What is Abide? | Listen to this Episode
This week’s Abide comes from the passage in the Our Daily Bread Devotional for Monday the 12th of August. Today we’re reading through Mark 9:30-37. I’ll read the whole passage but we’ll focus on just one verse.
“They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
Jack Niklaus is one of the most successful golfers of all time. He was ranked number 1 in the world for 10 years straight and he still holds the record for the most major tournament wins. Now, I’m not that into golf, but there’s something about Jack’s life that I find inspiring and it came to my mind as I spent time with this passage.
Every year, before the start of the golf season, Niklaus would return to his first coach with a simple request. Niklaus would say: “Teach me to play golf”. They’d then go over the basics. How to hold a club, how to aim, how to swing. Niklaus knew that however skilled you are, and however experienced you are, you have to keep going over the basics again and again, year in, year out. They are the foundation for everything else and central to it all. Niklaus’s story also demonstrates humility; he was willing to be taught the basics each year.
This story came to my mind as I engaged with this passage. For a start, the disciples certainly don’t demonstrate much humility. At this particular moment, they seem more concerned about debating which of them was the greatest! Unlike Jack Niklaus, they didn’t go back to their teacher and ask humbly for Him to teach them.
But this passage also demonstrates just how important the basics are to our faith. In verse 31 Jesus reminds His disciples about what will happen to Him. This is the third time Jesus says this in Mark’s Gospel. “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise” (Mark 9:31).
Jesus repeats this teaching but each time the disciples don’t get it. They fail to grasp the very basics of the gospel. Now we mustn’t dismiss the disciples as simply ignorant; it seems like most people recorded in the Gospels didn’t get what Jesus had come to do. That’s revealed after the cross and resurrection.
But reading this passage again I was reminded just how many times we need reminding of this basic truth of the good news. We never move on from this.
“The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” (Mark 9:31)
Or to put it in its proper grammatical sense:
The Son of Man was delivered into the hands of men. They killed Him, and after three days, He rose from the dead.
Or to put it in a way that applies to you and me:
Jesus died for our sins on our behalf, He was buried, and three days later He rose again so that we might live with Him forever.
Jesus died for our sins on our behalf, He was buried, and three days later He rose again so that we might live with Him forever.
The eagle-eyed among you will realise I repeated myself. But it’s worth repeating, isn’t it?
Like Jack Niklaus the golfer, it’s worth going back to the basics again and again. Because this is the basics of the good news for you and me, and it’s what makes the good news so good. Jesus died for our sins on our behalf, He was buried, and three days later He rose again so that we might live with Him forever.
I’d like to invite you to do something for the next minute or so.
Grab a piece of paper and take a moment to write out the words of Mark 9:31: “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise” (Mark 9:31).
Once you’ve written that out, write it out another time but this time, make it apply to you. Add what this verse means to you.
For example, write: “Jesus Christ died for me in my place for my sin. And after three days, He rose from the grave so that I might live with Him forever.”
Once you’ve done that, now read aloud that second line to yourself.
Jesus shows us, even a golfer shows us, that it’s worth returning to the basics again and again and again.
This week, why don’t you stick that piece of paper somewhere you’ll see it every day? See what a difference it makes to be reminded of the basics.
