Mark 5-7
Dirty Hands
and Traditions

• the goodness of God, who promised, does, and gives good;
  
• the desire of the psalmist for God to teach him His word, which he desires more than gold;
  
• the benefit of chastising affliction to help the psalmist better obey God's word.
  

Because the psalmist believes in the benefits of obedience, he asks God to teach him good taste/behavior/judgment and knowledge, or the right things to do.

The proud always have to put someone down to feel better about themselves, including smearing the righteous with lies (the devil's work, for which they'll get paid back). The proud don't wholeheartedly seek God, in fact their heart is so insensitive to Him that they only delight in sin.

If we are diligent (rather than sluggardly) and pay the cost of being attentive to the means of our production (flocks and herds in their day), we will have plenty. If you're involved in farming there is a direct application. Otherwise think in terms of the skills and services you have, and offer. Are they sufficient to provide a return that is adequate for your needs? If you're involved in ministry, the imagery applies fairly well: spiritually healthy believers not only reproduce, but yield a return on the investment to those who shepherd them (but the shepherds and overseers need to know what's going on, and take corrective and preemptive action). In the OT, when the priests taught the law and people obeyed it, God blessed, and there were more sacrifices and offerings being given. Riches and crowns don't endure, therefore each generation must do what it takes (constant vigilance) to ensure that their skills and assets can produce their desired yield.

After being delivered, the man was clothed and in his right mind; most people get half of that. He wanted to be with Jesus as His disciple (same language as in Mk 3:14 when Jesus appointed the twelve), but God had other plans for him. In light of the rejection of the townspeople (people cared more about the swine than the Savior), rather than telling him to keep quiet, Jesus told him to go and proclaim what great things Jesus had done for him in showing him mercy. This is something that all people who have a relationship with God should be doing, for God should be doing great things for them. Those who can only tell of a historic conversion experience, are either newborn Christians, or haven't been following Jesus as His disciple.

The healing of the woman who spent all she had on doctors and was no better, but worse (times haven't changed) is sandwiched in-between the account of Jarius, who Mark tells us is a ruler of the synagogue. (See comments on Mt 9.) Giving the daughter time to die, gives Jarius an opportunity to demonstrate extraordinary faith, and Jesus the opportunity to display His glory. Those who don't know God ridicule expectations of His workings, because it is outside of their experience. As the Lord of Life, Jesus commands, and it happens. Getting resurrected must make one hungry (Lk 24:41). He didn't resurrect her with a full tummy. Eating food showed she was really alive, not an illusion, and in good health.

Smart people are able to recognize when their paradigm for looking at life, or world view, needs a refocus to take into account new developments. The great unwashed might notice something is different, but reject it because it doesn't fit their parochial paradigm. Such was the case with Jesus' neighbors; they do not become His disciples because they can't wrap their heads around the evidence that the Jesus they knew could do miracles, and teach truth wisely. Note that in verse 4 members of His own house (Jesus' brothers and sisters) are distinguished from relatives (kinsmen), and townsfolk. None of them were “brethren,” as in disciples. Mary and Joseph had other kids (there is no historical evidence for a foster home system existing at that time). Time for some smart people to shift the paradigm from tradition to truth. So after having been rejected in favor of pigs, Jesus gets rejected in favor of preconceptions.

Jesus sends the disciples out two by two (a good teamwork model) and gives instructions similar to Matthew 10 (please see there for observations on the commissioning and the death of John the Baptist).

The disciples were given a specific task (preached that people should repent -v12), and the authority to accomplish it (cast out demons -v7,13) Leaders and parents should take note of those two items (specific task and authority) as well as the next managerial task. After they returned, Jesus debriefed them about all they said and did. Smart leaders use this procedure to evaluate and learn and instruct. Wise parents (and husbands) should make it a regular habit to listen to those in their care to know not just the what went on, but how things are processed, and what values are in play. It then helps to be as wise as a serpent to know what items should be addressed directly then, and what should be left unsaid til a more opportune time. Not being sensitive to the situation or the Spirit will leave you with no words to hear, even if you have ears.

When they returned, it was time for a little leisure. Someone quipped that if they didn't “come apart” (for R&R ), they'd “come apart” (as in breakdown). This is a wise and valid principle; the burdens of the world were not meant to rest upon the shoulders of an individual (except Jesus). Some people serve til they drop, becoming increasingly ineffective as they try to increase their worth and value by what they do. They usually lose their families and ministry in the process. Jesus said His yoke was light (Mt 11:30). He judges based upon faithfulness, not fatigue. But notice that they never got their leisure! They sail to a deserted place and are greeted by a great multitude of cross-country runners. Rather than turning them away, Jesus had compassion upon them and taught them. Not only does He spend the day teaching them, He wants the disciples to feed them. The feeding of the 5,000 parallels that in Matthew 14 (please see for comments). He makes them aware of their need; they place what they have a His disposal; and He supernaturally multiplies it to meet the needs of others. In verse 41 the word “gave” is in the imperfect tense, indicating ongoing action. Apparently, the food multiplied in Jesus' hands as He broke it, and kept giving it to them until five thousand men (and everyone else) was filled. Each disciple got a basket of leftovers, but even with the evidence in their hands they still had trouble rearranging their paradigm to accommodate new information (see 6:52).

Jesus sent them away in the boat, and spent time recharging His batteries in prayer. He saw they were distressed by the storm, and walks across the water to help them. He calms the sea, and then the disciples. They hadn't understood about the loaves that Jesus takes care of those seeking to learn and do His will. Mark doesn't record Peter walking on water, but does indicate that their comprehension was compromised by their calloused hearts. This is not the callousness or hardening that comes from sin (for none is mentioned in connection with the loaves), but an insensitivity to understanding what God was doing, and changing their paradigms about God and life. In contrast to the disciples' slowness to rearrange their categories, Jesus encounters people who have shifted their paradigm in the region around Gennesaret. Although the exact locations are difficult to pinpoint, this is the same area where Jesus had healed the demoniac at the beginning of chapter 5, and the pig preferers had begged Him to leave. Apparently, as a result of the ministry of he-who-was-clothed-and-in-his-right-mind, a different reception awaited Jesus. He continues His ministry wherever He goes.

A delegation treks 60 miles from Jerusalem to investigate Jesus and discover to their horror, that His disciples aren't washing their hands properly before eating. Mark explains the tradition and others to his Roman readers in verses 3-5. Jesus cordially quotes Isaiah 29:13 calling them hypocrites. See comments on Matthew 15. Jesus blasts them for teaching tradition (most theology could fit here too), rather than truth, saying that the nullification of the word of God has nullified their worship. He then called the multitude to instruct them that defilement (which results in exclusion from true worship and thus God's blessings and presence) is not a matter of external eating (or not eating) but of internal purity. Anything eaten doesn't go into the heart, which is the heart of the matter. Mark adds an aside that Jesus' statement makes all foods pure/clean (which Peter learned in Acts 10). Mark records, in comparison to Matthew, almost double the list of things with come out of the heart and defile a person. In case you're wondering how these things reside in one's heart, it works like this. The heart (the “will”) is where we decide what we will do or feel, or value. We might think certain things, but it is the heart/will which turns those thoughts in to actions. Each of the sins mentioned starts with our thinking or value system. A value system shaped by Satan's lies, will always decide for Satan's will, resulting in sin and death. (Ever heard of Eden?) To change one's heart, one needs to replace the lies of Satan or tradition with the truth (Rm 12:1-2), and then act in accord with the truth. See the application below.

Jesus tries another attempt at R&R, His only time out of the country since His parents took Him to Egypt to escape Herod. A Greek woman begs Him to heal her demon possessed daughter. He refuses because His mission was first to Israel, and then through them to the world. But because of her humility and faith (belief that Jesus was the only solution to her problem, and it was only a crumb for Him to do it), He responds and heals her daughter. This is Mark's only record of Jesus healing at a distance. Then Jesus returns to Israel. It's possible that the sole reason Jesus went to Tyre was to compassionately cure the woman's child, or to prefigure the blessings that would come to the Gentiles.

The last miracle in the chapter prefigures what will be happening to the disciples in the central section of the book (next chapters). Jesus heals a deaf and mute man. He does this one in private. He communicates to the man what He is going to do, possibly as a means of igniting his faith, then opens his ears, and loosens his tongue. Unfortunately, He can't get other people to hold theirs, and His reputation and resultant problems increase.