Mark 9:1-10:1 “And he said to them, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power." NIV
Consider for a moment the teaching style of Jesus. One of His means of emphasizing topics of great weight and concern is by use of the phrase “I tell you the truth.” The implication of such a phrase is that each time it was in use Jesus was confronting a false belief in the lives of His disciples. The underlying sentiment is the concept that by saying “I tell you the truth,” He is also saying that others who have taught them previously have not! Each time that Jesus identifies the fact that this new teaching is the truth He is in essence exposing a false belief that they have been handed or concluded on their own. Through this Jesus is progressively reorienting His followers to a different world view and a different religious interpretation of the things that they have been taught all of their lives. Therefore, each time this phrase appears the subject that is being emphasized should be considered in the light of the wrong thinking that it is intended to correct. These teachings on not areas of incomplete thinking where it is intended to be added to the understanding but rather it is intended to replace the existing beliefs!
Because this principle is true the things Jesus presents in Mark 9:1 must be interpreted as intensely disruptive to the thinking of those who are hearing Him. It must be interpreted that each person hearing these things is being brought into an abrupt theological confrontation with what they have always believed. Jesus is so good at that! One of His primary themes throughout His entire ministry has been the topic of the Kingdom of God. The hope of the coming kingdom of God has always been the great hope of the Jewish people. What this passage confronts in the minds of those who hear is that typical pattern that many people with a promise from God fall into, and that is the habit of believing the promise but not expecting the promise. It is very easy to fall into a habit of intellectual belief that our heart is no longer engaged in. We can say, “I believe in healing” but never act as if we expect God to heal us. We can say “I believe God will provide for all of my needs” but live in chronic striving and anxiety over our financial future as if it is totally up to us to provide for our family. When Jesus speaks these words in Mark 9:1, he is rooting out this kind of habit within the people. He is saying to them “it is time to live with expectation. The work of God is closer than you think!”
For each believer there are times and seasons; times when all we can do is endure the desert, times when the answer we are waiting for is just around the corner, and times when the purpose of God springs forth upon us like a sudden rain. What seems to be an emphasis in this passage in Mark 9:1 is Jesus coming to announce to them a change of season! “You have waited hundreds of years as a people. You believe but don’t expect. And it is time to change how you wait!”
Often times when we have a long wait for someone to return home we become busy about other things because we do not expect them soon. But as the time draws near we change the focus of what we are doing because we now expect them any moment. We act differently both mentally and practically because we expect them soon. This is what Jesus is after in the lives of the people. His appeal is simple. It is time to prepare yourself because the work of God is upon you, watch for it, expect it soon. And this is God’s message to us as well. Live with expectation of God. Guard your heart from the temptation to get comfortably dull in how you live. Live as if you are sitting forward in your seat expecting a knock at the door any moment. The movement of God in your life is closer than you think. Watch for it!
No comments:
Post a Comment