March 28, 2025

Still Among the Gentiles

Mark 7:31-37

Jesus is traveling again.  Leaving Tyre, he goes up the coast, through Sidon, then southeast to the Sea of Galilee, and finally to the territory east of the Sea to an area called the Decapolis, which literally means the “ten cities.”  Jesus has moved from Gentile territory in Tyre and Sidon, through areas and towns of Israel, to finally arrive in another Gentile territory, the Decapolis.  It is interesting that Mark does not describe any of Jesus’ activities in the towns and countryside between Tyre and the Decapolis.  Was Jesus intent on moving from one encounter with Gentiles to another one?  Or has Mark just chosen to keep the flow of the story going as he describes these couple of encounters, and omitted other details in order to emphasize these events?  We can’t know of course, but it is intriguing to consider the options.

As Jesus arrives in the Decapolis, people bring to him a man who was deaf and who spoke with difficulty, and they seek healing for the man.  One can ask, how did they know who Jesus was?  What gives them the impression that he is a healer?  He was no doubt surrounded by the disciples, and the way in which they walked with him probably showed onlookers that he was their leader.  But still, how was Jesus identified as a healer?  There seem to be at least two possibilities.  The first is that his reputation had preceded him.  The second is that he was identified in some way as a “holy man,” and whatever he could do for the man would be appreciated.  In fact, in the text, the people don’t specifically request that he heal the man, simply that Jesus lay his hand on the man.

Jesus takes the man away from the crowd, and heals him.  It is an amazing description of the healing.  Since the crowd did not witness it, we assume that the details were provided by the disciples.

Then we encounter a theme that runs through Mark’s Gospel, that of Jesus wanting to keep word of his healings quiet.  But, as in other instances, the more that Jesus discourages them from telling others, the more they do so.

Mark concludes this portion with the telling remark that Jesus “even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”  It is indeed amazing.

March 21, 2025

A Deep Desire and Faith

Mark 7:24-30

This is an immediately notable story, because Jesus has gone to the region of Tyre.  This was an area northwest of Galilee, in the coastal territory of Phoenicia.  This was Gentile territory, at least the majority of inhabitants would have been Gentiles.  So, why does he go there?  Mark’s only comment is that Jesus entered a house and he didn’t want anyone to know that he was there.  It sounds as though he is seeking a respite from things, a time to rest and refresh.  Being in Gentile territory, he would perhaps be less known, even unknown, and could find the rest that he needed.

But, that didn’t work.  Someone notices him, whether it is the woman who now comes to him, or someone who recognized Jesus and encouraged the woman to seek help from Jesus.  And she comes to him to indeed ask for help.  Mark tells us that she was a Gentile, which is not surprising in itself, but it leads Jesus into the response that many have found so surprising across the years.  He says that the children, the Jews, are to be fed first, and the dogs, the Gentiles, shouldn’t be taking it away from them.  The statement is made to sound like a proverb of sorts, and may indeed have had such roots in another context.  Here, Jesus’ statement sounds rude though, even derogatory.  But that isn’t usually how we encounter Jesus, it doesn’t sound like the usual Jesus.  So that may be a clue that something more is happening here.  And the woman responds with a saying that sounds equally proverbial, and wise, reminding Jesus that dogs eat the crumbs that the children drop.  That would be true at the dinner table, and here it implies that if some of the Jews have not received his message, then there are Gentiles who will welcome it.

Now, I wonder if Jesus’ statement here, his proverbial saying, isn’t meant to challenge the woman, to see perhaps how deeply she wants her daughter to be healed.  In any case, Jesus is impressed by the woman, and by her wisdom, and immediately grants her request, and when the woman arrives home, her daughter is indeed healed.

While we can’t know exactly what transpired here, especially since Mark’s accounts are usually brief and to the point, we can see that this is an important extension of Jesus’ ministry from the Jews to now include the Gentiles.  This may not be the focus of his overall ministry, but Jesus shows us that he came for all of us.  Perhaps the challenge for us is to decide how deeply we want Jesus in our lives.  Do we have the desire and the faith of this Gentile woman?

March 15, 2025

Who We Are Is What’s Important

Mark 7:1-23

This is an important passage for understanding both first century Judaism and the perspectives of Jesus.  As Mark begins by telling us that “the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem were gathered around him,” we have our first clue as to where this passage is going.  Mark has set up the conflict that we surely know is coming, just by how he has arranged things.

The first thing to notice is that the Pharisees (and surely this isn’t all of the Pharisees, even though Mark qualifies that only some of the scribes have come) and some of the scribes have come all the way from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee.  Now this was approximately sixty miles.  Have they really made this long journey just to investigate this rural preacher?  I would think that maybe a couple of the Pharisees, and a couple of the scribes, who either lived in the area or were sent to investigate this person who was becoming renowned, is a more reasonable understanding of things.  But, remember, Mark wrote these things down about forty years after they happened, and stories do get embellished and expanded over time.

In any case, there were some of each group there, and they have a conversation with Jesus.  Now, we have become conditioned to see the Pharisees and the scribes as sort of the archenemies of Jesus, and are therefore told right away who we are to be backing in this argument.  But that is actually far from the truth.  In the first place, the Pharisees were not a homogeneous group, all believing and adhering to the same principles.  There were Pharisees who were very strict in how they thought things should be done, and there were others who were much more open to other interpretations, such that Jesus, if he wasn’t the Messiah, might have made a good open-minded Pharisee.  Secondly, it was common, especially among the Pharisees, to dialogue about various issues.  They would discuss scripture and traditions, and debate among themselves, that they might arrive at a more enlightened understanding.  It most likely would have been in the spirit of such debate that they asked this question about the eating habits of the disciples.  Incidentally, when they ask about the lack of hand washing on the part of the disciples, we shouldn’t assume that the disciples were lacking in hygiene, but rather that they hadn’t done whatever ritual hand washing that the Pharisees deemed necessary.

So, after Mark fills in any Gentile readers with a further explanation of these ritual washing habits, then we get their question and Jesus’ reply.  Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah, and then challenges their own interpretation of the commandment to honor father and mother by saying that just because one claims to be making an offering to God with the money that one would have used to support one’s parents, that doesn’t excuse them from fulfilling the commandment and taking care of the parents as well.  Indeed, Jesus says that they have made many such accommodations in their minds, in order to keep the traditions that they have created above keeping the actual commandments themselves.

Then Jesus calls together the whole crowd that has witnessed this debate, and says that it is not what we take into ourselves that defiles us, but rather it is what comes out of us that can indeed defile us.

The disciples themselves are confused however, and ask Jesus for clarity when they are alone with him.  So, he expands his explanation, first reminding them that what we eat just goes through the digestive system and then exits from our body.  Mark uses this as an occasion to say that Jesus has thus made all foods clean, or acceptable.  By the time that Mark wrote that was true, but whether Jesus intended that understanding at this point is debatable.

But then Jesus explains further.  It is what comes out of our hearts, out of our mouths, out of our actions, that defile us. 

If I could join such a debate with Jesus today, I would suggest that while the foods we eat may not defile us, the things that we read, the opinions we listen to, the movies we watch, the words that we receive from others, can indeed defile us, such that they can directly affect what comes out of us.  But I will ask Jesus about that when I see him.

March 7, 2025

A Turbulent Sea

Mark 6:45-56

Jesus begins to disperse the crowd, following the feeding of the multitudes, by first sending the disciples out to sea so as to go to another city, Bethsaida.  If the disciples questioned what Jesus was doing, Mark tells us nothing.  But I imagine at least two questions – one, “Why don’t we wait for you, Jesus, and we can all go together?” and, two, “How are you going to get to Bethsaida is you don’t go with us?”  The second question could simply be answered by saying he would walk, but he might also share a ride in someone else’s boat that was also headed to Bethsaida.  Of greater concern, perhaps, was the first question.  After all, they were seemingly in this together.  And he may well have told them his plans, which were that after saying farewell to the crowd, he was going to go and find some time alone, apart from everyone, to pray and be in connection with God.  If he shared those plans with the disciples, who among them could argue with him?

When evening comes, Jesus, who is alone, perhaps at an elevated place where he was praying, sees the boat out on the sea.  He may have seen them struggling against the wind at that point, but decided to let them work things out on their own.  But then, Mark tells us, early in the morning (in the Greek this phrase indicates a time between 3:00 am and 6:00 am), Jesus sees them still struggling and decides to get a closer look.  Mark says that Jesus intended to pass by them after he checked on them.  But they see him walking on the water, or rather they think they see a ghost, and they react with such terror that Jesus intervenes and lets them know that it is him, and that they do not need to be afraid.  He then gets into the boat and the wind totally dies down.  And they are astounded, as any one of us likely would be too.

Now, this is certainly open to interpretation, but I think one of the ways to look at this event is in contrast to the feeding of the multitudes.  That was a very public event, feeding more than five thousand people, but here, this is a private moment with his traveling companions, with his close followers, and I think it is meant to encourage their faith, and to deepen their relationship with him.

They finally make it across the sea, but note that they arrive not at Bethsaida, rather they land at Gennesaret, which was to the southwest of Bethsaida, but still on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  They were driven about five or six miles off-course by the wind.  But no matter that they are somewhere other than they intended.  Almost immediately upon landing, Jesus is recognized, and the crowds begin to arrive seeking healings, and this continues wherever Jesus goes.

March 6, 2025                  

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the six-and-a-half weeks that will culminate with the celebration of Easter.  This is the season of Lent, and in my congregation we started our journey together with a soup supper and a time of worship yesterday evening.  This is something that likely happens in many churches, but I like to think that our homemade soups set us apart.  They were delicious. 

Ash Wednesday has not always been something that Protestant churches have observed, and the rituals and traditions of the day can seem unusual.  For those who desired it, ashes were available to be placed on the forehead as we began our time of worship.  Not everyone chooses to share in that tradition, but there is a sense that just by participating in the evening that each person has been marked by the ashes.  For the ashes, while they symbolize several things, are a marker of the beginning of a journey.  It is a journey that we will walk together.  It is a journey that is familiar for most because we do it each year.  And yet, it is a totally new journey, for we have never been who we are right now, and the pathway we walk has never been here before.  It is an opportunity to experience this walk with Jesus in entirely new ways.

Where will the road lead us?  Who will we become?  The answers await us if we are open to them.