Archive for the ‘Mark's Gospel’ Category

Posted on June 7, 2008 - by Stephen Murray

The Sexuality of Jesus and the Gospels

My brother, who got a much bigger share than me from the family gene pool when it comes to academic intelligence and skill, has a fascinating question about the sexuality of Jesus and the Gospels.

Posted on November 28, 2007 - by Stephen Murray

A Call to Die – Mark’s Gospel and Me

Tonight we’re going to wrap up Mark’s gospel at our study group. We finished going through the text last week and this week we want to draw out some of the big ideas so that they stick in the minds of those in the group for future readings of Mark. It’s a fascinating ride starting as Mark develops a picture of the Messiah king in the chapters leading up to 8:29 and Peter’s great confession. Then he turns the narrative a bit to show us a second identity to which Jesus claims fulfillment – that of the Suffering Servant. Leading up to the cross and including the cross narrative the text is absolutely littered with references to Isaiah and not only to the traditional ’servant songs’ but also to numerous passages dealing with both judgment of Israel and the restoration of Israel which also marks the occasion when the gentiles will come streaming in. Its a masterful narrative that in one sense is fairly simple to understand, so much so that some have often summarized Mark’s gospel to teach ‘who Jesus is and what he came to do’. Yet it also has so much depth and will keep you wondering for days as to why Mark chose to arrange the material the way he did. Its a gospel that calls for deep reflection and life evaluation.

As a Christian reader of Mark’s gospel, as one who has acknowledged the atonement to which the narrative points I was really overwhelmed by one giant challenge that Mark throws at those who would follow Christ – the call to die to self, to take up ones cross daily (8:34-36). If there is one application the Christian community needs to grab hold of it is that – we, as those having been cleansed by the atonement, are called by God himself to die to our own wants, needs, desires, motives, attitudes and passions and live for the wants, needs, desires, motives, attitudes and passions of Christ, which means crucifixion every single day. It’s a hard call and without the atonement it would be an impossible call to even attempt to respond to. However, in light of God’s mercy we must respond – we must die.

Posted on October 4, 2007 - by Stephen Murray

Seeing the End and Being Missional

Last night in our small group we studied Mark 13 and the mini apocalypse section that it contains. Its a tricky bit of text in Mark’s Gospel but I think whatever decisions you reach about the details (within reason) the overall picture seems to be clear: Jesus is coming back to judge and save so heed the signs and be on your guard.

In looking to apply this section we asked a set of questions of ourselves and attempted to answer each question from two points of view: Firstly as a CHRISTIAN who is UNCONCERNED about the end and then secondly as a CHRISTIAN who IS CONCERNED about the end, as the passage suggests we should be. These where the questions:

What do I think about evangelism?
How do I pray?
How do I choose where to work?
How do I conduct my relationships with other Christians?
How do I spend my money?
How do I spend my free time?
How do I view church attendance and meeting with other believers?
How do I view personal Bible reading?
How do I respond to false christs and gospels?

What was great to see was that as we attempted to answer these questions from both points of view we could see a distinct move from a sort of consumer-Christian mindset to a missional-Christian mindset in the way that the group thought out the implications. What was the basis for this move from consumer to missional? The end – when Jesus comes to judge and save. Ironic then that if you don’t see Jesus coming to judge and save then you end up with a consumer mindset rather than a missional mindset – and yet many ‘missional’ proponents suggest that talking about judgment is not longer en vogue – curious?

Posted on September 26, 2007 - by Stephen Murray

Love for God IS Love for People

In Mark 12 Jesus is confronted by a teacher of the law who had evidently been sitting in and around the conversations that we’re going on between Jesus and the other religious authorities that day. He’d noticed how Jesus had skillfully avoided their theological traps and turned numerous questions around so that the other religious authorities scrambling desperately for answers. This teacher was impressed and so wanting to see what Jesus was really about at his core he asked, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’

Jesus answers by quoting the ‘Shema’ from Deuteronomy 6 and outlines what he’s about by basically saying, ‘God alone is God, therefore love him with everything you have.’ What is striking is that he doesn’t leave it there, instead he adds another commandment, ‘love people as you love yourself’. The teacher only asked him for one but he gave two – why? Surely it must be because loving God is intricately wrapped up with loving people in this world. Whilst loving people is not all there is to loving God it is so closely connected that Jesus connects the two. Very simply, we cannot love God and not love people.

On Saturday I sat at a lunch table at a homeless shelter with a young guy from the Cape Flats, a Zimbabwean refugee and an elder Xhosa man far displaced from his home desperately looking for work. They were all very different from me, and to be honest conversation was hard and awkward, but Jesus says I have to love them, becuase I claim to love God. May we pray that God would give us the love for all his people that his Son so evidently displayed when he walked this earth.

Posted on August 22, 2007 - by Stephen Murray

Gentiles and Judgment

In Mark 10:33-34 Jesus predicts his death. Up to this point though in the narrative of Mark he hasn’t mentioned that the Gentiles are going to ‘mock him and spit on him’ and ultimately kill him. The mocking and spitting seems to be drawing on Isaiah 50:6 and it seems that Jesus is marrying the two concepts of ‘Son of Man’ and ‘Suffering Servant’ (something I think that NT Wright fails to do in his overarching view of atonement, the christus victor view – but that’s another blog post altogether).

What I’m interested in though is the specific mention of the Gentiles – why the mention? My initial thoughts are that in the Old Testament Israel’s rebellion and sin was punished by the historical invasions of Gentile nations. I wonder if Mark wants us to pick up on this? Previously in redemptive history Gentiles were used by God to punish sin. Is it not a hint in the text of Mark that Jesus is going to the cross so that sin might be punished and so we have this mention of Gentiles who will, in the langauge of Isaiah, mock and kill the suffering servant? (Has anyone read Peter Bolt’s book The Cross from a Distance – does he pick up on this in that book?)