Back to the Future February 12
Mark 1:36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. 37 When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”
38 But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.”
“Everyone is looking for You.” Solitude is priceless, so we see that the need of others for Jesus comes at a high cost.
Simon (Peter) and the others searched for Jesus. The word conveys more of a sense of tracked or hunted. Jesus has escaped to have some time alone with God. Now He is caught, surrounded.
Jesus has used the early morning hours for their best purpose. Better to spend time with God before entering the world for the day than to enter the world and then find need to pray.
Demonstrating how to care for others, Jesus is healing the disciples, as well. This is the beginning of teaching them to walk with God as He walks with God, to have the Spirit flowing through them, not just to them.
Jesus demonstrates how the nature of God is to be reflected, not absorbed. The character of God is to be preached, not held. The reality of the spiritual world is to be revealed, not covered by the illusions of the physical world.
Jesus knows His own identity and mission. He must return to the world from these moments of solitude. Now is the time to lead the disciples out to discover their own identity and their mission for the future.
Galilee and Samaria February 13
Mark 1:39 And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons.
We are familiar with the Sea of Galilee in the northern part of Israel. The area immediately south and to the west of the sea is known as Galilee. The name Galilee probably comes from Isaiah 9:1, the circle of nations.
Isaiah used this term because when the Assyrians conquered the northern tribes in 722 B.C., they deported much of the population and resettled the land with people from other nations. This was a good tactic for reducing rebellion, scattering people into new areas to reduce organized resistance.
The land of the Samaritans lies between Galilee and Judea. This is the remnant of the northern tribes that had rebelled under Jeroboam against Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. Jeroboam had become the first king of the northern tribes, Israel, in 931 B.C. Rehoboam had been left only with the tribe of Judah (the land of Judea in Jesus’ day).
Judea is the religious center of the Jewish people. The Samaritans had developed their own religion during the reigns of Jeroboam and his successors. Politically, Jeroboam had to replace Jerusalem with his own religious capital. Samaria acknowledged only the books of Moses since later books cast Samaria in an unfavorable light. And the Samaritans had adopted some foreign traditions, as well.
Synagogues are scattered throughout Galilee in Jesus’ day. The main room of a synagogue has benches on three walls, the “chief seats.” The people sit on the dirt or stone floor. Speakers stand on a raised platform. The Torah reader sits in a special place called “Moses’ seat.”
Galilee and the synagogue are the places of Jesus’ current ministry.
Throughout All Galilee February 14
Mark 1:39 And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons.
Galilee is nominally Jewish, but there are large numbers of other ethnic groups and mixed religious ideologies.
Herod, governor of Galilee in Jesus’ day, is the grandson of Herod the Great, an Idumean Jew. Idumea, east of the Jordan and the Sea of Galilee, was formerly Edom. The Maccabees had forcibly converted Idumea to Judaism c. 100 B.C. Forcible conversion is against Jewish law, a guilt borne by the Jews but not acknowledged by them.
This history helps us to understand the Judean Jews’ prejudices against Samaritans and Galileans, and that they do not identify with Herod, governor of Galilee, as one of their own.
Also, we can better understand the immense task that lies ahead for Jesus.
He faces the mixed ideologies in the nominally Jewish regions of Galilee and Samaria. Throughout all of Israel – Judea, Samaria, and Galilee – He must reverse the incorrect teachings of the prevailing religious authorities.
Mark says that Jesus goes throughout Galilee casting out demons. Galilee has no monopoly on demons. His primary purpose is teaching a correct view of God and the Father’s relationship with His children.
The healing ministry is secondary to teaching, but a necessary complement. Spirits of division and brokenness destroy the wholeness that is the nature of the kingdom of God.
Jesus has no natural allies, only those who would respond to His preaching and to His call to “Follow Me.”
Jesus is content to begin where He is. He is in the moment called now in the territory called Galilee.
Leprosy February 15
Mark 1:40 Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
41 Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” 42 As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.
Matthew places this story (Matt. 8:1-4) immediately after the Sermon on the Mount. In Mark, also, we must believe that the man has heard Jesus’ preaching and has believed.
The cry of the leper as he moved through society is “Unclean! Unclean!” This was commanded by Lev. 13:45. In Greek, “unclean” is the akathartos of Mark 1:23.
There was and is a disease called leprosy, meaning “scaly skin.” There are two main types of leprosy, each a different bacteria. One is localized and heals on its own. The second causes widespread neurological damage, numbness, rashes, etc. It is more contagious, and may take decades to kill the person.
Symbolically, we can see leprosy as sin. As leprosy eats away at the skin and life as a whole, so also does sin eat away at the soul and life as a whole.
Leprosy is contagious, and this is why the leper is to be put out of the camp. Sin is also contagious, and our tendency is to put the sinner outside the camp, as well.
Jesus seeks to restore both the leper and the sinner to the oneness of the camp.
A Leper Cleansed February 16
Mark 1:40 Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
41 Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” 42 As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.
Rather than asking for healing or elimination of his leprosy, the leper makes the statement, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
The leper acknowledges Jesus’ power to cleanse, and Jesus does so. The law (Num. 5:2) forbids having anything to do with the unclean, but Jesus touches and cleanses him.
This is undeniably a healing miracle. It is also a great opportunity to see both the spiritual and physical nature of Jesus’ healing power.
Matthew speaks of the people’s rejection of Jesus at Nazareth: “Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” (Matt. 13:58) Whether the issue is an unclean spirit or a demonic power, the faith and cooperation of the ill are required.
As Paul says, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building” (1 Cor. 3:9). We cannot be healed physically or spiritually unless we are willing participants in the process.
When our disease, whether a physical or emotional or spiritual disease, is the result of our own actions or thoughts, any healing can only be temporary. If we over work, over worry, have too little water or nutrition, too little rest or prayer, etc., we will relapse repeatedly and need to be healed repeatedly.
The leper’s healing requires his active participation - his prayer and faith, his willingness and cooperation.
Say Nothing February 17
Mark 1:43 And He strictly warned him and sent him away at once, 44 and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
45 However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.
Jesus firmly commands the former leper to tell no one of how the healing has occurred. The man is to show himself only to the priests.
There is a correct procedure for restoring the former leper to society. Part of being whole is doing what is both correct and expected.
Moses’ law requires the priests to judge when a person is unclean, so they also must be consulted to pronounce the person clean and restore them to society.
Implied in Jesus’ command is for him also to make the sacrifices required in Lev. 14, for Jesus knows about blood offerings.
Jesus commands the healed man to follow the ordained pathway to restoration. When the man obeys, he will also be furthering Jesus’ mission. Jesus enlists the man to be His helper in the promotion of the Gospel message.
The priests will pronounce the man clean, officially restored to the community. Ironically, their pronouncement will be an affirmation of Jesus’ healing power.
However February 18
Mark 1:45 However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.
How can the man made whole by Jesus refrain from testifying of His power? Who had ever made a leper clean? In spite of Jesus’ command (it was more than simply “said”), honor seemed due to the humble Healer.
But Jesus does not want this word spread, does not want fame. More than this, Jesus wants the man to be restored to the community in the prescribed manner. Jesus actually is for following the law when it does not conflict with the spirit of the law.
Jesus has just said (verse 38) that His purpose is to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God.
His purpose is to preach “a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:4, Jan. 5), to preach the return to God.
As Jesus said of the poor, that you will have them with you always (Mark 14:7), so also are those in need of healing with you always. But Jesus’ time is short. He has a message to preach. He must not let the good, healing the sick, get in the way of the best, turning people back to God.
Performing miracles helps to boost the credibility of His message, but the demands on Him for more healing detracts from His effectiveness in getting the message, that the kingdom of God is here, to the people.
Now Jesus is unable to enter the populous areas without large numbers of people coming to Him. He must retreat to deserted places, the wilderness, and still they come in search of Him.
People still search for something. Blessed are they who search for Him and follow His commands.
Next day
Mark 1:36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. 37 When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”
38 But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.”
“Everyone is looking for You.” Solitude is priceless, so we see that the need of others for Jesus comes at a high cost.
Simon (Peter) and the others searched for Jesus. The word conveys more of a sense of tracked or hunted. Jesus has escaped to have some time alone with God. Now He is caught, surrounded.
Jesus has used the early morning hours for their best purpose. Better to spend time with God before entering the world for the day than to enter the world and then find need to pray.
Demonstrating how to care for others, Jesus is healing the disciples, as well. This is the beginning of teaching them to walk with God as He walks with God, to have the Spirit flowing through them, not just to them.
Jesus demonstrates how the nature of God is to be reflected, not absorbed. The character of God is to be preached, not held. The reality of the spiritual world is to be revealed, not covered by the illusions of the physical world.
Jesus knows His own identity and mission. He must return to the world from these moments of solitude. Now is the time to lead the disciples out to discover their own identity and their mission for the future.
Galilee and Samaria February 13
Mark 1:39 And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons.
We are familiar with the Sea of Galilee in the northern part of Israel. The area immediately south and to the west of the sea is known as Galilee. The name Galilee probably comes from Isaiah 9:1, the circle of nations.
Isaiah used this term because when the Assyrians conquered the northern tribes in 722 B.C., they deported much of the population and resettled the land with people from other nations. This was a good tactic for reducing rebellion, scattering people into new areas to reduce organized resistance.
The land of the Samaritans lies between Galilee and Judea. This is the remnant of the northern tribes that had rebelled under Jeroboam against Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. Jeroboam had become the first king of the northern tribes, Israel, in 931 B.C. Rehoboam had been left only with the tribe of Judah (the land of Judea in Jesus’ day).
Judea is the religious center of the Jewish people. The Samaritans had developed their own religion during the reigns of Jeroboam and his successors. Politically, Jeroboam had to replace Jerusalem with his own religious capital. Samaria acknowledged only the books of Moses since later books cast Samaria in an unfavorable light. And the Samaritans had adopted some foreign traditions, as well.
Synagogues are scattered throughout Galilee in Jesus’ day. The main room of a synagogue has benches on three walls, the “chief seats.” The people sit on the dirt or stone floor. Speakers stand on a raised platform. The Torah reader sits in a special place called “Moses’ seat.”
Galilee and the synagogue are the places of Jesus’ current ministry.
Throughout All Galilee February 14
Mark 1:39 And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons.
Galilee is nominally Jewish, but there are large numbers of other ethnic groups and mixed religious ideologies.
Herod, governor of Galilee in Jesus’ day, is the grandson of Herod the Great, an Idumean Jew. Idumea, east of the Jordan and the Sea of Galilee, was formerly Edom. The Maccabees had forcibly converted Idumea to Judaism c. 100 B.C. Forcible conversion is against Jewish law, a guilt borne by the Jews but not acknowledged by them.
This history helps us to understand the Judean Jews’ prejudices against Samaritans and Galileans, and that they do not identify with Herod, governor of Galilee, as one of their own.
Also, we can better understand the immense task that lies ahead for Jesus.
He faces the mixed ideologies in the nominally Jewish regions of Galilee and Samaria. Throughout all of Israel – Judea, Samaria, and Galilee – He must reverse the incorrect teachings of the prevailing religious authorities.
Mark says that Jesus goes throughout Galilee casting out demons. Galilee has no monopoly on demons. His primary purpose is teaching a correct view of God and the Father’s relationship with His children.
The healing ministry is secondary to teaching, but a necessary complement. Spirits of division and brokenness destroy the wholeness that is the nature of the kingdom of God.
Jesus has no natural allies, only those who would respond to His preaching and to His call to “Follow Me.”
Jesus is content to begin where He is. He is in the moment called now in the territory called Galilee.
Leprosy February 15
Mark 1:40 Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
41 Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” 42 As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.
Matthew places this story (Matt. 8:1-4) immediately after the Sermon on the Mount. In Mark, also, we must believe that the man has heard Jesus’ preaching and has believed.
The cry of the leper as he moved through society is “Unclean! Unclean!” This was commanded by Lev. 13:45. In Greek, “unclean” is the akathartos of Mark 1:23.
There was and is a disease called leprosy, meaning “scaly skin.” There are two main types of leprosy, each a different bacteria. One is localized and heals on its own. The second causes widespread neurological damage, numbness, rashes, etc. It is more contagious, and may take decades to kill the person.
Symbolically, we can see leprosy as sin. As leprosy eats away at the skin and life as a whole, so also does sin eat away at the soul and life as a whole.
Leprosy is contagious, and this is why the leper is to be put out of the camp. Sin is also contagious, and our tendency is to put the sinner outside the camp, as well.
Jesus seeks to restore both the leper and the sinner to the oneness of the camp.
A Leper Cleansed February 16
Mark 1:40 Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
41 Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” 42 As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.
Rather than asking for healing or elimination of his leprosy, the leper makes the statement, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
The leper acknowledges Jesus’ power to cleanse, and Jesus does so. The law (Num. 5:2) forbids having anything to do with the unclean, but Jesus touches and cleanses him.
This is undeniably a healing miracle. It is also a great opportunity to see both the spiritual and physical nature of Jesus’ healing power.
Matthew speaks of the people’s rejection of Jesus at Nazareth: “Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” (Matt. 13:58) Whether the issue is an unclean spirit or a demonic power, the faith and cooperation of the ill are required.
As Paul says, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building” (1 Cor. 3:9). We cannot be healed physically or spiritually unless we are willing participants in the process.
When our disease, whether a physical or emotional or spiritual disease, is the result of our own actions or thoughts, any healing can only be temporary. If we over work, over worry, have too little water or nutrition, too little rest or prayer, etc., we will relapse repeatedly and need to be healed repeatedly.
The leper’s healing requires his active participation - his prayer and faith, his willingness and cooperation.
Say Nothing February 17
Mark 1:43 And He strictly warned him and sent him away at once, 44 and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
45 However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.
Jesus firmly commands the former leper to tell no one of how the healing has occurred. The man is to show himself only to the priests.
There is a correct procedure for restoring the former leper to society. Part of being whole is doing what is both correct and expected.
Moses’ law requires the priests to judge when a person is unclean, so they also must be consulted to pronounce the person clean and restore them to society.
Implied in Jesus’ command is for him also to make the sacrifices required in Lev. 14, for Jesus knows about blood offerings.
Jesus commands the healed man to follow the ordained pathway to restoration. When the man obeys, he will also be furthering Jesus’ mission. Jesus enlists the man to be His helper in the promotion of the Gospel message.
The priests will pronounce the man clean, officially restored to the community. Ironically, their pronouncement will be an affirmation of Jesus’ healing power.
However February 18
Mark 1:45 However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.
How can the man made whole by Jesus refrain from testifying of His power? Who had ever made a leper clean? In spite of Jesus’ command (it was more than simply “said”), honor seemed due to the humble Healer.
But Jesus does not want this word spread, does not want fame. More than this, Jesus wants the man to be restored to the community in the prescribed manner. Jesus actually is for following the law when it does not conflict with the spirit of the law.
Jesus has just said (verse 38) that His purpose is to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God.
His purpose is to preach “a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:4, Jan. 5), to preach the return to God.
As Jesus said of the poor, that you will have them with you always (Mark 14:7), so also are those in need of healing with you always. But Jesus’ time is short. He has a message to preach. He must not let the good, healing the sick, get in the way of the best, turning people back to God.
Performing miracles helps to boost the credibility of His message, but the demands on Him for more healing detracts from His effectiveness in getting the message, that the kingdom of God is here, to the people.
Now Jesus is unable to enter the populous areas without large numbers of people coming to Him. He must retreat to deserted places, the wilderness, and still they come in search of Him.
People still search for something. Blessed are they who search for Him and follow His commands.
Next day
