At the Feet of the Teacher | Clean and Unclean - Mark 7:1-23

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At the Feet of the Teacher | Clean and Unclean - Mark 7:1-23

October 27, 2024 • Sara Jane Nixon • Mark 7:1–23

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(prayer) It is easy to confuse zealously taught tradition with your Word, O God, to confuse man-made codes with true righteousness. Father, give me an insatiable hunger for your Word, and let it anchor me to your Will. I want no person, nor my own wayward heart, to deceive me. Help me never to rationalize behavior that is contrary to your expressed Will, help me never to be shackled by the chains of human tradition. And most of all, Lord, help me to be true to your Word and faithful to your Ways.

At the Feet of the Teacher | Clean and Unclean- Mark 7:31-37

November 10, 2024 • Sara Jane Nixon • Mark 7:31–37

(from Isaiah 35:6-8)--Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing [this is where that word mogilalos is used again, where the “tongue of the dumb” will sing]. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes. A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The Day of the Lord will be a wild, hilarious day of seeing and hearing, of leaping and dancing and shouting and singing. No staid, inhibited praises there. The earth too, will open its mouth with joy and drink and become a garden like the first morning of earth. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Centuries before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God gave this message to His people, looking past the destruction, past the desolation, to the Messianic age when the kingdom of God would break through, the Messiah would come, and He would give sight to the blind. He would give hearing to the deaf, He would loosen the tongue of the mute and of the dumb, and the lame would leap for joy. Surely Mark has this in mind as he pens of Jesus’ encounter with the deaf mute.

At the Feet of the Teacher | Clean and Unclean- Mark 7:24-30

November 3, 2024 • Sara Jane Nixon • Mark 7:24–30

Because of the woman’s persistent faith, Jesus praised her and healed her daughter. But what are we to make of his treatment of her? She came in utter sincerity and with great respect, yet Jesus rebuffed her with hard words. Why would He do that? Perhaps the key is to consider that Jesus’ words were intended less for the woman’s ears than for his disciples’. Maybe it was to them not the woman, that he said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”…..Jesus may have turned this incident into a living parable to show his disciples how hardened they were in their attitudes against Gentiles. So upon encountering the woman, it could be that Jesus treated her the way His disciples would have treated here. Perhaps he wanted to illustrate in a way they would never forget that despite rejection, Gentiles like the woman deeply hungered for God’s grace and power. In the end, Jesus’ high praise for the woman’s faith and the healing of her daughter repudiated the notion that God was concerned only with Israel.