Tag Archives: Mark 8

If you believe in sin

Posted on by
Reply

I have been stalling on the medial point of the gospel of Mark. It is a deep discourse on what it means to be fallen and need a savior. It is tough stuff.

But…

Some of us don’t believe in sin anymore. Unless we are the victims.

Non-monogamy is now a lifestyle choice. Pornography is an accepted part of our culture. The last definitive points of outrage in the human condition appear to be (not murder, not aggression against the innocent)..consumerism and intolerance.

Yep. I am not even sure about the consumerism. Our houses are our gods. Our couches: our monuments.

How do you begin to hear a man discourse on the desperate human condition if you doggedly refuse to admit your desperation?

At that point the only despair is in the Cross. The only tragedy his death. We become angry at the notion of a saving God.

Do you need a Redeemer?

If you answer no, enjoy. The house of this world is left to you. A billion shards of plastic in a dying sea. And that is all.

Men like trees, walking…

Posted on by
Reply

Mark 8:23-25 (NIV)
He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” [24] He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” [25] Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

His sight restored.
There are modern stories about people born blind who, when they are restored to sight, struggle with the relationship between the words for things in the dark and the words for things in the light.

What I mean of course, is that an apple you smell and feel and eat is not always recognizable as a red or yellow fruit with a smooth skin and a core.

These modern folk have had to strive to revise their scope of the world and it has felt dangerously unsteady. Sometimes a “safe” blindness can feel more familiar than a vertiginously new world of sight.

Jesus heals this man in two stages–he first restores the physical mechanism of sight, then he gives him the language to go with his new world.

I think that heaven will be like that–our senses broadened and restored. In fact, the Sermon on the Mount is the primer for the language of heaven.

Do you want the language and culture of paradise? Then by all means abide with the world’s only native speaker–

Jesus. The Word made flesh.

Breaking Bread

Posted on by
Reply

Mark 8:4-9 (NIV)
His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?” [5] “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied. [6] He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they did so. [7] They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. [8] The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. [9] About four thousand men were present. And having sent them away,

They go from stomach-gripping hunger to some bread, then some small fish, to a meal for a crowd of tens of thousands (4000 men plus women and children). They had leftovers.

People can be cagey about God. Understandably–He gets misrepresented a lot. The truth is He provides–air, water, food, sure. Not just those things. He wants to show us love.

Get close to Jesus and you will see some amazing things. Forget all that. The real miracle is the love of a person who knows us deeply and still abides with us.

He provides life; he provides blessing, but ultimately these things are just the incidental elements of the feast of God.

The real gift, the real nourishment is him.