All are welcome

In verses 13-17 we find Jesus eating with members of society that a man, who was interested in his image, should not be seen with. Not only those who were religious outcasts; the sinners, but also the social / political outcasts; the tax collectors. (These guys were locals collecting money on behalf of Rome.) This is great news for those on the outside of Christianity looking in. It shows that nobody is unacceptable to dine with Jesus. He welcomes everybody in.

The rules for a reason

In verses 18-28 Jesus is challenged about his adherence to religious law. A major question mark, even today, that people have when seeking to engage with God is that they see Christianity as a list of rules. This is far from the truth. Christianity is about having a relationship with Jesus. As we can see from Jesus’ responses in this passage the rules are there to benefit the human race; not to inhibit it. God created us, He invented life, He is the grand designer and He alone knows how we can get the most out of it; to life to the full.

A poor reflection

The anger and distress shown by Jesus at the start of chapter 3 is felt by many when they hear of so called “Good People”, and religious groups, offering “spiritual” help but not actually doing anything practical in the situation. How many times how we herd Christians offer to pray for the hungry when, if they simply gave them some food they, would be the answer to their own prayer. This is another example of how the church over the years has served to lead people to a poor reflection of Christ. In-fact, often, a picture of the very sort of people Jesus opposed and generally upset. Those people looking at Christianity would do well to go straight to this Gospel and see a true picture of Jesus painted. It may well be a little different to what is expected.

We see in verse 6 the consequences of Jesus’ actions. He was clearly upsetting the status quo. Those who did not like his teaching began plotting to kill him; and we are so far only in chapter 3!!

Break down the barriers

Mark, in his Gospel to unbelievers, seeks to paint a picture of the true Jesus. While many may reject Church, and even reject Christians, the life of Jesus presents a challenge like no other. Our job is to break down the barriers and introduce our friends; not to religion, not to church, not even to our Christian buddies, but to Jesus himself.

I could preach 101 sermons on this passage. Instead I have a basic question; well it seems basic but it is one that has plagued the Christian Church for many years (it’s even been on threedays before courtesy of Gaz) and one that many people seem afraid to answer. Why is the healing power of Jesus Christ not evident in the Church today?

Please forgive me if at your particular local fellowship people are coming in there droves to receive healing. I do not wish to belittle such out pouring of Christââ?¬â?¢s love, mercy and power. I wouldn’t say it’s happening every week but there is a steady stream of physical and emotional healing taking place at the church to which I belong. So I do of course believe that it can and does happen.

I myself, on occasion have been the vessel which God has chosen to bring such healing. Much more often I have witnessed it, sometimes in spectacular ways. But, alas, the general trend seems to be that healing is not happening and there is no expectancy of that to change. I ask the question; why?

We see in this passage a collection of accounts of healing that Jesus delivered. The man possessed by an evil spirit, Simon’s mother-in-law who had a fever, the man with leprosy, and probably most famous of all, the paralytic who was lower by his friends to Jesus threw the roof of a house.

As I read these passages I confess that I’m looking for clues as to what ‘made it work’ for Jesus. Why was Jesus, and later his disciples and apostles, so prolific with this amazing gift?

Something that was pointed out to me a while ago, which I think might be helpful to share at this point is that Jesus (and of course, later His disciples and apostles) did not heal everyone that they come into contact with. We have accounts of those who were healed, and I’m sure that there were many healed that we don’t know about, but we are not told about those that were not healed. The writers felt that cataloging every person that was in contact with Jesus was clearly not worth while. Understandable. But that understanding does shed some light on our question.

Firstly, Jesus seemed to know who was ready to be healed. He obviously had a very close relationship with the father; and we know he could only do what he already saw the father doing. Jesus had a discernment of what was going on in the spiritual that came from this intimate relationship. (Check out 1:35 for a clue as to why I think such a relationship was sustained; we have looked at this before.)

Secondly, it appears from my reading of the Bible that there was a level of faith involved. This is not popular, and I do not think it is the whole story by any means. I do not want to go down the line of people don’t get healed because they don’t have enough faith. There are a number of occasions in the Bible where people did not have a clue who Jesus was, let alone have any kind of faith in Him as the Son of God or even His ability to work miracles. However, faith clearly, I think, has a part to play.

He often used phrases like “your faith has made you well” (although not, to our knowledge, on these occasions). Here we do have good examples though of the three kinds of faith which I am coming to believe play a part.

Firstly, the faith of the healer. When Jesus cast out the evil spirit there was no question as to who was in charge. It was not a request. Jesus knew he had the authority to command the spirit and so He used it. Worth noting here that this authority has been given to us.

Secondly, the faith of the one in need of the healing. The man with leprosy clearly had faith. He knew that if Jesus chooses to, He could heal him. And healing was received.

Thirdly, the faith of friends. The paralytic being lowered through the roof (again something touched on before). What a wonderful example of people basically bringing somebody they know to the feet of Jesus and asking Him to take pity on them. They would have look really stupid if Jesus did not heal the man. But they clearly had faith that was not something they need worry about.

I do not believe that there is a ââ?¬Ë?methodââ?¬â?¢. Jesus seemed to approach each situation individually. Although, we are told to lay hands on the sick. When I have been involved in healing the laying on of hands has been an important part but I do not pretend to understand why. Perhaps some of the more learned among you could shed some light on thet one.

So that�s just a few thoughts that I have picked up from those passages on healing. I realize that this is a huge subject and one that has had much debate. So why do you think we do not see such a prolific outpouring of the gift of healing as what was experienced by Jesus and later, the early church?

The introduction is very brief. We hear nothing of Jesus’ birth or his childhood. Nothing of his family or upbringing. The focus of this opening passage is on John the Baptist. We know from elsewhere that he was Jesus’ cousin but again, other than his strange appearance / lifestyle we learn very little about him. All we know, and this I guess is the key, is his message.

Verse 7 John says: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

He is the messenger, who was prophesied by Isaiah who would come ahead of the Messiah to “prepare the way” (verse 2)

The brevity continues through out the first chapter but there are two points I wish to try and draw out. The first is that straight after Jesus� baptism he was sent by the Spirit into the desert. Why?

This was the time immediately before the start of Jesus ministry. He needed to prepare. We looked at this almost exactly one year ago in my post; Jesus Strength in the Wilderness?. I won�t repeat myself now but I will reiterate the solitude which Jesus often sort out is a vital part of strengthening our relationship with God.

The second is His interesting message on commencement of his ministry (v14-15). “Repent, the kingdom of God near“. I guess the first question is; what on earth does this mean? What is the Kingdom of God?

Jesus spent His entire ministry preaching about it. Everything He said was about the Kingdom. Why then does it seem so hard to pin down what it is? I’m not sure I have it completely clear and would be interested to know your views. One thing to notice is that “…the kingdom of God near..” is not a particularly accurate translation. The Kingdom of God is here is much closer.

Jesus wasn’t talking about the physical Kingdom as the Jews were expecting but a spiritual one. It’s often thought that Jesus opened the way for everyone to access the Kingdom. I direct route to Heaven and all the spiritual gifts and insights that go with it. But I wonder if it is more the case that instead of providing a path He simply brought the Kingdom with Him.

The Kingdom of God his here right now, all around us. All we need to do is be in relationship with the one who brought it, to access it. But it is more that simply having access to supernatural powers. It is also a choice of how to live. Righteousness is a key Kingdom principle and one that is often overlooked because, after all, God will forgive us wont He.

Sorry about the randomness of the thoughts. What do you think?