Mark 9:30-50.  Today’s reading is a collection of sayings by Jesus.  The “book” of Mark is commonly called the “Gospel of Mark” or a gospel.  The word “gospel” appears in the first verse of the “book” and is a translation of the Greek word “euangellion”.  It is a compound word formed from the Greek prefix “eu-“ which means “good” and the Greek word “aggelos” which means messenger (we get the engish word angel from this second part, angels being messengers of God).  The word gospel then means good message or good news.  Mark’s book, which being a history of Jesus’ life, is not arranged like we think of a history book.  We think of history books as being a chronological listing of events.  Mark’s book, though roughly chronological, gives us information about Jesus which fulfills the purpose of helping the reader understand why this story is good news.  Mark chose parts of Jesus’ story that fit his theme, purpose; parts that would help his audience (the believers in Rome in 60 AD and ultimately us too) see why Jesus’ story is good news for them (and us).  The first part of Mark’s telling of the story involved the power of Jesus.  He showed us a lot of miracles.  Those miracles were to show that the words of Jesus had authority, but they also showed that he has power.  Those things would have been important to those troubled believers in Rome and should be important to us too, when we are going through trials in life.

In this section of Mark Jesus is on a path to fulfill the next part of God’s plan for him, he is on his way to Jerusalem to be sacrificed for us.  If his sacrifice is going to be useful though people are going to need to understand what it was for.  In 1 John 2:2 John tells us that Jesus died not just for the sins of those who would believe in Jesus but also for the sins of the whole world.  If Jesus’ sacrifice was for all men why do we see people condemned to Hell in Revelation 20?  It is because his sacrifice is only applied to those who put their faith and trust in Him as the only way back to God (see John 1:12).  The disciples, those first 12 close followers of Jesus, were going to need to understand, turn to Jesus and then become messengers of that good news.  While Jesus was on his path to Jerusalem the disciples were on another path a path of understanding and commitment.

In the collection of saying in today’s reading Mark shows us how Jesus moved his followers along that path.  IN the end of chapter 8 Jesus told his followers that he need to go to Jerusalem and suffer and die.  Peter wasn’t too happy with the idea and told Jesus so.  Jesus responded that Peter needed to stop following in the Devil’s footsteps and get in line with what God was up to.  In chapter 9 Jesus took his three closest followers up to the top of a mountain where he got God the Father’s stamp of approval and also showed that he was the one predicted by the Old Testament prophets.  In yesterday’s reading Jesus shoed his followers that they needed to stay connected to God.  Today we see Jesus and his followers gong off from the crowd.  IN verse 30 when it says Jesus didn’t want anyone to know it’s not that he wanted to hide the “good news” it’s that he wanted to insure that it would be spread through out all of history by preparing his followers in the best possible way.  Remember that everything in Mark seems to happen “immediately” or “straightaway”.  In the best possible way or the straightest path.  So today we see Jesus teaching his disciples (a word that means learner.  We might say students or pupils).  He starts by repeating the fact that he is going to die and then come back to life.  They still didn’t understand what it was all about but kept their mouth’s shut.  They weren’t being very good students, they were afraid to ask questions, maybe because of the response Peter had gotten earlier.  As they continued on their physical journey the students were evidently having a private discussion.  Jesus was aware of it however and when they got to where they were going to rest for the day he asked them about their conversation.  More silence.  Mark tells us that they had been trying to decide which of them was the most important, maybe because three of them had gotten to go up the mountain with Jesus, including Peter who had been scolded just before that side trip.  Clearly Jesus was aware of what they had been discussing because he sat down and instructed them about true greatness, at least with respect to God and God’s plan.  True greatness involved submitting to God’s plan, being a servant of God (like Jesus was being by going to the cross).  Jesus then further explained by taking hold of a young person who was in the room and telling them that if they would “receive” someone like this child that they were shoing that they had “received” Jesus into their own lives.  Remember John 1:12 above?  If we “receive” Jesus we have the right to be part of God’s family.  Here Jesus is telling his followers that if they are really part of his family they will bring others along with they.  The word receive in John 1:12 and the word in Mark 9:36 where Jesus take hold of the child are the same word.  The word used by Jesus in verse 37 is a different one but it is very close in meaning.  The point is that if the disciples were really going to be part of God’s family, on God’s team they needed to be servants.  Being God’s servant doesn’t mean getting God his dinner or a dring or the remote for the TV it means dong what is important to Him; that is helping others understand the “good news” that God loves them and that Jesus died to give them a way to have a relationship with God forever.

In the next part of the reading Jesus’ followers bring up a person that they saw doing miracles “in the name of Jesus”.  Doing things in the name of Jesus means that he was using his authority to do them, or at least claiming his authority.  The disciple told him to stop claiming that he was not part of “the group”.  It seems like they were still working on that idea of being great.  Jesus told them not to stop the person because this was clearly a person who was starting to become a believer too.  IN verse 41 Jesus again emphasizes that true followers are ones that are serving others, like he is doing.

Next Jesus turns the idea of serving others around.  If people who help others understand who Jesus is and accept what he is doing for them are his real followers; people who will receive the “reward” of being with God forever, people who cause others to turn away from following Jesus are in danger of spending eternity away from God, in Hell.  It would be better for those people if they died a terrible death crushed and drown at the bottom of the sea that to go the way they were going.  In verses 43-48 Jesus uses three examples of “if/then” to explain his point.  Basically all three say, “If something causes you to not follow him properly it would be better to not have that thing in your life, no matter how bad that would be, than to have it and miss out on eternity with God (by gong to Hell).”  In verse 48 he uses fairly graphic idea to explain how bad eternity without God (that is in Hell) will be.  Hell will be like being constantly eaten by works but never ceasing to exist and like being continually burned with fire but again with out ceasing to exist.

In the last two verses Jesus sums up what he has been teaching them.  He uses fire in a different way in verse 49 from the way it was used in verse 48.  In verse 48 fire is a way of understanding the pain of eternity without God.  In verse 49 the fire symbolizes a different kind of pain, the pain that comes from following Jesus.  Remember that this section started out with Jesus talking about the path he was on and how it was going to lead him to (and through) death.  His path would involve suffering.  In Hebrews 12:2 we learn that Jesus endured the cross because of the “joy” attached to dying on it.  Dying wasn’t “joyful” for Jesus but what that death would accomplish was worth it to him.  In the same way the lives of the disciples (all disciples or believers for that matter) would involve pain and suffering.  But that pain and suffeing would actually be good.  Why?  Jesus compares it to salt.  Salt was a pa of preserving food from bacteria and decay in Jesus’ day (think about how cucumbers can sit in a jar and not rot if they are pickled in salt).  When followers of Jesus suffer for following him it is kind of like proof that they are really doing what God wants (and what the world and the Devil do not want); it is proof that they have been preserved by God; they are salty and are not going to rot eternally in Hell.  Jesus folds the example over on itself here and the salty preserved believers then become salt and preservative to the world.  This is done by serving others around them.  Instead of fighting about who is the greatest they need to serve others.

I’m sure in the hard world of being a believer in Rome while Nero was out to kill all believers there were a lot of people thinking, “Why me”.  Maybe some of the believers accepted they suffering but wanted to be recognized for it.  Perhaps some threw others “under the bus” or “to the dogs” to save their own skin.  By writing this part of Jesus’ story Mark was helping the believers in Rome see that as followers of Jesus and enemies of the Devil they should expect to suffer, but their suffering would not be useless it would actually prove that they were on God’s team and prove God to those around them.  These words are both hard and encouraging.  No one wants to suffer but it is good to know that if we are suffering it is for a good reason and that one day it will end.  We can have that assurance if we put our faith and trust in Jesus to be our path to eternity with God.  A faith a trust that will lead us to take up our won crosses daily and follow Him by serving others.

God help me endure whatever I need to to be a servant of yours.  Help me be your servant by serving others.  Thank you for your promise of eternity with you.  Help me endure the little fires of life and be salt to the world around me.

Mark 9:14-29.  Jesus and the three disciples who were with him returned from their rip up the mountain to the place where the other followers were waiting.  A large crowd had gathered and some religious leaders, scribes, were part of this group.  Evidently the scribes were arguing with the followers of Jesus.  When the crowd spotted Jesus they were very excited and ran to greet him.  The whole situation must have been very intense and the crowd was excited because they knew Jesus was the one who could deal with what ever was going on.  And that is just what Jesus does, righ away he starts questioning the crowd about what they are arguing with his followers about.  Remember that this section is about the spiritual journey of Jesus’ disciples.  He has started to deal with their lack of understanding about who he is and what he is doing.  In this section he is going to continue to instruct his followers about being his followers.

The problem was because one of the people in the crowd had a son who was demon possessed.  Evidently the demon was causing a lot of harm to the boy.  The dad wanted the disciples to force the demon to leave the boy.  Remember back in Mark 6:13 that Jesus had sent the disciples out and that they had caused many demons to leave people and also that they had healed people of physical problems.  Here in this story they have not been able to cast the demon out of the boy.  In verse 19 it appears that Jesus is scolding the crowd for not really believing in him.  Some scholars think he may be scolding just his followers but in light of what happens in the next few verses it seems like everyone is getting the lecture.  After asking for the boy to be brought to him you would expect that Jesus would immediately command the demon to come out, but he doesn’t.  While the boy is flopping around on the ground Jesus proceeds to have a conversation with the boy’s father.  I can just imagine the dad standing there answering Jesus’ questions but watching his son rolling around foaming at the mouth.  I’m sure he was getting a little anxious.  Finally he blurts out, “If you can do anything help us!”  This is the moment Jesus has been waiting for, “What do you mean “if”?  Of course I can do it but you must believe.”  And immediately the father cried out that he believed in Jesus, or at least wanted to and was trying to.  Remember that the word “immediately” in Mark means that something happened in the most direct way, it mostly means “right away”, but also has in it the idea of the most direct or best path.  And so Jesus causes the demon to leave the boy.  The boy had been controlled by this inhabiting spirit for so long that when it left him he appeared to be dead.  Jesus took him by the hand helped him up.

Notice that Mark tells us that Jesus caused the spirit to leave the boy “when he saw the crowd running to watch.”  They were there to see the boy flopping around, or maybe to see what Jesus would do about it, or maybe to see why he wasn’t doing it right away.  It’s interesting that back in Mark 6:13 when the disciples were out healing and casting out demons that it was while they were telling people to turn their lives back to God (Mark 6:12).  Remember that in that first section of Mark that Jesus main focus was on teaching the people.  Jesus’ miracles were used to support what he was saying, the power proved the preaching.  Here we see Jesus focusing on believing in who he is and what his real mission is, as the crowd gathered he gave evidence of his power.   A miracle may fix an immediate problem but if we do not really understand who Jesus is and put our faith in him we are still stuck in the bigger mess that sin is in our lives; we are still separated from God by our rebellion and disobedience.  All of the problems of life are small in comparison to eternity, especially and eternity separated from God.  In verse 24 the father proclaimed his faith in Jesus and also asked for help in continuing to believe.  It is interesting that Jesus not only gave him proof by healing the boy but also commanded the demon to never again enter the boy.  I think Jesus was giving a bigger picture by saying that.  He was sort of pointing the man’s thoughts beyond the boy flopping around here, today.  The wording of verses 26-27 make some bible experts think that Mark is hinting at resurrection; the restoration of our bodies to our dead souls.  Although the boy was probably not dead there might be that sort of hint here, another way of pointing out the long term effects of faith in who Jesus is and what he is doing or can do for us (if we believe).

In keeping with the purpose of this section Jesus privately instructs his followers.  They have gone in for the night.  The disciples are probably pretty concerned that they were unable to help the boy.  After all they had been able to cast out demons before when Jesus sent them out.  And they had been in a big argument with some strong opponents about it all.  I’m sure their pride was pretty wounded, or perhaps they felt abandon and powerless.  Jesus’ answer?  “You guys need to pray.”  If you want power in your life to accomplish what God wants you to accomplish you need to stay connected to God through prayer and you need to be acting according to what God wants done (see John 14:13-14).  Remember it’s all about connecting people back up with God and we can’t do that unless we stay connected ourselves.

I think that this passage would have been pretty helpful to those believers in Rome who were being chased and hurt because of their faith in Jesus.  This passage shows that Jesus cares, not just about our lives here and now but about the bigger picture of our lives, our eternity.  Thy also would have learned that they needed to stay connected to God and could stay connected to him through prayer.  God always answers the 911 prayer line and always sends the right help.  But remember sometimes the right help means that we will flop around on the ground for a while until the crowd gathers to see what God can really do.  That’s not saying we can be demon possessed if we are believers, we can’t.  It means that sometimes we will go through unpleasant things.  Our assurance is that God will never leave us, nothing can separate us from his love (Romans 8:32-39) and he will cause all of life’s pain and trouble to have meaning if we live for him (Romans 8:28).  We need to believe and act and allow God to help us when we don’t believe.

God thank you for using you power for my benefit and for the benefit of all in light of eternity.  Let me be living for your purposes.  Let my life have eternal importance in the lives of those I meet.  When I lack faith help me believe.  Let me stay connected to you through prayer.  Help me see your will and promote you through all my actions.  Let me be called according to your purposes.