PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2025-2026

We find another chapter of teachings. I say this not to diminish the significance of these teachings, on the contrary, they are teachings of which we should be very, very familiar. The teaching on divorce is a hard one to hear in the 21st century, but it also underlines the importance of marriage. Jesus is very clear that marriage is between a man and a woman, he states it clearly also addressing the way in which our creator made us, each and every one of us as either male or female. I never imagined that Jesus’ saying here in Mark would carry any controversy except in the context of marriage and divorce, but in this day and age stating that marriage is between a man or a woman, and declaring that we are all made either male or female by our creator, has become a very, very hot button issue. But I stand by the words of Jesus on this one for sure.

Similarly we find the teaching on wealth that is equally disturbing for some, but most people have the luxury, I used that term on purpose, of not paying attention to it. The rich young man goes away saddened because he realizes that Jesus’ words were a condemnation of his way of life which was one of ease and not every having to worry about how he was going to get resources in order to eat or have a roof over his head. He always had what he needed. If anyone reading this has not had to worry about where to stay this evening or what to eat for lunch today, then we are in the same camp of the rich young ruler and we would probably walk away from Jesus saddened and feeling like we were called out. It is a very, very sobering chapter which some truths and teachings that we have chosen to ignore in this 21st century.

The transfiguration leads, like in Matthew, to the healing of a son who could not be healed by the disciples, which then leads to Jesus walking through Galilee with his disciples and teaching them about his death and resurrection, which they simply did not understand. This whole section is a neat insight into Jesus and his disciples and the way in which he taught. He takes a child as an object lesson and tells them that whoever welcomes this child welcomes the presence of God in their lives, but his is all within the context of what it means to be the greatest. The child seems to get that moniker as the greatest, or at least as representing that which Jesus considers to be great. I’ll go with that.

We see a repeat miracle of the feeding of the crowds with very, very few loaves of bread. But the importance of that miracle is overshadowed, in some ways, by the disciples who complain about not having enough food for themselves as they get to where they were hoping to go. This is the first instance of where we find the word hangry come into play. The disciples thought Jesus was angry at them because they forgot food for the journey, while in fact he was warning them about teachings of the pharisees and the religious leaders that was like leaven that could make all thing rise and ruin. As a tide lifts all sails, this can be in both good and bad. The religious leaders were teaching things that would make people more fit for hell than righteousness.

Peter finds himself as both the protagonist and the antagonist here. He proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah, well done Peter. He scolds Jesus for talking about his eventual inevitable death that was going to happen very soon, get behind me Peter aka Satan. Yeah, we have to be careful what side we are on.

We see so many different healing narratives of Jesus involved in making the lives of others complete again, at least physically. But not often, there are a few times, do we see him use some kind of formulaic method to make that happen. Here we see he opens the ears and loosens the tongue of a deaf and mute person, but he does it by putting his fingers into his ears and putting spittle onto his tongue. We didn’t need these details, we didn’t ask for these details, but they were provided and they gave us an opportunity to understand that God can work as God wants, but sometimes we catch a glimpse into how he works. I’ll take it.

It is difficult to skip the feeding of the five thousand, but I will just say a few words. This feeding takes place within the context of Jesus trying to get himself and his disciples away from people so that they can rest and refresh. He has just been rejected in his home town of Nazareth, probably a pretty strong emotional blow, he has just sent them out two by two and they have come back successful in all that they had prepared to do. His cousing, John the Baptist has just been beheaded, another very strong emotional blow to Jesus. We find in vs.31 that Jesus commands them to come away to a deserted place, which is what they were trying to do when the five thousand found them.

Once he feeds them then it states in vs.45 that immediately he made them get in the boat and go to the other side, while he went up a mountain to pray. The requirement to get away, to go by yourself up a mountain to pray, to be refreshed in the presence of the Lord and in the absence of people requiring things from you was necessary for Jesus and necessary for all of us as well. Jesus is able to fulfill that requirement, even though he had to save his disciples from a storm as soon as he gets back.

We have three powerful stories all with lessons that are very different, and yet each important in its own right. The story of legion demonstrates a number of things, not the least of which Jesus’ empathy to the one who had legion, and Jesus’ attempt to ensure that those who were selling pigs, unclean to the Jewish people, knew that commerce was not on the top of his priorities. Jesus’ healing of the woman is a very peculiar story with him feeling his “power” leaving him so he knew that something had happened. We don’t see this type of superpower narrative anywhere else, but it does provide a good plot in order to demonstrate the power of Jesus, even when he isn’t kinds paying attention.

Lastly, the resurrrection/healing of the daughter shows us that those who laugh at the possibilites of life in the face of death will be taught that the power of God is always stronger than the limits that we think we are able to put on it.

We find some parables and some really, really powerful actions by Jesus. Let’s start with the latter. The calming of the storm by Jesus at the end of this chapter will always be burned upon my mind. We spent an evening on the Sea of Galilee, and wouldn’t you know that on that evening there was the type of storm that make you wonder if you were going to make it. We were in a sturdy hotel, but the wind, and the rain were so ferocious, and the lighting and thunder were so loud and present that the disciples’ words, “do you not know we are perishing” ring loud and true. What a great metaphor for where we find ourselves today. We simply cannot perish with the Lord in our midst, we just can’t. It may feel like we are about to, but we cannot be swamped because the Lord will always calm the storm no matter what.

A word stood out a few times in these Scriptures because it was repeated. It also found itself in chapter 2, and it surprised me. The word was house, and now I haven’t done a deep dive into the Greek to see whether it is “his” house or just house, but in the English in 2 when the man is lowered through the roof in vs.1 it is reported that “he was at home.” To me that assumes his home, and we know that it would have been in Capernaum. Similarly here we do read in the English in vs.19 that “he went home.” Again, the assumption would be to his own home. Then he has a parable about a house divided etc. It is Jesus who said foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head or to call home, well, most of the time.

We read in the Gospel of John that all of Jesus’ miracles were actually signs pointing to Jesus as to whom he was. He was the Savior of the world. The healing of the paralytic man is also a sign, which was clearly for those who were arguing as to whether Jesus could actually forgive sins or not. Forgiving someone’s sins in the eyes of God takes a real leap of faith because it is not something that you can see or prove that it has actually happened. Not even when they do are we able to catch a glimpse of them reclining in heaven. There is no way to prove who is right and who is wrong. But wheny ou heal a paralyzed man, well, then everyone knows because they can see him get up and walk hom. Yeah, that man was forgiven.

Mark in many respects contains the least amount of details than any of the other Gospels. Just the facts, as the saying goes. And yet, even just in the first chapter we have some details that none of the other Gospels contain. We see, for example, that Peter had a mother-in-law which meant that he was married. That is a detail that we don’t spend a whole lot of time on, but what does that mean for Peter and his family. Did he ever come home to change the diapers, or did he ever spend time with his wife, who is silent in this Gospel?

We don’t see anything about the birt of Jeuss in Mark, we don’t hear about any of the details of his baptism except the descending of the Holy Spirit. There is no interaction between him and John like the other Gospels. We don’t hear about the specifics of the temptations like we do in the other Gospels. Just the facts, and maybe a few other details like in the calling of the disciples them leaving their nets behind, which will get picked up soon enough in his resurrection, just a short three year journey for them. Did you imagine that Jesus’ disciples were probably older teenagers? Yeah, imagine what that would look like for Jesus and his group.