Howdy! I’m Eric Oswald DCE at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Aloha. I’m a youth and children’s minister- for the next two weeks I thought I’d blog about Mark- I realized if I read 2 chapters today and a chapter a day after that I would read all the way through Mark and finish on Easter. I also find if I write out my thoughts it helps my devotional life. If it helps you out too great! So to follow along it’s good if you read the chapter(s) from Mark first before reading my brief thoughts to mark it up! I pray for God’s word to strengthen you and I as we go through this!
Chapter 1: John the baptist baptizes and tells people to confess- John is put in prison. Jesus calls the first disciples- gets tired and goes away to rest. That’s before he heals a guy with leprosy. That’s Mark chapter 1! There’s so much going on in each chapter! We learn already that Jesus wants us to confess. But there’s also interesting parallels to Genesis and the books of Moses- God rests on the 7th day, the Israelites wander not for 40 days but 40 years in the dessert with the wild animals. But Jesus does something immediately that stand out to me- he says lets go out preaching to more people. I don’t remember prophets ever willingly doing that. Let’s just go out and tell people what God is up to because I want to. Generally a prophet went kick and screaming and typically to his own people or worse yet kept the good news to himself while running the opposite direction- see Jonah.
Already we see a God who heals and cares, who encourages repentance, rest, and that the whole world should know the good news of God!
Chapter 2: We see that the crowds are getting excessive already. Jesus has already tried to walk away from them before and in comes the paralyzed man through the roof. And with a crowd comes the naysayers- the early readers would have thought clearly the tax collector is the culprit- but no it’s the pharisees who are the bad guys. They’re throwing shade at Jesus for hanging out with tax collectors and for forgiving sins- how dare he! Then Jesus doesn’t even fast and he allows his disciples to eat on the sabbath! What a terrible guy he must be. And Jesus begins teaching- teaching something new. He doesn’t seem concerned with keeping the law the same way the Pharisees do. He seems adept at using analogies that the pharisees and I don’t seem to get. We also see Jesus clearly reaching out to the marginalized the people society looks at as bad and considering them equals.
Yet the picture Mark is making is this- Jesus is a man with a message of repentance and healing who is standing up to religious leaders and talking about God and the faith in a different way than in the past. It’s a lot to take in for two chapters. It was a lot for the pharisees to take in too. I guess the point for now is that Jesus makes you think twice about what’s best. He brings something new to the table.
Right now we have a whole lot of new and what we need is something old. We need Jesus. We need Jesus for healing. We need him for hope. We need to repent for ungratefulness for so many things we took for granted before this-like jobs, friends, physical touch, restaurants, playgrounds, school, and worshiping together. And I see Jesus doing something amazing. He’s making us see each other as equals. We’re all sacrificing right now. I have had conversations with neighbors who I’ve lived next to for years but never had time to meet. And regardless of whether they currently have a job or not- somehow this homestay makes us all equals. I hope we remember that when times pass. I’m glad Jesus shows us this- that all are loved even when we’re unworthy and we all need him.
Marking It Up 