Bible Wisdom Today

In this second episode of Bible Wisdom Today, we explore the prologue of the Gospel of Mark, covering chapter 1, verses 1 through 15. We begin with an overview of the primary truths Mark seeks to present: Jesus as the Messiah, Son of God, bringer of God's kingdom, and his battle with Satan. We then discuss Mark’s thesis statement, which he places in his very first sentence: “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the ...

Jesus begins His public ministry with a splash of authority, calling his first disciples, teaching, expelling demons, and healing the sick. The crowd was amazed. He also showed his authority in more private ways by avoiding the temptation to play to the crowd and ignoring law and custom to give a leper His healing touch. Jesus willing choices to stay true to His mission challenge our own tendency to seek our own best interests. 

0...

Mark 2:1-3:6 | A Rising Crescendo of Conflict

The main drama in the Biblical narrative of this episode is the escalating conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities. In Jesus’ day, the leaders of Judaism were hugely invested in tradition and status quo. They were concerned with who to eat with and how to keep from profaning the Jewish Sabbath. Meanwhile, Jesus was on a mission to meet people’s deepest needs, and cared lit...

In this episode, Jesus interacts with various groups of people—the crowd, the disciples, his family and religious leaders—making a distinction between “insiders” who follow him and “outsiders” who oppose him. Mark highlights the irony when those we expect to be insiders are left outside and those we expect to be outsiders are circled around him inside. This encourages us to reflect on our own relationship with Jesus. For those who ...

This episode of Bible Wisdom Today extends our understanding of Jesus ministry to those inside and outside his circle of followers, as he finds a way to speak meaningfully to both groups at the same time by using parables. These short stories from ordinary life tantalize the listener to think deeply to truly discover their meaning, giving Jesus the opportunity to communicate profound truth to those who are willing to ponder his mes...

In this episode, we follow Mark, the gospel writer, as he turns from recording Jesus’ teaching to telling stories of his deeds. The two miracle stories discussed today continue Jesus’ slow unveiling of his identity. First, Jesus and the disciples encounter a fierce storm on the Sea of Galilee, so violent that his seasoned fisherman-followers despair of their lives. Jesus calms the storm with his simple word. In response, the discip...

Today we examine the concept of faith, as demonstrated in the miracle stories of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. By examining the healing of a bleeding woman and the raising of a young girl to life, we discover the practical aspect of faith. Specifically, Mark teaches that faith is action, not just beliefs or emotions. Mark also contrasts the action of faith with the inaction of skepticism which Jesus encounters in his hometown of Naz...

How to be a disciple of Jesus is an important theme throughout the book of Mark, but it comes to the foreground in this section. When we follow along with the Twelve as they go out on mission without Jesus and as they engage in ministry with Jesus, we discover the practicalities of following him. We see that it means engaging in ministry even if we feel we are not ready yet, it means speaking boldly for him even in the face of oppo...

In our Bible passage for today, Mark uses the same key word to connect two stories that seem to be about different subjects. That word is “heart.” In the story of Jesus walking on water, we read that the disciples were amazed because their hearts were hardened. They were spiritually insensitive. After all the miracles Jesus had done, including the feeding of the 5000 which he had just completed, they should have understood that he ...

In our study of Mark, today, Jesus makes a trip of at least 120 miles into foreign territories surrounding Galilee. There he finds a woman with a persistent faith, heals a deaf and mute man, and feeds a crowd of 4000 people. Through these stories of Jesus’ ministry among non-Jewish people, Mark shows that Jesus’ good news transcends cultural and geographical boundaries. Jesus offers abundant blessings to all, no matter their backgr...

This episode brings us to the pivotal point in Mark where the disciples finally begin to understand who Jesus is. Mark ties this section together with many references to sight or the lack of it. First the Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign from heaven, then Jesus accuses his disciples of being spiritually blind. Next Jesus heals a blind man, but this was an unusual healing. At first the man’s vision returned in a blurry state and was n...