Essential Questions: Following the Way of Jesus By Examining What He Asked in Mark 8-10

By Scott Jeffrey Perkins

Discipleship is movement. Being a disciple is a progression on the way toward a fuller understanding of who Jesus is and what is involved in following him. Along the way that Jesus guided his disciples they encountered disappointment, suffering, death, and ultimately were led to new life.

Everyone was unseeing as to who Jesus was and neith

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Academy Elite
• Release date: Jan 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647460334

Scott Jeffrey Perkins

Scott Perkins is a discipleship coach, author and speaker. His passion is to help others understand their identity in Christ and discover their next step on the way of the disciple. In order to do this he utilizes questions that enable the person being coached to develop a next step that suits their unique circumstance. Scott lives outside of Orlando, FL with his wife Missy. They have one daughter who is finding her way at university. Connect at PerkinsPerspectives.com

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Essential Questions

Following the Way of Jesus By Examining What He Asked in Mark 8-10

Scott Perkins

Copyright © 2020 by Scott Perkins

All rights reserved.

Cover design by Debbie O’Byrne

Visit the author’s website at PerkinsPerspectives.com

Published by Author Academy Elite

P.O. Box 43, Powell, OH 43035

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64746-031-0

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-64746-032-7

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-64746-033-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019918651

Thanks Mom.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction Do You Still Not Understand?

Chapter 1 Do you see anything?

Chapter 2 Who Do You Say I Am?

Chapter 3 What Can You Give In Exchange For Your Soul?

Chapter 4 Why Then Is It Written That the Son of Man Must Suffer Much and Be Rejected?

Chapter 5 How Long Has He Been Like This?

Chapter 6 What Were You Arguing About On the Road?

Chapter 7 How Can You Make Salt Salty Again?

Chapter 8 What Did Moses Command You?

Chapter 9 Why Do You Call Me Good?

Chapter 10 What Do You Want Me to Do for You?

Conclusion Who Will Roll the Stone Away from the Entrance of the Tomb?

Appendix A The Tree of Lies vs. The Tree of Life

Appendix B One Another Statements Found in the Bible

Appendix C Also by Scott Perkins

Appendix D Help with Developing Your Root

Selected Bibliography

About Scott Perkins

Acknowledgements

While we like to convince ourselves otherwise, nothing that we do in life is accomplished alone. We stand on the shoulders of others for support and are influenced by the circumstances of life.

This book has been three years in the making. Having had just finished my first book, Tree of Lies, I had been asked to fill in for a pastor who wanted to take his first vacation in eight years. Filling in for pastors who need to take a week or two (or three) off for rest is a passion of mine. This passion stems from my failure to be able separate myself and rest when I worked in church vocationally.

So I needed an idea for a three week series. During this same stretch, I had just started reading Urgings of the Heart by Wilkie Au and Noreen Cannon in which they mention in passing that Mark 8:22-10:52 is considered a literary unit. I love learning new things, and this intrigued me. The three week series, Essential Questions, was born.

A year later, the same pastor wanted to take another vacation (I guess rest is good!), and having such a wealth of questions that I had made notes on, I decided to continue the series. It was in choosing these next three questions that I realized that I could pick all of them from the unit in Mark. Doing that appealed my linear thinking. Fast forward one more year and I was asked back one more time, only this time the invitation was accompanied by several emails of encouragement from a few of the church members who anticipated my return to please do more essential questions. This caused me to realize that maybe this topic was a help for more than just me.

For that reason, I’d like to start by thanking the people of Restoration Church in Port Orange, Florida for the space to develop the idea and the encouragement to keep digging into it.

When I decided to pursue crafting a book from the content, my wife, Missy, and daughter, Sarah, were enormously encouraging and helpful in getting me off the couch to write. Putting together a book is a time consuming task. Thanks to the both of you for your love and understanding.

This book was edited by Precy Larkins, and, as I said in the acknowledgments of the first book, this book is so much better because of what you provided. Again I am sorry because the proper use of commas eludes me. It made me so happy when I would read a note you left because something I wrote charged you up.

The beautiful cover was provided by Debbie O’Byrne. Thank you so much for being extremely easy to work with and doing such quick, quality work.

I have been blessed by God to have a community that is supportive. My Mom, Dad and in-laws cheered me on and gave me energy when (multiple times) I wondered if I was doing anything the world needed in writing this book.

In particular, I’d like to thank the group that read along as I wrote. The input and observations you gave made me think things through and made the result magnitudes better than it would have been. So, thank you Sean McCormick, Joe McLeod, Paul Pletcher, Elaine Packard, Becca Tussing, and Kim Thomas. You all are amazing friends.

I hope you, the reader, enjoy this book. Even more, my prayer is that the content and questions will have you thinking more deeply and seriously about your faith and how to live the way of Jesus in this world.

Introduction

Do You Still Not Understand?

An essential question for every follower of Jesus.

Mark 8:14-21

I have always liked the story of Jesus related to us by Mark. It is relatively easy to read in one sitting. The story moves very fast from scene to scene. Historically, this has been a cause for the dismissal of Mark as just a summary of Matthew as opposed to being an account of Jesus’ ministry with its own purpose.

While we usually encounter the book of Mark as readers, it was written to an audience who would have been listeners.¹ The reader or hearer of Mark’s gospel is let in on who Jesus is in the very first verse, and Jesus himself appears on the scene just a few short verses later. What’s missing from Mark is the birth account, any mention of Jesus’ childhood, and details about John the Baptist’s origin or of Jesus’ temptation. It feels like Mark wants to get right to the point and does not have time to waste. Because of this, the book of Mark feels like a gospel account that is perfect for our age of sound bites, social media snippets, and short attention spans.

In addition, Mark’s writing is good literature. Rather than a summary of Matthew’s gospel, there is a definite structure and style employed throughout. From my vantage point, I see three modules composing the book of Mark. After stating at the beginning of the gospel that the subject is Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,² the first section extends to approximately the middle of chapter eight and is primarily concerned with who Jesus is. This section is packed with accounts of miracles and confrontations with the powers that stand in opposition to the establishment of the kingdom of God.

The second major section of Mark extends from 8:22 to 10:52 and is often called the discipleship segment. In these chapters, Jesus focuses most of his attention on the disciples. It is here that Jesus reveals both the way of the cross and the way of discipleship. In three statements of successive clarity, Jesus predicts his suffering and death. Those who are following Jesus are forced to confront their expectations of the Messiah.

Finally, chapters 11 through 16 zoom in on Jesus’ last seven days in Jerusalem: the Passion of Jesus Christ and sacrifice that was necessary to open the gates of the Kingdom to the world. Up until this last section, the flow of time has been difficult to discern. Mark does not write a blow-by-blow biography in the style that we are accustomed to; rather he has arranged stories thematically.

The composition of Mark has been likened to a necklace of individual pearls strung together.³ This is an interesting metaphor that was originally intended to highlight the seeming lack of linear structure. I have some friends who are jewelry makers. Whether they are creating a piece with beads, gems, pearls or something else, each piece is picked intentionally to complement its neighbor and create a beautiful whole. While Mark’s writing is not linear with regard to time, there is a clear progression and purpose in how the stories of Jesus and his disciples are arranged. The hearer or reader is being moved along the way.

Tradition tells us that Mark was a disciple of the apostle Peter in Rome and that what Mark has saved for us was either dictated to him by Peter or was recorded by Mark after Peter’s death so that the teaching would endure. Modern scholarship has brought this hypothesis into question, but it seems to be generally agreed that Mark was the earliest gospel and closest in time to the life of Christ. It is how Peter is portrayed throughout the gospel that convinces me that Mark has some ties to Peter. Among other mentions, Peter is singled out for his lack of faith in joining Jesus walking on water, for his misunderstanding when confessing Jesus as the Christ, for not knowing what to say and blurting out foolishness during Jesus’ transfiguration, and for his ultimate denial during Jesus’ trial. For one held in such high regard by the early church, this would be an almost libelous portrayal if a relationship between Mark and Peter had not existed.

Regardless of the author’s relationship to Peter, it has commonly been posited that the audience Mark was writing to was under some sort of persecution, which accounts for the intense pace of this gospel and the confrontational nature of the stories. This book teaches the disciple to follow the way of Jesus in the face of opposition. Through an analysis of the themes that Mark brings to the surface, another type of audience may be discerned: one that is distracted by comfort.⁴ This could be a church community that has lost its way and purpose. Rather than confront the patterns of the world, these people have become content to live aligned with the values and dynamics of the culture in which they live. These are not necessarily mutually exclusive views on the audience. An audience that had been lulled into a false sense of comfort would be unlikely, unwilling, or unable to confront those who stand in opposition to the values of the kingdom of God.

This is why Mark is a book that is so relevant and valuable for us—for the followers of Jesus who have become comfortable with and are blinded by the trappings of Western culture. We have become a church divided by the priorities of the world systems of power, relationships, and consumption. Values like material prosperity, popularity, consumerism, control, nationalism, sexual fulfillment, humanism, perfectionism, and autonomy have trumped the values of Jesus’ kingdom.

We have become satisfied with the way things are.

Mark’s gospel was written as a narrative of spiritual formation for people living in a Christian community. His primary objective was pastoral: to build up his readers as Christians and show them what true discipleship is.⁵ Like us, that community was struggling to understand how to live as disciples in the reality of the resurrection of Jesus. The Jesus that Mark portrays confronts the apathy, confusion, and blindness that result from seeking to belong to the wrong kingdom. Urgency is inherent in the message because of the reality of conflict and presence of opposition. There is direction because there is a Way.

What we see Jesus confront in his group of twelve is alive in us as well. The same guidance is relevant now to wake us from our comfortable discipleship.

The Tools of Confrontation

It’s surprising to me how infrequently Jesus answers questions. According to one source, Jesus asked 183 different questions of the disciples, the crowd, the Pharisees, and political leaders. Contrast that to the number of questions he directly answered, which was fewer than ten.⁶

Good questions have a way of challenging our thinking. They force the hearer to process information and to determine what reality is. A question can shape perspective. Questions can give direction and help to reframe and redirect problems, as well as give the recipient the ability to own the answer.

All of us naturally develop habits in our thinking, and questions that are asked with discernment allow us to break out of these ruts. There’s a sense of discovery that comes from answering a question in a relationship, and the questioning process can build trust and intimacy as each participant seeks to be truly known. In what we will see, Jesus demonstrates the ability to ask questions that cut to the heart of those who are following him.

This stands in contrast to what we tend to do in teaching and directing. Learned from an early age, our tendency is to tell somebody what they should do. Telling is a way to demonstrate what you know. While there’s certainly a place for communicating instruction and information, when we overly rely on this mode of teaching, it becomes a form of control. In the course of developing the mindset of telling others what we think they need to know, we become closed off to the other person because this method takes relationship out of the learning process.

Even in the event that we do utilize questions, we are often guilty of asking with an answer already in mind. Instead of allowing the hearer to develop understanding, we use this type of interaction as a way to communicate that they are wrong. Rather than discovery and growth, these types of questions can become a vehicle for control and shame.

In our culture that values perfectionism, being right, and instant information, questions are seen as a sign of weakness. Using questions to guide and teach is underused because it feels like we’re giving up authority. Quite the opposite is true; allowing others to form their own conclusions is a demonstration of confidence.

A good question is a mirror that allows the hearer to develop new ways of seeing and therefore know themselves better. Therein lies the power to the one who is asking. It is the ability to shape and direct. Control lies in giving answers, wisdom lies in asking them.

Addressing Non-Understanding

Those who are following Jesus have been handpicked with the purpose of being the seeds to spread the gospel. Yet, they’re finding it difficult to overcome their expectations of the Messiah. The Jewish religious leaders and people of that time were expecting a great military victor who was going to free Israel and restore the nation to its glory under King David. These expectations had been imposed upon Jesus’ disciples by the culture and sustained by their own broken nature.

As proposed earlier, the first segment of Mark establishes Jesus’ identity and is packed with miracles. It demonstrates confrontation of the spiritual, religious, and political powers that opposed God and his Kingdom. As Jesus performs miracles in this section, a theme of non-understanding begins to emerge among the disciples. Despite Jesus’ actions and private teaching of this small group, they are still blinded by their hopes for themselves in the upcoming Kingdom.

In Mark’s narrative, this inability to see comes to a climax at the beginning of chapter 8. Jesus has just fed a crowd of four thousand by starting with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. For those witnessing it, there must have been some recollection of God feeding the Israelites with manna while in the desert during the Exodus. Jesus had just given the crowds a sign of the wholeness found in the kingdom of God.

Even beyond that, there were seven baskets of bread left over. No one left hungry, everyone was satisfied, and yet there was bread for more. This is a sign that Jesus was greater than the needs of the crowd. To top it all off, this is not the first time the disciples had witnessed Jesus miraculously feed a crowd.⁷

In his intentional stringing together of stories about Jesus, Mark contrasts this feeding miracle (and all the miracles of the first section) with the maddening, blinding arrogance of the Pharisees. They ask for a sign from heaven.⁸ Having most recently performed a miracle that alluded to God providing manna⁹ from heaven, Jesus turns around and walks away.

With this as context, we enter into a transition scene between the first and second sections of Mark. Jesus is giving private instruction to his small group of disciples as a response to the opposition of the Pharisees. Will the disciples understand Jesus’ frustration with the demand for a sign?

Here is how it goes in Mark 8:14-21:

The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. Be careful, Jesus warned them. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. They discussed this with one another and said, It is because we have no bread. Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? Twelve, they replied.