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Funu... 260606 Mark 9:30-50

I am writing this on June 6, which is the 82^nd anniversary of—Does it ring a bell?—D-Day, 1944. World War II actually had many D-Days, each of which designated the day another invasion was to start. Most of these were in the Pacific, invasions of each of the many island fortresses the Imperial Japanese forces had established across the South- and West Pacific Ocean. But, for the benefit of those whose fathers and mothers did not fight or serve in the great Second World War, when we talk of D-Day, we’re talking about the invasion of Northern Europe by American and allied forces on five beaches in Normandy, in northern France. Thousands of American, British, Canadian, and French soldiers attacked Nazi (German) strongholds. Thousands of American, British, Canadian, and French—and German, of course—soldiers died that day and in the following months, until Nazi Germany was defeated, and surrendered in May, 1945. This post is not about modern history, but the date is significant enough to pause and remember the cost, and the global significance of D-Day. There’s a quote I have seen, but lost, about the men who died, but the rebuttal commended them all for living such magnificent, worthy lives. Unless I have edited this post to show that quote, please use the comment button to send me the quote and the man quoted, if you can find it or direct me to it.

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Back to seeing Jesus, what he said about himself, and what conversations are recorded by those who lived and wrote at the time, either from their direct presence or from the lips of others who heard and saw in person:

In Mark 9:30 (the ninth chapter of the Gospel written by Mark, starting in the 30^th verse), Jesus has just healed a young man by casting out a demon, after his disciples could not. Jesus and his disciples leave wherever exactly they were, and continue through Galilee (northern Israel). Jesus tells his disciples not to let anyone know—exactly what he doesn’t seem to make clear in the passage, but most likely Jesus is saying not to tell anyone about his power over the evil spirit, lest they proclaim him as the Messiah. Jesus says to his disciples, “the Son of man [Jesus] is about to be delivered into the hands of men who will kill him, and after he is killed he will rise on the third day.” But the disciples do not understand what Jesus is saying, and are afraid to ask him. If you have read much of Mark’s account, if you’ve been reading these blog posts, you might be thinking how dense the disciples must have been not to understand; but we are reading these things hundreds of years later, and may already be familiar with the whole story. But the disciples are living through it, and Jesus does not usually make everything completely clear to them. We can see that Jesus is predicting that he will soon be killed, and rise from the dead on the third day, but maybe Mark gives us more clues than the disciples have. He certainly wrote this after the events he describes.

They come to a house in Capernaum, a town near the northern tip of the Sea (freshwater lake) of Galilee, still in the province of Galilee, and Jesus asks them what they have been arguing about along the way. The disciples clam up. Nobody says anything, because they have been debating which of them should be the greatest disciple. Mark does not make the disciples look like anything but bickering mortals. He’s not trying to build up some superhero leader.

Jesus sits the twelve disciples down. “If anyone wants to be first,” he tells them, “he should be last of all and servant of all.” He pulls a child aside, and picks him up. “Whoever receives a child like this receives me,” he declares, “and whoever receives me doesn’t receive me, but the one who sent me.”

The disciples seem to miss Jesus’ point entirely. John asks him, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, but he isn’t one of us, so we told him to stop—because he’s not one of us.”

Jesus says “Don’t stop him. Nobody who does a miracle in my name is likely to speak against me. Whoever is not against us is for us. Look, whoever gives you so much as a drink of water in my name, because you belong to Messiah, will definitely not lose his reward. And whoever hurts one of these little ones who believe in me—he’d be better off to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea.”

Jesus continues, giving a picture of what He means one of his disciples should be. “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, for it’s better to enter eternal life maimed than to go to Hell with two hands—into the fire that will never be put out, where his worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

“And if your foot makes you sin, cut it off, for it’s better to enter eternal life an amputee than to be thrown into Hell with two feet—into the fire that will never be quenched. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out—it’s better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than have two and be cast into hell fire, where the worm doesn’t die, and the fire is never quenched.”

Jesus continues with references I’m not sure I understand. “For everyone will be salted [preserved?] with fire, and every sacrifice will be salted [preserved?] with salt. Salt is good, but if salt loses its saltiness, what will you use for seasoning? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.”

Here’s a principle you can apply to reading the Bible: Don’t dwell on the parts you don’t understand, but focus on obeying the parts you do. I admit to being pressed for time, and for not fulfilling my obligation as the writer of this post by finding answers to questions I don’t know. Someone has surely puzzled through these questions and resolved them, and who knows but that I might get activated to make sense of them for you. But don’t let my failings as a post-writer be your excuse for failing to believe and follow the truth you see.

One interesting account from Marco Polo’s journey across Asia to China about a thousand years ago is of a shoemaker who was fitting a pair of beautiful boots on a beautiful woman. This man was highly committed to following Christ, and had studied the Bible for many years, and when he felt lust for the woman he plucked his eye out and ran out of his shoe shop to keep from sinning more. His devotion and faith became so well known that some years later when a pagan general challenged the Christians in his village to prove their faith and avoid his massacring them by moving a mountain into the sea, which Jesus at one point said Christians should be able to do if they had faith the size of a mustard seed, the Christians begged the shoemaker to pray. He did, the mountain moved, the pagan general left the village in peace, and God’s name was exalted.

In this day and age of absurd liability I feel compelled to say that Jesus often taught using hyperbole, so whatever you do, do not cut off your hand or foot, nor pluck out your eye and claim that I said you should. These teachings must be hyperbole—using extreme, almost ridiculous language to teach a lesson—right? We are not saved from Hell by cutting off any part of our body, but by the wonderful sacrifice Jesus made of himself on the cross, shedding his own blood to fulfill God’s requirement, taking the just punishment for your sins and mine. Jesus became the sacrifice God requires, and trusting in the one who made that sacrifice fulfills God’s demands for justice; that trust makes me free, and if you also trust, you will in fact be free as well. This is getting ahead of ourselves in Mark’s account, but I think it is important to point it out. Please do not do anything rash.

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