He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

Mark 8:31

Sometimes I’m surprised when I meet people for the first time, because they do not seem to match the view I had of them in my head. When I met William Hague, I was surprised by how tall he was. When I met Clive Owen, I was surprised by how normal, and un-Hollywood-like he is. When I met Stephen Fry, I was surprised by how friendly and un-smug he is. I guess we all form views of people we have never met, and that these are invariably wrong!

Throughout our Mark Marathon, we have seen people being challenged by who Jesus is. In Mark 8, where this year’s Mark Marathon concludes, we see a crucial turning point in the gospel, because Jesus fully reveals not just his identity, but what will happen to him. The disciples also articulate their view that Jesus is, in fact, the Christ – although at this stage they do not fully understand what this means.

In today’s reading, Jesus calls his diciples aside as they walk to the next town, and tells them what is going to happen to him. He tells them that he will be subjected to suffering, and be rejected by the religious leaders. Most powerfully of all, he tells them that he will be killed. When I heard that my beloved grandmother had cancer and had only weeks to live, I was heartbroken. I can imagine the disciples’ hearts sinking when Jesus told them this. Peter, of course, refuses to believe Jesus, and tries to rebuke him. I’m sure that this was based largely on a misunderstanding of what it meant for Jesus to be the messiah, but I also have no doubt that this was partly because Peter was by this time a close friend of Jesus, and he didn’t want to think of Jesus dying.

Jesus also, of course, tells the disciples that after three days, he would rise from the dead. Now, if one of my friends told me this, I would not believe them, but coming from Jesus, maybe the disciples did. They had certainly seen him achieve some pretty remarkable things!

The crucial thing to realise as we read through this verse, though, is that Jesus died for us. For you. For me. As we approach Christmas, with tomorrow the first Sunday in Advent, it is a perfect opportunity to remind ourselves of this fact. We may remember Jesus the baby at Christmas, but don’t forget what that baby became. He became a compassionate healer, who showed love and concern for all whom he met. He was an incredible miracle worker, with the power to control the elements. He had powers over Satan and demons. He was an awe inspiring and influential teacher who spoke with the authority of God. Yet Jesus rose from the dead after three days, so he is still all of these things.

And Jesus is still the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, and the promised one of the Old Testament. He is the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets.

He died on the cross to undo all the sin that we commit everyday. He died to pay for all of our wrongdoings. He died because although it is the punishment that we deserved, he loves us and wanted to take our place.

How much Jesus has done for us. How much we owe him.

Header image: Chatham House, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”

Mark 8:29

Sometimes in life we have to make decisions. I have to admit, that it’s not something I’m very good at! When confronted with an ice cream freezer in the summer months, what I’d really like to choose is a Magnum – a rich vanilla ice cream enrobed in Belgian chocolate, as the makers would probably describe it. I know that if I’m going to have an ice cream, though, I should really select a low fat choice, because I’m not exactly getting any thinner! Trying to decide where to go on holiday is also always problematic. I know that I should holiday in the UK to keep my carbon footprint down, but I always seem to go galivanting off in a plane half way around the world!

We have to make a decision about Jesus, too. Just as Jesus challenged the disciples to think about who he is, we also have to come to a decision. It’s not enough simply to follow our friends or family. It’s not enough to simply hedge our bets and go along with the whole going to church thing, just to be on the safe side. Ultimately, we have to decide for ourselves who Jesus is. Is he the Christ, as Peter asserts here? Or is he just a good teacher.

C.S. Lewis once said that there are only three options when deciding who Jesus is. He says that he was either mad, bad or God. Mad, because he went around telling everyone that he was the Son of God, and if he wasn’t, you’d have to be pretty crazy to do that. Bad, because if he wasn’t the Son of God, yet claimed to be, he was a downright liar. Or God, because he was telling the truth.

If we decide that perhaps Jesus was neither mad, nor bad, but was in fact God, we have a further decision to make. Do we accept him as our personal saviour, or do we reject him, and decide that we don’t want anything to do with him. Ultimately, this could be the difference between eternal life and eternal damnation. I know which I’d prefer.

He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.”

Mark 8:12

A couple of summers ago, my girlfriend and I had a fantastic holiday in Canada.  We flew to Toronto, then took a train to Montreal, and another to Quebec, where we picked up a hire car to drive to Prince Edward Island and onto Halifax, before flying back to Toronto.  It really was an amazing trip.  We did have a few issues with navigating in our hire car, though, particularly driving to Halifax.  There seemed to be a distinct lack of road signs, which made life rather difficult!  At one point, we thought we had arrived in Halifax, only to find ourselves in Dartmouth, on the other side of the river!  Eventually we found ourselves in the right city, and had a great time, including a trip on an amphibious tour bus!

Signs to Halifax would have been very useful.  They might have helped us to see whether we were on the right road or not.  Similarly, if there were plenty of signs to reassure us that God exists, that Jesus did in fact die and rise again, and that heaven is real, it would be so much easier to be a Christian.  That is exactly what the Pharisees asked Jesus for in the verses before today’s reading.  They want a sign to prove that Jesus is the Son of God.

The Pharisees, of course, were trying to catch Jesus out, and to prove that he was a fraud.  Jesus was wise to their trick, though, and refused to play their game.  He was rather exasperated by their demand for a sign, when in actual fact, if they cared to look, there is more than enough evidence to support Jesus’ claim.  The whole Old Testament, which the Pharisees should have known well, prophesied exactly what the messiah would be like.  Jesus as fulfilling the prophecies.  Jesus’ teaching and miracles should have demonstrated that his claim was true.  Their hearts were hard, though, and they did not want to accept Jesus as their saviour.

The same is true today.  Yes, it is sometimes difficult to be a Christian when all around us people are telling us our faith is simply based on a story.  That’s the beauty of Christianity, though.  It is a faith.  We have to have faith.  We can then chose for ourselves whether or not we follow God.  There is so much evidence to support our faith, though.  The Bible is packed with evidence.  The history books support many of Jesus’ claims.  The way God works in our lives and the lives of people we know.  Creation itself is testament to God’s love for his people.

Look around you.  There are plenty of signs to support Jesus’ claims – if only we saw them.

The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

Mark 8:8

I used to be a Crusader leader at a group in Redhill.  Several of my school friends were also leaders, and as well us providing us with a great opportunity to learn more about God, it was also a great social occasion.  My group of friends was nicknamed ‘the mafia’ by Mick, the senior leader, presumably because we used to operate as a group, and carried out all kinds of activities.  One of the activities we used to run was a small tuck shop.  In the summer months, I would visit Iceland (the freezer shop, not the country!) with my mum before the meeting, and buy up lots of ice creams to sell at our tuck shop.  We invariably had too many, and at the end of the meeting had several left over.  Faced with the problem of having lots of ice creams, but no freezer, we usually ended up eating them ourselves.  This was a sure fire way of ensuring that we made very little profit!

We usually started off with too many ice creams in the first place.  When Jesus fed the four thousand, however, he started off with just seven loaves of bread and a few small fish.  Now, I’m no expert in catering, but I would think that seven loaves and a few fish is probably, under normal circumstances, not going to be enough to feed four thousand people.  Yet, when Jesus is around, it does exactly that.  In fact, not only was there enough food for everyone to eat their fill, but there were seven baskets of surplus food!

We can see from both this passage and the feeding of the five thousand that if we are prepared to listen to God, and to put our trust in him, he will provide for us.  It is clear, though, that he will not just provide sufficient to sustain us, but more than we need.  That is not to say that things won’t necessarily be difficult at times – some of the most famous believers have gone through periods of hardship.  But if we trust in the Lord, he will ensure that we are provided for and cared for.  He may not always respond to our needs in the way we are expecting him to, but if he cares for us enough to send his own son to die on a cross for us, he will watch over us and look after us.

Jesus’ Compassion

“I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”

Mark 8:2-3

A couple of weeks ago, my girlfriend and I went to visit one of my old friends from university, Caz, and her husband Pawel.  They live in a little town called Skawina, just outside Krakow, in Poland.  It was great to see them both.  I don’t get to see them as much as I would like since Poland is a long way from my home in Sussex!  Despite the distance, and despite the fact I hadn’t seen them for quite a long time, it felt as if we had never been apart.  Sometimes you build friendships like that, that can almost continue where they left off, because you know each other so well.  Certainly, I think that is probably true for most of my university friends.  Spending three years together, especially in the close proximity of a university campus, means that strong friendships often develop.  For my university friends like Caz, I would do anything I could to help them if they were ever in need.

In today’s verse, we see Jesus adopt a similar attitude towards the crowd.  They have been with him for three days, listening to him preach, and had run out of food.  Jesus says that he has compassion for them, and shows that he is concerned for their well-being; he doesn’t want them to go home hungry, since they may collapse due to lack of food.  He recognizes that the people are in need, and despite the fact that he has not had the opportunity to form a close friendship with many of them, he shows that he wants to help them.  This is particularly interesting, since these people are probably gentiles.  For Jesus, though, that is not significant; just as he provided bread for the Jewish people at the feeding of the five thousand, so too he is happy to feed the gentiles.

Just as Jesus understood the needs of this crowd, so too he understands our needs, and wants to help us.  Just as he had compassion for the crowd, he has compassion for us, too, and will ensure that we are looked after.  Sometimes it seems that we have a God who us far off, but that could not be further from the truth.  He cares for us all, and will provide for us – if we only have faith.