Mark 5:1-20.  Yesterday we saw Jesus and his followers in boats crossing the Sea of Galilee (actually a large lake).  The lake is subject to very violent and sudden storms.  The travelers were caught in such a storm that was so bad that the twelve disciples, some of whom were fishermen who had work on that same lake, thought they would die.  Jesus commanded the wind and waves to be calm and they were, and Jesus’ followers were amazed. In today’s reading many more people are going to be amaze by another miracle that has a couple more shocking parts to it.

Jesus and his followers have crossed the Sea of Galilee from the west to the east.  The Sea of Galilee is fed from the north by the Jordan River and in turn feeds the Jordan River to the south.  In Genesis 12 and 15 God promise land to a guy named Abram (Abraham) and his descendants.  Those chapters tell us the land went all the way from the Nile River to the south and west to the Euphrates River in the north and east.  In Genesis 17 God describes the land as the land of the Canaanites (the people who lived in it during Abraham’s life and after).  In Genesis 26:3 the promise to Abraham was passed down to Abraham’s son Isaac by God.  In Genesis 35:6-12 God passed the land on to “Israel (Jacob the son of Isaac) and his descendants.”  Later in the history of Israel’s descendants (the twelve tribes of Israel) they did possess some of the land.  After escaping from Egypt these twelve tribes moved North and eventually entered the promised land.  In Numbers 13 we see part of the story of the move.  In verse 29 of that chapter we see the Canaanite living  “by the sea and by the Jordan River”.  This may be a way of saying that they lived between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.  The Israelites did not take possession of the land at the time of the story in Numbers 13 but did 40 years later.  In Deuteronomy 34 we see the story of the death of Moses (the leader of the Israelites for fourty years since leaving Egypt).  We are also told that he passed on the leadership to Joshua.  In Deuteronomy 34:1-4 God shows Moses the land that he promised to “Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.”  The landmarks that God gave stretched from Dan in the north (inland from Tyre) to Beersheba in the south (almost to the southern tip of the Dead Sea) and from the Mediterranean Sea to land east of the Jordan River (This area is similar to the earlier descriptions, larger that some and smaller than others).  Later when Joshua took the tribes to enter and conquer the land they stood on the eastern shore of the Jordan River and Joshua talked about entering and conquering the promised land.  In his description though he included the land as far east as the Euphrates River.  We also know from Numbers 32 that two of the tribes had conquered land just east of the Jordan River.  Through out the history of Israel as a nation and as a people group under control of other nations their land varied in size from the hill country and some of the plains west of the Jordan River to much of the land actually promised to Abraham.  By the time of Jesus the Israelite land included the Roman provinces of Judah and Galilee (both west of the Jordan River) with the province of Samaria between them and a narrow province on the eastern side of the Jordan River called Perea.  The area east of the Sea of Galilee was a non-Jewish or Gentile Roman province Controlled by Phillip the brother of Herod, governor of Galilee.  Just south of this area was another province called Decapolis (The word means “Ten Cities”).  So in today’s story Jesus is entering Gentile or non-Jewish territory.  Jews hated Gentiles and this would have been an unusual move for a Jewish teacher.

Going to Gentile territory wasn’t the only weird thing Jesus does on this story.  A man, presumably a Gentile, comes to Jesus and the man is demon possessed, or in the words of Mark, “He had an unclean spirit.”  In the Law of Moses a person had to be “clean” in order to come and worship God.  Although God loves people and wants them to have a relationship with him God is also pure and holy (that word means “dedicated to a special purpose”).  The point is that that God’s pure character demands that wrong, evil, r sin (disobedience and rebellion against God) be dealt with.  From the very beginning God made it clear that the consequence of sin was death both physical (separation of our bodies from our souls or spirits) and spiritual (eternal separation from God) (Genesis 2:16-17, see also Romans 3:23).  In order to help people remember this truth God used the Israelites as an example.  Part of the purpose of their laws was to tech the world about God’s purity so God used the idea of clean and unclean to do this.  Some things that could make you unclean were touching a dead body, having certain diseases, certain actions (especially sins), eating or touching certain foods, having a baby.  To be clean usually required stopping the actions, being healed of the disease, or something else.  Also an offering was required showing that you understood the idea of God being pure and you being un-pure.  In the mind of the Jewish people of his day Jesus was unclean by being in Gentile territory, for being near a gentile, being near a demon-possessed man, and (from the Law) for being in a cemetery.  So Jesus was purposely allowing himself to become “unclean” in their minds.  Remember that being unclean didn’t necessary mean that you were “sinning”, the whole idea was a ritual or ceremony to help you remember who God is and what he is like.

The man Jesus met was famous in the area because the demons that lived within him were cause him to make quite a scene.  He would hurting himself and when the people tried to chain him up he would break the chains.  When the demons in the man saw Jesus they tried to manipulate the situation by insisting that Jesus not torture them, they even maid their request in the “name of God”.  God cannot be manipulated though and so Jesus commanded the demons to leave the man.  Again the demons tired to manipulate Jesus by asking him not to send them out of the area, instead they asked to be allowed to enter into a heard of pigs near by.  Pigs were one of the animals that were unclean under the law and had no business in the promised land.  Although the area where Jesus was, was under Roman control and inhabited by non-Jews it was still part of the promised land.  Jesus permitted the demons to enter the heard of pigs which immediately ran off a cliff into the sea, drowning.  There were 1000 pigs in the herd.  In the mean time the man became calm and sat down to listen to Jesus.

The herdsmen ran to the city and reported what had happened and many people came out and saw evidence of the great miracle Jesus had done.  The man was now free from the control of the demons.  Unfortunately they chose to focus on the death of the pigs and asked Jesus to leave the area.  As Jesus got back in the boat to leave the man who had been possessed asked to come with him.  Instead Jesus told him to go home to Decapolis and tell his people how God had had mercy on him.  He followed Jesus’ instructions and many people were impressed.

There are at least a couple of good lessons in this story.  First Jesus was interesting in helping more than just the Jewish people.  By going to the Gentile area Jesus showed that God wanted to have mercy on all people. We also see that Jesus wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, so to speak.  Just like working to eat on the Sabbath (what Jewish people called Saturday, a day that they were supposed to spend focusing on God and not doing any hard work”) in Mark 2:23-28 and healing on the Sabbath in Mark 3:1-6, Jesus wasn’t afraid to be un-clean if it meant honoring God’s love of people (See Mark 3:4-5).  That doesn’t mean we can disobey God (sin) ever, but Jesus was honoring God and the law of Moses by fulfilling it’s purpose; helping people understand God’s character and nature.  Remember Jesus told his followers that his purpose was to teach and the miracles were there to prove his power and authority.  In this story we certainly see God’s love for gentiles and we also see that the people in Decapolis “marveled” (that word can also mean “admired”).  The idea is that they recognized the great things God had done for the man (Mark 5:19).

The last lesson I want to mention is that the people were more worried about pigs than the man.  Man is what God made this whole universe for, we are not to be slaves to the creation, it is for us to use.  Now that doesn’t mean that we can abuse it, but we can use it for our benefit.  Unfortunately since Adam disobeyed God there is a cost for us using it.  In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve tried to hide from God, they knew they had disobeyed.  Part of their hiding was making clothes for themselves.  They made clothes out of leaves but God made them a different set of clothes, he wasted to remember that they had offended him and needed to hide in a way, but he also wanted them to see the real consequence of their sin; death.   So God slaughtered an animal right there and then and made clothes out of the animals skin.  That must have been very shocking to a couple of people who had spent their days dancing around a garden eating mangoes and bananas.  The death of the pigs was meant to be a lesson for all involved and it was, Jesus was powerful.  But keep in mind that it was ultimately the demons who killed the pigs and the pigs were eventually going to be killed for food anyway.  God cared about the pigs he cares about all life (see Matthew 10:29).  The life of that one demon possessed man was more important to God than 1000 pigs though.  We need to keep that in mind when we consider things like abortion.  Sure it might be inconvenient and troubling for a girl to stay pregnant and have that baby, but that baby is a human being that God loves and we need to honor that.  Or when people want us to worship nature and the environment.  We need to remember that all of creation is here for us to care for, yes, but to use for our needs too.

God help me not be so religious that I neglect to really honor you with my life.  Help me not be afraid to get dirty if it means doing the things that really make you happy.  Let me understand what things are really disobedience and rebellion (sin) and not do them.  Help me look at things the way you look at them and know what is really important.  Help me use the world you have placed me in a way that respects what you really love, us, and does not abuse what you have created.  Help me never forget that the ugliness and destruction that are in the world are consequences of and reminders of the evil that we brought into the universe.  I know one day you will fix it all, help me trust that you are doing that in the best way.

Mark 4:21-41.  In yesterday’s post I sort of limited who Jesus was talking to in the story to the twelve but in verse 10 it says he was talking to his followers including the twelve.  I think that is important for two reasons.  First Jesus was interested in more than the twelve hearing and understanding, ultimately God wants all of us to understand about Jesus.  Second by specifically mentioning the twelve we see that they were just like the rest of Jesus’ followers, they didn’t understand either and needed to be taught.  That would be comforting to the believers in Rome, the “Apostles” weren’t some super spiritual group, if the Apostles struggled and Jesus understood, accepted, and helped them then the Roman believers could expect the same care.  I will go back and fix the remark so that it is clear that more than just the twelve were listening to the explanation of the soils.

So in yesterday’s reading Jesus took his followers aside and began talking to them (see Mark 4:10-11).  In today’s reading he continues to talk to “them”, so I assume that the “them” in verses 13, 21, 24, 26 are the same group.  That is probably who he is talking to all the way through verse 34.  Remember that the main point of the “Parable of the Sower”  (Really the “Parable of the Soils”) was the importance of listening, hot just hearing, but listening.  We need to think about what Jesus was saying.  It’s interesting that some Bible experts like to go on and on about the “divine (or messianic) secret” in the book of Mark.  We talked about this in the post on Mark 1:21-39.  Jesus wasn’t keeping secrets, he said his purpose was to teach, in today’s reading his followers call him “teacher”, the people recognized his teaching had authority in it and was linked often to powerful miracles.  We have also seen that parables are meant to explain but that some people don’t learn because they don’t like what they are hearing.  People stop listening and don’t “get it”.  The reason I think these experts are interesting is because it is so obvious that Jesus wants people to know (It’s almost like these “Divine Secret” guys are an example of people not wanting to hear).  Now Jesus didn’t walk into the Temple his first day with a big sign on saying, “I am Yahweh.”  Apart from a miracle that would have been his last day, Jesus was strategic about his actions, to use a term that I have used before, he was working through the plan.  In verses 21-23 Jesus makes it clear to his followers that he wants people to know the truth about him and what is going on.  In verse 23 he even tells them (and anyone down through the years who reads the book of Mark) to “listen and understand” (“let him hear” meaning “understand”).  Verses 24-25 are a warning though.  They needed to be careful how they listened, if they listened and filtered everything through what they wanted or expected to hear then they would fail to really understand God’s plan.  In the Old Testament the bible uses the word “jealous” to describe God sometimes.  Oprah Winfrey once said that she wasn’t interested in a God who was jealous.  That’s too bad, we need to be interested in God for what and who he is because he wants the best for us, but he will not force us to take it.  In the case of the story in Mark the most informed people were the Jewish people and especially the Pharisees, scribes, and other religious leaders.  The had God’s word.  The problem was they were not willing to hear what it really meant and so were in danger of loosing that extra advantage.  It’s kind of like the story of the Tortoise and the Hare.  The rabbit clearly had the advantage in the race but lost because he was unwise.

In verses 26-29 Jesus continues to teach his followers about not getting stuck in a rut when it comes to how they understand God and Heaven and Eternity.  The Jewish people were looking for a kingdom.  They were living under Roman rule but God had promised one of their ancient kings a forever kingdom for one of his descendants.  That promised coming king, the messiah of Christ, had many predictions made about him in the Old Testament.  The Jewish people really liked all the parts about him taking over and setting up a forever kingdom, and in the time of Jesus there was a lot of interest in the idea, they wanted to be rid of outside control.  But they were missing the other predictions about the Messiah suffering for the sins of the people (See Isaiah 53 for example or even Daniel 9 where the Messiah is cut off).  This parable tells us that the comparison is between this kingdom, the Kingdom of God, and a man who throws out some seed and waters it.  He doesn’t really know how it all works but he knows he needs to water the seeds and does.  Eventually the seed grows up and the man gets some grain.  The main point here is that we don’t really know how this kingdom thing works.  The nice thing is that God does know, that it does work, and that in the end there is going to be a harvest (a good thing if you are a farmer).  As for us we just need to do what we know and God will do the rest.

The next part of the reading also explains something about God’s forever kingdom.  This time the comparison is with a mustard plant.  Mustard seeds are pretty small, about the size of a pin head.  The plant can grow as tall as 12’ and as big around as my arm (OK if you don’t know me as big around as a wooden fence post) although it is not normally allowed to grow that big.  The point of the comparison is that the kingdom will start out small but will eventually become quite large, large enough for birds to nest in.  The part about the birds may be a quote from Ezekiel 31:6 but that would seem a little strange since Ezekiel is talking about Assyria in that verse.  Ezekiel was writing about 580 BC. and in that chapter was warning Pharaoh that he better look out.  God had once made Assyria like a great and useful tree but then destroyed her.  A better parallel in the Old Testament is Ezekiel 17:22-24.  Those verses aren’t as close in terms of the words but the idea is much closer.  In those verses God plants a tree and causes it to grow, eventually all kinds of birds find shelter in the tree.  The tree in shoes verses represents Israel, which in turn represents the Kingdom of God.  The birds represent people from all over, not just Jewish people.  So in our parable in mark the kingdom will grow and it will be filled with people from all over.  That would be pretty good news to a bunch of non-Jewish believers hiding in Rome.

Verses 33-34 tell us that Jesus kept using parables to teach them the “word” as they were able to hear.  The term “word” in this case means all that Jesus was trying to tell the people, the good news about who he was and what he was doing.  Notice he was speaking to them “as they were able to hear it”.  So Jesus was interesting in people not just “hearing” but actually understanding his message.  In verse 34 he took extra care to make sure his followers understood, probably because his followers were going to be the teachers themselves very soon.

The last part of today’s reading gets the action going again as Jesus moves from this private but important time of instruction back into more public ministry (that word means service).  Jesus and his followers get into some boats to cross the Sea of Galilee to the eastern side.  Although Jesus has been to Jerusalem it the story so far he has spent most of his time in Galilee on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.  During this trip he is napping in the back of the boat when a serious storm arises.  Evidently the Sea of Galilee is subject to sudden storm of this type which are quite violent and dangerous.  The followers in the boat with him (probably the twelve) get quite upset and wake him up and accuse him of not caring that they are all going to drown.  In response Jesus tell the wind to stop and the waters to smooth out and they do.  Then Jesus said to the people in the boat with him, “Why are you afraid don’t you trust me to take care of you?”  His followers were amazed that event the wind and water obeyed him, they still didn’t really understand that they were dealing with God himself in human form.

For me this last part is a good follow up to all the talk about hearing and listening.  We saw that Jesus really wanted people to understand his words.  In this last part of the today’s reading we see that Jesus’ word aren’t just a bunch of talk but that they have real power.   So whether the words are, “Get up and take your bead and walk away.”, or “Reach our and start using your hand again.”, or “Don’t lie.”, or “Be my witnesses.”, we know that Jesus has the power and cares enough to back us up.  He wants us to know, he wants us to understand, he wants us to act, and he is has our back, that is very good news especially as we experience trouble for following him.

Jesus than you for teaching, thank you for explaining, thank you for caring, and thank you for taking care or me.  Help me listen, help me act appropriately, give me the power to honor you with my life today and every day until your kingdom comes and forever.