Category: 40DaysofFaith

Friday, April 7– John 19:17-19, 23-30

¹⁷ and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. ¹⁸ There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. ¹⁹ Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” … ²³ When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. ²⁴ So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill what the scripture says,

“They divided my clothes among themselves,
and for my clothing they cast lots.”

²⁵ And that is what the soldiers did.

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶ When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” ²⁷ Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

²⁸ After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. ³⁰ When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Points of Interest:

• The next day Jesus’ execution takes place on a hillside or mountainside location known as Golgotha. The Latin name for this place is where the English name sometimes used, Calvary, comes from. There’s debate around the reason for this name. It could be because of the skull-like shape of the hill, because it was near a graveyard, or because it might have been a place of frequent executions. Regardless, it again roots this scene both in a specific geography and a rather gothic-feeling mood.
• I’m not sure what I can say about crucifixion that hasn’t been said many times in many places. Wikipedia’s entry on the subject (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion) is actually – as of today – pretty thorough and well done. The Romans didn’t invent crucifixion, but they certainly ended up popularizing it. Given their penchant for detail, the Romans may also have perfected crucifixion as a method of public shame, torture, and state execution. The victim would often carry a crossbeam of up to a hundred pounds to the execution site, and then be left hanging naked to die of asphyxiation when he no longer had strength to hoist himself up to breathe. It was a gruesome form of torture and intimidation.
• For the sake of space, I cut some of the verses in which the Roman governor Pilate and Jerusalem’s religious leaders quibble over the sign Pilate had made, likely to mock the Jewish authorities who turned Jesus over to the Roman military.
• John takes a surprising amount of time on the detail of Jesus’ clothes and on the soldiers’ behavior. Partly this speaks to the sense of geographic and spiritual place of this scene. John and his fellow biographers are constantly telling us both where things happened and that they happened consistent with previous scriptures’ expectations for how these things would go. Here the quotation about the clothing is lifted from Psalm 22 – an old poem of someone’s unjust suffering and eventual vindication by God that other biographers say was very much on Jesus’ mind as he was killed.

Beyond this, Jesus’ biographers give us these vivid details because they help us picture and imagine how these events occured. This is what it was like, and this is what it’s like still when you are executed by armed agents of the state, however innocent you may be. Your murderers might do stuff like mock your family and culture, or take your possessions for themselves.

• Also, in these tragic moments in life, so often we find there are women waiting, and women grieving, and women suffering. Here too that’s the case. Three women, coincidentally all named Mary, are there at the scene, grieving the loss of their son and nephew and mentor and friend.
• Even as he’s dying, Jesus looks to the need of his mother Mary, and the need of the disciple mentioned as well. Likely this disciple is John, who likely didn’t actually write this account which is named after him but is the primary voice behind it, whoever actually published it in the generation following his life.

Jesus’ mother has lost a son, and Jesus’ disciple has lost part of his purpose for life. Jesus offers them to one another, giving his mother an heir to care for her in her old age, and giving his disciple an important role.

• Jesus’ words “I am thirsty” say a lot at once. Thirst is an obvious byproduct of hanging out in the sun to die. The words are also a nod to another old scripture, another psalm of suffering, in this case Psalm 69. And there is perhaps an ironic connection to the scene from earlier in John with the Samaritan woman. There Jesus offers himself as living water to a woman of great thirst. Here Jesus thirsts himself and all people can offer is a sponge full of old, sour wine.
• Jesus’ final words are, “It is finished.” His work is finished, his life is finished – maybe both. Jesus’ time on the cross is actually relatively short compared to many crucifixions, which could go on for hours and hours. Jesus seems to both surrender to the moment, and exudes a sense of control over his fate even to the end.

Prayer for your world – Jesus’ torture, suffering, and death was part of his means to reveal a God who suffers with us, to open up a path to intimate connection with God, to bring Jesus into death so he could overcome and defeat it from the inside, and to end once and for all a spiritually ineffective mode of scapegoating and sacrifice that didn’t bring life. Most torture and suffering, including all-too-frequent state-sponsored torture and suffering and death, does none of these things. Pray that God would bring peace to our earth and an end to these practices, and that people who follow Jesus would take the lead in effecting this change.

Spiritual Exercise – This week our spiritual exercise will be a modified version of a spiritual practice called Immanuel Prayer. One of Jesus’ nicknames, or titles, is Immanuel – Hebrew for “God with us.” Immanuel prayer is a mode of praying in which we invite Jesus to help us perceive Jesus as with us in all things. Take a moment today to call to mind a place in your life where you are experiencing pain or sorrow – either in your past or present, or one that you fear will come in the future. Call this situation to mind for a moment, thinking of what about it causes you grief. Then thank Jesus for being present and available in painful situations, having experienced such situations himself and looked to the needs of others even in those moments. Ask Jesus to help you to perceive how Jesus is with you now in your sorrow. What comfort, strength, or help – what “sponge full of wine” can the Spirit of God bring to you, even in this sorrow?

Thursday, April 6– Matthew 26:36-46

³⁶ Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.” ³⁹ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” ⁴⁰ Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, “So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? ⁴¹ Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ⁴² Again he went away for the second time and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” ⁴³ Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. ⁴⁵ Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶ Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.”

Points of Interest:

• All four of the Bible’s biographies of Jesus give considerable time and space to the final days before Jesus’ death, a week in a which he was in the big city of Jerusalem for the Passover feast and had been teaching his apprentices, interacting with large crowds, and embroiled in tense encounters with the city’s cultural and religious elite. All four of the biographies – also called gospels, literally “good news” – also mention this mountain side garden, tucked in near olive groves, where Jesus was arrested. This was an actual garden that any more local readers of these original texts could visit themselves and imagined what had occurred on this fateful evening.
• When last we met James and John (the two sons of Zebedee) in this guide, they were arguing over who was the greatest amongst Jesus’ apprentices and conspiring to grab the top two spots. Now Jesus is looking to them for emotional support and friendship, and it goes about as well as we’d expect it to.
• The language here leaves no doubt as to what this night was like for Jesus. He is grieved, agitated, and deeply grieved even to death, we’re told. Few sleepless nights have been quite this restless and agonizing.
• Jesus tells his friends to stay awake not just for his sake, but for theirs. They are facing a time of trial as well, though they don’t see it yet. Perhaps the trial is whether or not they can stay awake and be loyal and true friends to Jesus. More likely, it is the trial they will experience when their friend and teacher is arrested, tried and murdered as an enemy of the state of Rome. How would most of us react if our closest mentor and friend was disowned by whatever spiritual community we are part of and arrested by the state for terrorism? I know that such a trial would expose me pretty deeply as well.
• The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Thinking of pretty much any good intention or temptation, I say, “Truer words were never said, Jesus.” This could make us discouraged, as this is a pretty discouraging phenomenon. I think there are two more helpful ways to take this line, though. One is to accept our weakness of flesh with less self-judgment and shame. God understands our weaknesses and we needn’t endlessly deride ourselves for it. The other is to ask for greater power of spirit for where we need it. This access to divine help is a considerable part of the experience of Jesus’ God-soaked New Covenant spirituality he’s teaching us after all.
• Jesus’ prayer is for this cup to pass from him without him drinking it. This image of a cup of suffering is the same one Jesus referred to when James and John were negotiating for power as Jesus’ right-hand guys. Just as Jesus told them that the path to spiritual greatness would travel through great suffering, he senses great, impending suffering of his own that he doesn’t think he can bear. Usually, readers have assumed that Jesus is expecting his upcoming torture and death and would rather avoid it, even though it is central to his destiny. In this reading, which may well be accurate, Jesus’ prayer is heard by God but isn’t answered as he hoped it would be. An alternate reading is that Jesus is willing to suffer and die, but though he hopes to live again, is afraid that death will be the end. In this reading, though Jesus suffers, his prayer is heard and answered in the affirmative. Probably the stakes of how we read this are low, but I think it’s interesting to try to imagine the various ways Jesus may have experienced fear and grief on this night.
• In Jesus’ own angst-ridden prayer, he makes a strong statement of his preference, and also offers submission to the will and preference of God. It seems that praying with only half of this prayer is shallow. Praying our own desires without a desire to yield to God’s wishes seems flippant. But telling God we simply want what God wants without engaging our own desires seems dishonest. Jesus does both here, which seems to be a good model for increasing our own connection to both God and self.
• At the end, Jesus seems so disappointed and sad. He’s disappointed in his sleepy and weak friends, disappointed in the associate who betrays him, and sadly resigned to the betrayal which is about to occur. This moment reminds me that this phrase Son of Man can be a title for God’s designated ruler but also a phrase that means “human” or “everyman.” Jesus tasted the full range of human experience that we do, even the worst parts.

Prayer for your city – Somewhere in your city right now, there are gardens and bedrooms and classrooms and boardrooms where people are lonely, sad, and afraid. Pray that God will be these folks’ comfort, will answer their prayers spoken and unspoken, and will bring a true friend to their sides.

Spiritual Exercise – This week our spiritual exercise will be a modified version of a spiritual practice called Immanuel Prayer. One of Jesus’ nicknames, or titles, is Immanuel – Hebrew for “God with us.” Immanuel prayer is a mode of praying in which we invite Jesus to help us perceive Jesus as with us in all things. Take a moment today to call to mind a place in your life where your future looks bleak. Call this area to mind for a moment, thinking of what about it causes you fear or distress. Then thank Jesus for being present and available in all things, having experienced distress himself. Ask Jesus to help you to perceive how Jesus is with you now in your fear, how he is not asleep or inattentive. What comfort, strength, or help can the Spirit of God bring to you today?  And ask Jesus if you like what the will of God might look like for you in this area.

Wednesday, April 5– John 4:7-26

⁷ A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹² Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” ¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

Points of Interest:

• John’s memoirs indicate Jesus deliberately travelled through Samaria, even though Jews would usually travel around this region. Avoiding neighborhoods people we know think ill of is pretty familiar practice still. Not to Jesus, though, at least not in this case.
• There are multiple barriers of distance Jesus steps up to in this encounter. Men generally didn’t socially interact with non-related women in this kind of way and certainly didn’t engage in this kind of respectful, intellectual, and spiritual discourse like Jesus does here. As the passage points out, Jews also didn’t associate with Samaritans. Samaritans and Jews told different stories of Samaritans’ origins, but both groups acknowledge some shared culture and ancestry as well as significant differences. These differences had largely become points of tension and resentment over the years.
• To most of us, this feels like a split-level conversation. The woman is speaking on a more day-to-day, literal level, while Jesus is trying to take the conversation somewhere deeper. At first, she doesn’t quite catch his meaning, or at least doesn’t engage with it.
• The conversation takes a turn when Jesus asks for her husband. This, by the way, wouldn’t have been an unexpected or rude question. A man in Jesus’ culture wouldn’t have this kind of conversation with any woman, certainly not a stranger, and would at least expect her husband to be present if he were to continue.

Based on Jesus’ rather detailed knowledge of this woman’s personal life, he seems to have something else in mind. Typically, commentators – largely men – have read Jesus as exposing her shame, only to communicate that he accepts her despite her checkered past and sinful present. Much more likely is that Jesus is gently exposing her vulnerability. Women didn’t initiate divorces in this time and place and didn’t dictate the terms of their relationships with men in general. So this woman has had five husbands die or abandon her and another take her into his home without offering the dignity and protection of marriage. Whatever shame this woman has or hasn’t experienced, she has had a hard life.

• Jesus’ reaction to her life is to treat her as a desert, not a toxin. He sees the water being drawn from the well and offers her satisfaction and refreshment and life – all that water can do and more. Jesus says that he is her well, he is her reservoir.
• Jesus also offers this much-maligned Samaritan woman inclusion in a community of worship. This might sound technical or abstract to us, but it might be the most radical thing Jesus does. All women were ancillary to Jewish worship at best – they were not allowed in the more important areas of the temple in Jerusalem. And Jews also saw all Samaritans as terribly misguided in their religious views and worship practices.

When the woman steers Jesus toward this classically contentious topic – to change the subject? to provoke him? out of genuine curiosity? – Jesus takes the Jewish position in the debate, but says that in the end, God isn’t going to care. God wants people who can love and praise him in any culture, on any geography, in true and valid terms. This again is the New Covenant spirituality we’ve explored in this season. It’s personal and heartfelt connection – in this case worship: love, surrender, reverence – with the true and living God for all people, in all circumstances.

• Amongst Jews in Mark’s account, Jesus avoided this Messianic label, given all the misunderstandings with which it was fraught. Here in Samaria, he embraces it. He is the one who will continue to proclaim all things, just as he is doing now.

 

Prayer for our six – If any of your six have had particularly hard lives, pray that they will find a listening ear and acceptance for their story. If any of them have spiritual questions, pray that they will find answers from God and invitation to participate in this New Covenant spiritual worship.

Spiritual Exercise – This week our spiritual exercise will be a modified version of a spiritual practice called Immanuel Prayer. One of Jesus’ nicknames, or titles, is Immanuel – Hebrew for “God with us.” Immanuel prayer is a mode of praying in which we invite Jesus to help us perceive Jesus as with us in all things. Take a moment today to call to mind a place in your life where you are thirsty, unsatisfied, or unfulfilled. Call this area to mind, including how you might experience it this day. Then thank Jesus for being present and available to you in this, knowing everything about you. Ask Jesus to help you perceive how the water he can “give you will become in you a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” What is Jesus speaking to you in this promise?

Monday’s passage was an account from Mark on Jesus’ healing of a 12-year old daughter, and a woman who’s been ill for 12 years and called, “Daughter” by Jesus. I mentioned that it’s one of my favorite Bible stories from childhood because of an association I have with a song written about one of the two stories in the passage. A Reservoir leader wrote me saying that it is also one of her favorite passages, but because of the other story.

And she sent me this poem by the late author Madeleine L’Engle. Enjoy.

“The Irrational Season”

When I pushed through the crowd,

jostled, bumped, elbowed by the curious

who wanted to see what everyone else

was so excited about,

all I could think of was my pain

and that perhaps if I could touch him,

this man who worked miracles,

cured diseases,

even those as foul as mine,

I might find relief.

I was tired from hurting,

exhausted, revolted by my body,

unfit for any man, and yet not let loose

from desire and need.  I wanted to rest,

to sleep without pain or filthiness or torment.

I don’t really know why

I thought he could help me

when all the doctors

with all their knowledge

had left me still drained

and bereft of all that makes

a woman’s life worth living.

Well:  I’d seen him with some children

and his laughter was quick and merry

and reminded me of when I was young and well,

though he looked tired; and he was as old as I am.

Then there was that leper,

but lepers have been cured before—

 

No, it wasn’t the leper,

or the man cured of palsy,

or any of the other stories of miracles,

or at any rate that was the least of it;

I had been promised miracles too often.

I saw him ahead of me in the crowd

and there was something in his glance

and in the way his hand rested briefly

on the matted head of a small boy

who was getting in everybody’s way,

and I knew that if only I could get to him,

not to bother him, you understand,

not to interrupt, or to ask him for anything,

not even his attention,

just to get to him and touch him. . .

 

I didn’t think he’d mind, and he needn’t even know.

I pushed through the crowd

and it seemed that they were deliberately

trying to keep me from him.

I stumbled and fell and someone stepped

on my hand and I cried out

and nobody heard.  I crawled to my feet

and pushed on and at last I was close,

so close I could reach out

and touch with my fingers

the hem of his garment.

 

Have you ever been near

when lightning struck?

I was, once, when I was very small

and a summer storm came without warning

and lightning split the tree

under which I had been playing

and I was flung right across the courtyard.

That’s how it was.

Only this time I was not the child

but the tree

and the lightning filled me.

He asked, “Who touched me?”

and people dragged me away, roughly,

and the men around him were angry at me.

 

“Who touched me?” he asked.

I said, “I did, Lord,”

So that he might have the lightning back

which I had taken from him when I touched

his garment’s hem.

He looked at me and I knew then

that only he and I knew about the lightning.

He was tired and emptied

but he was not angry.

He looked at me

and the lightning returned to him again,

though not from me, and he smiled at me

and I knew that I was healed.

Then the crowd came between us

and he moved on, taking the lightning with him,

perhaps to strike again.

Tuesday, April 4 – Mark 8:22-26

²² They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. ²³ He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Can you see anything?” ²⁴ And the man looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.” ²⁵ Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. ²⁶ Then he sent him away to his home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.”

Points of Interest:

• Bethsaida was likely located along the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee – it was a largely Jewish fishing village familiar to Jesus and his apprentices. Jesus’ reputation as a travelling teacher and healer would have been well established in this area.
• I’m struck for the first time by a small detail. When the blind man’s friends or family or neighbors take him to Jesus, the first thing Jesus does is take his hand and walk him out of the village.

Partly, Jesus has his own reputation to consider. The gospel of Mark spends its first eight chapters pretty systematically developing the idea that Jesus is the Messiah, or the Christ – a Hebrew title for the promised messenger of God who will lead God’s people back to glory. He’s the leader they’ve been hoping for, and just after this passage, in a climactic moment in this section of Mark, Jesus’ apprentice Peter will say this too. But as much as Mark develops this claim, Jesus doesn’t seem to want anyone to know. He’s constantly trying to avoid acclaim, perhaps because he’s aware of just how different he is from the expectations most people had of this awaited ruler. As much as Jesus is Messiah, he’s also counter-Messiah. He’s God’s messenger, for sure, but not the one people have been hoping for. So Jesus keeps doing his best to operate in private.

I’ve got to think, though, that Jesus is also being considerate of this blind man. The sound and attention of this crowd was likely intimidating, and Jesus gently offers his hand and walks him away from a scene of spectacle. At the end of this encounter, perhaps again for both these reasons, Jesus sends the man home, way from what would have been a curious crowd downtown.

• Regardless of Jesus’ intentions, this attention and touch must have been a good feeling for the blind man. I even think Jesus’ earthy touch of rubbing his own saliva onto the man’s eyelids might have been more welcome than creepy.
• Saliva was believed to have medicinal properties by those in the first century Mediterranean world and was associated with healing. So it’s interesting that Jesus used a means for healing that was expected in his culture. Today this scene might look like Jesus walking this man to a local clinic and paying his co-pay for him.
• The two-phase healing of this scene is striking and unique in the memoirs of Jesus’ life. Is this just the way it worked that time? Was it kindness to this man to adjust to his new sight in phases? Both of those, or something else entirely? We don’t know. The line about him first seeing people looking like walking trees is certainly poetic.
• In the end, the man sees great. There’s a triple emphasis in the penultimate verse – he looked intently, his sight was restored, and he saw clearly.

 

Prayer for your region – I’m gripped by the half-way sight of the man after Jesus’ first touch. For me, this image of hazy sight has been a rich metaphor. Consider any ways that people and culture in your region have been touched by Jesus, but in a way that has left only a hazy rather than fully clear and good impact. I think, for instance, of the nostalgia and spirituality that white-steeple churches evoke in New England – lovely, but something short of Jesus’ full healing power. Or misunderstandings or half-understandings people have of Jesus may come to mind. Pray that Jesus would restore full spiritual sight to many in your region, that people would look intently at the life and words and good news of Jesus and see clearly.

Spiritual Exercise – This week our spiritual exercise will be a modified version of a spiritual practice called Immanuel Prayer. One of Jesus’ nicknames, or titles, is Immanuel – Hebrew for “God with us.” Immanuel prayer is a mode of praying in which we invite Jesus to help us perceive Jesus as with us in all things. Take a moment today to call to mind a place in your life where you lack clarity – perhaps you are utterly confused, or perhaps you can see the way forward, but only in a hazy light. Call this situation to mind for a moment, thinking of what clarity of vision you wish you had. Then thank Jesus for being present and available in confusing situations. Ask Jesus to help you to “see everything clearly.” What comes to mind as you do that?

Monday, April 3 – Mark 5:21-43

²¹ When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. ²² Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet ²³ and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” ²⁴ So he went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. ²⁵ Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. ²⁶ She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. ²⁷ She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.” ²⁹ Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. ³⁰ Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” ³¹ And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” ³² He looked all around to see who had done it. ³³ But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

³⁵ While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” ³⁶ But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” ³⁷ He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. ³⁸ When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. ³⁹ When he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” ⁴⁰ And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. ⁴¹ He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!” ⁴² And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. ⁴³ He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

 

Points of Interest:

• Many of the most interesting stories Jesus’ biographers tell happen while he’s travelling around with his apprentices, and someone interesting comes his way. I don’t know if he was looking for these interruptions or if they came looking for him, but Jesus seems unusually present and prepared for these situations. In this case, when Jairus, the synagogue leader, finds Jesus and makes his desperate pleas for help, we simply read, “So he went with him.”
• It’s striking to see the leader of the synagogue begging at Jesus’ feet, much like the leper from last week. Unlike the leper, this wouldn’t be a familiar posture for this community pillar. His trust in Jesus’ capacity to help is high, and Jesus goes with him.
• Meanwhile, Mark focuses our attention on a single unnamed woman in the crowd. For twelve years, she’s had increasingly constant menstrual bleeding, something that can be caused by a number of medical conditions, none of which were treatable by first century physicians. Apart from the decidedly difficult health and sanitation problems this woman would have dealt with, her condition would also have stigmatized her as ceremonially unclean in her religious culture – not fit for full acceptance in the worshipping community.
• While many of us find crowds challenging, I can see why crowds would have been particularly stressful for this woman, wondering when she would face embarrassment or have someone remind her of her ostracized state. You’d think Jesus would find the crowd stressful too, given that he’s the center of attention and has somewhere to go, in a hurry. Jesus, though, is present and aware, so much so that he notices a single touch of his clothing from a stranger, and something that happens in his spirit when this occurs.
• Jesus’ attention to this moment is strange to his disciples and frightening to the woman. Afraid of exposure or rejection, she’s instead called Jesus’ daughter, told that her faith has made her well, and that she can enjoy being healed in peace. She is physically, spiritually, and socially restored by Jesus.
• Mark, always loving a rapid pace of action, doesn’t pause to let us enjoy this moment, but turns our attention from this healed daughter back to the dying one. As Jesus is speaking, messengers from Jairus’ house arrive with the worst news a parent can receive – his daughter is dead.
• In this moment, Jesus says the craziest thing: “Do not fear, only believe.” Later, when they arrive at Jairus’ house, Jesus insists again that there isn’t a problem. People should settle down, the girl is only asleep. Is Jairus’ doctor incompetent? Is Jesus out of touch with reality? Both are possible, but unlikely. Rather, it seems that Jesus is reframing the whole situation. He has capacity to see settled calm even in an uproarious tragedy.
• By dismissing the crowd, Jesus creates an inside/out faith situation that’s common in Mark’s writing. The people that trust Jesus – his three closest apprentices, Jairus and his wife, see Jesus raise this daughter from the dead. The dismissive crowd misses that and assumes they misdiagnosed her death. Trust in Jesus opens up experience that grows further trust, while disinterest becomes self-confirming.
• Cheesy but true story: this passage was my one favorite Bible story as a kid, because I heard a record of a 1970s folks singer dramatize it. For your listening pleasure, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VknKAoxDiI

Prayer for our six – Pray that God would bring physical and spiritual help into the lives of any of your six who are chronically ill, or whose loved ones are sick or suffering. Pray that God would also protect them from isolation or despair.

Spiritual Exercise – This week our spiritual exercise will be a modified version of a spiritual practice called Immanuel Prayer. One of Jesus’ nicknames, or titles, is Immanuel – Hebrew for “God with us.” Immanuel prayer is a mode of praying in which we invite Jesus to help us perceive Jesus as with us in all things. Take a moment today to call to mind a place in your life where you are experiencing stress – either a recent stressful encounter, or something coming up in your day today that causes you stress. Call this situation to mind for a moment, thinking of what about it causes you stress. Then thank Jesus for being present and available in stressful situations. Ask Jesus to help you to perceive how Jesus is with you now in your stress. What does he bring to the scene that can help you “not fear, only believe”?

Sunday, April 2 – Selah (Review)

Taking our cue from the Psalms’ interlude moments of rest and meditation, we are practicing a weekly pause in our Bible guide. Each Sunday, we won’t introduce a new passage but will pause for reflection and review.

One way you can use this pause is for catch up. If you missed a day or more of the guide this week, you can look at one other day’s passage and enjoy it out of sequence.

A second way you can use this pause is to review one of the passages you especially enjoyed or that especially troubled you. Read it and the points of interest a second time, asking God to teach you something new and illumine something God would like you to notice. Try the spiritual exercise again and see where it takes you.

A final way you can use this pause is to touch base on the 40 Days of Faith experiment as a whole. Consider these prompts to do so.

1. How has it gone praying every day for God to do something for you? Has anything changed in your prayer, or in answer to your prayer?
2. What has it been like to pray for your six? Consider re-writing the six names below, or re-committing to prayer for six local people who seem to not be experiencing much from God. Have you seen anything happen – either in you or in their lives – in response to your prayers? Is there anything you would like to say to any of them?
3. How have you experienced God’s goodness so far? Did any of Jesus’ words particularly speak to you this week? Have you learned anything about God, or seen any ways in which you live in a God-soaked world? Have you noticed anything that helps you engage with God’s presence with you?

Take a few minutes of silence with these questions, and see where they take you today. Close your time by thanking God for anything you notice, learn, or experience.

Saturday, April 1 – Mark 10:35-52

³⁵ James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” ³⁶ And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” ³⁷ And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” ³⁸ But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” ³⁹ They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; ⁴⁰ but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

⁴¹ When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. ⁴² So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. ⁴³ But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

⁴⁶ They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. ⁴⁷ When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁸ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁹ Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” ⁵⁰ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. ⁵¹ Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” ⁵² Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

 

Points of Interest:

• Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, where he’ll be betrayed by one of his students, arrested, and killed. According to Mark, he’s just said this to his students. Meanwhile, though, two of them are busy asking him ridiculous questions. Perhaps this is what Jesus gets for including two brothers in his mobile classroom, sibling rivalry being a pretty old and potent force.
• Jesus also has told his friends that after he’s killed, God will restore his life and give him greater power. Seizing on this hope, James and John want to come along for the ride – at least the power and glory side of things. In asking for seats at his right hand and left hand, they’re looking for chief cabinet posts – vice-president, secretary of state-level appointments.
• Jesus says the way to that kind of leadership is immersion in suffering. Drinking the cup here is an allusion to drinking a bitter cup of suffering, and the immersion of baptism a metaphor this time not for being soaked in God’s love but being drenched in the suffering of death. In their zeal for power, James and John are like, “Whatever. Fine.” But they clearly don’t get it.

• Jesus lightly shames his students, telling them they’re thinking just like the rest of the world that they look down upon. Jesus says it’s not that way with me, so it’s not that way with you if you follow me. Greatness comes through service, not power.
• Jesus lives by this rule himself. The Son of Man is a nickname Jesus has applied to himself as a title. It means “everyman” like it sounds, but it’s also a reference to an Old Testament title for God’s chosen human authority on earth. Jesus says that his authority is there to serve others, to – like a ransom – be a vehicle for the freedom and redemption of other people.
• In the next town, Jesus’ students get to see this live. A blind, roadside beggar is making a ruckus, looking for help. The instinct of some is to quiet him, to stop him from disturbing an important person like Jesus. They want to shut him up, to get him away. Jesus, though, says, “Call him here.” Jesus wants to serve him.
• As with any good servant, Jesus asks Bartimaeus (as he did the two brothers), “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus recognizes the power of naming our desires and asks Bartimaeus to do this, to express just what type of mercy he’s looking for. This is a model for what we are doing in the 40 Days of Faith – telling Jesus what mercy from God would look like for us, naming what we would like God to do for us. Some of us will get what we ask for, as Bartimaeus did. Some won’t, as James and John appear not to, at least for now. Jesus asks all of us, though, what we want.
• When Bartimaeus can suddenly see again, Jesus says that his faith – his trust in God expressed through his ask – has made him well. Naming the desire, making the ask of Jesus, did the work. May it be true for us as well!

Prayer for your six – What do your six most want? Pray for each of them, that they will know what they most desire and that their desire will be heard and responded to by Jesus as well.

Spiritual Exercise – This week our spiritual exercise will be listening to and meditating on the words of Jesus, letting God speak to us through them. In today’s passage, Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” Sit quietly and imagine Jesus speaking these words to you. What is your reaction to these words? How are they easy or hard to receive? How do they encourage or inspire you?

Friday, March 31 – Matthew 11:28-12:8

²⁸ “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

12 ¹ At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. ² When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.” ³ He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴ He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. ⁵ Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? ⁶ I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. ⁷ But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸ For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

 

Points of Interest:

• Matthew tells the same story Mark does of Sabbath grain-picking followed by a Sabbath healing that makes Jesus’ religious contemporaries defensive and angry. We won’t repeat yesterday’s comments on the narrative. You can go back one day if you missed them.

Before the story, though, Matthew adds a few other words Jesus said, and he gives us another pretty juicy quote from Jesus in the middle of the conflict. We’ll focus on those additional words from Jesus today.

• When Jesus says, “Come to me,” he’s expressing a lot of empathy in a few words. Jesus understands that life is hard – that our default posture is to be weary and feel freighted with burden. He also understands that most religious expression has added to, rather than lightened, these stresses and burdens.

Jesus says he has a different way. Jesus is gentle. One friend of mine, critiquing many religious settings that didn’t serve her well, said she heard so many harsh words about so many things. Gentleness is a mark of true Jesus spirituality. So is humility. Jesus isn’t insecure, and he’s not trying to force his way onto anyone. He offers an invitation.

• Jesus’ invitation is to presence and partnership. A yoke ties two working animals together under the leadership of a person walking those animals through a field. It’s a familiar image in Jesus’ agrarian context. Jesus’ yoke – both in any ways he’s united to us as fellow humans and any ways he’s leading us – fits well and feels right. Jesus’ work is light to carry, so to speak, and we get rest when we walk alongside Jesus and when we are led by him.
• In this context, the disciples walking through the fields with Jesus, picking grain on their day off, is a great picture of Jesus’ promise. It’s sane, it’s stress-free, it’s satisfying. It’s everything the Pharisees’ religious world isn’t.
• Jesus gets at his distinctive lifestyle and spiritual approach in another phrase – this not original to him but a quotation from the Old Testament prophet of Hosea. Jesus tells his stressed-out human accusers that they clearly don’t understand God’s words, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” I think Jesus is talking about the way he’d love for us to be able to connect with God as well as with our fellow humans.

Jesus says that God doesn’t need us to do things for God to please or appease God. Remember that our baptism – our immersion into God – begins with God’s basic posture of love and pleasure toward us. Instead, God would love for us to connect with an experience of God’s fundamental mercy toward us, that God is eager to meet us in unexpected, unmerited kindness.

And so a God-soaked world finds mercy in how we see and relate to others too. Criticism, judgment, and burden-adding all flow from the fear-based spirit of sacrifice that looks to appease God. Love, friendship, and understanding flow from the spirit of mercy that looks to receive from God.

 

Prayer for your six – If any of your six are burdened and stressed out, pray that God will lighten their load today. If any have been repelled by sacrifice-sounding faith, pray that they will hear an expression of mercy-based faith instead.

 

Spiritual Exercise – This week our spiritual exercise will be listening to and meditating on the words of Jesus, letting God speak to us through them. In today’s passage, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Sit quietly and imagine Jesus speaking these words to you. What is your reaction to these words? How are they easy or hard to receive? How do they encourage or inspire you?

 

Thursday, March 30 – Mark 2:23-3:6

²³ One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. ²⁴ The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” ²⁵ And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? ²⁶ He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.” ²⁷ Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; ²⁸ so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

3 ¹Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. ² They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. ³ And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” ⁴ Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵ He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Points of Interest:

• The Sabbath was a big deal to Jesus’ contemporaries. It’s one of the ten commandments. Weekly rest and worship ideally helps us remember the point of life as it was meant to be and reminds communities that the point of life isn’t to be enslaved to our work. During Jesus’ age, it was also an important responsibility and an identity marker – a way of showing yourself and others that you were a faithful Jew.
• Jesus and his students are doing what looks like a very “day of rest” thing to do – they’re taking a lovely walk through a field of grain, grabbing snacks for later as they go. To the Pharisees – the most devoted interpreters of religious law in this generation – it looks very much like work, against the Sabbath regulations that had been codified over time.
• On the surface, the argument the Pharisees pick with Jesus sounds trivial. At a deeper level, though, it’s an argument about Bible, authority, and the very meaning of life. The Pharisees view Bible (or at least large parts of it) as Law, an abstract set of timeless regulations to govern good, God-acceptable behavior. In raising a competing story, Jesus shows that he views Bible as a compendium of laws and stories to help you discern God’s ways.

The Pharisees understand the Bible and the religious traditions that surround it as the ultimate source of authority for governing communities and individual choices. In his example of David’s own seemingly law-breaking behavior, Jesus says that David had authority from God to do differently, and that Jesus, by implication, has David’s authority and even more to reinterpret law. Authority is personalized, in Jesus.

And the Pharisees understand the meaning of life first as obedience – doing the things God has taught us to do, finding fulfillment and happiness and approval from God in serving the master – in this case the master of religious law – that has been given to us. Jesus says that that God has given us practices like Sabbath for our benefit. The meaning of life is discovering God’s path for human flourishing and enjoying it.

• Later that day, another encounter takes this dispute and just widens the gulf. In the synagogue, a guy with enough problems of his own – life with one non-functioning hand can’t be easy – is used by the same religious authorities to test Jesus. They watch as Jesus demonstrates that the point of religious spaces like synagogue and God-directed practices like Sabbath is human flourishing. All genuine spiritual experience is life-giving, not life-harming or life-sucking.

This recasting of the point of religion and the point of life is so threatening to the religious establishment that they conspire with their natural enemies (the more secular sellouts to Rome, the Herodians) to kill Jesus. Ironically, they are in fact using the Sabbath to kill.

• It seems telling, and maybe timeless, that there is a strong human impulse to use religion to govern and control life. The spirituality of Jesus, though, is to produce life, not to control it.

 

Prayer for your city – Our city is famous for its ambition and pace of life. One of our church’s founding pastors called this a local “spirit of grim drivenness.” Pray that our city would discover God’s good gift of rest, that there is more to life than work and achievement.

Spiritual Exercise – This week our spiritual exercise will be listening to and meditating on the words of Jesus, letting God speak to us through them. In today’s passage, Jesus says, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” To paraphrase and modernize a bit, perhaps Jesus is saying to us, “I am in charge of everything. But my authority and ways are made for you and your flourishing.” Sit quietly and imagine Jesus speaking these words to you. What is your reaction to these words? How are they easy or hard to receive? How do they encourage or inspire you?