Chapter # 9 Paragraph # 5 Study # 1
May 2, 2023
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(398)
1901 ASV
9:33 And they came to Capernaum: and when he was in the house he asked them, What were ye reasoning on the way?
9:34 But they held their peace: for they had disputed one with another on the way, who [was] the greatest.
9:35 And he sat down, and called the twelve; and he saith unto them, If any man would be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all.
9:36 And he took a little child, and set him in the midst of them: and taking him in his arms, he said unto them,
9:37 Whosoever shall receive one of such little children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever receiveth me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.
- I. Capernaum.
- A. Mark's references to Capernaum begin with his record of Jesus' ministry (1:21-39).
- 1. For Mark's purposes, the beginning of his record of Jesus' "Gospel" was set in the synagogue in Capernaum (1:21).
- 2. In harmony with the biblical concept of "progress of revelation", Mark determined by the Spirit to begin to address his "burden" for writing this record in this setting because it contained certain seed-concepts that he could exploit for his presentation of "The Most Important Area of Application of the Truth of The Gospel of Jesus Christ, The Son of The God".
- 3. The seed-concepts are: 1) The ability of Jesus to "teach with authority"; 2) The contrast of Jesus' method of teaching to that of the scribes; and 3) The authority of Jesus over unclean spirits as strong evidence of the legitimacy of His "authoritative message" (1:27).
- B. He then places Jesus back in Capernaum in 2:1 and then tells us the first of a set of events that began to seriously generate opposition by the scribes: he declared His prerogative to "forgive sins" while He was "on earth" (2:10).
- 1. This prerogative is at the very core of Jesus' "authoritative message".
- 2. The validity of this prerogative is given by Jesus' healing of the man/men of "faith" (2:5).
- a. This "healing" began at the level of the "soul" where "forgiveness of sins" has its impact.
- b. Then this "healing" became a matter that existed at the level of the "body" as that level of healing is indicative of the reality of the truth in "Jesus' authoritative message".
- c. This began the determined opposition to Jesus by "official Judaism" that eventually led to the determination by "official Judaism" to "destroy" Jesus (3:6).
- C. The next reference by Mark to Capernaum is Mark's last.
- 1. Here, in 9:33, Jesus comes back to Capernaum on the heels of His private "teaching" of The Twelve regarding His coming death and resurrection, and confronts the conflict among The Twelve over who should be regarded as "greatest".
- 2. This, on the heels of Mark's claim that The Twelve were "afraid to ask" Jesus their question(s) about His coming death and resurrection, is very likely to be Mark's way of telling us two things: why The Twelve "were afraid" to ask Jesus about the death and resurrection of The Christ (9:32); and that The Twelve were deeply entrenched in what Mark considers the most needy area of application of The Gospel of Jesus Christ, The Son Of The God.
- a. The "fear" factor indicates just how committed to keeping their flaws hidden they are.
- 1) This concept of such rejection by the nation was so contrary to The Twelve in their view of "the way things should be" that they were seriously blind to The Truth about the Kingdom.
- 2) The faulty "T"heology of the nation was the cesspool that gave birth to the "status-lusts" of The Twelve, and for all men before, and since.
- a) That the "T"heology was/is a "cesspool" is indisputable in that the nation was rabidly seeking to kill One Whose "works" were invariably beneficial/helpful and the One Who exists as the Creator and Redeemer.
- b) What was the "cesspool" of this "T"heology? God is not gracious.
- i. For an illustration of how this rejection of "grace" works out, simply observe Islam, whose "god" is as without "grace" as any "god" can be.
- (a) The mantra of Islam is: "Allah the Merciful and Most Gracious".
- (b) But, the developed theology of Islam shows so little "mercy" that the only real hope of eternal bliss lies in one's sacrifice of one's life to Allah while engaging in brutal "holy war".
- ii. This one thought is the bitter root of all of the reasons men refuse to accept their actual status before Him.
- (a) The unbeliever says, "Because He is not gracious, it is too dangerous to gladly put ourselves at His disposal" (The overtones of Genesis 3's accusation against God are ringing out loudly and clearly).
- (b) Because He is solely "just", we must be slavishly and meticulously "obedient"; not for the benefit of glad obedience in service to others, but to escape the consequences of resisting an omnipotent Judge. [Just be aware that no one can rationally view God as "solely just" because the presence of "rain upon the just and the unjust" inserts a very real, and undeniable, fact: "sole justice" cannot allow the unjust to have the benefit of "rain"].
- 3) Men simply cannot seem to come to grips with their true "value" without a good bit of approbation by men.
- b. But, simultaneous to their fixation upon "being great" also existed, in their hearts, an awareness that "status-seeking" is inherently "wrong" [It has to be: consider the conflict that it generated between The Twelve].
- 1) Their "fear" was, most likely, rooted in a kind of "below-the-radar" sense that there is something terribly evil about self-exaltation.
- 2) That it is "below-the-radar" seems to be obvious, but that it generates both a sense of being "ill at ease" as well as "fearful" of being labeled "ignorant and unqualified" because there is such a blind-spot regarding Jesus' teaching.
- 3) Even the "fear" just mentioned shows how men often sense that there is poison in the pot, though that sense of being "ill at ease" is too weak to dissuade them from their course.
- II. He Was Asking Them.
- A. The action of which He asked is called "dielogizesthe".
- 1. This verb is used by Mark in 2:6; 2:8; 8:16; 8:17; 9:33; and 11:31.
- a. In each text there is a serious conflict of concepts that make "understanding" impossible.
- b. The implication exists in these texts that those who are "discussing" are in various stages of "irritation" with each other, though the level of that irritation varies significantly.
- 2. This verb, in its contexts, is actually exposed as to its meaning when, in the next chapter, the actions of James and John, in attempting to preempt the others in respect to "position" in the Kingdom, seriously irritate the other ten apostles (10:35-41). This verb does not show up there, but the issues are clearly there.
- B. But they were being silent.
