Did you find many interesting links between these Gospel readings and our Old Testament readings?
Be sure to let me know if you have questions about anything I’ve not covered (or anything I have covered, for that matter).
Blessings, Steve
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We’re reading The One Year Chronological Bible, New Living Translation (Tyndale). It’s best with your own copy. Or, paste in this link to the daily reading schedule:
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This week's highlights:
More healing. Jesus rejected in His hometown. Jesus had sisters! The sending out of the twelve. Death of John the Baptist. Feeding the 5000 & the 4000. Jesus walks on water. Many disciples desert Jesus. Scraps from the Master's table. "Who do you say that I am?" The Transfiguration. "Who is the greatest in the kingdom? Parable of the lost sheep. Parable of the unforgiving debtor. Openly teaching in the Temple. A woman caught in adultery (somehow just by herself).
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Comments:
October 8th — Mark 6:11 — origin of “Shake the dust from your feet.” We often say something like this to mean we will no longer continue in a relationship.
October 9th — Mark 6:30-31 — Something to keep in mind when considering the workload and work hours of our pastoral, missionary, and ministry staffs: Jesus had his crew go off for a while to rest and recharge. Let’s imitate that in our churches and missionary organizations.
October 10th — John 6:70 — “I chose the twelve of you, but one of you is a devil.” Best translation of this would be “the Devil.” But don’t get hung up on that “the”. Remember, Jesus often spoke figuratively (e.g., “destroy this temple,” meaning His body ... “get behind me Satan” spoken to Peter; but Peter, of course, was not actually Satan). Using the phrase “the Devil” is just a way to help them understand that one of them (Judas Iscariot, as they would eventually come to learn) is really, really bad.
October 10th — Mark 7:22 — while explaining that what goes into a persons mouth is not what defiles them, but rather what comes from the heart, Jesus lists several negative matters (e.g., sexual immorality, greed, deceit, etc.). He caps off His list with the word “foolishness.” It was well understood by Jesus’ audience, but is often a translational problem for us. “Ivvelet” is the word for “fool” and it appears mostly in the book of Proverbs. And, as we learned when reading Proverbs, “fool” does not mean a person who clowns around or acts silly; it means a person devoid of virtue and from who wisdom is absent. Perhaps, like me, you were taught this differently while growing up. I can’t count the times well-meaning christians lectured us young people on the “sin” of foolishness, meaning “clowning around or acting silly,” and incorrectly cited this passage from Mark.
October 11th — Matthew 15:21-28 — I like the Matthew version of this better than the one in Mark. It’s harsh enough without Mark’s matter-of-fact reporting style. Think how much she must have loved her daughter to just stand there and take, first, being ignored by Jesus; and then, once He addressed her query, to find herself compared to a dog! How strong must have been the desire to give this Jew a tongue-lashing for his elitist response! And yet, she found it within her to bring back a humble response, filled with a hope that He would still help her daughter. Amazing faith, indeed. (If you wish to explore this further, I wrote a reflection about it. Running With the Little Dogs is at: http://steveorr.blogspot.com/2017/08/running-with-little-dogs-steve-orr.html?m=0
October 12th — Luke 9:31 — I never noticed this, before. How did I miss the topic of that amazing conversation?! Did those two have roles to fulfill? Some tasks they were charged with accomplishing?
October 13th — Matthew 17:20 — I think the better translation, here, is “like” a mustard seed or “as” a mustard seed. We have just assumed Jesus was using the size of the mustard seed because everyone would have known how tiny they are ... But that’s not necessarily so. He may well have been referencing (1) the inherent nature of the mustard seed: that, though tiny when it starts, it grows into a bush so massive, many call it a tree ... and it just keeps on growing. Another aspect of the mustard seed to which Jesus may have been referencing (and to which the listeners would have been fully aware) is that, as it grows, (2) it pushes out every other plant. It creates its own ecosystem for birds, animals, and insects; but no other plants. A growing faith (vs their stagnating faith) and a personal environment of faith (vs their still worldly one) are much more likely what Jesus meant than the size of their faith.
October 13th — Matthew 18:21-35 — Here is something to recommend to someone who is having trouble forgiving a person. Start a “Forgiveness Journal.” Each time the person does or says that thing (or fails to say or do the desired thing) for which you are having trouble forgiving, make an entry into the journal about it. Be specific. Then, pray about it with God. Repeat this process each and every time the person does or says that thing (or fails to say or do the desired thing). Do not stop making journal entries and praying to God about it until you reach 490 entries ... or until you are ready to forgive and let it go.
October 14th — Luke 9:61-62 — you can’t plow a strait row while looking back. In other words, to be effective in service to the kingdom, a person cannot be overly concerned about other matters. If you are going into kingdom service, then kingdom service must be the priority. If interested, here’s a blog I wrote about this: https://steveorr.blogspot.com/2019/06/stuck-in-reverse-steve-orr-scripture.html?m=0
October 14th — John 8:1-11 — somehow, this women got caught in the act of adultery ... by herself! No matter how I try to make that work, I just come up with nothing. How do you go about getting caught ... in the act ... of a two-person activity by yourself ?! For my part, I think Jesus showed a massive amount of patience with these fools (see definition of fool, above). I think I would have been tempted to repeat the cleansing of the Temple with these jerks.
If I am being too subtle, here, let me ask it plainly: where’s the guy?! Talk about your setups. What this says it that these supposed religious leaders were so calloused as human beings that they were perfectly willing to have this woman stoned to death if they could somehow trip up Jesus and catch Him in violation of the Law ... anything they could use against Him.
Jesus was brilliant, here. There are so many ways in which we should imitate Him, but I would encourage all of us to meditate on this one, in particular, as a life pattern worth imitating every day.
Next week:
More conflicts with the religious leaders. Sending out the 72 disciples. Satan’s fall from Heaven. The greatest commandment. The Good Samaritan. Mary, Martha, & Lazarus. Money, possessions, inheritance. Another mustard seed reference. The Good Shepherd. The Prodigal Son. The rich man and Lazarus. Divorce and Marriage. The Rich Young Ruler. Eye of the Needle.
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