Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 8-9.

Every time I read this passage I identify with the father of the boy whom Jesus’ disciples could not heal.  I do not identify with him as a father, since I have no children.  Rather I identify with his response when Jesus tells him that everything is possible for one who believes. “I believe; help me overcome my unbelief.”  More than anything else that is my prayer every day.  I believe that when Jesus told His disciples that they would do even greater things than what they saw Him doing He was making a prophecy which applies to His followers today.  Yet I do not do such things, and my faith wavers.  Fortunately, the rest of this passage gives me some comfort in that those who walked with Jesus on this earth also suffered faith issues.  They had failed to heal the boy.  At the beginning of this passage, just a short time after witnessing Jesus feed five thousand, they could feed a crowd which turned out to be only four thousand strong.  Peter, who had just proclaimed Jesus the Messiah, had to be rebuked for not having sufficient faith to accept that Jesus would die on the cross.  So, I will join the child’s father and cry out to God, “I believe, help me overcome my unbelief.”

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 6-7.

Today’s passage begins with Jesus teaching in the synagogue in Nazareth.  The reaction of those present contrasts poorly with that of those when He taught in the synagogue in Capernaum. Both saw similar things in His teaching, but in Capernaum they were impressed by His wisdom and understanding, while in Nazareth they were contemptuous of it.  We must be careful not to reject the message which God sends to us when He sends it through those with whom we are familiar.

I also had some thoughts about Mark’s account of the feeding of the five thousand.  First, when Jesus first told His disciples to give the people something to eat, their reply was, “Are we to go buy 200 denarii of bread and give it to them?” Today it struck me that that suggests they HAD 200 denarii which they could spend on bread, but that there was no place close by for them to do so.  However, I want to look closer at Jesus’ reaction when He saw the crowd which had gathered in advance of them at the remote place they went to get away from the crowds.  When Jesus saw the crowd, He saw them as sheep without a shepherd.  I want to write a little bit about what that means.  Sheep without a shepherd are vulnerable to predators and may have trouble finding food and/or water.  They will wander aimlessly, following each other with none of them having any idea where they should go.  We should think about those around us who may also be like sheep without a shepherd and direct them to the Shepherd.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 4-5.

I want to start by writing about Jesus saying some variation of, “If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”  Related to that Jesus quotes part of Isaiah 6:9-10. I believe He is warning us against intentionally missing what God is telling us.  Are we willing to hear what God has to say to us?  Today it struck me that we often miss the main point Jesus makes here when He talks about putting a lamp on a stand.  In Matthew, Jesus used the lamp as an example about being open about our beliefs.  Here the reference to the lamp on a stand seems to suggest that His teachings are not just for those initiated into the secrets.  Rather, He tells us that as we study God’s word more we will see more.  So, if we study God’s word in little pieces, we will have little bits revealed to us, but if we invest more into it, we will understand more.  And those who have little understanding of God’s word, and make no effort to increase that understanding, will lose what little understanding that they have.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 1-3.

In the Gospel According to Mark the points come at you rapid fire.  Mark presents things Jesus taught and then moves on to the next thing.  He does not flesh out any of Jesus’ teachings in depth.  I will start with Mark telling us what Jesus said His message was.  Jesus said, “Repent and believe the good news.”  This is not the only place in the Gospels where Jesus says that people should believe the good news.  I have often wondered how people would know what the good news was.  Then as I was reading this today I realized that Jesus had told us the good news just before that, because the full quote is, “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.”  Previously, I had always read that as, “Repent because the kingdom of God is near and believe the good news.”  But now I realize that Jesus was saying, “Good news, the kingdom of God is near, repent of your sins and believe that it is here.”

The passage goes on to tell us some of the implications of the arrival of the kingdom of God.  When the paralytic man is let down in front of Jesus, He told him that his sins were forgiven.  Then, when the teachers of the law questioned His right to forgive sins, Jesus said that He wanted them to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins just before healing the man.  Today I connected this with Jesus giving His disciples (and all who should become His disciples because of their testimony) the power to perform the wonders which He had performed.  We, who are His followers, are to let people know that their sins are forgiven.  Some times we pass on the word that God has forgiven, sometimes we forgive them ourselves, and sometimes we do both.  This passage contains another implication about the arrival of God’s kingdom.  When Jesus says that whoever does God’s will is His brother and His sister and His mother He is saying that those who do God’s will are His family.  The same is true for us, in God’s Kingdom, all who do God’s will are family.  Think about this and remember those who do not have a biological family.  All who do God’s will are our family, and we are theirs.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 14-16.

I want to look at the juxtaposition here of Jesus telling the Twelve that one of them will betray Him, then later telling them that all of them will fall away.  I believe that these two are so close together in the narrative to remind us that while we may not actively betray Jesus as Judas did, at some point we will fail to stand up for Him, just as the other eleven did.  Which brings me to Peter, who emphatically stated that he would stand by Jesus, even if no one else did.  We often focus on Peter’s later denial, but his mistake was in thinking that he was more able to stand up for Jesus, that he could stand when all else fell away.  God gave Peter three chances to live up to his claim to be more faithful than everyone else, to stand with Jesus when no one else would.  God did this in order to make Peter understand that he was not stronger, more faithful than everyone else.  However, when the messenger spoke to the women at the Tomb on Sunday morning, the messenger told the women to tell Jesus’ disciples and Peter that Jesus would meet them in Galilee.  So, God reminded Peter that even though he was not better than the others, he was still one of them, and God still loved him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 12-13.

This morning it struck me that Mark placed the Parable of the Tenants just before the conversation about paying taxes to Caesar for a reason.  We often read the Parable of the Tenants as being about  the fact that throughout history religious leaders have killed the prophets whom God has sent, culminating in killing His Son, Jesus.  In doing so, we often think that this ended with Jesus’ death and resurrection, but if you look at the martyrs killed for their faith during the Reformation you quickly realize that religious leaders still persecute those whom God has sent.  However, we often fail to think about the purpose for which God sent those whom the religious leaders persecute.  The discussion about taxes which immediately follows the Parable of the Tenants here makes clear that purpose.  God sends prophets, and others, to call on us to give to Him what is His.  And reading Jesus’ answer about taxes makes clear what is God’s.  The coins which were used to pay the tax to Caesar bore Caesar’s image.  So, Jesus said, we should give them to Caesar because they were his.  What made them Caesar’s?  The fact that they bore his image.  So, if we are to give to Caesar the coins which bear his image, does that not mean that we should give to God that which bears His image?  The answer is a clear and resounding “Yes”.  In Genesis we were told that God created man in His image.  So, when Jesus says that we should give to God what is God’s, He is telling us to give ourselves to God.  And the Parable of the Tenants was about how far we are often wiling to go to avoid being reminded that we belong to God.

As I was composing the title for today’s blog, I was reminded of one other point that we should take from these two episodes:  Every human being bears the image of God, which means they are His prized possessions.  Let us treat them with at least the respect and honor we would wish others to treat our prized possessions.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 10-11.

The other day I wrote about how people came and listened to Jesus teach for hours on end.  I think that today’s passage gives us an insight into how Jesus taught, and why people were willing to sit and listen to Him teach for hours on end.  In today’s passage we have three separate incidents described which I want to cite.  First, while Jesus is teaching some Pharisees asked Him a question about divorce.  Second, some parents brought their children to Jesus for Him to lay His hands on them.  The timing on this incident is less clear, but it appears to also occur while Jesus is teaching.  The third incident occurs as Jesus has finished teaching and is about to go on His way.  At that point a man runs up and asks what he must do in order to receive eternal life.  So, what do these three incidents tell us about how Jesus taught?  Well, the first and last incidents involved people coming up to Jesus and asking Him questions about how they should live their lives.  The middle incident involved parents bringing their children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them.  In each incident, people felt welcome to approach Jesus.  He would then speak to what was most on their hearts at the moment.  Yes, we know, and those watching probably knew, the Pharisees were merely asking Jesus their question as a test, but it could have been a man(and in that society, it would have had to be a man) in a bad marriage struggling with what he should do.  The only one of these incidents where Jesus gave the people the answer they were looking for was when the parents brought their children to Him.  I think there is more we can learn about how Jesus taught from the story about the children.  But I want to point out that all three of these incidents involved Jesus teaching about a subject which someone in His audience brought up.  Even the answers He gave to the questions asked of Him were approachable, were phrased in ways which those listening could easily understand.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 8-9.

Today’s passage ends with Jesus telling His disciples that they should maim themselves before they allow a part of their body to cause them to sin.  I have seen some quote those verses in order to support the idea that they have no responsibility to not act in a manner which might lead others to have impure thoughts (I want to note that even though we usually mean thoughts about sexual immorality when we say “impure thoughts”, I am using it here to mean thoughts about committing any sin).  However, Jesus prefaces His words about cutting off our hand, or gouging out our eye, by saying that it would be better to have a millstone cast around our neck and be cast into the sea than to cause one of those who believe in Him to stumble.  This leads me to believe that Jesus’ words about taking extreme action to avoid stumbling were meant to warn us to be extremely cautious not to lead others to sin.    We should be careful not to dress, or act in a manner, which will lead others to lust.  We should be careful not to act in a manner which would lead an alcoholic to think about drinking, a drug addict to consider taking drugs.  To reiterate: I believe Jesus point here is that we should go to great lengths to be sure that we do not cause our fellow believers to stumble.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 4-5.

Today’s passage contains another of Jesus’ parables which we do not often put much thought into, and, if we do, we tend to lump it in with the parable of the sower.  While the parable of the sower provides understanding for the parable of the growing seed, the latter has a different message.  As I read it today it occurred to me that when we are seeking ways to grow a congregation, this parable should speak to us.  Jesus tells us that the seed, which Jesus had just told His disciples was the word, is spread on the ground, which Jesus told His disciples was those people who heard the word.  The one who spread the seed need do nothing more.  In fact, Jesus says it doesn’t matter what else he does, the seed will grow according to its nature.  The one who sowed the seed need not know why the seed grows, and Jesus says we can’t know.  So, sow the word of God, and it will grow according to God’s plan.  As God says through the prophet Isaiah, God’s word will accomplish the purpose for which He sent it.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 1-3.

When I was younger, I understood the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ baptism to indicate that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus after His baptism and everybody heard the voice speak.  Some years ago I realized that the wording here in Mark, and also in Matthew and Luke, suggests that only Jesus saw the Spirit and heard the voice.  The Gospel of John account suggests that John the Baptist heard the voice from heaven.  The wording here in Mark could indicate that only Jesus or John the Baptist, or perhaps both, heard the words.  My understanding of the accounts leads me to believe that Jesus and John saw the dove descend and heard the voice from heaven, but that the others present only saw the dove (and perhaps heard something which they dismissed as “noise”).  The voice served as a confirmation to Jesus of the things He had been coming to understand about Himself and provided Him the strength to go through His wilderness testing.

Another thing which we take for granted is that, on the Sabbath, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.  I do not know this to be true, but I am pretty sure that they did not allow just anybody to come into the synagogue and teach on the Sabbath.  So, in some way, Jesus had established Himself as someone with the necessary credentials to be allowed to teach., at least at a synagogue in Capernaum.  Which leads me to discuss some things we know about Jesus, and about John the Baptist.  We know from the Dead Sea Scrolls that there were many similarities between what Jesus taught and the teachings of the Essenes (a third group of devote Jews alongside the Pharisees and Sadducees).  We also see from the Gospel accounts of John the Baptist that he was closer in approach to the Essenes than was Jesus.  So, it seems likely that both Jesus and John the Baptist were “credentialed” by their connection to the Essenes.  Which brings me to a second aspect of Jesus teaching in the synagogue: the people felt, and said, that He taught with authority.  In order to understand what was meant when they said that, we need to understand how most Rabbi’s of that time taught.  They would say things like, “as Rabbi Hillel wrote,…”  Jesus on the other hands appears to teach by saying, “as the prophet Isaiah wrote,…”   Most other Jewish teachers of the time referenced the interpretation of the prophets given by prominent Rabbis.  Jesus, on the other hand, spoke as if He, and His audience, could read the prophets for themselves and understand what they meant.  Jesus taught that we do not need someone else to tell us what God wants of us.  We can read the Scripture for ourselves and understand what God wants of us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.