Mark 6:1-13.  Today’s reading seems to continue the idea of faith or believing from yesterday.  Yesterday we saw the results of believing in Jesus.  Today we will see what happens when you don’t.  Our reading starts out with Jesus returning to his home town.  On the day of worship (the Sabbath, Saturday) he went into the local synagogue (sort of a Jewish church) and began to teach.  He was a recognized rabbi or teacher and this was a normal thing to do.  He was evidently quite good at teaching (as I would expect God to be) because the people were amazed at what he was saying.  They recognized that his words were wise.  The Greek word for wisdom has the idea that what he is saying is the best and most useful idea.  Remember that Mark’s history of Jesus has moved “immediately” from one story to the next and that word, “immediately”, also has the idea of the best or most direct path.  So we see that Jesus’ plan and actions are the best.

And Jesus backed up what he was saying with miracles.  The people recognized that he was doing actual miracles (the girl really was dead in yesterday’s story) and they even say it was “by his hands”.  No accusations of using the Devil for power here.  So theses people saw and knew that Jesus was very very special.  In Matthew 1:20-23 Matthew tells us the story of when Joseph (Jesus step-day) finds out that Mary is pregnant (remember they were engaged at the time and had not been together yet).  An angel appeared to him in a dream and informed him that Mary had not been unfaithful but that God had cased this baby to exist in her.  The angel then told him that the baby should be named Jesus, which means “Yahweh saves” because that is what Jesus would do and then Matthew informs us that this is a fulfillment of a prediction by Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14).  In that prediction Isaiah tells us that the child will be called Immanuel which means “God with us”.  Some how in the Jewish mind they were able to link what Jesus would do with who he was, “God with them”.  But then in our story we see the people resisting what is obvious to them; “Hey wait a minute, this is that carpenter!”  “Yea, this is Mary’s son!”  “His brothers and sister live right here in town!”  The people were offended by him.  The Greek word for “offend” used here is the same word that we get our English word “scandal” from.  The word means to “trip up” or “cause to stumble”.  In this case they were tripped up by their unwillingness to believe in this “carpenter”.  The evidence was there but they didn’t want to believe it.

Jesus first responds by quoting a common proverb of his day about a person not being honored by those in his own hometown.  This proverb is not found in the Bible but the idea is similar to what Jeremiah talks about in Jeremiah 11:21, 12:6.  Jeremiah was certainly a prophet who received very little honor in his home country of Judah.  Then Mark tells us that he couldn’t do very many miracles there and that Jesus was astounded by their unbelief.  The word used for his reaction has the idea of staring at something, it’s kind of like our saying, “He couldn’t believe his eyes!”  In this case Jesus couldn’t believe that they would not believe; that they had no faith in him.

The last half of verse 6 really starts a new paragraph.  If you have been reading along in Mark you might remember that Jesus told his followers that he was here to teach or preach (tell people the good news about him)(Mark 1:38) and that is just what Jesus did.  He left his home town and went other places to tell other people.  In verses 7-13 we see Jesus sending his twelve closest followers to do the same thing, tell others about “God’s salvation” (remember the meaning of “Jesus”).  He also gives his followers authority to do miracles, specifically to command demons to leave people.  Don’t miss the fact that Jesus gives them the authority to do this, Jesus had the authority in himself and passed it to them.  Remember what Matthew said?  Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prediction that “God” would be “with us”.

Jesus also gave the twelve instructions not to take money or even a jacket with them.  Theses guys were supposed to let the people in the towns where they went take care of their needs and provide a place to stay for them.  It was common in Jesus day for travelers to be taken in and cared for and the Law of Moses commanded the Israelites to care for the poor and needy (Deuteronomy 15:7-8).  Jesus was using this as a way of testing the belief of the places that his followers would be going to.  If the people of a town would not do what was right with respect to these visitors then after sharing about Jesus in the town they were to leave and “shake the dust of that town off their sandals”.  That was a way of showing disapproval of the place, they didn’t even want a little dust from there on them.  In Matthew 22:34-40 Jesus linked how we treat others with what we believe about God.  Jesus was using this test in a practical way in the towns that his followers were going to, remember that in his home town he had just faces unbelief.  In this case the results must have been pretty good because the followers were doing many miracles.

Although it is Jesus who does miracles and it is Jesus who saves us from our sins (deals with the consequences of our disobedience and rebellion toward God) our response is important too.  Paul told the church in Ephesus that salvation is a free gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9, “grace” means favor and Paul links it with the idea of a gift from God in these verses).  But notice that the way the “gift” gets to us is through faith.  We need to believe in what God is offering us through Jesus and take it (John 1:12, believing in “his name” (Jesus=God saves) means believing in who Jesus is (God) and what he is doing (paying for our sins and making Heaven available to us) (Romans 5:8., John 14:6)).  In our story today we see that unbelief results in losing the benefits of what Jesus is offering.  In his town he could not do many miracles because the miracles were there to prove that Jesus had the authority to deal with sin (remember Mark 2:8-11?).  The most important thing was the temporary physical healing (all those people eventually died as do all of us) the most important thing was getting right with God, being made spiritually alive.  Interestingly enough when we get things in the right order like that we get what we really need, not temporary healing, but the promise of eternal healing.  Paul told the believers that our hope is not in just this life but in a new life in eternity, new forever bodies and a forever relationship with God (1 Corinthians 15).  We need to not let our ideas of how life ought to be or of who Jesus is get in the way, we need to see Jesus as Immanuel (God with us) and let him save us for now and eternity.

God help me trust in you.  Help me believe.  Let my actions show that I really believe.  Help me accept your word.  Heal me with your power, inside and out.  Thank you for saving me.  Help me proclaim you to those around me.  Let them see and accept.  Let them believe and be saved.

Mark 5:21-43.  Sorry for how long yesterday’s post was (and how late it got published).  Cookie tells me that they posts are too long sometimes but I try to only put in stuff that I think is important and helpful for you to understand what you are reading.  Give me feedback if you are having trouble with any of it, if it is too long.

Today’s reading includes two miracles that are wrapped around each other.  Jesus has just come fro the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee and is back on the western shore in the province of Galilee, the area where he grew up.  There is a large crowd around him and then a leader from the synagogue (a sort of Jewish church) came to him.  Remember that many of the religious leader had already rejected Jesus and were looking for a way to get rid of him, permanently (Mark 3:6).  Right in the middle of that crowd, though, this leader came to Jesus begging for help.  He even fell down at Jesus feet, at least a sign of respect but often an act of worship.  The man must have been quite desperate to risk everything for Jesus’ help, and he was his daughter was right at the door of death.  He needed a miracle.

Jesus decided to go with the man and the crowd followed.  There was another very desperate person in the crowd.  A woman who had been bleeding for twelve years.  She had spent all she had on doctors and had only gotten worse.  Bleeding like that would have made her “unclean” under the law (see yesterday’s post).  She though that if she could just touch Jesus’ coat she would be healed.  She did and she was.  But she was discovered, Jesus knew that power had gone out from him.  It is interesting that he didn’t consciously heal the woman.  In one of the first posts in Mark I talked about how Jesus lived his life by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The same Spirit we have in our lives if we are believers in Jesus.  Remember too, that the Holy Spirit is a separate person of the three “persons” that make up the one true God (see “Three or One?”).  The Holy Spirit has his own will (though God is always consistent) and it appears that the Holy Spirit healed the woman without Jesus actually taking part in it.  Jesus knew though (remember too that Jesus was not actively using his personal divine powers while on earth (see Philippians 2:6-7) and so he turned and asked who had touched him.  I’m sure the woman was terrified.  Most of the religious leaders, the scribes, Pharisees, and others, of Jesus day were serious about staying “clean” (see yesterday’s post).  For a woman who had been bleeding for so long to touch them would have made them very angry.  Not to mention that a woman in their culture would not normally talk to a man let alone touch him, even if she was “clean” (See John 4:9, although she only mentions being a Samaritan the woman part was an issue to).  Jesus followers seem annoyed that Jesus has stopped to find out who touched him.  They were probably quite excited at the idea that a synagogue official had come to them and wanted Jesus to do a big important miracle, this was Jesus chance to score some religious points with the leaders.  Jesus stopped anyway and the woman came forward and fell at his feet.  After she told him the whole truth about the situation Jesus said to her, “Daughter your faith has made you well (or saved you), go in peace and be healed.”  Don’t miss the irony of what Jesus has said.  His disciples want him to heal the daughter of this important man but he has stopped to help his own “daughter” a woman who has been sick and outcast from society for twelve years.

The next part of the story probably had the disciples boiling over with anger.  While Jesus was wasting time with this woman some guys come from the house of the synagogue official and tell him not to bother Jesus anymore, the girl has died.  Oh man, what a blown opportunity.  Jesus overheard what was going on and he told the synagogue official that he need to have a little more faith in what Jesus could do.  Then Jesus took three of his closest followers and continued on to the man’s house.

When they got to the house people were already there showing how upset they were by crying and making a lot of noise.  Jesus stopped outside and asked them what all the fuss was about, the girl wasn’t dead, just asleep.  Of course the girl was dead.  In the New Testament ‘sleep” is often used as a way of saying died (see 1 Corinthians 15:51, if you read more of the chapter you will see that Paul is using the word sleep as a synonym for death).  Part of the idea though is that physical death isn’t really a final and permanent thing.  The fact that the people were laughing at Jesus tells us that the girl was in fact dead and no one was going to wake her up.  Jesus kicked everyone out and then took the parents along with the three and went into the room where the child was.  He took here hand and told her to get up which she did. And then she walked around.  This wasn’t some trick with Jesus using her like some giant doll.  She was walking around on her own and every one was amazed.  Jesus had just brought someone back from the dead as easily as waking up someone who was asleep.  Don’t miss the age of the girl either, she was twelve.  The woman that stopped Jesus long enough for the girl to die had started bleeding the same year that the girl was born.  Jewish people love that sort of thing in a story, it ties the two stories together.  But there is something else that ties the stories together even more, faith.  The woman’s faith made here well and Jesus told the parent to have faith too.  They didn’t have to fear just believe in him, the way the woman had.

Finally we see Jesus telling the parents not to tell too many people what had happened and he gives them some instructions about how to care for the girl.  You know Jesus told the woman that she was healed of here affliction because of her faith, faith that caused here to act against all the rules.  Mark doesn’t use the same kind of language when he describes what happened to the little girl.  Sure she wasn’t dead any more.  But Jesus had told the parents to believe or have faith and then he acted.  Maybe giving the girl food was supposed to be a way of showing that they actually had faith in what Jesus had done, an action to prove they really believed in him.  Or maybe it’s just the way the story went.  Also remember that the man was a religious leader.  Many of not most of the religious leaders had already rejected Jesus and that put this man in a bad spot.  After the crucifixion and resurrection the Jewish leaders tried to cover up the resurrection by bribing the guards at the tomb where Jesus body had been placed.  Jesus may have wanted the man and his family to keep quiet to keep them from being dealt with.  It is obvious that the story eventually came out complete with the guys name.  And Matthew and Luke also include the story, so again no permanent secret here.  These so called secrets in Mark really just keep pointing to the fact that Jesus lived in a dangerous complicated world.  Although he was bold and faithful in following God’s plan for him, Jesus was also careful and wise.

For me it is important from these stories that faith means believing in who Jesus is (God) and what he can do (any thing consistent with his will) and that faith shows itself in me by what I do.  If I really believe in Jesus it will cause me to act accordingly.  It is also cool to see haw interested God is in taking care of me.  Jesus didn’t speak a word or even turn around to heal the woman, god just took care of her as she reached out to him.  Finally I think the lesson about being bold and wise is important.  Those believers in Rome needed to be encourage to keep following God’s plan for them, and if they did then they didn’t need to be afraid, after all the same Jesus who raised the girl from the dead was looking after them too.  And there was nowhere they could be where God would not be aware of them and their needs.  But they also need to be careful and wise.  When the Devil tempted Jesus one of the things he challenged him to do was jump off the temple, after all the Bible said the angles would keep him from hitting his foot on a stone.  Jesus response was that the Bible also says not to put God to the test.  As believers we need to take risks but only the risks God tells us to take when he tells us to take them.  Sometimes those risks might even lead to death, but he can and will eventually raise us back up.  We need to act faithfully in our lives and et the world be astounded at the power of the one true God.

God help me not be afraid.  Help me be faithful.  Help me know what you want me to do each day.  Give me the courage to take risks but give me the wisdom to know which ones are the right ones for me.  Help me understand the total message you have for me from your word and don’t let me be fooled by half the story.  Thank you for having my back even when I am behind you.  Thank you that no matter where I go I am never out of your sight.