Saturday, week four: The traditions of the elders and faith of a stranger (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

The religious leaders in Jesus’ time are no different than other people in power. They want to hold onto their position and authority. Jesus is a threat. After all, massive crowds are following him, looking to him for teaching and authority, instead of them.

They’ve taken to watching Jesus and his disciples closely. Every move, every choice, every word holds the potential for discrediting him and simultaneously turning the crowd. So they confront Jesus about defilement and cleanliness. Jesus puts them in their place.

Contrast these religious leaders with the woman from Syrophoenicia. She has no pretense about power, authority, or even the right to be in Jesus’ presence. She doesn’t care about religious convention. She doesn’t care about anything except the healing of her child and she knows Jesus can deliver. She’s desperate enough to beg.

This woman is smart enough to know she doesn’t stand a chance of Jesus helping her when anyone Jewish is around. He has been healing Jews left and right since his ministry began. But Gentiles? Even if the demoniac in Garasa was a Gentile, that makes the count of Gentiles healed just one. What makes her think he’ll help?

To be fair, Jesus is in the region of Tyre. Technically, it is in the land of Israel, but the people there never really behaved themselves. They never submitted to Jewish practices. The land was not only considered Gentile, but downright hostile.

In other words, Jesus, having just berated the Jewish religious leaders for misunderstanding religious cleanliness, heads off to a defiled place. No Jew in their right mind would follow him there. Perhaps Jesus goes there to get a break from it all, or just to check it out. Who knows? But there he is.

This is the Syrophoenician woman’s chance. She waits for an opportune moment, then she goes right to the source of healing, enduring every lash of his tongue for disrupting his rest. She begs to find out if his gifts might be for the Gentiles, too.

Text for the day:

Mark 7:1-30

Things to think about:

What is the limit of Jesus’ desire to heal?

Things to do:

Ask someone in your life about their impression of Jesus. You might find a more interesting answer if you ask someone who is not Christian.

God, challenge my boundaries.

Friday, week four: Take heart (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

Finally Jesus gets a break.

The crowds have dispersed. He puts his disciples back in the boat and watches them set off for home. He stays in that deserted place, climbs the mountain, and prays.

He has an expansive view of Galilee and the lake. He can see the progress they make as they paddle the small boat toward the opposite shore. Evening falls and a wind picks up. By the moonlight, Jesus watches them struggle and strain against the elements. He recalls an earlier time on this same lake, when their boat was being swamped and they feared for their lives.

He descends and heads toward them. By early morning, he is within earshot, coming to them across the sea itself, miraculously buoyed atop the waves.

They know he has command of the wind and the sea, but when they see him walking on the water, they are frightened beyond belief. They are sure it a ghost coming to finish them off.

Then they hear his voice. “Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid.” He nears them and climbs into the boat. The wind and the sea cease their raging.

They, however, do not take heart. They are not encouraged, nor calmed. If they had understood anything about him and his power, that understanding is now lost. He has done things beyond miraculous, entering the realm of the fantastical and magic. He has multiplied bread and defied the laws of the physical world.

Put plainly, they have no idea what to make of the one who now sits in their small boat.

When they reach the other side, they disembark, and Jesus resumes him ministry, picking up right where he left off.

Text for the day:

Mark 6:45-56

Things to think about:

Jesus does spectacular and unimaginable things.

Jesus’ power extends beyond the physical world.

Things to do:

As you hear the news today, imagine Jesus on the rough sea asking the world to take heart.

Jesus, in the midst of our fear, encourage us all.

Thursday, week four: Feeding frenzy (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

It has been a full week. Jesus has been teaching and healing, pursued by crowds everywhere he goes. The disciples have just returned from a very successful healing tour.

Now John has been beheaded.

This small band of friends does what anybody would do in these circumstances. They carve out some time to rest, recuperate, process, and decompress. They climb into a boat and head across the lake to a deserted area. If there are no people, no one can disturb them.

The wind must have been still that day. The crowd watches them get into the boat, sees where they are headed, rushes around the edge of lake, and gets there faster than the boat can carry its passengers across the water.

That deserted place is suddenly populated. Rather than tell the crowd to get lost, Jesus has compassion for their desperation to be near him. He sympathizes with their frenetic desire to squeeze every ounce of teaching and power out of him, even when he has nothing left to give. He pushes the boat back out into the water, pushes his own needs aside, and begins to teach those gathered on the shore.

He teaches through the day and into early evening, until his disciples notice that people are hungry.  Jesus tells them to give the people something to eat. They say they don’t have enough money.

What follows defies any description. An abundance of food, enough to feed five thousand people with plenty to spare, appears from the humble supper of thirteen men. Two fish and five loaves of bread, and everyone present fed.

That’s the end of the story. Mark doesn’t give us any reaction. The story ends without response, almost as if what has just taken place is completely normal.

Text for the day:

Mark 6:30-44

Things to think about:

When Jesus asks the disciples to feed the people, they respond by talking about money. What relationship do money and ability have with one another?

Things to do:

Consider the difference Jesus can make with the resources you have at your disposal.

Jesus, use the things we have to feed your people.

Wednesday, week four: Dancing and death (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

It is going so well. Jesus’ followers return, having successfully preached, cast out demons, and healed people. News of this effective campaign finds the ears of Herod, the Roman-appointed king of Judea. He’s a bit confused. He had been holding consul with John, the one who baptized Jesus. In a flashback, Mark recounts all that has transpired between Herod and the baptizer.

John wasn’t going easy on Herod. Herod had a nasty, twisted family tree. Over the span of his life he married 14 different women; at one time he was married to three women at the same time. Herod had some of his wives and his own sons executed to protect his throne. At the moment, though, Herod was married to Herodias. Herodias was the wife of Herod’s brother Philip. Apparently, she went willingly. After all, it’s good to be queen. Herodias was enjoying her time in the limelight. Herod traveled to Rome and stole her from his brother. John called him on the carpet.

Herod didn’t want to hear it. He had the power to have John killed, but he was afraid. He knew John was a holy man. What might happen if he killed him? Herod avoided the whole mess by locking John away in prison. He remained out of earshot and out of mind until the night of Herod’s birthday party.

That night, Herodias’ daughter (Herod’s niece) Salome danced. She was so beautiful and captivating that Herod, right in front of all of his friends and prominent members of his court, promised her anything in his kingdom.

Before giving her answer, she consulted her mother, the queen.

Moments later, John’s head arrives at the party on a platter, fresh from his prison cell. To Herodias, John’s permanent silence was worth more than half of Herod’s kingdom.

Now Herod is confused. Word of Jesus’ power and preaching has reached him, and he thinks John is resurrected.

Text for the day:

Mark 6:14-29

Things to think about:

The world is simultaneously filled with dancing and death.

Herod took the holy and hid it out of sight.

Things to do:

Bring the holy into the light. Make a place for prayer and reverence for God.

Jesus Christ, Son of God, help me to hear and understand.

Tuesday, week three: Six pairs of two (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

When Jesus began his ministry, he entered the synagogue in Capernaum and cast out an unclean spirit. He then crossed the street, entered the home of Simon’s mother-in-law, and cured her of a fever.

A lot has happened in Jesus’ ministry between then and now.  He has made a big, big impression in Jewish circles. Everywhere he has been, with the exception of his own hometown, he has taught with power and authority. He has demonstrated that his interpretation of the ancient scriptures is backed with action. Crowds of people have responded.

Now Jesus gives his power and influence away.

He sends his twelve closest followers out in pairs and orders them to take nothing on their journey. He entrusts them with his power to cast out unclean spirits and heal, telling them the people they meet on the way will provide.

Jesus wants it to be clear that effectiveness depends upon nothing except Jesus’ power and authority and their own willingness to go. He wants them to experience success and failure, welcome and rejection, accolades and jeers. He wants them to experience the fullness of ministry firsthand.

Like any apprenticeship, important skills are honed by doing.

They set out, having first been taught, and then having witnessed the power in Jesus’ actions. They have heard and seen, now it’s time to do.

They go off in pairs, proclaiming the same message Jesus proclaimed, ordering unclean spirits around just as Jesus did, and bringing healing just as Jesus did.

Same message, same actions, same results.

Text for the day:

Mark 6:6b-13

Things to think about:

The message and power of Jesus resides with him. It also resides with the ones Jesus empowers. Can we rely upon one another the way we rely upon Jesus?

Things to do:

Pray for the power of Jesus’ teaching and actions to be present in the church.

Jesus, empower your church.

Monday, week three: Rejection at home (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

Jesus has amazing power everywhere amongst all kinds of people. In the synagogue, home, countryside; with fishermen, tax collectors, outcasts, religious leaders; amongst the bleeding, paralyzed, possessed, and dying; so far there’s been no one Jesus can’t heal or help. Even when Jesus stepped momentarily into Gentile country, he drove a legion of demons into the sea.

Then he goes home to Nazareth.

At first, people are as amazed as everyone else has been. They can’t believe the wisdom in his teaching and the reports of his miraculous works. Then something familiar kicks in.

The people begin to remember “little Jesus,” the one who grew up in their midst. It dawns on them that they know his whole family. They have a million anecdotal stories about his life in Nazareth. They remember him at work in his woodshop and think, “We know everything about this guy. He can’t be the one everyone’s talking about.”

Then they get offended, as if Jesus is trying to put something over on them. Even though they heard him for themselves, they have no faith in his power or compassion.

In the absence of their faith, Jesus can’t do a thing.

He lays his hands on a few who are sick and they are restored. With everyone else, he has no authority at all.

Jesus is amazed at their unbelief. Perhaps he is also amazed at the power of unbelief to stop good things from happening.

Text for the day:

Mark 6:1-6a

Things to think about:

Faith has the power to heal. Unbelief has the power to prevent good things from happening.

Things to do:

Question your own belief. Do you think Jesus can heal you or not?

I believe, Jesus. Help my unbelief.

Sunday, week three: Two daughters (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

Back in Galilee, the crowd gathers once again. Jairus, a leader of the synagogue, finds him. He has a sick daughter.

We have seen people flocking to Jesus, bringing their sick and suffering friends, and we have seen Jesus heal them. People with leprosy and unclean spirits have both approached Jesus and recoiled from him, but have been restored either way.

Now Jairus does something new. Rather than bring his daughter to Jesus, he begs Jesus to come to his home and heal his daughter there. Jesus agrees.

On the way, we see something else new. A desperate woman, convinced of Jesus’ healing power, sneaks up on him and touches his clothes. Twelve years of bleeding instantly cease. Imagine her, standing still in awe, as the crowd, pressing in on Jesus, continues to move him forward toward Jairus’ house. He stops suddenly. His healing power has been stolen and he knows it.

“Who touched me?” he says.

It could have been anyone. Everyone is pressing in. The healed woman is off the hook, but she steps forward in admission, throwing herself at his feet. Jesus calls her “Daughter” and says her faith has made her well.

This is a single story of two daughters, one the beloved child of a religious leader, the other outcast, unclean, and without an advocate. Both are near death in their own ways, the child dying of illness, the woman dead to life in community.

In stealing Jesus’ power and causing a delay in the streets, it seems the woman has prevented Jesus from healing Jairus’ daughter. Some people from Jairus’ house arrive to confirm it. The child is dead.

As Jairus is about to leave, Jesus encourages him. The woman’s faith has healed her, his faith can heal his daughter. “Do not fear, only believe.”

Text for the day:

Mark 5:21-43

Things to think about:

We need healing in body, mind, spirit, or relationships. What healing do you need today?

Things to do:

Lend your faith to someone whose faith is lacking: Pray on his or her behalf.

Jesus, give me Jairus’ faith and the woman’s desperation.

Saturday, week three: Legion (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

It’s possible to have a spirit so unclean that it completely destroys every possibility of community and relationship, even with oneself. The man Jesus encounters in the country of the Gerasenes has such a spirit. 

He breaks every shackle and chain meant to bind him. When anyone approaches, even when they are at a great distance, he screams at them. He’s not even good for himself. He wanders naked among the tombs, hitting himself with stones so that his entire body is bruised. People have given up on him. He’s left alone in the graveyard.

That’s where Jesus finds him, in a Gentile graveyard, like one half dead. Jesus steps out of his boat and from a distance, as usual, the man begins screaming.

Jesus responds in a very strange way. “What’s your name?” he asks.
“Legion.”

Legion. Not the name of an unclean spirit, or a demon. 

Legion. The official name of the entire Roman army.  A unit of 1,500 men. Or 2,000. Or 5,000. Legionaries worshipped the goddess Disciplina, whose virtues were severity, frugality, and loyalty. Legionaries beat one another, sometimes to death for breaks in loyalty or desertion.

What is one man against a force so mighty?

“What is your name?” That’s all Jesus says. Then the Legion begins begging. They beg to be released into a herd of swine. Jesus grants their request and they go tumbling into the sea. And the man? He gets dressed. People are freaked out and plead with Jesus to leave them. 

Jesus doesn’t stay long in that Gentile territory. The man begs to follow him, but Jesus turns him loose to proclaim the good news amongst those outside Jewish life, and he gets back in his boat to go home. If Jesus were to ask the question now, he’d get a different answer. 

“What’s your name?”
“Witness.”

Text for the day:

Mark 5:1-20

Things to think about:

Jesus heals people by learning their names. He restores them to their true selves.

Things to do:

Take some time today to listen to someone.

Jesus Christ, call me by name.

Friday, week three: Storms and faith (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

Don’t you care that we are dying?

The disciples’ question isn’t so different from ours. When we face our most challenging and frightening moments, we too wonder where Jesus is and how he can allow such things to happen.

Don’t you care that we are suffering? How can you sleep at a time like this?

To add serious insult to the disciples’ injury, Jesus is present, sleeping through their trauma. Don’t we also wonder if Jesus notices or cares about us?

Jesus stills the storm, but there is more to this story than Jesus’ authority over nature. There are two less obvious places to find relief and hope.

First, Jesus is in the boat. That’s cause for reassurance. Whatever danger the disciples face on the sea, Jesus is in it with them. They may be freaked out and terrified, but Jesus is with them. They are not alone. He has made exceptional claims, exhibited extraordinary power, and is with them in the storm.

Second, Jesus is asleep. That’s cause for celebration. The disciples might be terrified, but Jesus isn’t fazed. He’s so calm that he has no problem falling asleep. Jesus isn’t scared at all. If he isn’t scared, why should they be?

Storms come. Storms go. Faith calls the disciples to see what isn’t so obvious. Faith calls them to remember Jesus is with them. Faith calls them to trust in the calm presence of Jesus when they are freaked out and terrified.

Jesus isn’t nearly as interested in the storm as he is in the faith of his disciples. He calms the storm so they can focus on his question, Where is your faith?

Text for the day:

Mark 4:35-41

Things to think about:

This is the disciples’ experience. It says something about the lives and the possibilities of those who are trying to draw near to Jesus in faith.

Things to do:

Wake Jesus up. Ask him for what you most need.

Jesus, help me to see reassurance and joy in my troubles.

Thursday, week three: Parables (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

Again Jesus gets into a boat and lakeside begins teaching the crowd in parables. These are stories with life meaning.

He later tells his disciples they have been entrusted with the secrets of the kingdom of God, but everyone else must learn in parables.  They don’t know what he’s talking about.  They don’t understand his parables.

The parables themselves? They are about seeds sown, soil hospitable to seeds and inhospitable, light being set out to light a room, growth taking place in secret, small things with huge potential, reaping, giving and receiving.

Jesus is saying the kingdom of God is like that. The kingdom of God is not like the kingdom of Caesar. It’s not about taxes, conscription into military service, subservience, or fear.

The kingdom of God is about light that cannot be contained and seeds with potential beyond the ability of the soil. The kingdom is about growth that can take place anywhere any time. The kingdom is about abundance and about human potential to forward it.

This is the first time in Mark’s Gospel that Jesus has talked openly about the kingdom of God. He has been announcing the nearness of God’s Kingdom and calling people to repentance. He has been demonstrating God’s kingdom, now he is talking about it openly.

What does Jesus do with the ignorant disciples? He explains everything to them in private.

Text for the day:

Mark 4:1-34

Things to think about:

The sower has an abundance of seed and throws it everywhere, even on the footpath. The seed is good and abundant and thrown into every human heart.

Things to do:

Notice the nature of the political kingdom of our day. How is the kingdom of God at odds with it? Pray for the enlightenment and courage of our political leaders, that they might be able to align themselves more closely with God.

Jesus, please keep throwing seed into our world.