Mark 8:11-26

“Notice what you notice.” Three small items today… I had never noticed that this “leaven” conversation between Jesus and His disciples took place in the boat as they were traveling from the west side of the Sea of Galilee, headed to Bethsaida. The only other occasion that I can recall Jesus speaking with His disciples from a boat was when He calmed the storm at sea. Also, He spoke to Peter when He was walking on the water and Peter was in the boat. Finally, on at least one occasion Jesus preached from a boat (Luke 5:1-11). One item with which I have become more clearly aware this time through Scripture is how often Jesus traveled by boat and how often he crossed the Sea of Galilee by boat. Interesting.

And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” (v.15) I have often noted and thought of the “leaven of the Pharisees”, but only this time through do I see the “leaven of Herod”. And what a chastisement it is toward the Pharisees that their speech should be so linked to that of Herod, who was an adulterer and a murderer. For the Pharisees, their behavior was always their defining characteristic. Jesus took issue with them over the incongruity between their traditions (their behavior) and the actual words in Scripture. So to be mentioned in the same vein as Herod was truly an indictment!

Finally as friends bring the blind man to Jesus in Bethsaida, Jesus takes him out of town to heal him. Further, after He heals the man, He tells him not to go back into the town. It’s quite common in Mark’s Gospel that Jesus asks His disciples or someone He healed to remain quiet about what had transpired (see Mark 1:44, 5:19, 5:43, 8:30). Much has been written about Jesus’ commands to keep quiet, mostly that Jesus wanted people to hear and understand His words so much more than to be impressed with His miracles. And over time this message has gotten through to us. We read about and appreciate Jesus’ miracles, but it’s His words that truly move us. We are blessed to be on this side of history.

Slava Bohu!

Matthew 16:1-12

“Notice what you notice.” I probably noticed it before – Jesus mentioned the color of the sky; in both cases the sky is red, but in the evening the red sky calls for good weather while in the morning the red sky calls for stormy weather. Small point, but interesting…

And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” (v. 7) “Among themselves…”!! Can you imagine the plight of the disciples? They were headed across the Sea and they forgot to bring bread. Only when Jesus brought the issue of leaven to their attention, did they remember that they had no bread. But rather than “confessing” their forgetfulness to Jesus, they began discussing it among themselves. I can hear them talking: “We have no bread. What should we do? Jesus fed 5,000 and 4,000 recently with very little bread. Should we ask Him? But I hate to bother Him. I’d be embarrassed to be the one to ask.”

So I made up this little vignette, but it raises a point. How often are we embarrassed and unwilling to admit our failings to God? He already knows, just like Jesus already knew that the disciples had no bread. When we confess our sins, we are simply acknowledging to Him what He already knows. But confession can be so hard! So hard, yet so good for our souls…!!

So, force yourself to “forget” breakfast tomorrow morning. Then when you find yourself really hungry, talk to our Lord about what else is missing in your life.

Slava Bohu!

Mark 8:1-10

“Notice what you notice.” Both Matthew and Mark comment that the crowd has been with Jesus for three days. That in itself is compelling! Three days in the wilderness. It’s not like Billy Graham three-day revivals here in the USA, where that people come to hear him all three days, then go home or to a hotel for the night. They were with Jesus for three days in that “desolate place”, some from far away – and presumably Jesus was preaching and healing their illnesses. Yes, the crowd might have been hungry, but Jesus Himself must have been tired also!! Three days…! In the wilderness of the Decapolis…!! The feeding of the 4,000 is certainly a miracle. But I think Jesus’ ministry for three days is equally compelling!

GLORY!

Matthew 15:32-39

“Notice what you notice.” Much is made of the similarities and differences between today’s “Feeding of the 4,000” and our earlier “Feeding of the 5,000”. Some scholars say there was only one feeding; others hold true to what we have in Scripture. Let me offer four major differences:

1. Today’s account takes place in the area of the Decapolis, southeast of the Sea of Galilee while the earlier feeding took place near Bethsaida, north of the Sea of Galilee.
2. Today’s account has seven loaves and seven baskets leftover while the earlier account had five loaves and twelve baskets leftover.
3. Today’s account has 4,000 people, the earlier account had 5,000.
4. Jesus initiates the action in today’s account while in the earlier account the disciples came to Him and asked Him to send the multitude away.

Finally, later (Matthew 16:9-10) Jesus will chastise His disciples for failing to remember, connect or understand the two miracles.

…He took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks He broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. (v. 36) One of my favorite Bible stories is Jesus and the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke writes at the end, When He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him. (Luke 24:30-31) The disciples finally recognized Jesus in His breaking of the bread. I wonder how many other times Jesus had blessed and broken bread with His disciples…!! We should probably treasure our Gathering times and our Brunch times with one another more than we do.

GLORY!

Mark 7:24-37

“Notice what you notice.” And He entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet He could not be hidden. (v. 24b) Yesterday both Debbie and I asked why Jesus would stray so far away from Galilee, to Tyre and Sidon – Gentile territory. My sense was that He was just trying to get away for a bit – to leave Galilee and not be troubled by all the demands that were being made of Him. This verse seems to confirm that thought. He entered “a house”. I wondered if that was a “target house”, like maybe He had been invited there by someone He had met in Galilee or if it was just someone offering hospitality to a stranger – or if it was someone who knew of Jesus’ reputation and offered Him a home when he saw Him on the street. Any of those options are possible. But the second part of that verse points to His wanting to get away – he did not want anyone to know! But He was soon found out!

Today’s mention of the Decapolis is the third and last time that it is mentioned in the New Testament. In our readings schedule Jesus has visited the Decapolis before (see Matthew 4:25 and Mark 5:20), so He is known in that region and people bringing the deaf and mute man to Him is not so unusual. It turns out that Jesus using his spit to heal was also not so unusual. There are two other occurrences of Jesus using spit in healing (Mark 8:23, John 9:6). We naturally ask why He would do that – it remains an open question.

Beyond the spit item is another intrigue – And looking up to heaven, He sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” (v. 34) I was struck by “He sighed”. Just now I looked up to the ceiling and sighed and asked what sighing might mean to me or to other people. I remember one of my brothers who used to say “Heavy sigh…”, implying some level of incredulity at some circumstance in his life or someone else’s behavior. But that reaction does not fit Jesus here. What does fit is a level of contentment and confidence that His Father would do just what Jesus is asking, that the man’s ears and mouth be opened. Jesus’ sigh is simply a reflection of His inner peace – His equanimity. We’re back at David’s most recent sermon!

GLORY!

Matthew 15:21-31

“Notice what you notice.” Our byline, “notice what you notice” has tripped me up sometimes. I find myself looking for items in these passages that I had not seen before, which is a good thing as we read these passages more intensely, but that byline should not rule out commenting on the old and familiar. And that is the case with today’s passage, the Canaanite (Syro-Phoenician) woman. It is the only occasion that I can recall where someone has a response to Jesus that causes Him to reconsider His plan of action. Jesus puts the woman off by saying, It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs (v. 26), but she comes right back with Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table (v. 27). It is a delightful scene, in that it shows Jesus as totally personable, willing to change direction when gently prodded to do so. I love this passage!!

The second part of today’s reading is also intriguing. This time it is Matthew who is strong in the details. Verse 30 reads And great crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at His feet, and He healed them… Normally, that’s the “end of the story”, mission accomplished, but not this time. Matthew goes on in verse 31 to report that the crowd … saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. Matthew offers exacting detail to each of the infirmities mentioned in the previous verse! Intriguing!

Finally, I can’t help but comment on today’s geography. If you get out a good Bible map, you will see that Jesus has ventured far to the northwest, some 30 to 50 miles, to the Mediterranean coast cities of Tyre and Sidon. From there Matthew has Him back beside the Sea of Galilee, while Mark has Him traveling east of the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis, and finally back to the Sea. That’s a great deal of walking. If Jesus traveled 20-25 miles a day, He would have had a two-day trip to Tyre, then another day-trip to Sidon. And those are short distances compared to a three- to five-day journey from Sidon to the region of the Decapolis! But beyond those large distances, I wonder why Jesus chose to make those journeys. Did He have a particular target in these destinations or was He just trying to get out of Galilee for a while? But His fame had spread even to these regions and wherever He went, crowds came to Him and He ministered.

GLORY!

Mark 7:14-23

“Notice what you notice.” Sometimes passages are so familiar to us that it’s hard to find anything new, especially when we are reading two or three or four writers’ accounts of the same event. That was the case today – but I did pick up on a small item. Going back to yesterday’s reading, this passage in Mark begins with Jewish emissaries from Jerusalem in conversation with Jesus. After He responds forcefully to their challenge to Him, verse 14 tells us that He calls the crowd to Himself for a one-sentence teaching. Then verse 17 tells us that he left the people and entered “the house” (presumably Peter’s?). So in short order we have Jesus with three interactions – the Jewish emissaries, the people, and His disciples. And He meets each of these groups differently – with some measure of hostility toward the Jewish emissaries, with a matter-of-fact teaching to the crowd, and in full discipleship mode to those closest to Him.

So what can we learn from Jesus? He does not let hostility deter Him from His mission. He continues to teach/preach to the crowd and He continues to work more closely with His disciples. And we should not let unexpected negative outcomes or even temporary setbacks hold us back. We need to move on, trusting that we are in His grace and all will work out. Easier said than done…!

Blessings!

Mark 7:1-13

“Notice what you notice.” Once again, Mark with his details…, spending two verses (3 and 4) highlighting the marketplace as a source of uncleanness – much more vivid, especially if you’ve visited Middle Eastern marketplaces!!

Jesus’ focus on tradition in this passage calls to mind our Anglican history of “Scripture, tradition, and reason”, first attributed to an Anglican priest, Richard Hooker, in the late 16^th century. When I first heard this triad I remember thinking that the Catholic Church held strongly to the first two, but did not encourage reason among the laity. If there was any reasoning to be done, let it be done by the clergy and their higher authorities. But I also felt that Protestant churches had their own problems, with what seemed to me their rejecting (or reducing) the importance of tradition in our Christian heritage. There is value in holding to all three, Scripture being the most prominent, but not elevating tradition over reason or reason over tradition.

Tradition became really important to me when the Episcopal Church was faced with the divisive issue of the election and consecration of a homosexual Bishop. This “icing on the cake”, this “straw that broke the camel’s back” served to move our local body away from the Episcopal Church into forming our own congregation, St. Andrew’s, now part of ACNA – the Anglican Church in North America. And as both “sides” sought to reason their way through Scripture to justify or reject this New Hampshire outcome, I remember the phrase that brought peace to my soul – that our St. Andrew’s position was to embrace the truth of Scripture and “our traditional, historical faith”. We need tradition; we just can’t let it overwhelm Scripture or reason.

Blessings!

Matthew 15:1-50

“Notice what you notice.” This schedule of readings has really opened my eyes to Jesus’ Galilean ministry compared to His time in Jerusalem. For example, today’s reading begins with Pharisees and Scribes coming to Galilee from Jerusalem specifically to monitor and test Jesus. That’s about a 70-80 mile trip. Yet these emissaries are sent by the Jewish leaders because of Jesus’ growing reputation. Accounts of His teachings and miracles have spread far and wide. They want to know whether His Messiahship claims are real or fake – but they have a strong bias for the latter! I hope Carol will share some insights she has picked up as to why the Jewish authorities were so interested in this distant rabbi. I defer to her.

I was intrigued by Matthew’s Isaiah quote in verses 8 and 9. Here is the full text: … 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… (Isaiah 29:13). In my early born-again years I studied my new-found faith in part by way of comparison with what I had learned as a youngster in the Catholic Church. One conclusion that I came to was that there was a dramatic difference between what the Catholic Church was teaching from Scripture and what they were teaching from tradition or from some “church law” that had been established. Some examples include (1) not eating meat on Fridays, (2) strict requirements of church attendance on Sundays, (3) additional “Holy Days of Obligation”, (4) the role of the Pope and his infallibility on particular issues, (5) indulgences, and (6) the Apocrypha as inspired Scripture. I am not ascribing to the Catholic Church the same criticism that Jesus laid on the Jewish leaders for their “commandments of men” (v. 9). But I have often felt that many Catholics today are “enslaved” by church rules and are “seeking” God by following these church rules. They miss the blessings available to them from knowing God more personally. And it’s not just the Catholic Church; it’s “nominal” Christians everywhere. I fear that I sound judgmental, but in reality I feel sorry for them because they do not really know “Him in Whom they have believed” (II Timothy 1:12, edited).

Slava Bohu!