Tag: Mark

Morning Musing: Mark 10:32

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“They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. The disciples were astonished, but those who followed him were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them the things that would happen to him.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever gone into an experience you knew was going to be a battle? How’d you feel? If you’re at all like me, you felt almost more things than you could process at one time. Your mind was racing. Your heart was beating fast. Your senses generally were heightened. Your stomach was churning. Your body was sweating. Your veins were flowing with adrenaline as you anticipated what was to come. You felt a mixture of fear and excitement that really didn’t make sense and you couldn’t have explained to anyone else. In short, you were ready for battle. As Jesus made clear He was heading for Jerusalem, the disciples and others who were following Him were ready for battle. So was Jesus. The battle He was preparing to fight, though, was not the same one they were expecting. Let’s take a look at this and see what it might mean for us.

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Digging in Deeper: Mark 10:31

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“But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Play to win. That’s the mantra – spoken or unspoken – of pretty much every sports team ever. If you’re going to play, you might as well put forth the effort to win. Otherwise, why bother? But just what exactly does it mean to win? Well, it means you beat everyone else. When all of your opponents are defeated and you are the only ones left standing, you have won. My Kansas City Chiefs played to win all last season until they got to the Super Bowl. Then they played to…whatever else it was they were doing…and got absolutely decimated by Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Always Tom Brady… In any event, we did not win. This is just how life works. Well, that’s not quite true. It’s just how life works here, but not in the kingdom of God. There winning takes on an entirely different look.

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Digging in Deeper: Mark 10:28-30

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“Peter began to tell him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ ‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus said, ‘there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, who will not receive a hundred times more, now at this time – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions – and eternal life in the age to come.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

There is a plague in our nation. It passes easily from person to person. It is no respecter of politics or religion. It cares not about skin color or socioeconomic status. It goes after both the very young and the very old. We don’t have any natural protections against it and can only keep ourselves safe by monumental feats of effort. This is made easier when we are surrounded by people who are similarly committed to evading its effects, but even that doesn’t offer perfect coverage. What am I talking about? Well, it’s not COVID. I’m talking about the disease of “whataboutism.” When Jesus told the disciples how hard it was for rich people to follow Him, they all got hit with a bout of whataboutism. Let’s talk about this together.

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Morning Musing: Mark 10:26-27

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“They were even more astonished, saying to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Looking at them, Jesus said, ‘With man it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the more memorable illustrations I remember from by days in youth group was when we were all given a coconut and told to figure out how to break it open. We all got pretty creative. I think my group went outside and smashed it on the ground for all we were worth. We made some dents, but didn’t ever get much more than that. It wasn’t until the leaders gave us a little prompting that we finally realized the trick. We needed to ask for help. It was not something we were going to be able to do on our own. Once we asked for help, our leaders gave us a hammer, and we were set. The task was a fairly easy one to accomplish, but it wasn’t going to be able to happen until we got the help we needed. The whole point was that this is how salvation works. The task of salvation is a fairly easy one for us to accomplish…but not on our own. We take this kind of thing as a matter of course in the church, but there was a time this was pretty big news. This morning we’re going to look at one of those times.

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Digging in Deeper: Mark 10:23-25

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Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were astonished at his words. Again Jesus said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In February of 1848, a pair of German philosophers published a pamphlet in England at the behest of the Communist League. The pamphlet made a small splash at the time it was published, but it would go on to become one of the most consequential literary works of the last two hundred years. This was not because of its literary eloquence or artistry, but because it introduced some powerful ideas which were eventually bought into by some powerful people who attempted to put them into practice on a national scale. The world has never really recovered. The pamphlet, of course, was the Communist Manifesto, and the philosophers were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Now, neither man cared a bit about the Christian faith, but they have had many ideological followers who do claim such a banner, and have tried again and again to reconcile the ideas of Marx and Engels with the ideas of Jesus. This passage is one of the most important of such efforts. Let’s see if we can’t get our hearts and minds around what Jesus was saying here this morning.

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