The Relentless Goodness of God
Posted by Pastor Pat on July 6, 2009
Read Mark 7:31-37
This narrative continues to celebrate the innate goodness of God. Regardless as to what our thoughts and opinions might be concerning Jesus, they must conclude with the idea that He is good. It is because He is good that what He does is good. It cannot be otherwise. In our present passage, Jesus heals an individual who is both deaf and speechless. His inability to hear contributed to his inability to speak. Regardless as to the condition, it was just cause for our Lord to act and, in acting, to display His power over all disease. In so doing, His status as Messiah continues to be established. In commenting on the grammatical structure of this statement, A.T. Robertson notes how, “The present perfect active shows the settled convictions of these people about Jesus.” Jesus was never charged with doing evil. Everything He did was “good.”
The entire Gospel of Mark seeks to establish the identity of his primary character. He is the one who was foretold and pre-figured. He is God’s Hero King. What Jesus did and why it was done has intentional design. Nothing was random; everything was deliberate. I appreciate the calculated manner in which the following thought explains this idea.
“The actions of Christ reveal who he is and what he has come to do. Jesus’ actions are nothing less than a demonstration or ‘acting out’ of his gospel message, and the healing of this deaf mute man is a demonstration of the kingdom that Jesus has brought. It is a powerful and profound example of the in breaking of the kingdom of God, and in this action Jesus is revealing both who He is, as the Messianic King and what He has come to do in bringing his redemptive kingdom to bear on sin-cursed men. This story demonstrates Christ and his kingdom in two main ways. First, it reveals that Jesus is no respecter of persons and the Kingdom of God is not ethnical or racial in nature, and second, it reveals that Jesus is the Messianic Servant of the Lord come to do a spiritual work in the hearts of men.
http://www.newlife-lajolla.org/members_only/sermons/he_has_done_all_things_well.htm
When His immediate audience concluded that, “He does all things well,” I believe we would be amiss if we did not hear, in echo, the stirrings of Genesis 1:31 where God sees all that He has done and says, “It was very good.” It is important to remember that biblical revelation is telling one story. What God did and does is good. William Barclay notes how, “When Jesus came, bringing healing to men’s bodies and salvation to their souls, he had begun the work of creation all over again. In the beginning everything had been good; man’s sin had spoiled it all; and now Jesus was bringing back the beauty of God to the world which man’s sin had rendered ugly.” (William Barclay, Mark, 182).
Nothing that happens falls outside of this moral quality in God. What Romans 8:28 states is equally true. Everything is working together for good. There is inclusiveness to the workings of God that cannot be overlooked. He does everything well. Whether our assessment of the present circumstances or the outcome appears harmful and destructive, He does everything well. This is the testimony Job gave in the context of harsh circumstances (Job 1:21). This is the testimony Joseph gave in the context of caustic conditions (Gen. 50:20). This is the testimony Paul and Silas gave in the jail of Philippi after brutal treatment (Acts 16:30). This is the testimony Paul gave in the face of debilitating physical maladies (2 Cor. 12:9). And this is to be our testimony as well. Everything God does is good. The path will be marked by pain, the circumstances tainted by crushing defeat, yet in the midst of and surrounded by our moments, we can say, “He has done all things well.”
By Pastor Patrick J. Griffiths. For more information see the Waukesha Bible Church site.
