One of these days I'd like to do a series on "Unmanageable Jesus". It would just examine all the people in the first half of Mark who seemed to have legitimate claims on Jesus - and yet they were resisted:
Mark 1:35-39 - Crowds seeking healing
Mark 3:21, 32-35 - His family seeking access
Mark 4:35-41 - The disciples in the storm
Mark 5:1-20 - Legion (the villagers and the demons have their requests granted, but not Legion)
Mark 5:21-43 - Jairus
Mark 6:45-52 - The disciples in a storm (again!)
Mark 7:24-30 - The Canaanite woman
Mark 8:31-33 - Peter seeking to save Jesus from the cross
That last one's the key I guess. The things of men seem so reasonable, but the things of God are a bloody cross!
I'm always tempted to think about trouble and perseverance through the lens of some abstract "sovereignty" and an impersonal plan of "suffering now, glory later." But these Gospel stories remind me of the Lordship of Jesus and His way of the cross - which I think looks (and preaches) quite different.
Anyway, I'm glad these passages are in the Bible, because it sure feels like Jesus resists my legitimate desires. A lot. Aren't we all like the Canaanite woman, stretching out our hands to Jesus, urging Him to fill them? And in that wait we've got to figure out who is Lord, what He's really like and whether it's worth pressing in. The answer is always yes, but the Gospels show us how hard-won that answer really is.
Nice post...I specially like the title Unmanageable Jesus...He is really Unmanageable for us because He is out of all our understandings.He is beyond all of us..Love your post because it explains in such a way that It force to think about each and everything about gospel...
Blessings
EXCELLENT! EXCELLENT! EXCELLENT!
The "Unmanageable Jesus" is just who he continues to be.
Simon Peter rejected the knowledge of God in Christ’s characteristic death on the cross as worthless. He did not recover easily from his devastation (Matt. 16: 13-23)
There is no end in sight.