Patience and Persistence: Mark 8: 1-21
Do you ever make the mistake of mismanaging your priorities? Do you spend too much time at work or in front of the TV? Do you spend too much on your excessive pleasures? Do you think more about you than about the people who need you? All of these mistakes are easy to make. They’re even easy to become habitual if we let them, and the longer we go on settling for less, the harder it is for us to see what’s really better.
In today’s section of Mark’s Gospel of Jesus Christ, we get to watch Jesus interact with his closest friends and disciples who still don’t get it. They’ve seen him heal the sick, cast out demons, walk on water, miraculously feed thousands of people, teach with authority, confound the judgments of the religious elite, and calm the winds and the waves with a word. They’ve witnessed his power but still don’t understand fully who he is or what he’s there to do. Like us, they had priorities out of place.
Even the disciples of Jesus were so focused on the here and the now, the healings and the displays of power, that they couldn’t see what they pointed to. They weren’t yet able to see clearly enough to understand how Jesus’ compassionate acts were illustrations of his divine identity and mission. He was telling them little by little, but he’s about to lead them around a corner and show them a vista they couldn’t imagine. We’ll talk about that next week, Lord willing.
In the meantime, I hope we can see Jesus’ passion and his patience. He wants us to understand just like he wanted those first disciples to understand and believe. There is more to life than food. There is more to life than pleasure. The way to find what’s truly good in life is to hear and believe and respond in faith to the Jesus who still has much to teach us.
Patience and Persistence
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