Following is an example of the weekly study material for Disciple 1: Becoming Disciples through Bible Study. Taken from Week 20 – The Hidden Messiah Our Human Condition Like the disciples, we do not understand who Jesus is. Sometimes we half understand, or mis-understand, or refuse to understand. We especially close our eyes and ears to his call for self-denial and suffering. This ‘good news’ sounds like bad news to us.
Assignment Read Mark’s Gospel rapidly (skim) in one sitting if possible to get an overview. Notice the urgency, the sense of intensity and movement. Observe Mark’s emphasis on Jesus’ actions. Watch for the word immediately. Then re-read more deliberately.
Day 1 Mark’s Gospel Day 2 Mark 1-4 (call of the Twelve, parables of the Kingdom) Day 3 Mark 5-8 (preaching and healing) Day 4 Mark 9-12 (Transfiguration, entry into Jerusalem, Great Commandment) Day 5 Mark 13-16 (signs of the end of the age, Last Supper, Crucifixion, Resurrection) Day 6 Read and respond to ‘The Bible Teaching’ and ‘Marks of Discipleship’. Day 7 Rest.
Prayer Pray daily before study: ‘Everything you do, O God, is holy. No god is as great as you. You are the God who works miracles; you showed your might among the nations’ (Psalm 77:13-14, GNB).
The Bible Teaching As you read Mark’s Gospel, you may think. Haven’t I read this before? You have, in Matthew. Both Matthew and Luke may have had the Gospel of Mark in from of them as they wrote. Many scholars think Mark was the first Gospel written. Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels. Synoptic means ‘seen together’. They have much common material. Marks has a special thrust. The Son of God proclaims the Kingdom and demands repentance – now! Mark is the urgent evangelist. His Gospel is filled with action. The pace is rapid. The word immediately appears twenty-seven times. Mark also shows that people did not understand until after the Crucifixion and Resurrection that Jesus was a ‘hidden Messiah’. Mark does not record the birth narratives, the Sermon on the Mount, or many of the parables. Instead he starts with the baptism and ends with the Resurrection, giving a short, powerful account of the ministry of Jesus. The opening verse sets the stage: ‘The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God’ (Mark 1:1). Mark will write about the good news of Jesus the promised Messiah, strong Son of God, sent to save. He will show how the disciples were slow to understand, especially when the idea of suffering entered the picture. In our study of Mark we will emphasise the power of Jesus Christ, the mystery of who he was and what his ministry was to be before the Crucifixion and Resurrection events, and the good news we now can receive. The ministry begins with the baptism of Jesus by his relative John. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus, and his powerful ministry was ready to begin. Jesus went into the wilderness, alone with the desolation, the animals, Satan (meaning ‘adversary’), and the angels. He stayed for forty days, symbolic of the Israelites’ forty years in the Sinai, in conflict with Satan, hammering out the nature of his ministry on the anvil of prayer and fasting. Jesus emerged from the wilderness preaching his first, and essential, sermon: ‘ “The right time has come,” he said, “and the Kingdom of God is near! Turn away from your sins and believe the Good News!” ’ Mark 1:15, GNB). The people believed that some day God’s kingdom would come when nations would ‘beat their swords into ploughshares’ (Isaiah 2:4), when the blind would see and the hungry would not be turned away (Psalm 146). What happened? Jesus brought signs of the Kingdom. He healed a blind man, fed the multitude. The prophecies were being fulfilled! The Jews were expecting God to act in such a way that God’s rule would be acclaimed by Israel and the world. Instead, a carpenter came out of Nazareth, announcing, ‘the kingdom of God has come near; repent’ (Mark 1:15). Men and women were called to participate in the Kingdom – to change or to be changed radically into citizens of a new society, a new reign, a new way of living. Jesus announced the Kingdom; even more, he ushered in the Kingdom. But his people were praying for a political Messiah; the Romans feared social unrest and political revolt. Jesus continually tried to interpret his Kingdom, but people could not understand. When Jesus preached or taught or healed, he announced the reign of God. When he prayed, broke bread, took a child in his arms, touched a leper, he activated the rule of God. God’s power and kingdom were present in the words and acts of Jesus. That Jesus had power there was no doubt. But Mark emphasis the mysterious power that would not be understood until after Resurrection. Even the signs of the Kingdom were misinterpreted as signs of a hoped-for political Messiah.
Power Over Unclean Spirits The most dramatic story of our Lord’s power over unclean spirits is Mark 5:1-20. The man hurt himself, screamed, lived among the tombs. He said his name was Legion, ‘for we are many’ (5:9). What do you think was the matter with him? Jesus drove an unclean spirit out of the man. The unclean spirit understood that it was confronting the power of God, but the people did not understand.
Power Over Disease and Physical Problems Jesus ‘cured many who were sick with various diseases’ (Mark 1:34). In Mark 1:40-42, Jesus healed a man who was sick with leprosy. The healings were signs of the Kingdom, because where God’s rule is acknowledged, disease is brought under God’s power and control. But some physical problems are caused by accident not disease. Others are present from birth. Jesus did not restrict his healing to the sick. The deaf man (7:32-35) was not sick, had not sinned, was not ceremonially unclean. He could not hear and did not speak clearly. Jesus made him whole. The Son of God was and is working to restore God’s original harmonious creation. In Romans 8:21-22, Paul declared that ‘creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay . . . the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now.’
Power Over Sin Jesus dismissed the popular notion that all illness or infirmity was caused by sin (John 9:1-3). But in Mark 2:1-12, the man’s problem was sin and his need was forgiveness. His friends lowered their helpless companion through an opening in the roof. What do you believe about whether sin and guilt can cause physical or emotion illness? In your own experience, have you observed Jesus’ power to forgive sins? Describe specific examples. Mark’s Gospel want us to know that forgiveness and God’s kingdom go together and that Jesus has the power to forgive sins.
Power Over Sabbath Recall that the Creation story in Genesis 1:1-2:3 was given to us to teach us to trust God and rest one day in seven. A saying of the Jews was, ‘We keep the Sabbath; God keeps us.’ In Jesus’ day nothing was more precious, yet nothing had become more complicated, with protective laws and teachings, than the Sabbath. The technical word for these laws and teachings, than the Sabbath. The technical word for these laws and teachings meant ‘hedge’ or ‘fence’. A fence had been constructed around the Sabbath to be sure it would not be violated. The day of rest (Friday sundown until Saturday sundown) had become a legal confusion. Sabbath keeping was difficult for some, tedious for others. The issue is drawn sharply in Mark 3:1-6. Jewish law permitted medical attention on Sabbath to save a person’s life. A paralysed hand could wait. Jesus deliberately asked the Pharisees if he could ‘do good’ on Sabbath but got no answer. So Jesus’ view was that ‘The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath’ (2:27-28). It is all right to do good, to heal, to extend mercy. Sabbath is to restore, not to bind up. The early Christians rested on the Sabbath, the seventh day, and also worshipped on Resurrection Day, the first day of the week. By early second century A.D., the first day of the week, Sunday, had become the Sabbath to them. Sunday became ‘the Lord’s day’ for most Gentile Christians, although to this day there are some who observe the seventh day. Jewish Christians in Judea kept Sabbath for a long time. How are you be ‘recreated’ on Sunday? Some say that today we abuse the freedom we feel toward our use of our Sabbath. What do you think?
Power Over Nature There is disharmony. Mark records several times when Jesus exercised power over nature. He stilled the storm (Mark 4:35-41); He walked on the water (6:45-52). Jesus’ word was the word of power: ‘Take heart . . . , do not be afraid’ (6:50). Mark declares that the disciples did not understand with whom they were dealing. They were awestruck and confused. Feeding the five thousand (6:30-44) was also an evidence of power over nature. What a Kingdom sign! How do you feel when you break bread in the fellowship of the church? How do you feel when you share food with someone who is really hungry? (Has that ever happened).
Power Over Death The account of Jesus’ raising Jairus’s daughter from the dead (Mark 5:22-24, 35-43) has two problems. First, did Jesus have power to raise the dead? Second, was Jairus’s daughter really dead? Mark gives us the story the way he received it. The early church had no doubt that Jesus had that power. More important for Mark was Jesus’ teaching about resurrection. He clearly told the Sadducees that their disbelief in resurrection was wrong (12:18-27). Most important, Mark was leading up to our Lord’s resurrection. When Jesus was raised from the dead, it made the matter of Jairus’s daughter a moot point. Whether she was in a coma or whether Jesus referred to death as ‘sleep’ became insignificant. Her raising was another sign of the Kingdom. What do you think about Jesus’ power over death?
The Hidden Messiah Did you wonder, as you read Mark, why Jesus kept telling people to be quiet, not to tell others? For example, when unclean spirits cried out, ‘ “You are the Son of God!” . . . he sternly ordered them not to make him known” (Mark 3:11-12). After raising the twelve-year-old daughter of Jairus, ‘he strictly ordered them that no one should know this’ (5:43). He entered a house in the region of Tyre ‘and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice’ (7:24). When Peter said, ‘You are the Messiah,’ Jesus ‘sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him’ (8:29-30). When Peter, James and John came down from the mountain after the Transfiguration, Jesus ‘ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead’ (9:9). Why the mystery? Why the secrecy? With all the spiritual power being exhibited, why the request to keep it quiet? Mark even suggests that Jesus used parables so people would not understand. At least Mark says that Jesus did not speak to the people ‘except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples’ (4:34). Didn’t Jesus want people to know? Yes, but to know what? That is the point. They must have a right understanding of Messiah. Jesus was not using reverse psychology, as some have suggested, telling people to be quiet, knowing that would make them even more talkative. Jesus knew the people were not understanding who he was. They wanted his power to be Davidic; Jesus knew his power would be vulnerable love. They would wave palm branches and try to make him king; he would ride humbly on a donkey. They would see the healings as magic or miracle; he wanted the healings to call people to repentance and faith. Jesus was not running a sideshow or planning a political takeover. He was preparing to offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. He tried to explain to the disciples, but even they could not understand the nature of his relationship to God, the character of the Kingdom, the power of his suffering servant role until he was crucified and raised from the dead. Jesus offered the world his power. Before Mark 14:36, he was in control. After the garden he placed himself in the hands of others. Tradition taught that Messiah would come to the Mount of Olives and then in power enter Jerusalem. Jesus transformed the meaning of that tradition. Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives, means ‘oil press’. Jesus, in prayer, was ‘pressed out’ into sacramental oil for the blessing of the people. Jesus did what love does: He placed himself in the hands of others. So when Judas kissed him, when Peter denied him, when men spat upon him, Messiah was being reinterpreted. When the four soldiers stripped him naked for crucifixion, as was the custom, they took his garments, one each – his head turban, his belt, his sandals, and his outer robe – and gambled for the inner tunic. It was the symbol, like the body on the cross, of total helplessness, total vulnerability, love laid open. Thus when Jesus said, ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30), he meant he had given the world the active power of God’s love and the passive helplessness of God’s love. He gave it all.
Marks of Discipleship The disciple understands Messiah as suffering servant and the Kingdom as a rule of vulnerable love. How, then, would you describe the ministry of the disciple of this Messiah, in this Kingdom? A parishioner said to her pastor, ‘I know Jesus as my Saviour. I do not know him as my Lord.’ What do you think she meant? Most people see power in huge business enterprises, great political organisations, or mighty military machines. Christ’s power seems hidden, weak, vulnerable. Yet Christians see a might spiritual power in Jesus. Have you ever experienced the power of Jesus Christ? When and how? Disciples are not only proof of the power of Jesus Christ to call, to forgive, to save; they are also to be a community that activates new Kingdom signs. Is your faith community causing people to see hints of the breakthrough of God’s rule? What Kingdom signs are you doing?
If you want to know more Levi was a tax collector (Mark 2:14-17). So was Zacchaeus (Luke 19:2). What was a tax collector? How were they perceived and treated? See tax collectors or publicans in a Bible dictionary.
Check the footnotes in your study Bible at the end of Mark for a discussion of the various endings of that Gospel.
Click here to find a sample lesson from Disciple 2: Into the Word into the World
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DISCIPLE........ ,...4 John Wesley
Road,..........Peterborough,......PE4
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