April 16, 2024: Tuesday Morning Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 9:14-19
Blessing and Peace be with you on this beautiful Spring Day here in Tucson.
We received really good new in our congregation yesterday, and we are thanking God for His love and care for the adult child of our members who was lost in the mountains for 5 days with no food or water. Yesterday she was found alive and transported to ICU severely dehydrated. We prayed and prayed as a congregation for this adult's safety, and the beneficent One of all of Creation, answered the prayers that we offered.
As Jesus and James, John, and Peter come off the Mount (Hermon?), they are confronted by a problem which could bring great strife to Christ's journey to the cross. In His absence on the Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples left behind are faced with the inability to heal a child who has seizures and is unable to speak. Such a failure could mean that many would become less faithful and would see Christ as what He had already been claimed to be, a charlatan.
Whether it was the disciples who had failed, or if Christ had come off the Mount, and not dealt with the problems which this presented for Himself and the disciples, it could certainly have supported the Pharisees, and others who through all of the hype of the Nazarene and what he had been doing and teaching could have lost its hold on those now coming to believe. From this passage we learn that it is clear that Jesus is ready now to face the remaining short journey to the cross. The conversation with Moses and Elijah on the Mount had helped Jesus to cement His resolve to continue on. In the Disney animation, "Onward!", the story is so similar. Two brothers who have been ridiculed by classmates, one for his wild behavior, the other for his extreme shyness, set out on a journey to magically restore their father's life for just enough time for his shy son who never knew him to meet him. They became both discouraged and determined in their quest, and though they were often isolated because of who they were, they found in one another how they could live their lives with love for one another. Jesus knew how to continue His pathway to the cross, and how to deal with the everyday issues which surrounded His shared ministry with the disciples. Though Christ journey was to save the whole of the world and creation, He was also able to focus completely on the needs of one person. Sometimes you or I are that one person on whom Christ focuses, even when the whole world is such a mess of complicating, and sometimes deadly encounters for all people, Jesus works in both places to get God's message across. I have read ahead, and we all need to know how much we are represented in our individual issues, and yet the Christ of God chooses to always be with us.
Next Monday we continue on in the Gospel of Mark 9:19-24. After what our family of faith has been through this past week, I was brought to tears by the words of the man who was the father of this child who he loved so much! more on Monday my good friends.
Please remember that American has a yard sale this Friday and Saturday from 9 to 2pm both days. We need help setting it up on Wednesday & Thursday from 10AM to 5PM. We will be doing this on the patio. And we also need help on the sale days as well. Funds from this sale will be sent to the Kartchner family in Hawaii who are members of our church. Kandice has cancer which is extremely difficult to treat. She is now unable to work due to her health battle.
May God richly bless this sale for help for just one of His children, just as we will see Him do through Christ Jesus for the child with seizures and the inability to speak.
May God bless us all every day! Pastor Kim
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