Monday NIghts @ Frist B Nov 14th

In one paragraph

Ray walked through Mark 2:18 through 3:6, looking at what Jesus said about fasting, the Sabbath, and the healing of a man's withered hand. The through-line was simple: Jesus was not patching up an old religious system but showing what God's law had always actually meant, people first, mercy over sacrifice. Ray opened by noting that Mark has become his favorite book in the study, even though he...

Read together

1. Mark 2:18-22 read aloud as the discussion about fasting, including the wedding guests, new cloth, and new wineskins sayings
2. Mark 2:23-28 read aloud as the discussion about the Sabbath, including David eating the sacred bread and the Sabbath being made for people
3. Mark 3:1-6 read aloud as the account of Jesus healing the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath
4. Isaiah referenced as background to the bridegroom imagery, quoting a passage about God rejoicing over Jerusalem as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride
5. Luke quoted in the benediction that the hairs on your head are numbered and you are more valuable than a flock of sparrows

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray described Jesus as 'swinging the doors wide open' throughout Mark, inviting sinners and confronting misinterpretations of God's law. Where have you seen that picture of Jesus challenge something you assumed about how God relates to people?
2. Jesus used the image of new wine and new wineskins to say his message could not simply be patched onto the old religious system. What traditions or habits in your own faith life might be acting like old wineskins, rigid and resistant to what God is actually doing?
3. Ray pointed out that the Pharisees' fasting rules were their own traditions, not God's law itself, and said 'some traditions need to die.' How do you personally tell the difference between a tradition worth keeping and one that has started to replace the point of faith?
4. One person in the group described reading scripture through a 'hermeneutic of goodwill,' the idea that God has a good will toward people, versus reading it as a long list of rules from an angry God. Which of those two lenses has shaped how you have read the Bible, and how has that affected your picture of God?
5. Jesus healed a man who had been suffering for thirty-seven years, and all the religious leaders could focus on was that he did it on the Sabbath. Ray said 'we can still do that in our religiosity if we aren't careful.' Can you think of a time when you or your church got so focused on a rule or a process that you missed what God was actually doing in front of you?