Matthew 14:1-12, Mark 6:14-29, and Luke 3:19-20, 9:7-9

A note in my Study Bible intrigued me, so I looked further online. Herodias is a main character in today’s readings. She is the wife of Herod Antipas and is the person who goads her husband into having John the Baptist beheaded. But there’s more to her than just that. She is, herself, related to her husband prior to her marriage – she is the granddaughter of Herod the Great! Her father was Aristobulus, one of at least four sons of Herod the Great. Herod Antipas and Herod Philip (Herodias’ first husband) were two other sons, so Herodias twice married her uncles! What a loving family!

Then we come to Herodias’ daughter, Salome (so named by Josephus). Salome is now the great-granddaughter of Herod the Great. She goes on to marry another of Herod the Great’s sons, Philip by name (not to be confused with Herod Philip), so Salome is also marrying in the family, her granduncle – her grandfather Aristobulus’ brother! What a family!! Here’s more reading: https://biblehub.com/topical/h/herodias.htm.

…for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. (Mark 6:20) In that one verse we hear these three things, that Herod feared John, kept him safe, and heard him gladly. But John is the man who is accusing Herod of illegally marrying his brother’s wife, Herodias. This verse also says that Herod …was greatly perplexed… by John. No doubt! He becomes even more perplexed later in Mark’s 26^th verse, And the king was exceedingly sorry… Unfortunately it seems that Herod was not sorry enough to want to repent of his sins. What a sad story is John the Baptist’s death.

See also: May 12 / Matt. 14:1-12; May 13 / Mark 6:14-29; May 14 / Luke 3:19-20; 9:7-9

Matthew 10:16-11:1

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. (v. 35) Note what is not said here – a son-in-law against his father-in-law. It seemed strange to me not to have this fourth relationship listed until I thought about the world back then. When a daughter married she went off to live with her husband’s family. Think of Rachel and Leah leaving their father Laban to go hundreds of miles to Jacob’s family. So the other three relationships existed (while the daughter was unmarried), but the son-in-law had little to do with his father-in-law. Interesting.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. (v. 39) Occasionally I “worry” about my current life. I have it pretty easy. I stay busy – even “busy” with spiritual things – but I am not persecuted, I am not fearful for my life or my family or my possessions. I often think of Mark Bruner in Czechia and the difficulties that he and Tommie encounter so often. Or the stories that I’ve heard from when the Soviets took over in Czechoslovakia in 1948 (see my comments in the first link below) and Christians suffered such persecution – and that only one average-age lifetime ago! Have I really, truly lost my life for His sake? Or what can it mean for us to lose our lives for His sake? My consolation comes in an earlier verse: So everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father Who is in heaven… (v. 32) That I’ve done; I’ll just trust Jesus for the rest.

See also: May 10 / Matt. 10:16-31; May 11 / Matt. 10:32-11:1

Mark 6:7-13 and Luke 9:1-6

And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. (Mark 6:11) I wonder what Jesus would say to us, today’s disciples if we are “not received” or “not heard” for our preaching. I doubt that we are to shake the dust from our feet. I think He would have us pray more earnestly for another opening, for the Holy Spirit to work in these unbelievers’ lives, for us to continue to minister in whatever ways we can. Jesus sent His disciples …to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Matthew 10:6) I wonder if we have a parallel in today’s world to Jesus’ “lost sheep”. Maybe those who have fallen away from the faith…? Maybe the completely “unchurched”…? Maybe a continuation to preach to the Jews today…? Or to the Buddhists, the Hindus, the Moslems…? There are a lot of lost sheep out there!

See also: May 8 / Mark 6:7-13; May 9 / Luke 9:1-6

Matthew 9:35-10:15

…for the laborer deserves his food. (v. 10b) Over the years the Lord has blessed me with more of an evangelical heart to the point where I see most day-to-day meetings with strangers as possible sharing opportunities. To that end I have developed (that is, I trust that the Holy Spirit has put on my heart) a number of introductions and transitions that I use as I seek to move the conversation to Jesus or His church or whatever. I employ this verse in 10b as one of those opportunities, but I translate it as “…a laborer is worthy of his wages.” I use this verse when I tip a plumber or an electrician or some other craftsman who has come to do some work for us. It’s a natural thing – we tip food servers at restaurants, why not “servers” who do other things for us? Lately I find myself occasionally praying for people when I deliver flowers from Rachel’s shop. Those prayers are never refused and are most often much appreciated. I say these things, not to my honor, but to encourage each of us to find ways to share our faith more openly with people we meet. We live in a hurting world and the Lord needs laborers for His harvest.

See also: May 7 / Matt. 9:35-10:15

John 5:24-47

Today’s last many verses (vv. 30, ff.) are often referred to as the “fourfold (or fivefold) witnesses: John the Baptist, the works, the Father, and Scripture (and Moses as the fifth). Both the Old Testament and the New Testament (Deuteronomy 17:6 and II Corinthians 13:1) ask for two or three witnesses. Jesus goes even further in claiming testimonies about Himself, acknowledging four (or five) witnesses.

I am intrigued by Jesus’ two comments about the dead: Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. (v. 25); and …an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (vv. 28b-29) In His first comment Jesus says …an hour is coming, and is now here. In the second comment He does not include …and is now here, but He does include that the dead will …come out. Jesus seems to be saying that the dead can hear Him (and respond?) in His present tense (alive on earth), but that’s as far as it goes – hearing Him (and possibly responding?). But His second comment is purely future tense – only in the future, presumably at His crucifixion will they …hear His voice and come out. So is this how God has dealt with those “saints” (and sinners?) who preceded Jesus, that they have been kept in some sort of “limbo” state, later to hear Jesus’ voice while He is on earth and to be released when He has died? As I looked online at a number of sources that seems to be the Roman Catholic teaching. Is Jesus confirming that teaching in these verses? Intriguing…!

See also: May 5 / John 5:24-30; May 6 / John 5:31-47

John 5:1-23

So Jesus committed two “crimes” – according to the Jewish leaders: He healed the man on the Sabbath, and He told the man to break their Sabbath rule by carrying his bed on the Sabbath. So Jesus’ responses to these two charges: “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” (v. 17b) I’ve always been hard pressed to understand His response. Jesus is using the present continuous tense to refer to both the Father’s and His activities. The implication is that both He and the Father are working now and that the Father has been working all along. I don’t have a problem with that – if they quit working, we’re all gone! But working on what…? What is the “working” that Jesus and His Father have been doing? And how does this “working” respond to the Jewish charges? The only answer that I can come up with is that God rested on the seventh day after creating the world on the previous six days. But then, what about the eighth day? …and the ninth? …and…??!! My sense is that we are all living right now that eighth day and that Adam and Eve were living that eighth day – and Abraham and Moses and David and the prophets and Nicodemus and Peter and James and John … Luther, Calvin, and Wesley … and us! The Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are working in us and through us right now, this eighth day! And Jesus was doing His Father’s work that eighth day long ago, when He healed the lame man at the pool of Bethesda. Effectively, Jesus’ response is that …the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27). It is the eighth day. Work when you are called to work, rest when you are called to rest.

See also: May 3 / John 5:1-15; May 4 / John 5:16-23

Matthew 13:53-58 and Mark 6:1-6

…and coming to His hometown He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?” (Mt. 13:54) We had a discussion in our Men’s Group a few weeks ago about Jesus’ deity. I believe we came to the conclusion that Jesus had heard from His mother, Mary, from early childhood on about His miraculous birth and that He was the Son of God. So He lived His first thirty years with that knowledge, living a “normal” life in Nazareth, with the knowledge of who He was, but without the prompting from His Father that it was time to do something about His calling. So with that, I maintain that something extraordinary happened on the occasion of His baptism, when the Holy Spirit appeared as a dove alighting on Him and His Father proclaimed, “This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” (Mt. 3:16-17) So then Jesus goes into the wilderness where His calling is now affirmed and His Holy Spirit becomes resident within Him. He then goes on to Cana for a wedding, then to Jerusalem for His cleansing of the temple, then to Nicodemus and the woman at the well, then to Capernaum and vicinity, across the lake to the land of the Garasenes, then back to Capernaum, and finally to Nazareth. He may be in his late-first or second year of ministry when He finally returns to His hometown. He is clearly a changed man from the person who left some many months before. He has “new wisdom” that He had not displayed before, and He now has a track record of miracles performed elsewhere. But to the people of Nazareth, he is still the same guy who grew up in town. Nothing has really changed (in their minds): “He is different, but He’s still the same Jesus that we grew up with.” (Sarcasm intended…!)

See also: May 1 / Matt. 13:53-58; May 2 / Mark 6:1-6

Luke 8:40-56

And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling… (v. 47a) I recall re-reading one of my posts a few weeks ago that our sins are never hidden from God, even though we try to hide them from others and often, even from ourselves. But when we confess our sins, they are no longer hidden – they are brought to the light and are then forgiven and erased forever! I see a parallel in this woman’s faith-healing. She was physically healed when she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, but then she tried to slink away. Knowing that she needed spiritual healing Jesus pushed, “Who touched Me?”. The crowd denied it, and when the woman knew that she would be found out she came forward and was fully healed: physically (…power has gone out from me…, v. 46b), spiritually (…your faith has made you well…, v. 48b), and emotionally (…go in peace, v. 48c). I hear stories at Freedom Road of the physical, spiritual, and emotional healing work that the Lord has done in the lives of my friends. It leaves me to ask if (or why!) I have not truly and fully repented of things I have done in the past. Maybe it’s time…

See also: April 29 / Luke 8:40-48; April 30 / Luke 8:49-56

Mark 5:21-43

A note in my Study Bible indicated that the synagogue official (ruler, synagogue ruler) was more an administrative or sexton-type position, but that Jairus was not a spiritual leader. That is, so many synagogue officials appear to be troubled at Jesus and His miracles and His popularity, but they are (in my opinion) more likely to be priests or Pharisees or scribes. So Jairus coming to Jesus is not like one of the synagogue priests coming to Him.

I’m constantly amazed at the story of the woman with a hemorrhage interrupting Jairus’ interaction with Jesus. I’ve heard sermons on this interruption and our Men’s Group discussed it at length. I try to picture Jairus’ reaction to all this. Would he be exasperated at Jesus’ delay? Or would he be sympathetic to the woman’s plight? Or would he simply understand that Jesus will do what Jesus will do? If I’m Jairus, I’d be frustrated at this delay. After all, my daughter is dying. But for me, it’s more than that. I’m a “top-down” listener and speaker. Often conversations and meetings and ZOOM calls get off topic – often far afield – and I’m one who wants to continue with or finish out the topic at hand. I don’t have much sympathy for interruptions. And I need to get over that! Today’s reading is a good lesson for me, to remind me how important interruptions can be. That “off topic” person may have more to say to me than I could ever imagine. And I wonder how often I ignore the Holy Spirit speaking through someone else because of my “task first” tendency to get things done! Jesus’ interaction with the woman offers a good lesson for me in hearing others speak – even if “off topic”!

See also: April 27 / Mark 5:21-34; April 28 / Mark 5:35-43