Jesus appoints 12 to be his disciples even as he experiences opposition from the religious leaders and rejection from his family.
Some are amazed that he healed a man’s shriveled hand during the Sabbath. Others were enraged.
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This episode was filmed in India where those who follow Jesus are sharing about the One True God to people who believe in many gods much like the Christians in Rome that Mark was writing.
Video:
Mark 3 Notes:
The religious leaders are looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, and Jesus knows it. So what does he do? He stands up in the synagogue on the Sabbath and asks “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”
No one answers so Jesus heals a man’s shriveled hand. Now that is miraculous!
Notice the response. Rather than being amazed they were enraged and began to plot a way to kill Jesus! They were more concerned with their religious rules than they were about a man who struggled to survive in life due to his deformity! They literally saw a shriveled hand made whole!
People from all over were coming to Jesus! People who were demonized were shouting out: “You are the Son of God!”
Since Jesus’ goal was to start a movement that would carry on long after his lifetime, he appointed 12 disciples to “be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” They were to do what he had been doing!
Now not only were the teachers of the law against Jesus, his own family members were saying: “He is out of his mind.”
How can you grow to be more optimistic? How can you overcome skepticism?
