Don't Be Fooled--Jesus' Miracles in Mark Are Not to Show He is the Messiah

I'm really excited about uh the zoom meeting that we're going to have I call it the zoom room because we can have several hundred people gathered together but there's an intimacy to it it's like gathered around the screen and if you turn your video on we can see you you don't have to we won't make you show your face uh but uh then we're going to screen questions for a couple of hours and it's going to be a dialogue and we have really perceptive people that listen to our YouTube channels we know that from their questions and uh quite a few have taken this course and we think quite a few more will uh before March 5th and if you do sign up for the course then you'll get the invitation it's a private invitation and as Derek said if if we run out of time we'll go about two hours people have to rest after a while but if we haven't gotten all the questions we'll just schedule another session so it's it's going to be interesting very seldom is this kind of thing done it's almost like I would have you in a classroom a lot I used to teach classes of a hundred sometimes more than at 150 and you would be with me in class but then there would be a q a q a class I used to teach Monday Wednesday Friday on Friday we would open up to everybody what we had covered and that's sort of what we're doing here in the sense that we're compressing it together but as to your question Derek that we want to talk about today in this short little overview you'd think Miracles are to prove Jesus is the Christ right and yet in mark they're not they're actually to disprove he's the Messiah now I'm being purposely provocative but let me stand by that statement the reason is the concept that the Messiah you're gonna get if you go by The Miracles is a false Messiah it's a false concept so yes Jesus is the Messiah and mark the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ or Jesus the Messiah that's how it begins that's the secret though you understand and as you take the course you begin to realize wait a minute this is not Matthew this is not Luke obviously in Matthew and Luke these prohibitions don't tell what I've done don't say who I am and even this rebuking of Peter and calling him Satan uh get behind me Satan Luke takes all that out but Mark if Mark is the original story that's what I call it creating Jesus why Mark was forgotten so what do you have in Mark you got 22 Miracles here they are ready for exorcisms 11 healings six other kinds of Wonders that could be like multiplying the lows and the fishes twice walking on water calming the storm and one raising of the dead so that's a pretty good repertoire 22 miracles in mark but the question who then is this predominates when those Miracles are done for example when Jesus calms the storm the disciples who don't get it by the way anywhere in mark you know what what they say they go who then is this that even the wind and the Sea obeys him now if you have the view of this powerful Messiah who is the Messiah because he can calm a storm like they do and they're amazed wow this is amazing who's this guy then you're not understanding what it means to be the anointed one or the chosen one and that's the secret in Mark Peter does not get it in fact he immediately when he does confess Jesus as the Christ in Mark chapter 8. Jesus says okay you said it don't tell anybody but do you get it and he doesn't get it because when Jesus tells him what it really means you know what Peter says he rebukes Jesus imagine Peter rebukes Jesus and Mark and and in effect I think said something like no no no no you've got it all wrong I said you were the Messiah so you say the idea the he was going by The Miracles and this is halfway through the book climax Huda men say that I am most readers fall for that most readers are like Peter they think oh it's finally out he's the Messiah Glory Hallelujah And yet when Jesus explains as he continues to do throughout the book what that means you realize the Miracles have nothing to do with understanding the real mission of Jesus part of it's the Hellenistic World Derek you've done a lot on this you know the Divine man idea in the Hellenistic world let's take apollonius of Tiana I know he's later than Jesus tons of Miracles very similar to Jesus so is he the guy you should follow is he the ultimate teacher Mark was aware there are also rabbinic figures of this time only the circle jar and others who could command weather and stuff cause rain to come like Elijah and in fact in you know in the Hebrew Bible Elijah works all of these Miracles even raises the dead right so lots of people in the Greek and the Jewish world are prepared to think well if a guy can do that then that's who you want to listen to and yet Jesus says continually don't don't tell that don't spread that yes I can do it by the authority of God but that's not the message that's not the understanding of what a messiah is so clearly most of I think even people listening here without the course know that it has something to do with his suffering but it's more than that it actually is uh you know the last two Miracles have to do with healing two blind people and one deaf person now I'm not saying they're symbolic they're narrated as if they happened one is right before he reveals the secret to the disciples three times and they don't get it they don't get it this is Mark chapter 8 Mark chapter nine Mark chapter 10. that's the blind man where he touches them twice he touches him twice remember and at first he doesn't see and then he sees and then after that in chapter 10 he heals another blind man and he does see and he also hears it heals a deaf man so the inner meaning of that for Mark is okay Jesus can heal a blind person who cannot see a deaf person who cannot hear but can he heal you if you can't see if you can't hear if you can't understand the secret of the Kingdom you see it makes it so amazing and fascinating in fact when his enemies come up and say uh give us a sign that's the typical understanding in the Hellenistic Greek and Jewish world what would make you a really great figure a messiah a leader you know somebody that people should look to a great teacher a great philosopher well it would be give us a sign especially in the Jewish culture if you're going to be the Messiah you got you got to be able to do stuff work miracles right you know what Jesus says there will be no sign given to this generation now wait a minute wasn't he giving signs the whole time and now he says there'll be no sign given it's not that he stopped doing Miracles he kept on but those were not the signs of the Messiah that's what Mark's telling you you're not going to get a sign if you want to understand who the Messiah is no sign again I hate to keep jumping on Matthew and Luke but as they rewrite Mark and override it and reinterpret it and take things out and put things in you know what Matthew says there'll be no sign given except the sign of Jonah of the resurrection of Jesus think about it Mark says no sign Matthews wait a minute so I don't think Matthew understands mark you know because he basically just contradicted what Jesus said there'll be no sign given but and Mark just says there'll be no sign given and it says he turned and walked away and just let them you know said you guys are out you don't get it so uh that's just one of the many mysteries of Mark it makes it such a fascinating uh story gospel however you view it you know people who are very conservative and Evangelical take this course remember I've taught it for decades and many times in my classes especially at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte it's the we call it the Bible Belt right we're in the South most of my students that sign up for a Bible course they're Bible Believers they're Christians they want to study Mark and you know what once they get into it and begin to see that what I'm teaching is directly from the text they love it and they go and teach the things from Mark because they feel that they're finally understanding something that Mark has that is different from just opening her Bible Matthew Mark Luke John and just reading at random lots of times I've heard preachers say over the years uh well let's talk about Jesus's parable of the sower uh I think I'll use Matthew today you see as if you know it's just like a cafeteria you want to use Luke you want to use Matthew whatever you want to use it doesn't matter this is abusing the gospels critical means carefully reading each one now we're going to have courses later on Matthew and Luke so just because they don't understand Mark doesn't mean that they can't also be studied academically with great value because they're representing other stages and understandings as Christianity began to shape and form itself and emerge but I want to go to the earliest this is the earliest and you know Derek it has been forgotten because all these things I'm talking about I never heard them growing up I just heard a mishmash of everything put together and that's not the way to carefully study the Bible be sure to sign up for the mark course I hope that everybody who's watching this takes the time to go sign up because we're doing a live q a on March the 5th that Sunday and we'll probably do some future ones if things really get exciting and we get tons of questions from those who view it thank you [Music]

Channel: James Tabor

Views: 33,063

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Id: hFuTdWLN0-k

Length: 11min 44sec (704 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 26 2023