Mark chapter 5 has a lot of good stories but I want to focus on verses 25-34 where Jesus heals a woman who has had a sort of bleeding for twelve years. Now at first glance this could seem inconsequential, as Jesus healed many people. What stood out to me is the fact that she had it for twelve years! That’s over four thousand days and over three hundred million seconds. It’s a hard amount of time to imagine. I’m sure that it was a fact of life for her, like living in the same place for a long time.
The chapter also says, “She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse” Mark 5:26. So, over the course of twelve years she tried everything, but it only got worse. I don’t know about anyone else but at this point I would have lost hope in finding a remedy of some kind. But she didn’t. In fact, she had so much faith, that when she touched his cloak, she was healed. That to me is amazing!
It really isn’t inconsequential as she lived this way for over a decade. You see a lot of people being healed by Jesus but not as many who were healed by their own faith.
I feel oftentimes this little story is overshadowed by his raising of a young girl from the dead a few verses later, and his casting out of the demons into pigs, but there is so much you can take away from these few short verses. She endured twelve years and still had so much faith that deserves to not be forgotten.
-Philip Kirkpatrick
Application Questions
Would your faith have been enough to be healed after twelve years?
What do you believe Jesus can do for you? How will you show him that you really believe?
Are there small stories that you skip to get to the big ones?
Mark 4 starts out with some parables that most of us have heard many, many times. The parable of the sower, the parable of the growing seed, and the parable of the mustard seed.
Now I think that these were all meant to be taught together. So today, we are going to look at these 3 parables and how they relate to each other.
Starting with the first one, Jesus explains the parable of the sower to us in this chapter, and it is clear that we are supposed to be the seed in the good soil. And if we are that seed we are called to “bear fruit thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” But what does it mean to bear fruit?
I think Jesus answers this for us in his next parable. The parable of the growing seed. The man goes out and spreads seed. And little by little the seed starts to grow, until it is ready to be harvested.
This begs the question: what is the seed that we scatter? Now I think this seed can be a few different things. I think it could be the good news of Jesus and the Kingdom, and/or the love of Jesus shown to people through us. Personally, I think it’s the “and.” I think it is both of those things. Now in conversations I’ve had with some people, they say that their coming to Jesus was not overnight, it was years and years of people pouring into them with love and the Word until they eventually came to the full truth and understanding of Christ, and calling Him their Lord and Savior. This is what Jesus is getting at. That slowly the seed we plant grows until it’s ready to be “harvested” or until they are ready to accept Jesus, repent, be baptized and live for him until his return.
This brings me to the last parable Jesus shares in this chapter – the parable of the mustard seed. Our small seed grew and grew until it could be harvested, now they will plant their seed and it will grow, and so on. So our small “mustard seed” action can grow into that large plant in the garden. Our small impact that we can have in the lives of others can drastically increase the Kingdom and multiply to the “thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
-Camden Bormes
(Editor’s Note – Today and the rest of this week we get to hear from some youth and young adults who spent last week at FUEL Youth Camp. Camden is a recent graduate. He spoke at his school’s Baccalaureate on the good news of the Coming Kingdom. Keep sowing seeds, Camden, and challenging us to as well!)
Application Questions
Who helped sow the seed in your life? How did they do so?
How are you continuing to grow? Are you multiplying? What is needed for a healthy “Christian” plant to thrive and reproduce?
How are you – or can you – plant the seed? When have you seen the seed fall on the path, on rocky places and among the thorns? Pray for your planting, that the seed may fall on good soil and produce reproducing Christians seeking His Kingdom.
How well do you know Jesus? I mean, really know him?
The Pharisees (the religious leaders who prided themselves on supposedly having mastered the Old Testament law) knew Jesus – and were plotting with the government leaders to find a way to kill this rebel.
The sick and the maimed and the hurting knew Jesus – and were flocking to his side in droves, anxious for their turn to be touched, recognized and healed by this miracle worker.
The evil, impure spirits knew Jesus – they knew they were powerless before the one they rightly recognized as the Son of God.
The 12 disciples knew Jesus – and they dropped what they were doing to follow him, sit at his feet, learn from him, and do the work this teacher sent them out to do.
His mother and brother knew him – or they thought they did. They thought he was out of his mind. They were so familiar with him, they missed who he really was and couldn’t comprehend his true mission from God.
The teachers of the law knew Jesus – and they were so upset and thrown off by him they accused him of being possessed by Beelzebub the prince of demons. It is easiest to accuse what we don’t understand or what we feel threatened by.
So, I ask again, how well do you know Jesus? I mean, really know him.
Thousands of years later and there are still many different ways people think they know Jesus and respond to him. Some are still so familiar with Jesus (they’ve grown up with Jesus all their lives) they have actually missed who he really is. Others see him as a threat to their way of life or popularity and have made him out to be the enemy, attacking him with vicious lies and accusations at every chance. Others, are sincerely working at being his disciples, spending time with him and doing the work he sends them out to do. Some still recognize Jesus as the healer, the one who can ease their pain and put the brokenness back together again. And, the evil spirits still know they are no match for the power of the Son of God. They may win a battle here and there, but the ultimate victory will go to Jesus Christ.
Do you know who Jesus is?
Does he know who you are? Will he tell his Father in heaven that you are his brother, sister or mother, because you are doing God’s will?
-Marcia Railton
Application Questions
How well do you know Jesus? How would you describe Jesus to someone who has never heard of him before?
If you have grown up with Jesus, how can you be sure you aren’t so familiar with Jesus that you are missing who he really is? Where do you get your information about Jesus? What did Jesus say about himself? (Did he ever say he was God the Son?)
Today, who is attacking Jesus and how? How will you make sure you are on Jesus’s side now and at the time of the last battle between good and evil?
Go ahead and read the full chapter, but here’s the first 12 verses we will be discussing today.
A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” (Mark 2:1-12)
”Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?” (Mark 2:9)
That question has always kind of thrown me for a loop because, if I’m being totally honest, my answer would be different from the one Jesus seems to be implying is correct.
Forgiveness is invisible. Anyone could say ‘Your sins are forgiven’ and we’d never know for sure. But healing someone, telling a paralytic to ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’… well, we would see pretty quickly if that took or not.
I once read that “forgiveness becomes real to you as you believe it, not as you see it.” I think what that means in this context is that the lame man couldn’t see Jesus’ forgiveness. He had to choose whether to believe it was true or not, whether Jesus was trustworthy or not. That’s very different from believing that Jesus had healed him…after he was up walking around.
And now I can see why the former would be so much more difficult. It’s harder to trust what we can’t yet see.
Kind of reminds me of the ‘we walk by faith not by sight’ (2 Cor. 5:7) and ‘faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see’ (Heb. 11:1) verses. God does not provide us with ‘grace-received’ certificates to prove our forgiveness, our salvation. We either believe it or we don’t. We either experience the joy, peace and burden-lifting that grace brings… or we don’t.
Jesus, help us to trust today that you know what’s best for us even when we can’t see it. We want to experience the lifting of burdens in our lives, and to feel the peace and joy that eludes us when we believe what we see instead of what you tell us is true. We want to drop the things that paralyze us and have the faith to get up and walk.
-Susan Landry
Application Questions
Have you accepted Jesus’ forgiveness? How forgiven do you feel? Jesus has already done the hard part. What can you do to accept it, believe it and feel it more and more?
What things, thoughts, attitudes paralyze your faith. Will you drop them? How? What will that look like? What will it look like to get up and walk in faith? Where might your faith lead you?
From verses 13-17, are you more often like Levi or the teachers? What do you admire about Levi? What can you do this week that would be Levi-like?
As usual, there are many areas we could focus on in today’s devotion. I’d like to start with a very quick recap of Mark 1.
Mark 1 starts out with John the Baptists preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (1:4) to prepare the way for Jesus. Compared with the Old Testament sacrifices, this was revolutionary – introducing a new and better way to reconcile with God. Confess sins, turn away from those sins, and be baptized for the forgiveness of those sins.
Mark 1 continues with Jesus’ baptism, when God declared, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you, I am well pleased.” After which Jesus went into the desert to be tempted by Satan for 40 days.
After that, as Jesus performed miracles, “News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.” (1:28) After sunset one evening, Mark 1:33 says, “The whole town gathered at the door”, because Jesus was healing many who had various diseases and casting out demons.
Mark 1:35 gives some insight into Jesus’ prayer life, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.” He was interrupted by his disciples, who said, “Everyone is looking for you.” But Jesus left to go preach elsewhere because that was why he was sent.
Then, Mark 1:40-42 tells us, “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, If you are willing, you can make me clean. Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said. Be clean! Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.” As a result of his healing, this man told everyone what Jesus had done. Mark 1:45 tells us, “As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.”
The three things that stand out to me in Mark 1 are:
Jesus’ dedication to prayer.
Jesus’ compassion.
Jesus’ popularity – because people couldn’t stop themselves from telling all that Jesus had done.
After staying up very late at night healing people who started to arrive after sunset, Jesus got up very early in the morning while it was still dark to go to a solitary place to pray. Obviously, prayer was more important to Jesus than sleep. I think there is a correlation between Jesus’ prayer life and his successful ministry. How’s your prayer life?
Jesus healed so many people because he had compassion for them, and wanted to relieve their suffering. I’m especially touched by his reaction to the man with leprosy who came to Jesus, begging to be healed. Remember that leprosy made a person unclean. According to the Old Testament law, such a person was an outcast, who had to stay away from people, wear a covering over their mouth, and yell “unclean”. By coming to Jesus, this guy was breaking the law. But he knew he likely had a terminal illness, and Jesus was his only possibility of a cure.
And instead of shrinking back from this man, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. This man had probably not felt another human touch for years. And Jesus deliberately touched him and healed him.
Do you recognize that your sins are a terminal illness? Will you come to Jesus, and beg him on your knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”? If you do, Jesus is still compassionate and will forgive your sins.
Finally, after Jesus healed people, and changed their lives, they couldn’t help but tell everyone what Jesus had done for them. I can just imagine one of them saying something like, “You know this horrible problem I had? Well, Jesus completely healed me and gave me a new lease on life. I know you have some issues too, and I think you should go to Jesus to be healed like I was. It will change your life too.” – And as a result, Jesus’ fame and popularity exploded. Because people couldn’t stop talking about what Jesus had done for them.
What has Jesus done for you? How are you doing telling everyone you know?
In closing, I’d like to challenge you in a few areas. First, step up your prayer life. Give it a test. Deliberately dedicate time early in the morning to pray, and seek God. After a week, see what a difference it has made in your life. If you see a great change, continue the practice.
Second, take all of your problems to Jesus (in prayer). Your sins, your suffering, your concerns. Jesus is still compassionate. Sometimes, he grants physical healing, more often spiritual healing. Give it a try.
Finally, once Jesus has done something for you, tell everyone you know how He has changed your life.
–Steve Mattison
Application Questions –
Today’s questions came from the devotion – go ahead and give some more time thinking about, and acting on, them.
How’s your prayer life? What could you give up to make more time for prayer? Try the prayer test this week.
Do you recognize that your sins are a terminal illness? Will you come to Jesus, and beg him on your knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”? What will spiritual healing look like?
What has Jesus done for you? How are you doing telling everyone you know?
There is a scene in Mark 16 where three women, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome are all going to anoint Jesus’ body with spices, after he had died. There is a similar account in each of the other gospels, the books of Matthew, Luke and John. In the accounts from the other gospels, there are many different details mentioned, but one detail that remains the same through all of the accounts: women were the first to know Jesus was alive! The fact that women were the first to know of Jesus’ resurrection brings validity to scripture. Let me explain how.
First, we need to understand the culture in which Jesus lived. During his time, women’s testimonies were not taken seriously. Don’t get me wrong, I think women and men are equally trustworthy and both should be taken seriously, but that wasn’t the view during the time of Jesus. There is a book called the Talmud which is an extra-biblical book that contains Jewish teaching and theology. Here is a quote from the Talmud which pointedly explains this view, “but let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their gender…since it is probable that they may not speak truth, either out of hope of gain, or fear of punishment.” Once again, these are not my thoughts and I’m not agreeing with them, but this was a common belief during the time period. Understanding how women’s testimonies were viewed is important because it probably means this account wasn’t fabricated.
You see, if someone wanted to make up a fake story about Jesus coming back to life during the first century, they probably would not have used women as the first on the scene and the first to report the news about Jesus’ resurrection. A made up story probably would have used the more trustworthy and reliable testimony of men to tell this story. Remember, this is how they thought back then. As a side note, Jesus didn’t think this way. He on multiple occasions showed favor to women. Taking into consideration the mainstream view in the first century, some historians, like Bart Ehrman, think that because women were recorded as the first people to learn of Jesus’ resurrection this is not a made up account. This means that there is more evidence pointing to the gospels being a true historical account instead of a made up story.
To me, it is nice to hear little bits of information like this to boost my confidence in scripture. Not that I would disbelieve without this evidence, but it is reassuring to hear educated people talking about the Bible as if it is an accurate historical document, and not a made up story. These types of arguments are most common in apologetic circles. Apologetics simple means defending. People who spend their time defending the faith and the Bible are called apologists. So now, you are one nugget of information closer to becoming a great apologists for the Bible. And maybe your faith in the Bible has grown as well.
God never does anything by accident, and what we read in Mark 15 is no exception. To me, one of the most incredible events surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus is the temple veil being torn. This is what Mark 15:37-39 says about the event, “And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last. And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’”
There is a great significance in the veil being torn. To understand how important this is, we first need to understand the temple layout. Moving from outside the temple in, the first thing upon entering is the outer court. This is where the altar was kept for offering sacrifices. After walking into the temple, is the holy place. This is where the showbread, incense altar and lamp stands would be. Only priests were allowed in this part of the temple. The next and most precious part of the temple is called the holy of holies. This was the innermost part of the temple and it was cut off from the rest of the temple by a giant veil. The veil would have been thirty feet long and thirty feet high. Talk about a big piece of cloth. The holy of holies was cut off from the rest of the temple because it was the place God dwelled. Only the high priest, once a year, was allowed to go into the holy of holies. This veil was the literal barrier keeping God separate from the tainted and sinful world. So when Jesus dies, why is this veil torn?
The simple answer is this, when Jesus died he removed the barrier between God and man. God no longer needed to be separate from His people because Jesus covered that sin and washed it away. This means that those who put their faith in Jesus could now have access to the father like never before seen in history. Look at what 1 Timothy 2:5 has to say, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”. We no longer have to bring sacrifices to the temple because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice that paid for sin once and for all. We no longer need a high priest to enter the holy of holies for us because Jesus is now our high priest serving as a mediator between us and God. Thereby, giving us full access to the father. We no longer have to gaze from outside the temple wondering what it is like to be in the presence of God because now, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are being made into a spiritual temple where God resides in us. The church, which is us, is now where God dwells. Do you see now the significance of the veil being torn? It is a representation of one the biggest shifts in history. The veil being torn is a mile marker of a new age, the church age, where God is no longer is hidden in the holy of holies, but has poured His Spirit out upon the church.
We now have the great pleasure of living a life of freedom and access because of what Jesus did that day. When the veil was torn, everything changed. The next time you’re in trouble, hurting or wanting to rejoice, remember that you have access to the Father. There is no veil separating you from God.
Have you ever read scripture and thought to yourself, “That is definitely me”? I know I have, and every time I read Mark 14 I get that same feeling all over again. In Mark 14:32-42 we find the scene were Jesus takes his disciples to Gethsemane to pray before his arrest. Jesus sets a few of his disciples on watch while he goes away to pray. When Jesus returns, he finds them sleeping and says these piercing words in verse 37, “’Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?’” Ouch! How bad would you have felt if you were Peter right then? Well, I’ve felt almost exactly like this once.
One night, while I was in high school, one of my best friends was doing a late night shift in a 24 hour prayer campaign. He had the duty of praying for an hour in the middle of the night. I can’t remember for certain, but it was something like 3am – 4 am. He asked me and one of our other best friends if we would be willing to stay up with him to help him pray and be alert during this shift. We both happily agreed! After all, how often does your best friend ask you to stay up and help him pray? This is something we could not turn down. So we are all hanging out, sitting on the couches in my living room, waiting for his shift to begin. The next thing I remember are my two friends walking inside after his prayer shift was over. In that moment, I felt a lot like Peter. I couldn’t even stay awake for one night to help my friend pray. To be honest, I was a little bit embarrassed and disappointed in myself. I can’t believe I had let my best friend down.
There are a lot of things going on in Mark 13, but I want to focus on verses 9-11 which say, “But be on your guard; for they will deliver you to the courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them. The gospel must first be preached to all the nations. When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.”
There are two things that really stick out to me in these verses. The first being the word testimony. In Greek, the word is marturion, and it simply means witness, testimony, evidence or proof. To me, this is very exciting. Why does this excite me? Because it means that we can become proof that Jesus really is the son of God! When we are questioned about our faith we get the opportunity to become living and breathing evidence for Jesus! That, to me, sounds like the best thing I could ever be. Wouldn’t you want a chance to prove that Jesus is real? As an interesting side note, the word marturion is also tied to the word martyr, someone who dies for their faith. When someone dies for their faith, it is the greatest act of proof that someone can give. There is no greater sacrifice someone can make to prove their belief is real. Remember, whether you are talking to a friend, speaking in front of people or sacrificing your life, you will have an opportunity to be a witness for Jesus at some point.
The second thing that really sticks out to me in these verses is the mention of the Holy Spirit. I recently finished doing a study on the Spirit and it blew my mind in how many ways it works in our lives. Giving us words to speak and teaching us what to say is just one of its functions. The good news is, with the Spirit working in our lives, we don’t have to rely on our own knowledge or ability to speak because the Spirit will help us when the time comes. This may bring you some relief. It brings me peace knowing that I don’t have to rely on my limited abilities to tell someone about Jesus. I just have to be sensitive to the moving of the Spirit in my life. This should really take the pressure off us as Christians knowing that God, through the power of His Spirit, will help us get His work done.
One of the things I love about God most, is His consistency. He doesn’t change based on His mood or a novel whim. He is consistent because He is utterly and entirely good, loving, and holy. He already knows what the best is and what the future holds, so why would there be a need to change? This unchanging consistency is something that we can see in the words of scripture. For example, Mark 12:28-31 says, “One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, ‘What commandment is the foremost of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The foremost is, Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” How does this show God’s consistency?
God knew all the way back in the time of Moses what the most important things to Him are. It’s not like He discovered sometime between the time of Moses and the time of Jesus that He wanted people to love Him with everything they had and for people to love each other. These were foundational truths from the beginning because God was loving from the beginning. The proof that God doesn’t change is right here in Jesus’ words. If things had changed or if God wanted something new to be known, Jesus would have spoken it right then, but he didn’t. Jesus quoted what was already written.
The truths concerning God’s nature and His desires were given to us from the beginning of scripture and repeated over and over again through the rest of the Bible. I think God used this method on purpose, because sometimes, it takes awhile for an idea to sink into our brains. God’s message doesn’t change, just the way it is delivered. The big take away from all of this is that God is trustworthy and reliable. When God promises something, we know He will follow through. When God says something, we know that He isn’t going to change His mind later down the road. This means our salvation, our hope for the future kingdom and the love that we’ve received are sure to stay that way. Let that thought live in your heart, encouraging you and lifting you up day by day.
Seek Grow Love 