Mark, my words: Jesus gets it wrong?

 

Did Jesus heal everyone?

There are a lot of people who seem to enjoy the argument that Jesus didn’t and that might be true. But there is never an account of Jesus trying to heal someone and failing. Although this one comes close, but He gets it right on the second attempt. Join me as I read through the interesting Mark 8 from 22 to 26 and this encounter of Jesus and the semi-blind man.

 

 

[to return to the intro page and gain access to the whole series so far, click here.]

 

 

 

Mark, my words: The Yeast of these

In this passage Jesus warns the disciples about the yeast of the Pharisees prompting them to question why Jesus is so concerned about their baking techniques, and so he has to explain a little further. Join me as I read through Mark 8 from 14 to 21 and look at the influence we have on others and theirs on us:

[To watch the next passage which asks the question, 'Did Jess get it wrong? click here]

the importance of listening to the preacher [especially when the preacher is you]

i refer to John 15.4 all the time:

 ’Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.’

and i also love o use Psalm 46.10 which talks about being still and knowing that I [God] am God:

‘He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”’

and lately i’ve been hearing myself speak [write] them and then being hit mid sentence by the fact that i’m not really living them. i mean i kinda am, but not really. i’ve been distracted by the IPL fantasy dream league cricket which has happily coincided with my waking up times [finished today - hooray!] and then the day hits and carries on until bed time. and i steal moments away for God, and take time to remember important people and situations in prayer [as there have been a lot of them lately] and somehow use that to justify or get me through the day. but i know better.

this isn’t a new thing. i feel like i have a distractionary personality or tendency, which does not mean i am blaming how i am for how i have been – and it doesn’t have to be a specific distraction either, which maybe makes it harder cos it’s not about getting a handle on Words with Friends or Mousehunt or Poker or whatever the next thing is, cos it seems like there will always be a next thing… it is more about being aware of what the tendency is and putting in the hard work [and more importantly discipline, and schedule often helps for me] to avoid getting into those spaces. and also to remind myself daily what the priorities are: God, my beautiful wife Valerie, my family and friends, kingdom things…

i feel like it is so important to live the preach before i preach the preach cos the definition of a hypocrite is pretty much the opposite of that. the word hypocrite incidentally came from the word they used for actor [a person pretending to be something they are not] and so it is very apt.

i certainly don’t believe that i need to have it all together before i speak or write or challenge, but i need to be at least walking that road.

and today was a bit of an injection of that for me today – i don’t think it was a case of a whole bunch of time with God and so now i’m okay – more like a Red Bull sip of God and so i have the energy to get me to the place where i need to be to put in the work to get things back to being good with God. but it was a great start. some good worship vibes. some inspiration to film a couple of the next walk through Mark videos i’m doing and suddenly it started to all come alive again. i always find when i’m speaking out Truth it becomes or feels the most Truthful to me. so that was great.

it’s a start. a getting back on the road. a little bit of dusting off. and it’s good. looking forward to this week ahead.

Mark, my words: Was Jesus being a jerk?

well, i know i have your attention now, but really, if you read this story you may have that impression because he really gives this woman a bit of a hard time. but then if you know Jesus at all that doesn’t seem like Him, so what is the vibe?

take a look with me as i take a brief read through Mark chapter 7 verses 24-30

[for the next passage that deals with throwing away your mute and deaf box, click here]

Mark, my words: The things of God, or the traditions of man?

i am not a big fan of tradition when it is solely taking place for tradition’s sake [even if the original meaning and intention might have been good but has been lost or watered down along the way] but there are some traditions which are rich and full of life [baptism, communion, a family that eats together etc] that are incredible.

Join me as I look at Mark 7.1-13:

[to continue to the next passage and find out if Jesus was being a jerk, click here]

Throwing stones at Joel Osteen after checking it’s okay with Uncle Google.

i have called Google ‘Uncle Google’ for a long time now – i’m not sure why i do that cos it’s very silly but it’s become my thing [which is probly why i do that]. i guess one reason is that when someone asks me something i don’t know i will either tell them to ask Uncle Google or i say that i will and it feels like bringing another person into the conversation.

i read on Facebook this morning that well-known christian speaker and writer Joel Osteen has resigned and quit the faith. i’ve not been a huge fan of his writing as even his book titles suggest that he belongs to a group of christian writers/speakers who have a very strong focus on you – it’s all about you and becoming the best you you can be and being comfortable and happy and loving life, and so a brand of feel-good christianity that i’m not sure Jesus would be very comfortable with.

so when i read on Facebook that he had resigned and even quit his faith, my initial reaction was a bit of relief and “phew for Christianity” but then quite quickly i had another far more sobering thought… something along the lines of “Is that a Christ following reaction to have?”

as i read the article the announcement was linked to and how a church member said something along the lines of, “we gave him all our money and now he’s doing this to us. no ways, we’re not going to let him get away with that” i thought to myself, ‘wait a second, am i standing in line with all the other people ready to throw rocks at Joel?’

so question one that is asked of me is what is my attitude and posture when someone else falls [especially if it's someone i'm not a big fan of] – is that a reason to celebrate, to quietly feel relieved or happy that someone else is not in a good place? doesn’t sound very Jesusful

then for some reason, i decided to check in on Uncle Google and get his thoughts [yes, i get that he's not a real person and with all the knowledge he has i should be referring to him as she, right?]

and so i do the customary search i do every time i see the words when i come across the maths problem:

[thing i would really like to have - money, computer, latest phone] + [Facebook]

which is to type [thing i would like to have] and the word [hoax] into Uncle Google…

and sure enough, there are links to the Joel Osteen thing being a hoax [to be honest, not as many as there normally are with a blatant Facebook hoax so i am not even sure yet whether it is or isn't]

WHAT TO LEARN FROM THIS LITTLE LESSON:

#1 would be to always verify information received before acting on it – in the virtual world we have of hoaxes and misreporting and photoshop and so on, there is a lot of misleading information going around there.

#2 would be to question why am i sharing information – someone dies, someone falls from grace, celebrity scandal etc – why am i so quick to become part of the gossip chain of passing this on?

#3 would be to question if sharing the information is “me doing my bit” – this is definitely a different blog post but it is a valid question that came to me while i was giving us some stuff to think about – the whole thing with Kony2012, with articles on poverty and violence to women etc is that me feeling like i’ve done my bit so i don’t need to get involved or is that me trying to get some momentum for the action i am going to be doing?

#4 would be where do i stand when someone falls? [regardless of my feelings towards that person] – am i holding a rock and waiting for the signal, or am i on my knees praying for them and their family, crying out against injustice done, am i writing them a note of encouragement or offering to cook them a meal if they are someone i know? how would Jesus have me respond to crisis of any type?

these are important questions i need to ask myself. and i hope some of you will join me…

being still, and knowing, this Easter…

i feel like the previous few Easters have kind of passed me by with not too much impact – being the easily recognised dreadlock wearing Easter Bunny at the Simple Way is all i can remember and i’m not sure where i was the year before but in the middle of preparation to leave for the Simple Way and so life was a fair bit chaotic…

the last Easter that comes to mind was when my good buddy Mark Baker encouraged us to watch ‘The Passion of the Christ’ by Mel Gibson with our Sunday nite enGAGE congregation in Stellenbosch. i feel like i might have initially done it more to humour him than because i thought it was a good idea, but remember being powerfully affected again by the very violent depiction of Jesus’ flogging and death [i really feel like the cross can become this fluffy comfortable symbol we hold to but lose all meaning of if we forget the very violence and real sacrifice it depicts]

so as we started heading towards Easter in Oakland i really wanted it to be meaningful and so spent some time this week reading the end of John’s Gospel and some of Jesus’ last acts, words and prayers. last nite we jumped at the chance to join some new friends of ours to head to a church for a ‘stations of the cross’ experience where we walked around in small groups [we joined a family of five with three cool young kids] and then read scripture, reflected and did an action and a prayer connected to different aspects of Jesus last week leading up to His death.

i find it interesting that when the one station invited us to kiss the figure of Jesus on the cross [i chose not to] that it felt more weird for me than later when we were asked to spit at the figure of Jesus on the cross [i chose not to do that either, but more following the lead of Val] – as if the betrayal hidden behind a kiss seems somehow so much worse than the outwardly open betrayal of showing your true colours through spitting.

[i wonder if that is because i can't think of any time in my life when i have outwardly or openly joined the crowd in being against Jesus in any way or form, but there are countless times where my innocent looking actions have shown a deeper betrayal in what has been going on in my heart or somewhere else behind the scenes. a subtle hypocritical betrayal somehow feels so much worse... and so time and time again i hear the cock crow and have that moment of looking up and seeing Jesus' eyes pierce through me as i realise once again i have done that which i said i never would, and i end up behind a wall somewhere crying out as Jesus is lead once more to the cross by my actions]

Pilot’s washing of his hands affected me deeply as it did my wife Val [which you can, and should, read here] as i took it on myself to explain it to the children who were with us, specifically Kayla, the oldest daughter. the idea of “making no decision” because the decision you know you should make has consequences which just feel too extreme for you. being reminded that ‘making no decision’ is always making a decision.

apartheid. racism. violence towards women. rape culture. discrimination. abortion. being reminded that ‘making no decision’ is always making a decision.

there are so many aspects to this story. i hope that you will make time this Easter time in the busyness of it all to slow down and choose a moment, or moments, to meditate on. and then reflect against the daily living out of your life. has what Jesus did on the cross affected your day to day life in any way, shape or form?

the story of this week, two thousand years ago, affects me on a daily basis. it is so good to be reminded of that. and to live it out well.