Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings on this gorgeous morning, dear people.

I trust you will agree that doing our best to determine exactly WHO Jesus is a very very important exercise. And I think the way it works is that when our understanding becomes clearer and clearer, we will want help those around us to see Him in the same light. What an awesome picture.

Lots more on the list for the day—with a lot of variables. I suppose the best strategy is to stay busy and take it as it comes. Boredom is as unlikely as me winning the lottery—when I never buy a ticket.

Have a great day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

This is a rhetorical question stated by Jesus in response to the appeal by this father with a demon-possessed son—“But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us” (v. 22). That’s where Jesus repeats the man’s words, but puts it in the form of a question—“If you can?” He didn’t really fault the guy for not having a perfect understanding of WHO He is. But I have to wonder if He find fault with some of us for settling for such a blurry view of Jesus when He offers so many clarifying insights concerning Himself.

I really like the illustration given us in the children’s color book exercise of connecting dots. I hope I don’t use it too much. But I believe that the Heavenly Father (with Jesus) is doing essentially the same thing with His children (disciples). He arranges a bunch of dots before us and expects us to intelligently connect them to form a bigger more comprehensive picture that is to enhance our overall understanding.

Let’s take a moment to review some of the lesson notes (dots) presented by Jesus via Mark so far. Are you paying attention? We clearly see Jesus as the Master over physical human bodies. That’s a glaring dot. Look how many He healed of sickness and disease. Jesus is proven to be the Master over demons. Notice how many evil spirits He has kicked out—one even by remote control (when He told the Syrophoenician woman to go home as the evil spirit had been evicted from her daughter). Jesus is shown to the Master over matter. Look how many thousands of people He fed with a little bit of nothing. Jesus is presented as the Master over physical laws. See Him walking on the sea, a feat that requires the transcendence of gravity and the normal instability of fluid. Jesus is the Master of the weather and the elements. At His command the storm died down to the comfort levels of His disciples. Jesus is the Master of Spiritual power and anointing for ministry. See Him giving a special endowment to His disciples for a special ministry tour. But, perhaps the biggest dot of all, Jesus is presented as the Master over DEATH. He has already raised the dead girl to life. The capstone of this wonderful truth is His own resurrection from the dead yet to come. Wow! I must say, I really can’t think of any scripture more wonderful and exciting in the entire Bible than what Jesus states and proves in John 11:25: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Are you paying attention? Are you connecting dots? What kind of picture do you see forming?

There are lots of other trails of thought that lead out from this passage. Maybe we’ll let this one suffice for now. It seems to be an often-repeated theme. But that’s OK. Let’s be reminded again exactly Who we are serving and living to please. He is the Lord and Master of ALL. Let me repeat—ALL! However, just because He has all this power over everything does not mean you’ll never have to face the consequences of a fallen world here below—sickness, storms, sinking in water, demonic attacks, hunger, or physical death. But it does show Him as a mighty Savior Who has promised to never leave those who trust Him—all the way through time and eternity. Is that not GOOD NEWS?!