Making it Home

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

MAKING IT HOME

Mark 8:1-10

8:1 During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 2 "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. 3 If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance."  4 His disciples answered, "But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?" 5 "How many loaves do you have?" Jesus asked. "Seven," they replied. 6 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they did so. 7 They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. 8 The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 9 About four thousand men were present. And having sent them away, 10 he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha.

NIV

We have already been through the time he fed five thousand with a couple of fish and a few loaves and considered that Jesus will always be ready to feed us, both in the physical as well as in the spiritual realm, and do it in abundance. So why are we informed of this second time that Jesus has compassion on a crowd that has been with him for three days? We are not told what transpired for those three days. Perhaps this might be the time Matthew records as what we call the Sermon on the Mount, but then that could have been that last time when he fed the five thousand. It seems Mark is not concerned about telling us anything about what happened for those three days, but that Jesus wanted to feed them before sending them home. Certainly, the people would have to go back home, for we would be sure many of them either had jobs to go to, or a family business to run, or some other responsibility in their home town. We are not much different as we have to work and take care of things, so that we cannot simply sit at the feet of Jesus all day, every day, for the rest of our lives, at least in the physical sense, while we can sit at his feet forever, in the spiritual sense. However, Jesus knew these people needed to attend to their daily lives and did not want them to leave hungry. What is interesting is that even after they witnessed Jesus feeding five thousand with a few fish and loaves, they still were thinking about how they would get that much bread in such a remote place. How dull were these men? Had not they remembered the last time? Did they not remembering picking up twelve baskets full of leftovers? But then we too can appear dull at times. We have had the hand of God working so much in our lives and we still forget to look to him first and foremost for everything we need. We try all sorts of ideas, all sorts of sources to find the solution for our needs when all we have to do is go to Jesus. Sure, we are supposed to work for our sustenance, in fact, God told Adam because of his sin, he would have to work by the sweat of his brow all the days of his life to provide food for himself. Yes, we work so that we can eat. But this is more than that. This is Jesus having compassion on us and providing for us so that we do not go hungry and collapse on the way. We can see this spiritual application. If we are not being fed, or feeding upon the bread of life, the word of God until we are satisfied then we surely will go hungry and collapse along the way. We will falter, we will fail to make our way home, to heaven. How can we expect to make it the whole distance if we have not been properly fed enough? We cannot take just a small bite and expect to get home without falling on our faces, collapsing from exhaustion. No, we have to get to our full, and that requires continually being feed by Jesus, so we can make it home.

He Who Has an Ear, Let Him Hear

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

HE WOULD HAS AN EAR LET HIM HEAR

Mark 7:31-37

31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.   32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. 33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!"). 35 At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. 36 Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37 People were overwhelmed with amazement. "He has done everything well," they said. "He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

NIV

Certainly, we are not surprised that Jesus has the authority to open the man’s ears and lose his tongue. This is just one more of the many times Jesus has healed either by just saying so or by some type of touch. It is interesting that Mark says that Jesus spit and touched the man’s tongue. Did Jesus spit into his hand then use that hand containing his spit to touch the man’s tongue. That sure seems to be the implication. There is also something of interest in that Jesus took him away from the crowd. Was there a special meaning to this? Could it be said that when Jesus gets involved in our lives he takes us away from the crowd, he separates us from the world, and takes us to be alone with him? That might be over spiritualizes what happened here, but it is an interesting idea to ponder on. What is also notable is that someone who could neither hear with his ears nor speak with his mouth could now do so after his encounter with Jesus. Again, this may be seeing more in here than we should, but there is a very interesting spiritual parallel to be seen. Jesus has said several times in his teaching, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”. He also has said throughout the letters to the seven churches, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”. This gives us an impression that before having any type of encounter with Jesus the ears of people are deaf to the word of God. We can give personal testimony to that case, as before our being found and called to Jesus, His word had absolutely no meaning whatsoever in our life. If, when trying to read it, if we were ever inclined to, it spoke nothing to us. We did not have ears to hear, because Jesus had not put his fingers into our ears. We also had nothing of value to say, our mouth had nothing to say in praise of God. Quite the contrary, in fact, it was used to object to anything which would have been religious. However, all that changed the moment Jesus touched my ears and my tongue. We suspect that is the case with everyone prior to their experience with Jesus. He has opened our ears and we can hear the word of God clearly. He has opened our mouth, touched our tongue and we can now give praise and honor where it is due, to our heavenly Father who saved us, who called us out of the darkness and brought us into his light. We can now praise Jesus who came to take away all our sin and to present us to the Father, holy and blameless. How can we not use our tongue for praise and how can we not use our ears to hear his words? He has also called us out from the crowd and called us his own, his people, the sheep of his pasture, the living stones being built into His temple. We are no longer a member of the nameless crowd for we have been given a new name, a child of God. He who has an ear let him hear.

just Give Me Jesus

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

JUST GIVE ME JESUS

Mark 7:24-30

24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."  28 "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." 29 Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter."  30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

NIV

We went through this already, but having looked at one aspect, we should also look at another aspect we may overlook if we are not careful. Certainly Jesus knew that he came for the whole world and not just Israel, as his response to her would seem to indicate. Yet, there is something to be said that he intends those he came for, to be able to eat all they want. In other words, Jesus does not put on a limit on his availability. We might eat as much as we want. We can have the entire loaf of bread, we can indulge ourselves in the bread of life without being concerned that it will ever diminish in the amount that is available. We can have all of Jesus all the time, without limit. The other truth which we should also pay attention to is the fact that Jesus did not have to go with her in order for the demon to leave the girl. This is much like that Roman officer with a sick child who told Jesus he did not need to bother to come with him as he understood authority and that all Jesus had to do was to exercise His authority and his child would be healed. We need to have that kind of faith as well, knowing that Jesus has all the authority over all things, including our very lives. Sometimes we pray that he would just touch us, or that if we would only reach out and touch the hem of his garment, at least in a spiritual sense. That may well be appropriate in many of the cases for it brings us into some sort of relationship with Jesus, looking to Him, having faith in Him and we cannot ever assume there is any special formula or type of prayer that is better than any other. Any way we look to Jesus is any exercise of our faith and that is good. But we also have to see that Jesus does not need to touch us nor do we have to touch the hem of His garment in order for us to be healed. We simply need to ask. He need not come with us, or to us, nor does he require us to do anything, other than asking in faith believing. This woman had faith, she believed Jesus was the solution to her need. That is where we get messed up sometimes, thinking that we might need to get involved in the solution of our need. This is not to say that we might not need to do something at a time, such as the man who had to go to the water and wash the mud Jesus had put on his eyes. But Jesus instructed him to do so, and that is the difference. Any involvement we may do has to be per the instructions of Jesus, or as we might say, per the leading of the Spirit. Otherwise, we need only to have faith that Jesus in all the solution we need. As Ruth Graham Lotz has often said, “Just give me Jesus”.

The whole Loaf

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

THE WHOLE LOAF

Mark 7:24-30

24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."  28 "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." 29 Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter."  30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

NIV

What an incredible story about this Greek woman and her wisdom in responding to Jesus. But before we get to that narrative and learn from it, we should first consider something which, for the most part, we just read over and miss something profound. Here we see Jesus going someway and entering a house not wanting anyone to know that he was there. We wonder why he would want no one to know about his presence. Was he in need of some quiet time? Did he want a moment of rest, of repose, to refresh himself? Did he want to spend some time with His Father, just communing? We simply have no evidence for his reason of not wanting anyone to know he was there. It is possible that because modern-day Tyre and Sidon are just North of modern-day Israel, these cities or region was mostly populated by people the Jews would consider foreigners. Because Matthew records that Jesus said that he was sent to the lost sheep of Israel in response to this Greek woman’s plea, it would make sense that he was outside Israel among a gentile area. But here is what we have not considered from this narrative before. Jesus could not hide his presence from the gentiles. But it is how we internalize this truth. We have Jesus within us, or at least the Spirit of Christ in us. We and Jesus are one as He and the Father are one. So then His presence within us cannot be hidden, or at least His presence should not be hidden. Wherever Jesus was the people found out and came to him. Today, people are still in need of Jesus and His peace, His joy, His healing, His hope His love, and the future He has for them. There is so much need in the world for Jesus, and we are one of the best evidence of his presence. He is in our house, and we need to leave the door open, so all may come to Him. Now, let us see this woman and her dire need for Jesus. Her request was for her daughter that had been tormented by a demon. We are not sure just why Jesus responded in the way he did as he made it sound like His love, mercy, and salvation was not yet meant to be given to the gentiles, but only to the children of Israel. Yet, Jesus was also divine, and as we know he either knew or perceived the thoughts of men, he must have known her thoughts, and her faith in him for a healing of her daughter. Could he have been testing if see would be that persistent in her request? Again, we do not know as we are not told, but what we know is that she did respond with a wise answer and Jesus did acknowledge her request, and again all he had to do was acknowledge her request. He did not need to go to this girl and do any special deliverance or speak to the demon. He simply said it is done, because of such a reply, making note that her reply was very good. Her response was one of both need and faith that he could and would fulfill her request. That is the type of faith we are supposed to have in Jesus. We should expect Him to fulfill our requests. Of course, this implies we are asking within the will of the Father, and that we are asking with the right motives, which is bringing glory and honor to God, to Jesus. Yet, also we can see this woman just had a need and believed Jesus was the answer to her need. Her motive was personal in nature, being of Greek heritage or a gentile she may or may not have had knowledge of the God of Israel and therefore was not asking to bring any glory to God, but simply for her own daughter’s deliverance from demons. Maybe that is all we need, is to just believe Jesus will meet our need, forgetting about motives, or God’s will, or wanting to give all the glory to Him, but just coming to Jesus with our need, whatever it is. Have we made prayer for our need more complicated than it needs to be? What we can be sure of is that we do not need to settle for crumbs from under the table, when we can have the whole loaf of bread.

A Heart Issue

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

A HEART ISSUE

Mark 7:17-23

17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? 19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.") 20 He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' 21 For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'" 

NIV

As we have already dealt in some sense with this concept, but looked at it in the sense of traditions which make us unclean, rather than food and drink, we need to consider this in that sense of actual food and drink in compared to that which is in the heart of man. Jesus makes it clear that all foods are clean. The Law declared that certain foods were not clean, but as we can look back, God may have done this as a health issue, or just to prove man cannot live by the law, and thus needs a Savior. Either way, Jesus made it clear that we should not consider anything forbidden to eat, or for that matter drink. Of course, some denominations have restrictions on certain liquids for ministries if they want to be credentialed. Other denominations have no such rule. Nevertheless, the truth regarding all this is that Jesus did not make any rules about anything that enters a person’s mouth. He was concerned about what came out of our mouths. Of course, traditions fall into that category as we make then up in our hearts, and speak them as though they are the gospel. However, Jesus is talking here about the condition of our hearts. The difference here is that all those evils that Jesus enumerates are in the heart of men who have yet to come to him. Once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we would think that he has cleansed us from all unrighteousness. That is our sins, the evil that had resided in our hearts has been forgiven. But then we would also think that because we have Christ in our hearts, there would be no room for any of those things he mentions. But, the fact is that we are not completely free of sin and we do have some issues within our hearts. Still, as we look at that list we would have to say it could be possible that some, certainly not all, could slip into our hearts if we are not careful, such as envy, greed, slander, which is gossip. Arrogance is also possible when it comes to thinking we are so spiritual, or better than someone else. That would also go along with deceit, as we would be putting in a façade in an effort to deceive others into thinking we are such a ‘Good Christian’ when we have internal struggles with sin. The fact is that we have to be careful not to think of ourselves more than we should. We are sinners saved by grace, and yes we make every effort to live in a manner that pleases the Lord. We do not want those things in our hearts, we want to avoid such thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. We keep our focus on Jesus, keeping our eyes on him, the author and finisher of our faith. Without Jesus, we would be hopelessly trapped with evil residing in our hearts. But evil has been vanquished, Jesus has overcome the world and He is in us, so we too have overcome the world, overcome evil, and now we live in Christ and He in us, as we are one with Him as He is one with the Father. Still, our heart wants what it wants on occasion and we have to continue to be mindful of Jesus’s words.

Living By One of the Other

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

LIVING BY ONE OR THE OTHER

Mark 7:9-15

9 And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'   11 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that." 

14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'" 

NIV

This is the continuation of the challenge that Jesus was giving to the Pharisees regarding their paying far more attention to their own traditions than to the commands of God. As he already made that point abundantly clear, he makes it even clearer and takes it even to the level of personal relationships within a family. What the whole of it is, as we observed before, is that those traditions have nothing to do with the word of God, but now Jesus makes it far more by saying that our traditions which we observe, thinking they are spiritual, or at least make us appear spiritual, actually nullify the word of God. This Greek word translated as nullify carries the meaning of make none effect, to invalidate, to render void, to deprive of force and authority. That is really harsh. To think that those things we have established that if we are a Christian we would not do this or that may actually render the word of God void in our lives. There are some absolute commands of God that we should consider as to what we should not do, such as when we are told to rid ourselves of all bitterness, rage anger, brawling, and slander, which is another word for gossip. We are also told to get rid of all envy, deceit, hypocrisy, and greed. There are other attitudes and behavior that are implied within all this, such as not forgiving others, in fact, we are instructed, commanded to forgive others, and to have compassion. We are commanded to find out what pleases the Lord, instead of determining that abiding by some traditions handed down over the years is what pleases him. As far we can tell that are two main ways to find out what pleases the Lord. First, read His word, second read it with the leading of the Spirit. Of course, we could simply rely on the Spirit to inform us of what is right, but it is always about His leading us to the truth within the word of God. Thus we should base our lives on the word of God rather than on some tradition we think makes us holy. Here is where Jesus gets right down to the practical application of this truth. Because he has been speaking about traditions that nullify the word of God, which are the things that come out of a man and those are the things that make us unclean. When we come up with traditions, we become unclean, as Jesus says we have deprived the word of God any force and authority in our lives. That is this lesson in its context, although some have always seen this as food or drink that enters us does not make us unclean, but what comes out of our mouths does. In a sense that is true because many of the traditions handed down over the years have been restrictions on the consumption of certain things, mostly drinking and smoking, with no attention to the consumption in the abundance of food, which is defined in the Bible as gluttony. In fact, within the Old Testament that were more laws about food than many other consumables. So what are we to do? Should we avoid all traditions and strictly live according to the word of God? Some traditions might be good, but not if they nullify the word of God. The problem is that some might make an effort to validate their traditions by reading into the word of God, their own thoughts, trying to find through misinterpreting the basis for their traditions. We have to be careful not to be judgmental as to how others base their lives, but we also need to be aware that we cannot allow traditions that nullify the word of God to have any place in our lives. We can have only one authority in our lives, and that has to be the word of God. It comes down to living by one or the other, so it cannot be both.

Commands or Traditions

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

COMMANDS OR TRADITIONS

Mark 7:1-8

7:1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and 2 saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were "unclean," that is, unwashed. 3(The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?" 6 He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'   8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men." 

NIV

There is more to this exchange or rather response of Jesus, but there is enough here and His further response has some other issues we can consider. For now, let us focus on this issue of the commands of God versus the traditions of men. When we first became Christian we were immediately instructed in the traditions of men rather than the commands of God. We speak only in a personal sense here, as we cannot know when and how everyone else started off with their journey in Christendom. We were instructed that above all else we were to refrain from dancing, smoking, drinking, movies, roller rinks, or God forbid that boys and girls should go swimming together. Of course, women should also dress appropriately, that is dresses, not pants, and men would never dream of having long hair, or woman short hair. Oh, the holiness of all that was so God-like, at least that was their thinking. However, they could have never been as wrong as when we read the bible we could not find one command of God that included any of those traditions of men they had instructed us in. Oh, we found some of the Old Testament laws, but even they did not restrict smoking, drinking, and dancing. Of course, the Old Testament said absolutely nothing about movies, roller rinks, or mixed swimming, or even what kind of clothing was acceptable and what wasn’t. Some of these traditions have fallen by the wayside, while others are still be held to.  Paul does give New Testament instructions to the Corinthians regarding woman’s long hair as their glory and should be covered when they pray and long hair on a man is a disgrace to him. However, that is only the New Testament, so many of us do not hold to that as much as we hold to our own self-made traditions. Jesus made it abundantly clear that in holding on to certain traditions of men, saying that if we are a Christian we would not do this or that, but do not hold to the actual commands of God, Jesus calls us hypocrites. That is really strong language. If we are going to be judged as to how “Good a Christian” we are by what we do not do, why are we not judged by what we are doing? Then, on the other hand, we are not free to go and do whatever we want to do as far as displeasing God, which would be sin so that His grace can abound. There are behaviors as well as attitudes that we should live out in a manner that is pleasing to God. Behaviors such as loving Him with our whole being and loving all others as we love ourselves. If we actually love others, then we would do them no harm. We would not judge them or let us say, make them feel guilty because they are not following the traditions of men we deem to have validity. We would not gossip about them either, or hold any type of ill-feelings about them, like a grudge. We would never be jealous or envious of them or feel prideful that we are better than they are, especially when it comes to those traditions we hold so dear. Then when it comes to our own lives, we would certainly not be anxious or afraid of anything, for Jesus has assured us that he has given us rest for our souls and His peace. If anything, we would live in perfect harmony within and without. Then we would be fulfilling the commands of God rather than our traditions. We could consider this ad nauseam, or at least so much it would take a book rather than some short thoughts about these words of Jesus. However, it still comes down to commands or traditions.