In Chapter two of we again see Mark go straight to the point of claiming who Jesus is, that He is the very presence of God. The Pharisees challenge Jesus about four topics in today’s reading; His authority to forgive sin, His willingness to sit with sinners, His lack of fasting, and His observance of Sabbath regulations regarding work. It appears to me that this was a group of people that were predisposed to reject Jesus’ teaching and were bent on finding any fault so they could reject the truth of what He was saying. How often do we do this in our own lives? How often do we reject the truth of something because it does not meet our preconceived notions of how things should be? And as we talked earlier in Matthew, how often do the traditions of man get in the way of the truth of God? So the question for today is have traditions of the Church ever gotten in the way of you seeing the truth of God? We could go one step further and ask when have your preconceived notions of God prevented you from seeing the truth about God? It is possible that we may not even know the answer to question number two as our preconceived notions form the tint on our glasses that can blind us from seeing the truth. Just like certain tints on glasses keep certain kinds of light from making it to our eyes, our notions and beliefs can prevent God’s light and truth from penetration to our hearts and minds. That is why it becomes important for us to learn what the tint on our glasses is so we can take it into account and always ask the question, is it causing blindness to certain light that needs to come in.
Something we passed on in Matthew was the passage of Jesus’ family coming to get him and Jesus appearing to reject them in favor of others. This passage is a little easier to understand in Mark. If we read just the passage contained in Chapter 2:31-35, it reads just like Matthew’s telling of the story; but if we include verse 21 we get a different picture. Jesus’ family wasn’t just appearing for a casual visit; they hadn’t just shown up because they wanted to see their son and brother. They thought He was crazy! How does this change your understanding of this passage? And does this leave you more sympathetic to Jesus’ rejection of them?
