Thursday, week six: What makes one rich? (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

If keeping the commandments automatically led to the joy and life of the Kingdom of God, the rich young man would never have approached Jesus at all. But they don’t. Keeping the commandments can lead to the Kingdom, but there’s no guarantee. Sometimes there are obstacles.

Knowing that, Jesus looks for whatever might be in this man’s way. It’s obvious: the man loves his money more than life.

Jesus tells him to sell everything. Get yourself free and follow me.

He can’t do it, so he turns away in sorrow. What was clear to Jesus is now clear to everyone.

Jesus begins to talk about how hard it is for adults to experience the Kingdom of God. Adults get attached to their possessions, power, and relationships. They hold onto those things at the expense of the things that matter most.

Then Jesus predicts his own death again.

The Scribes and Pharisees will approach Jesus, too. But they don’t care about the obstacles in their own way. They will approach him with challenges and questions, attempting to discredit him. They will attempt to uphold the illusion that keeping the law leads to the things that matter most.

The things blocking their way are just as obvious to Jesus as the things that are in the rich man’s way. Jesus will point that out to them, too.

But this discovery won’t cause grief. It will cause violence.

The Scribes and Pharisees are going to hand him over to the Roman authorities.

Text for the day:

Mark 10:17-34

Things to think about:

At the beginning of Mark’s gospel, Jesus announced, “The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.” The Kingdom of God is near all the time. What’s in the way?

Things to do:

Seek the Kingdom of God.

Jesus show me what’s in my way.

Wednesday, week six: Divorce and children (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

The religious leaders question him on the law: Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife or not?

Well, what did Moses say?

Moses allowed a man to present his wife with a written bill of divorce.

Jesus tells them Moses allowed divorce only because their hearts were hard. Hard hearts find forgiveness impossible. Hard hearts aren’t capable of intimacy. Moses allowed divorce because he couldn’t reconcile their hard hearts and they couldn’t reconcile with each other.

Jesus turns that written decree on its ear. He says there is an order to creation. People fall in love and are bound to one another. No matter what happens next, even the hardening of hearts, that bond cannot be undone. Love is love. It doesn’t die and it cannot be broken. He says two that join together become one flesh. Trying to divide that flesh is adultery.

While Jesus is laying down the law, children try to enter the room. The disciples talk sternly to them, but Jesus becomes indignant. He says, “Let them come to me,” and scoops them up in his arms. “It is to children that the Kingdom of God belongs.”

Children don’t divorce one another, nor commit adultery, nor test one another.  Children don’t care much about writing or keeping laws. Children recognize goodness and life when they see it, and run toward it. Children follow their hearts.

Jesus blesses the children and says, “Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Text for the day:

Mark 10:1-16

Things to think about:

Keeping the law does not gain you entry into the Kingdom of God, but receiving the Kingdom like a little child does.

Things to do:

Notice the places in your own life where you have elevated the law above goodness and life.

Jesus, help me receive the Kingdom like a little child.

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.