Look!

As I bounced my friend’s baby on my lap I couldn’t help smiling. Babies are just so cute when they’re just old enough that you don’t fear breaking them yet they are still young enough that absolutely everything is a fresh adventure.

This little girl was infatuated with my water bottle. (Isn’t it funny how the simplest things sometimes trump the grandest toys?) I don’t know whether it was the blue label or the sound the bottle made when I crinkled it with my hand, but she loved it and her eyes would immediately fixate on it whenever it came into view.

As I reflect on her fascination, a sermon illustration I heard sometime back comes to mind. When you take a very young child and try to focus their attention on something by pointing, what usually catches their attention? Your finger! Children have to learn that your finger is not the object you are drawing attention to. They have to learn that the finger is just a pointer and that the focal object is beyond your fingertip.

Many times stories we find in the bible are, much like your fingertip, “pointers” in that they point to a much grander and magnificent object beyond the immediate story. For instance, the early chapters of Mark’s gospel are filled with miracle stories; demons are cast out, deathly sick people are fully healed with Jesus’ touch, lepers are cleansed, and the lame are made able to walk. All the stories are fascinating and all of them are worthy of capturing our attention. I confess that many times I have become captivated with the details of the stories themselves, but what is the proper object of my attention? What do the stories point to? Do they point to a grander truth?

In the case of Mark’s gospel, let me suggest that the fascinating miracle stories in those early chapters point to three grand, overriding truths. First, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. (Mark 1:1) Secondly, that the kingdom of God has arrived, though not in its full glory, and thirdly that we should repent and believe the gospel. (Mark 1:14-15)

Let me encourage you to read the stories in scripture with the fascination of a child. But don’t become fixated on the stories themselves. Instead, read the stories in scripture with the discernment of an adult and look beyond the story to those grander truths that the stories point to.

Yes, Jesus cast out demons. Yes, Jesus healed the sick. Yes, Jesus cleansed the lepers and caused the lame to walk. But grander still, and the worthy object of our attention, Jesus was the Son of God; Immanuel (meaning God with us)!

Ken Askew