READ: Mark 3

BACKGROUND: This chapter covers some of the early days of Jesus’ ministry and the stir that his power and authority over demons made among the Pharisees and religious leaders of the day.
By Verse:
2 – It wasn’t illegal according to the Old Testament to heal someone on the Sabbath. But the Pharisees had added thousands of their own little laws to God’s law and they said nobody should practice medicine of any kind on the Sabbath unless death was on the line.
4 – Jesus is cleverly saying that to be able to do good but choose not to do it is evil. Not to heal this man would have been evil.
12 – Not because he didn’t want people to know. Simply because it wasn’t the right time yet.
25 – This verse was famously quoted by Abraham Lincoln in 1858.
29 – This is, attributing the work of God to the Devil.

THINK: I am not what you would call a particularly handy individual. (I’m sure this comes as an absolute shock to those of you who know me well.) And frankly, my dad isn’t a very handy individual either. So, it’s really a generational thing, and I will undoubtedly pass it down to Jimmy because I’m not exactly making a lot of progress in the handiness arena. Being unhandy (I’m not sure that’s a word, but I’m going with it) means that you have to work your way through life feeling generally clueless about home and automotive repairs and usually hire someone else to do it for you…unless you totally luck out and have a friend who is handy in that particular area and will work for pizza.

Thankfully, over the course of my life I’ve had many such friends. I’m truly grateful for all the favors people have done me and also for the fact that I usually got to eat pizza when they were done (because, of course, I really love pizza and Jenny can’t say “no” to it if it’s payment for a friend). But I remember one incident, specifically, that was a little different than the rest. In college the brakes on my car were squeaking and I needed them replaced. I was going to go to the auto-shop one day when my friend Nik stopped me and said he’d help me do it. I thought, “Awesome, that will save me some cash!” So I went to AutoZone and picked up all the parts Nik told me to get and then came back to our house.

When we went outside to change the brakes, though, something abnormal (at least in my experience) happened. Instead of changing my brakes for me, Nik told me that I should do the work while he walked me through it and explained it to me. So, instead of standing around and then buying pizza I actually got in there and did the work myself while he showed me how. This, needless to say, was a profoundly different experience than watching or having someone else do it. I actually learned how to change brakes. I learned how to do what Nik could do by listening to him and then doing it. And I learned it well enough to do it on my own without him walking me through it. To this day, though I couldn’t identify the difference between my oil pan and my engine block, the single, solitary handy thing I can do is change brake pads.

This type of modeling and instructing is what Jesus did with his disciples. He called them to follow him, to observe him, and to listen to his teaching, so that eventually they could go out into the world and do what he did. He equipped them, and then he sent them out. And Jesus is still calling disciples to himself today! He’s calling us to listen and to learn from him and then to go out into our broken and desperate world to be his hands and feet, to do what he would do.

ASK: What does it mean in my life to be a disciple of Jesus? Am I living like I’m dependent on him, and living as his hands and feet in my world…or am I not?

READ: Mark 1. Then click this link (or find someone to read to you), close your eyes, sit back, and listen to Mark 2. Picture the events that are described in your mind as you listen.

THINK: Imagine yourself in the story told in Mark 2:1-12, referring to the text needed. Take time to picture yourself in the shoes of each of the different individuals who are mentioned. Consider what it would have been like to be on the roof, carrying your paralytic friend and making a way for him to see this Jesus guy. Then picture yourself as the crippled person, lying helpless on the mat up there on the roof. Next, imagine yourself as one of the people crammed into that small house in a position where you could easily see and hear the Pharisees and what they were saying. Last, consider yourself as the owner of the house, looking on as all of this transpires – including some folks tearing your roof apart and lowering their buddy through the ceiling!

Which one of these individuals did you most identify with? Why do you think that is?

ASK: Imagine yourself once more as the paralytic, lying helpless on that mat. Jesus looks at you and says, “I forgive your sins.” What is the expression on your face? What are you feeling when you hear those incredible words?

In what ways are you – and all of us – like the paralytic in this story? What does it mean that Jesus is willing and able to forgive you?

PRAY: Let God know how it feels to be forgiven. Let him know what it means to you to be healed.

LIVE: Consider the individuals around you – in your world and a part of your everyday set of interactions – who need a life-changing encounter with Jesus. What can you do to bring them to his feet? What risks do you need to take, what personal sacrifices do you need to make in order to get him/her to that place?

Adapted from Eugene Peterson in Solo

READ: Matthew 26-27. Picture the imagery in your mind as you read. Don’t gloss over it. Really take time to envision the story.

BACKGROUND: By verse
26:7 – The perfume was worth about a year’s wages to a working person.
26 – Since he was in the room, bodily, his words show that he intended Communion to be symbolic.
39 – “This cup” means the suffering he had to endure.
63 – Jesus keeping quiet fulfilled the prophecy in Isaiah 53:7.
27:9 – The prophecy is actually in Zechariah 11:12-13. It’s credited to Jeremiah because Jeremiah was the 1^st book of prophecy in the ancient Hebrew Old Testament and all prophecy was generically referred to as the book of Jeremiah since it was first.
24 – Washing his hands was a symbolic ritual that absolved an innocent man from implication in a wrongful death.
26 – “Scourged” means whipped with a leather whip that had scraps of metal and glass in it. It would literally tear a man’s back to shreds.
46 – Jesus is quoting Psalm 22:1.
51 – This was no small task. It wasn’t just some thin curtain, and it wasn’t made of paper. Only God could have torn the veil from top to bottom. This is highly symbolic. The curtain separated the place of God’s most powerful presence – the Holy of Holies – from the rest of the temple and from people. Through the cross, that separation is removed! The tearing of the veil is confirmed in other ancient literature. And check out Acts 6:7b to see the effect that this had on the priests of the Temple.

THINK: This passage is the central event of the entire Bible. What’s more, it is the central event in all of human history! Everything led to the cross – God’s plan to redeem and restore humanity to right relationship with him – and everything changes because of it!  But it isn’t a pleasant passage. The imagery that Matthew describes evokes powerful emotion. And it should – God was beaten and bled and died a gruesome death for us.

When I think about the incredible events surrounding the arrest and the death of Jesus I feel almost overwhelmed – like there is nothing I could write that could begin to do it justice. But one of my favorite quotes about the cross comes from the great Cappadocian Father, Gregory of Nazianzus: “Many indeed are the wondrous happenings of that time: God hanging from a Cross, the sun made dark, and again flaming out; for it was fitting that creation should mourn with its Creator. The Temple veil ripped, blood and water flowing from His side: the one as from a man, the other as from What was above man; the earth was shaken, the rocks shattered because of the Rock; the dead risen to bear witness of the final and universal resurrection of the dead. The happenings at the Tomb, and after the Tomb, who can fittingly recount them? Yet not one of them can be compared to the miracle of my salvation. A few drops of Blood renew the whole world, and do for all men what the rennet* does for milk: joining us and binding us together.”

What a miracle that God loved us enough to save us – that Jesus bled for you and me!

PRAY: Set aside at least the next 5 minutes (more if you can) and spend some serious time thinking about the Cross and all that it means to you. Thank God for what he did and for his amazing love. Thank God for the miracle of your salvation. Think about all that it means for you – now and in your future!

*Rennet is an enzyme found in the stomach of a cow that causes milk to curdle; it’s used for making cheese. This enzyme takes the liquid molecules – loosely bound together and likely to spread apart and spill all over – and binds them into a single, solid unit of cheese.