February 27
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February 26
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Though it is difficult to understand many of the ceremonial laws we read about in Leviticus I believe there is a principle to take home that is summed up in 19:2 'Be Holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.' Jesus himself has fulfilled the sacrificial laws and is therefore our way of holiness and salvation. We are clean because we believe and follow after Christ.
In Mark there are some great descriptions of who Jesus is. Over today and yesterday's readings we receive Peter confessing Jesus as the Christ, then Jesus predicting that he will have to be given over to death. Peter is not happy about this and after confessing him as the Christ he is now harshly rebuked for giving up faith on the Messiah's mission. Then there is the event of the transfiguration. Though Jesus has emptied himself of his glory in becoming a servant, for a moment the disciples are reminded of his true glory. Jesus then shows his authority over evil spirits. The point of all this? Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, is on a mission in this world to set us and the world to rights... He invites us into this mission.
Mark must have had a fascination with Jesus' spit (Mark 8:23) :).
ReplyDeleteI, too, feel for Peter. It was easy for Peter to have trouble believing that Jesus could be defeated. I guess Peter was right, Jesus wasn't defeated. But Peter, like us, have trouble seeing the supernatural when we're living a natural world.
I found the secret -- prayer! We think of the disciples as being almost god like because they healed & cast out demons. But in Mark 9 they had problems casting out a demon. They had spiritual weaknesses like we do. And Jesus gave them the solution --> prayer. I bet we'd pray like maniacs if we understood the power of prayer.
ReplyDelete