““You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”” Mark 5:31 NIV
Jesus was surrounded by crowds of people, but He still saw the needs of the one. One man in a crowd needed Jesus to heal his dying daughter. Jesus’s response is to head towards that man’s, Jairus, home to pray for his little girl.
As they walk through the crowd where people were pressing up against Jesus on all sides, one woman was healed in a very personal way. Jesus stopped to address her individually.
You and I are only one in 8 billion on this planet. There are so many others pressing in around Jesus. Yet He stops for the one, you/ me.
So many around us but He comes to our home of our hearts and raises the dead within us.
Jesus is personal. He is for each of us one on one. He wants intimate relationship with each of us. He went to the cross, died and rose again to extend the invitation for us to come. Will we respond to His invitation for our time to be one on one with Him?
I love this account of Jesus setting the man free from many demons that tormented him. This man lived away from his family in a graveyard and was deeply tormented. The people tried to subdue him but he broke the chains they used and was violent.
But NO Mental torment by the demonic is too big for Jesus. With a word Jesus cast them out. This is what I love about the story:
“When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.” Mark 5:15 NIV
This man had a reputation for being CRAZY! But when Jesus stepped in he was freed from the demonic spirits that tormented him. He was in his right mind!
Around three years ago I was living a life tormented by anxiety and fear. I had been for years. I tried everything I could think of to fix it until I came to the end of me and my ways letting God do it. Jesus stepped in and He has set me free! Although I haven’t ran around a graveyard naked and cut myself with stones like this man(For that we can all thank God), I know what it felt like to have my mind out of control. Now I testify to you I know what it is like to sit at the feet of Jesus free from that torment and in my right mind! Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever! He still changes us and sets us free from torment when we come to Him!
“Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”” Mark 4:20 NIV
Jesus often taught lessons by using parables, or short story illustrations. In this parable Jesus compares our hearts to soil and God’s Word to seed. He said there are different soils where seed can fall. Or there are different types of hearts that God’s word can come to. There is the soil on the path, hard and stony, as soon as seed falls on it birds come and eat it. It never takes root, or the enemy, Satan steals it away. There’s the soil in the rocky places where the seed falls. The word is received, but doesn’t take root. The soil in the thorny places where the word falls, but it is choked out by the cares of the world and desires for other things. That seed never produces fruit. Then there’s the good soil that is very productive.
The question is what kind of soil is your heart? How do you receive the word of God? In my life, my heart has often been the soil of the the thorny place. I’ve often let the cares of the world and desires to do things my way choke out what God wanted to have grow inside of me.
May our prayers be for our hearts to be good soil. Always receiving His Word, and letting it grow producing all the good God desires in our lives. That kind of soil only comes when we give our hearts to God entirely, totally, and completely!
Following Jesus is not a popular thing to do. The world will tell you things like, “Christianity is too judgmental.” “Jesus was just a good man.” “Jesus’s ways are old fashioned. Out of date.”
In Jesus day, the world around Him did not accept Him either. The religious leaders tried to explain away His miracles by saying, “He is demon possessed.” His family said, “He is out of His mind.” But Jesus’s answer to their accusations was simple.
“How can Satan drive out Satan?” Mark 3:23 NIV
In other words, “You’ve seen me cast out demons. Can Satan cast out himself? Can Satan bring evil, do the Good I’ve done?”
C.S. Lewis said this of Jesus: “Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord.” We all stand at that crossroads of decision in our own life. What will we say about Jesus and His role in our lives?
Jesus makes one more statement in this chapter speaking of our relationship to Him. He came to our world to hold out the invitation to relationship to God. Our choice is to accept that invitation, follow Him and do His will. Here is what happened:
“Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”” Mark 3:31-35 NIV
Where do you land in relating to Jesus? Have you judged Him as our world has, “out of date”, “too judgmental ”, “just a good man” I.e. a liar and lunatic? Or is He Lord? And are you obeying Him doing His will? The one who does God’s will is a part of His family! There is no better place to be, a part of the Family of God! May we choose to live with Jesus as our LORD!
Three groups of people are mentioned in this passage: The Pharisees who hated Jesus. The large crowds who followed Him wanting His healing touch and to see miracles. The inner circle of Jesus, His disciples.
“Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” Mark 3:13-15 NIV
The disciples, the ones closest to Him, His friends are described as the ones “he wanted”. He appointed them “that they might be with him and that he might send them out…”. What a privilege to be one of the ones to walk and talk with Jesus to learn from Him and to be used by Him! The disciples were blessed!
We are blessed!! When we follow Jesus and have the Holy Spirit inside of us, we are His disciples too. We are the ones He wants! We are the ones He is with and He sends out!
Jesus rocked the world of the religious elite of His time. They could not wrap their minds around His teachings and the miracles that followed Him. They were shocked when He didn’t follow all their traditions and man made rules. They wanted Him and His disciples with Him to fast.
Jesus explained that what He was proclaiming to them was “New Wine”. It could not be put in the constricted old wine skins. In other words. What God wanted to do in their lives could not be confined by the old ways of the law. It was New.
God wants to do the same within us! Where we have been with God is only the surface of where He desires to take us! His relationship to us is New and it is living!
We don’t have to be stuck in the ways of the past! Jesus gives us New Wine and changes our hearts so that it is put into New Wine skins that can receive the New He wants to do in us!!
This is Good News!
““No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”” Mark 2:21-22 NIV
“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?”” Mark 2:5-7 NIV
The teachers of the law could not stomach the idea of Jesus forgiving sins. Only God could do that! This would mean Jesus claimed to be God! And it would upset all their traditions and ways. But the Good News is that Jesus is the One who forgives sins!
Jesus went to eat at Levi’s house. He was a horrible and hated sinner, a Jewish tax collector working for the Romans.
“When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”” Mark 2:16-17 NIV
The Good News is once again proclaimed! Jesus came to bring healing to those sick with sin! He came to call to sinners that He could set them free!
Jesus has not changed! He is the same today as He was yesterday, and will be the same tomorrow. He has come to forgive our sins and to bring healing from its horrible effects on our life. What made the difference in the man paralyzed and the tax collector’s lives? They came to Jesus! He invites us to come too! Good News!!
When the Kingdom of God comes near healing and restoration occurs. Everywhere Jesus went lives that were broken were fixed, lives that were occupied by evil were set free, unclean lives were made clean. The people were amazed. Yet in all this activity, Jesus took time to get alone with His Father.
“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.”Mark 1:35 NIV
Why? Jesus was God and there was so much to do? Why would He need time to pray? He was One with the Father and One with the Holy Spirit. He was in relationship with them. He still is! Out of this relationship God’s Kingdom love and power flowed!
We are invited to enter into this relationship and be One with God. Then God’s Kingdom flows through us! As Jesus ambassadors of the Kingdom, we are a part of His plan to restore and heal. This was Good News then. This is the Good News now. The Good News that goes on and on!
(This month I’m going back to the gospels, the books that tell about Jesus’s life- the Book of Mark)
Mark starts his book by proclaiming that Jesus and His coming is Good News! It is Good News indeed! John the Baptist testified of this Good News in his ministry before Jesus came. John said this:
“And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”” Mark 1:7-8 NIV
In the first 12 verses of Mark, the Holy Spirit is mentioned three times. Why is this important? Jesus came as God with us! He walked in our world. Jesus came so that He could baptize us or fully immerse us with the Holy Spirit, who is God in us! As we come into that relationship we will find the Holy Spirit to be such a precious friend.
This same Holy Spirit that fills us is the same Holy Spirit of whom John the Baptist spoke. The same Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove at His baptism. He is the same Holy Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness afterwards.
Jesus offers us Good News as well today! The Kingdom of God has come near! We can be a part of that Kingdom! He wants us to follow Him just as He called out to Simon and Andrew.
“As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.” Mark 1:16-18 NIV
And as we follow Him others will want to follow as well! Empowered by the Holy Spirit and sharing the goodness of God we receive. Good News for all!
“My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.” Song of Solomon 2:10-13 ESV
Sunday will mark the 7th Wedding Anniversary of my son and his bride. A lot has happened in seven years for them including a growing family. So I offered to watch my grandsons, three years old and one, for an overnight date for my son and his bride. I told my daughter in law, “You need to go out alone and remember why it was you got married in the first place.” I remember what it was like. Having had four children of my own. My mother in law offered to watch them for my husband and I to go away for our anniversary, so I wanted to give my own daughter in law the same gift my mother in law gave me.
This morning I awoke at 5 am. I contemplated staying in bed a little while longer, but I heard the still small voice say to me, “Come away with me.” So I quietly snuck out of my room, fixed a cup of coffee and headed to my upper deck that faces East. Time to watch the sunrise with the lover of my soul, Jesus.
As I have sat here listening to the sounds of morning, in particular the cooing of the doves in the distance, I was reminded of the verses above. And I thought about how I was as a young mom of four. Laundry!! Lots of it! Cooking, cleaning, baths, and boo boos. My life was preoccupied. When I finally got all my kids to sleep, my mind was not on my romantic relationship with my husband. I was distracted. Getting away with him helped me to lay aside all the responsibilities and to remember why it was I fell in love, or as I told my daughter in law, “why you wanted to get married in the first place.”
My heart toward God is not that different. Things crowd in. They occupy my mind and my time. And He calls to me, “Come away!” He wants me to remember why it was I fell in love with Him.
There was a time when the disciples had a time of busy ministry doing good things, the things of God. When they got back, Jesus saw their need. He told them to come away.
“Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.” Mark 6:31-32 NIV
He still calls to His disciples, me and you today. Every morning, if I take the time to listen, He speaks. He calls me away to remember. He reminds me exactly what it was that caused me to fall in love with Him: He is so kind. He is so good. He is so patient with me. He gives me so many blessings. He speaks of His love towards me. The doves cooing, the smell of honeysuckle floating through the air, the colors of a sunrise are all His gifts to me. And His presence…none can compare. When I’ve felt Him, just a small taste of what it is like to be totally immersed in His love, my heart is overwhelmed.
This is why He calls to me. This is why He calls to you! Time with Him is not a duty that we mark off a list of chores for the day. If it is we have missed the point. He wants us to “come away with Him” so we can remember. Remember how much He loves us and we in turn will love Him all the more. Then our desire will be to be close to Him, attached, to know Him intimately.
Your Love 