An Attitude the Lord Disdains | Mark 10:13–14a


And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them.  But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant.

Following His teaching on marriage, Jesus is greeted by several parents and their children.  It’s possible that they’re still in the home where He just answered disciples’ question about divorce (vv. 10–12).  How the disciples now react reveals a character flaw Jesus disdains, and we’d do well to recognize and root it out of ourselves.

The disciples’ attitude was one of criticism.  Verse 13 says that they continually turned people away, scolding the parents while they did so.  Perhaps the disciples wanted more from Jesus, and they saw inconvenience in the stream of mothers with children in tow.  Jesus taught too many high and lofty ideas to be bothered with crying infants.

Sadly, this attitude is a pattern.  Peter rebuked Jesus for teaching that the Son of Man must suffer (8:31–32).  The disciples tried to stop an exorcist who believed in Jesus because he wasn’t following them (9:38).  At another time, when the Samaritans don’t receive Jesus, James and John ask Him if they should call down fire from heaven to consume them (Lk 9:53–54)!  The disciples were quick to judge, confront, and rebuke. 

The disciples’ attitude invites the displeasure of the Lord.  Mark records the Lord’s emotions in few places, such as His anger at Pharisaical coldness to the needs of others (3:5) or His compassion to the needs of the lost (6:34).  Here, we also see His indignation over what His own disciples were doing.  This deep, painful emotion—the same irritation Christians sometimes experience (2 Cor 7:11)—came because He found their behavior so repugnant.  They were not only haughty and selfish, they either ignored or forgot His plain words all those months ago (Mk 9:33–37).

Christian desires should align with the Christ’s desires.  However, since their desires were off, so was their attitude.  They may have tried to justify themselves with pious statements, such as saying they wanted to be alone with Jesus and didn’t want to be distracted.  Nonetheless, they were clearly pugnacious and combative with others—an attribute that should be absent in God’s servants (cf. 1 Tm 3:3). 

Popular posts from this blog

Controversy about Alistair Begg and Gay Weddings?

Image
Last week, Alistair Begg got himself into hot water.  His ministry, Truth for Life, posted a video which included his advice to a grandmother concerned for a grandchild trapped in the transgender lifestyle.  Moreover, this grandchild is getting married and has hopefully invited the grandmother to the wedding. Begg the grandmother two questions.   He asked her if she had expressed her disapproval of the lifestyle, and he asked if she had expressed disapproval about the wedding.   The grandmother said she had on both accounts.   His advice, therefore, stunned the grandmother: He told her to attend the wedding with a gift in hand! We can all sympathize with the drive to be as loving as possible, but let’s back up and consider a few points.   Christians look at Scripture and see biblical prohibitions against practically every expression on the current LGBTQ+ spectrum.   From both the Old Testament and the New, passages condemn such behaviors as deviati...
Read more

How Was the Trauma Training Today?

Image
Because we are including so many more foster children and children from broken homes into our fellowship, our church participated in a trauma training session today.  Our main purpose was to gain practical insights into how to handle situations where children who have experienced trouble act out their emotions.  To that end, we can be thankful for our time together.  However, there were many errant teachings included which we must reject.  ERRANT TEACHING ON THE BRAIN The presentation alleged that the brain is physically transformed through traumatic events, creating “holes” in it and in its ability to process information.   This is possible, but there is a lot of debate on this subject.   The subject is relatively new, based on the largely anecdotal research of Dutch psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, published in his book The Body Keeps the Score .   Secular psychologists and even some Christian counselors (who are not always biblical in their app...
Read more

Caution regarding the teaching of Lysa Terkeurst

Image
We received a mailer at our church this week advertising an event with "Six-Time New York Times Bestselling Author and CEO of Proverbs 31 Ministries," Lysa Terkeurst.  I don't know anything about the event organizers, so I won't name them, but I had this name mentally flagged and went to check into it.  She's a member of Steven Furtick's Elevation Church, which should rightly tell you to avoid her already.  She also regularly preaches to men, partners with false teachers, and teaches false doctrines such as contemplative prayer and use of the Enneagram.   You can read more about her here:  https://michellelesley.com/2015/07/31/leaving-lysa-why-you-shouldnt-be-following-lysa-terkeurst-or-proverbs-31-ministries/
Read more