God saw from His place all that had become of this world that He created. It had started out perfect, but within just a little while, man chose his way over God's and eventually we came to the place where God saw how depraved we were, (are) and knew we needed a solution. His plan? Jesus.
Jesus was the answer to our battle with the sinful nature. I can only imagine what people thought of Him at first however. Here he was, a "normal" baby, except for the fact that before He was even one He had had a following of kings! And, He preached talked about the things of God in the temple even as a young boy. I tried to picture my 5 year old talking about the deep aspects of scripture, I can only imagine what His befuddled parents must of thought. They understood that He was special (Jesus) but they did not understand the whole plan. I found it amazing that as Jesus began His ministry (derived from the first three chapters of Mark) that even in the very first chapter of Mark, a demon, who recognized Jesus (I imagine because they saw each other at some point in the heavenly realms) and before any of the human audience really understood who Jesus was or what His plan was really all about, the demon knew Jesus and called this out: "What do you want with us Jesus? I know who you are are! The Holy One of God!" (Mark 1:24)
Isn't that amazing? I was absolutely struck by the fact that Jesus entered our realm to save us, and the world that had been so infested with evil suddenly shook with fear because the evil realized, there was a plan that they knew nothing about, and Jesus was here to change the way things were going. The depraved road the world was on was now about to change, and man was slow to understand!
The pharisees (the keepers of the law) from that day were confused. They were so used to living by the law, that had been set in place by God, delivered by the hand of Moses, and this LAW was what would keep them, and make them holy. Now, Jesus came in and started preaching that the law was death? And that HE was the way the truth and the life? I can only imagine what they thought. But they did not have the plan of God in their minds and hearts yet. This is what Jesus's ministry was ALL about. Getting the idea of God's plan of salvation into the realm of understanding and helping them to know the way, that He was their escape.
The demons saw it and recognized it, but the people did not. This is why Jesus continually taught, and worked with the people. Even telling about a time when He got up so early, it was still dark..He had gotten up to pray and spend time with God but His followers found Him and told Him that everyone wanted to be with Him. Rather than getting frustrated like a human would at the fact that His "quiet time" had gotten interrupted, instead He turned to them as said, "This is why I have come..." (Mark 1:38b) and on He went with His eternally minded ministry. He knew He only had 30 years on earth to display God's plan to a lost and dying world. It wasn't enough that the demons knew who He was, it wasn't enough that humans knew who He was. He wanted them to see God's plan through Himself.
The plan is the reason that He went to the cross. Even though as a human His mortal displeasure with pain that all humans have was in fact present, but He continued His walk to the cross because it was part of the plan. It is why Jesus got frustrated with Peter when Peter said that "Jesus would never die that way!" And Jesus told Peter that he did not have in mind the things of GOD. How similar we are to Peter....
When things do not go according to "our plan" how we shake our fists at God. How we get frustrated. How we can angry....but again and again I remind myself, I am, I GET TO BE apart of HIS plan, and live my life according to HIS plan, and this is a gift. Have you ever thought about your circumstances in this light? It is shifting my thinking and realigning it with His plan. And this is a good thing. I do not want to have the things of man always in my forefront of thought. I would much rather be "Kingdom Minded" and have the plan of GOD in my first thoughts each day.
God made a way for us as Humans to escape our paths of death and destruction. Sin entered into our bodies/hearts/minds the very moment we first born. God was not surprised, but He knew we needed a way...so this is why, the plan of faith in Jesus is often called "The Way" through the book of Acts, and why Jesus is called the "Way, the Truth, and the Light" in John. Jesus saw and knew what we could not and He spent His entire ministry showing us the way out. The way out of sinfulness, and show us a different option.
The ONLY other option.
These are my initial thoughts from the first 3 chapters of Mark. I would encourage any and all of you who read this post to open your Bibles and read with me these first three chapters and see what He says to YOU about the plan, the way, and where you are at in all of this! Bless you on your journey.
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