Year 8, Day 166: Psalms 7-9

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At first blush, the psalms for today seem dichotomous.  In Psalm 7, we talk about the Lord and His wrath.  The psalmist encourages the wrath of the Lord to come forth upon those who are pursuing Him.  He reminds us that those who do not repent will fell the sword of the Lord.  The wicked will fall into a pit that the Lord has prepared for them.  The point of the psalm is that the Lord is a righteous judge and will bring peace to those who are in God and judgment against those who are not.

Psalm 8 is entirely different is tone.  Psalm 8 is all about the glory of the Lord and His creative spirit.  God has made the universe.  He hung the stars and the moon. He has put splendor in its place.  Yet, God has been mindful of humankind and has lifted us above creation.  He has voluntarily lifted us up to be just short of His own splendor and glory.  He has done this for our sake and through His great love.

These psalms seem to be different in tone.  One is about wrath and judgment.  A second is about God’s splendor and righteousness.  How are these two things related?

Psalm 9 helps us see how these can be two sides of the same coin.  It is because of God’s righteousness that he can be a judge.  It is because of His glory that He can rule supreme.  Because of His great strength He can be the protection and avenger of the oppressed. 

So often we want to separate God’s love and His wrath.  We want to separate God’s ability to judge and His ability to protect.  These things are inseparable, though.  God’s wrath comes out when God’s love is unfulfilled.  God has the strength to protect the oppressed because He has the strength to judge.  One of the nice aspects about the psalms is that we can see multiple perspectives on God in proximity to others and help us see the fullness of God’s being instead of just focusing on the parts that we want to see.

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Year 8, Day 165: Psalms 4-6

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There is a common thread running through all three of the psalms for today’s reading.  God is our refuge against the unrighteousness in the world. God is the one to whom we should be turning.  We turn to Him when we want to be righteous.  We turn to Him when we want an escape from the unrighteousness around us.  He is the rock upon which our own repentance and turning is built.

In Psalm 6, we get the cry of a person who recognizes their own plight.  The psalmist knows that they are sinful.  They are even languishing in the consequences of their sinfulness!  Yet the psalmist longs for something better.  The psalmist wants to be healed.  The psalmist wants a time when evil is cast away and only righteousness abounds.  This is why the psalmist turns to God.

In Psalm 4 we have a similar scenario, except that the sin is external.  Psalm 4 is written from the perspective of one who has turned to God and knows the joy of restoration.  This person is encouraging the people around him to make the same choice.  The psalmist knows that if an entire community could turn to God and dwell in His ways, then we would not have to experience anguish from each other’s sin, too!

This leads us to Psalm 5.  This is a psalm of reflection.  The point of this psalm is to lift up God and what He does for us.  It also tells us the characteristics that God desires in us.  God does not delight in evil.  He does not appreciate boastfulness.  He despises liars and people who are bloodthirsty.

For me, though, the true point of this psalm is to where the psalmist looks for righteousness.  The psalmist is clear that we only enter relationship with God through His steadfast love.  It is God’s righteousness and God’s ways that will make a difference in our life.  When we are looking to change our life and live in righteousness, we must lean upon God and embrace His ways, leaving behind our own human self-centeredness.

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Year 8, Day 164: Psalms 1-3

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Psalms 1 and 2 stand in contrast to one another.  It’s not that they disagree.  Their topics are simply polar opposites.  They speak about two perspectives of humanity.

In one case we have the righteous.  These are the people who walk in the ways of the Lord.  These are like trees planted by water in that they can grow strong and healthy and not be in need.  They produce fruit in season.  Their leaves are strong, providing life for the plant and shade for all below.  They are useful and healthy in many ways.

In the other case we have the unrighteous.  They are like the chaff of grass, withered and easily blown away. The wicked rage against the ways of the Lord.  They are broken – one way or another – by God.

What does that leave for a person to do?  We can choose to live according to God’s ways or we can choose to live contrary to them.  We can try to provide for ourselves or we can ask the Lord to be our shield.  We can try to find glory in the temporary works of our own hands or we can find glory in God’s work ad the ways He asks us to join with Him.  We can live with the constant anxiety that comes from trying to provide and protect everything ourselves or we can live without fear knowing that God is our protector.

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Year 8, Day 163: Mark 16

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I love the history of this chapter.  The oldest manuscripts stop after verse 8.  Later manuscripts add one, two, or three of the alternate endings found in verse 9 and following.  However, all of the endings still fit the tone of Mark’s Gospel and the points that he is trying to get across.

Take the Gospel of Mark as originally written.  That stops after verse 8.  What is it that we hear?  Jesus is raised; He’s not in the tomb.  The women flee, afraid and uncertain of what is happening.  This fits brilliantly with what Mark has been saying all along about the human influence in God’s work.  The women don’t get it and run because they don’t know what to do!  Human beings are flawed.  Yet, God still invites us into the story.  He knows the women aren’t going to understand at first.  He knows that fear s going to be their primary response.  He still chooses them to be the first people to proclaim the resurrection.

Take the next two alternate endings.  Jesus appears to Mary to encourage her.  Jesus also appears to a pair of disciples to encourage them.  However, when these disciples return to the rest of the disciples they aren’t believed.  Again, this matches the tone of Mark.  A small group of people do pick up on what God is doing, but they are quickly rejected by others.  They aren’t rejected permanently, mind you, just temporarily.  This is what Jesus has had to do all ministry long!  Jesus is always fighting against the rejection of human beings who are quick to reject what they don’t understand and slow to gain momentum out of our safe little lives.  The first people to try and proclaim the resurrection struggle with the same issues that Jesus did.

Then, we take the last ending.  The greater population of Jesus’ disciples do get it.  Jesus appears to more and more people and the story spreads.  The Gospel takes root.  God wins in the end.  God’s will is accomplished through human beings.  God takes a group of flawed human beings and works through them to bring the message of our salvation and relationship with Him throughout the known world.

Jesus died.  He is raised.  God triumphs over sin.  He wants each of us, flaws and all, to be a part of that story.

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Year 8, Day 162: Mark 15

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This is the chapter where the story ends.  In a sense, this is also the chapter where the story begins.  Here we have the crux of human history.

As the story ends, the Jesus we see is remarkably quiet.  When asked by Pilate if He is the king of the Jews, Jesus merely parrots the words back to Pilate.  We faced by the accusations of those who would harm Him, Jesus doesn’t answer.  When mocked on the cross, Jesus takes it.  In fact, that only real time that Jesus speaks in this chapter it is to ask God why He has been forsaken.  The Jesus we see here in this chapter is so focused on completing the mission of the Father that He doesn’t refute lies, He doesn’t cast back insults, and He doesn’t seek His own salvation.  Jesus puts the will of the Father above His own.

Look at what happens in the midst of Jesus’ silence.  What we see happen is almost the prophetic realization when Jesus says that the “rocks will speak forth praise to God should He quiet the people.  When Jesus is silent, a Roman soldier declares Him the Son of God.  When Jesus is silent, a prominent Jewish leader named Joseph of Arimathea comes to touch his dead – and therefore unclean – body only hours before the Passover celebration is about to start.  When Jesus remains silent, Mary steps up and begins to take a leadership role.  In the midst of Jesus’ silence, unsung heroes rise up and give witness to Christ.  As Jesus prepares to die and close the story of God bringing salvation to humankind, the story of the church begins to unfold.

Look what else happens as Jesus is silent.  The religious leaders demonstrate their character.  They continue to insult and deride Jesus even though He offers no defense or fight.  The majority of Roman soldiers demonstrate their vicious nature by insulting Jesus and enjoying the torture they have been asked to inflict.  It is Jesus’ silence that makes the behavior of His opponents so inexcusable.

In the end, when we look at Jesus in this chapter we see a man who is willing to let God’s plan come about.  He goes to the cross to complete the salvific act.  He watches as other people, called by God, step up into leadership to do the will of the Father.  The Jesus that we see in this chapter is the perfect servant, doing the will of the Father in such a way that the Father’s will can be perfectly accomplished through Him and through others.

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Year 8, Day 161: Mark 14

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Today we start the serious climb to the apex of the Gospel of Mark.  Jesus is arrested; His trial begins.  The true character of Jesus comes out stronger than ever in the midst of His last few hours before the crucifixion.

What do we learn of Jesus?  First, Jesus marches on with unwavering focus.  Jesus has come to fulfill the work of the Father.  In spite of perpetually marching towards the cross, in spite of constantly angering the religious leaders with truth, in spite of knowing that every moment of teaching that goes by is one less moment He’ll have with His disciples, Jesus marches on with the plan.  He follows the will of the Lord without pause.

Second, we can see that Jesus continues to not be bothered by the humanity of His disciples.  Peter denies Jesus.  Judas takes money to lead the religious leaders and the Roman guards to him.  Several of His disciples argue over the money that could have been gained by selling oil used to anoint Jesus.  The whole lot of disciples are unable to focus and pray when Jesus Himself requests it.  Peter refuses to be humble and accept that he could possible do something wrong and then turns around and does exactly what he claimed he could never do by denying his association with Christ.  In the midst of this, Peter draws a sword and inserts violence into Jesus’ arrest by cutting off an ear from a servant f the high priest.  In the moment of high tension – when Jesus’ disciples could have proven their steadfast loyalty to Jesus – the disciples go all to pieces instead.  But Jesus doesn’t seem to care.  In fact, Jesus continues to invite them into the story.  He continues to want relationship with them.  Jesus accepts the humanity of those around Him and welcomes them, mistakes and all.

Third, we continue to see Jesus’ unwavering responsibility to the truth.  Jesus does not try to get out of the grasp of the religious leaders.  Instead, Jesus walks into their grasp willingly.  He does so in order to have an opportunity to proclaim truth.  He does this to show the feebleness of humanity.  He does this so that He has an opportunity to finally declare His identity to the religious leaders and bring about His own rejection at their hands.  Jesus is loyal to God’s truth above all else.  When push comes to shove, it is truth that Jesus cares about, not His own safety or popularity.

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Year 8, Day 160: Mark 13

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Mark 13 is largely an ominous chapter sparked by a simple question.  The disciples want to know when the end will be.  In that simple question we learn so much.

The first thing that we know about Jesus is that He doesn’t know the answer to the question.  Jesus specifically says that only the Father knows the time.  Some hear this and cannot wonder if this doesn’t mean that Jesus isn’t God because He doesn’t know.  Honestly, I think this tells us far more than that.  It shows us that Jesus was content letting some things be in the hands of the Father.  Jesus didn’t have to control everything and have all of His questions answered.  The Father was in control, and that is good enough.

How many of us could benefit from taking a hint from Jesus on that point?  How many of us want to control everything?  How many times have we said that when we die the first thing we do when we get to heaven is going to be to ask the Father to explain something?  Are we as content in our own lack of understanding as Jesus was willing to give some things to the Father?

The second thing that we understand is that Jesus is concerned.  He is concerned that we will be led astray.  He is concerned that we’ll go chasing after people and things that claim to be Him. He wants us to live in such a way that we finish the race before us well and finish still in relationship with the Father!  Jesus is concerned because He cares and because He knows us.

A third thing that we can learn is that Jesus does not waste time.  He takes advantage of this opportunity to teach the disciples.  They ask a very scary question and He gives them an even scarier answer.  He doesn’t feel the need to sugar coat the answer, nor does He say that we aren’t capable of understanding.  Jesus doesn’t hide the truth from His disciples.  Jesus answers the question in such a way as to convey the seriousness of the topic at hand.

The last thing that we can learn is that Jesus understands the moment.  He knows that the religious leaders are coming after Him.  He knows that His time is short and the cross is just around the corner.  He knows that the arrest is imminent and very soon He won’t be around to answer any more questions.  In this fact, Jesus tells His disciples to be on alert and not to be led astray.  Jesus gets what is coming and He uses His context to motivate Him into glory.  The moment doesn’t force Jesus’ hand, Jesus is master over the moment.

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Year 8, Day 159: Mark 12

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What can we learn from the witness of Jesus today?  The lesson is simple.  Jesus does not shy away from the truth.  When given the opportunity, Jesus gives the truth and lets the chips fall where they may.

In this chapter Jesus takes on most of those who oppress Him.  To set it all up, Jesus gives a parable about the tenants in the vineyard.  The tenants despise the son because being a tenant is not enough.  The tenants want to own the vineyard, not just benefit from its presence.  Because they aspire to more than their position, they reject the true owner and heir of the vineyard.  They kill the heir.  This is the danger of ambition.  Ambition is good, but when we consider ambition more than we consider God’s ways, we depart from God’s ways and end up walking away from the truth and abandoning God.  This is Jesus’ critic of the religious leaders.  They aren’t content being God’s stewards; they want possession and ultimate say over God’s creation.

In this context, the Pharisees and the Herodians come to trap Jesus.  Jesus pursues the truth: give what belongs to a person to that person.  Jesus isn’t willing to get caught up in a debate about one side versus the other.  Jesus simply says, “Do what is right in the eyes of the owner and nobody will have any issue.”  This is still true.  So long as we pay our taxes and refrain from breaking any laws of the land, the government will not have an issue with us.  God won’t have an issue with us doing our duty, either.

Next come the Pharisees.  They try to trap Jesus in a teaching about the resurrection.  Again, Jesus sidesteps the trap with the truth.  There is a resurrection, but our puny human brains cannot fully contemplate that existence.  In heaven, we will be in relationship with God.  We are to be His bride.  Our own marriages and family will pale in comparison to our relationship with our Creator.

Having defeated all of the challenges, Jesus then reminds us about what faith is all about.  We are to be in relationship with God first.  We are to then look to our neighbors and care for them.  Love God; love our neighbors.  The challenge here is that Jesus doesn’t mention the self.  Certainly, Jesus doesn’t want us to hate who we are.  Yet, it is clear that in the greater scheme of things we are to put ourselves behind God and behind the people around us.  When Jesus teaches truth, the challenge naturally comes.

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Year 8, Day 158: Mark 11

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As I focus on what can be learned from Jesus today, there is a common theme that seems to be jumping out at me.  Jesus is interested in the condition of the human heart.  This theme isn’t a surprise at all.  Naturally, Jesus is interested in the condition of the human heart.  While it isn’t a surprise, it is worth noting.

To begin, I’m going to look at the central story in this chapter.  Jesus cleanses the temple.  Make sure that you pick up on what Jesus finds so reprehensible.  Jesus teaches us that the temple should be a place of prayer for everyone.  The religious leaders have turned it into a great money-making scheme!  The religious leaders then go out to get rid of Jesus because they know that their livelihood is being challenged!

The problem in the temple is a problem of heart. Jesus wants the temple to be a place of refuge and peace.  The religious leaders see obligatory religion practice as a means to an end.  The religious leaders are in it for the people, they’re in it for the lifestyle.  Their heart is bad.  Jesus clears the temple, purging it from those who have lost their focus.

Now, look at the fig tree stories.  Growing up, I always felt bad for the fig tree story because this poor tree withers because it isn’t in season.  However, that’s not what is really going on in this story at all.  Yes, the fig tree withers.  But the point isn’t so much that it isn’t the season for figs.  Jesus is trying to make a symbolic illustration.  God is looking for fruit.  He wants us to pray.  He wants us to forgive.  He wants us to believe in the power of God.  It doesn’t matter what season we’re in as we go through life.  God wants to see the fruit of our heart.  We can always be forgiving.  We can always live as an example of a godly life.  We can always be in a relationship with God that believes in His omnipotence and omnipresence.

Lastly, look at the stories that bookend the chapter.  The chapter starts with the triumphal entry.  Jesus is lifted up and exalted.  He comes into Jerusalem on a colt as was prophesied.  He comes in a public hero.  The heart of the people is with Him. 

As the day progresses, we see even more intimately into the heart of the religious leaders.  They come to question Jesus’ authority, but Jesus turns the question back upon them.  The religious leaders refuse to take a side.  Their heart isn’t in good theology, their heart is in retaining their power and status.  Jesus exposes the condition of their heart and the battle is over.

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Year 8, Day 157: Mark 10

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As we draw closer to the cross in the Gospel of Mark, we get more of the identity of Christ.  He is still a teacher.  He is still a healer.  But he is also God’s Messiah. He is the one who will save the world.

I’ll start at the end of the chapter today.  What does the savior of the world do?  What is His example for us to imitate?  Jesus listens to those the world would shush.  Jesus has compassion on those that the world overlooks.  Jesus invites those whom the world would discard.  God’s Messiah looks to the fringes and fills them with love.

What else does God’s Messiah do?  God’s Messiah handles the silly idiotic humanity of His disciples.  Two of them want Jesus to promise them positions of power.  As anyone who knows the human heart would guess, that starts off a feud between those two and the other ten disciples.  Everybody is being irrational, acting out of the desires of their own heart.  What does Jesus do?  Jesus speaks to them rationally.  He calms the scene.  He teaches them all about servant nature.  Jesus deals with human irrationality by being rational in return and reframing the perspective causing the irrationality.  God’s Messiah is about changing perspective, not allowing poor perspective to persist.

Speaking of changing perspective, look at how Jesus works with the rich man.  Jesus tells the kid, who confesses to being perfect in the eyes of the Law, to go and sell everything that He has.  I used to think that this passage was a condemnation of wealth. On some level, especially combined with other passages such as “the poor will always be with you,” it is.  However, I think this is actually an attempt to show the rich young man that his perspective is wrong.  Since the rich young ruler wouldn’t rise to the humbleness required by the comparing our life to the Law, Jesus shows Him that he also won’t rise to the generosity of giving things to people who are in need.  It isn’t that there is any greed sin behind having some money – although the love of money is the root of all evil.  The problem is that the rich young man thinks he is perfect.  His perspective needs to be challenged.

This is God’s Messiah.  Jesus challenges those who are arrogant, proud, or otherwise human.  Jesus teaches the humble.  Jesus heals the needy.  Jesus meets with the outcast.

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Year 8, Day 156: Mark 9

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I’ve spent a good amount of space in my blogs in Mark talking about the humanity of Jesus’ disciples and how Jesus still invited them into the ministry.  In Mark 9, we make a big transition from the ministry of Jesus to the mission of Jesus.  For the most part, the rest of the stories in the Gospel of Mark will be about lifting up Christ as He fulfills what the Father sent Him to do.

The first story in this Gospel shows us this concept immediately.  The transfiguration is all about Jesus being pronounced as God’s Son.  God tells us that He is well-pleased.  God tells us to listen to Him.  Jesus tells us that He will be mistreated and held contemptuously.  In fact, Jesus makes that point clear twice in this chapter.  Love Jesus as much as the disciples did, they needed to understand that Jesus mission was to come, die, and bring us into a relationship with God that is based on forgiveness.

The next major thing that we learn about Jesus is that His kingdom is based on servant leadership.  If someone wants to be first in the kingdom, they must be last in the world.  To be like Jesus means that we live with an eye for what we can do for others.  That doesn’t mean we live like doormats; Jesus certainly didn’t get pushed around!  What it does mean is that we live in a way to be open and responsible to ways to help God’s love shine into the lives of others.

A third thing that we can learn is that being like Jesus means being open to receiving and mentoring innocence.  Jesus takes a little child and says to His disciples that anyone who receives a little child in His name receives Him.  If we look at what Jesus has done all throughout the Gospel of Mark is to receive disciples who had a very childlike faith.  Then, Jesus mentored them.  He’s still mentoring them.  He will continue mentoring them.  To be like Jesus means that we are in the business of looking for people we can mentor until their faith is mature.

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Year 8, Day 155: Mark 8

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When I read Mark 8, I am reminded again about humanity.  We are a glorious people; God made us this way.  We are a gloriously flawed people; we made ourselves this way.

The passage starts with a wonderful miracle.  Jesus feeds 4,000 people in much the same manner as He fed 5,000 people earlier.  Notice that once more Jesus invites the disciples into His work.  We are glorious because God imparts His glory into us.  We are glorious because God asks us to participate in His incredible grace and love.

Also notice that the disciples continue to wonder how Jesus was going to feed all the people.  We are gloriously flawed people.  For the life of me, I cannot figure out how the disciples didn’t connect the dots between the feeding of the 5,000 to the setup of the feeding of the 4,000.  However, I know that I have been similarly blind at times.  I can’t fault them any more than I can fault myself.  But the reality is that the disciples don’t get it.  Jesus invites them into the plan even though they are blind to what He is doing!

Furthermore, notice that as they leave the feeding of the 4,000 they forget to bring bread.  They start arguing about the fact that they forgot to bring some food.  They still don’t get it.  Jesus can make food appear in plentiful quantities!  The disciples are with Jesus.  People who are with Jesus do not need to fear the lack of basic needs.  Yet, the disciples don’t pick up on this fact.  They continue to quibble over who is at fault for forgetting food when they have the ultimate source of satisfaction in their presence!

This reality is made even more potent by the story about confessing Christ.  Peter says that he believes Jesus is the Christ, God’s Messiah.  He has the faith.  He believes in his heart.  Yet, he is a human being.  The same lips that professed Jesus as Christ argues about bringing bread along!  We get that Jesus is Christ in our hearts.  We get that we need a savior.  But we don’t often get Jesus in our heads.  We have faith in our hearts, we lack divinely inspired wisdom in our minds.

There’s one more way present in this chapter that demonstrates our glorious flaw.  Because we don’t often get Jesus in our heads, we ask for signs.  We need proof.  We need someone to explain it to us.  In this I am just as guilty as the religious leaders of Jesus’ day.  How often have I asked God for a sign when making a decision?  How often have I asked God to make life simpler?  As glorious as God has made us, we are indeed gloriously flawed.

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Year 8, Day 154: Mark 7

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Mark 7 gives us an incredible change to traditional theological understanding.  In the past, traditional human wisdom says that if you want to stay clean, keep away from dirt.  This makes sense.  As little children we are taught that we don’t go out and play in the mud when we are dressed up for church on Sunday morning.  You don’t see women who are dressed up for a night on the town open up the engine of their car and start working on the greasy parts.  Before putting on a fresh pair of clothes, most of us know enough to take a shower.  We understand this fact.  To stay clean, get rid of the dirt and stay away from it.

If this is a motto for our life, then it worms its way into our theology as well.  To stay ritually clean, we need to keep away from sin.  If I don’t have contact with nefarious people, I’m supposedly less likely to become nefarious.  If I want to stay away from lust, then I need to stay away from situations that will cause me to lust.  If I want to stay away from greed, then I need to avoid things that will cause me to become envious.  It all makes logical sense.

The problem is that it is horrible logic.  I still get angry, even if I stay away from people who make me angry.  I still have lustful thoughts even if I avoid looking at people dressed in such a manner as to evoke lust.  I still become greedy even if I avoid conversations and situations that inspire a keeping up with the Jones’ mentality.  I still become impatient when I’m driving down the road in a car all by myself!

What we learn here, and what Jesus is teaching us in the first two-thirds of this chapter, is that sin does not have to originate from the outside.  Yes, I can be led into temptation by external forces.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t have enough means of sinning that comes from the inside of me, too!  I can get into enough sinful behavior with what lies within my heart; I don’t need external help.

This is why Jesus teaches us to pay attention to what is going on inside.  I need to monitor the condition of my heart and the desires of my flesh.  If my inside is clean, then I will have an easier time avoiding external temptation.  But if my inside is sinful and unchecked, then no amount of avoiding external temptation will keep me from sin.

So often we think that if we could just live inside a perfect spiritual bubble that life would be easy and righteousness would come.  That’s a lie.  Jesus tells us as much in these passages.  It is the condition of my heart that is far more significant than the circumstances of my life.  If I truly want to pursue righteousness, I need to look within first.

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Year 8, Day 153: Mark 6

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Mark 6 contains several big name Gospel stories.  We get the feeding of the 5,000.  We get Jesus walking on water.  We get Jesus’ rejection in His hometown.  We get the sending out of the disciples on their own mission.  Of course, we also get the death of John the Baptizer.

Instead of going story by story, I’m going to spend the time today looking at the big picture.  We start with the rejection of Jesus.  People in Nazareth, where Jesus was raised, have trouble seeing Jesus for who He is.  All they can see is the young boy that grew up among them.  There’s a lesson here.  Our past can hinder our mission.  How we behaved – even decades ago – can make it hard for people to see God within us.  That’s just human nature, and it affects Jesus just as much as anyone else.

From the big picture perspective, though, look how Jesus responds!  Jesus sends out the twelve. When Jesus’ ministry in an area is hindered, Jesus sends out people who won’t necessarily be hindered.  As Jesus goes into the surrounding villages, he lets His disciples do the talking, the working, and the discipling.  This is a tactical move on Jesus’ behalf.

Continue to look at the big picture.  The other thing going on in this chapter is the arrest and death of John the Baptizer.  John’s primary mission was to call people into repentance and then point them to Jesus as a means of their salvation.  If you look at what the Bible says that Jesus’ disciples did, they called people to repentance and then pointed to Jesus.  When Jesus sends the disciples out, He’s thinking big picture.  Someone is going to need to take John’s place in the declaration of our need for repentance.

This brings us to the last two stories.  Jesus miraculously feeds the multitude and then walks on water.  Although both of these stories have incredible depth in what they can teach us, continue to look at them from the big picture.  Jesus has just sent His disciples out to do mission and from other Gospel accounts we hear that they were reasonably successful.  In these stories, though, they stumble.  They don’t think Jesus can miraculously feed the crowd.  They don’t believe it is Jesus when they see someone walking on water.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d have logically made those same two errors.  I’m not discrediting the disciples, I’m simply reminding myself that they are human like me.

What’s neat about these stories is that in the big picture, Jesus knows their weaknesses.  Jesus knows that they aren’t perfect.  He knows that their eyes and brains are struggling to see the world through the lens of faith.  Yet, Jesus still sent them out!  Jesus still uses them to proclaim God’s message.  Jesus still uses them to distribute the bread and fish.  The big picture of this whole chapter is how God continues to work when human failings make their presence known.

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Year 8, Day 152: Mark 5

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Mark 5 gives us three terrific healing stories.  In each of these stories, we get to see real life mixing with the divine.  This chapter gives us a great glimpse at how a fallen and broken world interacts with a perfectly divine being.

In the first story, we have a man with an incredible amount of demons healed of the demons.  The man responds favorably, going about and teaching people about how Jesus has saved him.  The world of the Decapolis, the region where the healing occurred, can’t handle what happened.  They ask Jesus to leave.  They don’t want Him interfering with their lives.  He’s already shown he can change the life of a man nobody else could control.  Who can say what Jesus would do to their lives if they give Him a chance?  Rather than risk it, they send Him away.

In the next story, we meet a woman who is also in need of healing.  She simply reaches out to touch Jesus.  She has such faith in Jesus that she merely knows that contact with Him will change her reality.  Jesus turns and demands to know who had such faith.  Jesus’ disciples show their humanity and complain that such a question is unreasonable given the density of the crowd.  Jesus, however, knows that the disciples are missing the greater point.  It’s impossible to know all of the people who bumped Jesus, but it is not impossible to know the one person who touched Jesus with intentionality.  It’s not impossible to know the one person who did exactly that for which Jesus is looking.  He wants to know who has a faith that will go deeper and try to understand what He is doing and teaching.

In the last story, we meet a young girl who dies.  The world around her moves to mourn her death.  When Jesus comes along, they laugh at His declaration that she isn’t dead. They don’t understand; they aren’t even willing to understand.  Jesus puts them out of the house and doesn’t even give them the opportunity to see Him at work.  The little girl is saved, and Jesus’ disciple get to see an incredible moment of divine work.

Each of these stories gives us an example of faith at work.  In each story we see a person who goes deeper with Jesus.  In each story we also see a greater world that misses the picture.  This is the reality in which Jesus lives.  Jesus doesn’t stop doing ministry and trying to reach out to the world simply because ministry takes place in a world that constantly misses the point.

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Year 8, Day 151: Mark 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

I think Mark 4 is the perfect chapter to show both the potential and pitfalls of humankind.  A large crowd gathers around Jesus to hear Him.  The likely gather to see Him perform some great miracle, too.  They follow Him because of what they’ve seen and what they’ve heard.

When Jesus teaches the crowd, He uses parables.  He tells us the reason why.  Jesus can’t possibly disciple the whole crowd.  He doesn’t have enough hours in the day to meet the needs of everyone who needs to be discipled!  He also is smart enough to realize that just because people are coming to Him to listen and watch doesn’t mean that they have what it takes to commit to following Him.  Therefore, Jesus needs a way to make sure that His efforts are well spent.  Jesus also needs to teach this technique to His own disciples.  Jesus needs a way to weed out the insincere while drawing the dedicated close so He can pour into them.  He uses parables to accomplish this goal so that He can see who is willing to ask questions and go deeper in understanding.

The interesting thing about the subject of the parables is that He is talking about how faith grows.  In the first parable, we hear that people respond differently to the faith.  Some don’t care about it.  Some receive it for a short time but then don’t give it attention.  Others get distracted.  Some receive it, foster it, and let it grow until it produces more fruit.  This last category of people are the ones that Jesus is looking for.  These are the people that He’s looking to find through the parables.  These are the ones who are going to ask questions, who are going to grow, who are eventually going to bear fruit for the kingdom.  These are the ones whose faith will grow far larger than anyone could have suspected, growing so large as to provide for a place for other people to gather and learn and be discipled.

On the flipside, we end this chapter with the storm and the calming of the sea.  Listen to the critique of Jesus as He calms the storm.  He asks His own disciples if they have so little faith!  In other words, Jesus has given them a very practical lesson about everything that He’s been teaching.  In a moment where they lose focus, they so easily revert back to people who respond out of their humanity instead of their faith!

Jesus’ point should be incredibly clear.  Faith takes work.  Jesus teaches they way that He does because He wants to see who is willing to do the work.  But the disciple must also be willing to work or there isn’t any point to it!  The calming of the sea is a practical lesson that discipleship is more than just being in the presence of Jesus.  Discipleship means that the disciple must be constantly vigilant about their faith, their growth, and their relationship with God.  When anyone loses focus – even one of Jesus’ hand-picked disciples – we revert back to a human being living instinctively instead of through faith that can move mountains and produce great fruit.

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Year 8, Day 150: Mark 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

As we move into Mark 3, we get a taste of the first few themes blending together.  In the first story, we see the religious leaders immediately going out to seek a way to ill Jesus.  They know when Jesus is doing.  He’s not living up to expectations and He is winning the eye of the crowd.  They need to do something about Jesus, and they need to do it sooner rather than later.  As people immediately start to follow Jesus, the religious leaders need to act immediately to maintain the status quo.

We can continue to talk about people who don’t react well to Jesus’ ministry because of expectations.  There are two stories in this chapter that speak about Jesus and His relationship with His family.  First, notice that Jesus’ family comes to take Him away from public ministry.  They think Him mad.  They think that He is going out of His mind.  Their expectations for Jesus, expectations no doubt based in their own understanding of what a poor Jewish boy from Galilee should be doing, simply don’t match what Jesus is actually doing.  They think Jesus has begun to go crazy! 

At the end of the story, they come again for Jesus.  Jesus’ response is very telling.  When people tell Jesus that His mother and brothers have come for Him, Jesus reverses the expectations back onto them.  Jesus says that His true mother and brothers are those who have listened to Him and are responding.  Jesus makes it perfectly clear that His expectations are God’s expectations and anyone who doesn’t match – including family – isn’t really family.

On that note, we turn to the disciples.  These are people who have followed, they have listened, and they have begun to imitate Jesus.  They are people with whom Jesus shares His power.  He invites them to go out into the world with power and authority.  When we go forth embracing God’s expectations for our life, He equips us and empowers us to be a part of His will!

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Year 8, Day 149: Mark 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Mark 2 is all about expectations.  We can look at this idea from multiple angles.  First, Notice that Jesus does not come to meet human expectations.  We could also say that Jesus came to live up to the expectations of the Father, not the human beings around Him.  Furthermore, the religious leaders are willing to judge Jesus on their expectations.  This is where the clash occurs.  The religious leaders have their perspective limited by their expectations; Jesus has no desire to meet their expectations.

For example, Jesus falls into judgment from the religious leaders because He eats with sinners.  They want Jesus to judge the sinners, not invite them to dinner!  They want a righteous Messiah who will come to dominate over the world, not save it.  On the other hand, Jesus doesn’t want to dominate this world, He wants to save this world so that we can live eternally with God.  We can clearly see the conflict in expectations in this issue.

In the same light, look at the healing of the paralytic man.  Jesus forgives the man’s sins, which doesn’t meet the expectations of the religious leaders.  They don’t believe that anyone can forgive sins!  Jesus’ mercy upon a sinner puts Him at odds against the religious leaders because their expectations don’t match those of Jesus.

To be honest, every time I read this passage I come close to falling in the same trap as the religious leaders.  Don’t get me wrong, I have no trouble with Jesus forgiving sins.  My trouble is that Jesus heals the man and forgives his sins based on the faith of other people around him.  Part of me screams, “How can Jesus forgive sins of one person based on the faithfulness of another?”  To put it another way, how can the righteousness of one person bring about the forgiveness of another.  Can you see where my expectations put me at odds with God?  Do I really want to find fault with the Son of God because He doesn’t meet my expectations?  Furthermore, am I not saved based on the righteousness of Jesus?  If that’s true, how dare I take issue with Jesus forgiving the sins of the paralytic man based on the faithfulness of the man’s friends!

Before leaving this chapter, I do want to make one point.  Don’t overlook the verses here that talk about how popular Jesus has become.  Many are following Him.  They are following Him because of what He represents.  They are following Him because they don’t mind the change in the status quo.  They are following Him because of what He represents and what He can do.  For now, they are happy that His actions aren’t living up to the expectations of the religious leaders.

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Year 8, Day 148: Mark 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Mark’s Gospel is all about immediacy.  There is no birth narrative.  Jesus’ own baptism is little more than a prelude to the greater story.  Even John’s ministry is abbreviated to the bare bones.  Mark wants us to get to the story as quickly as possible.

Even within the story, Jesus does things with little wasted movement.  He immediately goes into the desert to be tempted.  He immediately begins to preach on the Sabbath.  He immediately casts out demons.  He immediately heals Peter’s mother-in-law.  There is little wasted motion with Jesus.  He sets his mind to something and it happens.

Peter, Andrew, James, and John immediately follow Jesus when he calls.  They see a man of action and follow his lead.  They imitate what they see in Jesus.  They see a leader who is making things happen and they get caught up in the movement.  They want to be a part of what Jesus is doing.

What does all of this immediacy tell us besides the point that Jesus can accomplish what He sets His mind to do?  Jesus knows from day one that there is a race between Himself and His mission.  Every day that goes by means that the cross is one day closer.  Jesus has much work to do.  He has disciples to train.  He has a message to teach.  He has miracles to perform.  He has scripture to fulfill.  The clock is ticking on Jesus, and Mark’s Gospel helps us feel that ticking clock like no other.

This is one of the reasons that I love the inclusion of the last story in the first chapter of Mark.  Jesus heals a leper.  Knowing the clock is ticking and not wanting the clock to advance faster than it needs to advance, Jesus asks the leper to say nothing.  The leper disobeys, spreading the word of what happened.  As a result, we are told that Jesus can no longer go into the populated areas.  We don’t know if this is because He got mobbed by the needy or because of religious persecution.  Either way, though, we see why the immediacy is necessary.  We aren’t even through the first chapter of Mark when Jesus’ ministry starts to become hampered by human sinfulness.

Jesus understands the stakes.  He came to accomplish a mission.  He then invites us into that mission.  We need to be like James, John, Simon, and Andrew.  We need to see the immediacy of God’s plan and join Him where He leads us.  That doesn’t mean we are always going to jump from big mission to big mission.  Jesus Himself doesn’t always jump from miracle to miracle.  Sometimes He spends a quiet day in prayer or a quiet evening in the house of Simon’s mother-in-law.  But Jesus is always doing something, big or small.  We should likewise be doing something in God’s kingdom, promoting God’s love and His grace with each moment we can – big or small.

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Year 8, Day 147: Ephesians 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

In the last chapter, we spoke about how we should live.  However, living a life of righteousness is hard work.  As Paul said yesterday, we live in a dark and evil world.  There is constant temptation to sin.  There are always opportunities to turn from righteousness and slip into selfishness, greed, lust, and other passions that dwell within.  We need help to navigate the evil in the world and within ourselves.

To this end, Paul gives us a great passage about where we can find the strength to live righteously.  Our belt, that which binds the armor together, is truth.  Our breastplate, that which protects our most vital areas, is righteousness.  Our shoes, which protect our ability to move and bring God’s Word to other places, is peace.  Our shield, which is our mobile defense against attack from any angle, is faith.  Our helmet, which protects our brain and decision making abilities, is the Word of God.  Our sword, which is both a parrying weapon and our means of attack, is also the Word of God.

Note, however, the arrangement of the source of our strength.  All but one of the pieces is a defensive piece of equipment.  The armor of God is first-and-foremost for our protection, not for assault and attack!  This should make sense.  God does not need us to fight His battles for Him.  He does invite us into His work, but He does not need us to assault His enemies.  God will do that Himself.  God will assault the strongholds of evil.  We merely need to stay strong, prepared to act in righteousness when God calls upon us.  Defense is primary to our role in God’s kingdom.

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Year 8, Day 146: Ephesians 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Ephesians 5 is largely a common sense chapter.  Paul gives us good advice for living.  He encourages us to behave in ways that build up the community around us.  He wants us to allow the light of God to shine through us.

Here are some of the things that Paul encourages us to do.  Rather than getting drunk, fill ourselves with the Holy Spirit and lift one another up with joy and praise.  Rather than make foolish decisions, wait upon and pursue the will of the Lord.  Don’t partner with empty actions.  Don’t allow our lusts to rule over us.  Speak words of encouragement instead of filthiness or crude jokes.  Husbands and wives should love each other.

These words simply make sense.  If we are going to be God’s people, we need to reflect God’s ways.  If we are going to reflect God’s ways, we need to live in truth.  We need to be building up the community around us.  We need to be observant about the needs of others around us.  We need to speak truthfully about the lives we see round us.

What Paul is really getting at here is something that we all know through our lived experience.  It’s one thing to talk a good talk.  It’s an entirely different thing to walk the walk.  Words sound hollow when we say them but live contrary to our words.  We come across as hypocrites when we do so.  Paul wants to make sure that our testimony is supported by, not hindered by, our actions.

There is another side to this as well.  Paul also wants to make sure that we remain in God’s will.  He wants to ensure that we receive the inheritance of God when we have finished with this life.  When we fill our life with sin, we risk abandoning God and forfeiting His grace.  Paul wants to make sure that we firmly hold on to what God has offered us through His own graciousness.  We live righteously not just for others, but to keep ourselves headed in a right direction.

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