*Many of these verses are repeats of events from Matthew, so I am going to focus on only the verses that I haven't previously discussed.
6:6 - He marveled at there unbelief! We saw a few instances from Matthew where Jesus marveled at a person's faith, and here we see the polar opposite coming from the people of his hometown. Jesus has been surrounded by unbelief throughout his life (Everywhere he goes, I'm sure who knows who doesn't believe in God), yet these people are in such a bad place he MARVELS at how lame their faith is...he is in awe of their ignorance! Sometimes it is the people who know us best that have the hardest time understanding when God brings changes into our lives...never let someone else's unbelief about your ability to change affect how God is reforming you. Fight on!
6:16 - Strange verse, huh? People are wondering who this guys Jesus is. Some say he is Elijah reborn...some say he is a prophet...even King Herod chimes in and says, "Maybe he is John the Baptist (Who I beheaded!) reborn!" That is what this verse means - it means Herod thinks Jesus is the resurrected John the Baptist...I guess he didn't know much about them growing up as relatives and John baptizing Jesus, etc. The sad part is that Herod is so close, yet so far. We can see that he kinda likes John...John is one of the few men on earth who will tell Herod how it is...who will tell him what needs to change in his life. I think he knows that Herod is a prophet of God, but his beheading of John the Baptist after making the stupidest vow the world has ever known (Half my kingdom for a little dance - that must have been one killer dance...the Macarena perhaps?) kinda shows how much Herod cares about God (Not at all). He even sees that the message and the ministry of Jesus is very similar to John's, but he doesn't check it out...he never takes it further than that, and he misses out on redemption. He ends up thinking, "Uh, I guess Jesus is John reborn...that's nice, now I'll go on with my life." How many people do we know that think Jesus is...a great teacher, good guy, nice man, cool dude, etc...but they never lean in to get a closer look to see how life-changing the big picture of who Jesus is can be? I hope that we as Christians can live out Christ in such a way, that we bring Jesus into the lives of people who are apart from Him so that they can see the truth for themselves.
6:42 - Taste and see the Lord is good - he offers us more than enough to be satisfied - he offers a food that will never allow us to be hungry again and living water that will quench the desperate longing of our soul...eat it up...drink it in...he is good.
2 comments:
Something that is probably not very well noticed at the end of verse 48 – “He intended to go right by them.” (The Message) It says that “He (Jesus) could see his men struggling with the oars, the wind having come up against them.” (48)
With all of this going on, he was going to just keep going. But the Dirty Dozen noticed Him and started screaming like little girls about a ghost on the water. I have to tell ya – I’d been right there with them – I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen too many people just take a stroll across a storm tossed lake.
But since they did see Him and lost their focus on rowing, He stopped and it says that “Jesus was quick to comfort them: "Courage! It's me. Don't be afraid." As soon as he climbed into the boat, the wind died down.” (50-51)
There’s a whole world of things that could be said about how Jesus first intended to pass by the disciples. I have no clue why He wouldn’t stop and help them at first. Maybe it was because they were focused on their task and didn’t need His help (yes we all need His help – but He also gave us talents to do things – like row). After freaking out, their focus was lost – and they would have been too. But in the end, I am still not sure why he didn’t intend to stop.
Again – just one of the plethora of things I have picked up in re-reading the Word another time.
Peace,
j
Herod's response to Jesus, and the possibility of him being Herod, is intriguing because, as you said Brandon, he simply says, "It could be. Well, see ya later." And then he just moves on with his life. The more I get into this thing with Christ, the farther I want to be from going through the motions. I've noticed that I am starting to fall more and more in love with Jesus Christ, and it's changing some things in me. It is not enough to know about him.
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