The first verse of this chapter is as important as any other part of the text. One sentence conveys a powerful truth.
When will the Kingdom of God arrive? According to Jesus, it already has. In fact, I believe that what Jesus was saying is that the kingdom arrived in power at the Resurrection, or at Pentecost. Either way, the people standing around Jesus as he said this (prior to his arrest and crucifixion) were still alive to see the kingdom arrive, in their lifetime. We do ourselves a disservice when we talk about the kingdom of God being something that happens in heaven after death. The Kingdom is present now, and we become citizens of it when we accept Jesus as Lord.
I think I will skip commenting on the Transfiguration, since I mentioned it the last several days. The one part that Mark tells us that isn’t mentioned elsewhere is the fact that Jesus commanded them not to speak of what they saw until after he had risen from the dead. They didn’t understand that…maybe because it was too fantastic for a human mind, or maybe because they slept when they should have prayed.
The demon possessed boy:
Jesus is exasperated when he learns what they were arguing about. There isn’t any arguing in heaven. There are no hard feelings, no animosity, no political jockeying, no lack, no inability, no demons, no sickness or illness. Only perfection. A few hours earlier Jesus had been immersed in the culture of heaven, speaking with several residents of that wonderful place, being reminded of his task here on earth and what home was like. Now, he faces this stark return to reality. Actually, while he was transfigured was authentic reality. This is something less than that. I imagine his hearing the arguing, the whining and seeing the ignorance and inability must have created a wave of desire to go home. I don’t blame him.
But we go where the Lord directs, and Jesus had not yet completed his mission. So…what about this boy? Jesus handles the demon quite easily and offers two lessons that we should take to heart. The first is “anything is possible if a person believes” Believes in what, that it could happen? I don’t think so. I think he was saying “anything is possible if you believe in me”. Through faith in God all things are possible, and only through faith in Him. The second lesson ties into the first. “This kind can only come out by prayer”. And yet, Jesus wasn’t praying when he cast out the demon, was he? Again, I think what Jesus was saying was “this kind can only come out if you have been praying”. And He was. Remember the transfiguration? That happened while He was praying. What were the disciples doing? Sleeping. Therefore, they did not have the power or depth of relationship necessary to cast out this sort of demon.
Jesus didn’t say they couldn’t cast it out, just that they would have to pray in order to be able to cast it out. There might be a third lesson here: We grow in faith, in knowledge and in ability. The more we pray, study, worship and fellowship the more we grow. Our relationship with God grows, and our faith grows, and along with that our ability to exercise the gifts of the Spirit grow.
“Those who want to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else”. This is an appeal to humility and service, with the acknowledgement of reward in heaven for those who obey. I don’t think we should fight over who gets to be last…that’s as bad as fighting to be first, right? Jesus is speaking of an attitude here, and I have found that this attitude only grows in you as you practice it. It is hard to put others before yourself, but it becomes easier as you pray and obey. There is a wrong way to do this. We err when we consider that we are somehow less worthy or less valuable than others. Jesus isn’t asking us to become a doormat, He’s saying that even though we are citizens of heaven we should look to the needs and concerns of those around us, and try to meet them if we can. In fact, that is exactly what our Father was doing. He saw that we were in need of salvation, so he came and died for our sins. He saw that we were ignorant of the means of salvation, so he spent years training the disciples so they could train us after He returned to heaven. Because we are to be like our Father, we reach out to help those in need, putting our own desires in a lower priority.
“anyone who isn’t against us is for us” – this reminds us that we have comrades who may not agree with everything we say or do. There is some room in the kingdom for distinctives. We may not all interpret the Bible exactly the same, but we are clear and unified on the key texts: Jesus is the one and only Son of God, God lives in unity in the Trinity, The Holy Spirit is a person who infills us, Christ was virgin born, crucified dead and buried and rose on the third day. There is a judgment day coming for all people, only those who accept Christ as Lord in this life will enter into heaven.
“if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.” – Jesus has a special place in his heart for children, the elderly and the oppressed. Anyone who is able to be taken advantage of has the Lord watching over them, so it serves us well to remember that although we can take advantage of children, the elderly, or those who are poor or oppressed, we will answer for those sins if we commit them. Be very careful of what you permit or advocate, lest in cause someone to fall into sin. Don’t tempt others or subject them to temptation.
“if your hand causes you to sin cut it off….” – Jesus isn’t talking literally here. He’s simply saying that we should take drastic measures to remove from our lives anything that causes us to sin, even if they are things dear to us. Hands don’t actually cause us to sin, and even if our spouses did so, we are commanded not to divorce them unless they walk away or are unfaithful. We can’t use this passage to justify actions that the Bible speaks against in other places.
Continuing on,
PR