Choosing Our Enemy Mar 12
Mark 6:25 Immediately she came in with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it better than silence?
A variation on these thoughts about what to speak is attributed to a number of different sources, going at least as far back as Socrates. Wisdom is like character. It may arise from different places in different circumstances at different points in time, but it is consistently true.
John the Baptist called out, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Such a message calls for change, but it is a call to the individual for change within. Such a call often meets the test of speech above.
He also called out that Herod had sinned by marrying his half-brother’s divorced wife. The statement was true. It definitely was not kind. Was it better spoken than left unsaid?
Prophets and others who oppose injustice face a dangerous road. Those in power seek to grow their power, or at least retain all that they have. And their power permits them to silence anyone who is a threat to their position.
Had John the Baptist spoken privately to Herod of the matter? We do not know. There is little reason to believe that Herod would have followed John’s counsel and reversed his marriage to Herodias.
We do know that John spoke publicly on the issue. Was that necessary?
Jesus could have pursued the same line of accusation. Stealing a half-brother’s wife violated Moses’ Law (Lev. 20:21), if not morality, also. But Jesus had a greater message than this, as did John. What was to be gained by calling out this one sin of Herod’s and not his many other sins?
Paul in chains preached to Herod Agrippa, great grandson of Herod the Great. Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.” (Acts 26:28)
Paul could have criticized Agrippa for many things, but instead he chose to relate his own experience of becoming a follower of Christ and the blessing that had been to him. He sought Agrippa and all in the court to become like him, except for the chains. And Paul found a sympathetic audience.
Speaking truth to power comes in many forms, even silence on some issues.
Beheaded Mar 13
Mark 6:26 And the king was exceedingly sorry; yet, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he did not want to refuse her. 27 Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought. And he went and beheaded him in prison, 28 brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his disciples heard of it, they came and took away his corpse and laid it in a tomb.
Herod Antipas has made an oath, apparently more than once (as had Ahasuerus to Esther Est. 5 and 7) in front of his distinguished guests and cannot back down. His concern at his subjects’ reaction to beheading the righteous John must yield to the oath to his step-daughter.
Such an open ended offer – anything up to half my kingdom – is a fool’s offer. Salome could have asked for the death of anyone in attendance at the feast, for example. When an oath is foolish, undesired consequences may place the swearer in an untenable position of doing what is right or what the other person desires.
Herod issues the death sentence with urgency, fulfilling his vows. Immediately, he sends one of his royal guard to the prison where John is held with the order to bring back the head of John the Baptist.
And thus a life is ended on the whim of a response to a pleasing performance. What fools are we men that words said thoughtlessly, breaths without substance, may cause death, and wars, and many other miseries.
The head of John the Baptist is brought to Salome who gives it to Herodias.
The historian Josephus records that Herodias’ ambition was the downfall of both her husband and herself (Ant. 18:7). When Herod Agrippa was made king rather than her husband Herod Antipas, she demanded her husband go before the emperor in Rome and demand a similar position. Caligula, however, banished Antipas to Gaul, and Herodias chose to go with him.
The headless body of John the Baptist would have been treated as other executed prisoners. Such men had no honor and their bodies would be cast out on the land as food for scavengers.
When John’s disciples heard of his death, they went and found the body in order to give it a proper resting place. The custom of laying a body in a stone tomb could be traced back to the days of Abraham and the burial of Sarah in a cave (Gen. 23). They pay a final honor to their teacher.
Come Aside Mar 14
Mark 6:30 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31 And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32 So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves.
Mark’s story returns to Jesus, as do the disciples. They have gone out and are now back with their Teacher. Like children who have taken a test applying their knowledge in the real world, they are eager to tell Jesus of their practical success with what He has taught them. They have used His words, and they have done the works.
What we have learned is useless if not applied.
And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
For there were many coming and going. There will always be people in need of healing, in need of comfort and advice, in need of something that they cannot find in themselves and know not where else they can turn. As long as Jesus and the disciples are there, people will come.
The wilderness, or whatever deserted place, is a refuge, a recharging station
As when the woman had touched the hem of His garment for healing and drawn power from Jesus, each person to whom they ministered tapped into that disciple’s store of spiritual energy.
There is no lack of spiritual energy, but its reservoirs must be replenished inside of its ministers. Jesus counsels them on stepping back as well as on stepping forward.
Meeting the needs of self, and selflessly meeting the needs of others, are two sides to an equation. The human who is totally self-less cannot endure. The demands of the human body for water, food, rest, and all of the other necessities eventually overwhelms the self-less heart, leaving it dead or rebelling against servitude in order to survive.
To care for others requires that we care sufficiently for the self.
There is a boundary about each of us. Jesus taught how to honor that boundary. And when the time came to drink the cup that was His, He let the boundary collapse and crossed over to the other side.
Compassion March 15
Mark 6:33 But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him. 34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. 35 When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. 36 Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.”
Jesus and His disciples cross back over the Sea of Galilee. They go to the other Bethsaida – a name that literally means “house of fish,” so a fishing village at the northeastern tip of the sea. This is but a village, surrounded by wide open spaces.
The crowd sees the direction of their boat, and travel on foot around the sea. Telling others along the way of their purpose, their crowd swells into the thousands.
The prevailing winds on this sea are NW or SSE. Sailing to the northeast corner would have the wind on the side of the boat rather than behind it. The boat would have to tack often, travel in a zigzag fashion, making the distance and time longer than a direct route. This allowed the crowd on foot to reach the destination before the boat arrived.
Their time in the boat was there only respite from the people who desired their help. Jesus alights from the boat only to find that which He had sought to escape. He was moved with compassion, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. They were like a boat without a captain, blown by various winds, buffeted by the waves, and knowing not where they were going.
And He began to teach them. The Greek word for teach is the base of our word, didactic, meaning morally instructive. He taught them how to sail the seas of life, to weather its storms while maintaining the integrity of the vessel and its destination. People living by the sea could understand.
The disciples bring the situation back to practicality. The day is near done. The people have traveled far and have nothing to eat. Send them away so they can find food in the villages before night comes, they tell Jesus.
Negotiating the sea of life requires a store of provision as well as a compass.
You Feed Them Mar 16
Mark 6:37 But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
And they said to Him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?”
The disciples have beseeched Jesus to solve the problem they see looming: a hungry crowd with no food available. Jesus’ answer astounds them, that they should feed the crowd.
Again, they respond with a practical answer. How can they solve the problem of hunger for this crowd? They have only 200 denarii (the most plentiful denomination of Roman currency, a silver coin). Are they to spend their entire currency on a crowd in need of more bread than they can buy?
Supply and demand is the crux of all economic issues. They must come into balance, or problems will arise for the buyers or sellers or both. Jesus is not an economist. He is a teacher. And miracles somehow happen around Him.
When Jesus tells the disciples to give them something to eat, He is turning their question back on them.
The disciples are still in their heads. Their thoughts determine their view of the world. They observe that the glass is half empty. (Actually, far less than half full!) Logic prevails over faith. It is time for an advanced class in spiritual understanding.
Jesus needs to move them beyond the limitations they perceive. They must have a lesson in possibility to counter what they see as reality.
The miracle about to happen is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. This should heighten our awareness of its importance.
He had recently sent the disciples out to do their work among the people, and they had come back amazed at what they had accomplished. Jesus wants to amaze them some more. He is in the business of doing amazing things. Their business is to do the same.
Isn’t OUR business to do the same? We look to the Holy Spirit for guidance and counsel. The “bread of life” we give may be compassion, love, energy, time, or another gift that meets a need. We see an overwhelming need and ask the Holy Spirit help us rise to meet it.
And perhaps we find a way…His way.
Feeding Five Thousand Mar 17
Mark 6:38 But He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.”
39 Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties. 41 And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among all.
There is a great amount of symbolism to this story beyond the miracle of feeding so many.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35) In a time and place where hunger was not unusual, this statement had a deep meaning for His audience.
And the crowd was familiar with the words of Moses to the Israelites at the end of their 40 year sojourn: And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (Deut. 8:3).
Since that time, the understanding of the words that had come from the mouth of God had been corrupted, the bread no longer whole.
Thinking of the false bread of the priesthood of Jesus’ day, Isaiah also spoke to the issue of the true bread of heaven:
Is. 55:1 “Ho! Everyone who thirsts,/Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,/Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk/Without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Today we also are spending our money on that which does not satisfy. We hunger and are not filled. We become heavy, but not with understanding. And the hunger grows.
We are all empty vessels waiting to be filled with the Word of God.
All Were Filled March 18
Mark 6:42 So they all ate and were filled. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. 44 Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.
They all ate and were filled with the bread from heaven.
The imagery of Moses and the Exodus runs through the Gospels. For example, Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount is Jesus on the mountain giving a new perception of the Law. Jesus is correctly reinterpreting the Law given at Mount Sinai that it may be better understood and practiced.
Here in Mark 6. Jesus is again at the mountain, as was God. The area also is secluded, a wilderness, away from civilization.
It is near the time of the Passover (John 6:4). As with the 12 disciples, the 12 baskets of food available after the feeding represent the 12 tribes.
Jesus organizes the crowd into ranks (figuratively, like garden plots, regular beds of plants) of hundreds and fifties (as at Sinai, into thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens).
Rather than having the Law to govern and regulate life, the issue is the bread of life that will give us a more abundant life. This is reminiscent of the manna given to the people where there was no food. Manna was the miracle that reassured a hungry people that God was with them.
The food available for life in our story reminds us of the earlier miracle of bread. The five loaves of bread are the five books of Moses, and the two fish are the two tablets upon which the Ten Commandments are written.
Miracles happen throughout the Old and New Testaments. Miracles still happen today.
A miracle is something that cannot be explained by the laws of our physical world. In the 21st century, they also cannot be explained by what we know of the laws of the quantum world, or what we know of the nature of relativity. There is at least one other power creating what we perceive as reality. This is the spiritual power that created and governs them all.
Miracles are not just acts of defying the laws of nature, but are events changing our perception of the physical world, allowing us to see the spiritual power that rules all things.
Miracles are reassuring reminders that we are not alone.
Next day
Mark 6:25 Immediately she came in with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it better than silence?
A variation on these thoughts about what to speak is attributed to a number of different sources, going at least as far back as Socrates. Wisdom is like character. It may arise from different places in different circumstances at different points in time, but it is consistently true.
John the Baptist called out, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Such a message calls for change, but it is a call to the individual for change within. Such a call often meets the test of speech above.
He also called out that Herod had sinned by marrying his half-brother’s divorced wife. The statement was true. It definitely was not kind. Was it better spoken than left unsaid?
Prophets and others who oppose injustice face a dangerous road. Those in power seek to grow their power, or at least retain all that they have. And their power permits them to silence anyone who is a threat to their position.
Had John the Baptist spoken privately to Herod of the matter? We do not know. There is little reason to believe that Herod would have followed John’s counsel and reversed his marriage to Herodias.
We do know that John spoke publicly on the issue. Was that necessary?
Jesus could have pursued the same line of accusation. Stealing a half-brother’s wife violated Moses’ Law (Lev. 20:21), if not morality, also. But Jesus had a greater message than this, as did John. What was to be gained by calling out this one sin of Herod’s and not his many other sins?
Paul in chains preached to Herod Agrippa, great grandson of Herod the Great. Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.” (Acts 26:28)
Paul could have criticized Agrippa for many things, but instead he chose to relate his own experience of becoming a follower of Christ and the blessing that had been to him. He sought Agrippa and all in the court to become like him, except for the chains. And Paul found a sympathetic audience.
Speaking truth to power comes in many forms, even silence on some issues.
Beheaded Mar 13
Mark 6:26 And the king was exceedingly sorry; yet, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he did not want to refuse her. 27 Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought. And he went and beheaded him in prison, 28 brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When his disciples heard of it, they came and took away his corpse and laid it in a tomb.
Herod Antipas has made an oath, apparently more than once (as had Ahasuerus to Esther Est. 5 and 7) in front of his distinguished guests and cannot back down. His concern at his subjects’ reaction to beheading the righteous John must yield to the oath to his step-daughter.
Such an open ended offer – anything up to half my kingdom – is a fool’s offer. Salome could have asked for the death of anyone in attendance at the feast, for example. When an oath is foolish, undesired consequences may place the swearer in an untenable position of doing what is right or what the other person desires.
Herod issues the death sentence with urgency, fulfilling his vows. Immediately, he sends one of his royal guard to the prison where John is held with the order to bring back the head of John the Baptist.
And thus a life is ended on the whim of a response to a pleasing performance. What fools are we men that words said thoughtlessly, breaths without substance, may cause death, and wars, and many other miseries.
The head of John the Baptist is brought to Salome who gives it to Herodias.
The historian Josephus records that Herodias’ ambition was the downfall of both her husband and herself (Ant. 18:7). When Herod Agrippa was made king rather than her husband Herod Antipas, she demanded her husband go before the emperor in Rome and demand a similar position. Caligula, however, banished Antipas to Gaul, and Herodias chose to go with him.
The headless body of John the Baptist would have been treated as other executed prisoners. Such men had no honor and their bodies would be cast out on the land as food for scavengers.
When John’s disciples heard of his death, they went and found the body in order to give it a proper resting place. The custom of laying a body in a stone tomb could be traced back to the days of Abraham and the burial of Sarah in a cave (Gen. 23). They pay a final honor to their teacher.
Come Aside Mar 14
Mark 6:30 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31 And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32 So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves.
Mark’s story returns to Jesus, as do the disciples. They have gone out and are now back with their Teacher. Like children who have taken a test applying their knowledge in the real world, they are eager to tell Jesus of their practical success with what He has taught them. They have used His words, and they have done the works.
What we have learned is useless if not applied.
And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
For there were many coming and going. There will always be people in need of healing, in need of comfort and advice, in need of something that they cannot find in themselves and know not where else they can turn. As long as Jesus and the disciples are there, people will come.
The wilderness, or whatever deserted place, is a refuge, a recharging station
As when the woman had touched the hem of His garment for healing and drawn power from Jesus, each person to whom they ministered tapped into that disciple’s store of spiritual energy.
There is no lack of spiritual energy, but its reservoirs must be replenished inside of its ministers. Jesus counsels them on stepping back as well as on stepping forward.
Meeting the needs of self, and selflessly meeting the needs of others, are two sides to an equation. The human who is totally self-less cannot endure. The demands of the human body for water, food, rest, and all of the other necessities eventually overwhelms the self-less heart, leaving it dead or rebelling against servitude in order to survive.
To care for others requires that we care sufficiently for the self.
There is a boundary about each of us. Jesus taught how to honor that boundary. And when the time came to drink the cup that was His, He let the boundary collapse and crossed over to the other side.
Compassion March 15
Mark 6:33 But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him. 34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. 35 When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. 36 Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.”
Jesus and His disciples cross back over the Sea of Galilee. They go to the other Bethsaida – a name that literally means “house of fish,” so a fishing village at the northeastern tip of the sea. This is but a village, surrounded by wide open spaces.
The crowd sees the direction of their boat, and travel on foot around the sea. Telling others along the way of their purpose, their crowd swells into the thousands.
The prevailing winds on this sea are NW or SSE. Sailing to the northeast corner would have the wind on the side of the boat rather than behind it. The boat would have to tack often, travel in a zigzag fashion, making the distance and time longer than a direct route. This allowed the crowd on foot to reach the destination before the boat arrived.
Their time in the boat was there only respite from the people who desired their help. Jesus alights from the boat only to find that which He had sought to escape. He was moved with compassion, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. They were like a boat without a captain, blown by various winds, buffeted by the waves, and knowing not where they were going.
And He began to teach them. The Greek word for teach is the base of our word, didactic, meaning morally instructive. He taught them how to sail the seas of life, to weather its storms while maintaining the integrity of the vessel and its destination. People living by the sea could understand.
The disciples bring the situation back to practicality. The day is near done. The people have traveled far and have nothing to eat. Send them away so they can find food in the villages before night comes, they tell Jesus.
Negotiating the sea of life requires a store of provision as well as a compass.
You Feed Them Mar 16
Mark 6:37 But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
And they said to Him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?”
The disciples have beseeched Jesus to solve the problem they see looming: a hungry crowd with no food available. Jesus’ answer astounds them, that they should feed the crowd.
Again, they respond with a practical answer. How can they solve the problem of hunger for this crowd? They have only 200 denarii (the most plentiful denomination of Roman currency, a silver coin). Are they to spend their entire currency on a crowd in need of more bread than they can buy?
Supply and demand is the crux of all economic issues. They must come into balance, or problems will arise for the buyers or sellers or both. Jesus is not an economist. He is a teacher. And miracles somehow happen around Him.
When Jesus tells the disciples to give them something to eat, He is turning their question back on them.
The disciples are still in their heads. Their thoughts determine their view of the world. They observe that the glass is half empty. (Actually, far less than half full!) Logic prevails over faith. It is time for an advanced class in spiritual understanding.
Jesus needs to move them beyond the limitations they perceive. They must have a lesson in possibility to counter what they see as reality.
The miracle about to happen is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. This should heighten our awareness of its importance.
He had recently sent the disciples out to do their work among the people, and they had come back amazed at what they had accomplished. Jesus wants to amaze them some more. He is in the business of doing amazing things. Their business is to do the same.
Isn’t OUR business to do the same? We look to the Holy Spirit for guidance and counsel. The “bread of life” we give may be compassion, love, energy, time, or another gift that meets a need. We see an overwhelming need and ask the Holy Spirit help us rise to meet it.
And perhaps we find a way…His way.
Feeding Five Thousand Mar 17
Mark 6:38 But He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.”
39 Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties. 41 And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among all.
There is a great amount of symbolism to this story beyond the miracle of feeding so many.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35) In a time and place where hunger was not unusual, this statement had a deep meaning for His audience.
And the crowd was familiar with the words of Moses to the Israelites at the end of their 40 year sojourn: And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (Deut. 8:3).
Since that time, the understanding of the words that had come from the mouth of God had been corrupted, the bread no longer whole.
Thinking of the false bread of the priesthood of Jesus’ day, Isaiah also spoke to the issue of the true bread of heaven:
Is. 55:1 “Ho! Everyone who thirsts,/Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,/Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk/Without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Today we also are spending our money on that which does not satisfy. We hunger and are not filled. We become heavy, but not with understanding. And the hunger grows.
We are all empty vessels waiting to be filled with the Word of God.
All Were Filled March 18
Mark 6:42 So they all ate and were filled. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. 44 Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.
They all ate and were filled with the bread from heaven.
The imagery of Moses and the Exodus runs through the Gospels. For example, Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount is Jesus on the mountain giving a new perception of the Law. Jesus is correctly reinterpreting the Law given at Mount Sinai that it may be better understood and practiced.
Here in Mark 6. Jesus is again at the mountain, as was God. The area also is secluded, a wilderness, away from civilization.
It is near the time of the Passover (John 6:4). As with the 12 disciples, the 12 baskets of food available after the feeding represent the 12 tribes.
Jesus organizes the crowd into ranks (figuratively, like garden plots, regular beds of plants) of hundreds and fifties (as at Sinai, into thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens).
Rather than having the Law to govern and regulate life, the issue is the bread of life that will give us a more abundant life. This is reminiscent of the manna given to the people where there was no food. Manna was the miracle that reassured a hungry people that God was with them.
The food available for life in our story reminds us of the earlier miracle of bread. The five loaves of bread are the five books of Moses, and the two fish are the two tablets upon which the Ten Commandments are written.
Miracles happen throughout the Old and New Testaments. Miracles still happen today.
A miracle is something that cannot be explained by the laws of our physical world. In the 21st century, they also cannot be explained by what we know of the laws of the quantum world, or what we know of the nature of relativity. There is at least one other power creating what we perceive as reality. This is the spiritual power that created and governs them all.
Miracles are not just acts of defying the laws of nature, but are events changing our perception of the physical world, allowing us to see the spiritual power that rules all things.
Miracles are reassuring reminders that we are not alone.
Next day
