Author: Bryan Richardson

Re: Verse reading–Mark 15:33-41; 16:1-8 (day three)

“They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”  What to make of this verse?  It has no “I-can-do-all-things” ring to it.  It doesn’t urge us onto the evangelism trail.  And it sure seems to tamp down the joy.  Where’s the confidence, the eagerness, the breezy optimism we’ve come associate with this ancient Sunday morning?  Do these disciples just need time to clear their heads before donning an Easter bonnet?  Or do we rather need to learn from them: to take seriously as they took seriously that the world they knew—and took comfort in—had indeed been swept away, and they didn’t yet know how to live?  Their fear reveals not an unenlightened mind, but a perception of God’s footprint.  We should all be so afraid.

Re: Verse reading–Mark 14:43-52; 15:1-15 (day three)

“Jesus still made no reply.”  Consider: The one whose speech alone brought the universe into existence did not utter a word here.  This is what the use of speech looks like in the hands of a master.  Jesus refused to treat words as an escape hatch from the present moment.  Like using friendship to advance a self-serving agenda, or using others’ feelings of compassion to evade your responsibilities, the use of words to circumvent your own suffering is existential malpractice.  At this point, words would have only served to shield Jesus from the suffering that must come for the good of the human race.  You have perhaps desired to imitate the words of Jesus.  What will it take for you to imitate the silence of Jesus?

Re: Verse reading–Mark 14:12-31 (day three)

“‘Surely you don’t mean me?’”  It’s hard to take an inside look.  How about this hilarious 2002 statistic from pollster George Barna: Ninety percent of pastors rate themselves as above-average preachers and teachers.  Ninety percent are above average?  Think about that.  Anyway, Jesus kept saying life with him requires that a person deny himself.  But we say we just need a little margin, a little breathing space, a little vacation from the frustration.  If we can have that, we’ll be golden.  No, Jesus says, we don’t need that.  What we need is God’s mercy in the face of our depravity.  As long as we’re in surely-not-I mode, we won’t believe for a moment that our own wickedness is gumming up the works.  And so we claim to be without sin.

Re: Verse reading–Mark 11:12-33 (day three)

“‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!’”  Of course it did.  Jesus spoke without bombast, without pretentiousness.  This is how God uses words.  He spoke all heaven and earth into being.  He gives us power like that—not to that degree, but like it.  We speak encouragement, and people start to hope.  We speak in agreement with God, and others see God in a new light.  We speak a plan to help a person in need, and those we call on do what we ask.  Work that matters begins with words.  The disciples act as if there is no connection between words and results.  But then again they’ve seen a lifetime full of empty words.  These times call for true words.  May we learn them from God, and speak them to one another and to the world.

Re: Verse reading–Mark 10: 32-45 (day three)

“Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.”  Might we abuse this teaching from Jesus?  You know we might.  Jesus teaches us that serving another doesn’t lead to greatness.  Serving another is greatness.  Otherwise, we become servants so that we might get a better job later on.  We would indeed serve people as a means to a self-serving end.  But the life together that the Three-In-One God lives is a life in which the Son defers to the Father, the Father calls attention to the Son, the Holy Spirit illuminates all creation with the truth of the Son, and the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit.  Each person of the Trinity magnifies the other persons of the Trinity.  This is servanthood.  To serve one another is to live the life God lives.

Re: Verse reading–Mark 9:14-29 (day three)

“How long shall I put up with you?”  When Jesus made a whip of cords and overturned the money-changers tables, when he glared at the Pharisees in the presence of the man with the shriveled hand, when he called out the hypocrites who ignored the plight of the crippled woman, he was angry.  It was no less the case here.  Jesus understood the power of anger—power to intoxicate or to animate.  He channeled anger in the latter direction, leveraging it to move toward revelation, healing, recognition of dignity, and, in this instance, the vanquishing of an unclean spirit and patience with unbelief.  Anger did not rule Jesus; it was his servant.  Part of our work in learning his kind of life is learning how he used anger.

Re:Verse reading–Mark 8:27-38 (day three)

“The Son of Man will be ashamed…” Shame seems to have become little known in our current society. How quaint a notion it is. Surely we’re more authentic, honest, and accepting now, whereas our forebears denied their feelings, repressed their desires, and shunned those who violated arbitrary behavioral standards. Religious talk of shame such as this verse just seems to cement the perception of shame as a tool of the powerful to force the weak to tow the line. But it’s really all of us who detest weakness–that very avenue that Jesus said is the only way to strength and life. We’re so ashamed that the Savior would live a weakling’s life and die a weakling’s death that we attempt to reimagine God in our own heroic image. And the Lord says, “I never knew you.”

Re:Verse reading – Mark 7:1-23 (day three)

“All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.”  That sin comes from within is one of Jesus’s more depressing revelations.  It means sin cannot be managed because the manager is compromised.  It means a man must entrust himself for safekeeping to someone who remains pure.  Human beings want to be self-helping, but we are instead self-damning.  Pride, and every sin, proceeds from the heart, and we would follow those sins to the death.  The sin from within is loud.  Even so, the Lord has allowed us a part of our reasoning that would listen to this Savior.  Those at the table with Jesus listened to him over the clamor of their own sin.  The years have not dimmed his voice.  We can still hear him if we will.

Re:Verse reading– Mark 6:1-13 (day three) 

“Isn’t this the carpenter?”  One generally does not welcome surprises.  Beyond the very few instances of well-meaning diversions—a gift kept secret until the unwrapping, a longed-for family member who shows up for the holidays after all—surprises interfere with one’s ability to meet the demands of the day while time still remains to meet them.  If you learn that something you thought you knew you actually do not know, that’s a surprise.  If the matter turns out to be one on which your well being will always depend, surprise turns to fear and confusion.  Fear and confusion will take the place of listening and thinking.  That’s the way we often approach new ideas.  But Jesus came in the flesh, not as a disembodied idea.  He is a person to whom you can listen.  Hear him.

Re:Verse reading– Mark 5:1-20 (day three)

“The herd…rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.” Jesus did not roll into town as an expert from the wild blue yonder, dispensing advice while remaining above the fray. He lived with people, and his nearness involved messy work: blood and bone, anguish and anger, spit and sweat, demons and decisions. We like our miracles clean; Jesus uses saliva and dirt. We want divine intervention in our squabbles; Jesus says “Who made me an arbiter between you?” We like a good rescue story, but in this fallen world, God’s rescue will result in collateral damage. Miracles aren’t magic. God in his activity leaves a footprint in the world of men. When you pray for deliverance, are you prepared for what God will destroy in the process?