January 18, 2011
Mark 11, 12
Overview: The Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem. Friction with the Chief Priests, Scribes and Elders. A widow gives two copper coins.
Mark 12 wraps up with the story of the widow who places her last two coins into the treasury at the Temple. It's not much, but it's everything. Jesus contrasts her generosity with the desire of the religious leadership for the trapments of their office and their taste for the finer things. They give appropriately, out of the much they have to draw from. It's a lot, but it's not much. This is one of those places where Scripture speaks with clarity to this present moment. I was at the car dealership one morning recently waiting while my car was having the oil changed. The television was on in the waiting area. It was a religious program in the midst of fundraising drive. They were highlighting a couple who had increased their giving and had been "blessed as a result of their giving. The husband explained that he had increased his giving to "test God". He wanted to see if God would really bless him more if he gave more. Translated, he wanted to see if giving to God was a good investment. Apparently it was - the report ended by saying that this couple was able to now give away more in a year then they used to make in a year. A happy ending of sorts which was followed by an appeal to the viewer to give generously because they too could benefit from the investment. There was a certain logic to the whole thing and it was loosely related to Scripture, but I don't think Jesus would have been loving it. I don't see anything in Jesus observation of the events at the Temple treasury that causes me to think he saw the widows gift as a shrewd investment. I think he interpreted it as her giving all. Which is what I think he's after. All.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Mark 9, 10
January 17, 2011
Mark 9, 10
Overview: Jesus is active. Healing. Teaching. Instructing the disciples about what will happen to him.
A key component to a solid relationship with Jesus is quite simply asking well. Two times towards the end of Mark 10, Jesus asks a question that leads to important considerations on our part. Jesus question? First to James and John, "What is it you want me to do for you?" and then further on to the blind man Bartimaeus "What do you want me to do for you?". James and John's response is that they want to sit one at his right hand and one at his left when he comes into power. Bartimaeus response is he'd like to be able to see. Two of the twelve who are closest to Jesus use the question as an opportunity for an attempted power grab. A man who can't see uses the question to ask Jesus for healing. Jesus does not respond with anger to his followers, but he does use their question as an opening to asking some probing questions and to help them see some harsh realities about what they are asking. Jesus responds with compassion to Bartimaeus - "Go your faith has made you well." As we read Scripture, as we come into God's presence in prayer the tone and the purpose of these two answers to Jesus question are important for us to consider as we listen for Jesus asking us "What do you want me to do for you?" and as we formulate our own answers.
Mark 9, 10
Overview: Jesus is active. Healing. Teaching. Instructing the disciples about what will happen to him.
A key component to a solid relationship with Jesus is quite simply asking well. Two times towards the end of Mark 10, Jesus asks a question that leads to important considerations on our part. Jesus question? First to James and John, "What is it you want me to do for you?" and then further on to the blind man Bartimaeus "What do you want me to do for you?". James and John's response is that they want to sit one at his right hand and one at his left when he comes into power. Bartimaeus response is he'd like to be able to see. Two of the twelve who are closest to Jesus use the question as an opportunity for an attempted power grab. A man who can't see uses the question to ask Jesus for healing. Jesus does not respond with anger to his followers, but he does use their question as an opening to asking some probing questions and to help them see some harsh realities about what they are asking. Jesus responds with compassion to Bartimaeus - "Go your faith has made you well." As we read Scripture, as we come into God's presence in prayer the tone and the purpose of these two answers to Jesus question are important for us to consider as we listen for Jesus asking us "What do you want me to do for you?" and as we formulate our own answers.
Mark 7, 8
Mark 7, 8
January 16, 2011
Mark 7, 8
Towards the end of Mark 7, Jesus encounters a deaf man who also suffers from a speech impediment. There is specific description of the way in which Jesus responds to his request for healing. Jesus takes him aside and works with him and then speaks a word “Ephphatha”, which, we are told, means “Be opened”. It works and the man’s ears “are opened, and his tongue was released and he spoke plainly”. Jesus then does what he has done elsewhere and asks the man to keep it quiet. The request seems especially ironic here, the man has been restored the use of his tongue, given the ability to speak and Jesus asks him not to speak, at least on this subject. The more he tells them not to speak, however, the more they make known what Jesus has been doing.
The healing here is the restoration of hearing and speech. These abilities had been closed off and Jesus commands them to be opened. This Scripture invites us to consider where we feel closed off and to place that before Christ in prayer seeking to be opened by the One who is capable of such things.
Following the healing of the man who had been deaf and mute and the feeding of a multitude some Pharisees come and ask Jesus for a sign. Jesus responds, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you no sign will be given to this generation.” One wonders where the sign seekers were when the healing and the feeding was going on. Maybe they meant they wanted their own sign. Jesus declines to respond like a performer producing magic on demand – at the same time if they spent any time around him it is clear the signs are abundant and clear. Are our eyes open to the activity of Jesus that is abundantly clear or are we sometimes, like the Pharisees, so certain of what we want to see from Jesus that we miss the wonders and signs all around us?
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Mark 5,6
January 15, 2011
Mark 5, 6
Overview: Jesus casts out demons, revives Jairus' daughter, sends the disciples out on a healing ministry mission, feeds a multitude and walks on water. Jesus staying busy.
As various miraculous acts and healings are described throughout these two chapters there is a distinct empahsis on the physicality of the Incarnation in these two chapters. People bring their sick to Jesus. They are anxious to simply touch his garment. His followers seen him walking on water and he gets into the boat with them. The prime example of this is the story dropped into the middle of the story of Jairus' daughter. Betwen the invitation by Jairus and the arrival at the home of this leader of the Synagogue there is the story of the woman who is seeking to be healed, but doesn't want to call attention to herself - doesn't want to bother Jesus. "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well."(5:28) Jesus notices. "Who touched my clothes," he asks. The disciples find this almost amusing. A "you can't be serious" kind of moment - everyone is trying to touch you and you want us to pick out just one. And the answer, of course, is precisely yes. Jesus notices that one touch. Jesus heals the woman. Some combination of her faith and the tactile experience of touching the real, tangible, walking, talking Son of God results in her healing.
It's a great story and it's great reinforcement for us in our faith walk. We may not have the tactile experience of phyical contact with our Lord, but our relationship can be as real as any relationship that existed between Jesus and his followers. And the same Jesus who walked through a crowd and knew of one particular touch, hears each of our voices and each of our concerns even in the midst of all the voices and all the concerns in the world. What a gift these accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus are to us as we strive to follow him today.
Mark 5, 6
Overview: Jesus casts out demons, revives Jairus' daughter, sends the disciples out on a healing ministry mission, feeds a multitude and walks on water. Jesus staying busy.
As various miraculous acts and healings are described throughout these two chapters there is a distinct empahsis on the physicality of the Incarnation in these two chapters. People bring their sick to Jesus. They are anxious to simply touch his garment. His followers seen him walking on water and he gets into the boat with them. The prime example of this is the story dropped into the middle of the story of Jairus' daughter. Betwen the invitation by Jairus and the arrival at the home of this leader of the Synagogue there is the story of the woman who is seeking to be healed, but doesn't want to call attention to herself - doesn't want to bother Jesus. "If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well."(5:28) Jesus notices. "Who touched my clothes," he asks. The disciples find this almost amusing. A "you can't be serious" kind of moment - everyone is trying to touch you and you want us to pick out just one. And the answer, of course, is precisely yes. Jesus notices that one touch. Jesus heals the woman. Some combination of her faith and the tactile experience of touching the real, tangible, walking, talking Son of God results in her healing.
It's a great story and it's great reinforcement for us in our faith walk. We may not have the tactile experience of phyical contact with our Lord, but our relationship can be as real as any relationship that existed between Jesus and his followers. And the same Jesus who walked through a crowd and knew of one particular touch, hears each of our voices and each of our concerns even in the midst of all the voices and all the concerns in the world. What a gift these accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus are to us as we strive to follow him today.
Mark 3, 4
January 14, 2011
Mark 3,4
Overview: Jesus has conflicts with the Phrarisees, teaches alongside the Sea of Galilee and anoints the disciples on a mountain. And for good measure teaches some more along the Sea of Galilee and then calms a storm on the sea as they cross from one side to the other.
There a mentions of a "great multitude"(3:7), "the crowd"(3:20), "a very large crowd"(4:1), and "leaving the crowd"(4:36). The constant reminder of the people that are drawn to Jesus gives a sense of the atmosphere that surrounded these early days of his ministry as word got out about him and what he was doing. "He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd so that they would not crush him; for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him."(3:9,10) Word has spread around the region about Jesus so that those who are suffering are turning out in numbers to see if what they hear is true. Mark 4 has a similar mention of Jesus teaching from a boat. The culminating story of Mark 4 comes at the end of a day of ministry and Jesus desiring to leave the crowd behind tells the disciples "Let us cross to the other side."
They begin to cross the sea and Jesus, exhausted from the days work, falls asleep in the boat. A storm blows up, the disciples become fearful and turning to Jesus see that he is sleeping. One might wonder how Jesus is able to sleep through a storm that frightens the disciples, with several seasoned fishermen among them, but in the context of the relentless ministry with the crowd it becomes understandable - he's worn out. As the boat is "swamped" the disciples awaken Jesus, he responds to them by calming the storm and gives the disciples something to think about "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"(4:39). Jesus is challenging them to think of all they have witnessed already, the teaching and the healing and asking them to begin to trust that they are in good hands when he is around.
The story transfers to us quite readily. We have the stories of Jesus' action in Scripture. We have the experience of Jesus' work in our faith communities and in our lives. Yet we too, come to the storms of life, and if we are honest we will confess that when those storms come we can become paniced at times. In that moment Jesus words are for us, "Why are you afraid. Have you still no faith?" It is less, perhaps, admonition, then a reminder that Jesus is right where he always is - in the boat with us. We are in good hands when he is around.
Mark 3,4
Overview: Jesus has conflicts with the Phrarisees, teaches alongside the Sea of Galilee and anoints the disciples on a mountain. And for good measure teaches some more along the Sea of Galilee and then calms a storm on the sea as they cross from one side to the other.
There a mentions of a "great multitude"(3:7), "the crowd"(3:20), "a very large crowd"(4:1), and "leaving the crowd"(4:36). The constant reminder of the people that are drawn to Jesus gives a sense of the atmosphere that surrounded these early days of his ministry as word got out about him and what he was doing. "He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd so that they would not crush him; for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him."(3:9,10) Word has spread around the region about Jesus so that those who are suffering are turning out in numbers to see if what they hear is true. Mark 4 has a similar mention of Jesus teaching from a boat. The culminating story of Mark 4 comes at the end of a day of ministry and Jesus desiring to leave the crowd behind tells the disciples "Let us cross to the other side."
They begin to cross the sea and Jesus, exhausted from the days work, falls asleep in the boat. A storm blows up, the disciples become fearful and turning to Jesus see that he is sleeping. One might wonder how Jesus is able to sleep through a storm that frightens the disciples, with several seasoned fishermen among them, but in the context of the relentless ministry with the crowd it becomes understandable - he's worn out. As the boat is "swamped" the disciples awaken Jesus, he responds to them by calming the storm and gives the disciples something to think about "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"(4:39). Jesus is challenging them to think of all they have witnessed already, the teaching and the healing and asking them to begin to trust that they are in good hands when he is around.
The story transfers to us quite readily. We have the stories of Jesus' action in Scripture. We have the experience of Jesus' work in our faith communities and in our lives. Yet we too, come to the storms of life, and if we are honest we will confess that when those storms come we can become paniced at times. In that moment Jesus words are for us, "Why are you afraid. Have you still no faith?" It is less, perhaps, admonition, then a reminder that Jesus is right where he always is - in the boat with us. We are in good hands when he is around.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Mark 1, 2
January 13, 2011
Mark 1, 2
Overview: Mark begins with John the Baptist in the wilderness and quickly introduces Jesus and by Chapter 2 is into an accounting of his ministry.
Jesus practice of ministry is clearly the model for the ministry that is given to the church - it's instructive for me just to let that settle in and find a placet to take root. Here we find Jesus in Capernaum, healing people, meeting needs and getting a great response from the public. So Jesus, in the morning, withdraws off by himself. The disciples find him and tell him, "Everyone is searching for you." Jesus doesn't respond by saying that this is great and the plan must be working. Instead he says, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." Two things jump out at me. One there is a crowd coming to see him and he goes on to the next place. This is a man and a ministry on the move. It's not about getting a bunch of people in one place and then trying to hold them there. It's about mobilizing people for God's kindgom. Second, Jesus knows what he is about. He had a message and he intended to proclaim it - it was his purpose and he was commited to fulfilling that purpose. As a blueprint for ministry in the local church it is good to be reminded that we are not called to gather people for the purpose of gathering people. Certainly there is nothing wrong with gathering together and the more the better as it means more people are seeking Jesus. However, the point of the gathering together is to get sent forth once again, if we are gathering and not sending we are something other than what we are supposed to be. We also can benefit from seeing Christ's determination to stick to his purpose. It is easy to let momentum for minsitry disipate in the midst of the variety of directions we might go at any one moment. Jesus model for us here is to keep ever before us what it is we exist to do - to share God's good news with the world.
Also want to call attention to the activity of the Holy Spirit in Mark 1:10-13. The Spirit is present at Christ's baptism, "descending like a dove on him" as he is named the Beloved Son. Then "the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness" where he faces the temptations of Satan." That detail always fascinates me. Jesus is in the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan. How did he get there? The Spirit drove him there. The Spirit will drive, send, cajole, move us to places we'd not choose to go on our own. Some of them may result in euphoric experiences, some of them may seem a lot like the wilderness.
Mark 1, 2
Overview: Mark begins with John the Baptist in the wilderness and quickly introduces Jesus and by Chapter 2 is into an accounting of his ministry.
Jesus practice of ministry is clearly the model for the ministry that is given to the church - it's instructive for me just to let that settle in and find a placet to take root. Here we find Jesus in Capernaum, healing people, meeting needs and getting a great response from the public. So Jesus, in the morning, withdraws off by himself. The disciples find him and tell him, "Everyone is searching for you." Jesus doesn't respond by saying that this is great and the plan must be working. Instead he says, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." Two things jump out at me. One there is a crowd coming to see him and he goes on to the next place. This is a man and a ministry on the move. It's not about getting a bunch of people in one place and then trying to hold them there. It's about mobilizing people for God's kindgom. Second, Jesus knows what he is about. He had a message and he intended to proclaim it - it was his purpose and he was commited to fulfilling that purpose. As a blueprint for ministry in the local church it is good to be reminded that we are not called to gather people for the purpose of gathering people. Certainly there is nothing wrong with gathering together and the more the better as it means more people are seeking Jesus. However, the point of the gathering together is to get sent forth once again, if we are gathering and not sending we are something other than what we are supposed to be. We also can benefit from seeing Christ's determination to stick to his purpose. It is easy to let momentum for minsitry disipate in the midst of the variety of directions we might go at any one moment. Jesus model for us here is to keep ever before us what it is we exist to do - to share God's good news with the world.
Also want to call attention to the activity of the Holy Spirit in Mark 1:10-13. The Spirit is present at Christ's baptism, "descending like a dove on him" as he is named the Beloved Son. Then "the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness" where he faces the temptations of Satan." That detail always fascinates me. Jesus is in the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan. How did he get there? The Spirit drove him there. The Spirit will drive, send, cajole, move us to places we'd not choose to go on our own. Some of them may result in euphoric experiences, some of them may seem a lot like the wilderness.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Matthew 26, 27, 28
January 12, 2011
Matthew 26, 27, 28
Overview: Jesus celebrates the passover with his disciples which transitions into Matthew's account of the arrest, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. The book concludes with the Great Commission.
Early on in chapter 26 there is an account of an unnamed woman anointing Jesus with costly ointment. This is followed almost immediately by a very pointedly named ("Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot" - 26:14) follower of Jesus betraying him. The story of the anointing echoed the story of Jesus' baptism in my mind. At the time of his baptism there is the voice of God identifying Jesus ("This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased" 3:17). Here, shortly before his arrest, is Jesus being anointed by this unnamed woman who does so, clearly, for one reason - at some level she recognizes Jesus.. Judas has followed Jesus around for three years and yet he is unable to recognize Jesus and so makes the decision to sell him out to the authorities for thirty pieces of silver. The disciples have just criticized Jesus for allowing the woman to "waste" money by anointing him with the valuable ointment. Judas places a value of thirty pieces of silver on the most valuable gift one could have in ones life - Jesus Christ. The juxtaposition of these two vignettes sets the scene for the story of Jesus final meal with his disciples, his arrest, Peters denial (in its own way perhaps a more shocking development then Judas' betrayal) and the crucifixion and resurrection.
I have always loved Matthew 28:1 - "After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb." We know what they are going to find; what I love is how that first verse hints at what only God can do. Jesus is buried. His followers are undoubtedly grief stricken and despondent. Time passes A long night into a new day and the women come to the tomb. In that long night where death reigns it is only God who can act. "As the first day of the week was dawning" God had acted. In the dark God had done what only God can do and turned the morning into the most dazzling of lights.
Matthew 26, 27, 28
Overview: Jesus celebrates the passover with his disciples which transitions into Matthew's account of the arrest, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. The book concludes with the Great Commission.
Early on in chapter 26 there is an account of an unnamed woman anointing Jesus with costly ointment. This is followed almost immediately by a very pointedly named ("Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot" - 26:14) follower of Jesus betraying him. The story of the anointing echoed the story of Jesus' baptism in my mind. At the time of his baptism there is the voice of God identifying Jesus ("This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased" 3:17). Here, shortly before his arrest, is Jesus being anointed by this unnamed woman who does so, clearly, for one reason - at some level she recognizes Jesus.. Judas has followed Jesus around for three years and yet he is unable to recognize Jesus and so makes the decision to sell him out to the authorities for thirty pieces of silver. The disciples have just criticized Jesus for allowing the woman to "waste" money by anointing him with the valuable ointment. Judas places a value of thirty pieces of silver on the most valuable gift one could have in ones life - Jesus Christ. The juxtaposition of these two vignettes sets the scene for the story of Jesus final meal with his disciples, his arrest, Peters denial (in its own way perhaps a more shocking development then Judas' betrayal) and the crucifixion and resurrection.
I have always loved Matthew 28:1 - "After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb." We know what they are going to find; what I love is how that first verse hints at what only God can do. Jesus is buried. His followers are undoubtedly grief stricken and despondent. Time passes A long night into a new day and the women come to the tomb. In that long night where death reigns it is only God who can act. "As the first day of the week was dawning" God had acted. In the dark God had done what only God can do and turned the morning into the most dazzling of lights.
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