Mark 3:1-19.  In the post on Mark 1:21-39 I talked about how some Bible experts talk about the “divine secret” found in Mark; the idea that Jesus was trying to keep secret the fact that he is God. I mentioned that Jesus was all about telling the “good news” of who he is and what he is doing for us, so there really was no secret. Also we looked at the word “immediately” which occurs frequently in the book of Mark.  I mentioned how it contained the idea of doing things in a proper way, including at the right time.  I think that today’s reading is a good example of both of these ideas.

In verse one we see Jesus entering the synagogue (sort of a Jewish church).  Since he has told us that his main purpose was to teach and the synagogue was used mostly for that we can assume that that is what he went there for.  But the story twist right away, there is someone in need in the synagogue; a man with a messed up hand.  Also in the synagogue were the religious leaders looking for a reason to accuse him of doing wrong.

We saw in yesterdays reading that the rules that Moses gave to the Israelites were to for their benefit.  Paul tells us in Romans that what the Law was good for was showing us that we all rebel and disobey God (sin; see Romans 3:20).  So the way the Law is useful is that it helps us understand that we are failing in our relationship with God; we are constantly doing the wrong thing.  The Law was there for us and not the other way around, Jesus said.  But the religious leaders, mostly Pharisees (a certain very conservative group of Jewish people), were waiting for a chance to accuse him of breaking God’s rules.  Jesus doesn’t hide in the background or sneak away he gets right in their face and challenges them about the purpose of God’s rules, “Wouldn’t God want you to help someone in need even on a Saturday?”, their “Sunday” or holy (dedicated) day.  The didn’t answer because the right answer would prove that their way of doing things had been all wrong.  But the wrong answer, “No, you can’t do good on our special day.” Would be clearly wrong.  So they just kept quiet.  This made Jesus very sad because their hearts were hard.  The word translated “hard” is the word used in Greek (the language the New Testament was written in) for a callus, the thick hard skin you get on your hand from working hard with tools or from certain athletic activities.  This was a process in these men’s lives that had left them with out feeling.  But Jesus sill needed to teach, to show them the truth, even if they were not going to listen, so he healed the man’s messed up hand. More proof that he was God and had authority.  Instead of “softening up” and listening they remained hard and stubborn and looked for a way to “destroy” him.  Form this part of the story we can learn that Jesus was under a lot of pressure, there was a lot of trouble in his life.  We can also learn that he still did what was right.

On the other had Jesus was not unwise.  In Galatians 4:4 Paul tells us that Jesus was born at just the right time.  God has a whole plan worked out to save the most people possible.  Part of the plan was foretold by prophets in the Old Testament, the timing of Jesus birth, the place he would be born, certain event surrounding his birth and death, even the timing of his death.  In Romans 5:6 Paul tells us that Jesus died “at the right time” for us.  The Pharisees and Herodians (another Jewish group which was more loyal to the local Roman ruler, Herod< that to God) wanted Jesus dead “Now”, but it wasn’t the right time.  So Jesus went away from their religious center in the south back to the northern part of the country.  Jesus didn’t hide though and the crowd was right with him.  People came from all over the territory that centuries before had been the kingdom of David.  They had heard about the healings and many wanted to be healed too, which Jesus did.  They crowded closer and closer hoping that just touching him would heal them.  Some of the people had been possessed by a demon.  A demon is an angel that has rebelled against God.  They are spirit beings that can enter into a human body and influence the person’s spirit and thereby their actions.  It is believed by most Bible scholars that a demon can only enter a person if the person is willing.  The person doesn’t have to ask a demon in but just want outside influences in their inner life.  Drugs, witchcraft, spells, and other things can be the road in for a demon.  As Jesus ordered some of these demons to leave the people they would cause the person to yell out who Jesus really was.  Jesus ordered them not to tell who he was at that time.  Again it was obvious that Jesus was powerful and had authority but it wasn’t the right time for him to be “hailed” as God.  The crowd was so large and interested in getting to Jesus that he eventually got in a boat and moved a little ways off shore, probably to teach from the boat.  So Jesus kept on instructing and convincing the people but he did it in such a way that he would not be immediately “destroyed” by his enemies, he needed to die but at the “right time”.

There’s an old TV commercial for shampoo where the a girl uses the shampoo and is so impressed that she “tells two friend”. Those friend are impressed too and so they “tell two friends” who then tell two friends and so on.  Each time a new group is told the TV screen fills with more people, 1, 3, 7, 15, and so on.  The idea is multiplication and that was a part of Jesus’ plan too.  He eventually had to die for our sins and even if he lived a long time (which he didn’t) before he died he would only be able to reach so many.  So the next part of our story is Jesus beginning to multiply.  Earlier in the story he asked five people to specifically follow him.  In verses 13-19 we see that he went away for a private time and invited a few people with him.  From those that he invited he chose 12 men to be his close “inner circle”.  He gave them power to cast out demons and sent them out (this is one Greek word “Apostello” and we get the word “Apostle” from it.)  In some very old copies of Mark in verse 14 it says he even called them “apostles”.  The best evidence is that someone added this and that it is not what Mark actually wrote, but the idea is certainly there that he sent them out to tell others about him.

To those early believers in Rome there were some good lessons to be learned here.  Keep doing the right thing but do it wisely.  Also we see that Jesus give us what we will need to do the job he gives us.  If we need to do a miracle he will give it to us but we need to remember that our main job is to tell others.  The book of Acts begins with Jesus leaving earth for heaven after spending about 50 days appearing to his followers in his new “alive again” body (resurrected body).  Just before he leaves he tells his followers that very soon the Holy Spirit will come into them and give them power to show the world what Jesus has dons for them.  They will be empowered to live new more God honoring lives and that the whole world will eventually learn about him.   Each of our lives is a miracle of the forgiveness of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to help us live for God and not self.

God thank you for saving me.  Thank you for making my life a miracle.  Help the miracle of my life shout to others how good you are.  Help my life and words lead others to you.  Help me multiply you in the world and eternity.

Mark 2:13-28.  We want to keep in mind that Mark is writing this particular history of the life of Jesus for followers of Jesus in Rome.  Those followers had already seen some trouble fro being Christ followers or Christians and more was soon to come.  So far we have see the story move very fast and there has been an emphasis on the message Jesus was bringing to the people (the “Good News” or gospel about how Jesus was the way to get right with God).  We have also seen some miracles to prove that Jesus had both the power and authority to deal with our disobedience and rebellion toward God (sin).

In the beginning of Chapter 1 we saw Jesus ask four men specifically to follow him; Simon and Andrew and James and John, two sets of brothers.  In today’s reading Jesus calls out to another man specifically to follow him, Levi.  WE are told he is the “son of Alphaeus”.  It appears that Levi is another of the guys that will eventually become Jesus’ inner circle, one of the twelve disciples or apostles (A disciple is a follower of someone and an apostle is a person sent to be a messenger of a person.  As the story of the Twelve unfolds in the Gospels and Acts we will see that they were both followers and ‘sent ones”).  In lists of the twelve Levi is not mentioned but there is an apostle named Matthew and most scholars think that they are the same person.  In those same lists there is an Apolstle named James (Not the same guy who rote the book of James) who is also described as a “son of Alphaeus”.  Some people think that this “Levi” is actually James and others think that they were brothers.  In Matthew 9:9 it looks like the Levi in Mark’s story is Matthew.  Remember it was not uncommon for people to have more that one name in those days.

The more important part of the story is who Levi is, how he is described, and what happens.  Levi was evidently a tax collector.  He probably worked for the local government rather that the national Roman government.  He would have still been hated by the Jewish people.  We see that Jeus asks him to follow him which he does.  This isn’t just for a short walk, but Jesus is asking him to follow him permanently.  Next we see Jesus sitting in Levi’s home eating with a pretty interesting group of people.  The people are called tax gatherers and sinners.  The Pharisees were a very strict group of Jews who worked very hard at following the Law of Moses.  In fact they had identified over 600 rules from the Old Testament and had very strict rules about following them.  Clearly eating with “tax collectors and sinners” was against the rules.  The interesting thing is that Isaiah tells us that “all of us have wandered away from God like wandering sheep” and then calls that kind of action “iniquity”.  The word translated “iniquity” in that verse comes from a word meaning bent or twisted or crooked.  In the New Testament the word translated “sin” means to miss the mark, like missing a bulls eye in archery.  Both ideas are similar we have followed the wrong path and it is crooked.  So we are all sinners and if we aren’t going to eat with a sinner we will have to eat alone…. But then there will still be one there.  When Jesus heard their complaints he answered by telling them that sick people need a doctor not healthy people and that he was there for the spiritually sick people, to help them.

Mark links another story with this one, one where Jesus is asked about his followers, “Why don’t your followers fast (go without food) like the followers of John the Baptist and the Pharisees do?”  Jesus answer relates to the reason for fasting.  Fasting in the Bible is usually linked with a serious time of  prayer (talking to God) or to mourning (being sad over something that has happened) or to repentance (being sad about going down the crooked path of sin and wanting to turn back to the right way (repent means to turn and go the other way)).  It would be inappropriate for the followers of Jesus to fast because they were right there communicating with God ion the flesh.  Walking side by side with him would be about as straight as anyone could go, spiritually.  Like a wedding feast, being with Jesus was a time of joy.  The other two examples Jesus give really tell us what his point was.  The patch will shrink and rip the old shirt in a worse way.  A wine skin was a sort of leather bottle that new wine (not fermented yet) would be put.  As the wine fermented it would build up pressure and stretch the leather.  But the new leather had enough “give” in it to take the pressure.  If the skin was old and already stretched out it would rip and be ruined under the pressure ofnewly fermenting wine and both would be lost.  The point is it would be inappropriate to fast and mourn when they were with Jesus.  There would be a day for sadness but not right now, he told them.

One last story that Mark brings in at this point was about picking and eating on the Sabbath (Saturday for the Jewish people.  It was supposed to be a day where the people focused on God and did no hard work).  The Pharisees with their strict rules said they could do no work at all and picking a piece of fruit or a head of grain was work to them.    The Jewish people really looked up to one of their former kings, a guy named David.  Jesus used a story about David to point out that the rules weren’t about the rules but about our relationship with God.  There was food in the temple that was supposed to be saved for the priests.  The priests didn’t have a lot of land and farms and relied on the offerings brought to the temple for their support.  One time before David was king he was fleeing from Saul the guy who was king at the time.  He and his followers stopped and asked the main priest for some food.  The priest said all he had was the food dedicated to the other priests and David told him to give him some, which he and his men ate.  The point< Jesus told the people questioning him was that these rules were supposed to help us in our relationship with God not hurt us.  The rules are supposed to serve us and not the other way around.

I think for a bunch of believers being chased, beat up, and killed it would be comforting to know that Jesus loves us even when we have failed (he ate with sinners then and he will care for us today).  It would also be encouraging to know that Jesus is interested in us, our hearts, our souls, not just strict obedience to a bunch of rules.  It may have been difficult or impossible for those Roman Christians to live up to all that they thought they should do, especially if they were listening to their Jewish friends.  Of course Jesus told us that we need to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength so what we do does matter, we can’t lie, hate, steal, or show disrespect for God in other ways and pretend that it doesn’t matter but we are not to be slaves to the Old Testament Law either.  With the power of the Holy Spirit in us we are free from sin not free to sin.  In the end Jesus is the boss and we need to do what makes him happy and from these stories it looks like spending time with him is what makes him happy.

God help me be with you each day.  Let me remember that you are right here watching, listening, ready to help.  Help me listen too, through your word both on the written pare of the Bible and as the Holy Spirit echoes it through my mind and heart.  Thank you for loving me help my actions show that I love you back.  Let my life have joy it the relationship and not be subject to the sadness of a useless religion.