Re:Verse passage – Mark 3:1-12 (day six)
Lest we forget why he came, Mark provides a summary of the same. A wilderness of opposition. The religious elite with their rigged systems, their tower of Babels, exalting the self-righteousness of men. Silent and stone hearted before a not-so-subtle moment of grace, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, to give a man life?”
And the people who followed him to the shore, clamoring for more, oblivious to his true mission. They didn’t want him, just the blessings he could give. An allusion to another day when they would celebrate him one day, and reject him the next.
And if the wilderness wasn’t dry and rugged enough, stifling enough, there were the demon possessed men yelling divine declarations, as if to control the Son of Man, or remind him whose territory he was in.
The truth is, they all three remind me of…me.
This is Mark reminding us, proclaiming, “And this is why he came to die!” There is no other way to turn hearts from stone to flesh, give sight to the blind, and set the captives free, but to put him up on that tree.
I was truly moved by your message. Jesus was launching an invasion into the realm of the demons. There is no doubt about that. And the stone hearts of people could not quite wrap their minds around it until Jesus wound up on that tree, and in the end, conquered death to show us all He meant business: demons, watch out! God is on the move!
Your comments truly moved me. Jesus was launching an invasion into the realm of demons. The only way He was going to soften the stone hearts of men is to wind up on that tree, and then in the end, conquer death completely! His message was very clear: demons beware! God is on the move!