Disclaimer: The blog posts for all the days of Lent will be Christian/Bible themed. I usually hate to use cliche Christian terms and phrases that are foreign to many, but since I am aiming for non-perfection (see last post), I can’t take a lot of time to screen what I’m writing. I appologize if I sound too pretentious or just plain annoying. 🙂
I read through Mark 9 this morning because I am trying to follow with our church youth group as they read through the book of Mark. I am a couple chapters behind, but will hopefully catch up soon since I’ll be posting here everyday.
I would challenge you to find another chapter in the first four books of the new testament (the gospel books) that contains more confusing facts and statements than this one. It starts with the transfiguration. Oh yeah, no problem. I totally understand what’s going on there. (obvious sarcasm)
In reality, I would probably do what Peter did (offer to set up tents? really?) or something equally as pointless. You know…it’s like when you get into one of those really awkward situations, you either shut up and make yourself scarce, or, if you’re like me, you say stupid things and try to help.
To top off this first story in the chapter, Jesus gives a confusing speech about how “…Elijah does come first to restore all things…” (verses 11-13). Is he talking about himself metaphorically? Is he actually referring to the Elijah that was just there in shiny white clothes….? And is it just me, or does anyone else not really get why Elijah gets so much attention compared to all the other prophets. I mean, he doesn’t even have his own old testament book! Anyways…
Then Jesus goes back to see the rest of the other disciples and they are having a problem because they can’t cast out this one demon in this little boy. Jesus gets frustrated (at who? I’m not sure…) then after he casts out the demon himself, he tells them that they couldn’t do it because “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” And yet, he didn’t seem to pray very long to cast it out. Also…what does he mean by “this kind”? But the best part of this story is what the father of the boy says to Jesus after Jesus tells him “All things are possible for one who believes…” and has not yet healed his son. The father says “I believe; help my unbelief!” Now there’s something to think about…
After this, Jesus fortells his death and resurrection. No surprise here, he does that a lot in this book…but then he moves onto discussing one of my favourite paradoxes of the Bible:
“If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” (verse 35)
I love this statement for many reasons, but let’s finish the synopsis before I get into my take on things.
Jesus then instructs them that “For the one who is not against us, is for us.” (verse 40) when they ask him about stopping someone who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name but not following with their group. (It’s a bit of a reversed order statement to what our culture normally quotes.) After this, the last section of the chapter is another speech by Jesus that contains many interesting tidbits, including:
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” (verse 42) – really? betterto be thrown into the sea?;
“…if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off…” (verse 43);
some interesting descriptive words about hell;
and finally some stuff about salt, losing your saltiness and how that’s irreversible.
Now…I am not trying to either explain everything above (essentially impossible for me to do) or to say that it’s all confused gibberish either. Instead, I’d like to suggest that sometimes being confused after reading the Bible is not a bad thing…and living in paradox is often the only way to live in real life.
You can’t explain why food that is bad for you tends to taste so good…or why you feel 100x better if you discipline (and/or deprive yourself of something for a while – i.e. Lent) and reap the benefits of health and wellness. Why doesn’t bad food just taste bad, right? Because paradox is all around us. It is the soup of our surroundings and the atmosphere that we breathe.
So anyways, I have run out of time in the day to delve too much deeper into all of this. I started this post at 11:30 AM and am just finishing it now about 12 hours later…but let me say this much: Mark 9 gave me some pause, but it also struck me deeply in a couple ways. The first shall be last; the last shall be first – it’s a comforting thought for someone who feels like they are always falling behind and coming in last…it’s a reminder that being first is not really the goal. Again…it’s not perfectionism that wins you any prizes. I have a feeling that Jesus was not much of a perfectionist, although I don’t like to make too many assumptions that I can’t defend…but maybe that’s why people got so annoyed at his seemingly haphazard way of telling stories to explain points or asking questions to inspire contemplation. The second paradox that is strangely comforting is the one mentioned in the title of this post. “I believe; help my unbelief!” You know you have felt that. You can’t explain it, but you understand it completely. So let’s make that a prayer for all of us this season of the year and of our lives:
We believe, Lord…but help our unbelief!
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