Object Lesson

Mark 7:33-35

      Sometimes you just have to see something before you can understand it. You can read books, but unless you see it in action, see it demonstrated, there is just something missing. That is one of the great things YouTube can help you with. They have videos to teach just about anything from carpentry to quilt making. Read, watch and then do it yourself. I wouldn’t try open heart surgery. I might leave that to the professionals.

      If you have ever been in a place where they don’t speak your language and you tried to communicate, you probably had to use some gestures to do it. Hands, facial expressions, even objects from you environment come into play. I remember locking my keys in my car back in 1977. I was in a small French village and no one we could find spoke any English.

      So trying to explain to a shop keeper that I wanted a coat hanger to pop the lock on my VW Beetle became quite the town happening. By the time we were done we had a crowd of about 20 people watching. At one point a very kind old gentleman who had never popped a lock on a car door decided he would help. He rushed in and spent 20 minutes trying before I was able to politely get the hanger back and pop it in under a minute. Cheers followed.

      But the initial conversation about the coat hanger would have been classic, if we could have captured it on film. I felt like an actor without any props. I acted out taking off my coat and hanging it up on a wire coat hanger. That didn’t work. They were a baffled as I was about what I was trying to explain.

      Jesus has to communicate with a deaf person. This is long before the invention of sign language as a full language. Jesus is going to heal this man’s deafness and his inability to speak. So He puts his fingers in his ears, spits and touches his tongue, and then looks up to heaven and with an exaggerated physical expression of speaking commands the opening of his ears.

      The gestures helped Jesus communicate. We use pictures to communicate all the time. We post them on FaceBook to tell the stories of our lives. Road traffic signs in most countries are primarily pictures. We use Emoticons to express our emotions.

      Jesus used the available means at His disposal to communicate His intent with this man. Can we do any less with the Gospel?

News

Mark 1:27-28

      In today’s world with smartphones and twitter, we know how to get a story out. Our society thrives on the newest story, usually of something bad or disgusting. The 24 hour news coverage was developed around this need. And is some ways it created the need. People lived just fine before CNN. And I venture to bet we would do just fine without it now. We don’t need minute by minute updates to raise our kids. We don’t need up to the moment weather updates. Has it really changed that much in the last 60 seconds? What are you going to do differently now that you are caught up on the news?

      Jesus was in the synagogue teaching and He exercises His authority by telling a screaming demon to shut up and come out of the man. Those around Him at that time know the Jesus is no ordinary teacher. This exercise of authority makes Jesus different.

      But what Jesus teaches is different as well. The teaching was unlike anything they had heard. I can imagine Him speaking plainly with clarity. He would have used illustrations from everyday life to explain the Truth about God and our relationship with Him. We see this as we read the Gospels. Jesus’ teaching is pretty simple, pretty straight forward. Most things Jesus said are pretty easy to understand and difficult to put into practice. Obedience is hard work!

      The people don’t recognize what this means, this combination of powerful teaching and exercise of authority. They don’t completely get it. Jesus has authority over the world of demons. They have never seen anything like this. It was authority with the power to back it up. You can’t keep something like this under wraps. The news spreads. In this region of Galilee the towns and villages were fairly close together. It would take very long for a message to spread.

      Mark’s focus in the Gospel is on the person of Jesus, His identity as the Servant of the LORD. As God’s Servant, He has the authority of God to do what God does, because He is God. His authority extends to the spirit realm, the realm where demons operate. Jesus has the upper hand there. He is able to stop whatever activity that might disrupt His plan.

      Jesus also speaks authoritatively about life. It is simple enough that you and I can understand, yet deep enough to keep scholars puzzled. Remember, just because we don’t understand every part of Scripture, like the events at the end of time, doesn’t mean we aren’t responsible for the things we do understand. We understand that Jesus has authority over demonic powers and we will see over the next few days that Jesus has authority in other realms as well.