Untitled Sermon

mark

Week 5: Jesus’ Work beyond Galilee (Mark 6:7–8:26)

The Place of the Passage

At this point in Mark, the systematically trained disciples are sent out to spread the message of God’s kingdom, to heal, and to cast out demons. In Mark 6–8 Jesus again demonstrates his authority and warns his disciples against hard hearts. Also, the trickle of opposition against Jesus from the reli­gious authorities begins to increase; it will turn into a flood of hostility in the second half of Mark.

The Big Picture

In Mark 6:7–8:26 Jesus sends out the twelve disciples, continues to manifest the coming kingdom through teaching and miracles, and begins to meet major opposition to his ministry.

Reflection and Discussion

Read through the complete passage for this study, Mark 6:7–8:26. Then review the following questions and write your own notes on them concerning this phase of Jesus’ life and ministry. (For further background, see the ESV Study Bible, pages 1904 –1910, available online at www.esvbible.org.)

In Mark 6:7–13, Jesus sends out the twelve, as anticipated in Mark 3:14–15. What do we learn about the nature of their mission from the instructions they are given here in Mark 6? In light of the Old Testament, what significance might there be in sending out twelve? How might Exodus 12:11 inform the background to Jesus’ instructions in Mark 6:8–9?

How does the death of John the Baptist in Mark 6:14–29 cast an ominous shadow on Jesus’ future?

Mark says that Jesus saw the people “like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). Read Genesis 48:15, Numbers 27:17, Psalm 23:1–4, and Isaiah 40:11, and notice what God promises in Jeremiah 23:2–4 and Ezekiel 34:10–16. What light might these Old Testament texts shed on who Jesus is and what he has come to do (note also John 10:11)? In light of Jeremiah 3:15, what might be the significance of Jesus’ observation in Mark 6:34 combined with the fact that Jesus went on to feed these people?

In Mark 6:45–52 Jesus walks on the water. Comparing Mark’s statement that Jesus “meant to pass by” the disciples (Mark 6:48) with Exodus 33:19, 22; 34:6, and Job 9:8, 11, what do we learn here about Jesus’ identity?

In Mark 7:1–23 a conflict with the Pharisees about hand-washing leads to a teaching by Jesus on moral defilement. What is the essence of Jesus’ critique? How does he link up the mistake of the Pharisees with the mistake God’s peo­ple have made in centuries past (note Mark 7:6–7)? What are ways we fall into the same error today?

Throughout Scripture, the “heart” refers to the center of one’s being, including the mind, emotions, and will. When Jesus speaks of the heart in Mark 7:21, what is he saying about the fallen human condition? How does this differ from the way some Jews used the Old Testament ceremonial law to regulate their diet and state of “cleanliness” (cf. Mark 7:15)?

Jesus’ response to the Syrophoenician woman is perplexing at first—how could Jesus withhold mercy from her, even calling her a dog (Mark 7:24–30)? Yet the special calling of Israel as God’s own people is a whole-Bible theme, found not only in the Old Testament but also the New Testament (e.g., Rom. 1:16; 9:4 –5). How does the woman’s response indicate humility and persistence?

Unlike the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:30–44), which occurred in Galilee, the feeding of the four thousand in Mark 8:1–10 probably took place in Gentile territory. Taken with Mark 7:24 –30, what does the feeding of the 4,000 show about who Jesus is for Gentiles?

In Mark 8:11–21, the Pharisees again argue with Jesus, leading Jesus to expose his own disciples’ failure to fully comprehend Jesus’ identity and mission. The disciples perceive that Jesus is the Messiah, as Peter will announce later in Mark 8, but they do not yet perceive that he has come as a suffering Messiah. How might the two-staged healing of the blind man (Mark 8:22–26) demonstrate this partial understanding—especially in the way it is placed between Jesus’ diagnosis of his disciples’ slow understanding, on the one hand (Mark 8:14–21), and Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah, on the other (Mark 8:27–30)?

Read through the following three sections on Gospel Glimpses, Whole-Bible Connections, and Theological Soundings. Then take time to reflect on the Personal Implications these sections may have for your walk with the Lord.

Definition: PhariseeDefinition: GentileGospel Glimpses

RELENTLESS COMPASSION. Upon returning from their apostolic ministry, the twelve disciples are exhausted. “Come away . . . and rest a while,” says Jesus (Mark 6:31). Jesus too, doubtless, was tired. Yet upon seeing the crowd, “he had compassion on them” (Mark 6:34). This is the heart of Jesus. Indeed, the one place in all four Gospel accounts where Jesus tells us about his heart is Matthew 11:29: “I am gentle and lowly in heart.” Burrow in to the very core of what makes Jesus tick, and this is it. Gentleness. Compassion. Since Jesus is the exact rep­resentation of God, this ought not to surprise us, for this is what God himself is (Ex. 34:6–7).

THE HEART OF THE MATTER. In Mark 7:14–23 Jesus turned upside down the long-held Jewish view of clean and unclean food. Explaining that it is what comes out of a person that defiles, not what goes into him, Jesus “declared all foods clean” (Mark 7:19). Here we see Jesus continuing to strip away any sense of externally leveraged behavior management as determining our cleanliness before God. What matters is the heart.

BRINGING NOTHING BUT OUR NEED. The Syrophoenician woman, at first glance, could not have been a more unlikely candidate for receiving blessing from Jesus. She is a foreigner, a woman, and the mother of a child possessed by a demon (Mark 7:24 –30). Yet she receives attention and help from Jesus without bringing any self-generated contribution on her part. She brings no moral resume, no lawkeeping, no impressiveness. All she brings is her need. She simply believed, humbly and persistently, that even the crumbs of mercy from Jesus would provide the help she so desperately needed.

Whole-Bible Connections

THE SENDING OUT OF THE TWELVE. God selected the twelve sons of Jacob to be his chosen people. These twelve sons were the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. They were to be a blessing to the whole world (Gen. 12:1–3) and God’s special chosen people (Ex. 19:5–6). The Old Testament recounts the consistent failure, however, of the twelve tribes to do this—indeed, the tribes were hardly able to get along with one another! In the New Testament, God in Christ once more calls out twelve men, whose task it is, once again, to bring God’s blessing to the world (Mark 6:7–13; note Rev. 21:9 –17). The twelve apostles were thus called to carry on the work God had begun way back in the calling of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD. “God . . . has been my shepherd all my life long,” said Jacob (Gen. 48:15). “The Lord is my shepherd,” wrote David (Ps. 23:1). God “will tend his flock like a shepherd,” prophesied Isaiah (Isa. 40:11). Over time, these ancient descriptions of God as the true shepherd fueled the longing for a shepherd-leader, a shepherd-king, a Messiah, who would lead God’s sheep in wisdom and restoration—“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. . . . And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord” (Mic. 5:2, 4; note also Num. 27:16 –17; Jer. 3:15; 23:4). In the feeding of the five thousand, and especially in Mark 6:34, we see Jesus fulfilling this ancient longing and promise (see also John 10:11).

CLEAN AND UNCLEAN. The first act of rebellion the world had ever known had to do with putting something in the mouth and eating it (Gen. 3:6). We have been twisting God’s gift of food ever since. The food laws in the Mosaic law provided one opportunity to do this. Some first-century Pharisees had made these laws primary as the way of regulating their ceremonial “cleanliness” (Mark 7:1–23). Jesus, however, “declared all foods clean” (Mark 7:19), uprooting the overscrupulous dietary regulation that had come to overshadow more important issues of the heart, where true cleanliness is determined—and which was the point of the law all along.

Theological Soundings

SUFFERING AND DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY. Mark 6:14–29 recounts the dis­couraging events leading up to the death of John the Baptist. John had faith­fully heralded the coming of Jesus, not seeking glory for himself (John 3:30). Refusing to please men rather than God, John had spoken out against the mar­riage of Herod Antipas to Herodias, the wife of his brother, Herod Philip (Mark 6:18). Imprisoned for this, John was executed at the request of Herodias’s daughter, who had danced before the royal court and pleased Herod so much that he offered her up to half his kingdom—upon which she requested the head of John the Baptist. We see here that the Lord’s mysterious providence does not allow us to draw straight lines from personal faithfulness to earthly comfort. As the writer to the Hebrews makes clear, faith can lead to both tri­umph (Heb. 11:32–34) and suffering (Heb. 11:35–38).

SIN. “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolish­ness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:20–23). Jesus clarifies here our understanding of the fallen human condi­tion. It is not what goes into us, but what comes out of us, that is defiling. The human condition is not one of cleanness in danger of defilement. Rather, our condition is one of defilement—manifested by what comes out of us—and is thus in need of cleansing.

Personal Implications

Take time to reflect on the implications of Mark 6:7–8:26 for your own life today. Note the personal implications for your walk with the Lord regarding (1) the Gospel Glimpses, (2) the Whole-Bible Connections, (3) the Theological Soundings, and (4) this passage as a whole.

Gospel GlimpsesWhole-Bible ConnectionsTheological SoundingsMark 6:7–8:26As You Finish This Unit . . .

Take a moment now to ask for the Lord’s blessing and help as you continue in this study of Mark. And take a moment also to look back through this unit of study, to reflect on a few key things that the Lord may be teaching you—and to take note of these things to review again in the future.

Mark: A 12-Week Study © 2013 by Dane Ortlund. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.