Mark 9

Preparing the Disciples

Mark 9: 30-32 “They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.”

Discuss:

Went through Galilee

Didn’t want anyone to know

Teaching His disciples

Didn’t understand

Information about Galilee

GALILEE (גְּלִיל, gelil). A region in the northern part of Israel. The site of many biblical events, especially in the life of Christ. Jesus grew up in Galilee.

Galilee in the Bible

The region of Galilee is referred to 69 times in the Bible. Joshua brought the region of Galilee under Israelite domination when he defeated the Canaanite league led by Jabin (Josh 11:1–11). Four of the Israelite tribes were assigned to this area (Asher, Issachar, Zebulun and Naphtali; Josh 19). The Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III invaded Galilee in 733 bc and captured a number of the major cities (2 Kgs 15:29). Israelite dominion over Galilee ended in 722 bc when Sargon II captured the capital city (2 Kings 17) and exiled the inhabitants of the region to Assyria. Galilee is prominent in the Gospels as the scene of Jesus’ childhood and much of His public ministry (Matt 2:22–23; 4:12, 23). Most of the 12 apostles were from the region of Galilee (John 1:44; Matt 4:18–21).

Name and Location

The name “Galilee” literally means “circle” or “district,” the fuller expression of which is “district of the Gentiles” (Isa 9:1; Matt 4:15).

New Living Translation (Chapter 9)

The Greatest in the Kingdom33 After they arrived at Capernaum and settled in a house, Jesus asked his disciples, “What were you discussing out on the road?” 34 But they didn’t answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. 35 He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.”36 Then he put a little child among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not only me but also my Father who sent me.”

Discuss:

1. What are you discussing?

2.Servant of all.

3. Little children

The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 25: Mark About Pride

—Mark 9:33–37

One by one, the spiritual flaws of the disciples are being exposed. First, it is their prayerlessness; next, it is their fear; now, it is their pride. We know why the disciples are afraid to ask a question after Jesus speaks of His betrayal, death and Resurrection. Everything that He says is screened through the filter of their selfish ambition.

Ambition has an appetite that can never be satisfied. Pretenders to the throne of worldly power will stop at nothing to achieve their goal

The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 25: Mark (About Pride)

The lesson cannot be avoided. To take the least and last of God’s people into our arms is to be incarnationally identified with Jesus and through Him with God the Father. In other words, as a servant loses his identity by serving others, he takes on the identity of his master. Likewise, as a child acts in obedience to the father, it is the identity of the father which is read into the action. We are the children of our Father and bear His identity by the way we live. If power and position drive us, we do not belong to Christ; but if we are the “last of all and servant of all” (v. 35), we are identified with Christ as the sons of God. Greatness is incidental.