“So
they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.” (Mark
6:12)
Jesus
had been with his twelve chosen disciples for several months since
calling them. They had traveled with Jesus during what scholars call
his “Galilean Ministry.” They had heard him teach in synagogues,
teach by the Sea of Galilee, teach in parables, (a story with a
spiritual application) and heard Jesus explain to them more fully
what the parable meant and how it applied to the Kingdom of God.
They
had seen him still a storm on the Sea of Galilee by simply speaking
“Peace! Be Still!” to the winds and the waves. They had seen him
heal a paralytic let-down when a piece of the roof of the Galilean
house (maybe the disciple Peter’s house?) was removed so the
friends of the paralytic could lower him to Jesus’ feet and the man
could be healed. And he was healed, miraculously.
They
had seen the woman with an issue of blood for twelve years, who
merely touched Jesus in the crowd, and he was aware of her touch and
healed her. They had gone to Jairus’ house with Jesus because
Jairus’ daughter was ill unto death. Before they arrived at Jairus’
house, servants met them and told Jairus that his daughter had
already died and he should not “bother” Jesus. Then Jesus told
Jairus not to be afraid, but to believe. They proceeded on to the
synagogue leader’s house. Jesus asked the mourners to leave, to go
outside. Jesus, Jairus and his wife, and Peter, James and John
proceeded to where the twelve-year-old girl was already “laid out,”
dead, awaiting burial. Jarius, a leader in a synagogue—not a priest
but one who could plan synagogue programs and lead them—was
hazarding the loss of his job for asking Jesus to help his daughter.
That’s because the Pharisees and other religious “rulers” were
so opposed to Jesus that they were already planning how they would
kill the man Jesus. The religious leaders definitely did not believe
He was the Messiah promised hundreds of years before by Isaiah and
other of the Hebrew prophets. Animosity was growing against Jesus.
But Jesus took the hand of Jairus’ daughter, and told her to arise
and walk, and she did. And then Jesus asked that the girl be given
something to eat (perhaps addressed to her mother and father).
They
had seen Jesus heal the demoniac, casting out “demons” which went
into pigs and the pigs drowned themselves in water. People who owned
the pigs “on the other side” of the Sea of Galilee from the
Hebrew side, did not like that the pigs had died when demons came out
of the man, and entered their property—the hogs. But the healed
demoniac was “dressed, and in his right mind” and seated among
those who next gathered to hear Jesus teach. And in the midst of all
this confusion and controversy, Jesus divided the disciples up into
six teams, with two disciples on each team, and told them to go
without a change of shirt, with no money, no food, but they could
wear sandals on their feet and had a staff (like a shepherd’s
staff) that might be used as what we call a “walking stick.” They
were to stay in the first house that invited them as guests and work
out from it throughout the village(s) they entered. And, if people
were unkind to them in the towns, as they left, they were to “shake
the dust off their sandals” as a testimony against the people there
who did not welcome them and receive their message. And what was
their main message? “They went out and proclaimed that people
should REPENT.” (Mark 6:12. ESV). They also were granted power by
Jesus to heal and to cast out demons. But repent? What does it
involve? To repent is to recognize sin in one’s life—the fall
from God’s grace because of disobedience, wrong-doing, doing one’s
own will instead of seeking God’s will. The second step of
repentance is being sorry for breaking God’s law, falling from
God’s original state of grace for each person. And then repentance
further is accepting God’s provision for confession of one’s
sins, and depending upon the sacrifice for sin offered by the Lord
Jesus Christ on the Cross. In Old Testament times, a flawless lamb,
or for poorer people, a dove or other offering was brought to atone
for sin. After Jesus sacrifice, He became the bearer of GRACE by
which a person is saved. A good way to describe God’s GRACE is:
“God’s accepting our Repentance (regret for sin) at Christ’s
Expense.” Recall the great revivals held in our youth at our
churches when many repented and confessed Christ as Savior, I was one
of 23 during revival week in July, 1939, who was saved by my
repentance and faith, and baptized to show my burial and death to
intentional sin, and rising from the water as a symbol of following
Jesus and expecting everlasting life with Him! Selah! - Ethelene
Jones. 03.31.2019
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