These are still valid questions today.

TRANSITION: In our last study together, we looked at Mark 6:45-56, which describes that storm on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus and Peter walked on the water. Through that experience the 12 disciples finally began to understand who Jesus really was—God, clothed in human flesh. After He calmed the storm, we read that Jesus directed the disciples to head the boat toward shore. Let’s read verses 53-56 just to pick up the context for today’s study.

“When they had crossed over [the Sea of Galilee], they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. ⁵⁴ As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. ⁵⁵ They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard He was. ⁵⁶ And wherever He went—into villages, towns, or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged Him to let them touch even the edge of His cloak, and all who touched Him were healed.”

NOTES on the Text:

Verses 1-2: The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law [i.e., Scribes] who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of His disciples eating food with hands that were “unclean,” that is, unwashed.

·         Today the trip from Jerusalem to Capernaum by car is 109 miles by the most direct route. However, in Jesus’ day the trip took about 120 miles because Jews went out of their way to avoid passing through Samaria. Thus, these Pharisees and Scribes from Jerusalem walked approximately 240 miles roundtrip just to check up on Jesus. That is a long way! That is real dedication, or else real hatred and distrust.

·         These legal eagles observed that Jesus and His disciples did not subject themselves to the practice of ritual hand-cleaning before eating. That bothered them, a lot, because they believed that it was incumbent upon any Jew to follow the rules for ceremonial cleansing set down by the traditions of the elders.

Verses 3-4: (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the traditions of the elders. ⁴ When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.)

·         You will remember way back when we started this series on the Gospel of Mark that I told you that Mark wrote this account of the life and ministry of Jesus primarily with a Roman audience in mind. For this reason, throughout Mark’s Gospel he takes the time to explain Jewish customs and practices that Romans would otherwise not understand. Here in verse 3 Mark uses this phrase, “the traditions of the elders.” The Pharisees themselves use the same phrase in verse 5. What are they talking about? “The traditions of the elders” was the body of commands and teachings of the honored rabbis of the past, a body of thousands of detailed rules designed to regulate every aspect of Jewish life. The NIV Study Bible includes this observation in the note on the parallel text of Matthew 15:2 – “After the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish rabbis began to make meticulous rules and regulations governing the daily life of the people. These were interpretations and applications of the Law of Moses, handed down from generation to generation. In Jesus’ day this ‘tradition of the elders’ was in oral form. It was not until approximately AD 200 that it was put into writing in the Mishnah.”

·         Long ago observant Jews discovered 613 “laws” in the Torah. Around these 613 laws the elders built “fences,” which were Pharisaical rules designed to prevent anyone from breaking those original laws. The logic runs like this. Imagine the cliffs around the Grand Canyon. Dangerous! To protect the public the National Park Service puts up signs to warn people not to get too close to the edge lest they fall over. Those signs are like the 613 Laws of Moses that God gave to the Jews. But people are stupid and many disregard the signs. So, the Pharisees came up with 1,500+ “fence laws” to provide added levels of security to ensure that people won’t break the Laws and anger God. Those “fence laws” are like the fences around the Grand Canyon that force people to stay 20 feet back from the edge. The Pharisees invented these rules out of the best of intentions, but their manmade laws and restrictions became a burden too heavy for anyone to carry.

Verse 5: So, the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?”

·         These religious zealots asked Jesus why He and His followers did not live according to the traditional rules set down by the elders. They were not concerned with cleanliness but rather with keeping ceremonial practices that had nothing to do with actual hygiene.

·         William Barclay in his commentary on Mark’s Gospel gives some fascinating background color on this text [cf. pp. 166-168].

The Scribes and Pharisees accused the disciples of Jesus of eating with “unclean hands.” The Greek word is koinos. Ordinarily, koinos means common; then it comes to describe something which is ordinary in the sense that it is not sacred, and finally it describes something, as it does here, which is ceremonially unclean and unfit for the service and worship of God. There were definite and rigid rules for the washing of hands. Now, note that this handwashing was not in the interests of hygienic purity; it was ceremonial cleanness which was at stake. Before every meal, and between each of the courses, the hands had to be washed, and they had to be washed in a certain way. The hands, to begin with, had to be free of any coating of sand or mortar, or gravel or any such substance. The water for washing had to be kept in special large stone jars, so that it itself was clean in the ceremonial sense, and so that it might be certain that it had been used for no other purpose, and that nothing had fallen into it or had been mixed with it. First, the hands were held with the fingertips pointing upwards; the water was poured over them and must run at least down to the wrist; the minimum amount of water was one quarter of a “log,” which is equal to one and a half egg-shells full of water. While the hands were still wet each hand had to be cleansed with the fist of the other. That is what the phrase about using the fist means; the fist of one hand was rubbed into the palm and against the surface of the other. This meant that at this stage the hands were wet with water; but that water was now itself unclean because it touched unclean hands. So, second, the hands had to be held with fingertips pointing downwards and the water had to be poured over them in such a way that it began at the wrists and ran off at the fingertips. After all that had been done the hands were clean. Now, note, that to fail to do this was in Jewish eyes, not to be guilty of bad manners, not to be dirty in the health sense, but to be unclean in the sight of God. The man who ate with unclean hands was subject to the attacks of a demon called Shibta. To omit so to wash the hands was to become liable to poverty and destruction. Bread eaten with unclean hands was no better than excrement… That to the Pharisaic and Scribal Jew was religion. It was ritual, ceremonial, rules, and regulations like that which they considered to be the essence of the service of God. Ethical religion was buried under a mass of taboos and rules and regulations.  

Verses 6-7: [Jesus] 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.’”

·         Rather than acknowledging their question with a direct answer Jesus paraphrased a Scripture verse from Isaiah 29:13. He chose to quote a passage with which these people were very familiar, in which Isaiah powerfully denounced the religious leaders of his day for something similar. In so doing, Jesus was saying that Isaiah’s words were applicable to the Jews of Christ’s day too.

·         Jesus called these Scribes and Pharisees, “hypocrites.” The word literally means, “under the mask” and originally referred to actors who appeared to be what they really were not. Jesus applied it to these men who appeared to be righteous but were not.

Verse 8: “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”

·         Jesus spoke directly to the Pharisees and Scribes and told them that they were doing the very same thing as the religious people in Isaiah’s day. This was not an overstatement because the Pharisees viewed their oral tradition as being more authoritative than the written law of the Old Testament Scriptures. 

Verses 9-10: And He said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! ¹⁰ For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ [cf. Deut. 5:16 = the 5^th Commandment] and, ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ [cf. Exod. 21:17]”

·         “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!” Obviously, Jesus is using sarcasm here like saying to someone, “You are a great thief,” or “You are an excellent liar.” NASV translates it as: “You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.” He is not commending them by saying that they have a “fine way of setting aside God’s commands.” He is just pointing out that they have gotten good at doing evil through years of practice.

·         Then He cites Moses, first from Deut. 5:16 and then from Exodus 21:17. He does this to show what God has already said on this subject.

Verses 11-13: “But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God), ¹² then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. ¹³ Thus you nullify the Word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

·         God’s instruction in the Law given through Moses was clear. They were just choosing to ignore it in favor of their own convoluted self-serving interpretation. The Jews had a tradition of making a vow to give something valuable to the Lord. It could be money, property, houses, cattle, or anything else of value. The person would vow to give this thing to God so then it would be called, “corban,” meaning a gift dedicated to God. It was like it had a big “SOLD!” sign on it. Now it belonged to God and could not be used for anything else. What was going on was that people would take the money that they should have been investing in the care of their elderly parents and giving that money “to God.” Now it was “corban,” and therefore, untouchable. They would feel good about themselves and get kudos and brownie points from their rabbi and synagogue buddies, but really, they had just robbed their parents of the money needed to take care of them. But their consciences were clear because they could say, “Oh, I am so sorry, Mom. That money is now ‘corban’ and it belongs to God.” This was just a money laundering scam to keep from doing the right thing by their parents and loved ones. The NIV Study Bible has a note about this practice: “Corban is the transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning “offering.” By using this word in a religious vow an irresponsible Jewish son could formally dedicate to God (i.e., to the Temple) his earnings that otherwise would have gone for the support of his parents. The money, however, did not necessarily have to go for religious purposes. The Corban formula was simply a means of circumventing the clear responsibility of children toward their parents as prescribed in the Law. The teachers of the Law held that the Corban oath was binding, even when uttered rashly. The practice was one of many traditions that adhered to the letter of the Law while ignoring its spirit.”

·         The real principle is in verse 13 and it applies to many different situations. Thus, you nullify the Word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. To nullify means to render null and void, to make invalid, or worthless. Jesus says that man, by his stupid traditions can invalidate the Word of God. Of course, we cannot really do that. God’s Word will stand forever, but in our lives, we can talk ourselves into thinking that man’s religious rules are more important than God’s eternal principles and laws. Specifically, Jesus is saying that this stupid Corban Law sets aside the Mosaic Law principle spoken by God that a man is responsible to care for his parents. To not do that is shameful, no matter how much money he donates to the church’s building fund, for example.

Verses 14-16: Again, Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “Listen to Me, everyone, and understand this. ¹⁵ 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.’ ¹⁶ If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.”

·         Up until then Jesus had been dialoguing with the Scribes and Pharisees. But then He turned and directed His comments to the crowd that was listening. Here is where Jesus gets into the heart of the issue: looking religiously good on the outside versus genuine godly character on the inside. To teach this principle, Jesus attacked one of the hobby-horse doctrines of the Pharisees, namely, ceremonial washings and “Kosher” foods.

·         Jesus says, “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.’” In other words, nothing that goes into our mouth makes us unclean in God’s sight. That means...

o   You can eat with ceremonially unclean hands, and it will not make you “unclean” to God.

o   You can eat rotten fruit, and it will not make you rotten.

o   You can eat pig meat, and it will not make you a pig.

o   You can eat a dirty sandwich, and it will not make you dirty.

o   You can drink spoiled milk, and it will not make you spoiled.

·         Rather, God is concerned with the kind of garbage and rottenness that comes out of us, through our words, our actions, our attitudes, our dirty looks, our hand gestures, etc. 

Verses 17-19: After He had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples asked Him about this parable. ¹⁸ “Are you so dull?” He asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? ¹⁹ 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.”)

·         After the crowd had dispersed and gone home Jesus was left alone with His disciples. Remember, up until a short while before this day, these 12 guys had been steeped in the same religious thought that drove the Scribes and Pharisees. That is what these guys had grown up with, so we need to cut them some slack. Jesus called them “dull,” but I think they were pedaling as fast as they could, trying to keep up with Him. It is hard for a new convert to divorce himself from unbiblical teaching. If you do not believe me, ask any person who has come to Christ from Mormonism or Jehovah’s Witnesses or Hinduism. It takes time for the “renewing of the mind” to occur (cf. Romans 12:1-2).

·         Jesus patiently explained to His disciples the human digestive process, how that food we take in through our mouth works its way through our system and eventually comes out the other end, without passing anywhere close to the heart and without changing us as a person.

·         Finally, Mark adds his observation that by Jesus’ statement at the end of verse 19 He set aside once and for all the Levitical distinction between things that are “clean” and “unclean” (cf. Acts 10:14-15).

Verses 20-23: He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ ²¹ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²² greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. ²³ All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”

·         Obviously, Jesus was more concerned with these men’s hearts than with their bowels. Evil is not related to what we eat, but to what we think. It is not about what goes into us, but rather, what comes out. Jesus says, “...from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, etc.”

·         That is why we Christians are so stuck on talking about being “born again.” You see, no amount of cosmetic change to a life can bring about the fundamental change that is needed for us to have a relationship with God. Our problem as humans is not the externals of life. It is the fact that we are all rotten in the middle, at the core of our being, in what the Bible calls our “heart.” Getting a makeover cannot fix that. Getting a better job and buying a better house cannot solve our basic problem. Wearing nicer clothes and stopping smoking, drinking, and cussing will not change what we are on the inside. Only God can change a person’s heart, and He only does it through us confessing to Him that we are lost sinners and putting our complete faith and trust in Jesus to be our Savior and Lord. That act of faith results in us being, as the Bible puts it, “saved.” And in 2 Cor. 5:17 the apostle Paul describes the change this way: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, and behold, the new has come!”

CONCLUSION:

In a sense, Jesus and these highly religious people spoke different languages. Because He had no regard for their manmade rules and regulations, they considered Him a bad man. There are two kinds of people in the world: (1) Those who believe that religion is all about good deeds, rituals, ceremonial rules, and regulations to earn salvation; and (2) Christians, who see true religion as loving God and loving their fellowmen, not to gain salvation, but as the by-product of a supernaturally transformed life.

FEEDBACK:

What is it about manmade religion based on rules and regulations that is so appealing to most humans? How do we help people see that there is nothing we can do to earn our way to God and to Heaven?