Reading: Mark 6
From Lent for Everyone by N.T. Wright

Jesus told us to leave at once. The last thing we saw was him heading up into the hills. Probably off to pray again, he’s always doing that, wish I knew what he said. Then we realized: night was on the way. And there we were, between the black sky and the black waters, everybody tired, almost forgetting the ridiculous things we’d just seen, everybody longing for sleep, and ­­– what was that? Did you see something? It’s – no, it can’t be! It must be a ghost!

And then the voice. So calm, so natural. Almost as though he was teasing us. Here are we, dropping the oars in fright, and there was he, as though he was out for an afternoon stroll, going to walk right by us. I’ve lived by this lake all my life and this is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone walking on it. What’s going on?

But now he’s speaking again, and this time I sense that he’s looking straight at me. ‘Don’t be afraid.’ Well, why not, I thought…and then it happened. Like it sometimes does when he speaks to you. Like a cold drink on a hot day. ‘Don’t be afraid.’ He says that quite a lot, and it rings bells with things I’ve heard in synagogue. In the scriptures. Angels say it to people. God says it sometimes, too. Now he’s saying it.

It was all a bit too much. I simply couldn’t put it all together. The healings, the parties, those lawyers getting stroppy with him, then his cousin being killed, then that business with the loaves, and now this. Maybe we are all crazy. Maybe we’re all going to die if we follow him. But I’ve never known anybody like him and nor has anybody I know. And when we all went off to his cousin, down by the Jordan, John seemed pretty clear that Jesus was the one.

I always had a picture in my mind of what the ideal king would look like, and though Jesus isn’t at all like that, Herod certainly isn’t and could never be. And in fact I have a sense that Jesus is trying to be a different sort of king … and it’s very appealing, his sort of kingdom, even though I still don’t see how it all works out. Perhaps this is how it’s always going to be, for anyone who wants to follow Jesus, now or at any time. Perhaps what he wants from us is not that we should be able to explain it all but that we should just be clear we’re going to go on following him. I may not always understand it first time off, but I’ll still show up. Or my name’s not Thomas Didymus.

Reading: Mark 5
Thoughts by Tamara Thompson

Have you seen Sol? Doesn’t he look great? It’s so amazing to see him relaxed and pleasant. What? You don’t remember what he was like a year ago? He was that guy who lived in the tombs by the lake. Yeah! Crazy, isn’t it? What a scary dude he was back then! Running around naked and filthy—man, he smelled like a trash heap! He was possessed by demons—an army of them! His friends tried to keep him from harming himself and others, but he broke every chain they put on him. He’d cut himself and blood dripped from those cuts constantly. After a while, no one would go near him. He was so irrational and out of control.

What happened to him, you ask? I don’t know how you have missed his story. He’s told everyone possible in the Decapolis. You know that Jewish teacher, Jesus? He saw Sol and commanded the demons to leave him. Sent them into a herd of pigs! Sol said Jesus was the most compassionate man he’s ever met. He wasn’t afraid of Sol, and after the demons left, he made sure Sol got some clothes. Sol said just being near Jesus gave him immense peace. Jesus asked nothing of him, except that he tell his story. And Sol’s been true to his word.

I really wish I could have met Jesus. We were all so sad when they crucified him. You heard about that? Some say he was the Son of God! I heard he was seen after his death. Sol believes that he resurrected. He can’t stop talking about Jesus. He’s started a group of Gentile followers. Hey, want to check it out with me?

Lord, thank you for transforming us through your story.

Reading: Mark 4
A prayer by Henri Nouwen (from A Cry for Mercy)

How often have I lived through these weeks without paying much attention to penance, fasting, and prayer? How often have I missed the spiritual fruits of the season without even being aware of it? But how can I ever really celebrate Easter without observing Lent? How can I rejoice fully in your Resurrection when I have avoided participating in your death?

Yes, Lord, I have to die—with you, through you, and in you—and thus become ready to recognize you when you appear to me in your Resurrection. There is so much in me that needs to die: false attachments, greed and anger, impatience and stinginess…. I see clearly now how little I have died with you, really gone your way and been faithful to it. O Lord, make this Lenten season different from the other ones. Let me find you again.

Amen.

Reading: Mark 3
“Finding Mercy and Compassion” by Abbie Norris

Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.

Throughout the Gospel, Jesus demonstrates how serving God is driven by love and compassion, even and perhaps especially when that compassion supersedes tradition. This comes to the forefront in Mark 3, when Jesus’ decision to heal a sick man puts him in danger with religious officials. Jesus was a religious revolutionary who recognized a gap between orthodox practice and honoring God as love, and this shows in his desire to exercise healing and mercy in the world.

In a recent Sunday school class, members of our group raised the suggestion that, when we decide how to interpret the Bible, our priority should be finding the mercy and compassion in our interpretations. I was struck by the similarity between this thought and Mark 3:1-6. Jesus acts with compassion first and tradition second (or third, or fourth). In modeling our lives after Jesus, should we not seek to do the same? How can we live our faith in ways that seek not to condemn or reform, but to love?

Today, Christianity feels situated in a period of growth where some argue that the world is moving away from faith and other argues that our faith needs to move with the world. Perhaps, in framing our lives after Jesus, this isn’t a question at all. In following Jesus’ example, our faith is founded not in strict adherence but in finding human, godly compassion. In Jesus’ breaking tradition to exemplify God’s Word, I see the beauty of Christianity: a religion fueled by mercy and driven by love.

Reading: Mark 2
Thoughts by Sam Snyder

Mark 2 is the story of how Jesus did everything wrong. No, really. Stay with me.

The Jesus in Mark 2 is not a Jesus on the side of power. He’s not, as it were, a tame lion. Instead, to the horror of scribes and Pharisees, he eats with sinners and tax collectors, even calling one as a disciple; he forgives a man’s sins then heals him just to make a point; and he allows his disciples to work on the Sabbath. Every power structure, every law of pious society – turned upside down.

Jesus himself shows no remorse when challenged: “The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” “Son of Man”, originally a Hebrew idiom that simply meant “human”, gained in certain contexts a prophetic connotation, signifying something more than human. That understanding is vital for this passage; Jesus had come as both human and something more, and his very presence transformed the mundanity and pettiness of human-controlled law into something greater.

The story of Jesus in Mark 2 is the story of the work of God in microcosm. Jesus defies the law – and in so doing, recreates it. In naming himself “lord of the Sabbath”, he claims authority over law itself, and remakes it in his own image: that of a rabbi caring for his disciples, and of God himself at work among his people. In other words, these revolutionary acts of Jesus do not abolish the law, but rather instate Jesus himself as arbiter of the law, and as the lens through which the law must be viewed.

Reading: Mark 1
“Redeeming the Time” by Sara Faye Fudge

Time is such an ephemeral concept. We calendar our appointments, check our phones, lament waiting anywhere, and generally structure our lives around the clock notations. As Peter observes, in 2 Peter 3:8-9 when answering the doubters that the Lord was not returning, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

And so we read the beginning of Mark’s gospel with the quotation from the prophet Isaiah, proclaiming the messenger’s coming to prepare the way for the Lord’s appearance. And the approximate date for Isaiah was 740 B.C. And then nothing happens for a long time!! Finally, John the Baptist appears on the scene, preaching the need for repentance and baptizing all who came out to him. And Jesus himself came out to John, the sinless man of 30 standing in the sinner line, to be baptized. And then watch what happens. After all those years of waiting, prophecy was now being fulfilled, and things speed up with an amazing pace.

Immediately after coming out of the water, Jesus is affirmed as God’s beloved son by the Spirit’s presence and the voice of God. And that word “immediately” appears 10 times in this chapter, with Jesus moving from preparation in the wilderness, to calling his disciples, to teaching, to healing after healing after healing. And his entire ministry was only three years but it was filled with action, doing the will of the Father.

As we enter this season of reflection, let us be encouraged that the Lord is working in us and empowering us to do the work he has for us to do – to speak of His glory, sing of his mercy and grace, and praise our Savior who showed us how to use our time for God, whether many years or few. We have a mission in this world and need to “redeem the time” (KJV) or make the most of our time, because the days are evil. (Eph. 5:16)