End The Debate

When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  Mark 8:34

Oh, no, the 'take up my cross' thing. This one will bring out the debaters every time it is preached. Does that mean to pound two huge boards together and start dragging that around? One guy did that through the nations of the world, but that was his cross. (Look up the story of Arthur Blessitt to learn more.) We tend to get hung up on that in this verse, but there is so much more for us to do. First there must be a desire to come after Jesus, and that is not a default mode for us by any means. Then that desiring person must deny the self. Whoa, that self is a noisy, needy one. How does one go about shutting that racket down? Then, we get to the cross-taking bit. And by the way, follow Jesus after all of that. Whew! That's a lot to figure out. 

Maybe we do not need to debate with each other what taking up our cross means, but instead come in repentant prayer to the One who can lead us down this path He has laid out for us. 

The Lord will guide us,

Bucky

Not The Best Response?

And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. Mark 8:31-32

Teachers, have you ever taught a lesson that seemed to bounce off your students? Did one of them take you aside to give you a butt chewing because he/she didn't believe you? Jesus had that experience here in our scripture for today. We know from our studies in the Word that what Jesus taught would come to pass exactly as He foretold. Peter wasn't having any of that defeatist talk though, and he took the Son of God aside to the rebuking room.

When the pastor reminds us, "response required," this one may not be among the top ten best responses to the word of the Lord. Especially when giving that required response to the Lord's own face. Well, the Lord can respond too, and His rebuke of Peter in the following verse reminds us that Jesus can be firm in His love when required.

But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (v33)

Ow!

Bucky

You Are The Christ

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”
Then He strictly warned them that they should tell no one about Him.
  -- Mark 8:29-30

One of Peter's shining moments arrives in our verses for today. He gets to confess what Israel cannot see yet. And then Peter will go on to show that he does not quite get who the Christ will be. But for today, let us celebrate with Peter the given knowledge that Jesus is the Christ. Which could be a problem since Peter and the other disciples were strictly warned to tell no one. So, one has to wonder how we came to know? Timing belongs to Jesus our Lord of course! And a time would come when not only was this warning lifted, but the disciples were given a commission to take the good news of Jesus into all the world. That we believe in Jesus shows that they carried out that commission.

Have a great new week in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

A Little Adjustment

And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.”
Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. Then He sent him away to his house, saying, “Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town.  Mark 8:24-26

Bethsaida, and another blind man brought to Him. Jesus leads the man out of town and then spits on him. Yes, no mud or clay this time, just spat right in his face. And, hold the wonder, the first attempt does not get it quite right. A little adjustment is needed. 

If a person does not want to believe in Jesus, then this incident at Bethsaida gives plenty of opportunity for doubting Him. The full restoration of sight was a multi-step process this time. Why? And then, this man was another of those commanded to tell no one of his miraculous healing. But wouldn't they ask? Of course they would, or at least they would have if Jesus hadn't told the man to leave town. This man's needs were clearly different from the blind beggar in John 9, though the methods had a spitting similarity. 

Will we ever understand Jesus fully? Maybe, maybe not.

Bucky

Reason Together With God

Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have no bread.”
-- Mark 8:15-16

We have been there where the disciples are in this scriptural moment reasoning among themselves. Sometimes we even do that reasoning among just the self and come up with similar wrong answers. This sort of useless reasoning is why God invited us in Isaiah 1:18 to reason together with Him. His reasoning is what we need most, and He is glad to lead us and take us with Him.

God is our answer, and the answer came down as a man named Jesus,

Bucky

Testing Him

Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, testing Him. But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Assuredly, I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.”  Mark 8:11-12

Testing the Lord Jesus was a sure sign of their unbelief. But was it even a test Jesus could pass? The Pharisees had heard about the water into wine from Cana. Some were present when Jesus told the paralytic to get up and take his bed. The Pharisees had protested His work healing the blind man on Sabbath. So what sort of sign were they seeking? What could possibly satisfy their hardened hearts? Then of course, God the Son stood before them. Could there be a stronger sign than that? If their unbelief was so strong that they could ignore Jesus the Son, then nothing was what Jesus would give them. He cast no pearls before these faithless swine. 

Grateful we are to God this morning that He gave us faith to believe in His Son,

Bucky

His Compassion Works

I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way; for some of them have come from afar. Mark 8:2-3

Jesus could have started with the questions, ones such as we ask so often. Why didn't you prepare? Where is your traveling food? What is the matter with you people? But Jesus saw the problem and expressed His compassion for the hungry mass of people before Him. The multitude isn't quite as large as the last time, but still just as impossible to feed in the normal means available to those there at that moment. We might ask some questions of Jesus too. Why did you draw them so far out into the wilderness? Couldn't you have turned the crowd around yesterday? You may notice that none of the hypothetical questions I have given to 'us' in this story do anyone any good. The compassion of Jesus had solutions, even as He asked His disciples what they were going to do about the problem. His compassion works...at feeding the multitude, teaching the disciples, and preparing lessons for us to come along and learn these centuries later.

So let's learn from Him!

Bucky