Posts from 2020 (Page 19)
Mark 7: You’ve got it all backwards.
Our little part of the world is covered with small cemeteries. I expect there may be 50-100 cemeteries within 10 miles of my house. I was introduced to the tradition of Decorations shortly after moving to Alabama in February 1996. For the uninformed, “Decoration” is part and parcel with Homecoming for country churches in our area that have a cemetery. Every church has a specific Sunday each year for Homecoming or Decoration. On Saturday, church members and others with people…
Mark 6: You Can’t Go Home Again
Lots of small towns seem to be afflicted with “Mayberry Syndrome.” One manifestation of this is seen in the signage as one enters a town… ‘Welcome to Webesmall Alabama, Home of Once/Semi-Famous Person.’ Any connection to any person of any apparent import is immediately latched on to and emphasized. The message? “We’re more important than you think we are!” Mark 6 opens with Jesus returning to his home country to preach the gospel of the kingdom. One would think, given…
Mark 5: Clothed and in His Right Mind
The account of Legion is well known. A man is possessed by a host of demons. The result was exclusion from polite society, dwelling in tombs among the rotting remains of the dead. There are other descriptions of him, but one is not known until after he is healed by the Lord, “Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed… clothed and in his right mind” (v 15). The man’s lack of sanity and restraint…
Mark 4: The Haves and the Have-nots
“For whoever has, to him more will be given; but to whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him” (Mark 4:25). I am an admirer of Jordan Peterson, a Canadian clinical psychologist who has made a name for himself trying to help people think properly about themselves, their relationships, and the world. He holds the Bible in high regard as his books and lectures are filled with biblical illustrations. He often mentions musing on…
Mark 3: The Unforgivable Sin
I cannot begin to recall all the times over the last 25 years when I was asked about what is called “the unforgivable sin.” Tragically, some contacted me in near-paralyzing fear that they had committed the sin that would hopelessly and forever damn their souls. I’ve heard respected men preach that the unpardonable sin is to die outside of Christ or make similar cases. I have read several commentaries and other helps and disturbingly few let the Bible answer for…
Mark 2: When Jesus Saw Their Faith
Today’s text opens with a moving story of four men seeking Jesus to help their paralytic friend, only to find themselves unable to reach the Lord for the crowd. Desperate and undeterred, they removed the roof from the house where Jesus was teaching and let down the bed in His presence. Verse 5 begins with, “When Jesus saw their faith.” Just last weekend, I saw an article titled, “Faith is never alone.” I didn’t read it nor did I notice…
Mark 1: The Beginning of the Gospel
I love the gospel of Mark. It is succinct, victorious, and celebratory. As I think about the book, its construction, and content, I find fewer than a handful of the polemic problems that were manifest in Jesus’ public ministry. It stands in stark contrast to Matthew’s account, written primarily to the Jews and about the Jews. Whereas Matthew points to Jesus as the son of David and the son of Abraham, Mark cuts right to the chase in his opening…
Matthew 28: The Great Commission
Matthew 28 is the first of three accounts of what is commonly called “The Great Commission.” The Great Commission contains some of the last words ever spoken by Jesus on earth. Not to put a premium on anything Jesus said over another, but as humans, we understand that last words are vitally important in the minds of those who speak them. Given one last chance to impart information, all peripheral matters are ignored and the mundane vanishes. It is called…
Matthew 27: They Got What They Wanted
Reading and re-reading this text made for a difficult topic choice. We could consider the situation with Judas Iscariot and his unrepentant regret. We could think about all the fulfillments of Old Testament texts (there are several even beside those enumerated texts, e.g., v 28, 57-60, cf Is 53:9). We could consider Pilate’s hand washing. But I settled on the Jews’ response to Pilate’s declaration of his belief in Jesus’ innocence. Releasing Jesus to the Jews to satisfy their bloodlust,…
Matthew 26: There will always be poor people
The United States is by far the wealthiest and most self-sufficient nation on earth, yet poverty remains a problem. Since January 1964, our nation has spent nearly TWENTY-FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS in Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” It might surprise you to know that the poverty rate in America today is not only unchanged but that fewer people are capable of self-sufficiency than when the war began. In today’s text, Jesus rebuffs His disciples for criticizing the woman who broke her…