Hearing and Seeing, Spiritually (Mark 7:31-8:30)
Group Guides | Sharing the gospel, sharing our lives (1 Thessalonians 2:8)
By way of introduction: Sometimes we hear from our neighbours and friends, things like: “If Jesus just did __________, then I would believe.”
Fill in the blank, as to what people say
Read Mark 7:31-8:30
1. As Jesus feeds the four thousand people, what are his disciples really missing?
2. In this episode we see Jesus heal a deaf man, with what looks like a very unusual method. He will also get physical in the healing of a blind man (including spit, again).
Discuss what you think is going on here.
3. In this whole episode, the Pharisees don’t surprise anyone with their attitude to Jesus, yet why is it so surprising in the way the disciples’ attitude to Jesus (particularly 8:1–5 & 8:14–21)?
4. We see those three types of people reacting/responding to Jesus throughout Mark’s Gospel.
a. The Don’t want Jesus crew, Pharisees and Herodians (who are self-righteous)
b. The Desperate (not the self-righteous)
c. The Disciples
Here Jesus warns his disciples to ‘watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod’. What is that “leaven” we need to watch out for?
5. Jesus had been up close and personal with the deaf man and the blind man, and now at the end of this episode he asks a very personal question of his disciples.
How did they (through Peter a kind of spokesperson) come to this conclusion? (read Matthew 16:17)
Pray for one another, and our church, that we would be disciples who clearly see who Jesus is.