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

Every time I read the story about the woman who anointed Jesus with oil I always feel like there is more to it than I am seeing.  Perhaps someone reading this blog will be able to provide me such an insight.  So, I get one clear message from this story: we should not feel that our every thought, action, and expenditure must be to help the poor.  Further, sometimes we should do things to show our love to those around us.  Jesus made a point that wherever the Gospel is preached the story of what this woman did will be preached.  Which suggests that the message of this story is critical.  I was going to stop with that, but I had one more thought on this story.  When Jesus told those saying that she should have sold the perfume and given the money to the poor, He quoted from Deuteronomy 15:11.  The context of that verse tells us that we should give to the poor generously, that we should not be tightfisted towards them.  This woman was acting in a generous open-handed manner, while those rebuking her had a grudging heart.

I want to write a bit about chapter 16.  After much thought over the years I have become convinced the Mark ended his Gospel at verse 16:8.  I believe that the rest of chapter 16 is an accurate account, but was added to the Gospel from other sources.  I really think that Mark intended to end his Gospel with the cliff hanger of the women fleeing from the tomb, bewildered and afraid.  He wanted us to come away with the feeling that early that Sunday morning those who followed Jesus were bewildered and afraid, not just the women.  He wanted us to see the contrast between how they acted later and how they felt that morning.

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.

Some years back I read an article which gave some insight into the account of when Jesus was questioned on whether Moses’ Law allowed for paying tax to Caesar.  It made particular point about the fact that the coin used to pay the tax had Caesar’s image upon it (there was a lot more to the article than that, but that is the point which always brings me to my thoughts on this account).  So, when Jesus tells them to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s He makes a very profound statement.  Jesus was clearly pointing out that the coin was made by Caesar (or, at least, at Caesar’s command) in his image, making it his.  On the other hand, each and every one of us was made by God in His image.  Therefore we belong to God and should surrender ourselves to 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 10-11.

I know this will come as a surprise to those who regularly read this passage, but I am not sure where I am going to go with this today.  I will start with Jesus’ commentary on marriage and divorce.  He tells us that at creation God made humans male and female and for this reason a man leaves his parents and is joined with his wife.  From that He concludes that one should not separate that which God has joined.  I think this speaks pretty clearly to several issues in our society today.  Then we have the account of parents bringing their children to Jesus, which His disciples thought was a waste of His time and attempted to block.  Jesus rebuked them for that and told them that they needed to receive the kingdom of heaven in the same way that children do.  I have seen many debates on what that means, but I have always seen it in the context of later in this passage when Jesus told His disciples that anyone who wants to be great in God’s kingdom must serve others.  So, in the same way that children generally do not think of themselves as being in charge, we too should not take the attitude that we are in charge.

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.

I want to start by Jesus’ use of yeast as a metaphor for hypocrisy.  Here He makes it clear that a little bit of hypocrisy can spread through, and transform, a group just as much as the righteous acts of a small number can transform society around those who do them.  However, the part of this passage which resonates the most with me is the account of the father who brought his son to Jesus’ disciples for healing.  The disciples were unable to heal the boy and the father was beginning to lose hope.  When Jesus told him that anything was possible for the one who believes, the father responded, “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.”  That has been my prayer for many years.  I know that my faith is less than it should be, but this story leads me to believe that it is enough, and my prayer is that God cause it to increase.

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.

I thought about writing on Jesus’ commentary on what defiles a person when it came up in Matthew, but there were other things I felt were more impactful on that day.  When confronted about His disciples not following the tradition of washing their hands before eating, Jesus went off on the Pharisees about their traditions.  He pointed out how they used traditions to nullify God’s commands.  In particular the way in which they created loopholes for themselves.  In fact, today what Jesus says about this particular loophole reminds me of the one which the very wealthy in our society use to evade estate taxes.  More importantly is what Jesus says concerning what does, and does not, defile us.  While we may be made sick by what we take into our bodies, we are not defiled by it.  According to Jesus, we are defiled by how we think about others.

Which leads me to something else important which was not part of what I intended to write today when I started.  Jesus lists sins which He says all come from evil thoughts, and He tells us that those thoughts come out of our hearts.  When we look at what all of these sins have in common we realize that they all come from thinking of others as existing for the purpose of satisfying our own needs and wants.  So, it is not enough not to take actions which harm others, we must train ourselves to not want to harm others.

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 was not sure what I was going to write about this passage because the incidents recounted here have been discussed from many different angles.  Then I came across what Jesus said to Jairus after he was told that his daughter had died: “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”  This came just after the woman was healed by touching Jesus’ clothes.  She was certainly frightened, but acted on her belief nevertheless.  And earlier in today’s passage we have the story of Jesus calming the storm.  There Jesus asked His disciples why they were so afraid, suggesting that they would not be afraid if they had faith.  So, we have a recurring theme in this passage.  The more faith we have the less fear we will feel.  No, that is not quite right.  The more faith we have the less impact fear will have on our behavior.  So, as we look at the world around us, let us not be afraid but just believe.

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

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

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

Today’s passage starts out with Mark’s account of the woman who anointed Jesus.  Each Gospel contains such an account, but there are differences between them.  Perhaps there were two such events, or perhaps people remembered the details differently (and if there were two such events, people may have mixed up details between the two events).  However, the fact that all four Gospels contain such a story with a similar emphasis in what Jesus says about it tells is that this story contains an important message.  It seems to me that Jesus tells us here that there is a place for spending our resources on luxuries.  While we should make strong efforts to help those in greater need than ourselves, it is not only not wrong to spend some of our resources on making others feel better, we should do so from time to time.

There other part of this passage that I want to write about today is Peter’s denial of Jesus.  When Jesus predicted that all of His disciples would desert Him, Peter vehemently denied that he would ever do such a thing.  Peter insisted that he would stand by Jesus’ side even if everyone else abandoned Him.  Despite his best intentions, when push came to shove, Peter was unable to keep his promise.  One important lesson here is that we can never know how we will hold up under pressure until we experience that pressure.  However, even though Peter failed to hold up this time, we also know that later he did stand up for Jesus in the face of persecution.  I want to note also that Peter did not deny Jesus just once or twice.  He had three opportunities to stand by Jesus’ side in Jesus’ darkest hour and could not do so.  We will also sometimes fail Christ when the chips are down, but we need to repent of our failure and accept God’s forgiveness.  Our failures to stand up for God do not mean that we are forever damned.

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

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

I am not sure where I am going to go with this today. There are several things I want to write which do not currently have any connection to each other in my mind.  First, When asked about taxation, Jesus’ answer was not just about taxation.  The coin which His questioners showed Him had Caesar’s image upon it.  This led Jesus to tell them to give to Caesar what was Caesar’s and to God what was God.  Jesus’ listeners would have realized that He was referencing Genesis 1:27 when He said this.  We are made in God’s image.  Money bears the image of the government which issued it, so that government has claim to that money.  But we bear the image of God, so God has claim to our very being.

And now I see a connection to the next thing on which I want to comment.  When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He answered, “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”  Then followed that up by saying that the second most important commandment was equally important, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and that all other commandments derive from these two.  Really, the second commandment derives from the first, but we need that second commandment because without it it would be all too easy for us to pretend that we can love God without loving our neighbor.  Each of us has been made in God’s image.  Therefor, if we truly love God we will love those whom He made in His image.  In fact, loving our neighbor is part of giving to God what belongs to God.

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

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

In response to the question about divorce, Jesus responded that from the beginning of creation God had made people male and female.  There is so much there about many of the social issues facing our society today.  Further, He said that Moses only gave a commandment allowing divorce as a concession to humanity’s hard hearts.  So, as I read this, many of the problems we have in our society today can be directly traced to our society, and even our Churches, deciding that sometimes divorce is a good thing.  Divorce is never a good thing, but that does not mean that those who have divorced cannot be forgiven.  Divorce is never OK, but sometimes the other options seem worse.  I have two more things to say about divorce.  First, while I believe that those who are married should always seek another option other than divorce, I will not tell others what price they should pay to avoid divorce.  Second, those who are divorced cannot go back and make it so that they did not get divorced, they can only move on from where they are now in the knowledge that God will forgive us our sins.  Certainly, I have failed to be faithful to God to at least as great a degree as anyone else and have no place to consider myself better than those who have gotten divorced.

I really did not intend to spend so much time on Jesus’ comment about human sexuality.  What I really wanted to focus on today was Jesus’ reaction to annoying people.  We have two stories about people who annoyed those around Jesus, the parents who brought their children to see Him, and blind Bartimaeus.  When the parents brought their children to Jesus, the disciples considered the children to be an annoyance and scolded the parents.  When blind Bartimaeus called out to Jesus for healing, the others around Jesus considered him an annoyance and told him to be quiet.  In both cases, the “gatekeepers” thought that Jesus was too important to spend time on those seeking His attention.  Also, in both cases, Jesus was willing to make time for them.  Both of these instances provide an illustration on Jesus’ teaching about leadership.  Neither the children nor Bartimaeus were of “value” to Jesus.  They could bring nothing to Him which made His life better.  Nevertheless, He was willing to make time for them because, by doing so, He could make their life better.