The Gospel of Mark

By Dane Gardow

This portion of Scripture emphasizes the rejection of Christ by His own people and even in His own hometown. If Christ was so rejected by the people, shouldn't we who follow Christ also face various forms or degrees of rejection when we are walking in His footsteps? This passage also speaks of Him sending out His twelve disciples, of John the Baptist being beheaded, and of massive crowds being supernaturally provisioned for with bread and fish. The Lord also exposes and condemns false teachers and teaches on the self-denying requirement of walking with Him. It is also interesting, throughout this section, how Christ goes off by Himself to a secluded place to pray to His Father. This challenges us to value and prioritize times of private prayer and getting away to commune with God, since the Lord thought it necessary for Him to do so.

Regarding the false teachers, the Lord exposed their hypocrisy sharply. The Pharisees and other religious hypocrites looked for ways to alleviate themselves from walking in God's commandments, and set up certain traditions that justified their breaking of His laws. We are prone to do the same exact thing, and indeed, this happens all too often among professing Christians especially here in America. This should cause us to evaluate and ask ourselves if we have been disregarding and making void the commandments of God by setting up various traditions or coming up with all sorts of "exceptions" to explain away our disobedience. For example, do we expect to explain away our committing theft when we download music illegally by using an excuse that it's only electronic material? Or do we justify our taking pleasure in sins like adultery and drunkenness by passing it off as, "Oh, it's just a movie"? If we're in the habit of such things, we are no different than the hypocrites whom Christ condemned. Will we honor God with our lips while our hearts are far from Him, lusting after all sorts of ungodliness? Do we really think so lowly and pathetically, that the Almighty, omniscient God, who knows the thoughts of our hearts, is fooled by our craftiness? Take heed if you do, for God is not mocked:

Another very challenging teaching of the Lord in this section includes His call for us to deny ourselves. When Jesus described His rejection and murder by the chief priests, speaking of self denial, Peter was quick to rebuke Him. And though Peter meant well, perhaps, we find that such a mindset was satanic according to Christ. We need to be on constant guard against such a deceitful, self-seeking attitude because we, like Peter, are so prone to ridicule certain, necessary avenues of self-denial, in order to ensure our own self-indulgences. And, many times, the ridicule we muster is usually candy-coated with a pretense of nobility, as was Peter's in his attempt to shield his Lord from the "danger" of self-denial that was necessary for the glory of God and eternal good of others.

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