Mark Ch 4, 5, 6 & 7:
Jesus is teaching his disciples and informs them in private that unto them it is given the secret of the kingdom of God.
Then after expounding on the parable of the sower Jesus informs his disciples that ‘For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light’.
Jesus was effectively telling them that despite the fellowship with His Father being a secret place it was not a life cowered in a corner, but an unashamed life and the original life purposed for man since before time began.
This is a characteristic too of Marks gospel, in that it is constantly moving and never static. It has an ever increasing element to it and a perpetual expansiveness which cannot be contained, as soon as you try to formalize it Jesus depends the revelation concerning the liberty to be found in him in relation to his Father. And this revelation is not confined to a private place it rather covers any place and situation we may find ourselves.
V35: ‘On that day, when evening had come, he said to them. ‘Let us go across to the other side’.
After rebuking the wind and calming the sea; Jesus speaks to them: ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’
He has responded to their question comprehensively, showing them that indeed he cares extensively about them, enough to show that as Creator over the wind and sea he has come to be with them in the storms of life. That he has come as a man into the world to teach them personally how to walk and rest in Him in God.
Jesus, equates their fear to the absence of faith. He equates himself the Word as being a fear free dominion. Fear comes through an absence of being filled with that which we are made for, love & security and an expansive delight of undiminishable wonder with life. Fear by its very nature is a direct consequence of having digested a lie concerning the very nature of God. There is no fear in love & God is love. The apostle John learned this concerning the revelation of his teacher, and he passed it on to Fathers, Men and Children, despite being in the storm of a prison on the isle of Patmos.
In a sense Jesus was saying to them ‘I am in this boat but you are not yet in this boat with me’, you haven’t yet understood that I have come to carry you to the other side and into the same life that I carry.
Firstly they should have been afraid if they had believed the Word Jesus had spoken. But having questioned Him concerning the integrity of his nature, of his spoken Word, and then having had a comprehensive answer that reassured them that to believe in him meant they had nothing to be afraid about, scripture states at this very juncture that the disciples were filled with fear!!
And they were filled with great fear. It would appear that the fear after his words of reassurance was greater than their fear of the storm. In the storm they had asked him, knowing he was approachable and knowing that he had only ever showed concern and care for their welfare, hence their lack of fear in waking him and the appeal to him about their perception of the crisis.
But now after the calm they are filled with fear, saying one to another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’
This reveals the real root source of their fear, they did not understand who their teacher really was nor that his humanity really was the full expression of his commitment to them according to the truth: God has not withheld any good thing to be desired, sharing his own dearly beloved Son. After the cross and his resurrection the issue was sealed in their hearts as they now had the divine teacher within continual directing them to the finished work of Christ.
We should notice here how firstly the disciples needed him in his human form to approach him, but that it was the divine revelation of who he was that would ultimately give them faith that overcame their fears. And in his divinity Jesus must have longed for one of those closest to him not to have been filled with fear, but to have seen a symmetry between his humanity and the Father heart of God.
On the other side Jesus brings calm to the wind and sea internal! This is not only a further demonstration of his power and authority, but he is teaching his disciples that they ought not to be afraid of his Word being carried to the roots of a life, he is demonstrating to them the good seed and its fruit, it sets captives free and shines as a lamp on a stand in a dark territory.
On the other side awaited a man who lived among the tombs, in some respects he represents the roots of the problem, that the Word of God cannot be crossed without death being the product. That doesn’t make God a legalistic totalitarian, it does mean that he has created man in his own image with a free will and that his truth has not withheld the sharing of his Word of truth. It does mean that his Word is a tree of Life, which produces only good fruit and abundant life.
This encounter is one to one, it is also one against a legion/crowd. This is the one new man through whom all may discover the grace of God.
Jesus, as calm as the Prince of peace is, has no battle of authority with legion. Legion will obey his command and must leave the man. Yet, Jesus as the fabric of are universe who holds it together does dialogue with legion, not to negotiate concerning his sovereignty, but it does reveal the extend of the liberality of God are Creator, who when he made this world and the angelic order, had not confined them to a robotic existence but had given them the freedom to even rebel against the rule of his love.
V7 is a profound verse and it should not be simply passed over. It contains the inspiration of Gods spirit according to it being the text of scripture. Legion, recognized who Jesus was! The disciples had been questioning, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him’?
Jesus’s identity was clearly recognizable to legion. He is the Son of the Most High God. His identity is what sets us free, he is who he is and who he is, is who he is. No confusion is found in Jesus.
Jesus allowed legion to make this statement. He allowed Legion to say ‘I adjure you by God, do not torment me.
The question that legion asked Jesus was an incorrect question. But it did reveal an aspect of legions nature: relativism! It emanates an attitude not dissimilar to a Post Modern Society, which basically means regressive in respect to submitting to what is established authority. What is behind the creed of gender identity confusion, a doctrine of demons!
It should be noted how legion separates himself from Gods authority. Legion as part of the angelic rebellion to Gods rule, cannot as Gabriel did carry the very heart of God unto humanity. Gabriel had everything to do with Jesus the Son of the Most High God, ‘For nothing will be impossible with God’.
Mary proclaimed that she was a servant of the Lord, how much of her response was imbibed by the presence of faithful Gabriel, who only departed from her once she replied to his message from the Lord.
‘What have you to do with me’. You can hear the 15 year old adolescent speaking to his parents in rebellious overtones. Legions adherence was to another, and his boss the leader and architect of rebellion cannot replicate the symphony of heaven from whence he fell.
Legion recognizes that Jesus is the only mediator with God.
This is profound truth. Legion also knew something concerning the nature of God. Legion knows that God never forced the angelic order to worship, nor bound Satan and consigned him to death for leading a rebellion before the created order at that moment in time.
Hence, legions request not to be tormented is in part founded upon a prior experience of the nature of God.
But here is the great paradox of darkness, it promises liberty but only brings confusion and torment.
Torment, these demons were doing that very thing to this mans life, and in some twisted sinister sense they were at home plaguing this mans life. What wickedness is this? To plead not to be tormented while destroying your own subjects life. The parable of the forgiven steward comes to mind who owing a great debt imprisons another man who owed him comparatively little.
And is that not the truth of having transsexuals educating young children in creeds of confusion. Demanding ones own autonomy of acceptance while bringing torment to the next generation.
To reject and rebel against the full revelation of Gods love outworks itself by becoming the polar opposite. Feeding off a mans suffering rather than being a part of the Joy of heaven.
‘do not torment me’. Oh can you hear this cry, having reject the worship of God who brought them a constant expansive source of love and Joy that never diminished, to find your only comfort in a mans suffering and torment. Here before him now, is the One who has never yielded to the temptation of his boss, a man and eternal Son of God who loves his Father in an eternal bond of unity. ‘Do not torment me’, the memory and legacy of the love of God was in his midst it was even carried by the Word spoken that was in the process of setting this man free. The knowledge of all that is good, but having irrevocably chosen all that is evil.
The devil is only creative in one sphere; suffering, pain and torment.
But God became a man contrasted to a Span, to reveal the great eternal plan, the first born among many brethren. Man know manner how far he is in the depths of depravity can be redeemed due to the sacrificial death of Jesus.
Man made in the image of God, made by God and for God, given a great commission to be fruitful (Ch 4 v20). God has everything to do with man, and torment has absolutely no part of his character or nature.
Unclean spirit. This gets right down to fear in the heart of many a man. People in the world often do not believe in Jesus, because they will not accept that he was a pure man who never gave place to uncleanness at any time in his life. This is the context to such heresy and blasphemy as the ‘Da vinchy code’, men with unclean hearts and spirits who have not encountered or rather rebelled to the *authority and authenticity of Jesus.
It also gets down to the unique distinctiveness of Jesus and to his message to his disciples. If they are ever going to have authority, which is his absolute intention, it will only come as they live in his cleanness. Any ministry that is biblically in sin and claims to be moving in the authority of God is a deception. The baptism of repentance comes before any anointing.
The disciples were filled by fear at Him who calmed the storm, but now Jesus is revealing to them his nature and how it only brings order out of chaos and liberty, and how purity and cleanness of heart are not to bring a greater fear due to the contrast, but through faith in his finished work the Word carries us to the other side: Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is to come, and they sang a new song, Exodus Ch 15.
This man had gone beyond the ordinary pale within the constraints of society, in fact society could not constrain him, just as humanism cannot provide the remedy for tormented souls. A legion of the unclean, and to make the point salient to a Jewish audience the herd of pigs represented just that, a multitude of uncleanness. A generation saturated by pornography can it not know the divine intervention of the redeemer and King who gave this man a great commission: Be fruitful and multiply, shining your light on a stand. Can the transgender discover his or her true identity when they encounter Him, Oh Yes, he is the great physician.
The disciples were filled by fear at Him who calmed the storm. How much more when they witnessed a pure man deliver a man from a legion of the unclean.
What has to be kept in perspective here, is that Jesus is always the focal point, he really is the centre. And that cant be hidden or kept secret it is an absolute fact, but he reveals himself by setting people free from what afflicts them, Jesus was speaking into there roots concerning walking the world in white as his ambassadors. Here it needs to be emphasized the sequence of event, first the approachability of his humanity: ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing’ and secondly his divinity; ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him’.
Purity & Cleanness are where we most need him in are humanity and in His divinity: I have atoned for all your sins and finished the work, carried over by my word that washes you clean.
The pigs drowned in the sea, I imagine the only turbulence came from the pigs drowning upon that still calmed sea.I guess the disciples reflected over this and that it spoke into their fear concerning his word and work. The devil is the one who brings destruction to lives and fear, this man is the one who sets the captives free. ‘Peace be still’, is not a word spoken to the inward storm of fallen humanity that should ever bring a fear of failure as it is a word spoken by the authority of the Son of the Most High God who died to reconcile sinners to his Fathers original mandate and blessing.
And it must be retained all that has transpired to this point. Jesus has been revealing himself not as the great leader of the Pharisees, but rather the one who got people to put the stones down from out their hands, as they only caused harm to oneself and your fellow man.
Jesus permitted them to enter the herd of pigs. They had begged him. Jesus has absolutely no insecurity in his identity, he is never threatened by anything or anyone. He cannot be undermined, yet he permits this as his nature never created any aspect of the universe to be in bondage. And it was right that the pigs drowned, he would not have permitted 2,000 pigs to be running around in torment, NO his ministry is always a clean and orderly affair, and that is what filled the people of Decapolis with fear, he was the cure for all their social ills, bringing order to all he touched.
They begged him to depart from their region. The light on a stand was being asked to depart.
The demons had begged to enter the pigs, and now they were begging Jesus to depart. Jesus is always the focal point, he is the centre and Lord of all things, know wonder Paul requested that the brethren pray for him and his ministry for it to be effectual.
Now the man who had been tormented begs Jesus that he might be with him. Incredible, everyone else is getting their requests granted by Jesus but the man who wants to be with him for all the correct reasons is denied his request. And in this is the greatest lesson of crossing over to the other side, and it was integral to all that he was teaching his disciples: You keep my word in the secret place of your heart and life and live your life as a light bearing fruit and leading other men and women into the truth concerning the nature and revelation of God.
This man was instructed to keep the Word centered on ‘Mercy’, this is the only word that brings the knowledge of forgiveness of sins and the Fathers heart, the relationship that was broken by rebellion. The word mercy, must be keep in the fertile ground of the heart, this alone produces good fruit. Children are to be taught about the love of God, the purity of Christ, and a mill stone awaits any who intentional lead them away from truth. Perhaps the pigs went straight down that steep cliff into the deeps of the sea.
Jesus speaks to the women who touches the hem of his garment. Scripture records the resolution of the issue of blood, right back to Cain and Adams fall. Another seed whose word speaks better things: Mercy! And more than mercy, ‘Daughter’, ‘Son’
She came in fear and trembling. She had said in the secret place of her heart, and Jesus as the light uses it to demonstrate the essence of his nature: Daughters, Sons, inward peace and healing from the rebellious fall of humanity which could not produce fruit unto God.
From the tombs unto death itself.
‘Talitha cumi’. And immediately the girl got up and began walking.
Interrupted by the word of faith that had crossed over into a women’s issue of blood. Which one stands out the most everywhere you look Jesus is bringing life and liberty, but here with this child, we have an immediate transparency of his purity. He did not want this spread, it was just a natural delight to him. She began to walk, she was not asking for permission, nor was she afraid and fearful to take another step, nor did she sink and jump back into bed!! She was in the cool of the day, and it caused amazement, the simplicity and perhaps it was this that makes it the greatest and continued deepening of the revelation. She hadn’t committed a grave sin, she was but a child her father had loved and cared for her and was a liked and respect man who had upheld the values of God, he had been himself a teacher and he was not proud, he came and earnestly implored him, ‘make her well that she may live’, what symmetry to all that the true revelation of God is, some 100 fold. Is not are God the great liberator, the abundant giver of life, she immediately rose and walked. No doubts she was playing hop scotch in no times with her friends. She was certainly not writing volumes on how Jesus had made her rise from the dead. But she never forgot the simplicity and the health and amazement of that moment, having been housebound from her friends and normal joys of life, and deep within she could never forget that it was his voice that made everything simple, it was not a burden or bondage to obey his voice, oh no such a thought was the enigma of a foreign tormenting cruel thing. She was placed on earth to enjoy harmony with Him who gave the liberty and license unto men to cross over unto the other side: Elephant, and so its identity was Elephant, Camel and its identity was Camel, Parrot and its identity was ‘Arise, and shine for your life has come’.
Ch 6 ventures into incredible terrain. Jesus limits himself to their faith. Jesus is not limited by anyone’s faith, but he chooses to restrict himself to peoples faith. And he wanted his disciples to understand this principle so that they would ask and except for great things of their Father the God over every impossibility.
Have you still no faith.
Just as he did with the man in Decapolis, Jesus sends out the 12. Here, prior to John being beheaded at this request of a young girl – what a contrast when your Step Father has not kept to the order of Gods laws taught in the Synagogue, and when your own mother has chosen witchcraft (rebellion) over the covering of her first husband. Chaos ensues, securing a legacy and inheritance has not been planted into this girls heart & so when presented with an opportunity to secure her future in the natural she gives the opportunity completely up and is instructed by her tormented mother to ask for the mind and mouth that proclaimed a place of repentance and of acceptance with God: Behold the lamb who takes away in his great ‘Mercy’. Her mother wanted the Word silenced it was the primary and misguided thought of her deceive heart that this might bring her calmness and peace. She did not understand Jesus’s timing nor that the Word of God endures forever and that he is the living and ascended head of his Church, it was hidden from her, because she did not have a heart to have her sins forgiven.
Immediately with haste! What a contrast, and how tragic that youngsters are being taught intolerance and hate speech without having any comprehension that such chaos will only bring torment and sorrow as society stays from the divine order of Almighty God. That it cannot produce what is good, a love for your enemies, terms of inward peace necessitate that love must be the victor – and an agenda that cant tolerate any light in the debate is a 100% deception to label itself as love. In the last days good will be called evil by that which is evil calling itself good.
And this gets down to the hub of it, Jesus rejected in Nazareth where he grew up and had let his life shine upon a stand, always submissive to his parents and God, growing in grace and favor – why on earth where the offend that his life was actually the divine life manifest: ‘My Father, My Father why have you forsaken me’, so that Mercy may be the only entrance into Eternity.
Jesus at his own home experience that which he had in Decapolis. In Peters house, out in the wilderness, the roof taken off. Johns head cut from off his shoulders.
His authority has eminently been displayed his power over all elements both of nature and man. Yet, John is allowed to be beheaded, the system corrupted is allowed to behead John. This is to be wondered at. God allows the tears to grow in the same field as the wheat. Sometimes we faint at the mountain of those gathered upon the valley opposite, up the steep hill taking their stand to fight over the future of the valley of decision for future generations. Hiding in a corner, keeping the word of God secret within a small band of brethren! Oh no, the secret David knew was that Gods Word is Grace and that severs the head of the unclean Philistine. And Grace always stands in victory, when Jesus is lifted High. Father forgive them.
Jesus allowed it to happen, because the man who lived among the tombs had been given a country to evangelize, because 12 men were having their fears addressed on every root and surface level, because the gospel will go out to every nation, tribe and family with a blessing through faith in the provide sacrifice.
‘For this my son was dead & is alive again’.
And he allowed it to happen because he does all things well, God is at work upon this earth doing good, through the Church that he began and taught.
Looking up to heaven ‘Ephphatha’ – that was a word spoken to a 12 year old girl, it was the first word of creation, it was Spoken by the Father when the Lamb was baptized by John.
Johns disciples ‘begged’ for his body, and it was granted sovereignty by the Lord, and he was placed in a tomb. And John will ‘Arise’ again, even Herod knew that truth deep within the roots of whose image he had been made.
And it was allowed so that Mercy could be shown to Decapolis, to Rome, to Ephesus, to Corinth, to Paris and New York.
‘But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been save, and raised us up with him and seated us in him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus’
That we should walk in them.
Peace to the internal hostility. We get peace when we invite the gentle-man in.
Carried there by the testimonies of those to whom the Son sets free are free indeed.
Our identity is found in Christ, the Son of the Most High God: No secular power, no tormenting demons can prevent the Word of God that endures forever. ‘Why are you so afraid’, ‘Have you still no Faith’
Note:
(*) voluntary is the context of this narrative and message to his disciples, Jesus has come to win the heart it is not forced upon any, it is of faith so that it may be through his love for us.
I’ve just finished a book called ‘The Deep Time Deception’ by Michael J Oard, it is an excellent resource for believers and one I have found has strengthen my defense of the Gospel in the sphere of Science. It doesn’t have all the answers but it clearly presents the fact that the science behind an old earth does not stand up to impartial investigation.
eternalrays 