Week 37 Mark 8
The Lord is talking to his disciples and Mark says that he’s talking to them plainly (another version says openly).
Mark is referring to the specific instance where the Lord told them the depressing news that he was going be killed – a blunt unequivocal conversation. Mark doesn’t quote the Lord but he likely said something like: “before long I’m going to suffer many terrible things and be denounced by the leading priests and the religious teachers. There’ll be a public show trial and then I’ll be killed. But after three days I’m going to come back to life”.
What the Lord said was pretty plain and simple and literal. Peter didn’t like the message. But he definitely understood it.
Of course there’re other times when the Lord said things that weren’t so straightforward. For instance just a couple of verses back he said: beware the yeast of the Pharisees. Which wasn’t exactly crystal clear with its mis-understandable below-the-surface meaning.
At some point I might do an exercise where I divide up everything the Lord says under two columns: on the left the Plain & Simple Things & on the right the Not So Plain & Simple Things.
Mark reminded me today that when I’m reading the gospels I’ll find plain and straightforward material. But a lot of the rest still needs some processing thinking doping-out assessing distinguishing and like that. Both are parts of my bible-reading mix.
Note: quote from Mark 8:32 15 (NLT NIV)