On my morning hike, Father, I heard all kinds of birds. I recognized very few and only saw one that I can recall. As I sat here reflecting, it made me think of You and the ways You work in my life. Sometimes I recognize Your presence. I know You are there, but so often I have to just trust by faith, believing that You are there. Thank You for always being with me.
Mark 5:21-43 (<<click to read the passage)
In the second portion of this passage, Jesus’ mission is to bring life back to a 12-year-old girl. When He arrived, the “professional” mourners were already doing their thing. (This was a culturally accepted practice.) He proclaimed, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.” v39
The crowd laughed at what they believed to be His foolishness. My Life Application Study Bible brings to mind some interesting thoughts.
“Jesus tolerated the crowd’s abuse in order to teach an important lesson about maintaining hope and trust in him. Today, most of the world laughs at Christ’s claims. When you are belittled for expressing faith in Jesus and hope for eternal life, remember that unbelievers don’t see from God’s perspective.”
In today’s society, followers of Christ seem to be outnumbered. I believe that there are far more of us than we realize to some degree. Unbelievers are just more vocal and have a readily accessible platform to broadcast their unbelief – media, movies, television, the music industry, etc.
Unfortunately, there are some believers who are vocal as well, that do not reflect Christ in His fullness when they retaliate. Hatred and contempt are the attitudes that are loudly projected.
There is a fine line between standing up for what we believe to be true and attacking others because they don’t believe as we do. Fighting fire with fire, in this case, is counterproductive.
In this passage in particular, is Jesus verbally abusive? Do we see him retaliating with a voracious vengeance? No. He made them all leave but he very clearly understood that they did not see from His perspective.
Lord Jesus, may we stand strong in the truth. But may we also always be about pointing others to You, by responding like You, instead of driving others from You, by responding as humanity does. Fill us with Your love. Fill us with Your wisdom. Guide and direct us, I pray, for truly they do not see from Your perspective. Amen.
“Fighting fire with fire only gets you ashes!” ~ Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby)

Mar 18th, 2019, Mon, 11:31 am