Megan Langan

Miracle and Message

Re:Verse passage – Mark 5:21-34 (day four)

Scripture tells of Jesus doing so many miracles, that the reader might mistakenly conclude that they were effortless for him, or that he was just performing miracles right and left. We, in our human thinking, focus on the miracle itself, but this story reminds us that performing miracles was not Jesus’ primary concern.

My favorite professor at Baylor would often repeat, “It’s never about the miracle, but about the message.” This story of the bleeding woman is a perfect example of this. If it were simply about the miracle, Jesus would have perceived that power had left him and kept right on walking – unconcerned with who he had healed. The miracle would still have occurred and the women would have received what she needed. But it’s not about the miracle.

Jesus stopped, intent on finding the person who had been healed. He had something even greater to offer than physical healing – a loving, redeeming relationship with the God of the universe. He ministered to this woman who had lost everything, bringing her into the family of God by calling her “daughter.” Jesus gave her the miracle, but he also gave her the message – the good news of salvation. Miracles are beautiful, but they’re always meant to be a sign that points to the message. The message is this: the Kingdom of God is at hand.

Desperation

Re:Verse passage – Mark 5:21-23, 35-43 (day four)

Jairus was a ruler in the synagogue, which means he had probably heard both the glowing testimonies and the snide complaints about Jesus. If he had never experienced the emergency of his daughter being sick, I wonder what he would have concluded about Jesus? Would he still have committed himself to him and believed? Would he have taken the tone of the other synagogue leaders who looked on Jesus with disdain?

Desperation causes us to say and do things we wouldn’t normally do, but it also shows us what we really believe. Knowing he might later face social consequences from interacting with Jesus, he chose in desperation to have hope that Jesus was the healer others proclaimed him to be. Through this one moment of desperate faith, he and his family experienced the power of God in a way that changed them forever.

In your moments of desperation, have faith that Jesus is as good as he says he is.

Response

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:35-41 (day four)

Have you ever had to make a road trip that you weren’t all that excited about? It’s one thing to have to travel somewhere you don’t want to go, but if something upsetting or inconvenient happens on the way, it makes the trip even worse. If you pop a tire or get into a fender bender in the middle of a trip you didn’t want to make, that’s enough to make anyone grumpy.

In Jesus’ day, there were different people groups on each side of the Sea of Galilee. The Jews were on the west side, and Gentiles were on the east. When Jesus and his disciples got on the boat in Capernaum to “get to the other side,” that meant they were traveling to the Gentile-dominated part of the area, an area that many of the disciples had probably avoided in the past. This was probably not a boat ride they were thrilled about. And then, a storm picks up. I’m sure they had plenty of unhappy thoughts running through their minds until they finally burst our in frustration and fear towards Jesus.

But in Christ, nothing happens in vain. The disciples were about to see that even the weather responds to Jesus. Next, and perhaps even more impressively, they’ll see through his ministry on the other side of the sea that even the Gentiles respond to him. Jesus uses miracles in the same way he uses parables – to teach us about who he is and the nature of the kingdom of God. When Jesus calms the storm on the way to minister to pagans, we see that Jesus is truly the king of heaven and earth, and that his kingdom is open to every nation. What will our response to him be?

Nature

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:26-32 (day four)

God made this earth and called it good, and all of creation proclaims the glory of God and speaks to his character. Nature doesn’t just make for a great metaphor, it directly shows us God’s goodness and helps us understand how to live as a result. In this parable, nature shows us how to trust in what Pierre Teilhard de Chardin calls “the slow work of God.”

The farmer plants the seed in faith that it will slowly, in the right time, produce fruit. Even if we have a degree in agriculture and understand how plants produce, it is still nothing short of a miracle that God allows fruit to come, slowly but surely, through a small seed. A favorite worship song of mine proclaims, “Oh how nature acquaints us with the nature of patience!”

God is making all things new and establishing his Kingdom in his perfect timing, and we wait longingly for the final harvest when Christ returns in glory. But in the meantime, we have been given everything we need through the blood of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to “trust in the slow work of God.”

Darkness

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:21-25, 33-34 (day four)

Were you scared of the dark when you were a kid? If I’m being honest, I’ve even had moments as an adult where I found myself in the dark and felt afraid. Shadows take on a life of their own in the dark, and our minds tend to wander to the most frightening scenario. Have you ever experienced complete darkness? Without even light peaking through the crack under the door? It’s disorienting – you lose sense of where you are in space and don’t know the way forward.

But if you turn on one light, even light one candle, that fear goes away. You’re able to see the shadows for what they are and can see the way out. Light is powerful. A small amount of light can overcome the most extreme darkness. Jesus is truly the light of the world. He broke into a world filled with people stuck in total darkness – no way out and afraid of what slithered in the pitch-black unknown. What may have seemed like a singular small candle on the night of his birth in Bethlehem was revealed to be the brightest, most powerful light in the cosmos. Nothing is hidden from this light, and the darkness will not overcome it. We can live without fear, confident in the power of that light.

Narrative

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:1-20 (day four)

David Brooks, the famous Christian journalist, once said, “Rather than asking someone what they believe, ask them how they came to believe the way that they do.” This causes the other person to speak about themselves in a narrative. They might tell you about their upbringing, or formative experiences they had. The conversation often goes better when we frame something in a narrative, because narratives are the primary way that we see and experience the world.

We may not have an audible voice narrating our life like in the movies, but we often view ourselves as characters in a story that’s playing out in real time. This isn’t just a quirk of the human imagination, it’s how God designed for us to think and experience the world. We are part of a larger cosmic story of God’s work in the universe, a story that is revealed to us in Scripture and one in which we are certainly not the main character.

Jesus reflects this cosmic narrative by speaking to his followers in narrative. As Bryan said, Jesus is the master storyteller. My hope is that we will place ourselves in the stories we read in Mark and respond to Christ accordingly. This week, we find ourselves as seed among soil. Where are you in relation to the sower? What kind of soil do you find yourself in? What must happen in your life for the seed to take root and bear fruit? How does your place in this story reflect your place in the larger story of God’s work in the world?

Kingdom

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 72:1-14 (day four)

Over the past six weeks, I hope you’ve been able to reflect on and celebrate the birth of our Savior. I hope you have found new ways to prepare him room in your hearts and experience the hope, peace, joy, and love that he came to offer. But as we continue toward the season of Epiphany, we’ll find that there is still much to learn about the child in the manger.

During Epiphany, we discover along with the shepherds that Jesus is more than the product of a miraculous birth. He is more than a good teacher, more than a kind person. He is more than an influential leader. He is the Son of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Alpha and Omega, and the center of heaven and earth. In this season, we examine the Biblical texts that reveal Jesus’ divinity. Psalm 72 does just that, as it describes the reign of the perfect king.

While it was written for Solomon’s coronation, we know that only Christ is worthy of this description. As David penned this psalm, he unknowingly prophesied of the one who would one day come through his family line to judge with righteousness and vindicate the afflicted. Only Christ’s kingdom will extend to the ends of the earth. Only he is worthy of the worship of all the nations. It is this glorious kingdom that we speak of when we say, “Your kingdom come.”

Glory

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 96 (day four)

Merry Christmas, church family! The presents may all be unwrapped and Christmas dinner is eaten, but the celebration continues! On the liturgical calendar, Christmas is a twelve-day season in which we say, “Hallelujah!” Our waiting in Advent is over and Christ has come!

Psalm 96 beautifully prophesies of the glory of Jesus. We who live on this side of the resurrection know it to be an accurate depiction of Christ. But pretend for a moment that you don’t know the rest of the story, and consider how Jesus came to earth. He came as an infant, to a poor family living under an oppressive government, born amongst animals because the world had not yet been taught to “prepare him room.” Nothing about this situation sounds glorious, yet Psalm 96 commands that we ascribe him glory.

The incarnation redefined reality. Jesus redefined glory. Glory no longer exists in gold and silver, crowns and palaces, but in goodness, mercy, humility, and justice. Glory has taken on a new form, which gives us every reason to keep the celebration going. We’ll examine Christ’s glory more in the coming days, but for now, celebrate and lift your hallelujah! God sent us the Messiah, just like he said he would.

Hesed

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 89 (day four)

In verse 1, the psalmist says, “I will sing of the lovingkindness of the Lord forever.” This word “lovingkindness” is almost always translated from the Hebrew word “hesed.”

Hesed is one of the most beautiful words in all of Scripture, but English doesn’t quite do it justice. It refers to the unidirectional, covenantal love and mercy that God has towards his people. It is a steadfast love, built entirely on the character of God, not on the worthiness of his people. It’s a love that we can put all our weight on, knowing that it is trustworthy and true. It is the love that is seen in God’s covenant with his people, which is described here in Psalm 89.

This is the covenant that Christ came to fulfill. This is what we celebrate at Christmas – that love came down. Hesed became known to us. Through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, we were brought into the covenant of love.

Joy!

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 98 (day four)

Reading this Psalm again caused The Isley Brothers’ song “Shout” to get stuck in my head. You just can’t read Psalm 98 without feeling energized. The Israelites felt this as they lifted this song of praise to the Lord. They had finally been delivered from exile, and they celebrated God’s faithfulness with a joy so palpable that all the earth was invited to join in.

The Lord is worthy of our joy. David danced with joy before the Ark of the Covenant. John the Baptist leaped for joy in Elizabeth’s womb when in the presence of the preborn Christ. And how much more reason do we, who live after the resurrection, have to shout for joy? The joy that springs up in us as a fruit of the Spirit is a steadfast joy. It is available to us even in our darkest days, precisely because of what we celebrate at Advent: Christ has come, and Christ will come again. Even if we have nothing else, there is reason to rejoice.