Friday, March 16, 2018

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Grow Pray Study Guide in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Friday, 16 March 2018 "In Judea, Jesus' enemies began to test him" Mark 10:1-16

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Grow Pray Study Guide in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Friday, 16 March 2018 "In Judea, Jesus' enemies began to test him" Mark 10:1-16
Daily Scripture
Mark 10:1 Then Yeshua left that place and went into the regions of Y’hudah and the territory beyond the Yarden. Again crowds gathered around him; and again, as usual, he taught them. 2 Some P’rushim came up and tried to trap him by asking him, “Does the Torah permit a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He replied, “What did Moshe command you?” 4 They said, “Moshe allowed a man to hand his wife a get and divorce her.”[Mark 10:4 Deuteronomy 24:1, 3] 5 But Yeshua said to them, “He wrote this commandment for you because of your hardheartedness. 6 However, at the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.[Mark 10:6 Genesis 1:27, 5:2] 7 For this reason, a man should leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, 8 and the two are to become one flesh.[Mark 10:8 Genesis 2:24] Thus they are no longer two, but one. 9 So then, no one should break apart what God has joined together.” 10 When they were indoors once more, the talmidim asked him about this. 11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against his wife; 12 and if a wife divorces her husband and marries another man, she too commits adultery.”
13 People were bringing children to him so that he might touch them, but the talmidim rebuked those people. 14 However, when Yeshua saw it, he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me, don’t stop them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 Yes! I tell you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it!” 16 And he took them in his arms, laid his hands on them, and made a b’rakhah over them.  (Complete Jewish Bible)
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Reflection Questions
“Into the region of Judea” meant Jesus was getting close to Jerusalem. In that territory, he met more of his opponents. They tried to entangle him in a rabbinic debate over how to apply Deuteronomy 24:1. Some rabbis taught that Deuteronomy allowed divorce for any offense—even burning breakfast! It was in the Bible, they said, so it must be what God wanted. But Jesus looked at the whole Bible, not just a verse here and there, and taught a higher, more loving ideal based on the creation story in Genesis 2.
  • The Roman world around Israel scoffed at the idea that sex meant anything more than physical release. Jesus’ statement of the creation story’s ideal went against many people’s ideas, within Israel as well as beyond it. Later the apostle Paul taught Jesus’ ideal (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:12-20). In what ways does the idea of honoring God with your body run counter to much cultural thinking today about sex? What helps you “avoid sexual immorality”?
  • Some people see Mark 10:11-12 as making any remarriage after divorce wrong. But when Matthew expanded on Mark’s account, he added that Jesus stated a “faithfulness” exception (cf. Matthew 19:9). Paul saw abandonment as another valid reason for divorce (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:15). And Jesus' outreach to an oft-married woman (cf. John 4:16-26) showed that nothing in our past cuts us off from God’s grace and love. What makes it important to know that God never wants anyone stuck in a severely hurtful marriage? Given that, why is there value in making and seeking to keep marriage vows with integrity? 
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you were on earth because of what the psalmist called your “steadfast love.” You lived out, in ways harder than I’ll ever have to, the ideal of faithfulness. Help me live that way too. Amen.
Read today's Insight by Ginger Rothhaas
Ginger is a graduate of Saint Paul School of Theology. She and her husband Rob have a son, a daughter, and a high energy dog. She loves writing, conversations over coffee, and teaching spiritual classes.
In Mark’s version of the gospel, he portrays the disciples as followers who continue to miss the point of who Jesus really is. They keep trying to understand miracles, healings, visions, and teachings within their frame of reference, but it is just too narrow to honor what they are really witnessing.
As I read of their foibles, I keep thinking Jesus is going to take them by the shoulders and say, “You are missing the big picture! You are thinking too small!!” But instead, he offers illustrations, parables, questions, and nudges them toward their own realizations.
When they ask which one of us is greater….
Think bigger.
When they ask about the rules and laws…
Think bigger.
When they shoo away the children drawn to Jesus like little love magnets….
Think bigger.
And the lesson for us today:
In our doubt, confusion, selfishness, and worries of minutia...
Think bigger.
When we begin to label, judge, or protect our own interests at the expense of others...
Think bigger.
Before we use words of exclusion to deny a person’s faith or shoo away the bothersome...
Think bigger.
As you wonder about your individual callings and purpose to serve the world...
Think bigger.
It’s time to stop our small thinking and open our minds and hearts to the power of love over fear.
A world in desperate need of love, and the Lord who loved that world enough to die for it, is calling each of us to think bigger!
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011.
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