Author: Scott Lane

Re:Verse passage – Mark 7:1-23 (day five)“And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him,”

‭‭One of the many reasons I love and regard the scriptures is because it gives honest accounts of the actions and attitudes of the human heart- including the disciples. They should “get it” (what Jesus is teaching and revealing) sooner and deeper than most, yet often times they don’t. Could Jesus have been any more blunt or clear?  He calls the crowd closer to listen again to His teaching. Then, He has even more to say to His disciples (goes over it again- because they were struggling to understand)-the darkness and sinfulness of the human heart. Some still didn’t get it. How do we know?  Because God continued to teach and challenge them until they did. For Peter it was years later (see Acts 10- same lesson). Praise God for His patient graciousness that continues to teach, convict, and encourage His children (for hours, days, years, and decades). He’s not finished or given up on any of His followers!!  Ready to listen and learn?  Search the Scriptures not traditions. He continues to teach and reveal!

Re:Verse passage – Mark 6:45-53 (day five)  

It might be easy to become critical and skeptical of the disciples and their inability to perceive who their Rabbi actually was. Perhaps they’re not so different than we are- even thousands of years later. The words and thoughts of Donald English are too profound and convicting to try to summarize or restate.

“We are often no better. We may be fine when God comes to us in Christ along the recognizable avenues, even if they are miraculous, so long as they are good and affirming. How awesomely splendid to have distributed bread to a crowd, knowing how little Jesus began with and yet seeing that there was more than enough for everyone. Many of us have our own version of that experience. But how different it was in the middle of the night, when the wind was high, and rowing hard, and safety threatened, to see a ghostly figure dimly passing you by on the water!

Most Christians have our own version of that, too. It happens when events conspire to disappoint us, or trusted friends hurt us, or illness and loneliness overtake us, or spiritual dryness oppresses us. The bread-providing master at the center of the crowd is often then more like the ghostly figure on the stormy sea ‘wishing to pass us by’. It is much easier then to take fright and cry out. But such experiences are meant to have the opposite effect. They are intended to strengthen our faith, to assure us that we are growing, to signal that Jesus can trust us to go through such storms, not needing to have our hands held all the time, but knowing that the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who feeds his people and stills the storms and walks on the waters, will never leave us or forsake us. It is in that sense that the darkest days we go through can produce the greatest degree of inner illumination”.

Re:Verse passage – Mark 6:30-44 (day five).

We know that Mark’s Gospel was greatly influenced by Peter’s personal experiences with Jesus. It is interesting that only Mark uses “shepherd language” to describe Jesus’ compassion. Perhaps Peter upon reflection and being later challenged and encouraged by Jesus (post resurrection) saw what was happening at a different and deeper level. Mark uses the word picture of a shepherd and sheep in his account of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. When Jesus told Peter (three times) “Feed my sheep”, it permanently changed the way Peter saw people. And it also shaped the way he looked back and processed Jesus’ thoughts, words, and actions. Seems that a life lesson was learned. Lord, teach us (this life lesson) to see and love people the way You do. The whole person. Like a shepherd. 

Re:Verse passage – Mark 6:14-29 (day five). What a sad and ominous picture of a human heart and soul that has hardened and dried up. Herod heard and was actually intrigued by the truth that John the Baptist preached. He was both perplexed and stirred. Yet, Herod never surrendered his heart. He in fact, moved further and further away from the Lord, and his ordering of the execution of John the Baptist seemed to be the final straw. A few chapters later in Mark, Jesus will ask, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”  Here we see the answer. We have a visual example and reminder. It is dangerous to deny or even delay in responding and surrendering to the power and prompting of the Holy Spirit. (“Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them.”)

Re:Verse passage – Mark 6:7-13 (day five) “and He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff—”

I love to look at the way Jesus teaches. He wisely uses parables, actions, questions, decisions, and here, (in our Re:Verse passage) even instructions. It is worth noting the first and only thing He tells His disciples to bring on this assigned journey is a staff. Practically this would serve them as a walking stick. This was to be a physically demanding excursion. But, perhaps more importantly this staff would serve as a reminder of their role and perspective in this mission trip- a shepherd. They were being sent on mission to do evangelism and ministry as a shepherd would. In love, compassion, kindness, and humility. It might have been easy to be conceited and even arrogant doing this ministry. After all, they had been given authority by Jesus Himself. They could have had the wrong perspective and motivation. A good reminder to us, we should not beat people up in our participation in ministry and evangelism. Rather we should faithfully speak, serve, and encourage in love and humility- like a shepherd. It will be this kind of shepherd’s love and humility that often facilitates listening, learning, and trusting. “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”   “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”