The Tent: A safe place for shepherds to reflect together
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Chaps13
Joined: 11 Jul 2013 Posts: 5
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Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 4:59 pm Post subject: Shepherd Themes in the Gospel of Mark |
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I was humbled as I read the chapter on the gospel of Mark. I have taught studies on and preached through Mark many times – I thought I knew it well. But I missed the some of the greater themes of the shepherd-king and the second exodus in my own studies. These included specifically the repetition of the word “desert†or “deserted place†and the use of the word artos (bread). While the use of desert/deserted place imagery gives rise to a recollection of the exodus, the repetition of the word bread is much more significant than I understood (21 times in the gospel and 18 of those times in Chapters 6-8, cf. p. 176). In the wilderness the Lord provided for his people with food and teaching. Here, Jesus is providing for the people who were in a “wilderness†with food and teaching – a teaching which was authoritative. All of this illustrates a pastoral concern that Jesus has as the shepherd for his sheep – a concern for their life.
As I preach and teach I am aware that the people in the congregation which I serve live and work and go to school in an environment which is a wilderness – a place in which they are tested both morally and spiritually. They long for food which will satisfy them both physically and spiritually. As I teach and preach, as an under shepherd, my call is guide them in the midst of the wilderness and to provide for them food which will fill their souls. |
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