Mark 3:7-10 - Tares Among the Wheat

Mark 3:7-10
7 Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples; and a great multitude from Galilee followed; and also from Judea, 8 and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard of all that He was doing and came to Him. 9 And He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd Him; 10 for He had healed many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around Him in order to touch Him.

Message: Tares Among the Wheat

Time: Mark's personal connection with Peter gave him the source material for this book. This book was composed probably between AD 57 and AD 59. It's a book that is on the move, leading to the cross. 39 times is the word 'immediately' used. Mark reveals Jesus as God's servant, reaching into the lives of people and effecting physical and circumstantial change.

What the Lord is Saying: 

It is clear from Mark's gospel that Jesus desires to preach the gospel. Mark 1:14-15 spoke of Jesus and his desire to preach the gospel, repent and believe. In addition to hearing the Gospel, this also showed Jesus' power. Healing people attracted many crowds of people. Yet, as was seen in Mark 1:35-38, Jesus went away to a secluded place to pray and then mentioned to the disciples that they could go to Capernaum so he could preach more. Jesus was obviously not opposed to healing people, but he wanted to see people come to understand the gospel. 

In the gospels we continue to read different healings he performed.  In Mark 3:1, it was healing a man with a withered hand and it happened to be on the Sabbath. .Much of chapter 2 is about Jesus' message being a new message, that was different from the traditions of the past and working on the Sabbath is an example. People missed the message because they were caught up in the ritual of Sabbath keeping and abstaining from work. There is clearly a tendency in people to not be in relationship with Jesus, but instead be about duty and rules. And this passage also emphasizes the danger of following Jesus only to be around the supernatural.

As recorded in today's passage, in Mark 3:7-8 we see a great multitude....followed and how a great number of people heard of all that He was doing. Notice the passage is not speaking of what he said, but rather what he did. Mark mentions here that they weren't coming in masses because of what Jesus was saying, but rather, people heard of all that He was doing. It was his healing that often drew the crowd. There is no problem with this, but do people just want immediate healing or do they want their sins forgiven and their life changed even more by repenting and believing? Can people see the heart of the matter? 

This is my take from this passage for it continues to say -- And He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd Him. Jesus wanted to get on his way. for He had healed many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around Him in order to touch Him. It seems that Jesus desired to preach more than people simply touching him.

Do we just come to Jesus because he will take care of our current ailments? For me, what prompted me to come to Jesus was a fear of death. I was scared of what would happen to me when I die, so by trusting in Jesus I could know for sure that I would go to heaven. But, then I grew to understand better that coming to Jesus is to make me clean from the stain of my sin. In the same way, I think Jesus wants to give people the message of true repentance. 

We need to evaluate our motives for coming to Jesus. The gospel should be at the forefront of our reason for coming to him. For instance, currently, I don't have any nagging ailments or problems or diseases in my life. I don't have any big discomforts. Life is good and fairly problem free. I wonder if my life was different, if my approach to things would be different. I sure hope it wouldn't, but it is hard to say when life gets surrounded by pain and discomfort. I know that cold that I had for the last 2 weeks, I just wanted it out of my life as quick as possible and so went to the doctor 2 days ago, got the medicine and now I'm feeling better. Even my foot that has been a problem since August is now doing better. But many live with hurts and heartaches most of their life. Like my friend Scott, and yet he remains in right relationship with you. So I can understand the problem that is in Jesus' day and our day as well and how people just want to get relieved of their discomfort. But we need to look at Jesus and his message - repent and believe. We need to be reminded that our chief desire is to turn from our sin. Forgiveness is what we need.

Promise: Let us live our lives doing the things that matter most, ministry, discipleship, serving, loving God and desiring to give glory to Him in all we do and trust Him with our life. And then trust him for the outcomes of our lives.

Prayer: Lord, you are good and glorious. I pray that I would be reminded each day to come to you with a desire to repent, believe and continue to follow you. I thank you for this message. I continue to stumble at times. I continue to struggle with just wanting personal satisfaction and joy and entertainment. I want what I think is due to me and along the way sin can creep into my life. Help me to honor you, even in the private and quiet moments, when no one is looking. I want to be a true disciple, not just one when everything seems easy.