August 6, 2024: Tuesday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 12:35-37b
Good morning. I pray that your day is filled with joy in Jesus Christ, and that your time in the written Word will help you to understand God's living Word who is our Savior.
Once again today, I am asking for your prayers as the Southeast of our nation is nearly being flooded out with extreme amounts of rain. We can only imagine what would happen here in our city if we received 20" of rain in one day. I can remember a few times when we got close to 10" in 24 hours, and our city was a mess, bridges closed, houses falling into the washes and rivers, landslides on the Mt. Lemmon highway. This uncommon weather seems to be becoming the norm. So, let's keep all of the folks who live in that part of our country in our prayers for safety and relief. Of course, we also need to pray for the people in California who are suffering another great wildfire. I am so thankful that the desert has remained a pretty stable environment in which to live.
Today, we have in Mark one of the most confusing passages in the whole of Mark's Gospel. I am going to try to keep my explanation short, and as simple as possible. What exactly was Jesus trying to do? Though the passage is complicated, there is a reason for Christ's words which to us would seem to only complicate this reading.
First the most common words used to describe the hoped for Messiah were the Son of David. This religious centered community looked forward to one in the line of David who would come to defeat Israel's enemies and bring about the most powerful nation in the world. The Messiah was THE deliverer, sending the enemies of Israel away, or destroying them completely. See Isaiah 9:2-7, Jeremiah 23:5ff, and Psalm 89:20ff. (Remember that ff means the verses which follow.) Jesus also uses this designation in Matthew 9:27 and 12:23 and 15:22 and 23: 9,15 to describe Himself. So, Jesus is not saying that this common use for the Messiah as the Son of David is untrue. Jesus is the Son of David, and much more! His family line, according to Matthew goes to David through Joseph, and in Luke through Mary. (We could have a conversation too about why following Joseph's line matters at all. But here that would complicate things even more. He is also David's LORD! Obviously, this whole concept was hard for the people of Jesus time to understand. It's hard when we read it too. It seems to be double talk which is always confusing. For Jesus, using the identity of the Son of David would really have placed Him where He did not want to be. People would have only seen Him as a powerful worldly leader, so, at least in this passage, Jesus tries to set that aside with His logic about also being David's Lord. He makes it clear at the trial before Pilate that if He was a king of this world, God would raise up an army from the stones and rocks around Him. But Christ really wants people to come to know Him as the living presence of the Love of God for each and every one of them, and Jesus is the living proof, and the Resurrection Truth of the Father's Love for all people. Tomorrow we will talk about what constitutes authentic true faith (religion) according to Christ's words in Mark.
Thank you for wading through this passage today.
With the Love of Christ, Pastor Kim
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