Author: Stephanie Stewart

In his book Connecting, Larry Crabb talks about a friend of his who grew up in an angry family. In this home mealtimes were either silent or they were very noisy with the sounds of sarcasm and anger.

 

Down the street was an old-fashioned house with a big porch where a happy family lived. My friend told me that when he was about ten, he began excusing himself from his dinner table as soon as he could without being yelled at and walking to the old-fashioned house down the street. If he arrived during dinnertime, he would crawl under the porch and just sit there, listening to the sounds of laughter. (Crabb 14)

 

Something within this boy longed to be part of a loving family, and especially to have a loving father. In fact, when Crabb heard this story, he asked his friend to imagine “what it would have been like if the father in the house somehow knew he was huddled beneath the porch and sent his son to invite him in.” He took it a step further and asked him to imagine “what it would have meant to him to accept the invitation, to sit at the table, to accidentally spill his glass of water, and hear the father roar with delight, ‘Get him more water! And a dry shirt. I want him to enjoy the meal!’”

The Gospel of Mark was written to a Gentile audience (Edwards 10). This being the case, it is very likely that Mark’s first readers would have noticed a very interesting pattern in Jesus’ behavior toward the Mosaic law. In Mark 2:28 Jesus seems to be claiming authority over the law. And in Mark 7:19 Jesus “declared all foods clean,” as if he is abolishing the dietary food laws. Moreover, these readers would have eagerly observed that Jesus ministered in the Decapolis region (5:1-20 and 8:1-10) as well as the northern areas of Tyre and Sidon (7:24-37). For both of these regions were primarily populated by Gentiles. This information would surely excite numerous Gentiles who were made to feel that they could not be part of the family of God. The Pharisees were experts at shunning Gentiles; and such behavior only intensified spiritual doubts as they were intimidated by all the Old Testament’s requirements regarding food, ritual cleansings, circumcision, and other things. Undoubtedly, many Gentiles longed to be part of God’s family, and they openly expressed this by visiting the synagogues near their homes. They would, as it were, linger “under the porch” to hear the sounds of laughter that came from the family of God. In fact, the book of Acts explicitly mentions some of these people, calling them “God fearers” (Acts 13:26).

What these Gentile readers would be hearing in these accounts were the early whispers of that revelation that comes forth loud and clear in the rest of the New Testament. It is most clearly explained by Paul in Ephesians 2:11-14. There Paul exhorts his readers to recall the reasons why Jesus is so precious:

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” . . . remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. 

 

Paul is telling them, “Recall how, at that time, you were hiding under the porch. You were listening to the happy sounds of banter and laughter that came from the family of God, knowing that you could not be part of that family.”

But then, dramatically, in one of the boldest statements a Jew could make, the great apostle explains how these Gentiles have now been made a part of the family. It is because Jesus “has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. . . . He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” (Ephesians 2:14-19, NIV). In other words, Mark’s readers heard the first faint calls of the Father, letting them know that they are no longer shunned. They are now invited inside: “Come and be part of the family of God. The law no longer hinders you. Come and hear the Father roar with delight! Whoever wishes, let him drink freely of the water of life! ”

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