Thayer Thursday – loose strings and Bible reading
Chris Thayer is the Director of Discipleship at Good Shepherd Church in Charlotte, NC where he oversees adult life groups and Biblical education. On Thursdays I share his weekly “Thayer’s Thoughts” for small group leaders, which are based on the previous Sunday’s sermon. Click HERE to watch or listen to the accompanying sermon.
I have a bad habit of pulling loose strings on my clothes. I pull them on my shirts, pants, and even shoes. Sometimes the result is benign and satisfying: I pull the thread, it breaks, and no longer bothers me. Other times the result is ripped clothing. Most recently I ruined a pair of shoes that had stitching in the front to hold the rubber on the toe. I pulled a dangling string and realized (too late) that the string ran throughout the toe of the shoe. If I had taken the time and caution to examine the string before I pulled it—I would have realized its importance and not wasted the shoes.
When we read the Bible, and the Gospels in particular– we tend to do what I do with strings on my clothes. We pull one section out, examine it, it satisfies us, and we move on. This isn’t how the Gospels (or other books of the Bible!) were intended to be read. Yet for the longest time I viewed the Gospels in particular as a collection of random threads that weren’t connected. Over the past several years I’ve grown to see the interconnectedness of the sometimes seemingly disparate stories told in the Gospels. The writers were much better at their craft than I gave them credit for. The Gospels aren’t simply stories of Jesus thrown onto paper with no connection. Instead, they tell stories of Jesus in such a way as to convey certain teachings and themes. When we look carefully and read broadly—we find a beautiful tapestry made up of these threads that run throughout the Gospels; one we won’t find if we read the stories apart from one another.
For instance, this week’s scripture (Mark 10:13-16) is part of a theme that (while found in other locations as well) runs from 9:33-10:52. After the transfiguration, Jesus’ disciples begin an argument about who among them is the greatest. Knowing they were arguing about this—Jesus corrected their assumptions about greatness and His Kingdom. As an object lesson He took a child and told them that those who welcome a child (somebody with no rights, power, or authority) – welcomes Him. The one who is last will be first and first will be last.
As we follow this thread, the attentive reader finds that Mark continues this theme by portraying multiple people who are pushed away from Jesus by others—the underprivileged and marginalized. First it is a divorced woman who is “sent away.” Then children who were being denied access to Jesus. Then (after highlighting the opposite—people who were powerful, privileged, had rights, yet didn’t understand the Kingdom of God) a blind man was “rebuked” for seeking audience with Jesus.
As Mark retells Jesus’ teaching—he uses these examples one after another to drive the point home: Jesus, and ultimately His Kingdom, is not one who pushes people away from Himself—but welcomes them. The unexpected guests are the ones allowed in: they’re the ones Jesus pursues.
Who might you be hindering from gaining access to Jesus? Yourself? The poor? The rich? Somebody of another ethnicity, age, or culture than your own? This is not the way of Jesus, nor should it be ours.
Chris Thayer
Categories: Biblical Theology, Blog, New Testament, Thayer Thursday