More Than Meets The Eye
Patrick Edwards
Mark
Mark 1:14-45
Introduction
Recently I've been binge watching a CNN documentary on the 90s. It's like five years old but it popped up on Hulu as "Something You Might Be Interested In," and they were right. Good job algorithm. It's been fun because it's mostly been repeated moments of me saying, 'Oh yeah, I remember that!' or 'I totally forgot that existed and was a thing,' Like, case in point, Magic Eye books. [Image] Do you remember those? We never bought them in our family, but I can remember one my teachers having one in class that you could look at when your work was finished.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, Magic Eye were intentionally distorted images that, when looked at in a precise way, a "hidden" 3-D image would appear to you. For a flash in a pan people were obsessed with them. There were not just the books but posters as well and then, of course, there was the official Magic Eye stance you would take: bent forward, hands-on-hips, staring—dumbfounded. Inevitably a crowd of people would form around you offering useless advice like "Cross your eyes. No, squint. Try relaxing." But then, eventually, click; it would happen. Suddenly the image would appear. And that's because every illusion is solvable, as long as you know how to look at it.
Mark's gospel and his presentation of Jesus is a little like that. As his ministry begins people don't quite know what they're looking at. And this week's passage is just the beginning. We'll see throughout Mark Jesus regularly being misunderstood, and not just by the elites of the day or the masses, but even by his own family as well as his disciples. In fact, we'll even see this morning Jesus tell those he heals not to tell anyone about his miracles. It's a theme throughout Mark's gospel that scholars often refer to as "the messianic secret." But we'll see a reason for it in both Jesus' ministry as well as in Mark's telling of his story.
Who Jesus is ...
Patrick Edwards
Mark
Mark 1:14-45
Introduction
Recently I've been binge watching a CNN documentary on the 90s. It's like five years old but it popped up on Hulu as "Something You Might Be Interested In," and they were right. Good job algorithm. It's been fun because it's mostly been repeated moments of me saying, 'Oh yeah, I remember that!' or 'I totally forgot that existed and was a thing,' Like, case in point, Magic Eye books. [Image] Do you remember those? We never bought them in our family, but I can remember one my teachers having one in class that you could look at when your work was finished.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, Magic Eye were intentionally distorted images that, when looked at in a precise way, a "hidden" 3-D image would appear to you. For a flash in a pan people were obsessed with them. There were not just the books but posters as well and then, of course, there was the official Magic Eye stance you would take: bent forward, hands-on-hips, staring—dumbfounded. Inevitably a crowd of people would form around you offering useless advice like "Cross your eyes. No, squint. Try relaxing." But then, eventually, click; it would happen. Suddenly the image would appear. And that's because every illusion is solvable, as long as you know how to look at it.
Mark's gospel and his presentation of Jesus is a little like that. As his ministry begins people don't quite know what they're looking at. And this week's passage is just the beginning. We'll see throughout Mark Jesus regularly being misunderstood, and not just by the elites of the day or the masses, but even by his own family as well as his disciples. In fact, we'll even see this morning Jesus tell those he heals not to tell anyone about his miracles. It's a theme throughout Mark's gospel that scholars often refer to as "the messianic secret." But we'll see a reason for it in both Jesus' ministry as well as in Mark's telling of his story.
Who Jesus is ...
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