followHIM - Matthew 9-10; Mark 5; Luke 9 Part 1 • Dr. Ryan Sharp • Mar. 6 - Mar 12

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

How can sharing personal testimony of healings, blessings, and testimony bless others? Dr. Ryan Sharp explores the many miracles of Jesus and the value of personal testimony amidst tribulation and persecution.00:00 Part 1–Dr. Ryan Sharp00:56 Introduction of Dr. Ryan Sharp02:34 Unique approaches of each gospel author04:11 Matthew’s POV06:40 Inclusio14:35 Why miracles are shown18:01 Jesus heals man with leprosy19:29 Miracles in Matthew 921:01 Elder Wirthlin story of friendship 24:44 John story “Where Will Your Friends Take You?”27:27 Brother Arnold story “Strengthen Your Brethren”31:05 Matthew’s call35:19 Jesus eats with sinners36:50 Fasting and joy39:10 Characteristics of Mark41:34 Messianic Secret46:59 Dr. Sharp shares a personal story about teaching and studying the New Testament49:25 Markan sandwich of Jarius and woman with issue of blood54:37 Hem of Jesus’s garment1:01:11 End of Part 1–Dr. Ryan SharpShow Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.coFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-piano

Welcome to Follow Him, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping individuals and families with their Come Follow Me study. I'm Hank Smith. And I'm John, by the way. We love to learn. We love to laugh. We want to learn and laugh with you. As together, we follow Him. Hello, my friends. Welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith. I'm your host, and I'm here with my apostle-like co-host, John G., by the way. My apocalyptic-like? Did I get that right? I got that. Yeah. Did I get that middle initial right? I did, didn't I? John Glenn was the astronaut that went into orbit in February of 62. I was born several months later, and my parents thought I had that kind of space cadet look.

John, we are going to talk about Jesus and his apostles today, and we needed a Bible expert, and we got one. Who is joining us? We did. We're excited to welcome to follow him for the first time, Dr. Ryan Sharp. And Ryan Sharp is currently an assistant professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. Prior to coming to BYU, he worked for 10 years in the seminaries and institutes. And we talked about all the different places he's been. Was it Spanish Fork, Pleasant Grove? His passion is helping others engage deeply in their study of the scriptures.

His other research interests include religious pedagogy. Did I say that word right? You're going to tell us what that means. Pedagogy, positive organizational behavior, and organizational psychology. He served a mission to Auckland. I love saying Auckland because it looks like Oakland, but it's Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. He and his wife, Jessica, are the parents of five rambunctious, energetic, and wonderful boys. Welcome, Dr. Sharp. Thanks for being with us today. Thank you so much. So in addition to that, we need to add another child there, another boy.

What does a family of five crazy boys need? A sixth boy. So we now have a one-year-old. They keep our lives interesting. Yeah. Six boys. Ages 16 to 1. Pray for us. 16 down to 1. Andy, you're serving in your stake presidency, isn't that right, Ryan? Yeah. All right.

Six boys, 16 to 1, and a member of the stake presidency. I bet you're not busy at all. It's my guess. You're sitting around doing not much. Exactly. Ryan, we are in, come follow me, Luke 9, Mark 5, and Matthew 9 and 10. So we have a lot of scriptures to cover. Where do you want to start? So because we have four chapters, three different books, I want to actually spend some time kind of setting up how I want to approach each of these. And I know previously

guests have talked about the value of studying each individual gospel and looking at the gospel author's perspective. And so I want to build on that a little bit because we are going to approach each of these individually. As kind of a disclaimer from the beginning, we're going to pop around a little bit. So probably start in Matthew and then jump over to Mark, back to Matthew and over to Luke. But in the process, I hope also to underscore some of the unique approaches of these gospel authors. This sounds great. A book that's been helpful for me, and it's written by a New Testament scholar, not a member of the church. His name is Dr. Mark L. Strauss, and he wrote a book called

Four Portraits, One Jesus. What he articulates is a helpful way of looking at each of these gospel authors is recognizing that each one of them are painting a unique portrait of the Savior and highlighting different aspects of his life, of his ministry, of his teachings. In this same book, he talks about various ways of approaching the Gospels. One way is horizontally, one way is vertically, and another is in harmony. In harmony, you're studying kind of the life at a glance as one large story. Vertically, you're isolating each individual Gospel author and the perspective they bring. And then horizontally, you're engaging with each of them individually, but then comparing and contrasting them with some of the other gospel authors and their unique perspective. I want to start with the unique testimony of Matthew. I know previously on the

podcast, you guys have highlighted that the Joseph Smith translation in Matthew changes it from the gospel according to St. Matthew to the testimony of St. Matthew. Recognizing that each of these gospel authors are drawing upon other sources, experiences, miracles, sermons, etc. And then presumably prayerfully considering what is it that we include, kind of like Mormon does. And just like in the Book of Mormon, he gives the disclaimer, I can't even include a hundredth of these things. We could probably say the same thing with these gospel authors. It's John in John 21 who says, and there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written, every one, I suppose even the world itself could

not contain the books that should be written. And the reason I say that is Matthew is going to bear a unique testimony of the Savior and paint a unique testimony of the Savior and paint a unique portrait. To underscore that, I want to share a parable that President Packer once wrote and then maybe try to find application here for what we're doing. He said this, a merchant man seeking precious jewels found at last the perfect pearl. He had the finest craftsman carve a superb jewel box and line it with blue velvet. He put his pearl of great price on display so others could share his treasure.

He watched as people came to see it. Soon he turned away in sorrow. It was the box they admired, not the pearl. So while we'll spend some time today looking at each of the individual witnesses, literary styles, approaches of these gospel authors, I want to make sure that center in all of this discussion is Christ, for our purposes, the pearl. I hope that we can appreciate the box and the individual witnesses, but I want to make sure our attention is focused on the pearl. Does that make sense? Absolutely. That's great. I think that parable, correct me if I'm wrong, was when they were first started using the conference center. And he didn't want us to be so enamored with the conference center that we forgot the things that were taught within and the prophets that were there.

That's my memory. Yeah. Your memory is better than me. So we'll just say that's it. I think that was it. Yeah. Thank you. Usually when it comes to the ancient past, John usually...

John is our guy. Yeah, John's our guy, because he was there. He was there for most of it. I knew Lorenzo Snow. We were friends. Yeah, he didn't talk like that. Our block that we're going to be looking at is going to be Matthew 9 and 10. But in the spirit of analyzing the unique voice of Matthew and his unique testimony,

I actually want to go back and make sure that we link what happens in Matthew 9 and 10 to what Matthew was doing previously. Because I think for us to really understand what's happening in Matthew 9 and 10, it has to be understood in connection with what he was doing in the previous chapters. When you had Dr. Gay Strathern on, she introduced the literary device in inclusio, where you have an idea or a concept on one bookend, and then you have that similar idea repeated later on as the backside of that bookend. And then everything in between is making the case for whatever that bookend message is. I think the example that she shared was, you know, in Matthew 1, they called his name Emmanuel, which is being

interpreted God with us. And then Matthew 28, lo, I am with you always, even until the end. And that, you know, the great... The bookend verses. Exactly. So you have the bookend verses. So Matthew does something similar that has application for the chapters that we're going to be studying here. So we'll be in Matthew 9, but if you want to first go with me to Matthew chapter 4, we will see the setup of this. It's like verse 23. Exactly. So Matthew 4, verse 23, Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. So you get this message, teaching,

preaching, healing. And then what do we find in the next three chapters? The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is teaching and preaching. And then we jump over to chapters eight and nine, and that's where we get the healing and the miracles. Matthew isn't suggesting that all of these miracles happen back to back to back to back to back. Rather, the portrait that he's painting, he's underscoring Jesus is going about teaching and preaching. And again, we have that in Matthew five through seven, and then he's healing. And we look at the power of the Savior that's captured in Matthew eight and nine. And then in's healing, and we look at the power of the Savior that's captured in Matthew 8 and 9. And then in Matthew 9, the chapter that we'll be settling into here in just a minute, we get this phrase.

So Matthew 9, 35. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. Your three actions, right? Teaching, preaching, and healing. Yeah. Yep, exactly. And in fact, at BYU, there is a professor named Dr. Cecilia M. Peek in the Department of Comparative Arts and Letters, and she gave a really interesting insight looking back at Matthew 4, 23. I'm going to read Matthew 4, 23 through 25 again, but I'm going to highlight something that she brought up. So it says, and Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the

kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria. And they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments and those which were possessed with devils and those which were lunatic and those that had the palsy. And he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee and from Decapolis and from Jerusalem and from Judea and from beyond Jordan. Now that's probably annoying as I read it that way, but what she says is the repeated use of these terms persuades readers that they are hearing a

long and all-inclusive list of the places Jesus goes, the activities he engages in, the sicknesses he heals, and of the areas from which potential followers are drawn. The rhetoric of the passage underscores the universal reach of Jesus's message and blessing. I love that. I love that idea. So right from the beginning, again, Matthew is capturing Jesus can heal all of these sicknesses, perform all of these miracles, and he can do it anywhere and for anyone. I've noticed that in Matthew 8 and 9, that he heals men, women,

children, Gentile, and Jew. It kind of covers the full spectrum of the type of people there are around him, that it is really anyone. He can heal anyone. Yeah, and that's a message that I hope to underscore here today, especially we'll get to Matthew 10, where we get the call of the 12. But before we do, I just love this message. The invitation of Matthew's gospel here is Christ has power to heal and help anyone, regardless of the ailment, disease, challenge, struggle, any of those things, he can heal. He can heal man, women, child, Gentile, and Jew from anything. And he controls death, devils, disease, and the weather. Nature. Yeah, yeah. The elements.

Yeah. Because it has to start with a D. Disease, death, devils, and the weather. The weather. D-A, weather. Yeah, nailed it. But with that, I do think that there's an important point there that you're making. And keeping in mind that Matthew's primary audience is likely a Jewish audience and more

specifically a Jewish Christian audience, in many ways, he is demonstrating that Jesus is the new Moses, right? Jesus is the new lawgiver. So some have suggested that what we find in Matthew 8 and 9 are 10 miracles that are designed to be reminiscent of the 10 miracles of Moses. And I'll just kind of walk through these. The first miracle at the beginning of Matthew 8, healing the leper, cleansing the leper. And then you have the centurion servant healed of palsy. And then the third healing Peter's mother-in-law. Fourth is stilling the storm. Five casting out devils. Six healing one inflicted with palsy. The seventh, and this is now in

Matthew 9, healing the woman with the issue of blood, which we'll talk about a little bit later. And then eight raising the daughter of Jairus. Nine healing of the two blind men. And then 10 healing a man who is mute. So again, we find these 10 miracles back to back to back to back to back. And again, I don't think that we interpret that meaning all of these happen in one. It was a busy day for Jesus. He just went about healing all these people in this day. But rather, Matthew is trying to articulate what you were alluding to there, Hank, that Christ can heal anyone and perform these miracles.

And when you had Dr. Huntsman on, he talked about the Greek word that is translated as miracle in John's gospel could be translated as sign. And he articulated that the miracles that John's articulating is he's trying to signal that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. And in Matthew's gospel, I think we can make the same case, especially as we look at Matthew 11, where in Matthew 11, verse 1, it says, and it came to pass that Jesus had made an end of commanding his 12 disciples, and he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Now, when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and he said, Art thou he that should come? Are you the Messiah? And Jesus answered and said unto them, go and show John again,

those things which you do hear and see. And then pay attention to the examples that he gives. The blind receive their sight, check. We just read about that in Matthew 8 and 9, right? The lame walk, check. The lepers are cleansed. Matthew just told that story. The deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and we'll get that with the daughter of Jairus. And the poor have the gospel preached to them. So again, one of the messages is Jesus is the Messiah, and he is fulfilling the expectation that John and others would have had. Those are all examples that Matthew gave us. What else I see right there, we talked about Matthew 4.23,

teaching and preaching and healing. Look at chapter 11, to teach and to preach, and verse 5, and healing. Here's a list of all those. Yeah, it's a consistent theme. He's highlighting the power of the Savior. One of our colleagues, Dr. Lincoln Blumell, suggested other reasons why these miracles are included.

One of them was to show he had power over all things, including those things you just mentioned, Hank. Another reason is to reveal his character full of love and compassion, right? Jesus has compassion upon them and he heals them. Another is to motivate people to recognize and cast off their spiritual infirmities, even as he's cast off their spiritual infirmities, even as he's cast off their physical infirmities. And we're going to read about that in Matthew 9 with the man with palsy and Jesus forgives sin.

Another reason for these miracles to create teaching opportunities for the presentation of sacred gospel truths. So think of the blind man receiving sight. And one of the things that Jesus says is for a judgment, I'm coming to this world that they would see, not might see, and that they would see might be made blind. So pedagogically, there's your word again, John, is articulating this connection between the miracle he performed and this important gospel truth. Another reason for these miracles to prevent people in their ignorance from frustrating

the purposes of God, another to reward and strengthen the faith of believers. How many times do we hear thy faith hath made thee whole? And then one that we'll look at in greater detail a little bit later to set an example for his apostles and followers saying, go and do the things that you've just seen me do. What I like about this too is we can't just talk about Jesus as a great moral teacher when we have all these healings. There were lots of people that could probably teach and preach, but this is Jesus that didn't just teach and preach. In fact, his teaching and preaching was different because of what we talked about in an earlier episode

about the thesis antithesis. You heard it said of old time, this, but I say this, pretty audacious. Moses said this, but I say this. So his teaching and preaching, but then the healing said, no, this was more than a moral teacher. He was doing this over and over and over again. And I don't know of any other philosopher or moral teacher that was healing like this and had power over disease and death and devils and the weather, as Hank said. Yeah. There's a great verse in john 7 some people are arguing that jesus is the messiah and he says when christ cometh or they said when christ cometh will he do more miracles than these which this man had done good come on what more do you want yeah where's that john 7 that's john 7 31 when christ

cometh will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done? Come on. So I think you're right on there, John. One of the things that I think is helpful when talking about these miracle stories, and again, Matthew has them really lumped together here in chapters 8 and 9. The phrase from the introduction of the Doctrine and Covenants comes to mind. Do you remember when it says, these sacred revelations were received in answer to prayer in time of need and came out of real life situations involving real people? When we look at these examples, we're talking from kind of a broader macro level. Here are some of the patterns. These are the things Jesus heals. These really are individual exchanges and experiences with Christ. Looking at the text, what do we know about this person? And then what do we not know about this person? What do we not know about this story? What questions do you have? And maybe just one example will be instructive. And then I think

all of us can keep that in mind as we look at some of these other examples. So again, the teaching, preaching, healing, just after Jesus comes down off the mountain and from the Sermon on the Mount, immediately we find the story of him healing the man who has leprosy. What do we know? That this man had leprosy. He was a man and he was healed. We don't know a lot from that. What types of questions could we ask to try to better understand the reality of this person's situation? When did they get leprosy? How did they get leprosy? How long have they had leprosy? If it were later on, were they pulled from their home? Is this person married? Do they have children? Was the wife there when all of this happened? If he is married again, does he ever get to see his wife? Did he get to

say goodbye to his kids? How about the family? How are they holding up? Is this person the primary breadwinner? And if so, who's taking care of the family? How are they being impacted by this? Are they being shamed by the community? How did he know about Jesus? What gave him the faith to say, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean? Did somebody talk to him? Did he see someone else healed? Anyway, I've just found that this approach helps us to remember that these people are real individuals whose lives were impacted and dramatically changed because of the touch of the master's hand. That's beautiful. I have written in my scriptures, he's among the crowd. He is not scared to be among the unclean. Seems it all in Matthew 8 and 9. They don't come to him. He goes to them. Yeah, exactly. Well, should we settle in now to Matthew

9? I promised we would get there and now I think it's time. Let's do it. Yeah. Remembering this is on the heels of Matthew's recounting of all of these other miracles in Matthew 9, verse 1. He entered into a ship and passed over and came into his own city. And behold, they brought him a man sick of the palsy. And they, in Mark's account, suggest four people, four of his friends, presumably, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, and I want to come back to that in just a minute, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. And I want to come back to that in just a minute. Arise and walk, but that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. Then saith he to the sick of the palsy, Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thine house. And he arose and departed into his house.

And when the multitude saw it, they marveled and glorified God, which had given such power unto men. I think there are a lot of lessons that we could learn. And in fact, in this past general conference, Elder McConkie highlighted this, and some listeners somewhere was like, wait, Elder McConkie spoke? I really got to pay attention in conference more often. I was about to say, wow, the last conference? Yeah. Someone must have quoted him. Well, no, no, no. A different Elder McConkie of the 70s. And he actually drew from Mark chapter two, and he really beautifully told

this story of his family. When they entered the mission field, they took with them some counsel that Joseph B. Worthlin had given in a talk he gave called the great commandment. And in it, Elder Worthlin asks, do you love the Lord? And his counsel to those of us who would answer yes, was simple and profound. Then spend time with him. Meditate on his words. Take his yoke upon you. Seek to understand and obey.

And then he goes on and reads this story and sort of unpacks it a little bit. And I'll just quote from this talk. He says, Homes at the time in Capernaum were flat-roofed, single-story dwellings grouped together. The roof and walls were a mixture of stone, timber, clay, and thatch accessed by a set of simple steps on the side of the home. The crowd grew quickly at the house, filled the room where Jesus was teaching, and spread out into the street. The story focuses on a man, quote, sick of the palsy and his four friends. Palsy is a form of paralysis often accompanied by weakness and tremors. I imagine one

of the four saying to the others, Jesus is in our village. We all know about the miracles he's performed and those he has healed. If we can just get our friend to Jesus, perhaps he too can be whole. So they each took a corner of the friend's mat or bed and began carrying him through the crooked, narrow, unpaved streets of Capernaum. Muscles aching, they turn the last corner only to find that the crowd, or as the scripture calls it, the press of people gathered to listen is so great that getting to Jesus is impossible. With love and faith, the four do not give up. Rather, they scramble up the steps onto the flat roof, carefully lift their friend and his bed up with them, break open the roof over the room where

Jesus is teaching and let their friend down. And then we have this experience where this man is healed. Again, there's, I think, a number of things that we could highlight, but I want to go back to that. When Jesus saw their faith, I would assume that, I mean, I know I certainly do. I assume you guys do. And probably our listeners have people in their lives who they love and they care about and who are struggling in some way, struggling with challenges, with sickness, with faith struggles. And I think this is an interesting place where we can draw the principle that my faith can have an impact in their experience. When Jesus saw their faith, he was able to perform the miracle. It actually reminds me, do you remember in Ether 12, when Moroni sort of giving the highlight reel

of the Book of Mormon, it was by faith that this happened, it was by faith. He says, it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the change upon the Lamanites. It was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the faith. I just love this place where I can hold strong even when others that I care about are struggling, and my faith can be impactful in helping them to be healed. Fantastic. I've often thought about the four of them and what it must have been like to work together as well to get this man to Jesus. And I've related that to parents and youth leaders and Sunday school teachers and Bishop and everybody who's trying to help someone else come closer to Jesus. The four people on each end of this bed, they're

going to have to all work together. And sometimes one's going to have a heavier weight than others. Sometimes one's going to have to lift higher and lift lower and not give up. All four of them have to keep going. So there's an element of teamwork, I think, that's part of their faith that brings this man to Jesus. And I think that's a great point because it's not just they had faith. It's they had faith and then they're working, they're acting, they're doing everything within their power to help. I happen to remember an article written in the new era. If anybody remembers the new era, it's now the old new era.

What's had a new era, it's now the old era. The mid-range era. Yeah. And it's called, Where Will Your Friends Take You? By John Glenn, by the way. I don't think they stuck the Glenn in there, but yeah. Yeah, you talked about this story in that article, right? I did.

And the Luke 5 adds the idea. The Luke 5 account is that they tried to get their friend in there, but there were too many people. And these four friends, we learned something else about them that they didn't give up. They could have said, well, never mind. Let's just go home. Maybe we'll try another time. And then they get this idea.

Let's go up to the roof and make a hole in it and lower him through the ceiling. So, yeah, I wrote a little article with a couple of just ways of applying it. Number one was, where will your friends take you? Maybe there comes a time in your life when you are spiritually weak. Well, where will the people that you have chosen to surround yourself with, where will they take you if you had no say in it or little say in it? And another one is kind of to be the kind of friend who will take people to Christ. What are we going to do tonight when there are options?

Be the kind that goes to higher ground. And the story's very personal to me in another way, because as you know, Hank, I love to talk about my dad in the Navy. And as an 18, 19 year old in World War II, not a member of the church, he said in his autobiography that his friends literally dragged him off his bunk when they heard the announcement over the public address on the aircraft carrier on the Saratoga church services, Mormon church services, they called it, in the library. And he said they often cruelly, he said, they dragged me off my bunk. They weren't going to give up. And a man named Keith Crawford, a man named Cal Miller, another guy. I have a picture of these guys all together. And when I see it, I think of those friends and my dad that is introduced to the gospel

on an aircraft carrier who literally carried him to church. He had surrounded himself with decent friends at South High School in the 40s. And these guys, I might not be here had not these friends taken him to Christ. So I love the story and I feel like I relate to it personally because of my dad. I love it. Thanks, John. Do you both remember in April of 2004, Ryan, you might've been 12. You have a 16 year old, so I'm guessing. I do. Yeah.

The math doesn't. Yeah. The math doesn't quite add up there. I'm not a mathematician, but I don't think that one works. Strengthen Thy Brethren was the talk by Mervyn Arnold. Brother Arnold told the story of a brother Marques. He said, as a member of the branch presidency in Brazil, brother Marques with the other priesthood leaders developed a plan to reactivate those who are less active in his branch. One of those who was less active was a young man by the name of Fernando Arujo. Recently, I spoke to Fernando and he told

me of his experience. He said, quote, I became involved in a surfing competitions on Sunday mornings and stopped going to my church meetings. One Sunday morning, brother Marquez knocked on my door and asked my non-member mother if he could talk to me. When she told him I was sleeping, he asked permission to wake me. He said to me, Fernando, you are late for church. Not listening to my excuses, he took me to church. The next Sunday, the same thing happened. So on the third Sunday, I decided to leave early to avoid him. As I opened the gate, I found him sitting on his car, reading his scriptures.

When he said to me, good, you're up early. Today we will go and find another young man. I appealed to my agency, but he said, we can talk about that later. After eight Sundays, I could not get rid of him. So I decided to sleep at a friend's house. I was at the beach the next morning when I saw a man dressed in a suit and tie walking towards me. When I saw that it was Brother Marques, I ran into the water. All of a sudden, I felt someone's hand on my shoulder.

It was Brother Marques in water up to his chest. He took me by the hand and said, you are late. Let's go. When I argued that I didn't have any clothes to wear, he replied, they are in the car. That day, as we walked out of the ocean, I was touched by Brother Marques' sincere love and worry for me. He truly understood the Savior's words. I will seek that which is lost and bring again that which was driven away and bind up that which was broken and will strengthen that which was sick. That's Ezekiel 34. Brother Marques didn't just give me a ride to church. The Corps made sure I remained active.

They planned activities that made me feel needed and wanted. I received a calling and the Corps members became my friends. It goes on to say that Brother Arrugio went on to serve a full-time mission, served as a bishop, state president, mission president, and regional representative. His widowed mother, three sisters, and several cousins have also entered the waters of baptism. When speaking about the work of corms in his ward, Brother Arujo, who once again is serving as bishop, stated, our rescue work is the focus of all three corms of the Aaronic Priesthood. We have a list of each one of our lost sheep. The corm presidencies, advisors, bishopric divide up and go visit them on a regular basis.

We visit not only the less active members, but we also visit the non-members in less active or part-member families. All that happened because of this Brother Marques does not give up. So as we were talking about these friends not giving up, being like, I'm going to go through the roof. I thought of Brother Marques going up into the ocean. But I want to go back to what Ryan said, because it is so cool to me. It's so wonderful. The Savior said he saw their faith, the friends, and then he looked at the man with the palsy and tells him to be healed. And it was not just his faith, but the friends had an impact too. It's got to be significant that he would see them and say that and then

take up your bed and walk, which he did. It's a great story. Yeah. And what's interesting is that word shows up in each of the gospel accounts. It's their faith in each of the accounts. Yeah. It was a bunch of friends together and taking care of their buddy and saying, we're going to get you help. That's beautiful. All right, Ryan, what do you want to do next? Let's push forward here in chapter nine. So that's verses one through eight.

And then we come to verse nine and it says, and as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom. And he saith unto him, follow me. And he arose and followed him. Now in the other accounts, his name is Levi. And some have suggested that, is that a tribal designation, right? Is this Matthew of the tribe of Levi? Is it Matthew the Levite? Because there were more Levites than were needed to work in the temple, did some of them have to go and have other jobs? And in this case, Matthew becomes a publican, oftentimes we say a publican is a tax collector. Doctors Richard Holzhoffel and Tom Weymouth added a really interesting insight into this.

They wrote, Levi was a publican, a toll and tax collector, a member of Herod Antipas' royal bureaucracy. There had always been ill feelings between peasants, common laborers, including fishermen, keep that in mind, and members of the bureaucracy, especially those individuals sent to bully and in some cases, illegally seize goods and coins as part of their efforts to collect revenue to maintain Antipas' lifestyle, to keep his government in business and to pay tribute to Rome. So sometimes we're like, yeah, they didn't like publicans because I mean, they were like the IRS, you know, who wants the IRS giving them a call? And that may be part of it, but it was even more in some cases, his role is working for the government and charging these tolls for people bringing goods into these areas.

And I highlighted fishermen. Consider Peter, James, and John, and now Matthew gets called. Matthew joins the club. Yeah. Are we sure about this one? Think of Matthew's anxiety. Think of how he's been treated, how he feels when he's in conversation with some of these other groups. And what I find particularly compelling is, remember this verse, Matthew is painting this portrait and Matthew is lining these miracles up one after the other. In Matthew 8 and 9, there are what, 10 miracles that we've talked about. And in the middle of all of this is this call for Matthew. What I thought is, what does that tell us? Why would Matthew choose to include this passage right in the middle of all of these miracles?

Is it possible that he sees this as another miracle? This calling for him, Jesus saw me. Jesus saw past the social stigma. He saw past what I was being asked to do for the bureaucracy. He saw me and he saw potential and he called me. It almost feels like Matthew views this as his own personal miracle. What I think is important is look at the last phrase in verse nine, and he arose and followed him. And then jump up to verse seven, speaking of the man of palsy, and he arose and departed. So even the language seems to connect this call to the apostleship, this call for Matthew, is a miracle. Yeah. The fact that a publican would follow Jesus

sounds like he's saying this is a miraculous turn of events. I think I've read in a commentary somewhere that if publicans, they had forfeited their house of Israel-ness or that they weren't Jewish enough if you became a publican. Does that sound familiar to either of you two? Sometimes because of these tensions, they were kicked out of the synagogues. I don't think that's the case every time, but certainly there are examples of that. Yeah, I have from Gerald Lund. With the coming of the Caesars had come the idea that the emperor was divine, one of the gods. Therefore, the Jews saw taxation as a direct support of idolatry. Publicans were contracted to collect the taxes. You're in direct support of idolatry, another god,

by serving as a publican. I bet it was a high-paying job because I can't imagine a lot of people wanted it. A lot of people like friends. Yeah, what I love is from Holstoffel and Wayman, this is how they concluded that section. It says, in an instant, he, Matthew, left the employee of Antipas, who thought he was the king of the Jews, to become Jesus' disciple, the true king of Israel. And he makes this decision. That's great. The next verses, obviously, would be important to Matthew. Verse 10, came to pass as Jesus sat at meat in the house.

Behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat with him and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? Again, think of Matthew and how he feels in this dialogue. But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth. And then he references Hosea 6.6. I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I love this insight by a New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright.

He says, why does Jesus eat with tax collectors and sinners? Because while other religious leaders of the day saw their task as being to keep themselves in quarantine, away from possible sources of moral and spiritual infection, Jesus saw himself as a doctor who'd come to heal the sick. There's no point in a doctor staying in quarantine. He'll never do his job. And this goes back to what Hank was saying earlier, where Jesus always seems to be in the midst of the people, ministering, healing, teaching, etc. Everything Jesus did was astonishing. We talked a week or two ago about the Beatitudes and the blesser, the unblessed, it seemed to sound like, you know, happier, the unhappy. And here we are again, doing something so different than everybody else was doing. And for the best reasons, as you just explained.

And to that point, I love what comes next. So in verse 14 of Matthew 9, then came to him the disciples of John saying, why do we and the Pharisees fast off, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said to them, can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them and then shall they fast. And again, N.T. Wright in that same book says, why do Jesus and his disciples not keep the regular fast days, which in Israel in those days commemorated all the tragic things that had happened in their history, not least the destruction of the temple. Because while other movements, including that of John the Baptist, were waiting for the new day to dawn, Jesus believed that the sun had risen. And then he goes on and unpacks that a little bit more. But this idea of why are we not fasting? So fasting is connected with sadness, with this

really somber feeling for them, And in some cases, mourning. It's almost like Jesus is saying, no, no, no, like they're not going to fast here. What's the opposite of fast? We're going to feast. Like this is a banquet. We are rejoicing. We are celebrating.

The kingdom is here. I am here and I am bringing with me the kingdom. It's arrived. When I'm gone, you can go back to fasting. But why would we fast and mourn? This is an exciting day. And then detailing, John, what you were alluding to, things are being done in a new way. No, verse 16, no man put a piece of new cloth into an old garment. We're going to have to change things.

Things are going to be done differently. But Jesus brings with him this excitement and this message that the time is here. John has been talking about it. It's here now. Why would we fast and mourn? We're here to celebrate and have a banquet. So I'm hoping that means when he comes again, we'll put an end to fast days. Maybe, maybe.

That's another reason to look forward to the second coming. That's what John's hanging on to. Like, do you think that maybe it'll be great that he's here? No more mourning, no more crying, but think about it. No more fasting. Yeah. Put the letter E after the F there. Yeah.

We're going to have feast day on Sunday. Feast and testimony. Okay. Where do you want to go next, Ryan? So now I actually want to jump over to Mark's account. So one of the chapters that we're assigned this week is Mark chapter five. And before diving into Mark five, kind of like we did with Matthew, I want to talk through a couple of unique approaches that Mark takes. So Matthew was kind of a groupie. He was grouping everything together. But are you saying Mark's going to be different than that?

Kind of. Mark, the language that he uses is fast-paced. In fact, the old Institute manual says Mark's is the shortest gospel and presents a picture of Jesus that is moving, full of action, and stresses the miraculous power of the master. Because of this dynamic portrait, many scholars have thought Mark was writing with Roman readers in mind, keeping in mind that the early Christian audience likely were illiterate. This gospel is assumed to have been written with the intent to be read aloud or even performed. And look at the language that Mark uses. I'm just going to fly through the first couple of chapters. So it says things like, this is verse 10, straightway coming up out of the water. Verse 12, immediately the spirit drive at them into the wilderness.

Straightway, verse 18, they forsook their nets. Verse 20, straightway he called them. Verse 21, straightway on the Sabbath day he entered. Verse 28, immediately his fame spread abroad. Verse 29, forthwith when they were come out of the synagogue. Verse 31, immediately the fever left her. Verse 42, immediately the leprosy departed. Chapter two, you get the same thing immediately, immediately, straightway, immediately. And then when we get into Mark chapter five, where we're looking today,

verse two, and when he was come out of the ship, immediately they're met. And again, you get the feeling that like, man, that was a busy day that Jesus had. Mark is just trying to walk you through the story of Jesus in an engaging way, helping them see that Jesus is on the move, working. And again, to go back to what you mentioned earlier, Hank, whether it's teaching, preaching, or healing. So this is a kind of keep you on the edge of your seat type gospel. Jesus is on rollerblades. He is flying. So you got to pay attention.

Mark kind of reminds me of the tone of the Book of Mormon, where people are amazed and astonished a lot. And I'm underlining those in Mark chapter one. They were amazed and they were astonished because he taught them as one having authority. And yeah, so it's an action book. They were astonished beyond all measure. Yeah, that's my favorite. That's the Ramey-um-tum. We can't even measure it. It's off the charts. One of the other unique elements of Mark's gospel is this concept of the messianic secret,

where Jesus performs a miracle and then it says he charged them that they should tell no man. And another, as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they tell no man the things they had seen. He charged them to tell no man. It says that phrase over and over again, which begs the question, like, why would he do that? Doesn't he want people to know he is the Messiah? And there have been different theories that have thrown out different possible reasons why Jesus would do that. One of them is, and these come from the New Testament Institute manual as well, is fame. His fame grew so great that it created difficulties. And we talked about that already with the healing of the man with palsy. There were so many people there, he couldn't- Yeah, they had to go through the roof.

Exactly. And he had to take other paths, kind of practical reasons. Another was timing. The manual suggests the Savior may also have asked for silence in order to forestall the opposition that would lead to his crucifixion until the time was right. A third, some of the times when he tells them to not share that, it was directed at devils who vocally acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God. Elder Bruce Armaconkey taught Jesus consistently refused to permit devils to bear record of his divinity. And then a fourth, and I want to spend a minute on this one. It's clear Jesus wanted to avoid presenting himself as the Messiah of popular expectation. So you have this messianic expectation. When the Messiah comes,

he's going to free us from political bondage, captivity. He's going to be powerful and put an end to all of this injustice. But as we read the gospel accounts, Jesus is obviously the Messiah, but he's not the type of Messiah that they're anticipating. Perhaps he needs time to help them understand what it means when he is claiming to be the Messiah, to be the Christ. We have an example of that with Peter. In the very same chapter that Peter says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God, in that same chapter, remember Jesus tells them, I'm going to be taken to Jerusalem, I'm going to be killed, and I'm going to rise again the third day. And Peter's response, it says he takes him and rebukes him, which I think we can all agree probably isn't a great move to rebuke Jesus. But he takes Jesus and he rebukes him and he says, be afar from the Lord. And then Jesus' response, get thee behind me, Satan.

That would be an offense. He doesn't get it. He knows Jesus is the Christ, but he does not yet understand what that means and may still have the idea of the traditional messianic expectation in mind. Interestingly, and kind of set against this idea of the, you know, don't go and tell anybody, is this story in Mark chapter 5. And we're not going to read this story today, but this is the story where Jesus casts out a legion of devils and they go into the swine and then the swine then go into the sea. What I want to focus on is actually in Mark 5, jump over to verse 17. And it says,

Verse 19, So that doesn't seem to align with all of these other times where he's saying, don't tell anyone, don't tell anyone. But some scholars have suggested, perhaps it's because this city is a Gentile city and they didn't have the same traditional messianic expectation that Jesus is needing to kind of push back against. He can come out and say, tell them what has happened, tell them the experience you had. And to his credit, that's exactly what this man does. Yeah. I like to show the map of the Decapolis because what's that? Well, Deca 10 and Polis like metropolitan 10 cities and show them a picture of, and maybe that's why there were pigs there. I don't think you were supposed to raise pigs in Jewish lands, right? Exactly. And so the Decapolis, maybe he's saying, go tell them in Decapolis how great things instead of here,

where all of those reasons you said before would be a reason to say not to tell. One of the things that I like to talk through with my students is sort of the other side of the messianic secret coin. And that is this, regardless of how many times it says, and here's an example, and he charged them that they should tell no man of him. But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it. Sometimes we're saying, well, wait, he just told them not to and they're doing that. Is that bad? Should they not be doing that?

These are real people like we talked about. They had real challenges and their lives really were changed. Elder Holland once said, we have a life of devoted discipleship and demonstrating our love for the Lord. We can't quit and we can't go back. After an encounter with the living son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. So how do I not share this? How do I not go and tell these great things that have happened to me? What if you were one of those that was healed? How did you not, how did that happen? I'm not supposed to tell you.

Wait, you were blind, but now you're not blind. Yeah. In fact, can I share just a quick kind of anecdotal story with this? Please do. Yeah. Several years ago, I was teaching a seminary class and I challenged the students to read the entire New Testament in one semester. Now, they had the whole year to read it, but I wanted them to just get in and really immerse themselves in the New Testament.

And I had this student who was clearly not interested in the class and obviously not all that impressed with me, which, I mean, to be fair, that's common. But she didn't really want to engage, head on the desk. I mean, it looked like she had been going through some pretty difficult things. And for whatever reason, she took this challenge and she started to read the New Testament. Later, she said, you know, at first I was like, whatever, I'm going to do this. And so she read 10 minutes and then 20 minutes, and that turned to 30 minutes, which turned into an hour, which turned into two hours. Every day, she would go into the New Testament and immerse herself in these stories and in the ministry of Christ. I don't want to be dramatic, but I watched one of the most significant changes happen in the

life of this young lady. I saw it in her eyes. She had this light come into her eyes over the next several days and weeks. She began engaging in class, sharing these brilliant insights and stories. I watched this change happen in a matter of three weeks or something like that. She's almost 18 years old. She's a senior in high school. And her dad says, what do you want for your 18th birthday? The family was pretty well off. Maybe he was assuming like this amazing senior trip or something like that. And she looks at her dad and she says, you know, dad, more than anything else, I would love to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead with you.

We're thinking, well, that's adorable. A lovely father-daughter temple trip. What a wonderful thing. But what adds more to the story is dad hadn't been engaged in the gospel in years. She was doing much of this on her own. And so really what she's saying is, dad, I want you to experience what I've experienced. And to his credit, he meets with his bishop. He gets some things in line. And about six months later, gives his daughter this belated birthday present and they

go to the temple together. More than anything else, she wanted to share what it was that she experienced and have him experience it as well. And I just have to think it's the same with these people in the scriptures, that they knew it, they felt it, they lived it, and they wanted others to feel it as well. Yeah, that's beautiful. Thanks, Ryan. Another feature in Mark's gospel that's kind of a unique literary approach, keeping in mind this is the box, Christ is the pearl, back to our parable earlier. But Mark takes this literary approach that's actually similar to some kind of popular authors in our day. In fact, I'll put up a slide in class, a picture of Malcolm Gladwell. I don't know if you guys have read any of his stuff or Dan and Chip Heath. And I'll ask the students,

how many of you have read anything from them? And if hands go up and I'll say, what's their style? And almost inevitably they get it. And in fact, Malcolm Gladwell gave a masterclass on writing and in it, he describes how his style depends on an excellent, I'm just going to quote from here, an excellent sense of pacing paired with the deliberate and calculated withholding of information to keep the reader guessing until the very last word. This is a literary technique known as suspense. In Mark's gospel, biblical scholars have called it an interpolation or a Markin sandwich. And that's where Mark will start a story and you'll be engaged in that story. And then he pauses it and shifts gears to a completely different story or teaching or example. And then you're sort of left saying, well, what happened with this one? But then you become engaged in this new story, and then he takes you back to the first story again.

So you have story A interrupted with story B, and then you go back to story A. This is an incredibly engaging way, similar to those other authors that I had mentioned, that keeps the reader engaged. He does that here with the example of the story of Jairus and his daughter, and then the woman with the issue of blood. And that Pulsapha Wayment commentary pointed out that these two stories are interrelated and have a number of common features. For example, each has to do with a woman. One is older, with a longstanding illness. The other younger, and she actually dies. Under Jewish law, both were impure, and coming in contact with either would make a person ritually unclean. The older woman had the issue of blood 12 years. This young woman is 12 years old. In one story, the older woman touches Jesus. And in the second story, Jesus touches the young woman. And so Mark is going

to use these two stories. And obviously we're reading them together. And there are lessons that we can learn as we read it this way. So let's start then in verse 21. When Jesus was passed over again by ship under the other side, much people gathered unto him, and he was nigh unto the sea. And behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name. And when he saw him, he fell at his feet. Jairus means, by the way, whom God enlightens. The name Jair way, whom God enlightens. The name Jairus means whom God enlightens. So keep that in mind as we move forward with this story.

So he sees him, falls at his feet, and besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death. I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, and she may be healed, and she shall live. And Jesus went with him, and much people followed him and thronged him. President Howard W. Hunter said, the tremor we hear in Jairus' voice as he speaks of my little daughter stirs our souls with sympathy as we think of this man of high position in the synagogue on his knees before the Savior. Then comes a great acknowledgement of faith. I pray thee, come and lay hands on her, and she may be healed and live. So we're immersed in this story.

Reading about Jesus, his compassion, he's going with Jairus to heal his daughter. And then that's interrupted with verse 25. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood 12 years, had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. She spent all of her money on doctors trying to be healed. And not only was it not better, but her situation is even worse. We think of 12 years as easy to read. A certain woman which had an issue of blood 12 years, it's easy to just glance over that. But goodness, 12 years. It's a good portion

of life. It's such a big portion of life that what you said, Ryan, she's ritually unclean. You can't touch her. She can't touch anyone else. She might not have had anyone touch her for 12 years. Did her husband leave? Did he divorce? We don't even know. It's a horrible situation to be in for those 12 years. And maybe you're going to bring this up, but if she touches someone, they become unclean. Isn't that true? And the courage that she had to have to do this as this story unfolds. I'm glad you said that, Hank. It's easy to read that, but imagine 12 years. So important. And in addition to the physical challenges that come with

it, and as you're alluding to, John, the spiritual, just think socially, yeah, socially, emotionally, the difficulty of her situation. You mentioned, was she married? And if so, did this cause divorce or did this keep her from getting married? We don't know. From having children, all of that. Yeah, exactly. We don't know a lot of that information, but her situation grows worse. Verse 27, when she heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and touched his garment. Interestingly, Matthew says the hem of his garment. Matthew's audience is a Jewish audience, which the hem of his garment becomes significant, right? Cult culturally and religiously for them. For Mark's audience, presumably a Gentile audience, they probably don't care what part of the garment she touched,

just the fact that she touched his garment. And because of that, she says in verse 28, if I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. Talk to us more about why that's significant, the hymn. I mean, there's a Bible dictionary entry on hymn that's interesting. Tell us why that would be significant to Matthew and the Jewish audience. Yeah. Do you have the Bible dictionary entry pulled up? I can. The idea of the hymn of the garment. I'm glad you said that. This is the Bible dictionary entry, page 700 of our Bible dictionary. This is the entry, hymn of garment, an important part of an Israelite's dress owing to the regulation in Numbers 15, 38, 39.

It was really a tassel at each wing or corner of the talith or mantle. The law required that it should be bound with a thread of blue, the color of heaven. The strict Jews to this day wear these tassels, though they are usually concealed. The Pharisees made them conspicuously large. Remember Matthew 23, Jesus condemning that. It would be the tassel that hung over the shoulder at the back that the woman with the issue of blood came and touched. So there's a significant cultural meaning to the hem of the garment. It's a law of Moses. It's a covenant thing. Exactly. And I think, again, that's why Matthew, recognizing his audience, is going to call it

the hem of his garment. And why Mark in verse 27, it just says she touched his garment. Ultimately, it's her faith. If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And in verse 29, and straightway, there's that word again, the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus immediately, knowing in himself that virtue or power is another alternate translation there from the Greek, had gone out of him, turned him about in the press and said, who touched my clothes? And his disciples said to him, now see as the multitude thronging, and sayest thou who touched me? It's like, who touched me? And they're saying, everybody. Like, everybody touched you. What do you mean? And then in verse 32, he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. And then this language I think is significant, but the woman fearing and trembling.

Like, imagine her in this moment against the backdrop of what Hank mentioned earlier, like 12 years, against the backdrop of 12 years physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially. And now she thought maybe just quietly she could hang back and just secretly touch the hem of his garment and experience this miracle. And the reality is it's that faith that allows for this miracle to take place. But it doesn't go the way she's assuming. Jesus stops and turns, and she's probably thinking, oh no, I'm about to be found out here. I'm going to somehow get in trouble. I'm not supposed to touch anyone. And so she's fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her. came and fell down before him and told him all the truth.

Jesus beautifully and mercifully says, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace. Be whole of thy plague. I'm not sure if you guys have read. I know you've had Michael Wilcox, S. Michael Wilcox on a few times, but he has a really powerful commentary on this. And I just wanted to read part of this.

He says, why doesn't the woman come out of the crowd and raise her hand and say, I did. I just wanted to read part of this. He says, why doesn't the woman come out of the crowd and raise her hand and say, I did. I'm healed. Thank you so much. I'm better. Picture yourself in that crowd. You are the woman and Christ is looking for you. He's scanning everyone's faces. He wants to discover the person who pulled healing strength out of him. And what are you thinking? From Luke's account, when the woman saw that she was not hid, that's the verb that Luke uses is hid. She's hiding back in the crowd. Can you see her looking nervously at the Savior, trying not to meet his eyes? Why is she hiding? Why doesn't she confess the miracle? I sense it's because she feels she's done something wrong. Her particular problem and issue of blood

made her unclean under the law of Moses. She sat at 12 years. She's been unclean for 12 years. Leviticus details certain restrictions for one who had had this ailment. Back to Mark's account, he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. Finally, the time comes when Jesus finds whom he was searching for. Can you see that moment when their eyes met? He's looking at her, right into her eyes. She still tries to withdraw, but the master now sees her. He knows, and she knows that he knows. We read, but the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done, came and fell down. Two words that have always resonated me, Michael Wilcox says, in my heart have helped me in different moments of my life, and those are

the words fearing and trembling. Many times in our lives, we may find ourselves before the Savior, before our Lord, fearing and trembling, thinking that we've done something with which he's not pleased. Maybe we judge ourselves a little too harshly. We feel guilt when we need not. I love that, especially as we look at anxieties that all of us face. I think all of us at some point in our lives have felt this imposter syndrome, like, oh, but if they really knew, then they would probably treat me differently. And this is just such a powerful example that Jesus has the capacity and the ability to see us where we're at, to love us where we're at, to heal, and then to free us and give us that confidence to move forward. I love that example.

Please join us for part two of this podcast.