This week's readings are all from Mark chapters 3-4. Click here to see a list of each day's readings. Each day's segments of the readings will be posted on this site during the week.
Today's Reading:
Jesus was going through the grain fields on a Sabbath, and his disciples began to pick some heads of wheat as
Then Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they could accuse him. So he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Stand up among all these people.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or evil, to save a life or destroy it?” But they were silent. After looking around at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. So the Pharisees went out immediately and began plotting with the Herodians, as to how they could assassinate him.
Then Jesus went away with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him. And from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan River, and around Tyre and Sidon a great multitude came to him when they heard about the things he had done. Because of the crowd, he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him so the crowd would not press toward him. For he had healed many, so that all who were afflicted with diseases pressed toward him in order to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” But he sternly ordered them not to make him known. (Mark 3:1–12 NET)
The previous translation is from the NET Bible translation. Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996, 2019 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
Resources for the Reading
- Mark Chapter 3 Podcast
- Parallel passages in the other Gospels.
- LUMO video for Mark 3 in ESV
I'm grateful that Mark includes a clarifying phrase after he tells us Jesus is angry -- because he is grieved by their hardness of heart -- so that we don't have to speculate on the source of His anger. The added phrase also slows me down a bit and helps me keep the bigger picture in mind -- that of Jesus trying to shed light on the ways man's rules get God's heart wrong. And in this instance it frustrates Him that they choose their rules over the good of helping someone. 🙁
I was just going to post that I connected with the same language. Grief and anger being tethered here is a great insight into the heart of Jesus.
@shelley-johnson & @jralphsmith, do you think it is difficult or easy for people to picture an angry Jesus?
@jimmy in my experience, it's very hard to see Jesus as angry. Maybe because we equate anger with sin? Yet we know Jesus was sinless. Or maybe because we think of love -- and Jesus is love -- as only a soft, sweet, giving emotion? We forget love does the hard things too.
Maybe because we equate anger with sin?
That's interesting isn't it? How we do that. How we make things sins that aren't?
I also wonder, coming from another angle, if there are people who automatically see God or Jesus from an angry perspective. That God or Jesus are maybe even always angry at people. It's especially difficult to talk about Jesus' anger in that context, because it may be difficult for people to get past that viewpoint.
@jimmy yes! That too! It's so hard to shake narratives about Jesus that have been part of our growing up experiences -- even if they are false narratives. But, that's why we read Scripture together, yes? To try to see who God really is. And Jesus is our very best way to do so.
@shelley-johnson:
that's why we read Scripture together, yes? To try to see who God really is. And Jesus is our very best way to do so.
YES!
The Greek word for "accuse" in 3:2 is katēgoreō. We get the English word "category" or "categorize" from this word. In Greek it means to blame or accuse, or to make an allegation against, so the meaning is different between the Greek and English. As the usage of the word developed and moved from language to language, it's meaning shifted from "accusation", to "judging", to "judging/evaluating for the purpose of organizing," etc.
However, when I see this word in Greek, I also think the scribes were seeking to categorize Jesus as someone they could ignore, cast out, or oppose. How often do I do this? How often do I accuse someone in my heart so that I can categorize them in some way? By doing so, how often am I missing the person as an image of God in front of me and how often am I missing a potential work or movement of God to meet the needs of the world?
Jesus was fully God and fully man. To me the human side of him could easily be angry with people who have rejected his Father so many times, and who can’t seem to get it even when he comes among them as the Son.