Category: Gospel of Mark

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)