Reading Through The New Testament - Mark 7

Just to refresh your memory, I'm using the Discipleship Journal's reading plan to journey through the NT this year in my devotional reading. The plan has you reading a chapter a day 5 days in a row with a two day break for reflection. I've kept the pace in reading but journalling here - not so much. I'll try to catch up.

One of the challenges for me is not pulling out the tools I use when preparing to teach and just reading for the purpose of allowing the text to work on me. So if the comments seem to be "top of mind" and not theologically deep or particularly precise - that's by intention. I'm determined to let the Word work in my heart without my "help."

So, Mark Chapter 7

- Rituals and traditions and traditional people. Apparently Jesus didn't go through all the ritualistic washing of hands that the professional religious people did. And His disciples picked that up from him, or perhaps there was a big disconnect between what the common people did in practice and what the priests and those like them did. Always one of the biggest sources for friction in churches - one person or group decides what everyone should do/follow.
- They called out Jesus on it and He was having none of it. "Hypocrites!" Then He played the prophet card and quoted Isaiah.
8 For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.”9 Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition.
Mark 7:8-9 (NLT)
- and He gave examples. This confrontation was sharp and personal. And Jesus kept giving example after example and said there were "many more." No doubt the Pharisees were furious.
- Then He called the crowd over and let them know what the specific problem with substituting man made tradition for God's way is - you live the wrong way - valuing the wrong things and not relying on God in everything.
- Then He left and went into a home to get some peace and the disciples pressed Him for more information. He tried to help them understand that following God wasn't about food or traditions but about how you lived in response to God's grace. Your actions - not what you ate or drank - helped you see where you are with God and determined whether you could count yourself as His.
- Then a curious episode with a gentile woman follows. Given the mess with traditional Jews just prior, this seems especially harsh on one end and especially Jew-centric as well. Given Jesus' response though, I think He was testing the woman to see if she had heresay faith in what Jesus could do, or faith in Him for Who He is.
- The chapter closes with a trip north to Tyre and Sidon where the crowds were warm and Jesus healed a deaf man in a way He never had done. Perhaps there was some regional belief that method played into - don't know as I read this. But the man was healed and miraculously was able to hear and to speak plainly.
37 They were completely amazed and said again and again, “Everything he does is wonderful. He even makes the deaf to hear and gives speech to those who cannot speak.”
Mark 7:37 (NLT)

Reading Through the New Testament - Mark 6

Picking up again in my journaling through the New testament.

- 5 And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any mighty miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them.6 And he was amazed at their unbelief
Mark 6:5-6 (NLT)
- Well, two things here "he couldn't because..." and "he was amazed..." So what happened here to limit God's work and amaze the Lord of the Universe?
- Is unbelief "kryptonite" to God's work? And again - to "amaze" God's Son? makes me wonder if the people there were so sold out to their own beliefs of what God could do that they acted as if they had never considered the possibility that God cared or could care about them.

Then the disciples (including Judas) were sent out...
- sent out - with the bare minimum and forced to contact and persuade the people they met to support their mission, even if only by simple hospitality.
- what must it have felt like to those disciples to have the power of God flow through them and do what they knew they could not have done?
- is there actually a "dust off your feet" action today?
Herod respected John; and knowing that he was a good and holy man, he protected him. Herod was greatly disturbed whenever he talked with John, but even so, he liked to listen to him.
Mark 6:20 (NLT)
- wonder how many of my friends who are preachers know the feeling that some of the people looking back at you on Sunday have some of the same traits - appreciate you for what you are - but are disturbed by what they hear and still keep coming back.

37 But Jesus said, “You feed them.” Mark 6:37 (NLT)

-I keep reading the account of the feeding of the 5,000 and always stop right here. Jesus was a miracle worker for sure, but there's usually a human connection and in this case it is especially strong. He has the disciples do everything THEY can and then He does what only HE can. Following Jesus has always been that way.
They were totally amazed,52 for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in. Mark 6:51-52 (NLT)

- "They" and "their" here are the disciples. If they still don't get it after all they have seen and heard by this point, I wonder what the average person today needs to cross the line to faith in Jesus. Are we artificially compressing the timeline when it actually might take years.

Follow up to Mark 5 -

MAN OF THE TOMBS
Bob Bennett
© 1989 Matters Of The Heart Music (ASCAP)

Man of the tombs
He lives in a place where no one goes
And he tears at himself
And lives with a pain that no one knows
He counts himself dead among the living
He knows no mercy and no forgiving
Deep in the night he's driven to cry out loud
Can you hear him cry out loud?

Man of the tombs
Possessed by an unseen enemy
He breaks every chain
And mistakes his freedom for being free
Shame and shamelessness equally there
Like a random toss of a coin in the air
Man of the tombs, he's driven to cry out loud

   Underneath this thing that I've become
   A fading memory of flesh and blood
   I curse the womb, I bless the grave
   I've lost my heart, I cannot be saved
   Like those who fear me, I'm afraid
   Like those I've hurt, I can feel pain
   Naked now before my sin
   And these stones that cut against my skin
   Some try to touch me, but no one can
   For man of the tombs I am

Down at the shoreline
Two sets of footprints meet
One voice is screaming
Other voice begins to speak
In only a moment and only a word
The evil departs like a thundering herd
Man of the tombs, he hears this cry out loud

   Underneath this thing that you've become
   I see a man of flesh and blood
   I give you life beyond the grave
   I heal your heart, I come to save
   No need to fear, be not afraid
   This Man of sorrows knows your pain
   I come to take away your sin
   And bear it's marks upon My skin
   When no one can touch you, still I can
   For Son of God I am

Dressed now and seated
Clean in spirit and healthy of mind
Man of the tombs
He begs to follow, but must stay behind
He'll return to has family with stories to tell
Of mercy and madness, of heaven and hell
Man of the tombs, soon he will cry out loud

   Underneath this thing that I once was
   Now I'm a man of flesh and blood
   I have a life beyond the grave
   I found my heart, I can now be saved
   No need to fear, I am not afraid
   This Man of sorrows took my pain
   He comes to take away our sin
   And bear it's marks upon His skin
   I'm telling you this story because
   Man of the tombs I was

Reading Through the New Testament - Mark 5

- The demon-possessed man - always reminds me of the Billy Crockett song about this event. Very moving.
- So this crazy guy runs up to Jesus and his followers and "bows low before Him." The picture I get is of Jack Nicholson in the Shining. Had be to kind of spooky.
- Looking at the way it plays out, Jesus apparently noticed him at a distance and called to the spirit to come out of him before the man ran up to him.
- Then Jesus demanded that he give his name.
- Poor pigs.
- "And the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone."
- So He left.
- But the picture of the man, now in his right mind wanting to go with Jesus seems very tender. "No, go home to your family and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been."
- All the way home the man told everyone he met.
- How tiring must it have been for Jesus to be constantly around needy people - giving.
- The Jairus encounter is moving on several levels. A father's desperate plea - a woman's last chance - and Jesus once again noticing people in need.
- "daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over."
- So the man with the daughter is standing there - what is he thinking? is he charitable about the woman's need being met, or is he thinking "my daughter is dying."?
- And now the news comes that she is dead. They told the father directly but Jesus overheard. The father's heart must have broken at the news, but Jesus said "Don't be afraid. Just have faith." I cannot imagine the range of emotions in the father's heart.
- The crowd was already beginning to react to the news and Jesus stopped them and made sure He took only those He wanted with Him to the home.
- The wailers and mourners already had begun their work when Jesus arrived. "Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn't dead; she is only asleep."
- The crowd laughed AT HIM. Not sure that's going to be something they wanted to answer for later in judgment.
- But maybe by the force of His personality or sheer force of will He forced them to leave.
- Jesus then took the girl's mom and daddy and the three disciples and went upstairs and taking her hand in His said to her "Little girl, get up." How many times have we done that with the boys when they were little, smiles on our faces anticipating another day of joy. Jesus gave this girl many more days of joy.
- Everyone was blown away by what happened and it seems that they had trouble getting a grip until Jesus spoke again and told them not to spread the news of what happened and to get the girl something to eat.

Baffles me how much the disciples saw during Jesus' ministry and still seemed to harbor doubts about Him. Just how many times did they need?

Reading Through the New Testament - Mark 4

The last chapter really was packed with events and repercussions. This one begins with Jesus back near the water, teaching. I decided to pick up the Message to try and take some of my tendency to bullet point away.

- He taught by using stories. Parables. I like the way Eugene Peterson's Message paraphrase has Jesus asking "Listen, what do you make of this?" at the beginning of the story, then again "Are you listening to this? Really listening?"
- then it became for the disciples about how to understand the stories and what the stories were for more than what the stories said.
- "There are people - whose eyes are open but don't see a thing, whose ears are open but don't understand a word, who avoid making an about face and getting forgiven." (MSG)
- "There is such shallow soul of character that when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it." I've certainly seen that happen in the lives of people over the years. When everything's wonderful, God is good. But when trials come they wonder where He went.
- I love the picture of the ones who "hear the Word, embrace it, and produce a harvest beyond their wildest dreams." To embrace the Word is in a sense to embrace the One Who gave it.
- "Are you listening? Really listening?"
- I have to think back over the years to all the sermons I have heard and spoken. How often did anyone really hear? How often did I embrace the Word and go out to produce fruit?
- "Giving, not getting is the way."
- "God's Kingdom is like..." When I hear that, I think of someone trying to explain to another what a place they have lived is like. It's hard to really capture the sights and sounds of anywhere, isn't it?
- So Jesus tells another story that the people who are listening can relate to. Peterson writes "He was never without a story when He spoke."
- "When He was with the disciples, He went over everything, sorting out the tangles and untying the knots."
- Then Mark presents an event where Jesus showed His power over nature and the disciples showed their lack of faith. "Teacher, is it nothing to you that we are going down?" seems hurtful to me. To presume Jesus didn't care just is jarringly wrong. The reprimand that follows is harsh but deserved.
- "Why are you such cowards? Don't you have any faith at all?" I think for most of us though there are times when if we aren't careful, we are overwhelmed with the situation we are in and forget Whose hands we are in. If His eye is on the sparrow, I know He's watching me.
- "They were in absolute awe." - seems to me to be the absolute best response to everything Jesus did and is doing right now.

Lord, I pray that my faith will stand the storms and that I will never doubt Your concern or Your care.

Reading Through the New Testament - Mark 3

- Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand
Mark 3:1 (NLT)  "The Noticer."
- Why were people so determined to defend a religious system that left people like that without hope?
- Jesus asked great questions that not only made people think, but that caused them to have to reevaluate what they believed and why they believed it. Great example here of one of those questions.
- They would not answer.
- He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts.
Mark 3:5 (NLT) When you love and it's rejected, it hurts. "Hard hearts" has a ring to it from the OT. I'll bet that stung when people read this gospel.
- Wow - 3rd chapter and the death panel is already being organized. Notice why. Jesus didn't obey men's ideas of what God would have Him do.
- strange bedfellows too - usually it was the Sadducees and Herodians that were tight. Apparently the Pharisees see Jesus as a mortal enemy.
- Yet the people are drawn to Him and the demonic opposition falls down before Him.
- Jesus calls out the ones he wants to multiply His ministry and then places some into leadership. He gives them a pretty concise outline of what they'll be doing.
- list of the twelve disciples - funny how we don't really hear about some and how Mark lets people know already that Judas is a traitor
- Jesus - even in the midst of great success - was still thought of by His family as in need of their help. They still don't get it, do they? Why in the world would they say "He's out of His mind?" given what incredible things He's been doing.
- the Jerusalem bunch seem to feed on that and amplify it and Jesus doesn't let it go. He calls them over and confronts. It's chilling to read about the unforgivable sin. "eternal consequences..."
- this passage is tough for people to grip. We have been conditioned to put family matters before everything else. But Jesus didn't, and He makes it clear here that God's higher purpose trumps everything else. If you believe "it's not about me" then you also need to hold the conviction that "it's not about my family" because there may come a time when you have to follow God even though your family will suffer and you know it. Lots of pastors know this from personal experience and have seen the effects of their calling to serve God on their family. I know I have.
- I trust my Father with my family more than I trust anyone, anywhere.
- Follow God and... no, just follow God.

Mark 2 - Reading Through the New Testament

- So Jesus circles around and winds up back where mark began the story - Capernaum - which has quickly claimed Him as their own "He's home!" and the people are drawn to Him.
- He's preaching to an overflow crowd and others with needs can't get close enough.
- Unless they get creative. Love will cause that. Even if the person on the mat didn't have a lot of faith, the people who carried it did. And this was a planned operation. You don't lower someone without ropes. Otherwise it would be "he fell down from a hole in the roof."
- Notice Jesus says "their faith" not "his faith." Church can do more together than people can apart.
- All heck breaks loose when Jesus forgives his sins. Wonder if He knew that the majority of people there that day held to the idea that most birth defects were caused by the sins of the parents?
- Fight's on.
- Jesus identifies the heart as the problem and then says "so you will know..." - how in your face is that?
- “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”12 And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers
Mark 2:11-12 (NLT) Contrast this with the leper. The healed man did EXACTLY what Jesus said to do.
- the result?They were all amazed and praised God, exclaiming, “We’ve never seen anything like this before!”
Mark 2:12 (NLT)
- Jesus' recruiting by walking around snags Levi from the tax collector booth. Again a man leaving his life's work to follow Jesus.
- Levi immediately went through his Rolodex and invited his coworkers and friends to meet Jesus. That must have been quite a crowd of sinners!
- Pharisees took notice and rather than learn from Jesus, criticized both Him and His followers.
- Jesus had the ability to take the heart of Scripture and make it plain. "healthy people..."
- Jesus was talking with the disciples all the time about how to live in harmony with God. They made choices about that life that others didn't and people noticed.
- Jesus wasn't afraid to be different than religious people. "We never did it that way before" wasn't part of His boundary markers.
- Jesus was also not afraid of ordinary life - He knew about wine and wine skins because that's what common people drank.
- Again, Jesus didn't make the practice of religious acts anything more than ritual that points to God.

Reading Through the New Testament - Mark 1

I'll go through each day's readings and give the impressions I get as I read it devotionally. Resisting the urge to do word studies, examine contextual clues etc. may be tough, but remember, we're listening here each day and it's very hard to listen when you are talking.

- Never really hit me that Mark immediately goes to the OT as a beginning foundation, but it makes sense. At this point nearly everyone who'll read the gospel is Jewish or Gentile. So for his Jewish readers he's pulling a Paul Harvey - "and now, the rest of the story."
- "All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John.Mark 1:5 (NLT)" John the Baptist must have been like the Beatles were on their arrival in America if "all of Judea" came out to see and hear him. I guess that tells us just how hungry the people were to hear from God.
- That clothing - interesting. The food choices - ugh
- So John gets all this notice, fame really - and he immediately takes it and uses it to point toward Jesus. How rare is that in today's celebrity culture?
- When Jesus comes to be baptized, is He the only one to hear God's voice? Mark doesn't say. But I love that translation "you bring me great joy."
- You know how you have those times when great joy is followed almost immediately with some really tough challenge? Well, I think Jesus does. Baptism to the wilderness. Tough day. Mark doesn't supply the details the other writers do.
- John never forget what he was here for right to the end of his life. How many people falter toward the end. Not John.
- Jesus' recruiting style seems to be as you are going, make disciples. Hmmm... I read that somewhere else.
- They were fishermen. All they knew and all their family knew. How much faith did it take to leave all that behind?
- Jesus immediately went to work explaining the good news that the Kingdom had come and that living in it would be different. He taught differently because of His intimate connection to the Word. Authors do that.
- For every action... didn't take long for the opposition to pop up, did it? Even the evil spirits are doing publicity work for the Kingdom. "I know who you are - the Holy One (Messiah)"
- Now the people are buzzing about Jesus.
- Jesus prepared for great ministry with great prayer and listening to the Father. No frills or fancy program. Just time spent with God.
- Jesus also resisted the urge to stay where the crowd was warm and receptive while other people were in need. Easiest thing for a church to do is to turn inward. Easiest thing for a person to do is to seek to meet their needs instead of seeking to serve Christ first.
- Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!”
Mark 1:41 (NLT)  A leper was the outcast of that society and was literally untouchable. And yet Jesus' heart was so tender to people's needs His every action reflected that.
- Jesus tried to get the healed man to do what was proper so that the religious authorities would see first hand that God had sent him. While I understand the man's emotions led him to do what he did, what did it cost the Kingdom? When we let our emotions lead us to do things that we know aren't what God's best is for us - how much do WE cost the Kingdom? This man brought the ministry to a standstill keeping other people from getting help. Every time we forget it's not about us - there's a cost to the Kingdom.

- Mark 2 next