Prayer based on Jeremiah 40

Father God, we are a part of a larger whole. We are closely associated with one another in the body of Christ. We care for each other in days of difficulty and distress. We are willing to associate with the poor and lowly in their need. Provide us with faithful leaders in a day of trouble. Bring us food day by day, though we are captives of men. We know that You are the one true God. Help us to hear the Word of warning that comes to us, that we might be informed concerning the dangers all around us. Preserve our lives forever that we might love and serve You always.

Prayer based on Psalm 5

Please hear us, O God. We pray to You morning by morning. We are Your humble servants in Jesus Christ, perfected through Your grace and Your steadfast love. Lead us in Your righteousness, O God. May the wicked fall by their own plots, but let the man who takes refuge in You and loves Your Name rejoice in You forever.

Prayer based on Psalm 4

God of our Righteousness, You have helped us in the past. Give us relief again today. Our godliness is in Christ alone. We trust You, O God. You will show us goodness, and You will put joy in our hearts again. We will dwell in safety.

Prayer based on Psalm 3

Lord, Your Son faced foes all around Him. He cried out to You, and You helped Him in the face of thousands of traitors. Salvation belongs to You. Bless Your people who come to You through Jesus Christ.

Prayer based on Psalm 2

Glorious Creator, this world is full of powerful enemies who oppress Your people and reject the Messiah. Your power is far above all that You have created. You have secured the position of Your Son as King of Kings. All the world should kiss Your Son, lest they perish.

Prayer based on Psalm 1

Blessed Father, You grant to us many good gifts and a sure hope through the One Man who was perfectly holy and fruitful. We would have been chaff blown away by Your fury in the Day of Judgment. But now we are known by You in Him, and are called righteous. Move us forward by Your grace in the pathway of truth and life.

Prayer based on Leviticus 5

Father God, what offering could we give to You for our unintentional sins? What could we give for our open rebellion? There is no remaining system of daily atonement. We thank You that we have a better solution to the problem of sin that the blood of bulls and goats. Christ shed His blood for us. Now we are called to enjoy a sacramental meal that reminds us that Jesus gave Himself for us. Our glorious Lord had no guilt. He was tempted in every way as we are, but He never violated Your holy commandments. His blood has purified Your sanctuary for us, and a new and sure way into Your presence has been won for us through His love. Sovereign Lord, You will never abandon Your demand for justice. Your holy Law must be satisfied. We admit our guilt before You. We cannot afford the penalty that is justly demanded from us. Even if we were to give our lives completely to You with the hope that our death might satisfy Your demands, this would not be enough for our offense against You. There is Another who has paid our debt in full. He has added yet more to His sacrifice, so that the stain of our transgression has been more than covered. Our guilt has been erased, and His goodness has become ours by Your great plan of grace. Blessed be Your Name, O God.

Prayer based on Acts 6

Lord God, thank You for the way that You solve problems with such wisdom and love. Help us to remember that those who have been set apart for the Word should devote themselves to the duties of leading Your church in prayer, teaching, and preaching. These men should not be distracted by other concerns, however important and legitimate. Raise up men that are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom to lead all of the believers in service, so that issues of justice, mercy, and order are attended to with diligence and holiness. Fill our hearts with wisdom and with Your Spirit. Grant us spiritual composure and Christ-like love for You and for others.

Prayer based on Jeremiah 39

Lord God Almighty, when an agent of destruction and discipline from Your hand comes, will we see him rightly? How will we patiently receive the challenges that are a part of Your decree for Your church here below? Will we strike Your hand and run from You, or will we faithfully bear the affliction that You have sent for our good? Do we really believe that You know how to deliver us out of all harm? Do we truly know that You are working all things for our good? We believe Your Word. Strengthen us as servants of Your Son in a day of trouble.

Mark 14

Just four chapters earlier, Jesus was speaking to someone who thought of himself as one who had kept the Law from his youth. Jesus said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." Jesus cared about the poor, and He knew that the Law and the Prophets had much to say about our need to care for the poor. Yet when someone pours a flask of very costly ointment over His head costing almost a year's wages, and the disciples begin to correct her, claiming that this could have been sold and given to the poor, Jesus says, "Leave her alone… You always have the poor with you." Jesus does not despise the poor. He is determined to take care of the worst poverty, our poverty of soul that would keep us from the heavenly presence of God forever. He knows that it is most important for us to love Him above all, and to love His death for us and what it accomplished. This woman is testifying to the impending death of the one she loves. She makes a costly testimony of her faith, and we continue to talk about it to this day.

With this special anointing, the events that will lead to the cross are now in motion. Judas speaks with the chief priests about the betrayal of Jesus. The disciples are preparing to eat the final Passover, when the Lamb of God will be slain to bring freedom to those who are in bondage to sin. When Jesus and the disciples recline at the table that night, we hear these electric words: "One of you will betray me." Jesus did not hear about this betrayal from an informer within the group that is seeking His death. He says, "The Son of Man goes as it is written of Him." The term Son of Man used in Daniel 7 had come to refer to the Messiah, but in Daniel it describes the Lord coming in His glory. Jesus here and in many other places helps us to see that the One who will come in glory will first suffer and die as the Lamb of God.

One of the things that He does around that table is explicitly related to His imminent sacrifice. He eats a meal with His disciples, a simple meal of bread and the fruit of the vine, a meal that He claims is somehow His body and blood. He calls the cup "My blood of the covenant." As the Old Covenant was instituted with the shedding of blood, Jesus is about to shed His blood for us, and this is shown forth for us in this meal. His blood will purify His people from the stain of sin, because His life is the life of the spotless Lamb, whose blood will be "poured out for many." How could it be that one man's death could count for many? It could not have been just any man. The acceptability of the offering is determined by the One who must receive satisfaction for our sin. Our sin is against God, and He has determined the acceptable sacrifice. The blood of Jesus will truly satisfy our guilt. This death Jesus will do alone, again according to the words of Scripture. Though Peter might claim a different plan, no one could overturn the Word of Jesus and the sure testimony of the prophets.

As they leave that place, one episode remains prior to our Lord's actual betrayal. Here in Gethsemane we have a glimpse of what is about to happen. Our Lord is filled with sorrow, "even to death." He knows what is ahead of Him, and He asks that the hour might pass from Him, if possible. Though all things are possible with the One Jesus calls His Father, it is not possible for God to lie, and the Son of God will not sin. He will obey the will of His Father. His disciples find it impossible to stay awake. They may profess great strength, but they are weak, but suddenly they are up and moving, and Judas, His betrayer, is at hand. He kisses Jesus.

Why did it all have to be this way? Again we are told that everything here is happening according to the Scriptures. We feel the confusion of the moment, but God is not confused. Among men it looks like a mob coming at night, a disciple's sword slicing off someone's ear, people running away in every direction, one without his cloak just to get away from this dangerous moment. Yet all will happen according to God's settled decree.

The plan of our Lord's captors is to conduct something that would look like an investigation, though, as much as possible, out of the public eye. They try to justify their plan with some show of order, with witnesses, and some testimony. But there is only One who stands out here, the One who is not defending Himself, the One who seems to display His resolve to be the Lamb of Isaiah 53. "As a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth." Finally He speaks these very dramatic words. "I AM." This declaration comes in response to the plain question of the high priest: "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" Our Lord goes on to declare that He who says and is "I AM," will be seen at the right hand of God, and coming on the clouds of heaven," a clear reference to the Messianic Son of Man from Daniel 7.

That is the testimony they were looking for. One wonders whether they ever could have received any Messiah who did not live up to their expectations in some way. They do not investigate His clear claim to be a man who is truly the Christ, and even the great divine "I AM." It is enough that such a one as Jesus has claimed to be the fulfillment of Daniel 7.

When the Lord returns on clouds of glory, there will be no opportunity for His enemies to put Him on trial. There will be no hitting Him in the face, no rude words, no spitting at Him, no servant girls trying to find out who His friends are. There will also be no more opportunity for those who belong to Christ to deny Him. The day of doubt, shame, and tears of sadness for the beloved disciples of Jesus will be over. The Lord will come in majesty and power, and He will rescue His suffering servants. He has secured for us this glorious deliverance through His own willingness to be our great Suffering Servant so many years ago. Even now He is beyond the hands of His enemies in His present location, and we are in Him. May we live out the life the He has called us to, the life of faith, with firm resolve and quiet obedience that comes from knowing that Jesus is the great I AM, and that this I AM came to free us from our bondage. We were very poor and in the worst kind of soul bondage, but Jesus poured out His costly life all over our heads. He gave Himself for us, and we are free to live for Him forever.

Mark 13

When heaven and earth are connected, the whole place is a temple. Since the fall of mankind in Adam there has been a tremendous breach God and man, and between heaven and earth. This is what Christ came to repair. When He returns in glory, heaven and earth will be together again. Until that time, the Lord has appointed the worship of the church itself, in Christ, as His special "place" where He is to be worshiped.

This was not always the case. When God gave the Law to Moses, He appointed that Israel would build a Tabernacle, and within that Tabernacle there was a special place of His presence. Later in the Old Covenant period, the Lord authorized the building of a tabernacle-like building called the temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The latest version of that structure was destroyed in AD 70 by the Romans. With the destruction of the temple, it was no longer possible to do Judaism in the way that God commanded in the Old Testament. It was this destruction of the temple that Jesus spoke about to His disciples before He died on the cross.

The breach between heaven and earth could never have been fixed through the temple in Jerusalem. The whole of the ceremonial law in Israel was given by God in preparation for the coming of His Son, who would build a new temple of worshiping people in Him throughout the world. The temple system in Jerusalem ultimately had to come to an end in order to make clear the fact that God would now dwell by His Spirit with His worshipping people. The way of life would not be through the shadow of ceremonies, but through the reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The disciples may not have understood this. They did seem to understand that the temple would soon be gone, but they may have expected that this would mean the end of this age and the immediate resurrection of the dead. Jesus speaks here of what would have to be a long period of deceptive false Messiahs, political upheaval, natural disasters, and religious persecution of those who have come to believe in the good news of Christ's saving work for us. All of these things would take place during this currant period that we call the gospel age, and would not be signs of the immediate return of Christ.

The times of a more imminent transition would be connected to something called here "the abomination of desolation." When God is rejected by those who claim to serve Him, and the enemy of God demands and receives worship from those who claim to worship the Lord, this is a horrible abomination in God's eyes, an abomination that can only bring desolation in His temple.

The place of God's presence has always been a dangerous place for sinners. This danger is critical when those who are called by God's Name serve His adversary in the midst of their worship. Whether this was the defiling of the temple prior to the days of Christ, or the persecution of the church by the Jews in the decades after the resurrection of Jesus, or even the final perversion of the church at a great falling away from Christ and the faith prior to our Lord's return, all of these things are rightly seen as defiling abominations, and they all bring desolation. The first of these happened long before Christ was born in Bethlehem. The second took place in AD 70, and the final one is yet to come. Through these times of cataclysmic judgment, the Lord knows how to help His people, and to cut short the duration of the desolation, that we who would be alive during such a moment might be faithful to the end.

The final desolation will not be missed by anyone, so there is no need to believe someone who suggests that such a thing has secretly come upon us. The coming of Christ will be unmistakable. It will involve cataclysmic signs and the arrival of a heavenly host as one might anticipate from an event that would permanently reunite heaven and earth again. The only signs that we might expect in immediate preparation for that combination of desolation and salvation connected with our Lord's return will be the existence of a world-wide abomination in the church, where a figure that is against the real Christ and against what could rightly be called faith and obedience, is accepted in God's church, and even worshipped.

The gospel generation (or better, "age") will not pass away until all of these things happen. Early on in the gospel age, the temple was destroyed. Throughout the centuries of the church, nations have come and gone, there have been many natural disasters, and the faithful have been persecuted over and over again. There have even been remarkably bad periods of apostasy that could rightly be termed an abomination. Yet the end has not yet come. We are not told when it will come. We are told that the Father knows when all these things will take place, and that should be enough for us.

We have a pretty good idea that we will not live forever in our current mortal condition. Each of us has to deal with the fact that our days will come to an end. Until that time, we are to be serving the One who gave His blood for sinners. He knows how to roll up this gospel age in the renewing fullness of the coming resurrection. Until that time, we should be alert and awake, for there is much for us to do. Like the disciples in any era, we feel the weakness of our flesh, but we also know that the Lord who loves us, and died to repair the divide between heaven and earth, will not secretly steal away without us. We will be a part of the blessings of the resurrection age in Christ. We will be there in the heaven and earth temple of the Lord, for the whole place will be a new temple in Jesus Christ.

Mark 12

It is a well known fact that Jesus taught using parables. Here as He moved toward the cross, His parables were very pointed. They were words of judgment against Israel and her religious leaders. God was ready to bring to a close the era of this special land, a land that was a picture of a higher place. The end of this era would come with Israel's violent rejection of the One who was sent to save.

God is the one that planted Israel as His vineyard so long ago. He provided for her everything that she needed. The nation could bring no just complaint against the Almighty. But the Lord's complaint against them was very just. Israel was His, and He naturally expected good fruit from the vineyard. Yet those whom He placed in charge of the fruit, hated Him and resented Him, and they would not give to Him His portion. He sent representatives, the prophets, to bring His complaint, and these men were treated with great disrespect. Then He did something that none of us would do. He sent His Son into this dangerous and rebellious place that had already killed the prophets, the Son who was teaching them now, the Son whom they would also kill. This was all done in accord with Psalm 118. They were the builders, and He was the Stone that they rejected. He would also be the Sacrifice, and somehow the day of His sacrifice would eventually become a day in which we would rejoice, a day that the Lord had made.

Not all of the teaching of Jesus to the crowds came through parables. Here He taught through His responses to the questions of those who were trying to trap Him. In doing so He revealed things about them and about Himself. We hear of several of these interactions in the final encounters between Jesus and the various groups that were attempting to stop Him. First, the Pharisees and the Herodians again attempted to get Him to say something about taxes that could be used against Him in front of civil authorities. He responded to their trap by calling them to give their lives to God, who created them in His image, and to give to civil authorities the coins that bear the image of Caesar. He spoke these words as the One who is the perfect image of God before the eyes, and the only Man who completely offered up His life to the Father.

Second, the Sadducees also came to Him, attempting to make Him look foolish concerning the biblical doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Jesus would Himself prove the fact of a new resurrection of at least one human body through His own life from the dead in just a few days. This great sign would be the beginning of a much larger resurrection that will be continued when our Lord returns to judge. It is this final massive resurrection of the dead that they were trying to mock Him with that day, using a story of seven men who all had one woman as a wife, but not at the same time, each one dying and being followed in the role of husband by his younger brother. In the resurrection, who will be the husband of this woman? Jesus pointed out to them that their rejection of the truth of the coming resurrection was a symptom of two foundational problems. First, they did not believe the Scriptures, which so clearly teach the doctrine of a final resurrection age that is to come. Second, they did not understand the power of God, who is, even now, the God of the living. Even though the final day has not yet come, God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These men who died on earth so long ago, are alive in heaven now.

The third of these interactions in the chapter was with a scribe, a teacher of the Mosaic Law. This one seems more ambiguous. Was he truly interested in what Jesus had to say, or was this just another trap? Could it be that He was asking Jesus such an obvious question that any Hebrew child could have answered to get Jesus to say that there is only one God? Does He imagine Jesus to be asserting Himself as a second god of some kind? If his goal is to trap Jesus, our Lord's answer makes a very interesting point to consider. There is only one God, and we must love Him with our everything, but there is a second commandment that is like this first one, because it flows from the fact of this one God, and our duty to love the One who is not only our Creator, but the Creator of all. We must love our neighbor as ourselves. Is this man obeying this commandment in his interaction with Jesus? If not, is he truly loving the God who is the God of Jesus? The man is said to receive Jesus' answer with some wisdom. He certainly is not far from the kingdom, because the King of the kingdom is there with him.

Jesus is David's Son and David's Lord according to Psalm 110. How could this be? They had no answer for the teacher. Their hearts were filled with murderous intentions. They made a great show of their goodness and their religion, but they would steal from a poor widow if they could do so in secret. Speaking of poor widows, some of them show great love for God and His kingdom without attracting much notice from anyone. What they have, may not seem like much, but they spend it all for God, and He will surely establish the work of their hands forever in the resurrection. Their labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Jesus' life was worth billions upon billions upon billions. He spent it all for you. He did not come to win debates, though He easily could outwit anyone who tried to trap Him. He came to live and to die, that Heaven and earth might be one, and that you might be saved. He used His great resources to pay your debt.

Mark 11

From this point on in Mark's gospel we are moving quickly to the cross and the empty tomb. All of these events in the last few days of Jesus' life are filled with a sense of God's sovereignty over every detail. There is an odd combination here of everything going according to the plan of God, and everything leading to the tremendous suffering of His Son. We realize here more than ever that the cross is the plan of God, and not merely the result of jealousy and animosity from the contemporaries of Jesus. If Jesus is to ride into Bethlehem in fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy, then there will be no problem getting the colt, or with any other similar detail. God really is in charge of all of these events.

If people need to cover the ground that Jesus will travel with their cloaks and with palm branches, this will all happen, in fulfillment of the prophetic word, and crowds will cry out calling to Him with their plea for salvation, though their understanding of what this salvation is all about may be sadly deficient. Here is the long expected seed of the woman. It is not yet clear how He will work out our salvation, but it is clear that He is the Messianic Son of David who will crush the head of the serpent.

He comes with a word of judgment against Old Testament Israel. She is a fig tree with no fruit. She should have yielded something good for her Lord, but now that she has demonstrated her lack of good fruit, she is being destroyed from the roots by the Son of God. He is capable of complete control over the stars in the heavens, He can certainly speak in faith to a plant, and He can certainly bring the nation of Old Testament Israel and the era of the Law to a close by his command. This is displayed in another way when He asserts divine authority over the temple area. Once again, biblical prophecy will be fulfilled. The builders of that day are what the prophets said they would be. Powerful people in the Lord's land have turned the place of Old Covenant worship into a den of robbers, and they are called to account before the Lord of hosts in their midst. No one is able to stop the man who is willingly going along a pathway that will soon lead to His death. He will build a new house of prayer for the nations with His own resurrected body.

The new temple that He is building will be made up of people who pray in faith. When we do this, we are acting our part as those who have not only been created in the image of God as all men are, but also as those who have been recreated by the Spirit of God. We are those who have come to know the forgiveness of God for us in a very personal way, forgiveness that was bought through the blood of the man who teaches us how to pray as the Lord's holy temple, a new people of God who are alive in Christ. We are Jews and Gentiles who will bear fruit for our King. One of the most precious results of His works in us is a fruit that springs forth from His own forgiveness of our sins. That fruit is our sincere forgiveness of others who may have sinned against us.

It was not an easy thing for the corrupted power structure of the old fig tree to give way to the coming of a new fruitful vine. That new plant is here on clear display only in the one Man who is the representative of a new order. They question Him concerning His authority. They had heard Him teach. They had witnessed miracles, but they are unwilling to allow Him to change the age from the Law to the gospel. They cannot stop Him. This is obvious since He is doing things that we would have expected to lead to His immediate arrest, and they are not arresting Him right away. No one is pinning Him to the ground and dragging Him away. That time has not come quite yet. Obviously those who consider themselves to be the authorities on the temple mount are unwilling to flex their muscles against Him at this moment.

They are not even up to a debate concern the divine authority of John the Baptist. They are afraid of the crowd. Jesus was not afraid of the crowd, though a crowd would soon turn against Him, as crowds can and do. Jesus knew that all of this was happening by a divine decree that would result in the greatest event of history, and the turning point in the battle for the earth.

Because of the coming death and resurrection of the Man who is our salvation, not only will our position in heaven be guaranteed, but the earth itself will be renewed as the victory in heaven will one day descend and become the victory on earth. It is our privilege to serve our King with this kind of resurrection confidence even now. The One who is overturning tables is the One who will go quietly to the cross in a few days. He is in charge.

Mark 10

When Jesus came to save, he taught. This, we are told, was His custom. The best posture for anyone to take in the presence of a teacher from God, is that of a student, not the kind of student who listens only in order to get a good grade, but the kind of student who is actually a true follower of the teacher.

Of course, when the Son of God came teaching, not everyone wanted to hear Him and obey Him. Some listened to His teaching in order to be critics, to test Him, even to trap Him. We are told that the Pharisees were testing Him, and that is why they were asking about divorce. Remember that John the Baptist had recently been executed because of his teaching on divorce. While the Pharisees may have this in mind, they may have also wanted to justify themselves in some way on this issue, so they pointed to a passage from the Law of Moses in order to try to make a biblical case for a more casual approach to divorce.

In the passage they referred to, Deuteronomy 24:1-4, Moses was actually regulating the practice of a person remarrying someone who he had previously divorced. Moses never commanded divorce, but He did regulate certain aspects of divorce and remarriage. Jesus said that Moses did this because of the hardness of our hearts. God's plan for marriage from the beginning is very plain. It is to involve one man and one woman, and it is to be a binding covenant and a display of the love of God for His people, and our happy honoring of Him as our Husband.

Sin brings all kinds of problems into the marriage relationship. Marriage is a new creation by God, a partnership of love and service in an environment of mutual sacrifice, where the two have been made one by God in some way that we cannot entirely understand. God brings two people together as a special gift to one another. As Moses had in Deuteronomy 24, Jesus teaches that the practice of divorce and remarriage cannot happen without violating the prohibition against adultery in the Ten Commandments. This does not answer every question we might have on this topic, and each situation has its complexities that require wisdom and caution in speech and action, but this much is clear: The plan of God is for marriage, a life-long commitment of a man and a women, a relationship of blessing and fruitfulness for His glory and our good.

This marital relationship is also to be an environment of stability for the raising of children. Jesus has much to say about children. First, no one should hinder them in coming to Him, even if they are so young that they have to be carried to Him by a parent. Children can be blessed by Him, and we should not think of this as meaningless. "To such," He said, "belongs the kingdom of God." We should consider how natural it is, by the grace of God, for a child, particularly the child of a parent who wants to see the little one blessed by Jesus, to be blessed by Him, and to be kept for heaven. The child that receives the kingdom of God with humility, is an example to every adult who has reached the strange conclusion that he is too smart for the kingdom that our all-wise God has established, or that he has won the kingdom through his own greatness.

Adults often assume that the way into the kingdom is through their merit. We flatter ourselves with the thought that we have met the requirements of the Law, and we deliberately forget about the debt that is ours as we come into this world, the debt that comes from Adam's sin. Particularly those who have much in this world, easily imagine that they have much to recommend themselves with for the life to come. All the while they are seduced by the temptation to cling to their present possessions, even when God commands that we use all that we have for His glory. Even the closest disciples of Jesus spent much emotional energy on the question of what they had to offer, and what they had given up for the kingdom, and how this would translate to what they would get in the kingdom. While much can be said on these points, the most important thing for each of us is to turn our eyes away from self, and toward Jesus.

The most important facts for entrance into the kingdom will never be about what we have done, but about what Christ has done in our name. In our name, He went up to Jerusalem, He would be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, they would condemn Him to death, and deliver Him over to the Gentiles. In our name, our Savior would be mocked, spit on, flogged, and killed. In our name, He would rise from the dead. These are the central facts of our redemption: A sinless Substitute died and rose again for us.

The way for the child-like citizen of heaven, is the way of the penniless beggar who cries out for mercy from the Son of David. Our case was never built upon our own greatness, whether real or imagined. Our case for heavenly is built on the greatness of the One who came to be the slave of all, the One who gave His life as a ransom for many. If we will not see this, than no matter how worthy or rich we imagine ourselves to be, we are still blind concerning the Kingdom of God. This is what Jesus taught His disciples, and this is what those who are willing to be His true students have come to believe and to follow.

Prayer based on Leviticus 4

Lord God, our sin has brought guilt upon us and trouble upon many. Please forgive us. In former days, the priests and rulers of the people had special temptations. When they sinned, there was a duty according to Your Law to shed blood for the sins of those in positions of authority and service. We now have a perfectly pure High Priest. He needs no offering for His own sin, for He has none. He is also the King of Your church. What a great joy it is to have a Ruler over us who is spotless and without blemish. Though our Head is sinless, the body of Your worshipers is still marred by impurity, both in each member individually, and in the congregation as a whole. What an amazing mercy it is, that our King and Priest has willingly offered up Himself to You as our substitute, and has become the spotless offering for our sin through His death on the cross. Through Him we are regarded as holy in Your sight. We praise You and thank You, O Lord!

Prayer based on Jeremiah 38

Merciful God, the servants of Your Word are in great need. Some are being threatened by those around them. Others are already in prison or have had their property confiscated from them. Appoint someone to help them today, that they might have food to eat, healing for their illnesses, aid for their financial distress, friendship for their loneliness, and especially Your strong presence in their lives. Make them to be men of great courage. Though the wicked seek their lives, You are able to preserve Your servants again this day. Through all this distress, help those who are true messengers of Your Son to continue with the fullness of Your holy counsel. Though their homes and families be lost or destroyed, keep Your servants from the way of wicked and false teaching.

Mark 9

Mark 8

For a second time now, our Lord has provided thousands with food, when His disciples only seemed to have a few loaves of bread and some fish. What are we supposed to learn from these episodes? We should not miss the obvious: The text indicates that the actions of our Lord were an expression of His compassion. They were also a reminder of the One who had provided manna to Israel in the wilderness for forty years. We also can easily connect these accounts with prophesies of great plenty in the age of the coming kingdom of heaven, a kingdom that Jesus is preaching. Our Lord understands what it is to be human and to be hungry. He himself suffered in the wilderness for many days without food. He will provide for His church during the struggle of the present age, and He will bring us to a land that will truly flow with milk and honey in the age to come. He loves us, and He knows our needs. He will provide.

These are the kind of lessons that we can learn as those who have the Scriptures and the Spirit of God at work within us; those who have heard the truth about the cross and the resurrection. It was much harder to understand the meaning of the great deeds of Jesus in earlier days. His disciples seemed to have little awareness of what He was doing, even though He spoke to them explicitly about so many things. When He spoke to them about the "leaven" of the Pharisees and Herod, meaning the dangerous, almost infectious quality of their unbelief, the men closest to Jesus during His days on earth were convinced that He was making some vague comment about their need for bread. They did not understand His compassion, His divinely empowered actions, and the power of the kingdom that He was displaying. They did not see that what looked like a lack of bread was not a problem for the Messiah. Jesus knew that, though the church might suffer from hunger in future decades and centuries, her bigger problems would come through outbreaks of unbelief all around her and within her ranks.

The very next episode in Mark's account is a most unusual two-stage healing of a blind man. Why would the Messiah, who can heal perfectly with a simple word, choose to do something like this healing, first in a partial way, and then only fully with a second touch? It seems possible from the accounts before and after this miracle, that our Lord is telling us something about the progress of our faith. Just as Peter was able to confess Jesus as the Christ, and then deny His plan of dying for us as our Substitute, we too confess and believe, but we do not see things fully. We easily miss the signs of heaven in the Scriptures. We forget the compassion of our Redeemer, and we feel alone and abandoned, as if God were not trustworthy to work all things powerfully for our good. We need more than one touch from His heavenly hands in order to see things more clearly.

We are slow to see and to feel our true need for the cross. Jesus is not just another great prophet. He is the Christ, and this Christ is a suffering Messiah. Any Messiah who was unwilling to die our death, would be a Messiah who could not take away our debt. The true Son of Man who would come one day on clouds of glory, in fulfillment of Daniel's vision, would have to first suffer many things, be rejected by the great leaders of Israel's religious establishment, and be killed as the Lamb who was led to the slaughter. Yet this would not be the end of the One who was the Bread from heaven. He would conquer death itself in His resurrection after only three days.

Not only did His disciples find this plain statement very hard to understand, Peter thought it such a strange thing for Jesus to say that He rebuked Him. This was a very ignorant thing for Him to do. It was ignorant of the Scriptures, since these things were taught in the prophets. It was ignorant of the person of Jesus Christ, and His two natures as the one who was not only fully human, but also fully divine. It was even ignorant of Peter's own confession that Jesus was the Christ, a confession made just moments before. It was very strange thing for one of the disciples to presume to rebuke the man who He had just confessed to be the Son of God. Jesus rightly rebuked Him, and identified at least some of the source of our confusion and unbelief. There is an unseen adversary against us. When we foolishly believe lies about ourselves and about our Savior, then we fall into the snare of the one who is the father of lies.

Our way, the true Christian way, is always the way of the cross. We love the cross of Christ, because we know that there could be no hope for us without the perfect work of redemption that was accomplished for us by our Lord. We even love the lesser crosses that our loving God ordains for us. We know that these are here for us, at least in part, that we might see things rightly. Without suffering, it is especially hard for us to think that it would be a wise thing for us to give up the whole of the current world system in order to be found in Christ on the day of resurrection. Through our Lord's grace in our trials, we receive something of a second touch, a sanctifying blessing, we thirst for the day when He will come in glory with the holy angels, and we are aided in the hard work of putting off our foolish and ignorant shame of our Redeemer and of His powerful cross love for His people.

Mark 7

The Pharisees were experts in the washing traditions that had been handed down through rabbis over the centuries. Working from a foundation of certain biblical concepts of priestly and sacrificial rituals and certain Levitical rules concerning ceremonial uncleanness, the methods of purification that they taught and followed had expanded these to include many things that had no real basis in the Bible. They considered these washing traditions to be a very important part of a holy life. The point of their customs seemed to be especially about the dirtiness of the Gentile world, and that one could not be too careful about being ritually clean, since there was much that was unclean about the outside world.

Some of the Pharisees noticed that the disciples of Jesus were not entirely following these rituals, and they expressed concern about this to the Lord. Jesus first answered them from the prophet Isaiah, noting the difference between lips that claim to love God and lives that display a different desire of the soul. Like many, they were following the commandments of men as if they were the Law of God, but they were putting aside the Law of God and justifying it according to their traditions. The example that He gave to them that day came from the fifth commandment, "Honor your father and your mother." Jesus indicates here that this commandment is rightly understood to include a continuing responsibility to elderly parents in need. But the Pharisees followed a tradition known as "Corban," a Hebrew word used especially in Leviticus and Numbers meaning "offering." This tradition allowed a person to elude his God-given responsibility to parents by dedicating his possessions outwardly to God, yet still retaining the use of his goods and his riches for himself. Jesus said to them, "Many such things you do."

Then He made a sweeping and shocking statement that showed His authority not only to critique the traditions of the elders that were outside of the Bible, but also to bring to a fulfillment and conclusion the ceremonial law that was in the Bible itself. Returning to their original issue of clean and unclean, He insists on the root point of these laws not being simply about what is unclean outside of us, but much more about the deep problem of sin that is inside of us. He overturns the external rules of the Old Covenant, by getting to the heart of the deeper issue of what really makes a person unclean before God. It is the things that come out of us that make us unclean, not the things that we eat that go into us. To His disciples He further explained this point that our violation of our duties to God and man come from the depravity of our defiled hearts, and are ultimately expressed in various sinful ways of life. This is a much bigger problem than whether we are doing the correct ceremonial washing.

From that place, He arose and went again into Gentile territory. He was sought after by a woman whose daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit. He seemed at first to deny her request for healing on the basis that she was a Gentile, unclean, even a dog, and not one of the children of Israel around the table of God. This sounded like the reasoning that the Pharisees might have used in such a situation. The woman responded by accepting the metaphor of children and dogs, and agreeing concerning her spot as one who did not deserve to be at Yahweh's table. But she further insisted that a dog that could have a crumb that fell from such a glorious table would have all that was necessary. Through this interchange, he brought forward a delightful expression of Gentile faith in a Jewish Messiah, and her daughter was delivered from this horrible demonic attack. Jesus was not denying the primacy of the Jews in God's plan. Yet for Him, and for the Old Testament, that was not the end of the story. God would bring His mercy to the world through the One who could cast out bad angels from a little girl's life at a distance.

Going on to another place, our Lord performs a miracle upon a man who had great problems with hearing and speech. Earlier the Lord quoted Isaiah 29:13, "This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men." Now He is fulfilling the deeds of the Messiah that Isaiah proclaimed in the following verses of that same chapter, "In that day the deaf shall hear."

He did not do great things out of heart of insecurity demanding the opportunity to impress people. He hated hypocrisy and spoke against it forthrightly, even when doing so meant trouble with people everyone knew to be the representatives of important and influential men. He did not allow Himself to be swayed by any of that in the least. When He could have easily swayed a crowd with the spectacular, He gave hearing and speech to a man almost privately. He was not trying to impress anyone, but seemed to be genuinely connecting with the needs of the person who was with him at that moment, hoping to be able to help him without making a fuss about it all. Of course, whether it is your intention or not, you will make a fuss if you start doing miracles today, however discretely, that are properly part of a coming resurrection age.

One final word on the verses that follow in Isaiah 29: We read in verses 22-24, "Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: 'Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale. For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.' " This great Man Jesus went to the cross for God's elect, many of whom were definitely going astray. They were murmuring against Him, but they would one day accept His instruction. If the salvation of the Jews was all about which of them would stay with the Messiah to the very end, no one could have been saved from the descendants of Jacob. Our salvation is about God's strength and not about ours. He is the One who can give the man who appears to be deaf ears to hear. He is the only one who can heal unclean hearts, and grant fresh joy to those whom He has made meek.

Mark 6

In the previous chapter we read about Jesus healing a young Gentile man overwhelmed with some massive demonic oppression. We also heard of a tremendous healing of a twelve year old Jewish girl, who was actually dead, and was given life again by the Lord. These were two of the amazing deeds that Jesus had performed in other places, but now He came to his hometown of Nazareth, and He was treated in a strange way. People could not seem to believe that this man who they thought they knew, the one they thought of as a carpenter and the son of Mary was teaching with such amazing wisdom, and healing with such tremendous power. We are told that they took offense at him. Jesus understood this as a normal thing for a prophet to be treated with disrespect in his hometown and among the members of his family. It had apparently been determined in the councils of God that the ministry of Jesus would display the importance of faith. Where faith was not present in some way, then there would be no healing, and this would be a sign of something important for us to learn. Jesus accepted this way of doing things as a part of His ministry, and that must be why we are told that He could do no mighty work there. It is interesting that we immediately hear these words, "except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them." We are also told that He found their unbelief something to marvel at.

Jesus did not come here only for His brothers or for His friends and acquaintances in Nazareth. Their rejection of Him and His ministry did not deter Him from the task before Him. He continued with His teaching and miraculous signs of the life to come, and He sent out the twelve to do these very things throughout Israel. We are told that He gave them authority over unclean spirits, but He did not give them great possessions. They too would need to display this kingdom faith in their service, and God would provide for them.

These amazing works caught the attention of Herod, who had reluctantly ordered the death of John the Baptist because of a devious plot by his wife and her daughter. When he heard about Jesus, he became convinced that John has risen from the dead, and was doing these amazing things. He was certainly interested in what Jesus was able to do, but not in order to bow the knee to him. He did not want to worship the Son of God any more than a previous Herod wanted to offer worship to the child Messiah so many years before. There is no fear of God here, and there is no love for the Word.

Though rejected in His hometown, and despised by a murderous King, Jesus continued to display His power and to proclaim His message. As His disciples returned from their travels, reporting on what they have said and done, Jesus moved them to a desolate place for them to rest. As might be expected at this point, it was very difficult for Jesus and the disciples to be alone. Though they were in an isolated spot, there were thousands of people following them. He had compassion on them and taught them, but they soon needed to eat. Our Lord used His disciples again to extend the bounty of His kingdom and to feed the hungry, and he had more food left over at the end of the meal than He had started with at the beginning, and everyone was satisfied.

Later that night, after dismissing the crowd, Jesus again displayed His amazing mastery over creation by walking on the water. He saw His friends in their need from afar, and met their need with His presence. They saw Him in His authority over the rough seas, and they were terrified. He calmed their fears, came into the boat with them, and the wind ceased.

Wherever He went, He began to be recognized as one who could heal, and everyone brought the sick on their beds, desperate for even some small contact with Him. The chapter ends by the simple statement that as many as touched even the fringe of His garment were made well.

This quick survey of a variety of actions on the part of the Lord reminds us of His divine power. But it is striking in the way that these are presented that the one who has this power so beyond the abilities of men is also displaying something of, dare we say, human weakness. Yes, He is able to heal everyone, to walk on the water, and to feed thousands. Yet He is presented as one who must deal with events that seem different from what appeared to be His own plan. He is rejected by those who thought that they knew Him from His youth, and though He can explain their reaction to Him on one level, on another level he marvels at their unbelief. A powerful king acknowledges His miracles, but we are reminded that this king was successful in ordering the unjust execution of the prophet who was the forerunner of the Messiah. He does not do everything by Himself, though it is apparent that He could do so if He wished to. He uses His disciples to teach, to heal, to feed people in a way that is beyond them. He seems to intend to walk past the disciples on the sea at night, but then changes His course. He wants to teach about the kingdom, but He is everywhere harassed to heal, which He willingly does.

This is hard to fathom. He has the power of divinity all over Him, but the mark of humanity is there as well. He could have brought about the kingdom by His own efforts, since He was lacking nothing in wisdom and ability, but He uses others who are ordinary people and sends them forth with very little training. He can change the course of the winds, but all kinds of people seem to change His course, in a way. This is the Jesus who saved us from our sins by giving His life on the cross for us. He is fully God and fully man. He cannot be intimidated by intimate friend or by powerful foe. He will not be discouraged from His purpose or stopped by what may seem to be lacking. Yet He has exercises meekness in the midst of His power. This is the Lamb of God, and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the only Savior. Our difficulty in understanding Him probably not only says something about Him, but also something about us. This is the Jesus who has accomplished our redemption. It is our greatest blessing to be known by Him, and to pursue forever the joy of knowing Him more fully.

Mark 5

It is a fact of Old Testament revelation that God's saving plans always included the nations of the world, the Gentiles, and not merely His special people, the Jews, from whom came the Messiah. Here the Jewish Messiah, who generally stayed fairly close to home, at least compared with some of His later followers, is presented as deliberately moving out into the pagan territory of the Decapolis. Immediately He meets a dangerous man who no one can control, a man who lives in a cemetery. Here is the Son of God moving out into a world of death. Will He be strong enough for this kind of challenge? Will the actions of the One who came first for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, reflect the Lord's promise to Abraham, that through his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed?

This wretched grave-dwelling man, who was no small challenge to his neighbors, immediately knows who Jesus is. He has some access into unseen realms, but not for good. His life is a life of danger to himself, and a life that could only bring harm and grief to others. Yet this man knows that Jesus is the Son of the Most High God, and he begs, in the name of God, that he not be tormented. Jesus is the Son of the Most High God, and He knows exactly what is going on in this boy. The boy is not in his right mind. What the boy thinks is freedom is in fact the cruelest bondage. He is a victim of massive demonic oppression. Jesus is able to address malevolent beings, beings that would seek to destroy such a young man, and to give them authoritative commands that cannot ultimately be resisted. This man has many demons within him, yet our Lord can cast them out with a simple word.

A large number of demons inside this one soul beg Jesus not to send them out of that country. They want to do what they are doing to this man's life, and they especially want to do what they are doing in this place, in the Gentile and pagan world of the Decapolis. They do not want there work there stopped by the Son of God, but to do anything they will need His permission. Their proposal to Jesus is for a command to inhabit a herd of pigs; and though this is their request, we know that there is always the matter of the most free and independent will of Almighty God, who does all that pleases Him. His purposes are good. He grants them their strange and depraved desire, and they demonstrate to those who are there that day, and to us who read this account, the overwhelming evil that they are, as two thousand pigs rush down a steep bank into the sea, and are drowned. This is what this young man has been dealing with in his life, something that Jesus can see, while others look at such a person with understandable horror and fear, wondering what is going on in his dangerous and crazy existence near the graves.

That boy will never be the same. He has been delivered of the powers of hell, and heaven's best Word has given Him true life. This is unmistakable to see, yet the people from the town are afraid at this display of divine power, and they beg Jesus to leave their region. He complies. Meanwhile the man who has been delivered from this horrid host begs Jesus for permission to travel with the Lord as Jesus returns to Jewish settlements. The boy's request is denied, but he is given a very surprising commission. So many Jews who are healed are told to be very quiet about what has happened to them, but this Gentile man is sent off as an evangelist to His friends, to tell them about the Lord's mercy, and about how much God has done for him. This is what he does, and we are told that it made quite an impression on everyone.

As Jesus returns to the other side of the lake, we hear of a ruler of a synagogue who has a young daughter who is about to die, and also about a woman who has had a discharge of blood for twelve years, making her ceremonially unclean. As Jesus is on His way to help the girl, the woman secretly touches him, in the faith that she will be made well by this quiet action. The Lord is aware of faith. This is how we need to approach Him. Do we know that He loves us? Do we know that He is making all things new? We need to come to Him with that confidence of faith, and the humility to trust that He does all things well, everything in its proper season.

The woman is right, and the effect of her faith is immediate. The father pleading for His daughter is right to turn to Jesus, but when they arrive there at his home, it appears that He is too late. The mourners are already weeping. She is gone. The woman has been healed. She heard the words of the Lord, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." Would there be nothing left for the little girl? Was the Messiah too late? We know that God is the Lord of space and time. He has a place that He has won for us through the blood of the Lamb, and He has a time that He has secured for His people through that same blood. There is no "too late" or "too difficult" for Jesus, though our sons be inhabited by a legion of demons, and though our daughters die, and observers laugh at the Son of God, when He says these great words, "Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping."

He is well able to take us and our loved ones by the hand, and say to us and to them, "Arise!" Though we may not see that in our timing, we will certainly see it in His. He too inhabited the grave for a time. He was not spared that fate. He did this so that we could have hope when we place others in that tomb of sleep, that in that moment and in the turmoil and grief beyond, we might have confidence in the resurrection. After His blood flowed for His bride on the cross, His voice was soon heard beyond the grave, and His body was very much alive. When He comes again with His angels and all His beloved to give the command "Arise," His power and wisdom will be undeniable to all. It is our privilege today to hear His words, and to trust Him, for the King of the Jews, who is also the Savior of the world, says to us, "Do not fear, only believe."

Prayer based on Leviticus 3

Almighty Father, throughout our sorry lives of sin, we have made war against You. We are so ashamed of our foolish rebellion. Even before we were born, we were justly credited with Adam’s wicked violation of Your commandments. Now a second Adam has come into this world of strife. He has made peace with You on our behalf. Your wrath against us has been turned away, and we enjoy the perfect tranquility of the satisfaction of Your just demands. Help us to be at peace with one another through Him who is our peace.

Prayer based on Jeremiah 37

Lord God, will we utterly ignore Your warnings to Your church? You have told us to repent, lest You remove Your lampstand from among us. Would we put You to the test? Lying messengers assure us that everything is alright, though Your church would be dedicated to false teaching and wicked living. We have spoken against loyal ministers of Your Word, treating them as traitors to our own cause. We willfully forget that the false prophets who we have eagerly followed have been proven wrong through the events that we have seen with our own eyes. Save Your church, O Lord! Fill us with a true and right Spirit we pray. We need Your power and love.

Mark 4

Jesus came to establish a new kingdom, even to inaugurate an entire new age of human existence. He would not bring about that new kingdom in one sudden burst from heaven, but He would bring the era of resurrection slowly through the proclamation of the truth over many centuries. Anyone might have expected that with the presence of a large crowd, He would have moved quickly, since His time was short, His goals were massive, and the opportunity seemed comparatively large. We might have expected that He would bring forth His clearest teaching at that moment, but He deliberately did something different. "A sower went out to sow."

He spoke to them in parables. This first story was about a farmer, and about four different kinds of soil. Three of the soils yielded nothing, but one was fruitful. He ended not with an explanation of the story, as Isaiah had in His indictment of the people of the Old Covenant vineyard of God. He simply said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Even His disciples did not understand the story. Imagine how perplexed the large crowd would have been by this amazing Healer who told parables and did not explain what they were about. When He was alone with His disciples, He told them the meaning of the parable, saying that they have been given something that the larger crowds had not been given, the secret of the kingdom of God. This was a fulfillment of Isaiah, who saw a future day when the Lord would speak and conceal, rather than speak and plainly reveal. This was judgment speech upon Israel, stories without explanation. But for the disciples, Christ revealed the secret of the kingdom. Just one little fact about the story helps to make it clearer: The seed that is being sown is the word.

Jesus would build His kingdom over many centuries, not with the spectacular, but with the ordinary preaching and teaching of the word. In many cases those efforts would appear to yield almost nothing. Some people would not understand at all. Some would seem to embrace the word, but then would later reject it when the cost of following the word seemed too high. Others would embrace for a time, but find that they were easily deceived by riches and the desire for other things. Finally there would be some who would yield good fruit. They would hear the word, accept it, and live by it. This is the way that the kingdom would move ahead; not with angelic hosts singing in the heavens as happened near Bethlehem some years before. That was wonderful, but it was not the way that the kingdom would normally come. The kingdom would grow through a miracle of hearing. Some would be given ears to hear, and they truly would hear, and their lives would be good soil for what they heard.

That is not to suggest that everything about the kingdom was to be a secret. Those who hear the word and accept it are to live it out. They are to be bold in making the word visible through the conduct of their lives. They do this not to bring glory to themselves, but to let the light of Christ shine to the glory of God in the building up and living out of His resurrection age.

Also, there will finally come a spectacular day, a day of the greatest transformation for all to see, a day of final harvest. Some of the stories that Jesus told had a cataclysmic end point after a long period of quiet planting, growing, and gathering. During the long time of kingdom gathering it would be critical to pay attention to what we would hear in the ministry of the word, and to live out what we had come to know. This was not to be yet another religion of hypocrisy among men. This was to be the kingdom of God, a kingdom of new resurrection life. The word that we need to hear was to be proclaimed plainly, and the growth would come from an unseen source, as if heaven would add what only heaven could do throughout all those centuries. But then the harvest would come dramatically and visibly at just the right time. The beginnings of this new plant might seem to be very small, and its progress quite slow, yet it would be everything that Jesus intended it to be. It would be an overwhelming kingdom, even an entire new age.

This kingdom would come through some events that could not be missed. These included the overwhelming facts of the death of Christ, His resurrection, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, first upon Jews, and then upon Gentiles. These would be foundational events of the new resurrection age. To atone for the sins of an entire people, to pick up one's life again after laying it down for the brethren, to send the resources of the Spirit of God among a people in a new way, bringing resurrection resources upon the souls of men, all these things require extraordinary power, power that is beyond this world.

The normal course of the work of the Lord's Kingdom over many centuries would not be as dramatic as these few great events, but it also would not be like a quiet trip on calm seas. It is a stormy ride in dangerous waters, where we wonder if we are going to drown. It is a great aid to our faith during these times to remember that the One who died, rose again, and sent forth His Spirit among men, was also the One who showed His disciples His heavenly power by walking upon the raging seas. This Jesus is with His church through centuries of rough waters. He is establishing His kingdom through the proclamation of His Word. Those who have ears to hear, will hear, and there will be visible fruit seen by all on a glorious day of final gathering.

Mark 3

Synagogues were to be places of meeting together to hear God's Word, places of singing and prayer, places where people who could not go to the temple could still meet with God. One day we will meet with God in heaven. It is our understanding that all will be well when we meet with Him there. Here on earth our meetings are marred with the marks of misery from this present age. A man with a withered hand carried around with him such a mark of misery. He could not get rid of that fact, even when he went into the synagogue. It was a story that others could see. There are some stains of sin or trouble that are harder for people to notice. Some who came to the synagogue on that Sabbath day came with evil intentions concerning the Son of God, for they hoped to use His deeds of mercy and restoration to accuse Him.

Jesus knew what they were thinking, and He understood the way that they had perverted the Sabbath commandment, creating all kinds of categories of prohibited activities that they had deemed to be too close to work for a person to be able to engage in them. One of the prohibited activities was performing a healing. Yet our participation in meeting with God on the Sabbath is an anticipation of the removal of all pain and misery in our meeting with God in the place of full Sabbath rest. There was no word from the Bible against healing on any day. Of all days to heal, the Sabbath was the most appropriate one. We should expect to people to be helped by meeting in the presence of God. We are longing for the day when both our healing and our enjoyment of God's presence with us will be complete. For this reason Jesus openly did what was good in the synagogue, on the Sabbath, in front of everyone. His enemies soon organized another meeting, not a meeting to save life, but a meeting with a design to kill the Lord of life.

Despite His enemies, the Lord continued to attract large crowds coming from all kinds of places. The success of Jesus in addressing human misery was simply overwhelming, and people came to him as they heard the news of what he was doing. Diseased and oppressed people crowded around Him with the hope of relief from their afflictions. It was not His intention to do all of this work of displaying the kingdom of heaven alone. As did Moses in the days of the beginning of the Law, Jesus chose disciples who would carry out the work as his ambassadors, sending them forth to preach and to heal. He chose the twelve for this special position. He still had men outside His disciples who were against Him, but it would be one of the twelve who would eventually be His betrayer, joining with those outsiders in their efforts to silence the Son of God.

Some within Jesus' own family seemed greatly perplexed as to what was happening to Him. The outside enemies among the Pharisees made the suggestion that His undeniable powers came from some evil source, from Satan himself, the prince of demons. This is instructive, since there seemed to be no controversy here about whether Jesus was performing miracles and casting out demons, only how He was doing this. Their solution was to identify Him with evil rather than righteousness, probably because His power was so clear, as was His opposition to the Pharisaic way of outward holiness. His answer to this attack was simply to point out the fact that it could not credibly be maintained that the miracles that He was performing were on the same side as the demonic, since He was freeing people from demonic bondage. Satan does not fight against Satan. Jesus was fighting against Satan, and He was winning. For Jesus to accomplish these great things, He needed to be stronger than Satan. Jesus then identifies the true source of His power in His warning to His detractors. His was the power of God the Holy Spirit, and to speak against His works as Satanic was dangerous blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Yet His own family who He had grown up with remained concerned and confused. This suggests that His behavior and following were entirely different than what they had seen in the past. They wanted to get Him away from the crowds, since there were reports that He could not even eat because of the seemingly continual presence of those who were petitioning Him for help. When His mother and brothers came seeking Him, He would not stop what He was doing to go with them. He was not under their authority.

Instead He affirmed the fascinating fact that those who would hear His Word and do His will were His true family. Jesus was the center of a whole new way of life. He gathered those who wanted to meet with God. He was bringing together something of a new synagogue. He taught and they listened. This is what we do to this day. The Lord is gathering His people through His apostolic church. The Word of Christ is proclaimed. Great deeds of mercy are displayed through sacrificial and faithful living, and the family of Jesus Christ is made known as those who once lived to do their own will, now give themselves over to a life of doing the will of God.

It was of utmost importance that our Lord would lead the way for us in this new gathering of worshipers. They were not a synagogue of Satan to be sure. They were a synagogue of suffering servants, men and women, together with their households, serving the powerful Healer who suffered first and suffered best for us before we ever did anything for Him. He calls us forward now in the light of the cross, not to make atonement for others – only His sinless blood could do that, but to display the power of Christ's atoning sacrifice in our own lives of suffering service to the weak and the oppressed.

Mark 2

A man who displays the power to reverse the effects of the fall in miracles of healing will quickly attract a crowd. The reason is that many people suffer in this world. We can cope with that fact best at a distance. When trouble strikes a friend or a family member, then we can easily be surprised by the imminence of facts that we have always known; that there is much pain all around us, and that this ugliness may come to us and may even overwhelm us. It is then when we begin to wonder, "Why me, Lord?" But if a man could reverse the curse upon this created order with a simple word, we would long for his touch, and be thankful for his attention to our deepest needs. That is why the crowds form around Jesus wherever He goes. That is why four people dismantle a roof to bring their paralyzed friend on a mat in front of the face of Jesus.

It is here in Capernaum that our Lord begins to connect human misery with sin in His message to the crowd. They want the limbs of their friend to work. He announces that his sins are forgiven. Some of the people in the crowd took offense at these words. In our day, any connection between suffering and sin could be easily seen as an offensive message. This despite the fact that all those who suffer deeply seem to wonder about what sins they have committed that led to such pain or loss. There is no way for anyone to answer that kind of question in his own mind. It is an inquiry that is beyond us. Though we all ask the question, we are also offended by it, because we do not wish to consider what our sins have done to contribute to the volume of misery in our lives. This was not the concern of those who were offended by the words of Jesus that day so long ago. They were bothered by the suggestion that this Healer could actually declare the forgiveness of sins. It seemed too much for a man to say. Jesus demonstrated His authority to overturn the curse by adding some other words, since He knew their objections to His pronouncement concerning the root problem of humanity. He said, "Rise up, and walk!"

Jesus has the capability to address sin, the root cause of our troubles. He also has the capability to heal those problems that are the consequences of sin as these have overtaken this fallen world. He did not need to wait for paralysis or pain to present an opportunity to display the glory of His Word. He could call sinners to a life of godliness even if trouble still seemed far away from them. He demonstrated that by calling a man from his tax booth, a place where he probably cooperated with the Roman authorities in extorting funds from his neighbors. Jesus called sinners to be disciples, and they followed Him. He ate with them, and again some people were offended. Christ knew the extent of the sin problem in creation, and He came as a divine Physician to overturn the disease. But there were some who imagined that they were well.

They were content, at the moment, with a religion that was outward, ceremonial, and powerless over the matters that trouble the human race. They had a spirituality of fasting to demonstrate humility before men, and scrupulous washings to show forth purity before those who would notice. Yet if the curse touched them too closely, who can doubt that they would have turned to the man who could bring life and health to a person in need? Jesus had brought something new, something that God had spoken of through the prophets. This was a time for celebration. The Lord of glory had sent the one Bridegroom to purify and save His beloved people, His bride. Yet as long as the curse seemed far enough away, some men preferred the old ways to the message and power of the real Messiah.

When God had created the world, He left us with us with a testimony regarding His intention to provide the fullest rest and healing to His people. Part of that testimony came in a weekly day of rest. The entrance of sin and judgment into the cosmos through Adam removed the perfect Sabbath far away from our reach. How could we ever get to the ultimate Sabbath, that perfect time which is also a perfect place, a higher place where God dwells and where God rests? It would only happen when the Lord of the Sabbath came down from that place to bring the power of Sabbath to us through His righteousness, His death, His resurrection, and the declaration of His Word, a Word that announced to beleaguered and weak people the forgiveness of their sins.

This Word came with the authority of the true Son of David. Long ago, David had been pursued by a man who insisted that no one else could be King except him, no matter what God had said or done. Saul was enraged with the successor that God had chosen, a young man he had come to see as a usurper to his throne and his greatest enemy. Yet God preserved the life of David and his band of men, even providing food for them from the resources of bread that were only for the priests to eat.

Now the long-expected Son of David would soon lay aside the entire period of levitical ceremonial rules in order to establish a long-anticipated new order of divine healing and perfect Sabbath. He alone had the authority to end the preparatory period of the Law, for He alone would fulfill the Law, and would destroy the foundation of punishment against us, a foundation resting upon Adam's sin, the sins of all humanity, and the righteous judgment of a just God. He alone had the power and wisdom necessary to build a new order where righteousness would reign and where the best kind of rest and joy could be ours. This Son of David has come. He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and He has brought us life. Our sins are forgiven. Rise up, and walk!

Mark 1

We now begin the briefest of the four gospels, a message that could be delivered in one sitting to an attentive group of hearers. It has not only brevity, but great power; and there is no doubt that it has a point. Mark does not make us wait very long in order to understand the facts about the book that he is writing, and the identity of the man who is at the center of this book and of our lives. In the first words of the first chapter we are told that the message that we are about to hear is the gospel, or good news, of Jesus. We are also told that this Jesus is the Christ, or Messiah, and the He is the Son of God.

Naturally those who are hearing this message for the first time may not yet know what all these words mean. They may see Jesus, whose name speaks of Yahweh and salvation, and they may see this Jesus as a Savior of some kind, but they may still have some very wrong ideas about the saving work that He does. These are not easy things to grasp. God sent someone before Jesus, John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Him, yet that preparation was a matter of repentance and moral righteousness. It was not primarily a preparation of spiritual knowledge.

Even during the days of Jesus' earthly ministry, His disciples would remain very confused about who He was and what He came to accomplish. Those matters would be more widely understood and proclaimed after Jesus had ascended to heaven and poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit upon His disciples. It is that event described in Acts 2 for the Jews and then later in Acts 10 for the Gentiles, which is referred to as an overwhelming baptism of the Holy Spirit upon the people of God. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, together with the Spirit-inspired preaching and teaching of the truth eventually recorded in the New Testament writings, the church would come to a better understanding of the Messiah, the one identified by God's voice from heaven as "my beloved Son," well-pleasing to the Father.

This same Spirit who would be an Agent of grace and truth to the church sent forth from the ascended Son of God, was the One who at the beginning of His ministry led Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. This spiritual battle was the beginning of our Lord's great work. After His accomplishments in that mysterious arena of angelic battle, Jesus turned His focus toward humanity, and went forth preaching the good news of God. He powerfully called men of His choosing to repent, believe, and follow Him as His disciples, and spoke to them of the task ahead for His church in the centuries to come, that we would be fishers of men.

Jesus not only went forth preaching and teaching, He was also demonstrating the power of the kingdom of heaven with many miracles. He displayed complete authority over oppressing angels known as demons. If we consider the fact that evil and misery have no place in the kingdom that Christ was showing to us, it should not surprise us that Jesus cast out demons, healed the sick, and give many signs of a new kind of life beyond the curse that has come to mankind because of sin.

People knew that there was something very different and powerful about this man, but not every person who observed Him liked what He said and did. Jesus did not live for the approval of the majority, nor did He seek the comforts that the powerful bestow upon their friends. He lived for the glory and joy of obedience to His Father, even when that led to the cross. His life was a life of prayer and service. His teaching had a power that was a display of divinity together with completely consecrated humanity together in one person.

One thing that we do not think about enough is the fact that Jesus worked very hard. He walked everywhere, preached and taught about a kingdom that people generally could not understand, had compassion on the weak, and faced the opposition of the strong. All of these things are very tiring, and though Jesus did take time to rest, very often people came to visit Him seeking His blessing and help, even when He was attempting to be alone.

It was not His goal to draw unnecessary attention to His own abilities. They were obvious, and needed no public relations campaign. Those who were healed by Him often found it impossible to keep themselves from spreading the word all around their spheres of influence concerning the greatness and power of this teaching Healer. Even now, anyone who knows Him for who He is, anyone who has come to see Him as the Lord's salvation, as the Messiah who delivers us from bondage, as the divine Son of a covenant-keeping God, cannot help but be enthusiastic about the aid that has come to us through His atoning death for undeserving sinners. In Him the deepest stains of our disobedience against God have been covered, and a complete release from all of the consequences of the fall has been definitively promised and displayed. There is no better news than the good news of what Jesus has done for us, and there is no better Lord than the God/Man at the very center of this good news.