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Looking for Jesus according to Mark

J

JLG

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1) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark1: The Sabbath begins and Jesus goes into the synagogue to teach people. They are astounded as they listen to him because his teaching is made with authority, quite different from the scribes.

- Knowledge vs Ignorance!

- Imagine you were there!

- What a privilege!

- What would you have done?

- Listening to a man with an incredible knowledge!
 
2) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 2: Jesus forgives the sins of a paralytic. Some scribes think he is blaspheming because God is the only one who can forgive. Knowing what they think, Jesus asks them why they think so and he asks what is easier to cure the paralytic or to forgive his sins. And the paralytic gets up and walks and they glorify God!

- Thanks to Jesus’ miracles, the religious leaders get all the evidence necessary about Jesus but they don’t care, they only try to oppose him!

- Jesus knows who they are and what they think!

- And he takes care about people and he cures them whereas the religious leaders don’t care about the people, they are just selfish, they only think about their own interests!
 
3) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 2:

- Jesus and his disciples are dining with tax collectors and sinners!

- The scribes and the Pharisees don’t understand!

- Jesus explains that he came for sinners just like a physician must cure those who are ill!

- Knowledge vs Ignorance

- What are religious leaders good for? Nothing? Useless? Predators? Out of reality? They live in their own bubble? Lead people to destruction? Blind?
 
4) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 2: During the Sabbath Jesus’ disciples pluck heads of grain from the fields!

- Then the Pharisees tell Jesus it is not lawful!

- But he tells them about David and his men who ate bread which could be only eaten by the priests because they were hungry!

- And he ends the discussion by saying that the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath!

- God gave many laws to the Israelites to show them they were unable to respect them and it happened to such an extent that the promised land they received from God was taken away from them and they lost everything! They were completely and totally rejected as a people but not as individuals because individuals can be faithful to God! Moreover, since Israel became a nation again, it has always been at war!

- Jesus lives in the present, the religious leaders in the past!
 
5) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 3:

- Jesus enters into a synagogue!

- There is a man with a withered hand!

- They want to know if he is going to cure the man on the sabbath!

- They are looking for a way to accuse him!

- What a powerful verse! Then again we see the HUGE difference between Jesus and the religious leaders! He listens to his heart always being ready to help people by teaching them or curing them whereas religious leaders look for their own interests, they have no hearts, only thinking about what they can get, being selfish and calculating!
 
6) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 3:

- Jesus asks them if it is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill!

- But they keep silent!

- Thus they show insensibility!

- Jesus looks at them with indignation!

- And he cures the man!

- And the Pharisees hold council with the followers of Herod in order to kill him!

- Is that not clear, there is no excuse, they show who they are and their followers are also responsible, they can’t say as Adam said accusing Eve but he followed her so he is as guilty as her or even more! Well, Jerusalem was destroyed and the inhabitants had to pay a very high price! But history keeps on going and people never understand!
 
7) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 3:

- Then he goes into a house, and again the crowd gathers, so that there are not able even to eat a meal.

- Another big difference, serving God with PLENTY OF ZEAL which is perpetual motion and life itself like a devouring and consuming fire!
 
8) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 3:

- The scribes say Jesus expels the demons by means of the ruler of the demons.”

- How is it possible to be so ignorant? Through man’s tradition? And they can see all his miracles! How is it possible? Unfortunately, everything can happen in this world again and again!
 
9) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 4: Then he adds: “Let the one who has ears to listen, listen.”

- How do they want people to listen to them if they are not able to listen themselves!

- Jesus is able to speak and listen at the same time that is why he goes directly to the point!

- It is hard to learn how to listen carefully but it is easy to speak for nothing!

- In fact, first it is necessary to listen carefully and second you can speak meaningful words!

- The reverse doesn’t work!

- It is the same when studying, you need to penetrate deeply the context, otherwise you will only bring what is superficial!
 
10) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 4:

- Jesus tells about receiving more when we have and being taken away when we have nothing!

- Religious leaders have nothing to offer, they lead people to destruction: that’s what we find in the Bible!

- But if they have nothing to offer, it means that those who follow them won’t receive anything from them except destruction! So we must be careful to what we do if we don’t want to pay the price!

- Think about what happens when parents don’t educate their children and look at the world today: the result is clear!
 
11) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 6: On the Sabbath, Jesus starts teaching in the synagogue, and most who hear him are astounded!

- They don’t understand such a wisdom!

- They don’t understand such powerful works!

- Because he is the son of the carpenter and of Mary!

- And they know his brothers and sisters!

- They clearly don’t want to listen and understand Jesus’ words!

- Of course, they don’t accept him because he didn’t go to their schools!

- And he doesn’t speak according to their own interests!

- So they are ready to find any excuse!

- They can hear his teaching and see his miracles, but no!

- They have their own decisions, their own responsibilities, their own choices!

- We can’t let others take decisions for us and decide for us!
 
12) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 5:

- Jesus tells us about a woman who has been having a flow of blood for 12 years.

- She has suffered much at the hands of many physicians and has spent all her resources, and she is no better but, rather, has become worse!

- When she hears the reports about Jesus, she comes up behind him in the crowd and touches his outer garment!

- She thinks she can be cured just by touching his outer garments!

- And the Pharisees don’t know that!

- Come on, it is ridiculous!

- You get people coming to Jesus from everywhere!

- Thus the Pharisees are stupid or they don’t want to listen to Jesus!

- And immediately her flow of blood dries up, and she senses in her body that she has been healed of the grievous sickness!

- Immediately Jesus realizes in himself that power has gone out of him, and he turns around and he wants to know who has done it!

- Jesus is close to people, they can approach him easily except when they are too many people! We can’t say the same of religious leaders!

- Jesus lives among people! We can’t say the same of religious leaders!

- Jesus eats with people! We can’t say the same of religious leaders!

- Jesus lives like people! We can’t say the same of religious leaders!
 
13) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 7:

- The Pharisees and some scribes see some of his disciples eat their meal with defiled hands, that is, unwashed ones. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands up to the elbow, clinging to the tradition of the men of former times…

- Once again we hear about the religious leaders who follow man’s tradition!

- How easy it is to become blind or to stay blind because of man’s tradition!

- It prevents us from understanding God’s Word!

- It prevents us from opening our eyes and ears and heart!

- It makes us insensitive!

- It leaves us in the past when we must live in the present and prepare for the future!
 
14) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 7:

- The religious leaders follow many traditions such as baptisms of cups, pitchers, and copper vessels.

- Once again, the religious leaders are only interested by man’s tradition!

- In fact, they put a heavy load on ordinary people!

- They mix man’s tradition with God’s teaching!

- They dilute God’s teaching!

- How do you want ordinary people not to be puzzled?

- What a responsibility!
 
15) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 7:

- The Pharisees and scribes accuse Jesus’ disciples to eat their meal with defiled hands and thus not observing the tradition of the men of former times!

- Jesus tells them that Isaiah prophesied about them, calling them hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far removed from me. It is in vain that they keep worshiping me, for they teach commands of men as doctrines.” You let go of the commandment of God and cling to the tradition of men.”

- How powerful!

- How accusing!

- How striking!

- How real unfortunately!

- How sad!

- May people remember these words of Jesus!
 
16) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 7: Jesus tells the Pharisees they disregard the commandment of God in order to keep their tradition. Thus they make the word of God invalid by their tradition.

- They use man’s tradition against God’s word to serve their own interest!

- They turn the truth into falseness and falseness into the truth!

- They turn people away from God!

- They just bring emptiness!
 
17) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 8: Jesus warns his disciples against the Pharisees and their leaven and the one of Herod!

- Yes, the religious leaders are dangerous because they look for their own interests!

- They are more interested in man’s tradition than God’s word!

- It can only lead to the wrong way!

- Remember the destruction of Jerusalem!

- The foreign army would come and leave and come again to stay!

- When they first left, it was the signal to go away!

- But the religious leaders didn’t follow Jesus’ advice!

- And Jerusalem was destroyed and the inhabitants who didn’t listen to Jesus but to the religious leaders paid a high price!

About Mark:

- Yes, I prefer to do like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 who used to examine carefully the Scriptures daily to check what Paul was telling them!

- But concerning what happened after Jesus’ death is another story!

- It went in all directions and the religious leaders were eager to defend their own interests and pay more attention to man’s tradition!

- Remember the “super apostles” Paul speaks about!

- And Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire and they mixed everything!

- It became an exotic mixture which had nothing to do with Jesus’ teaching!

- The religious leaders were busy going nowhere except serving their own interests!

- Is that the lambs among the wolves or the wolves among the lambs?

- Death or slavery!

- And the scenario didn’t happen once!

- Exactly the same situation and the same end!
 
18) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 8: Jesus tells the crowd and his disciples that to come after him means disown oneself and pick up his torture stake and keep following him!

- Losing his life for Jesus’ sake and for the sake of the good news means save it!

- There is no worth gaining the whole world and lose his life!

- Yes, the religious leaders want to gain the whole world and lose their lives!

- It is not possible to get both!

- it is not possible to serve two masters at the same time!

- We need to make a choice!

- But you can’t let the religious leaders decide for yourselves!

- You must do it yourselves!
 
19) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 9: Jesus asks his disciples about what they are arguing about on the road!

- They don’t want to answer because it is about who is greater!

- So he tells them that the one who wants to be first must be last of all and minister of all!

- Religious leaders, political leaders and commercial leaders want to be greater!

- They are only looking for power!

- But power leads to destruction!

- Each empire went up and down!

- And the world is going down!

- But the worst is that it is going down faster and faster!

- But religious leaders, political leaders and commercial leaders are not going to last, they just think about the present, they don’t care about the future!

- They just need illusion, they don’t care about reality!
 
20) Jesus vs the religious leaders

Mark 10: Some Pharisees asks Jesus whether it is lawful for a man to divorce a wife!

- If The Israelites were authorized to divorce their wives by writing a certificate of dismissal according to Moses and their hardheartedness, from the beginning of creation, man and woman must become one flesh and can’t divorce!

- Once again man’s tradition vs God’s word!

- You can’t choose both!

- You must choose one!

- It’s a simple one!

- Man tries to find ways not to choose!

- It doesn’t work!

- There is only one way!

- Man is always trying to follow his own way!

- He will only get lost!

- The Israelites chose the wrong one and they got lost!

- Humanity will always choose the same wrong way and get lost!
 
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