Year 8, Day 173: Psalms 23-24

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There is no more iconic psalm than Psalm 23. This psalm has been said at more funerals - and weddings, go figure – than any other psalm in the Bible.  When someone says the word psalm, I’m willing to bet that if we associate it with anything that most of us immediately do so with some part of this psalm.

Why is it the quintessential psalm?  To be honest, I blame a lot of that on rote tradition.  People use this psalm because its just what people do.  Instead of being original and picking a psalm with genuine meaning, I think many people used this psalm because its all they know.  I bring this up because it lifts up an inherent danger of the psalms – or any part of scripture.  When some scripture becomes iconic we can stop thinking about it.  While we want to be familiar with scripture, we want to meditate upon it.  Familiar should never replace meditation.

There are good reasons for this psalm to be iconic, however.  This psalm speaks deeply to the nature of God in many stages of life.  While it is certainly not a universal psalm, it is widely applicable.  When we are feeling lost, we are reminded that the Lord is a shepherd.  When we are feeling anxious, we are reminded that the path of the Lord is to still waters. When we lose our identity, we are reminded that He leads us into righteousness for the sake of His name.  When we are tempted, we are reminded that He leads us with both rod and staff.  When we feel alone, we are reminded that He invites us to His table.  There are many reasons to find this psalm appealing.

Psalm 24 gives us a different perspective on the Lord.  Whereas Psalm 23 is about the more pastoral nature of God, Psalm 24 is more about His splendor.  He is the king of glory.  He causes us to look up and rejoice.  The entire earth is His domain.  He is strong.  He is mighty.

For me, though, the greatest part of this psalm is the central verses.  If the Lord is so full of glory, who can ascend up to Him?  We are told that the righteous can go up.  Remember, though, that the righteous are made righteous by God.  The psalm isn’t telling us that the good and perfect people can go up.  The psalm is telling us that those who are after God’s own heart – those that God makes righteous – can go up to Him.

I think this is a very powerful word for the day. The Lord is splendorous.  But we are invited to be with Him.  He makes it possible for us to participate in His glory.

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Year 8, Day 172: Psalms 21-22

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For those who worship in a liturgical style, Psalm 22 is very familiar on one particular day.  It is the psalm of Maundy Thursday.  It is the psalm of the stripping of the altar.  It is the psalm that puts up the framework of Jesus’ death.

That being said, remember that while the psalms can have a prophetic voice they are originally written in a context and for a context.  Psalm 22 is a psalm that David wrote when his enemies surrounded him.  It was a psalm from when he was at an ultimate low in his life.  It is a psalm when David most greatly felt the scorn of those around him.

There’s a cool point about this as it shows us what God is after.  As you listen to David’s words, note that you cannot find any doubt of the Lord within them!  When David is at his lowest, he’s not asking where God is to be found!  David is praising the Lord and calling for His salvation!  For a person after God’s own heart, coming under the eye and oppression of evil is not a reason to doubt God’s existence but an opportunity to express one’s faith in God!

This brings us back to the example of Christ.  For Jesus, the procession of the cross was an opportunity to grieve the evil of humankind.  It was also an opportunity to embrace the plan of God.  It was an opportunity to bring true salvation to those who will receive it.  Evil should always be grieved. Yet we should be quick to remember that it is every bit as much an opportunity to turn to God and embrace His salvation – even if salvation means waiting for the resurrection to experience His glory.  That’s exactly what Jesus did.

This brings us to the praise of Psalm 21.  In this psalm we hear more words about the greatness of God and what He is able to do.  He gives us life.  He bestows joy and blessing upon us.  He sees our enemies.  He will judge over them.  This is why He is God.

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Year 8, Day 171: Psalms 19-20

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Psalm 19 has some iconic verses.  It tells us that the law of the Lord is perfect.  It revives the soul. It is to be sought out more than God.  It makes the heart glad.  It makes the wise simple.  It is enlightening.  It is enduring.  It warns us from mistakes.  For all these reasons, it is greatly to be desired.

Yet, do we live that way?  I can’t say that I have, at least not for the vast majority of life. Most of the years of my life have been pursuing my own dreams, my own gold, and my own happiness.  That doesn’t mean that I denied God; I can’t think of a time in my life when I did not believe in a higher being.  But I wasn’t living as though God’s Word was my ultimate guidebook to life.  Even now, when I am much better about making it central, it is still challenging amidst the distractions of the world.

This psalm ends with an iconic verse.  When I was preaching weekly, this prayer was how I began every sermon.  “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”  This verse is the culmination of what this blog post has been about thus far.  We should be living in such a way that every thought and every word brings joy to the Lord.  Every breath we take and every action we make should be something that the Lord can use.  That’s the goal.

This is a wonderful way to bring in Psalm 20.  Psalm 20 is about the greatness of the Lord’s salvation.  Why do we live our live with His Word as our ultimate guidebook?  We live this way because He is the fulfiller of plans.  He is the one who saves.  He makes us upright.  This is why we trust in His name.

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Year 8, Day 170: Psalms 17-18

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Today we have two psalms of David.  Both psalms are focused on the nature of God and His deliverance.  Both psalms assume the righteousness of the psalmist.

Look at this second point.  There’s no doubt who David is.  This is the man who had Uriah killed so that he could take his wife.  In fact, he had multiple wives at the same time!  Here is a man who struggled to keep his children under control.  Here is a man who certainly had his faults, especially in his personal life.

However, David doesn’t assume perfection.  David is righteous because his heart desires the Lord.  There is a difference between perfection and righteousness in spite of the fact that we often conflate the two concepts.  Perfection means that a person is without error.  Righteous means that in spite of one’s condition God has deemed the person justified.  When our hearts incline to Him, He makes us righteous.  We, like David, can have significant flaws yet still be righteous in God’s eyes.  We need not be perfect, we simply need to pursue the Lord and His ways.

Having said all of this, now turn to what David says about the Lord.  It is the Lord who caused David to rise above his enemies.  It is the Lord who fought for him.  It is the Lord who delivered him.  The Lord thunders from heaven.

Look at what David says about the character of the Lord.  He is merciful, blameless, pure, saving, a light, a rock, and strength.  Against the wicked He is judgmental, tortuous, and confrontational.  He pursues what is good and casts off that which is evil.

All of these things combined is why David knows that God will listen when David calls to Him.  If the Lord is righteous, then the Lord will hear those who pursue righteousness.  It is a natural conclusion to make.  Why wouldn’t God desire to hear from the people whose heart is inclined in the same way as His own?

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Year 8, Day 169: Psalms 15-16

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The two psalms for today give us a shift in perspective.  Rather than focusing on the evil nature of the wicked around us, today’s psalms ask us to contemplate what it means to be a person who walks in the ways of the Lord.  Who are the righteous?  What does their life look like?  What does it mean to not simply speak one’s faith in words but actually live it out?

The first thing that we note is that a righteous person is righteous in their heart.  That righteousness comes from truth.  The heart of the righteous is focused on truth, not lies or deceit.  The righteous person’s heart seeks a fair look, and not a biased look, at their own life.  They are honest, not deceptive.

There are fruit to be had when one’s heart is right.  A righteous heart leads to productive relationships with one’s neighbors.  It leads to disgust when looking at evil or vile behavior.  It leads to fair and even generous sharing of resources.  In other words, the righteous person becomes a blessing to one’s community, not just oneself.  You can always tell the work of a righteous person because he makes the world around him a better place.

So how does one get a righteous heart?  Psalm 16 gives us some good advice.  The righteous person is informed by, not just in, the Lord’s ways.  The Lord’s ways aren’t something to be understood but lived.  It is the counsel of the Lord that the righteous seek.  It is the comfort that comes with closeness to the Lord that the righteous seek.  It is the joy that comes with walking with one’s God that the righteous seek.

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Year 8, Day 168: Psalms 13-14

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We have the same interesting dynamic that was spoken about yesterday.  The wicked seem to prosper.  The wicked seem to go unchallenged by God.  The wicked devour God’s people and God’s people wonder how long it will go on.

As with yesterday, notice how the psalmist does not allow this reality to question the nature of God.  Not once does the psalmist wonder if God is capable of being a savior, or if God is able to judge the wicked, or if God is even real in the first place.  The psalmist is not looking for gaps in God’s being.  The psalmist is not looking for inconsistencies between His promises and reality.

The psalmist is trying to make sense of his own experience, not make sense of God.  This is a really important point.  God is beyond our understanding.  It is one thing for us to try and understand Him; it is another thing – entirely wrong – to bring God’s character into question because of our limited human capacity. In one position we understand that the flaw or gap lies within us; in the other the assume that the issue lies within God.

That being said, look at how the psalmist deals with God’s perspective in Psalm 14.  In this psalm, the perspective that we get is a God who has given free will and who is looking down upon the earth to see how people are utilizing the gift.  Who is using their free will to obtain their own self-centered desires?  Who is using their gift to pursue God and His ways?  This is what a God who understands true freedom looks like.  This is what a God who understands true love looks like.

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Year 8, Day 167: Psalms 10-12

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The psalms for today are similarly grouped.  A common thread runs through the first and the last psalm.  The psalmist wonders how it is that the Lord sits back while evil prospers and righteousness fades from the land.

This is a fairly common dynamic among human beings.  We hear the prophets speak frequently about the growing evil among the people.  We hear Jesus speak in the Gospels about the corrupt generation around Him.  Paul is so frustrated with the corruption f the Jews around Him that he vows to only minister to Gentiles after Corinth!  These feelings have continued even into the modern age.  Every generation has people within it that feel that the world is slipping more and more into self-centered evil.  It is easy to go through life and wonder why God can sit back and watch evil prosper.

This is a good theological question to answer.  The reality is that God gives us free will.  He has given us this life to choose what we will.  We can choose good or evil; it is our choice.  After all, if we didn’t have the ability to reject God and His ways, would there actually be a choice to follow God and His ways?  Would that choice be meaningful at all?  The reality is that in order to give space for people to choose relationship with God, God must also give space to allow people to choose their own ways while rejecting God’s ways.

In each of the first and the last psalms, and especially in Psalm 11, there is a very important point to bring out.  While the psalmist does wonder how God can sit back, the psalmist never questions God and His omnipotence.  In each case, the psalmist believes in God’s ability to protect the poor, counter the oppressor, and judge over evil.  God’s ability is not what is in doubt here, it is His timing.

This is really important.  It is one thing to doubt God’s timing in the midst of our own human inability to see and know everything.  We can doubt God’s timing because we don’t see the big picture.  That’s understandable.  What we want to avoid is questioning God’s existence or His power.  It never should be a question of ability, we can question when.

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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

Theological Commentary: Click Here

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

Theological Commentary: Click Here

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

Theological Commentary: Click Here

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

Theological Commentary: Click Here

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

Theological Commentary: Click Here

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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