PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

I hope you are hanging in there.  We are almost halfway done, just a week away, and I pray that these readings are not becoming a drudgery but rather something to which you look forward every day.  We find ourselves on Palm Sunday again and the story of the preparation of the colt is somewhat different, and little more understandable.  Apparently everyone knew who Jesus was and so the explanation that Jesus needs it and “will send it back immediately” is not far fetched at all.  

The timing of Mark is also a little bit different as he goes into the temple after he rides into Jerusalem and just kind of looks around (vs.11).  It isn’t until the next day that he enters Jerusalem and drives out the money changers.  The commentary on the religious leaders is that they were looking to kill Jesus but hesitated because the crowds were “spellbound by his teaching.”  That’s quite a claim.  Jesus was able to teach in such a way that people were personally affected.  They were spellbound, is what the Scripture tells us.  

If you look at vs. 25 you see Jesus’ addendum to what we must do in order to have our prayers answered.  We must forgive.  Maybe, just maybe, the reason that God doesn’t answer our prayers is because we are unwilling to forgive someone and that keeps us from being heard from God.  Okay, God hears, we know that.  But here in this verse we are told that every time that we stand and pray, we must forgive.  Hear this Scripture well.  It does not say that we must ask for forgiveness, but it says that we must forgive.  This is far more difficult than asking for forgiveness.  We can always approach God with our sin in silence and no one is the better for it and ask for forgiveness.  But to actually identify someone who hurt us, who took actions that were insulting to us, who really gets under our skin and forgive them, that’s a whole different story.  Answered prayer, it seems them, is impingent upon our forgiving those against whom we have something.  

On this Ash Wednesday, we keep in mind that Jesus died for us and that our sin caused God to grieve so much that he was willing to sacrifice His Son.  It is not a feel good story, or a feel good day.  It is a day to recognize our sin.  If you come to the services today you will notice that we don’t focus on the individual sin.  In the past Ash Wednesday and really the entire season of Lent has encouraged us to focus on how we fall short of God’s glory as individuals.  It is a pietistic laden season where we fast, give something up, and in the general think about how my personal relationship with God is.  The Scriptures point to a different kind of a Lent. Scripture points to one where we think about who we are as a community, or in our case, a church.

The dynamic of Jesus and his disciples, as a group, has always fascinated me.  These verses, especially,  create a question in my mind that you don’t see in other verses.  This is one of the few times, if not the only time, that you see some dissension among the ranks.  You see the disciples not being really happy with each other.  You would imagine that living together 24/7 for 3 years would create some feelings and some stressful times that just might translate into times and periods of animosity.  This was one of those times.

The desire of James and John to be given the seats of honor in glory is a strange request.  Jesus asks them if they are willing to die the type of martyr’s death that Jesus eventually will assume.  They say that they are.  Then we read that the other disciples become indignant with James and John.  At that point Jesus calls all of them together and teaches them about what it means to be the first in the kingdom of God.  It means that you are a servant, put yourself last.  You have already missed the point if you are asking to be put first, because that means that you have completely misunderstood what Jesus is all about.

It’s hard to believe that Ash Wednesday is tomorrow.  The Sunday before Ash Wednesday we traditionally celebrate the Transfiguration which is what we just read in chapter 9.  As we read in Matthew and then heard again last Sunday from Pastor Steve Clark we are commanded to listen to God.  Regardless of whether we are on mountaintop experiences or down in the trenches and in the valleys, we still have a command to listen to Jesus.  

If you compare this chapter and chapter 17 in Matthew you find the similar miracle story of the casting out of the demons from the boy, but Jesus’ explanation of that whole event is night and day.  In Matthew Jesus chastises the disciples for their lack of faith.  Here in Mark he kind of puts it on himself as he tells them: “Sorry about that, you can’t really handle that kind of an evil spirit without prayer, and probably fasting too.  I probably should have told you that.”  I know I took some liberties in translating Jesus’ words, but in Mark he doesn’t in any way point out their lack of faith or their inadequacies.  

Something that struck me this time reading it was in vs. 36 where we find Jesus at home in Capernaum and he is speaking with his disciples about their conversation.  They wanted to be first in the kingdom of heaven.  He takes a child…did you hear that.  So in this house where they are all gathered it isn’t just the disciples and Jesus like I had always envisioned.  There were other people present, there were families present, Jesus wasn’t a hermit with his 12 disciples, he was with the people and the people were constantly with him.  I love that image of Jesus so much more than a recluse Jesus who only comes down from the mountain periodically and only spends time with his disciples.  He is constantly with the people.  

Let’s go ahead and focus on verses 34-38 which are called “the way of the cross”.  So what does it take to be a follower of Jesus?  In Jesus’ response he tells us that we must be willing to deny ourselves and be willing to lose our lives for the sake of the Gospel.  Jesus introduces the cross into this conversation with the disciples even while they are not fully aware how important of a symbol this will become within the Christian faith.  We must be willing to take up our cross.  We must be willing to die as criminals even if we have done nothing wrong.  We must be willing to sacrifice our very lives even for those who don’t deserve it.  Taking up a cross means putting others in front of us even to the point of it harming us.  

The cross, it is a symbol of Christianity ever since the first disciples.  But think of what the cross represents.  It would be as if an electric chair would be our symbol.  The cross was a torturous way to execute criminals.  It is a capital punishment tool.  Have you ever wondered why we use the cross as our symbol.  It is draped in violence and suffering.  The cross as our point of reference strikes me as a bit shocking, if you were to objectively think about it.  What other symbol could we use that might not be as glaringly powerful which represents death and damnation?  

There is often talk about branding and what are we going to use as our symbol so that everyone knows who we are?  So what if we used an empty tomb as a symbol?  Or what if we decided to use the baskets of the loaves and the fish overflowing as our symbol.  We could use the Bible as our symbol.  There are a plethora of choices that we could use.  The dove could be our symbol or a pathway that leads to light.  But a long time ago we settled on the cross, an executioners instrument.  Stunning, yet it is what we have.

If we question the use of the cross are we in any way putting in jeopardy the fact that Jesus died on the cross for the sake of our sins?  When we give thanks that we have been washed clean by the blood of the lamb are we in any way insisting that the cross is part and parcel of our faith?  I don’t think so.  Paul does say that we must believe that Jesus was crucified, dead, buried and then rose again on the third day.  We believe that!  But nowhere does it state that the cross must be the symbol that identifies us or that we use as a device to venerate in many instances.  The cross of Jesus was absolutely necessary.  It is also necessary that we carry our own crosses, our own shame, our own suffering.  It is part of who we are as disciples.  But in no way does the cross have to represent us.  I like the empty tomb better.  It provides more hope.  

One of my most vivid memories of going to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul is seeing the dozens of spigots lined up with men washing their hands and their feet in front of the running water from these spigots.  In Islam before you enter a Mosque you must be ceremonially clean, your hands and your feet must be presentable to the Lord.  There is something powerful about washing yourself before you enter the presence of the Lord.  From a Christian perspective there is nothing more sacred about entering a church than there is in entering your home, or entering a story.  God is present in all places and in all situations.  But that should not remove the urgency and the need for us to be ceremonially, or better yet metaphorically, clean.  Going through life with the intent of keeping clean, in the sense that Jesus uses this word here in chapter 7, is a great goal.  Look at vs. 20-23 and you use one of the rare times that Jesus actually calls out sin by name.  The list that he gives is, unfortunately, contains activities which we commonly include in our daily lives.  The goal is to eliminate them from our hearts, and the only way to do that is by asking if all that we want and all that we do is focused on the presence and the desire of the Lord.

We already touched on the Syrophoenician woman.  Look at how Jesus heals the deaf and the mute man at the end of this chapter.  We don’t see Jesus taking such a hands on approach in healing someone as he does here, except in John 9:6 where he spits in mud and places it on the blind man’s eyes.  I like seeing the details in what Jesus actually did in order to heal people.  Sure, he could just say the word and the person is healed, which happens in the vast majority of the times.  But to actually use the elements at his disposal allows me to think that maybe, just maybe, he needed to get across that God is the great healer in a very practical, hands on kind of way.  I like that.

My freshman year in college I started a Bible Study on my floor.  It was a very diverse group of people who came to it.  My roommate was from Guyana and was Rastafarian, and he attended at first.  We had a few evangelical Christians who attended.  We had a number of seekers who had never been a part of a Bible study before come and take part.  And then there was Andy.  Andy was Mormon and absolutely loved to study the Bible.  What was fascinating about Andy’s time with us was that he knew that he only had one year at college and then he was going to go off on a mission for two years.  I’m not sure if you have ever run into Mormon missionaries but we have seen them everywhere where we have served.  In Italy and Russia they always traveled two by two.  These verses in chapter 6 remind me of the methodology that the Mormons follow where they are sent out into the world in twos with next to nothing to keep them alive.  For all that is wrong with Mormonism, they can still teach us quite a few things.

Today we had our leadership retreat at church and I shared the story of my ordination service.  It was moving and a service I will never forget.  I was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in Pleasantville, NJ.  At the end I got on my knees and all those people who had been significant in my life came up and laid hands on me.  A whole group of my college and high school friends actually came to see the service.  For most of them it was something very, very foreign to them.  I was on a high after the service and they had a reception for me in the fellowship hall of the church.  There I was gathered with my friends when one of them said: “Bob, I couldn’t help but think when you were on your knees of that time when grape Jello came out your nose.”  Needless to say, it ruined the mood of that spiritual high that I found myself on.

Familiarity breeds contempt and in Jesus’ case, familiarity lead to him not being able to minister to those in his hometown.  The Gospel message has become very familiar to us.  Do we ever stop and think about what it means when we say that God became one of us?  Do we ever stop and think about what it means when we say that God died on the cross to save us from eternal damnation?  Do we ever stop and think about how short we fall from Jesus’ commandment to love God and love our neighbor?  

For some reason this song just came to my mind…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPFnHdJ0dl0

We haven’t even talked about John the Baptist on a platter, well, at least his head.  Fascinating that John the Baptist is seen as someone who spoke truth to power.  What that phrase means is that John the Baptist was not shy to tell Herod that he should never have married his brother’s wife.  It wasn’t Herod who wanted him dead, but rather Herodias, the wife.  How willing are we to speak truth to power when we know that our lives could be at stake?

Next we have Jesus feeding the 5,000 and Jesus walking on water.  Too much in one chapter, but all of it significant.

So these pictures represent our best guess as to where Jesus drove out the evil spirits of legion and where they then entered the pigs and and drowned into the sea.  For some reason I pictured it happening today with 2000 swine running down a hill full of mines and the carnage that would have ensued.  The recognition of who Jesus is by a demoniac living in the tombs is a humbling Bible story considering that he may be one of the very few who truly understand the power and the presence of our Savior.  So often it is the least expected person who actually understands and is a follower of Jesus rather than those that we traditionally think are obeying his commandments.

The man who had the evil spirits then asks Jesus to be able to be one of his disciples and to be with Jesus as he ministered.  But Jesus had different plans for him, and he becomes one of the first evangelists who was sent out to the Decapolis, or the ten cities within the Palestinian region.   It is significant that already the word of Jesus was getting out and that it wasn’t just after his death that people began to understand who he was, but even before.

We also have the woman who was suffering from a hemorrhage for 12 years and could not get any resolution to her problem.  That is a long time to have a medical issue that no one can solve.  “If I just touch his clothes, I will be made well.”  There is no wavering there, there is no doubt expressed by her and the sentence contains no conditional tense in it at all.  Jesus’ release of power through his clothes is a bit unusual, not something that we see anywhere else, and we must assume that it was purposeful and for a reason, not just a random act of kindness over which he has not control.  Look at vs. 33 and you see that she tells Jesus “the whole truth.”  We often miss that part of this story.  It is there where we find the reason for the miracle.  She needed to tell Jesus the whole truth because it is only after that happens that Jesus is able to say: “go in peace and be healed of your disease.”  Often it is our inability to be able to face the truths in our life that keeps us down and often unable to get past whatever may be ailing us.  The telling of the truth, to ourselves and our family, is crucial in order to have a healthy relationship with our Savior.

The raising of the dead child is also a very unique miracle that takes place in the ministry of Jesus.  I love the fact that upon healing her he orders her family to give her something to eat.  Is this a case where Jesus intervenes in a situation where the parents were maybe not taking care of her as she should have been taken care of?  We are reading way too much into it, after all her father comes to ask for Jesus to come and heal her.  Jairus was a leader in the synagogue.  Jesus takes Jairus and his wife and Peter, James and John into the room to raise the girl from her sleep.  He takes those who needed to be there to see this little girl be raised from the dead.  I can only imagine the mom and dad seeing their little girl rise up after they had marked her off for dead.  How do you not tell anyone what Jesus just did for you (vs. 43)?

I have to admit that there are times that I am watching a golf tournament on TV and I see a player get an 8 on a hole and there is something in me that celebrates.  “Hey, I can do that!”  It is a similar feeling that I get when I read the very last verse of this chapter where after Jesus calms the storm the disciples look to each other and say: “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”  Just the fact that the disciples themselves didn’t know exactly who Jesus was or what he was capable of gives me a bit of a peace of mind in those times when I’m unsure of what God’s plans are or in what direction God is leading.  If the disciples didn’t understand Jesus and they were living with him, then I guess it is okay to not completely know the will of God in every single situation in my life.

We see once again the parable of the sower and the seed and Jesus explains it explicitly, yet once again, to his disciples in chapter 4 of Mark.  If you wanted to compare Matthew and Mark you can do that if you turn to Matthew 13.  We find, as we will throughout Mark, that this Gospel writer is much more succinct.  What Mark does include, which Matthew doesn’t in association with this parable, is the song: This Little Light of Mine.  Okay, Mark doesn’t actually include the song but he does give the basis for that song.  Starting at vs. 21 we are told that a light is not to be hid under a bushel.  But even more importantly Jesus says that nothing will ever remain hidden.

Just think about those words for a moment.  Think of when you arrive in heaven and Jesus replays a movie of your life and your mom is sitting right there next to you.  What parts of that movie are you going to squirm and really wish your mom weren’t there?  That has always been an intriguing analogy for me.  Can we apply this verse to the present?  Are we able to say that all will be revealed in our lifetime?  I strongly believe that if we continue to do that which God calls us to do, and there are people around us that are somewhat sketchy and not doing that which ought to be done, eventually that will be found out.  It provides an inner peace knowing that God knows all and that all will be brought to the light, even in our lifetime.

There are some who say that Jesus’ refusal to follow the traditional approach to the Sabbath made him a target for the religious leaders and ultimately it was what had him killed.  It would seem that vs. 6 would support that approach.  Jesus also mentions in Matthew 5, if you remember, that he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.  These two statements would seem contradictory.  Did Jesus think the Sabbath was important or was it another opportunity for him to show that he was Lord over all, including the Sabbath (Mark 2)?  The answer lies in the previous chapter where he states in Mark 2:27 that the Sabbath was made for man, and not vice versa.  That’s a pretty powerful statement in a culture where on Sunday you only do certain things and you definitely do not do other things.  It is a good lesson for us to learn whether we follow something legalistically, like the Pharisees, or if we follow it because it is helpful for us to recognize that the Lord is Lord over all time.

So far we find Jesus is the anonymous healer/prophet/teacher/savior.  Already he has told a number of people not to tell others about who he is.  He seems to have an aversion of crowds and just wants to carry out the work that he was set on earth to do.  He was not sent to earth to heal.  He was not even sent to earth to teach.  God himself came as one of us so that he could live, die, and be resurrected so that he could save us from our sins.  The role model that he was while he was here is a secondary or ancillary benefit from his presence on the earth.  This is why we so often find him telling people not to tell others of what he did.  He did not want people to be confused in his task on earth.  The more he healed the more people would see him as a simple, but effective healer.  He was so much more than that.  What is he to us today?  

That question of who is Jesus to us today comes on the heels of Jesus’ family thinking that “he is out of his mind”.  We always do have options in how we view and understand Jesus.  He can be someone who was a good teacher, but his claim that he was a Son of God just might cause us to keep him at arm’s length.  He can be someone who is God incarnated, but then that will cause some people to think that we are out of our mind because we take this stuff seriously. I was speaking with someone the other day who is surrounded by family members who don’t understand how she can take literally the promises of Jesus.  Eternal life and heaven is just something that those who are weak need in order to cope.  At that point I encouraged her to find others who loved Jesus and followed him and surround herself with those who would encourage her, and not tear her and her faith down.

In essence that is what Jesus is saying.  Who is my family?  Whoever does the will of Jesus is my family.  That’s a great place to start.

Recently I receive an email where a question was asked if Jesus ever explicitly spelled out to his disciples who he was and the power that he had to forgive sins.  Did he make it clear how his death and resurrection were tied up in this new hope that we have in Jesus?  These verses and the story of Jesus healing the paralytic contributes to the recognition of who Jesus was.  He states very clearly in vs. 10 that “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”  This is at the heart of who Jesus is for us, he is God who is able to forgive sins.  

When we read about Jesus hanging out with sinners  we can see the shaking of the heads of the religious folks as they criticize him for hanging out with the wrong crowd.  “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinner?”  While we are absolutely called to be separate and to be different and not to give the impression that anything goes, we are also called to minister to those who do not know Jesus, even if that means placing ourselves in situations where others just might criticize us.  

It’s a short blog today, but one where I hope and I pray that you are able to identify with the one whose sins are forgiven, and as a result is given a new life.  May we see ourselves as one who is carried by the hands of our loved ones to the feet of Jesus so that we can be healed.