Mark

I've often read that Mark is the 'Action" gospel. Makes sense, because it's like he's thinking "Let's get to it" right from the first sentence. In a matter of paragraphs, Mark gets right to the miracles. But, it seems Jesus was trying to teach or talk or visit with people whenever someone needed him to do something supernatural. Even then, he'd tell them not to tell anyone, yet people still heard how this fellow from Gallilee was doing miracles.

All in all, Mark contains the same stories that are in Matthew, but generally less detail. Jesus spent a lot of time talking to the religious folks and telling them they had it all wrong. He also told a lot of stories.

Yesterday at church someone told me that they could handle me wearing sandals to church, but the blue jeans were a bit much. The funny thing is that only motivates me to dress even more down next week. Then I read Jesus' words when he quotes Isaiah (Mk 7:6-7): "You are nothing but show-offs! The prophet Isaiah was right when he wrote that God had said, 'All of you praise me with your words, but you never really think about me. It is useless for you to worship me, when you teach rules made up by humans.'" Then, a few sentences later (7:20-23): "What comes from your heart is what makes you unclean. Out of your heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness. All of these come from your heart, and they are what make you unfit to worship God."

I don't think the people that dislike my blue jeans are show-offs, necessarily, but their rationale makes no sense. They talk about respectful clothing for church. Who defines respectful? God's standard is modesty and the heart, not the type of clothes. If we wore what Jesus wore, it would be sandals and dresses. Pardon my cynicism, but things are the same today as it as in Jesus' day - people emphasize the wrong stuff, not heart-changes, and they are still ignoring "evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness." This is happening all over the body of Christ, and people are perseverating on blue jeans.

Clearly, this is a sore spot for me.

I think it is interesting that Jesus told stories. I also think it's interesting that the disciples didn't get it, even after he explained it. In 8:31, Jess talks about dying, then coming back to life. Then, Mark says "Jesus explained clearly what he meant." Six days later, Jesus talked again about beign raised from the dead, and his disciples wondered, but kept it to themselves, what he meant by that.

I find comfort in the fact the disciples were right there, day in and day out, with Jesus, and they didn't get it. I've learned over the past couple years, and especially as I've gone through this exercising of reading and journalling, that I often have no idea why God does what he does. Yes, I know it's a love thing, but in the day to day, sometimes God does not make sense to me. I've learned not to let that bother me, just to take it as it comes and trust. But, Jesus disciples had in their own mind what they expected of the Messiah, and I guess that clouded their ability to see and hear what he was living and teaching to them. I imagine I'm the same way - the world and church around me, my own opinions, all have worked together to cloud my view of what a follower of Christ looks like. Why is there such a huge gap between what Jesus expects of me and what others of his followers expect of me?