Rules, Pollution & Behavior

If Jesus were a comic book hero (stay with me here, I’m not really suggesting he is anything the like), who would be his arch enemy?  I am venturing a guess to say it would be the religious leaders of the day – in particular the Pharisees.  They pointed out the flaws and transgressions of others while maintaining their own righteousness.  They took pride in their ability to live by the rules of the law.  And if they had difficulty with a particular rule, they simply made a new rule with new interpretation to suit their needs.  All of this so their outward behavior had the appearance of Godliness.

Jesus saw through it all :” These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it.  They act like they are worshiping, but they don’t mean it.“  Worse than that, the Pharisees imposed their rules on people, oppressing them and delighting in their failure.  Jesus, quoting Isaiah:” They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy…” (Mark 7:8).

In response to the Pharisee’s accusations about the failure of Jesus’ disciples to properly clean their hands before eating, Jesus called the religious men out on following “religious fashions” instead of God’s commands.  Then he taught the crowd (of course there was a crowd!), “It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life, it’s what you vomit”.  Lovely thought, isn’t it?

Metaphorically speaking, Jesus was teaching that things that go in will break down and ultimately go out as waste.  Again, lovely.  In other words, what you “eat” stays inward and within the digestive system.  (Yes, fellow nutrition nuts – it also gets absorbed into our blood stream… but let’s stick with Jesus’ point, ok?).  Jesus placed emphasis on what comes out of the heart- which he later detailed for the disciples as: “obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness“, (Mk 7:21-22).  YIKES!!! What a list!  From mean looks to murder to obscenities – that’s a pretty large bucket of vomitous behavior.  Jesus said:”All these are vomit from the heart.  There is the source of your pollution.“

Counselors and therapists have a motto: believe behavior.  That’s just another way of understanding the weight of what comes out of our hearts.  We can speak great words of intention and promise…but our behavior is the fruit to be believed.  Behavior isn’t what needs to change…it’s our heart.  Jesus was always concerned with the motivation of the heart.  He is our hero, with the power to change our hearts. (That sounds a little like the introduction to Super Why, doesn’t it?)

“Everyone, here is the Kingdom come

Here is the God who saves the day…”  Delirious? “God’s Romance“

Hard Hearts Won’t See

What if you experience something totally miraculous? What if Jesus himself does something in your presence that is so incredibly amazing that only God himself could do that? What do you do? If we get it, I think there are only 2 responses – fall on our faces immediately and realize we’re in a holy moment; or, walk away in denial (“There must be an explanation for what just happened”). If we don’t get it at all, a hard heart could be responsible.

In Mark 6, Jesus feeds thousands of people with the contents of a little boys lunch sack – 2 fish and 2 small loaves of bread. More importantly, Jesus has the disciples order the crowd into manageable groups and the 12 distributed the food to everyone. Those disciples participated in a miraculous event and had inside views of Jesus multiplying a child’s snack into the biggest banquet service ever! We don’t find out until later how they processed their experience.

Jesus sends them across the sea in a boat while he goes off to pray. He joins them (walking on the water to get to them) early in the morning and as he approaches the 12 are frightened thinking he’s a ghost. He speaks out to them “Courage it’s me. Don’t be afraid.” (I love that – I can hear him tell me “Take heart, I’m coming…”). The wind that was causing difficulty for the 12 immediately stops blowing.

And now we find out how the 12 are doing after their big day. They were stunned. That’s the emotional equivalent of a deer in the headlights. They didn’t know what to think, or how to process what was now 2 supernatural events – the feeding of the crowd, and Jesus walking on the water with command of the wind. Stunned – and at a standstill.  The message says the shook their heads and wondered what was going on. “They didn’t understand what he had done at the supper. None of this had yet penetrated their hearts.“

Other versions say it’s because of their hard hearts. The truth of Jesus’ presence and power won’t penetrate a hardened heart. Who looses? Us. We can keep Jesus at bay, or nicely wrapped up in our brain as to who we think he is; but doing so keeps us shaking our head and not understanding…just like the disciples. “They” say the longest distance is the 18 inches from our brain to our heart. That’s because we willfully keep the heart hard.

Courage! It’s Jesus! We can let him soften that crusty heart and allow him near.

Life can be Radically Different

Do we even consider that possibility.  Wouldn’t that be good news for a lot of people?  Life can be radically different than what you know and have accepted…

Jesus sent his 12 disciples out to do the stuff they had seen Jesus model for them..  He gave them simple instruction and then…

“they were on the road.  They preached with joyful urgency [emphasis mine] that life can be radically different, right and left they sent the demons packing; they brought wellness to the sick, annointing their bodies and healing their spirits.”  Mark 6:12-13   Joyful urgency – I would like to have seen them.  It is urgent that people choose life, choose Christ.  How do we tell them that?  Do we condemn, do we demand?  Do we show any joy at all?  If the joy of the Lord is our strength, then are we missing strength when we try to convince someone into the Kingdom?

Oh, Lord… let me speak urgency from a joyful heart.  Joy is infectious.  The thought of a radically different life is a hopeful one.  Hope does not disappoint…

Desperation and Risk

Intro:  Sadly, I let this blog go for awhile.  I’m back…

Do you know the story of the woman who was “hemorrhaging” for 12 years?   (Mark 5:25-34).  She was basically menstruating non-stop for that long…and she was desperate.  In Jesus’s day, women were secluded and isolated during “their time of the month”, so just imagine 12 years like that!

Jesus was on his way to see Jairus’ daughter who was dying.  The desperate woman had heard of Jesus’ fame, saw that he was going to walk nearby and faith swelled up within her.  She thought she only needed to touch “the hem of his garment”  and she would be healed.  Have you ever been desperate and experienced such a moment?  Faith swells up and you just know God will deliver you!  But how?  What should you do?  That’s the question we always have.  How can I help you deliver me, God?

Did the desperate woman dream up the touch his robe action, or did God wisper it to her as faith arose?  I don’t know that I have a fool-proof answer, but I can think of a lot of times that God’s deliverance was accompanied by a cooperative step of faith.  That’s where the risk comes in.

Mark tells us the woman reached out, through the crowd and touched Jesus’ robe and “She could feel the change and knew her plague was over and done with.”  Jesus himself confirmed it.  He felt healing energy go out from him.  There were people all around him, touching him, pressing into him.  But her touch changed Him!  He searched for her (wow!), and she was a little afraid (I think I would be too).  But after hearing her story, Jesus said, “Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you’re healed and whole. [Implies there was more than physical healing]  Live well, live blessed.”

That is my desire… to live well and live blessed.  Not only that, my desire is to help others live well in the Lord as we all “get well and grow up”, taking our risks of faith as we go along.  Yes, Lord!

I’m Warning You

If Jesus says those words, maybe I should listen up!  He said that to people questioning his ministry.  Mark 3:21 called them his friends from home.  Then the “religious scholars” got in on the act and started to spread rumors against Jesus.  (Rumors are a common tactic of the enemy…fans of Vegie Tales will remember the Rumor Weed).  The talk was all about the source of Jesus’ power for the miraculous – that maybe he was using “devil tricks”.  People haven’t changed at all in all these 2000 plus years.  We’d rather believe something outlandish – anything – rather than admit Jesus just might be who he said he is!

Jesus considered the accusation of “evil power” to be a direct act of slander against the actual source of his power – the Holy Spirit.  And he delivered a stern warning: to deny the Holy Spirit, to slander against Him, is to “repudiate the One who forgives”.  Doing so puts forgiveness in danger.  Jesus used the analogy of sawing off the branch on which you’re sitting, “severing off all connection with the One who forgives.” (Mark 3:29)  Jesus began his warning saying “There’s nothing done or said that can’t be forgiven.”  But… you are in dangerous territory when you slander the Holy Spirit!

“Listen to this carefully.  I’m warning you,” He said…   That’s an attitude check to pay attention to!

The Plan

Sometimes I want to know the plan.  I want to know how it’s going to get done or how it all ends.  You know – the plan for a particular situation or the master plan for life in general.  Sometimes I see big problems – neglected children, illness and disease, lost and dying souls – and wonder how I can possibly have an impact on these things.  What’s the plan for that?

I heard a man speaking about the injustice of women enslaved in third world countries for the sex trade.  He asked the same question… what’s the plan, God?  Well, God has a plan – “Us!”, he told the audience.  “We’re the plan.”  This all came back to my mind as I read Mark 3:7-10, describing Jesus filling out this group of disciples.  Then these verses:

“He [Jesus] climbed a mountain and invited those he wanted to come with him.  They climbed together.  He settled on twelve and designated them apostles.  The plan was that they would be with him, and he would send them out to proclaim the Word and give them authority to banish demons.”  The words “with him” and “together” are huge!  The plan wasn’t that they would go to school, or that they would wear special apostle badges.  The plan started with being with Jesus.  Just being with him…

Lord, before I even think of going out or doing something, let me just be with you.  I just want to be with you.

More in Mark 3

Just a quick post today…I’ve got to get to my tax records!  But I’m thinking about verses 11-12, how Jesus managed himself when evil spirits “outed” him for who he truly was – the son of God.  First thought:  the question of who Jesus is remains the key revelation of Christianity.  Many today want to water down the diety of Christ, but as scripture says “even the demons believe and tremble”. Evil knows who He is.  Second thought:  Jesus didn’t want to be identified in public at the time.  That’s pretty interesting, because it implies He had a sense of timing in mind.  That makes me remember how Jesus said He only does what the Father is doing.  He was not in need of notoriety.  He was about the Father’s business…  He was not in need of attention.  He was secure in his place, purpose and personhood.

May I be as secure and content to go about my Father’s business without title or accolade…  Lord, show me more of what it means to be found in you!

Mark 1 & 3

I’ve been reading the book of Mark in The Message.  I love how different sections leap out at me, that I may have read before in my study bible but just read past it.  For instance, Mark 1:27.  Jesus just cast out a demon and the text says, “Everyone was incredulous, buzzing with curiosity.  ‘What’s going on here? A new teaching that does what it says?’”   The people were used to religion and ceremony.  They were stunned to think that teaching and action could be together with integrity.  A teaching that does what it says…  that’s what people long for today – the real deal!

Another section I just read today is Mk. 3:1-7 where Jesus encounters a man with a crippled hand on the Sabbath.  The religious leaders were watching to see if Jesus would  break Sabbath law by healing him.  “Then he spoke to the people: ‘What kind of action suits the Sabbath best? Doing good or doing evil? Helping people or leaving them helpless?”  The text says no one spoke a word in response and goes on: “He looked them in the eye, one after another, angry now, furious at their hard-nosed religion.”

Yikes! Can you imagine being in that crowd, locking eyes with Jesus who is furious?  It makes me think of one of my favorite lines from C. S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” – “Oh no, he’s not a tame lion!”    What a mess we make when we favor rules instead of “doing good and helping people. ” Jesus told the man to stretch out his hand…I can almost imagine Jesus with righteous indignation looking at the crowd and then healing that man -  purposefully offending the Pharisees (who beat it out of there and started plotting against him).

Hello!

Let me explain… GWAGU  means “Get well and grow up”.  The way I see it, that’s what is required to mature into the fullness of the image of the Son.  It’s my lifelong pursuit based on Romans 8:29, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn of many brethren.”  I am determined to pursue healing where needed and increased spiritual maturity until I conform – fully conform – to the image of Jesus… and I plan to drag as many people with me as I can!