Oh yeah, like discipleship is SO hard…you just follow Jesus around, right?

After rebuking Peter (you remember: “Get behind me, Satan!”), Jesus began to explain the costs of discipleship as well as the real meaning behind following him. (According to Garland) First, the disciple must be willing to put all his own ambitions and choices in God’s control. I love the way Garland states discipleship in the face of our culture: “Discipleship is not a part-time volunteer work that one does as an extracurricular activity. God refuses to accept a minor roll in one’s life; he requires a controlling place.” (p. 327) Secondly, discipleship requires taking up a cross EVERY DAY! To the disciples, this would have meant quite a bit considering Christ was not yet crucified and the whole idea of crucifixion with Christ had not yet been presented. The idea was that disciples of Christ had to be willing to suffer the cruelest, most humiliating death for the sake of Christ EVERY DAY; not just MWF or TTH or Sunday…7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. The third cost of discipleship is following Christ in the direction HE would have for them to go…following Christ even in a procession of cross-bearers (that's a heart-wrenching visual). Are we obedient as disciples? Are we THAT willing to sacrifice EVERYTHING, even our very lives in a procession of crosses, for Christ?

Zach Pyron

Silence of the Lambs...i mean Demons...

In Mark 3:7-12, Mark accounts for one of the first large gatherings Jesus drew. The people were crowding around Jesus wanting him to touch them to heal them. This is common even in today’s society. What has always gotten to me is the demons and evil spirits that are forced to humiliation by the mere SIGHT of the Son of God. I’ve always thought that was so incredible that Jesus has dominion/power over everything: good AND evil. I had often wondered, however, why the demons were always told not to tell ANYONE who Jesus was. I found it strange that Jesus would be trying to hide his identity all the while going around healing the sick, raising the dead, and teaching the truth of God to the multitudes. Not much different from a musician playing on the streets of New Orleans (or Memphis or Nashville or wherever you want it to be) telling certain people not to tell anyone that he is a musician. Garland’s take on it was that it was an “ominous” experience to have a demon call you by name as well as the fact that knowing someone’s name in first century culture was like owning a power over them. But what is more is that demons are never bearers of revelation. Jesus displayed his power over them COMPLETELY: he threw them out of the possessed AND he silenced them…with merely a word! Man, oh MAN, the power of the Living Savior.

-Pyron

Faith and Deeds...in regard to Jesus?

Jesus’ miracles were never attributed to his divinity. At every healing he would say, “Your faith has healed you.” This begs the question: if the faith of the inflicted is what healed them, then why were they not healed prior to seeing Jesus? Could it have to do with the James passage in chapter 2: “Faith without deeds is dead”? The paralytic man, who was lowered through the roof, was not healed strictly because of their faith; if that were the case then they would not have had to carry him all the way to Jesus. It is the same with the Centurion with the sick child and the woman with the hemorrhages.

-Zach

Jesus?!? Likes Secrets?!?

In our reading for today, Matthew 6:1-4 jumped out at me. Jesus is preaching the Sermon on the Mount when he touched on the issue of giving to the needy. He presented an idea that was uncommon to the times: “…when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do…” Essentially, Jesus was saying that our acts of kindness should not be publicly displayed. Our rewards should not come from man, but from God. Then Jesus made the statement that the hypocrites who make their acts of kindness public have already received their full award in the honor of men; those who are giving from the depths of their hearts receive the secret rewards for things done in secret. Sometimes it is hard for us as believers to do things in secret for God’s glory when we also desire the approval of men. Jesus wants us to neglect our desire for man’s approval for divine approval…“which is more meaningful, I think”…and harder to live by.