Mind Tracking Spirit

Mark chapters 5-8; the difference between faith and "mind-reliance."

One of the greatest barriers to Christ working in our lives, it seems from this section, is us leaning on our own understandings and traditions. As the Pharisees are accused of stomping on the law in order to uphold their own traditions, it seems to me that we stomp on the work of Christ through the Holy Spirit when we demand God to work in our preconceived frameworks. When we do this we, like the crowd at the house of Jairus, laugh at what Jesus has planned - it seems ridiculous.

Conversely, it is when people look for the fringe of Christ's garment or the "crumbs that fall from the table" that real transformation occurs. The Syrophoenician woman essentially says to Jesus, "My faith goes beyond theology. My faith is in you and not social constructs that surround you." All of this reminds me of two statements, one is by someone like Anselm or Augustine (great church history knowledge, eh?). He was speaking about the place of reason in faith and said, "Reason informs our faith." An elderly pastor who teaches at Asbury sometimes, Jimmy Buskirk, always said he wanted his churches and seminaries to be "mind tracking Spirit."

Both of these thoughts come down to this: the Spirit and our faith lead and then we do our best to understand it. This provides for two things to happen. First, no artificial "edge of the world" is created, or said better we do not limit God by demanding he stay within the lines of our present understanding. Second, there is room for mystery because some of the things God does we may never fully understand. But if reason leads, we only allow God to go to that boundary.

The culmination of this idea comes when Peter confesses Jesus as Christ - as Messiah. Jesus says to him (paraphrase), "I'm so glad you have space in you to receive revelation from heaven that goes beyond your own analysis of what you see and hear and think. What you just said did not come out of your mind but from the mouth of God through your mouth." Of course he quickly tries to lock Jesus back in Peter's understanding of what it means to be the Messiah and is rebuked for having his mind on worldly things again, but hey, at least he got it right once.

Final note; in this section of Mark it is people in the know about religion or the human identity of Jesus who get it mixed up. Those who have lost hope in religion or who don't know THE religion in the first place seem to see Jesus clearly. Their minds have not locked him into being a resurrected John the Baptist, or Elijah, or merely a prophet (as Herod's servants report and as Peter claims is the word on the street). They are free to just see Jesus with Spirit-eyes.