We shall continue with
the study of the Book of Mark this week.
(1) What was the purpose of sending out the Twelve? Were they “qualified” to preach? How much did they know? Did it really matter?
(2) Why did Jesus send them out in pairs?
(3) As they were sent to preach, Jesus was very specific in His instructions of not taking anything for the journey. Should this principle be applied to us today? Why or why not?
(4) What about the instruction to stay in one house (instead of moving around)? What was the purpose of such an instruction?
(5) Was the shaking of dust too harsh a treatment against those who rejected them? Why or why not? What was the message here?
(6) Can you test your memory and list the names of the Twelve disciples (see 3:16ff). Did the Twelve include Judas? How then could he also perform miracles? (See Matthew 7:22)
(7) What is the core message to you today and how my you apply it to your life?
“They went out and preached that people should repent.” (Mk. 6:12)
It is of course interesting to note that Jesus would send out these twelve apostles at this time when they were still slow to understand or even hardened (Mk. 6:52) to preach the gospel of repentance and to perform miracles. It is even more perplexing to think that amongst them, even Judas was able to drive out demons.
With the earlier incident in Mark 5 concerning the demon-possessed man, we have come to understand that it is not how deep a biblical understanding we have that matters, but whether we have a genuine conversion experience for us to be able to bear witness to Christ. And, the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23 also explain why a person like Judas could perform miracles in His name.
These instructions by Jesus to these Twelve apostles bear continued significance to all who are sent by the Lord (hence the name, apostles) for the sake of spreading the gospel in that it is a faith mission. If we are sent by the Lord of the harvest, He will be responsible for our needs. Our task is to remain singularly focused on the mission given and to look to the Lord for all our needs, including our financial need.
Such is not the picture I see these days among some of the servants or would-be servants of the Lord—the constant bickering over money between pastors and the church, and the worries over fund-raising by would-be missionaries or seminary students. We are either being called and sent by the Lord or we are not. If we are, we should, as He said, “take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.” (Mk. 6:8).
The truth of the matter is God has not changed, nor has His faithfulness.
“Seldom in history can there have been such a series of matrimonial entanglements as existed in the Herod family. By (seducing and) marrying Herodias, his brother’s wife, Herod had broken the Jewish law (Lev. 18:16; 20:21) and had outraged the laws of decency and morality” (Barclay, 150). Herod was in essence a governor, but Caesar had bestowed the title of a king to his father, Herod the Great who slaughtered the children of Bethlehem in Matthew 2.
(1) This section opens with three differing opinions about who Jesus was. What can you tell about the reasoning and the causes behind each of these speculations?
- He is Elijah (see Mal. 4:5)
- He is like one of the prophets long ago (by then the Jews had not seen a prophet for over 400 years)
- He is John the Baptist (Herod’s speculation)
(2) John’s mission was to pave the way for the Messiah (Isa. 40:3 ff), but his mission appeared to have been cut short by his confrontation by a gentile queen, the wicked Herodias. Was it worth it? What do you think?
(3) Mark gave a fairly detailed picture of the inner struggle of Herod. What is your verdict about him—his commendable traits and his weaknesses? What was Jesus’ verdict (see Lk. 13:32 and also 23:8-12)? What lesson can one learn from the life of Herod? (This Herod was eventually sent into exile to Gaul by Caesar.)
(4) What is the core message to you today and how my you apply it to your life?
We can say that the ministry of John the Baptist began with a bang. He appeared in the most unusual way—dressed in camel hair; ate locusts and wild honey; and drew large crowds, although he stationed himself far from the hustle and bustle of the marketplace. His preaching was so powerful that “the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him” (Mk. 1:5), receiving his baptism of repentance. This even included many priests and Pharisees. (Matt. 3:7)
The impact of his ministry reached beyond the common folks and extended all the way to the palace of Herod. That was where he got into trouble. As he challenged the adulterous affair of this king (or rather governor), he was jailed. But his fame and ministry commanded such respect that King Herod did not dare touch him beyond having him jailed. But in a very sudden and dramatic turn, John died basically in the hands of a girl—the daughter of King Herod, over what appeared to be an innocent interlude of a wild party in the palace. Then this all-important prophet, the champion of the Messiah was gone. Just like that.
One has to wonder, “Why?”. The end does not seem to befit the beginning!
The truth of the matter is, the end does befit the beginning, because John’s death is not “THE END” that we see at the end of a movie.
For one, the impact of his ministry continued. It was because of John that some of his disciples, like Peter and Andrew came to follow Christ. And, in the Book of Acts, we read that many of his disciples spread across Asia Minor and beyond and played an important part in the spread of the gospel.
What’s more—he will receive his crown before the throne of Christ in heaven. That “end’ will prove to be even greater than his beginning.
And, his death was perhaps an answer to his prayer that “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3:30). Now with his death, the focus of the people, naturally would be on the One to whom he had born witness—“the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29).
In essence, his death shows nothing more than the fact that, as much as his death preceded that of Christ, he was following His footsteps after all.
(1) If you were one of the Twelve, describe your experience and what you might report to Jesus. What would this experience have meant to you?
(2) What would you have expected Jesus to say in reply? What did he say in reply? Does it surprise you? Why or why not? Is this also Jesus’ invitation to you today?
(3) Would you be upset to see the crowd who would not give you a chance to rest? What was Jesus’ reaction to them? What is meant by “like sheep without a shepherd”? (See Ezek. 34:4 concerning the duties of a shepherd.) How did Jesus shepherd them that day (v. 34)?
(4) Consider
the action of the disciples: What was wrong with their plan of action in these ways:
(a) The sending away of the people
(b) Having them buy their own food at such a late hour; saying that they did not necessarily have any money
(c) Telling Jesus what to do
(5) What is the core message to you today and how my you apply it to your life?
The story of how the Twelve Apostles, after a wearied journey, excitedly gave their report of their first ministry to Jesus and how Jesus graciously invited them to a quiet place to rest only to be disrupted by the insensitive crowd, reminds me of a story told by Henri Nouwen (Guide to Prayer):
"Often we’re not as pressed for time as much as we feel we’re pressed for time. I remember several years ago becoming so pressed by the demands of teaching at Yale that I took a prayer sabbatical to the Trappist monastery at Geneseo, New York: No teaching, no lecturing, or counseling—just solitude and prayer.
"The second day, there was a group of students from Geneseo College. They walked in and asked, 'Henri, can you give us a retreat?'
"Of course at the monastery that was not my decision but I said to the Abbot, 'I came here from the university to get away from that type of thing. These students have asked for five meditations, an enormous amount of work and preparation. I don’t want to do it.'
"The abbot said, 'You are going to do it'.
" 'What do you mean? Why should I spend my sabbatical time preparing all those things?'
“ 'Prepared?' he replied, 'You’ve been a Christian for forty years and a priest for twenty, and a few high school students want to have a retreat. Why do you have to prepare? What those boys and girls want is to be a part of your life in God for a few days. If you pray half an hour in the morning, sing in our choir for an hour, and do your spiritual reading, you will have so much to say you could give ten retreats.'"
The question, you see, is not to prepare but to live in a state of ongoing preparedness so that, when someone who is drowning in the world comes into your world, you are ready to reach out and help. It may be at four o’clock, six o’clock, or nine o’clock. One time you call it preaching, the next time teaching, then counseling, or later administration. But let them be part of your life in God—that’s ministering.
(1) What might be the problem(s) of the disciples in feeding the people:
(a) They did not have enough money.
(b) They did not want to spend so much money.
(c) It was too onerous a task for them.
(d) They did not consider this as part of their ministry.
(e) They did not care about the people.
(2) What was the message to the disciples by Jesus as He said, “You give them something to eat”? What should their reply be? What would your reply be?
(3) In feeding the 5,000 (men), what options did Jesus have? What was the option He chose? Compare His chosen method with II Kings 4:42-44, and see the similarities and also the differences. Which of these catches your imagination?
(4) What had this experience meant for the hungry crowd and for the disciples?
(5) What is the most significant lesson you have learned today and how may you apply it to yourself?
“You give them something to eat.” (Mk. 6:37)
I believe Mark purposely sets the feeding of the 5,000 by Jesus against the backdrop of the end of an exhausting ministry, both by Jesus and the Twelve Apostles. But the contrast between Jesus and the Twelve cannot be clearer—while Jesus “had compassion on them” (Mk. 6:34), the apostles asked Jesus to “send them away” (Mk. 6:36).
Jesus cared not only about these people who were like “sheep without a shepherd”, but He was also concerned about the Twelve treating people like a “project”. The people had been taught, they had been healed, the ministry was over, and it was time to send them home.
Unfortunately, this is exactly how we treat people we seek to evangelize and serve. Once people have heard the message, once the meeting is over, our work is done. We are heading home!
But Jesus demands that we treat people as people, not as a project. The feeding of the 5,000 sends us a very important message and that is we need to shepherd not only their souls, but to care for them as a total person. The Great Commission certainly concerns soul saving, but the Bible never teaches us to approach people with a dualistic mindset separating the soul from the body. A person is a person who is made up of both his body and his soul. If we love their souls, we love them as a total person.
(1) Remember that the teaching and the feeding of the people happened against a background of exhaustion of the disciples and of Jesus (v. 32). At the end of the day, their fatigue would only have multiplied. What did Jesus choose to do and why?
(2) The 4th watch was about 3-6 o’clock in the morning, a time when they desperately needed to rest. Did the storm happen by chance? Where was Jesus when the storm was taking place? What can you learn about the storm(s) in your life?
(3) Jesus could have ordered the storm to be calm at the shore, or He could have sneaked into the boat before calming the storm. Why did He choose to walk towards them on the lake? Did He achieve his purpose?
(4) The comment by Mark in v. 52 links their amazement with the loaves. What impact should the experience of the loaves have on them? If it had the desired impact, how would it change their experience on the lake?
(5) What is the core message to you today and how my you apply it to your life?
“They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.” (Mk. 6:51b-52)
The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand has consistently been dismissed by liberal Christians. They opt to speculate that it was the generosity of those or someone who took the initiative to offer their food which in turn prompted the rest to give out what they had. This resulted in having enough food to satisfy the hunger of the five thousand.
Of course, such a dismissal simply reflects their “hardened hearts” in refusing to believe in miracles and to believe that Jesus is not a mere man, but the Son of God.
But Mark makes the same comment about the disciples, who were first-hand eyewitnesses of this miracle. It is obvious that these disciples could not deny that Jesus did perform this miracle, nor could they disbelieve in miracles, because they too have been empowered to perform miracles (Mk. 6:12-13). So, what was Mark referring to as he said that their hearts were hardened for they had not understood about the loaves?
These disciples who personally experienced the power given to them to perform miracles (likely in the name of Jesus), who were terrified at the sight of Jesus calming the sea (Mk. 4:41), who handled the five loaves and two fish with their own hands and saw how it was multiplied enough to feed 5,000 people— these had to believe that Jesus was no ordinary man and they would, like most Jews at the time, consider Him to be at least a prophet (Mk. 6:15). But Jesus desires that they would recognize Him as more than a prophet, but the Son of God. This, presumably, had not been the case up to this point. At this point, they remained, like the liberals of our days, with hardened hearts.
But the Lord was patient with their disbelief and would continue to allow them to walk with Him, seeing, hearing and experiencing more of His teaching, His miraculous deeds and His life. Then finally their hearts were opened, and through the mouth of Peter, they acknowledged to Jesus, “You are the Christ.” (Mk. 8:29)
This reminds me of the conversion of Sally Read, a modern-day English poet, a winner of an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 2001. She was also an atheist whose hardened heart led her to say that Christianity was a symptom of bigotry or feeble-mindedness. But her hard-heartedness began to be softened through the process of writing—a collection of monologues in the voices of psychiatric patients. In her own words, “in the usual tussle and pain of writerly creation I suddenly understood that my act of creating the voices of these damaged people was linked to an overarching creation. That there could be an ultimate author. The sky seemed to peel off a layer. I was full of a latent happiness I hardly dared interrogate.”
She began to half-heartedly attend church and at one such occasion, while looking at the cross, she felt the undisputable presence of Christ. She abandoned her atheism and turned to Christ. If I am not mistaken, this happened when she was 40.
The word elders does not mean, in this phrase, the officials of the synagogue; rather it means the ancients, the great legal experts of the old days. Their rules and traditions (known as the Mishnah) were oral and were eventually written down in the 3rd century after Christ. These were considered to summarize the essence of the service of God. As such, ethical religion was buried under a mass of taboos and rules.
(1) What might be the purpose of these Pharisees and scribes coming all the way from Jerusalem to see Jesus in Galilee? From this story, which of the following was their focus?
a. Jesus’ teaching
b. Jesus’ miraculous power
c. How He conducted His life
d. Or…
(2) Do you think their hearts were in the right place? Why or why not? What was Jesus’ verdict in vv. 6-7?
(3) What might be the rationale behind the substitution of “Corban” in lieu of caring for the parents? Try to justify it as a Jew of the time.
(4) Can you think of three “traditions” or “rules” in today’s Bible-believing churches that resemble “Corban”? How are they being justified?
(5) What is the core message to you today and how my you apply it to your life?
“You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions.” (Mk. 7:9)
I think most Christians would have heard of how the Jews of Jesus’ days turned the Law of Moses into many fine and external rules which if observed would gain one's righteousness. Lenski informs us that this was their halacha, the fence erected around the law, a total of “613 of them to which seven additional duties were added” (Lenski, Mark, 283).
These were oral traditions which were only written down in the third century after Christ, known as the Mishnah.
Some of these traditions bordered on the ridiculous and Jesus highlighted a few in Mark 7.
The first one deals with the washing of their hands before meal. While the spirit of the Leviticus law serves to remind them of the need to be holy before God, they have turned it into something rather bizarre. Mark describes their tradition of washing with their hands with their fist (the original Greek word in 7:3). Barclays tells us that this tradition is so “fine” that the hands had to “held with fingertips pointing upwards…and cleansed with the fist of the other”. In addition, Lightfoot tells us that if the water “had gone above the juncture of the arm” it would have contaminated the water itself, which could not be used for a second cleansing (of the other hand).
Mark also mentions their tradition of having to wash their whole body after they ventured into the marketplace, lest they had contact with the Gentiles or things that had been touched by the Gentiles.
The rules that govern the cleansing of utensils were just as ridiculous, as they made detailed distinctions concerning the rules governing vessels that were hollow versus flat, metal utensils versus wooden ones and three-legged tables versus flat boards.
Now, we can understand why Jesus was so indignant as He accused them quoting from Isaiah that, “They worship me in vain, their teachings are but rules taught by men.” (Mk. 7:7)
However, if we are being honest, we have to admit that we, too, have inherited the same legalistic mindset as we seek to worship and serve the house of God. Many still regard stained glass and pews as sacred as the words of God. I like stained glass, I like pews, and I even like kneeling pads in front of the pews. But, when it comes to worshipping God in truth and in spirit, I have to admit that they are still our own “traditions”, and not the “command of God" (Mk. 7:9).
(1) Jesus declares that “Nothing outside a man can make him unclean” (7:15) and that “all foods (are) clean” (7:19). This was in direct conflict with the law in Leviticus distinguishing food that is clean and food that is not clean (see Lev. 11). But Jesus also declares that He has not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). How can you reconcile the claims of Jesus in light of 2 Corinthians 3:6?
(2) It is obvious that by declaring all food clean, Jesus has not abolished the “spirit” of the Law in Leviticus on food, but fulfilled it. What is the “spirit” of the Leviticus Law on food and how has Jesus fulfilled it?
(3) Jesus did not mince His words and rebuked the disciples for being “so dull”. If you were the disciples, would you have asked Him the same question? Why or why not? How then can we not be “dull” when it comes to understanding the Word of God?
(4) In Jesus’ explanation, the key to unlocking His word, in this case, is the meaning of “cleanliness”. From what He explained, define the meaning of “being unclean”.
(5) Jesus produced a long list of things that issue from a man’s heart. Why, in your opinion, did Jesus choose to list them out one by one? Write down all the items on this list on your journal (or notebook), and examine yourself in light of each, and how you may be made unclean by each.
(6) Spend some time confessing those sins so enlightened by the list.
(7) What is the core message to you today and how my you apply it to your life?
“All the evils come from inside and make a man unclean.” (Mk. 7:23)
As the Jews added many rules to the Law of Moses in an effort to bolster their sense of piety, we have seen that these rules (as summarized in the Mishnah), were merely external rules and regulations. They had utterly ignored what is inside their hearts. Therefore, as Jesus points out that nothing outside a man can make him unclean, it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean, He purposely cites a list of “evils” in Mark 7:21-22. As much as we are reading the list as born-again believers, the list is still for us to examine our “inside”, to see if there are any offensive ways in us. Let’s use the lyrics of the following hymn (which is based on David’s prayer in Ps. 139:23-24) to search the inside of our hearts:
1
Search me, O God, and know my heart today,
Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray;
See if there be some wicked way in me;
Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.
2
I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin;
Fulfill Thy word and make me pure within;
Fill me with fire, where once I burned with shame;
Grant my desire to magnify Thy name.
3
4
Lord, take my life, and make it wholly Thine;
Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine;
Take all my will, my passion, self and pride;
I now surrender, Lord, in me abide.
O Holy Ghost, revival comes from Thee;
Send a revival, start the work in me;
Thy Word declares Thou wilt supply our need;
For blessings now, O Lord, I humbly plead.
(Search Me, O God by James E. Orr)