1. We’ve been hearing so many stories recently, that it’s refreshing to get into a story that reveals a little about the personality of the disciples. So…here’s James and John, acting like little kids that are trying to trick mom or dad into getting away with something. “We want You to do for us whatever we ask.” He he he…reminds me of being a kid.
2. Jesus doesn’t take the bait. He simply asks what they want. You can’t put anything past Jesus. Why try?
3. I’m assuming that this left and right hand thing would be pretty prestigious. Why do you think they wanted that?
4. Jesus, I think, is alluding to all the suffering that He is about to undertake. And, I guess, to be on His left and right in heaven, that’s the kind of commitment that it would take?
5. Like kids making a promise to take care of a dog (not knowing what it all entails), the brothers say sure. They have no idea.
6. Jesus explains that they will suffer, like Him. But, it’s not His place to decide who gets to sit on His right and left in glory. I’m assuming that God has prepared those places.
7. Imagine being the other ten disciples, hearing about this stuff. They think that John and James are getting a “prize” to suffer like Jesus. Man, they’re all clueless.
8. Jesus puts an end to all this posturing by talking about the posture that a person should take– to be a servant. It’s not about positions. It’s about serving.
9. Remember Jericho? That’s the place that had its walls fall down…
10. Interesting that we get a name for this blind guy, Bartimaeus. Normally, the people who receive miracles from Jesus are nameless.
11. That’s an awesome thing to shout.
12. I can’t believe that people tried to get this guy, who is showing authentic faith, to shut up. Some people…
13. This guy threw aside his beggar’s cloak, his identity. He jumped up to go to Jesus. This dude was excited.
14. The blind man tells Jesus that he wants to see. Of course, he does! Jesus tells him, without doing anything, that his faith has healed him. Jesus heals blind people in so many different ways.
15. I love that Bartimaeus followed Jesus. Maybe that’s how we know his name…
1. Imagine Jesus returning home after all the things that He had done “on the road.” I bet there was some hype surrounding Him as He rolled up into Nazareth.
2. I’d be amazed if I heard Jesus teaching in the synagogue too. I wonder if He was allowed or if He jiust started teaching…
3. Of course, I’d have a hard time wrapping my head around how DIFFERENT everything Jesus was saying. Um, this was Joseph’s Son, right? Do you think Mary and Joseph advertised who Jesus was when He was growing up?
4. Apparently, Jesus wasn’t raised to even be a priest; He simply was to follow in His father’s footsteps as a carpenter.
5. And, yes, Jesus had brothers: James, Joseph (Junior?), Judas, and Simon. Apparently, He also had sisters. So…it’s kind of funny that we still call Mary “the virgin, Mary.”
6. People were offended at Jesus because they thought that He was too ordinary to preach like this. To me, that reveals that Jesus wasn’t showy about His powers as a kid. If He was, the people would assume this was a natural progression. The going idea is that Jesus was 30 when He began His ministry. I’m 29. That’s a lot of living to live, not being able to “show who you really are.”
7. Why do you think prophets are without honor in their hometown?
8. It says that Jesus “could not” do miracles there. Do you think He “could not” or “would not”? Why?
9. Jesus sent off the disciples in pairs, and He gave them the authority to cast out evil spirits. Do you think this is an “authority” that Jesus gives to all believers or just these disciples? Why?
10. Apparently, you were supposed to bring nothing with you. They just had staffs (to whack wild beasts with?). They weren’t supposed to bring food, a pack, or money. They were at the mercy of the people they were going to. Why do you think Jesus had them do this in this manner?
11. Rock flip flops, but they couldn’t even bring an extra shirt. Hmm. Does this make anyone think about how much we pack for mission trips?
12. You would go to one home and stay with that one home the whole time. Why?
13. If someone was mean, you would shake the dust off your feet and leave. How would this serve as a “testimony” to them?
14. The message was simple: “Repent.” Turn away from your sin.
15. In the midst of this message, I guess they showed their power and compasion by driving out evil spirits and healing sick people. But, in the end, it was all about the people needing to repent.
1. Imagine having Jesus sleeping in front of you. I mean, if you knew that there was something amazing about Him, something miraculous about Him, do you think you’d talk about Him with the other disciples while He was just sleeping there?
2. Jesus appears to be sleeping through the squall, totally at peace. Shoot, I get motion sickness on a boat in good weather…
3. The disciples said that they were going to drown, and Jesus “rebuked” the wind and the waves. You rebuke something when you are correcting it. I just think it’s interesting that it says rebuke, like He’s the Teacher; and nature is the student.
4. I know where the disciples “faith” was. They knew Jesus could do all kinds of cool stuff, but they didn’t think He could do this! But…He could.
5. And of course, this took their thinking about Jesus to a whole other level…
6. OK…so demon-possessed guy meets Jesus and Co. when they come to shore. Apparently, this guy was naked and crazy! I wonder we would have thought about him nowadays. He lived in the tombs. Maybe this was a sign of how spiritual dead he was?
7. He fell at Jesus’ feet and shouted at the top of his lungs (this must have been an interesting scene). What does he shout? 1) He identifies who Jesus really is, the Son of God. 2) He asks not to be tortured. Do you think the Son of God would torture an evil spirit, or do you think that, perhaps, this is the way that things are dealt with in the kingdom of darkness?
8. Jesus commanded the spirit to leave the man (maybe that seemed like torture to the spirit?). (Apparently, this guy had been tormented for a long time, breaking through chains to be in solitary places) Does this freak anyone out besides me?
9. Interestingly, Jesus asks the name of the spirit… Technically, wouldn’t Jesus know already?
10. “Legion.” Interesting name. A legion was the term used to describe an entire Roman force. (It comes from the root “lego,” which means “collect.” Hooray for legos!) Anyway, this guy wasn’t just possessed by one demon, he was possessed by a collection. Anyone seen “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”?
11. Not that I understand much about the spirit world, but I find it interesting that the demons begged not to be sent to “the Abyss.” So…I would assume that demons prefer to torment people than having to be banished to Hell. Interesting, since we always think of the demons having a good ol’ time in Hell, tormenting “bad” people. This would imply that demons would be fellow sufferers, not landlords.
12. I wonder if pigs were filthy to the demons like they were to the Jews.
13. I’ve always wondered about the whole stampeding herd of pigs part of the Bible. Was it so miserable for the demons to be in pigs that they had to drive the pigs to kill themselves? When they died, were they “free to move about the country” or were they now dead? And, if they were dead, then didn’t they have to go to the very “Abyss” that they begged Jesus not to go to? Hmm… You can tell I think too much.
14. I know my wife would be sad for the pigs too. Were the pigs simply “expendable”?
15. Imagine being a pighearder! Dude, that guy with the stylish beard just “commanded” all my pigs to run off a cliff! Where’s my pitch fork?
16. So…they show up, probably ready to lynch Jesus; and the town crazy guy is sitting at Jesus’ feet in his right mind. That would make me at least drop my pitch fork…or…maybe I’d shakily try to hold it a little tighter. I guess there were people who were close enough to the event to know what really happened; but, instead of clearing everything up, this made everyone more scared. They asked Jesus to leave. Why do you think they were so scared?
17. The guy who was healed wanted to join Jesus’ crew, but it appears that Jesus had a job for him. Who could deny God’s work in his life? His job was to tell everyone what Jesus had done for him in town (with clothes on).
18. I wonder if the disciples were just aching to tell that crowd all the crazy stuff that Jesus had just done!
19. Jairus was a high-up religious official, but he humbled himself before Jesus. When someone you love is hurting, I think most people would do just about anything to make it better. And Jairus had probably heard of Jesus’ reputation as a healer.
20. So…you think that this is going to be all about Jairus’ daughter being healed. You can see the newspaper headline now. But…something else happens in the middle of this story…
21. A woman who could not stop (internally?) bleeding for twelve years shows up. And here’s what’s amazing. She just tries to touch Jesus’ cloak. Maybe she felt that if she could touch the tip of His cloak that THAT would heal her. Man, what faith! It works, and that would have been an amazing story in and of itself– a secret story of God’s healing.
22. But Jesus feels it. He feels His healing power going into someone. Wow. And He asks who touched Him. Imagine Jesus asking that, surrounded by a crowd of people. Who touched Him…well, hasn’t everyone? I can see where Peter’s logic was.
23. Why do you think the woman was afraid?
24. Interestingly, Jesus doesn’t say that He healed her. He says that her faith has healed her. What’s the difference, or is there one?
25. Such an awesome story, that you almost forget what Jesus was on His way to do…remember and IMPORTANT person’s daughter is sick. Well, not any more– she’s dead.
26. I wonder if Jairus was mad at the woman for taking Jesus’ precious time. I wonder if he felt like that was a fair trade? It would have been hard for me to not be bitter; but, apparently (based on Jesus response), he was really just afraid.
27. Jesus tells Jairus to believe. Believe what? Believe that his daughter can be healed from DEATH?
28. Jesus let the mom, the dad, and Peter, James, and John into the the house. Why only these three disciples?
29. Imagine Jesus saying that she’s not dead but that she’s just asleep. I wouldn’t know what to think.
30. I think that that laughter was probably pretty bitter, more like a snicker. But, in the midst of those snickers, Jesus took the girl by the hand and told her to get up. And she did. And, apparently, she was hungry. Give her some pitas.
31. Why do you think Jesus told the parents not to tell anyone what happened? And, really, how hard to you think it would be to keep THIS story bottled up?
Filed under: abiathar, andrew, bartholomew, david, god, james, jesus, john, judas, mark, matthew, peter, philip, saul, simon, thaddaeus, thomas
1. Wow…the Pharisees seem to be awfully picky at the disciples’ picking. Do they consider this to be “work”?
2. Hey…I remember that story now. David was on the run from Saul, and he needed food. And, indeed, he did eat the “consecrated” bread from Abiathar the priest. He basically ate a chunk of communion bread. Why? Um…because he needed it… So, maybe Jesus is saying that Sabbath is a day in which we shouldn’t be apologetic about getting what we truly need?
3. Boy…those guys were just focusing on the wrong thing. The guy was in need of healing, but I guess being “religious” was more important than being compassionate.
4. I love that Jesus doesn’t think like those guys.
5. I love the fact that Jesus was about meeting needs.
6. Imagine being Jesus. I remember watching stuff about ‘N Sync back in the day, where girls would swarm them wherever they went; but could you imagine how people swarmed Jesus, knowing that He could heal and drive out demons?
7. Jesus has a draft. He picks twelve guys for His team. I wonder if there were guys who were left out that wanted to be in. I’m sure that there were guys who were in that couldn’t believe that Jesus wanted him.
8. Purpose of Jesus’ disciples: be with Christ, go out to preach, and drive out demons.
9. A couple of guys we know, and a couple of new ones: Peter, James (son of Zebedee), John (I love that he and his brother got a cool nickname like “the sons of thunder”), Andrew, Philip, Batholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (son of Alphaeus), Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot (a revolutionary), and Judas Iscariot.
10. Mark tells us the end before we get there: Judas will betray Jesus. Maybe he put that here because he knew that Jesus must have known that this was going to happen?
Anyway, we’ve got the complete set now! Woo hoo…
(p.s. The picture of the mustachioed lad is up there in honor of the Relevant Gentleman’s Society, a group preserving the integrity of the mustache.)
1. The crowd pressed in on Jesus to hear the word of God. Boy, I’d love to be in a ministry setting with that kind of excitement.
2. What a funny scene. Everyone wants to hear from Jesus, but they corner Him up against a lake, so Jesus gets in a boat and pushes a little off shore so that He’s not “crowded” anymore.
3. Now, Peter was already cleaning his nets. This was a long process. And then, Jesus decides that He’s going to play fisherman and tell Peter to cast his net back out. Peter tried to “talk some sense” into Jesus by explaining that the fish weren’t jumping last night. But…and I like this about Peter…he says, “But, hey, whatever You say, I’ll do…”
4. That must have been a lot of fish. Fish taco time! They had to get help from another boat! Wow. Either these were little boats, or that was a lot of fish!
5. Peter was a fisherman. And maybe this was the way that Jesus knew that He was going to get through to him. It obviously works because Peter begins to understand that Jesus is holy…and he is not. Shoot…James and John were shocked too.
6. And then Jesus explained that Peter would now be a fisher of men. And they all dropped their lives to follow Jesus. (Yeah…this seems kind of like a more fleshed out version of what we read the other day.)
7. Lepers were unclean and contagious. I’d imagine many of the followers didn’t want their clean, holy Jesus nowhere close to this guy. But, he threw himself face down and begged him with FAITH.
8. And then Jesus did the unthinkable: He TOUCHED him. He just did. This guy wasn’t allowed to be touched. It was considered unacceptable. But, Jesus risked “contaminating” Himself to show love to this guy. Awesome.
9. Isn’t it strange the mystery of Jesus wanting that guy to not tell anyone? I mean, you’d think that once he shows himself to the priests (to be declared clean again) that the word will travel pretty fast. Hmm…so why the quiet?
10. In spite of being so sought after, again, we see that Jesus always withdrew to pray. Man, do I ever need to learn to continue to do that.
11. All those religious leaders came to Jesus. Were they there to learn or to spy?
12. Can you imagine the commitment of these guys? They carries their friend on a mat, onto the roof; and then they tore the roof off in order to slide him down to Jesus’ feet. Crazy. They must have been teenagers.
13. Can you imagine being the paralyzed guy, becoming the center of attention in this way?
14. Jesus forgave the guy’s sins because of the friends’ faith. Figure that one out…
15. Of course, the religious leaders didn’t like all this sin-forgiving business…
16. Jesus tells them that it’s harder to forgive sins, but it is easier to show that a person can walk. Jesus heals that paralytic to show them that a) He can make a dude walk, so b) He means what He says when He says that the guy’s sins are forgiven.
17. I bet that guy couldn’t wait to get home.
18. Levi (or Matthew, as we know him) was a tax collector. This would be like being an extortionist in those days. Those tax collectors placed a huge burden on the common man. And, a lot of those guys got themselves rich off of taking from people “in the name of” the government. Anyway, regardless of whether Matthew was a “good” tax collector or a “bad” one, Jesus told him to follow Him. And Matthew dropped everything and DID.
19. Matthew threw a party with all the people from his “old” life. You’d have to imagine that Matthew just wanted everyone he knew to see this Man. (I have heard of ministries that encourage throwing “Matthew parties” for this purpose. Awesome idea.)
20. The other disciples can’t believe that they are in this environment with THOSE people. Ironic. Since when did a bunch of sinful fisherman become so “elite”? Then again, we love to hate people who have more than us…don’t we? People like Paris Hilton, the flashy church down the street, the New York Yankees…we can’t stand feeling inferior. It’s ironic that Peter just called himself a sinner, but now he’s shooting accusations at these tax collectors.
21. Jesus says the sick need a doctor. So…who’s sick in that situation?
22. People were wondering why Jesus’ disciples didn’t fast. Perhaps they were trying to imply that Jesus’ group was a joke?
23. Jesus says that you don’t fast at a party. And, Jesus’ prescence is like a party. So…why would you fast, hoping for something better? There will be a time when the partying is over. Then, they will fast.
24. OK…so I get that you can’t mismatch the old with the new. But…what is Jesus saying that for in this context?
1. I guess the implication here is that Peter and Andrew had followed Jesus from John to the trip in Capernaum. But, then, at some point, they went back to fishing. Andrew approached Jesus the first time– this time Jesus calls both of them.
2. “Fishers of men.” Catching people. Bringing them in. Cool analogy.
3. I love that these guys drop their livelihood to follow Jesus.
4. And then, the sequel. This time it’s James and John (the sons of Zebedee…John is the guy who wrote the gospel of John). They left their livelihood and their dad to follow Jesus.
5. First things first, Jesus goes into another synagogue– this time in Capernaum. And He taught like a person who knew what He was talking about, not a rent-a-preacher. You can tell the difference…
6. Out of nowhere, this dude with an “unclean spirit” crashes church. (Nowadays, we’d probably say he had some kind of mental disorder.) Dude starts asking Jesus if He has come to destroy “them.” Uh oh…multiple personality disorder.
7. Just kidding, though. Let’s take the Bible at its word. This guy really was possessed by an “unclean” spirit (seems like a couple). Even the spirits knew who He was.
8. Jesus disciplined that spirit and told him to come out. And it did! So…you just had Jesus preaching with authority and then showing authority over evil spirits. Yeah…that would get me thinking.
9. When they went to Peter and Andrew’s place, Peter told Jesus about his sick mother-in-law. Incidentally, that means that Peter had a wife. I wonder how many of the rest of the disciples did. Anyway, his mother-in-law was sick.
10. Jesus just lifted her up, and she started making some sweet tea or something. Amazing.
11. Everyone who had “issues” in the town came and was healed. Imagine that. Everyone with a problem was healed! He shut the demons up. Why do you think this was the case?
12. Boy, I love thos desolate places…to get away…and be with God. Shoot, honestly, that’s what I’m doing right now. The feel so much weight on me. So many demands. And I just had to go to my office and spend some time thinking about God’s word on my computer. (I’m no saint, I can also watch gamecasts of all the NFL games.) But, this time alone is so important for me. And I can definitely understand why Jesus wanted, no needed, to get away…
13. And, of course, Peter had to go looking for Him.
14. But, after this time alone with God, Jesus had a new sense of conviction. And, even though everyone was looking for Him, He knew that it was time to move to where God wanted Him to go. A renewed sense of purpose.
