Tag Archives: christianity

²⁰ One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again. Soon he and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat. ²¹ When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away. “He’s out of his mind,” they said.

²² But the teachers of religious law who had arrived from Jerusalem said, “He’s possessed by Satan, the prince of demons. That’s where he gets the power to cast out demons.”

²³ Jesus called them over and responded with an illustration. “How can Satan cast out Satan?” he asked. ²⁴ “A kingdom divided by civil war will collapse. ²⁵ Similarly, a family splintered by feuding will fall apart. ²⁶ And if Satan is divided and fights against himself, how can he stand? He would never survive. ²⁷ Let me illustrate this further. Who is powerful enough to enter the house of a strong man and plunder his goods? Only someone even stronger—someone who could tie him up and then plunder his house.

²⁸ “I tell you the truth, all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, ²⁹ but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. This is a sin with eternal consequences.” ³⁰ He told them this because they were saying, “He’s possessed by an evil spirit.”

³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him. They stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them. ³² There was a crowd sitting around Jesus, and someone said, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.”

³³ Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” ³⁴ Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. ³⁵ Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Mark 3:21-35

Dear God, when I read this story I just see a lot of confusion and tension. I see Mary and Jesus’s family confused and scared about what Jesus is doing. I see the Pharisees confused and scared. I see the people coming to get healed getting something for themselves out of being with Jesus but not having any idea of what was really going on. And then there’s Jesus in the middle, completely aware of everything and everyone. He saw their confusion, anger, fear, selfishness, and he loved them all. He knew some of them had made him their enemy and would do anything they could to thwart him, and he love them anyway. He got angry at them, sure–even his family–but he loved them.

You are the God that is above it all. Sometimes there are tensions between people where I work. Maybe staff. Maybe with volunteers. Maybe with our clients. But I always appreciate the staff members who can rise above it all. Who can love and have mercy for everyone and every perspective. They don’t have to agree, but they can let be.

So what do I do with my own tension, anger, and fear? I talked with a friend yesterday who was very upset about how our government is handling immigration issues. Frankly, I’m lamenting it as well. So what do we do with that tension, anger, and fear? I’m bringing it to you (sometimes). I’m asking you what you would have me do. And then I’m doing it. It disappoints me that I feel so helpless in it. I feel like there’s little I can do. But there is a little I can do. I can write my congressmen. I can try to point people I know to legal aid. I can speak thoughtfully and persuasively with people who disagree with me. In fact, this reminds me of what I heard a couple of years ago, I can’t remember their name right now, about the four tools Jesus used when he was here on earth and they are the only four tools he left us: prayer, service, persuasion, and suffering.

Father, in the midst of my tension, anger, and fear, help me to attack them with prayer, service, persuasion, and suffering. Holy Spirit, teach me and show me what to do and how to do it. Show me what you’re calling me to do for the sake of your glory, the people you love, and for me.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

⁷ Jesus went out to the lake with his disciples, and a large crowd followed him. They came from all over Galilee, Judea, ⁸ Jerusalem, Idumea, from east of the Jordan River, and even from as far north as Tyre and Sidon. The news about his miracles had spread far and wide, and vast numbers of people came to see him.

⁹ Jesus instructed his disciples to have a boat ready so the crowd would not crush him. ¹⁰ He had healed many people that day, so all the sick people eagerly pushed forward to touch him. ¹¹ And whenever those possessed by evil spirits caught sight of him, the spirits would throw them to the ground in front of him shrieking, “You are the Son of God!” ¹² But Jesus sternly commanded the spirits not to reveal who he was.

Mark 3:7-12

Dear God, translation is so important. In reading the New Living Translation (above), it makes it look like all of this, including Jesus’s run-in with the Pharisees in verses 1-6 all happened on the same day–the Sabbath. But New American Standard 1995 translates verses 7-12 this way:

⁷ Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples; and a great multitude from Galilee followed; and also from Judea, ⁸ and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, a great number of people heard of all that He was doing and came to Him. ⁹ And He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd Him; ¹⁰ for He had healed many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around Him in order to touch Him. ¹¹ Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are the Son of God!” ¹² And He earnestly warned them not to tell who He was.

First, it’s interesting that it’s as different as being one paragraph instead of two. The big difference for me, however, is verse 10 where NLT adds the words “that day.” If Jesus is doing all of this “that day” then then he is doing a lot of stuff on the Sabbath. He isn’t just healing one guy. He’s healing lots of people. He’s casting out lots of demons. In for a penny, in for a pound. If he was serious about doing good on the Sabbath in verse 4 ( ⁴ Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him.) then a lot of healing activity was okay too.

I’ll be frank. As I sit here this morning, if this all happened on the same day, it does feel like it’s turning into a “work day” for Jesus. It doesn’t look like a Sabbath. The rules here are squishy, it feels. Although I can’t say I’m the best or even moderately good at observing the Sabbath. In fact, I’m not intentional about a Sabbath hardly at all. I mean, I will try to make sure I get a day of the weekend that is more chill or doesn’t have responsibilities to get some down time and margin, but I’m not really great about setting aside that much time and making it sacred rest.

Father, there’s so much of your Word that was recorded 2,000 years ago that I really don’t understand. Some things are lost in translation (literally). Some things are lost in cultural ignorance. Some things are lost in lack of context. So please help me to glean from scripture what you have for me to glean. I’ll even just take the scraps. I want to be your child. I want to know you better. I want you to get the glory for my life. I want my life to point people towards the narrow path. I love you, Lord. I don’t have any resolutions on this passage. I don’t need them. I just need to know from you through your Holy Spirit what you have for me today. Help me to be the man you need me to be today.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

¹⁸ Once when John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t your disciples fast like John’s disciples and the Pharisees do?”

¹⁹ Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can’t fast while the groom is with them. ²⁰ But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

²¹ “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.

²² “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”

Mark 2:18-22

Dear God, I suppose Jesus is telling the questioners that they are applying old paradigms to him. He is not the same old wine. He is not the same old cloth. He is something new that they’ve never seen before. The rules are different now.

There’s the old story of the woman who always cuts the end off of her roast before she cooks it. When questioned why by her daughter, she replies, “That’s the way my mother always did it.” When the mother questioned her mother about it, she gave the same reply: “That’s the way my mother always did it.” Thankfully, that mother was still alive, so they asked her why she did it that way. She replied, “Well, our oven was too small for a whole roast to fit so I had to cut the end off to make it fit.” They were applying an old patch to new cloth. The ovens now will fit a whole roast, but they were foolishly wasting part of the roast because they didn’t understand that something new was afoot.

The same is true here. We like to compare the “God of the Old Testament” and the “God of the New Testament,” but the truth is that you are the same throughout. You are consistent. You loved Gentiles in the Old Testament just like you loved Gentiles in the New Testament. You loved charity and mercy in the Old Testament just like the New Testament. It’s just that you were constantly having to triage the Israelites sinful ways and the difficult situations they found themselves in in the Old Testament. The new wine that was Jesus gave a new way of reconciling with you and dealing with the sin. That’s what changed. It wasn’t you. It was your way of redeeming us and reconciling us to you that changed.

For Jesus’s disciples, it was time to just be with you in that moment. There would come a time when fasting and discerning your words would be necessary, but in that moment they had direct access. They could physically hear you and touch you. It was a unique point in time.

Father, help me to pray through my stress, through the obstacles in front of me, and selflessly. I am not looking for personal glory. I just want your kingdom to come and your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Be glorified through my life. And as we gather at noon to celebrate Dr. King’s life, help us to remember what it looks like to sacrifice ourselves for you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

¹³ Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. ¹⁴ As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.

¹⁵ Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) ¹⁶ But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?”

¹⁷ When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Mark 2:13-17

Dear God, what struck me this morning was the rules the Pharisees had set up over the years of what appropriate and inappropriate behavior was. And while I can see a reason to be careful of who you hang out with, when it becomes an absolute rule with no exceptions it becomes a form of idol.

I was thinking some yesterday about how some Christians (okay, just about all of us as Christians) set up rules within our churches that are the litmus test as to whether we are living the Christian life correctly. Maybe the church a person goes to has rules about special observance or abstaining from certain activities, or whatever. I spent over an hour talking to a godly man whom I really respect as a person and as a Christian. A lot of our talk was about current politics and national/international happenings and policy. We disagreed on a few things and agreed on many more. The beauty of it was that neither of us made it a condition of friendship that we completely agree on everything. We could disagree. We could see the issues through the other’s perspective. And none of it related to an evaluation of our faith or relationships with you. We both knew the other is your loving child. It’s just a complicated world, and there are no easy answers sometimes. I wonder what it would have looked like if, in this story, the Pharisees had said, “Jesus, help me understand why you’re hanging out with these people because I’m confused.” Then Jesus could have explained, and if they truly wanted to understand what Jesus was doing, maybe they would have not only accepted his explanation, but also started to do the same thing themselves.

Father, give me an open mind to hear your voice. Help me to hear you speak through my Christian friends, through my non-Christian friends, and through any other sources you want to use to speak to me. Give me love for you and for all. Give me a sense of your love for me, your grace for me, and then your grace for others. I do not have this all figured out. I don’t know the answers. I don’t need to know the answers. I just need to love. Help me to love.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

¹⁴ Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News. ¹⁵ “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”

¹⁶ One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon^[g] and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. ¹⁷ Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” ¹⁸ And they left their nets at once and followed him.

¹⁹ A little farther up the shore Jesus saw Zebedee’s sons, James and John, in a boat repairing their nets. ²⁰ He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men.

Mark 1:14-20

Dear God, I think it’s interesting that, at least in this translation, Mark doesn’t bother to give the circumstances around John’s arrest here. He waits until chapter 6 to describe the whole thing with Herodias. Here, he just wants us to know that John gets arrested and Jesus gets to work. He started preaching. He started recruiting disciples. It makes me wonder if you had to get John out of the way so Jesus could be Jesus.

So what does it mean that the Kingdom of God was at hand? What was he functionally telling them? It’s a question that seems like it should have an obvious answer, but as I try to type one out, it seems like it is a very nuanced answer. You were near through Jesus. Nearer than normal. People could see what you were like and hear directly what you had to say. And the closer you are the more my sin is evident to me.

I am also not sure how I feel about how simply Mark tells the stories of the calls of Peter, Ander, James, and John. Thinking about Peter being Mark’s source for this materials, I would have thought we would get a little more insight into what Peter saw and why he said yes.

Father, in this moment, I don’t really feel that close to you. Is it the “hangover” from coming off of the retreat? I would think I would feel more “on fire” afterward, but right now I’m just feeling a little mentally and emotionally scattered. So help me to hear your call today. Help me to answer it. Help me to worship you and love you well. And help me to pray for others thoroughly and through your Spirit.

And with that, I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen