just reading in mark tonight and something caught my attention. in chapter 10, jesus is hanging out near the jordan in judea, just teachin' a little bit and fielding questions from the pharisees. V. 10 says 'in the house his disciples asked...' so i've got this great little image of jesus totally hanging out with a big group of people at someones home. a pretty intimate yet social setting. disciples, pharisees, little munchkins running around, the whole shebang. but what really caught my attention was verse 13: "then they brought little children to him that he might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who broke them." the disciples rebuked those who brought them. jeezy's posse was pissy that someone brought the kids. jesus' homeboyz were irritated not only by the children, but by the people that brought them. but the thing that sticks out the most is that this is JESUS' DISCIPLES!!!!! his main men! his bosom buds! his crew! the boys who had his back, or vice versa. again, as often shown in mark, these dang disciples are just plain dense. do they even really get who jesus is at this point?! even witnessing his miracles first hand, being given authority to heal and cast out demons from the jeezy himself, and seeing His love and patience and awesomeness in the flesh, they still didn't get it. thats what i love about the book of mark. it shows that jesus' closest followers were just as flawed as we are. they don't always get it. they question the lord, they rebuke the seemingly obvious faith of others. and he still kept them around. i'm baffled. it says jesus was greatly displeased with his disciples. he's been disappointed yet again, and by his closest of friends. how often do we keep 'friends' around that are so dense, in which we get so frustrated with, that can't see our depth or intelligence, or recognize our ability to do good works. we seriously need to immulate jesus' patience with his friends. but i just think its important to note that the disciples seemed to be constantly screwing things up. but that just shows that they were real people.
more or less the point of this post has nothing to do with that. thats just something i love to notice in the book of mark specifically. the purpose of this post was to get the image of the lord, in this crowded room with closest friends, likely unrefined, average intelligence fishermen; mixed in with a bunch of highly educated folks, some of the townspeople and their kids. and verse 16 paints a beautiful picture: "and he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them." jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world...
i love it. i can picture jesus now, hanging out in Ambo with all the kids from the kale haewit church and school, not getting frustrated with them just asking like kids, but instead, praying with them and loving on them. thats so hard to do, but dang, what a great image.
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