Mark - Chapter 10
10:1-16
Teaching on Marriage and Children:
The form of this passage is controversy between Jesus and His adversaries. The opponents to Jesus here are the Pharisees. The question about marriage was apparently a strong issue in these days. The text states that the Pharisees put the question to Jesus not to learn from Him, but to put Him to the test. Twice they speak about what is “lawful” or “allowed”. Jesus speaks twice about what is “commanded”. Jesus is concerned about the will of God while His adversaries care only about their own rights and how much they can get away with.
What His adversaries design as a trap, Jesus seizes upon as an occasion to teach God's will. He says that Moses wrote the divorce law “for your hardness of heart”. The expression used by Moses in Deut. 10:16, where in the original Hebrew language speaks of “uncircumcision of heart”, to refer to the stubbornness of the chosen people. The teaching here also recognizes that the divine purpose of marriage is not always achieved. The word of the Lord in response to this question is clear and shows no compromise. If remarriage follows divorce, it is an act of adultery against the abandoned first partner, and therefore would require confession, repentance, and prayer for forgiveness.
The gospel material on Jesus and children appears in few places, Luke 9 & Matthew 18, and here in Mark in teaching to the disciples. Only in Mark is Jesus seen to be indignant with His disciples for hindering the approach of children to Him. Also, only in Mark do we see that Jesus blesses the children. The setting involves people bringing children for Jesus to touch and the disciples seem to rebuke them. Jesus, in turn, rebukes the disciples. Verse 16 is the conclusion, showing that Jesus finds joy in gathering and blessing children and is a warm reminder that He also blesses those of us who may be children in faith. The text in the first three gospels all speak for marriage and fidelity as the will of God, and all speak against divorce and legalism.
10:17-31
Teaching on Riches:
This story of the encounter of Jesus with one who is known as the “rich young ruler” speaks to a world of “haves” and “have-nots”. It teaches of the struggle of those who have possessions to keep them and of those who lack possessions and try to get them. The word of the Lord cuts deep into such a world in an unexpected way. He expresses no outrage and no rebuke. Rather, He feels love for the man who loves his possessions. In love, Jesus calls him, and in calling him, makes a radical demand. Only Matthew says the man was young and only Luke says he was a ruler. All three gospels say he was rich. The point of the story is the relationship to riches.
The rich man's concern is to “inherit eternal life”. Jesus' first reply is surprising. He challenges the man's unusual form of address toward Him as “good teacher”. Jesus says none are good but God alone. The second reply of Jesus is more profound. It consists of five commands which fall on the ears of the man as hammer blows. The commands are: go, sell, give, come, follow. These are also framed around the treasure to be found in heaven. Jesus comments that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom, teaching that with men it is not possible, but with God, all things are possible.
Entrance to the kingdom of God, or eternal life (salvation) is far from being easy, and it demands our best obedience and all we have. Yet, all we can do by ourselves, is not enough to achieve the life we seek, Such life eternal and wholeness in God, is possible only for God, and we can receive it only through His grace as a gift.
The rich man's reaction to the commands of Jesus was shock, gloom, and sorrow, and the reaction of the disciples was first amazement and then astonishment.
Peter (as was his way) speaks for all the disciples, seeking assurance to them that those who have answered the call of Jesus and have given up much will find reward. Jesus does not rebuke their insecurity or pride, but addresses it with His eternal promise of great rewards for those who have given of themselves to follow Him. He reveals a “hundredfold” granting of all that had been given up to those faithful ones who open their hearts and accept and follow.
Jesus looks intently at us and quietly teaches us that life is to be gained not by accumulating things but by our removing them as our primary focus of our existence here.
10:32-45
Prediction:
Jesus and His disciples are on the road to Jerusalem. Jesus is walking ahead knowing where He is going and what awaits Him there, suffering, death, and resurrection. He is determined. The disciples seem to be filled with amazement and fear. There is continued misunderstanding of His suffering to come as well as their own.
Jesus had set a child before them as a model of trust. Now, instead of following Jesus in childlike trust and lowliness, James and John use a childish strategy to try and manipulate Jesus to their own advantage. James and John are still in fantasy about the coming glory and they scheme for positions of privilege. Even though the request is inappropriate, Jesus does not rebuke them. He invites them to become more like Him.
If Jesus was a servant, how much more should His disciples be servants also?
Although the disciples are depicted here as slow learners, ambitious, and selfish, they do indeed continue to follow Him. Their relationship to Him is imperfect but is also unbroken thus far. Here is our lesson for us today as we see in this example both what we are and what we can become. To be great in His eyes we must first become humble and serve. This was the message to the rich young ruler, to His disciples, and still to us in our own time.
10:46-52
Healing Blind Bartimaeus:
The restoration of sight to this blind beggar is the last healing story in the writing of Mark. The story includes a problem (blindness in verses 46-51), a solution (the word of Jesus that “thy faith hath made thee whole”), and evidence of cure (receiving sight and following Jesus). Bartimaeus offers us a vivid case study of faith. His crying out to Jesus, even with his likely imperfect understanding of who Jesus truly is, his persistent refusal to be silenced, his bold and eager response to the call of Jesus, and his clear focus on the one thing he wanted more than anything else, all together with his anticipation that Jesus could and would grant it, are the attitudes and actions that Jesus calls faith. That his faith was genuine is seen by his desire to follow Jesus after he was healed.
This lesson is a living example of the Old Testament foretelling of it in Jeremiah 31 where the Lord promises to gather His people from the far parts of the earth and that “... among them are the blind and the lame...”. Now the new covenant is open not only to Israel and Judea but also to all who knowing their blindness, want to see, and to all who, seeing Jesus, follow Him on the way.