Wednesday, week five: How much is in the boat? (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

The disciples have been with Jesus as he has traveled throughout the region, across a territory spanning about 40 miles. They have witnessed the crowds pressing in on him everywhere they go. Twice the disciples have witnessed people forget their own hunger, being so enamored with Jesus’ teaching. On both occasions, they stood by as Jesus fed thousands, with next to nothing at his disposal.

They have clearly lacked the compassion for the crowd that Jesus has. Mark stops short of describing their disdain for the crowds, but it`s not hard to imagine them saying, What were they thinking, traveling all this way without food to sustain themselves?  Who did they think would pay for their dinner? 

And now the disciples find themselves in the same boat, both literally and figuratively. They have traveled back and forth across the lake with Jesus five times already. But on this journey, they get to the middle of the lake only to find they have but one loaf of bread to share amongst thirteen people.

Jesus says, “Beware of the yeast of the religious leaders,” but aware of their own lack of food, the disciples think he’s talking about bread. He’s not talking about a loaf of bread, but about the bread that fuels power. Jesus is talking about demands for signs, proof, and legitimacy. Jesus is saying that healing and wholeness don’t matter to some people. He’s saying that for people in power it’s not enough to make a difference for people who suffer. Those in power will always demand permission slips, certifications, and adherence with the law. For some people, the deeds are worthless without the credentials.

The disciples understand nothing of what he’s said or done, not even that he can take their one loaf and feed everyone in the boat with it, and everyone else in the world besides.

They are thinking about scarcity and rules. He is demonstrating abundance and grace.

His mercy is about to meet its match, and their minds are stuck on bread.

Text for the day:

Mark 8:14-21

Things to think about:

People tend to dwell on scarcity rather than create abundance.

Things to do:

Share something you have with someone who doesn’t have it. Notice what happens.

God, multiply my resources.

Monday, week four: Feeding strangers (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

If Jesus has healed any Gentiles, it’s only been one or two.

Lately, there was the Syrophoenician woman who begged him to heal her daughter. Jesus cured her without ever laying eyes upon her.

Before that there was the naked man from Gerasa, the one with the legion of demons. Jesus saw that man, but didn’t touch him. He sent the legion into a herd of swine, then sent the herd screaming down a hill to drown in the lake. He returned the man to his right mind simply by giving the demons permission to leave. Yet, when the man begged Jesus to let him follow him, Jesus turned him away, sending him instead to declare God’s mercy in his hometown.

Evidently, the healed Gerasene man has a convincing testimony, for a great crowd awaits Jesus in the Gentile desert. They cling to his every word for three days, more hungry for his teaching and his power than for bread.

They have  essentially been fasting, and although they are Gentiles and he is Jewish, Jesus has compassion for their diminished state. He remembered what happened the last time, when he asked the disciples to feed the crowd and they talked of nothing but money. So he puzzles aloud about how he might feed them.

The disciples have apparently forgotten what happened the last time Jesus showed compassion on a hungry crowd. “How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?” they ask.

“How many loaves do you have? He asks his disciples. He gives thanks for their meager resources, blesses them, and begins to divide them amongst the crowd. Before he has finished, 4,000 Gentiles have had their fill and seven baskets full of broken bits of bread remain from the disciples’ original seven loaves.

Jesus disperses the satisfied crowd, and he and his disciples climb once again into the boat.

Text for the day:

Mark 8:1-10

Things to think about:

Everyone is worthy of the healing and teaching Jesus offers.

Jesus takes food from the mouths of his closest followers and gives it away as bread for the hungry.

Things to do:

Do some research today about your neighborhood or city. Who is hungry around you and how are they fed?

Jesus, teach me to stop questioning you.

give us our daily bread

Jesus went to a certain place to pray, and when he returned, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray the way John taught his disciples.” Jesus proceeded to teach them.

The words of his teaching are famous amongst Christians; we call them “The Lord’s Prayer.”

In the midst of that prayer, however, is something startling and less famous. Jesus teaches the disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Like almost every other phrase in the New Testament, this line is translated from the ancient Greek. However, unlike almost every other phrase in the New Testament, scholars have little idea what this phrase actually means. That’s because the word that is translated “daily” only exists in two places in all of the ancient Greek literature, biblical and otherwise. That word, Greek transliterated “epiousion,” occurs only in The Lord’s Prayer. (It has two occurrences, because it appears in both Matthew’s and Luke’s versions of the prayer.)

So we could say Jesus taught his disciples to pray for “epiousion” bread; or to pray for “what we don’t know that we need.”

It reminds me of the wandering Israelites, who cry out to God for sustenance. God delivers “manna” in the wilderness, which in the Hebrew literally means God delivers “what is it?”

God seems to be in the habit of gifting us with things we don’t even know we need and feeding us with unusual things that defy our naming. God feeds us with “what is this stuff?”

Might we learn to pray, “God, each day give to us the things you see that we need, even though we don’t know what they are”?

“Give to us each day our epiousion bread.” Want more? Click here to read Luke 11:1-13.
To listen to the sermon, click here.