Been buried in Mark for about a month and this phrase keeps jumping out at me.
It used to be, in most of us, a question of "WHY would they ask that? Wouldn't they know if they were faithful or not?" ["Don't they already know it's Judas?? Come ON, give me a break."]
Well, since Mark is so blunt compared to the other gospels, this has jumped out at me, over and over.
The answer? "No!"
Several examples:
---Inner-discipleship confrontations. Fussing at each other. ...Who's the best? .... Who's the greatest?...
---Believing they will forever run the show. -- What does He mean about death when we know He's going to be KING? ... Why would He think we would scatter? Of course we won't!
--- Sometimes less than kind. ...AAKK! We don't need any kids hanging around. And we sure don't need a woman anointing Him when the money could help the poor.
Even John, later known as the deep-hearted lover of Jesus, wasn't perfect... he and James called by Jesus the "Sons of Thunder" because they had wanted fire called down from heaven for a not good reason.
And on and on. Story after story, time after time, moment after moment, where a lack of faith, a lack of understanding, an increase of anger, were expressed -- verbally and physically -- over and over again.
So... my question:
When it comes to being picky, faithless, cranky, angry, withdrawn, jealous, unable to show the love of Christ for the world, not willing to step forward to help with the globally intense issues ....
2 comments:
Oh, how I understand the asking, "Is it I?" When I see one despicable being before I can crawl too far out on my pedestal, I fall knowing but for the grace of God there go I. I hear the words and feel the breath of Jesus saying to Peter, "Get behind me satan."
I've wondered at times what it would be like to live in a land where there were no mirrors or reflections to reveal our physical appearance. Would we "know" ourselves? Likewise with these spiritual mirrors ... how quickly do we recognize ourselves?
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