Mark 4:3-9, 13-20 Let Him Hear

"Time and effort" I said in my last post, which was a long time ago as I have been living out this innocuous little time-bomb of a parable.

Jesus starts with the word "Listen!" then finishes with "he who has ears to hear, let him hear!" He starts the explanation with "Do you not understand this parable?" Obviously He is saying something important and he wants us to get the message.

Jesus is telling the people about His kingdom, a kindom built around our choices, not the choices of the King (in marked contrast to all political systems then and since). I love Van Gogh's "Sower with Setting Sun" as it seems to show the tranquility of this kingdom's origins but also the light touch of the Sower.

In a way Jesus is fulfilling the parable as He tells it, He is spreading the word, or the seed, into hearts. So the kingdom comes with words, ideas and stories. What we do with them is what the story is about.

There are four responses that listeners to the gospel can make:

1. Dismiss it and let Satan keep it away from their heart


2. Accept it gladly but don't let it take root. They have a superficial link to Christ, maybe they just can't submit totally to Him, maybe they just trust themselves too much and they are tripped up.


3. Hear the word but don't spend any time in Scripture, busy with temporal things. Unlike the second group, which wither away, these people stay alive but they "yield no crop". They look alive but there is no fruit.


4. Hear the word. Accept (receive, delight in) it, or, in contrast with the others, value it appropriately, grow closer to Christ, spend time in the word. These listeners bear lots of fruit, they fulfil the purpose Christ has in mind.

Yes... I feel very much like the seed among thorns I haven't been spending the time I should in the Word. I've been doing "good things" like working hard and arranging and carrying out my church and mission obligations, but I have not been doing the "best" things. In this parable Jesus indicates the best things are time spent in His Word and effort trying to understand or "hear" it.

Jesus is so keen I understand this parable because my response determines the quality of my Christian life and experience.

As I spend more time in Mark, expect more frequent posts. If you don't see them, please send comments to wake me up.

Mark 3:20-27 The Parable of the Plunderer

The crowds come on back. What draws them all? What was it about Jesus that pulls the crowds so consistently? Obviously He was still casting out demons and this brought on the next confrontation.

Whatever He was doing, He was so busy He can't eat properly. His worried family want to "lay hold of HIm", to teach Him some sense.

And not just His family, the scribes from headquarters said He is possessed by Satan.

How often have I called the work of God "madness" or "of the devil"? A typical reaction to things that are outside my cultural comfort zone.

I love Jesus' response to these cringing, self-serving accusations...He tells stories.

Can Satan cast out Satan? A house divided against itself... Infighting and division make it impossible for any group to stand against external threats. Even Satan's fractious kingdom couldn't stand such a division for long. Especially with so many people leaving his service.

Would a drug dealer run a rehab centre, or a pub run AA meetings?

But the parable explains exactly why Jesus is doing this. This is not madness but a well thought out strategy of conquest and pillage. Jesus tells about a robbery, not a quiet burglary, but a hold-up, a home invasion, an armed robbery.

His story is about a rich and powerful man, the head of the gang, the mastermind, Mr Big, And one night the tables are turned, he now becomes the victim of violent crime. He is subdued, tied up and his house plundered.

I can see him hog-tied in the corner watching helplessly as his most treasured possessions are stripped from his home. I can hear him shouting pathetic insults and impotent threats, but he is being robbed. He knows what it feels like now!

Jesus is plundering Satan's kingdom. He is the divine Viking, the SAS troops of an invading, colinising army, Francisco Pizarro. He is here for a purpose; to release as many of Satan's hostages as He can.

To do this He must overpower the "strong man", Satan. It is obvious now that the great power we live in fear of, has been beaten and bound. Great news! There is a Saviour, someone more powerful than our greatest enemy, someone able to rescue us.

Now it is my choice, I can rejoice in the rescues or I can be the mouthpiece of Satan, carping about the methods used and the sanity of the people carrying on Christ's conquest today.

Mark 2:13-17 Follow Me

This Jesus, who by forgiving sin does greater miracles than He does by healing paralysis, now shows what forgiveness is in practice. He demonstrates that enemies (sin and sickness) are not to be feared "for the LORD your God, the great and awesome God, is among you
Deuteronomy 7:21

Jesus concentrates on teaching, then He calls Levi (Matthew) to discipleship. His teaching demands a radical change such as Levi's was. As Levi was the worst of sinners, a dreaded tax collector.

But even converted tax collectors have friends! So Matthew hosts a dinner to introduce Jesus to his friends, tax collectors and sinners! I wonder what sort of person you have to be to earn the sobriquet of 'sinner'?

It was no little gathering because it uses the word 'many' is use twice in verse 15 but the most interesting thing is that "they followed Him". Jesus is attractive to sinners! No need to be afraid.

But the self-righteous ones disliked this fraternisation and complained to Jesus' disciples. They weren't up to challenging Christ Himself, or maybe they were just creating doubt. But actually it creates the opposite because I once heard a liberal theologian saying that you can only believe those parts of the gospels that were against the social norms of the time. So, even by this sorry logic, Jesus willingly associates with sinners! Good news indeed!

In any case it got back to Jesus who comes up with a great line on many levels. True the well don't need a doctor, only the sick. So Jesus came to call, not the righteous but sinners!

That is against the social norms of our degenerate day, let alone His! I want "a better class of people", 'nice people', 'good Christians" at my church and dinner table. But Jesus was, and is. on a mission, one that actively calls, even the rejects of society, to become disciples.

The truly 'righteous' don't need to be called because they are already with Christ.

And the 'self-righteous' scribes and Pharisees are not being called as they are far too busy building up their 'self worth' by calling others 'sinners'. They don't feel any need of forgiveness. And theyobviously don't believe even miracles of healing can show that Jesus can forgive. "You have to work hard to be forgiven", they say.

Jesus is clear on his mission. He has come to call sinners and forgive them. He is looking for sinners, he wants to be with them, even eat and drink with them. And they responded.

He still says "Follow Me"... Who wouldn't?

Mark 1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ

Months ago a friend, whose children have grown up, gave me his old telescope. It is about a metre long, dusty and dirty with its tripod legs rusted in the fully extended position, a result of years stored under his house. The eye pieces were in a plastic bag, and the one I looked at back then was broken and unusable. I held little hope that it worked and didn't even try it out. So it was stashed under our house in all the garden stuff, between the stack of old newspapers and the rusty wire and star pickets. Unused again.

Then the storm came and we were forced to throw the old wire and some of the pickets onto the small mountain of rubbish out on the nature strip. The newspapers, from the past three years, heavy with flood water, now thickly cover the" vegetable" beds, smothering the crops of weeds and grass. The telescope only had its tripod wet so it was one of the few things from that pile under the house to be actually kept.

Being so obvious now, the other night as a fullish moon rose, I dragged out the telescope. and tried out an eye piece. Wow!! I could see the craters on the moon! And the the disc of Jupiter! I dragged the kids out of the warm house, they were vaguely impressed. But it was too cold for my wife.

Then a week ago I noticed that Venus was high in the dusk sky, so the scope came out again and this time I tried out another eyepiece (there are three in all) and this one was a higher resolution and Venus looked like a small version of the waxing moon with a crescent of light on the sunward side. Jupiter was still high and I could see three of its moons!

But below Venus was another untwinkling body. Was it Mercury? It was definitely a planet. I excitedly called the youngest, and his neighborhood friend away from the online games. And it was his 12 year old eyes who found that "Mercury" had rings! Another look and some focusing and it was confirmed, we had Saturn!

I have only ever seen the rings of Saturn through a telescope once before, with a bunch of noisy, pushing kids, but here in the quiet of my backyard (and at much smaller resolution) this sighting made a deep impression on me.

Saturn was real! It actually was up there, I could see it!

So to confirm it, the scope came out last night and the white little planet and the silver rings were still there! I even convinced my beautiful woman to leave the warmth and take a look.

I think Mark One has been a neglected telescope for me. Jesus Christ is real. He has been there all the time but I haven't taken the time to look.

Who is this Jesus I have been introduced to?

• He is Good News - He preaches the Gospel everywhere, that is His purpose in coming. He lives the Gospel, by healing the demon possessed, the fevered and the unclean leper. He teaches the Gospel with authority. He invites belief in the Gospel. And all this is just the beginning!


• He is the LORD - the Son of God. The Creator and re-creator, God of the Old Testament, YAHWEH. Even the unclean spirits knew that He was the "holy One of God".


• He is the Cleaner - of men with unclean spirits and unclean diseases (leprosy)


• He brings a new and close-by kingdom - He's the King


• He demands change - Repentance, a change of heart, a change of thinking. The biggest change of all. He has four men leave their occupations and family to become, not fishermen, but fishers of men. Rebuking the spirits, He changes the thought life of a possessed man. He keeps moving, changing location, there is always a "next town". He tries to silence the leper, now bursting with health, demanding he go to the temple silently.


• He cares for the rejected leper, even touching him. He also cares for the loved mother-in-law too.


• He attracts - first disciples then crowds, the sick, the possessed and the curious.


• He prayed - in the wilderness and came back with a sense of mission

Jesus you are still here, sorry for neglecting You.

Mark 1:44,45 Say Nothing

This morning I had just arrived at work when I got a phone call from my wife. My 17yo son had lost control of the car in the wet and had an accident. My 21 yo daughter was a passenger. My wife asked me to come immediately.

The spot was only 5 minutes drive away and the police were there directing traffic to a detour around the accident, which we couldn't see. It had happened on a downhill right-hander with a cliff rising from the left side of the road.. I was worried.! But apart from being shaken, neither driver nor passenger were injured. The car is already fixed and ready to go again.

He was running late for college, driving within the speed limit but too fast for the heavy rain. He had lost control on the corner, spun to the wrong side of the road, and then back to the left where the car spun up the side of the cliff prescribing an arc 20 metres long on the sandstone, back down to the verge over some shrubby trees and came to rest, still on the left side of the road, about 100 meters from where the slide started. At that busy time of day, no other car was near! The damage: one flat tyre, a broken headlight and a bent and mud-filled exhaust system!

The policewoman gave him a stern lecture on driving in wet conditions, but didn't book him. The firemen turned off the LPG in case of leaks and the tow truck operator (from Sydney - up here to help clear the 5000 storm damaged cars from the roads) made an interesting comment that I would not have expected from such a man.

He said "God was a passenger in this car today, it should have rolled!"

Yes God was good to our family today, even miraculously good.

Shouldn't we witness to the miracles in our lives and tell others about what God has done for us? Yet Jesus tells the healed leper not to tell anyone about it!

There are a few reasons I can think of:

1. Healing was secondary to something else in Jesus ministry


2. Healing is only here and now. Christ is focused on eternity


3. Miracles would focus our attention on earthly power


4. Focus on the miraculous doesn't allow Christ to do His real work

The man proclaimed it freely, a very natural human response, one I just made!. And it looks like reason number four came true as Jesus could no longer "openly enter" Capernaum. He had to stay in the desert. But people still came from everywhere. He was still very attractive.

Do I concentrate just on the miraculous when He wants to do something more for me? Do I overlook the greatest things for just something good just now?

It seems Jesus never succumbed to the lure of fame. I would have become a showman, but Jesus retires. he would only meet people on His terms. Sure He would heal people, but only in the context of His preaching. It must have been around this time that He preached the sermon on the mount.

Reason 3 is all about fame and power in this world., But Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God, a very different kingdom to any in this world.

Reason 2 is all about this temporary old world. Jesus didn't want to change the world., He wanted a completely new one, with a whole different way of operation, which we will see more about in Chapter Two, where we find out what is more important to Christ than miracles.

What could be more important than my kids being safe and well?

Mark 1:35-39 He Went Out

Even after a hectic evening, Jesus gets up early to be alone and pray. This is a favourite text for all of those people who, over the years, have tried to improve my prayer life. And it still isn't what it should be. Yes, I wake early, but bed is warm and I'm too busy obsessing over the things I need to do that day.

Maybe the secret is to actually pray - talk to my Father. Maybe that is why my whole devotional life isn't up to scratch. Yes ... I need to pray more.

But the disciples go looking for Him because "everyone" wants Him. Already? Weren't they satisfied with the night before. What else did they want of Him? If they are already healed then it must be for the entertainment of seeing others healed. Maybe they had brought people who had chosen not to be healed the night before.

But they would have to wait, Jesus didn't even go back to town, that day anyway. He states His purpose as preaching to more people. He had to invite more people to change their thinking and believe the good news.

His job was not to 'just' heal and do miracles. So why did he heal? Why not just preach?

Why do we love miracles? I guess for the same reason we go to movies... to see something new and spectacular. But to hear good news; less spectacular but more satisfying? More necessary? Certainly is... all the miracles are signposts to what Jesus says. He felt that what He said spoke louder than what He did. It's just the opposite with us. I need to take more notice of what He said.

And true to His purpose, Jesus preaches in the synagogues of "all Galilee", everywhere, in every town - traveling and preaching.

Oh, and just as an aside, casting out demons! He had to do that to reach some of the people. Physically sick people can hear the gospel preached, are demon-possessed people prevented from hearing?