Mark 5:21-34

“Notice what you notice.” It’s only the first half of Mark’s account of the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the healing of the woman with a discharge of blood, but there’s a ton of stuff that could be said. We covered this in our Men’s Group a year or two ago, so I won’t repeat those comments. It was about a 3-week discussion!

Verse 33 is intriguing to me: But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him… Yes, the synagogue official had also fallen at Jesus’ feet. But I sense something different in the woman. For the synagogue official, I can see respectful pleading that brings him to his knees before Jesus. But the woman came in “fear and trembling”. She was “unclean” and she knew it and anyone close to her also knew it. And anyone who touched her had to purify themselves according to the Law and remain unclean until evening. And presumably this happened relatively early in the day, shortly after Jesus had crossed the Sea of Galilee and come to Capernaum. So this woman knew that she might be facing Jesus’ wrath for her having touched Him. But instead He was gracious, forgiving, loving.

I expect that this is how Jesus is when we come to him with our 12+ years of baggage. Yet we also find ourselves in “fear and trembling” before Him, afraid and unwilling to admit to those deep, vile issues – of which He is already aware. It just doesn’t make sense that we keep secrets from Him. But we do. Dumb!

Blessings!

Matthew 9:18-34

“Notice what you notice.” Matthew: Healing miracles… Our reading today omits a simple item from earlier in the chapter, that Jesus had returned to Capernaum from across the Sea of Galilee in the land of the Gerasenes. We see this in verse 1 of chapter 9: And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. Just offering that geographic clarification…

Today’s Matthew reading has four healing miracles, including the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the healing of the woman with a flow of blood. These two miracles will be covered in the next four days in Mark and Luke. So today, the other two miracles – healing two blind men and a demon-possessed mute man…

In Matthew these other two miracles immediately follow the healing of Jairus’ daughter. Matthew has Him (presumably) leaving Jairus’ house and entering “the house” (v. 28), whereupon two blind men enter also and engage Him. Jesus doesn’t get much rest – crowds follow Him when He goes out in public and they even come into “the house”.

The healing of the two blind men is unique in Jesus’ ministry. As far as I can find out, this is the only place where He asked the men directly if they believe that He can heal them: …Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (v. 28) There are other occasions where Jesus asks whether people believe in Him (see John 11:26; 16:31), but not before a healing. And He rewards their belief, …“According to your faith be it done to you.” (v. 29)

I clearly lack healing faith. I do not discount healing miracles that others report (although some do seem suspect), but I have not seen those miracles myself (beyond “normal” medical intervention), nor have my intercessory prayers for healing in others’ lives been answered (again, beyond “normal” medical intervention). Just in the last month my siblings and I have been praying extensively for healing for my younger brother, Richard – that his prostate cancer would be removed before his operation (yesterday). Didn’t happen (although the doctors did report a successful surgery). That doesn’t shake any of my fundamental beliefs in our Almighty God, but I do wonder…

Blessings!

Luke 8:26-39

“Notice what you notice.” Luke’s account of the Gerasene demoniac… Here are Luke’s verses 28 and 29: When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. So the demons are asking not to be tormented. Presumably the “torment” was Jesus simply commanding them to come out of the man. Then the demons requested that they be cast into the pigs. Put all that together – the demons “requested” a body to inhabit and did not want to be cast into the abyss, also translated as the “bottomless pit”.

An online source helps me to understand all that. “The Abyss is a place for evil spirits and a place of eternal judgment. James 2:19 declares that even the demons believe that there is only ‘one God,’ however the demons ‘shudder’ because they are aware of the judgment of God that they (demons) will suffer eternal punishment. Matthew 25:41 describes eternal punishment (the Abyss) as an ‘eternal fire.’ That would be a place of great torment that caused a person, angel, or demon to ‘shudder’. (https://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/jesus-casts-out-demons-and-turns-them-to-pigs-faq.htm) So presumably if the demons did not have somewhere else to go, they would be condemned for all eternity. All that makes more sense now!

Blessings!

Mark 5:11-20

“Notice what you notice.” Mark’s account of the Gerasene demoniac, the second half… Today was a travel day for us, to Pittsburgh for our daughter’s Ph.D. graduation ceremony tomorrow. Glory!

So a very short post…, but I think – not insignificant. Again, as has happened so much with Mark, the details…!! Matthew and Luke report a “herd of many pigs” and “a large herd of pigs”, while Mark says Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside… and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea (Mark 5:11,13). I can imagine a large herd of pigs – 50 to 100 would be a large herd. Multiply that by 20-40!! Two thousand!! That’s BIG! Just standing alone, they would need 16,000 to 20,000 square feet of room (assuming 2 feet wide, 4-5 feet long). They would cover one-third to one-half of a football field. That’s BIG! And the LEGION of demons rushed into EVERY ONE of them and drowned them! I’m amazed. I had never imagined the extent of that man’s demon possession!

Blessings!

Mark 5:1-10

“Notice what you notice.” Mark’s account of the Gerasene demoniac, the first half… Two items struck me. First, when the demon first approached Jesus, the demon-possessed man …ran and fell down before Him (v. 6, ESV). The NASB has “bowed before Him”. Either way, the demon bowing down before Jesus clearly showed that the demon immediately recognized that Jesus was the higher power. The demon was defeated before he even met Jesus – and he knew it.

A second thing that I noticed was a difference in translations in verse 8. The ESV has For He was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”, while the NASB says For He had been saying to him…The past perfect tense in the NASB implies that the demon had not obeyed Jesus’ earlier command, at which point Jesus engaged him in further conversation. The contrast is with Mark’s most recent verses at the end of chapter 4, where Jesus calmed the storm on His way to the land of the Garasenes and the disciples had noted that even the wind and the sea obey Him (Mark 4:41). Jesus had immediate power over the natural forces and even though He clearly was more powerful than the demoniac forces, it seems that He allowed even them a bit of free will.

Unfortunately, that contrast is also with us – how often do we disobey Jesus’ commands? Possibly the present perfect tense is even more appropriate, For He has been saying…{to us…}. Ouch.

Blessings!

Matthew 8:28-34

“Notice what you notice.” For the next few days we will be across the Sea of Galilee in the country of the Garasenes, where Jesus meets one or two demon-possessed individuals (Matthew has two; Mark and Luke have one). Matthew’s account is quite short compared to the other two. Mark’s account is the longest and the most detailed – we’ll spend two days with him. All three accounts are in large agreement, except for Jesus’ words and the one-or-two demon-possessed man/men issue.

Possibly because Matthew’s is the shortest of all three accounts, it is interesting that there is no conversation between Jesus and the demon(s). They recognize Him right away, speak their few words to Him, and ask to be sent into the pigs. Jesus speaks only one word: “Go.” Intriguing!! If Jesus spoke only one word to us, what might that one word be?

One other item of interest – an item that is in Matthew and not in the other two… In verse 29(b) the demons say, “Have you come here to torment us before the time?” I wonder what they mean by “before the time”? Were they at Cana when Jesus told His mother, “My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:4) I wonder what Satan and his demons knew about Jesus’ time frame?

Blessings on this Easter Monday!

Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41, and Luke 8:22-25

“Notice what you notice.” HAPPY EASTER!!

So today we leave Galilee for the first time in months, ever since Jesus came to Nazareth and Cana after leaving Jerusalem. While Matthew and Luke have Jesus getting into a boat on just “any day”, Mark has Jesus leaving in the evening after a full day of parables and other ministry – the material we just read the past few days. No wonder Jesus was asleep in the stern; He was tired! Mark even has Jesus’ resting His head on a pillow. Mark also has other boats alongside, the other writers do not mention them.

In our Avanza time with the Hispanic kids we read Bible stories from the Jesus Storybook Bible. One of our stories is this calming of the storm. But the writer of this story has a different take on it that I had never heard or considered before. As Jesus is calming the storm, the author notes that the God Who spoke all things into being simply said to the wind and the waves, “Be still.” That is, Jesus was the Master of the wind and the waves and all created things, and they knew Him and His voice, and they listened to Him and obeyed. Fascinating!! We’ve seen Jesus with power over the supernatural – casting out demons with just a word. Now we see Him with power over all created things! Fascinating!! Just let that sink in! What a Glorious God we serve!

Slava Bohu!

Mark 4:26-29, 33-34

“Notice what you notice.” Mark adds to Matthew’s seven parables in chapter 13 with one of his own, the Parable of the Growing Seed – a parable found only in Mark. Frankly, to me, it’s something of a romantic parable: …first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear (v. 28). The singsong nature of these words is almost like 1960s folk music, sung by Joni Mitchell or Judy Collins. But beyond the lighthearted nature of verse 28 is the phrase that precedes it – …he knows not how (v. 27). God’s creation remains a mystery to us today. Agronomists with modern scientific tools can tell us a lot about “how”, but the more we know, the more fascinated we are about our world. It calls to mind Proverbs 25:2, It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.

So now we come to the end of this section of parables, but there are more to come. Mark adds a bit of an explanatory note in verses 33 and 34 (see also Mt. 13:34) as to Jesus’ affinity for speaking in parables. Would that we also could sit at His feet as …privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

As to there being more parables to come, I offer you a Wikipedia snippet: “The Gospel of Luke contains both the largest total number of parables (24) and eighteen unique parables; the Gospel of Matthew contains 23 parables of which eleven are unique; and the Gospel of Mark contains eight parables of which two are unique.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parables_of_Jesus)

Slava Bohu!

Mark 4:21-25 and Luke 8:16-18

“Notice what you notice.” …for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away (Luke 6:18). We saw this verse earlier in Matthew (and also today in Mark) – I remember texting about the word “has”. But Luke adds a caveat, “even what he thinks he has”. Those extra words jumped out. What we have – do we really have it or do we just think we have it? Because what we have today could be gone tomorrow!! Only our heavenly treasures will stand the test of time!

For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light (Luke 8:17). There is nothing in our lives that we have “hidden” that is not already known to God. And my sense from this verse is that this awful thing that we have “hidden” will become known to all the world at the Final Judgment. How embarrassing!! So, what to do? Confess! Confession is more than just “good for the soul”. Confession un-hides what is hidden. When we confess that “hidden” thing before God or to one another, that “hidden” thing is no longer hidden – it has “come to light” and, in my reading, is no longer fodder for the Final Judgment. And my guess is that unburdening ourselves from that hidden thing will fully lighten our loads in this present life.

Slava Bohu!

Matthew 13:44-52

“Notice what you notice.” Another late evening RTB for me… We’ve just got a lot going on that requires daytime hours. Sorry to those of you who wait for my note to begin your reading…!!

So today, two similar parables (Hidden Treasure and Pearl of Great Value) and one “end-time” parable, similar to the Wheat and Weeds (Tares). The first two are quite familiar to me. We cover one of them in Avanza and the other is quite similar. Except that the Hidden Treasure parable is a bit odd, in that a man found the treasure, then re-buried it and went off to buy the field. Even our Avanza kids thought this was a bit unethical. But the point that Jesus is making effectively justifies the means to the end – the Kingdom of Heaven is worth anything we have to do to get there – but Jesus has already done it all; we have but to accept his offer!

The Pearl of Great Price came home to me some 15 or so years ago. I was in a Wednesday morning prayer group; another member of the group was an accomplished saxophonist. He found what he considered to be the best saxophone he had ever seen – then went off and sold all his other instruments and bought that saxophone. It was his Pearl of Great Price.

Finally, the Dragnet parable, as I noted above, is quite similar to the Wheat and Weeds parable. However, it is the one parable of these seven in chapter 13 that is least familiar to me. Similar to the Wheat and the Weeds, there is an end-time sorting out between the good and the bad. So if we are the “good”, we are told that the “bad” will continue to exist among us. I could extend this a bit to that book title, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. But Scripture tells us, that’s the way it will always be – the bad with the good until the Kingdom of Heaven is fully consummated!

But what really struck me today was verse 51. Jesus said, “Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” Are these the same disciples who seem NOT to be “getting it” time and time again? But they have a simple answer – “Yes”. Today’s parables are three of the seven parables that Jesus has related to them in Chapter 13. There must be some value in repetition!

Slava Bohu!