Mark 1:29-45

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, 'Everyone is searching for you.' He answered, 'Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.' And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, 'If you choose, you can make me clean.' Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, 'I do choose. Be made clean!' Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, 'See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.' But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

Here we are at the end of the first chapter of the Gospel according to Mark. Jesus is on the move, teaching, healing, and casting out demons. Jesus has accomplished so much he is getting noticed. The word throughout the region is spreading quickly. Today, I am drawn to the directness of Jesus as he performs the tasks before him. Mark has Jesus jumping from one task to another, almost without allowing the reader to take a breath. As the reader, it feels that Mark's story is taken from one gear to another without putting in the clutch.

Jesus starts out in the house of Simon and Andrew and cures Simon's mother-in-law, and restores her to resume her usual hospitality tasks of serving them. Evidently, word travels fast in Galilee, and a multitude showed up at the door expecting Jesus to heal them also. Jesus completes all the tasks in front of him. Then, after he is drained, Jesus goes off by himself to pray. When found by Simon and the others, Jesus took them throughout Galilee, preaching, teaching, and casting out demons. 

Jesus continues to be direct, going to where the people are, teaching them, and healing them. He is constantly on the move but takes time to pray and recharge. At this point, Jesus has quite the following. There were so many people after Jesus that he could not go to town openly, so the people came out to him in the country. 

In ministry, we get so bogged down sometimes we forget to model Jesus' pattern... Be on the move! Be about the work God has given us to do! But, always remember to take time to pray and recharge. This Wednesday, these are helpful words in the first whole week of Lent. Prayer should not be a chore or something else to put on our schedule. Prayer should be part of who we are and how we live. Prayer should be ingrained so much into our routine that it is our natural response to our work. 

Mark 1:14-28

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’ As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. (NRSV)

Mark doesn't waste any time and gets on with the story of Jesus' call to the first disciples and his first acts of teaching and casting out demons. The thing that stands out for me today is that the "unclean spirit" knows who Jesus is and it knows that Jesus has authority over it and will destroy it. Jesus doesn't waste any time and does just that. He casts out the unclean spirit from the man. This causes the man to convulse and cry out and the scriptures say that all were amazed. The crowd had not seen anything like Jesus. They had never seen anyone that had authority over unclean spirits. The word of his teaching spread fast.

To me, this makes me consider Jesus' ministry and actions a little closer. In Mark's gospel account, Jesus is very much "on the move" and goes about teaching and preaching where the people are, where the hurt is, where the demons are. As we are being taught to "fish for people," we should go out to where the people are, show them that they are loved by God, and help them cast out the demons in their lives that control them.

It is shocking to me how much the "modern church" doesn't look like a fellowship of Jesus' followers that is working to fish for people who need their love. It looks more like an institution or organization that mostly worships together. People constantly speak of the decline in the modern church and fail to see that the fish just need to be fed. In order to feed the fish, we need to go to them instead of expecting them to swim to us. I pray that we continue to become more of the body of Christ, reaching out to the world in love and reconciliation.

John 7:14-36 (NRSV)

About the middle of the festival Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. The Jews were astonished at it, saying, ‘How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught?’  Then Jesus answered them, ‘My teaching is not mine but his who sent me.  Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own.  Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.

‘Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you looking for an opportunity to kill me?’ The crowd answered, ‘You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?’ Jesus answered them, ‘I performed one work, and all of you are astonished. Moses gave you circumcision (it is, of course, not from Moses, but from the patriarchs), and you circumcise a man on the sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the sabbath in order that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I healed a man’s whole body on the sabbath? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement.’

Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, ‘Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah? Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.’  Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, ‘You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him.  I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.’  Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.  Yet many in the crowd believed in him and were saying, ‘When the Messiah comes, will he do more signs than this man has done?’

The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering such things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent temple police to arrest him.  Jesus then said, ‘I will be with you a little while longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.  You will search for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.’  The Jews said to one another, ‘Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?  What does he mean by saying, “You will search for me and you will not find me” and, “Where I am, you cannot come”?’



Frustration! I hear frustration in Jesus’ voice, in his teaching, and in his message. It's easy to get frustrated when you feel that your message is falling on deaf ears. This passage is a continuation from yesterday’s “undercover Jesus” trying to get a new prospective on things and assess the situation by being in disguise at the festival. It is possibly his frustration with the situation that pushes him to the point of getting up and teaching in the middle of the festival.

In his teaching, Jesus has very challenging words for the folks that are critical of his message. He points out that others have been quick to jump to conclusions about who he is and what he has come to do.  Some people gathered at the festival think that Jesus may be the messiah, and they are trying to figure out who he is.  The Pharisees and scribes feel challenged.  The status-quo is being upset by Jesus' prophetic teaching, and they are getting nervous, needing to put an end to Jesus’ popularity and make a spectacle of him.  They need to squelch his influence before he gets too politically powerful and becomes able to overthrow them. The scripture says that they tried to arrest him, but it wasn’t Jesus’ time.

My first thought is how often we get twisted into thinking something about someone else based on another’s testimony.  The leaders want the people to think that Jesus’ teaching is bad because it is against what they are teaching.  They want others to think that Jesus is a threat to their well being, so they create trumped up accusations of blasphemy and heresy.  In this context, I feel that we are called to make up our own mind.  We need to decide for ourselves who this prophetic teacher, Jesus really is.  He is revealed to us as very human and gets as aggravated and frustrated as we do (especially when people don’t listen to us) - yet his teaching is unlike any that has ever been before him or any that has come since.