Through an Eternal Lens (Mark 6:6-29)

He summoned those He wanted, and they came to Him. He chose them to be with Him, to send them out to preach, and to have authority to drive out demons. He called them to be part of a story that was far grander than they could have ever comprehended. Before He began to send them out He explained to them the parables by which He was teaching the crowd about the kingdom of heaven. They saw His authority over both nature and demons. They were with Him when He raised the dead. They followed Him to His hometown where He was rejected.

Unlike those in Jesus’ hometown who had amazed Him by their unbelief,  the Twelve believed, and they went out taking nothing for journey but their faith. The message they took with them was simple. “So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent” (Mark 6:12). The result of their missionary journey was that many demons were cast out and the sick were healed. Word spread.

I like simplicity, and because of that I sometimes put life into basic formulas. If I had been one of the Twelve, my assumption would be that the momentum was building. In other words, “bring on the kingdom because we’ve got the king!” However, the story of Jesus is far more complex. Just as the arrest of John the Baptist marks the beginning of Jesus’ Galilean ministry, so too the success of the apostles is followed by the story of John being beheaded.

The story that was unfolding before the eyes of Jesus’ followers could not be understood by human reasoning. Jesus had the power to heal the sick and raise the dead. Not only was Jesus able to cast out a legion of evil spirits from a man, He was able to give that same power to His followers. Why then didn’t He use His power to save John the Baptist from such a senseless, humiliating murder?

Physical eyes cannot see spiritual truth. To become a follower of Jesus is to become part of a story of a Heavenly Kingdom. I am often like those in the  gospel and I forget that there is more to the story of my life than the chapter that I’m in. True interpretation of the events in our lives now, as in the lives of the apostles and John the Baptist, can only be seen through an eternal lens.