Archive for month: December, 2022

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Mark 8:14-21.  Let’s go!

Mark 8:14-21 (NIV)
14  The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat.
15  “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”
16  They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”
17  Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?
18  Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?
19  When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied.
20  “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.”
21  He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”
 
The disciples were concerned about how they had forgotten to bring bread with them on the boat (v14).  So when Jesus says, “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod” (v15), the disciples immediately assume that Jesus is talking to them about how they had no bread (v16).  But Jesus wasn’t rebuking them for not bringing bread.  Jesus was warning them not to be influenced by “the yeast”, that is the unbelief, of the Pharisees and that of Herod. 

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Mark 7:24-30.  Let’s go!

Mark 7:24-30 (NIV)
24  Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.
 
On verse 24:  Jesus goes into Gentile territory, visiting the city of Tyre.  Whereas the Pharisees and teachers of the law would be concerned about becoming ceremonially by getting close to Gentiles, Jesus had no such concern.  The fact that Mark places this passage right after the passage where Jesus declares all foods clean suggests that just as there was no food that could not be eaten, so people of all cultures are loved by God and God does not discriminate based on culture or race. 

Perhaps because Jesus had taught and healed people from Tyre before (see Mark 3:8-10), Jesus could not keep his presence in Tyre secret. 

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Mark 7:14-23.  Let’s go!

Mark 7:14-23 (NIV)
14  Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.
15  Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’
17  After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.
18  “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’?
19  For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)
20  He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’
21  For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
22  greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
23  All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.'”
 
On verses 14-23:  The kind of unclean Jesus is referring to here is about being unclean before God.  God is so perfectly holy and pure that nothing impure or “unclean” can stand in His presence.  That’s why the Pharisees and teachers of the law focused so much on cleanliness, washing their hands, their cups and their dishes, all under the belief that those who washed were clean before God whereas those who didn’t were unclean.  Jesus clarifies that it is not what enters a person from the outside that makes him spiritually unclean; rather it is what comes out of that person’s heart – the sin that is already there – which makes him unclean.