Mark 8:36-37

What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

Our cynical, materialistic society was well summed up by Oscar Wilde as knowing “the price of everything and the value of nothing”. Like many one-liners, that’s a bit harsh, but he was making an important point. It’s very easy for our money-mad society to overlook the most important things because of its obsession with the temporary things that have a price tag. Jesus pours scorn on this way of thinking. Forget owning a really large house or becoming the exclusive owner of every property in your town – Jesus encourages you to imagine what it would be like to own the whole world. That, he suggests, would be completely pointless if you lost your soul, your very reason for living.

Jesus is encouraging us to think about our priorities. What matters most to us? Whether we are conscious of it or not, the answer to that question will shape every day of our lives. It’s an issue to which Jesus returned on many occasions. In his Sermon on the Mount, he observed how people worry about a whole range of issues. He said there was no need for his followers to expend energy on these things because God perfectly understands our needs and can provide for us perfectly. He encouraged his followers to seek first the kingdom of God. When that is our focus, everything else will fall into its proper place.

Every day, our society will try to tell us what our priorities should be. It may be that at work we feel a pressure to go for a promotion and to earn more money. That may be right for you, but I have known many people who, in answer to the call of God, have gone as mission partners to other parts of the world where they have earned less and faced far greater challenges than at home. It may be that you are thinking about moving home. It may be right for you to move to a nice area where you will feel comfortable and secure, but I can think of a number of friends who have deliberately moved to tough areas on needy estates in order to be able to serve the Lord there. I don’t know what seeking first the kingdom of God will mean for you, but it will certainly challenge the assumptions which our society tries to thrust upon us. Above all else we need to pray, knowing that the Holy Spirit will love to lead us in God’s way.

Question

In what way will the command to seek first the kingdom of God affect your decisions today?

Prayer

Lord God, help me to learn more of what it means to seek first your kingdom in all that I think and do. Amen

Mark 8:34-35

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, [Jesus] said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.”

Jesus’ breathtaking honesty is very striking. Day by day, we are constantly being encouraged to sign up to organisations which can improve our health, wealth or general wellbeing. Their marketing is slick and highly polished and calculated to get us to subscribe to their products or services. They help us to dream of a happier and more successful life and cram in every attractive and glossy image to lure us into signing up. Jesus took a completely different approach. He spoke straight to people about the costs of following him. It reminds me of Winston Churchill, who during the second world war offered people “blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

I am firmly convinced that living for Christ is the most amazing and wonderful life. I would recommend it to anyone. However, that doesn’t mean it’s easy, and Jesus wanted his followers to know from day one that he was going to completely change their approach to life. If they wanted to hang on to their old ways, they could do just that. Jesus was only inviting people to follow him who were prepared to go on a completely new journey. They needed to turn their back on their old way of life and start all over again.

We miss the point completely if we think that we can simply add a few Christian attitudes and virtues to our old way of life. It just won’t work. Like driving a car, there can only be one person at the controls. The apostle Paul put this very clearly when he wrote: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Question

Do those words from the apostle Paul describe your life?

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, I hand over my life to you. I want to live for you today and ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit so that I will please you in all that think, say and do. Amen

Mark 8:33

Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

I have a soft spot for Peter. When Jesus informed his disciples that he was going to suffer at the hands of the Jewish authorities and then be killed, Peter did what any friend would do. He told Jesus off for saying such terrible things. He loved Jesus and hated the thought of him going through such suffering, but Jesus would have none of it. “Get away from me, Satan!” was as complete a reprimand as he could have uttered, and then he explained that Peter was just thinking things through from a human point of view. He needed to start thinking from God’s point of view.

This is an important challenge for us all. It is easy for us to become so immersed in the busyness of daily life and the demands of our world that we struggle to think of anything from God’s point of view. Like Peter, it’s very easy for us to respond to situations in kind and thoughtful ways which totally miss the point. God is calling us to have a completely different worldview that is shaped by his agenda. The apostle Paul addressed precisely this issue when he wrote to the Corinthians. He reflected that they used to see one another and even Christ from a human point of view, but that had all come to an end. “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone, a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

If we are to be the people that God wants us to be, we must receive a complete overhaul of our ways of thinking. That’s where the revolution needs to begin. Only then will our actions reflect God’s generosity, wisdom and love to the world. Writing to the church in Rome, Paul got to the heart of the matter when he wrote: “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

Question

In what ways has God transformed your thinking recently?

Prayer

Loving God, thank you that you love me so much that you want to transform my thinking. I invite your Holy Spirit to direct my thinking today. Amen

Mark 8:27,29

Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi…He asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.”

As you look back through your life, you may be able to spot turning points. At the time, the day was just like any other, but with hindsight you realise that nothing was quite the same afterwards. Jesus’ visit to Caesarea Philippi with his disciples was undoubtedly a major turning point in his ministry. Up until this moment, Jesus had been preaching and healing with the rumble of threats from the teachers of the law in the background. From this point on, he was heading to the cross. These verses, in which Jesus asked his disciples about his identity, are followed by his first prediction of his death.

From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, people had tried to work out who he was. They were amazed by his authoritative teaching and his powerful miracles. They also knew that he was from Nazareth, a town which had no reputation for producing influential people. As Jesus spent time alone with his disciples in the beautiful mountainous setting of Caesarea Philippi, this was an ideal moment for him to talk with them about his identity. At first, he asked a general question. He wanted to know what people were making of him. There were lots of theories. It isn’t surprising that some people imagined he was a revived John the Baptist. In Mark 6, King Herod had come up with the theory that John, who he had beheaded, had come back to life in the form of Jesus. Clearly, he was a man with a lively conscience. Others reflected on the possibility that Jesus was Elijah or one of the other prophets.

Then Jesus turned the spotlight on the disciples themselves. They had spent about three years with Jesus and had enjoyed a close relationship with him. He wanted to know who they thought he was. Peter was first to reply. “You are the Messiah”, he declared. People today still have many different theories about Jesus, but the time comes when we all need to answer for ourselves. We can’t put it off any longer.

Question

Who do you say that Jesus is, and how does your answer shape your life?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I thank you that you are the Messiah and that you are my Lord and my Saviour. Amen

Mark 7:14-15

Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”

The Pharisees had got really worked up by the disciples not washing their hands properly before eating. Elaborate rules had been developed over the years, and the Pharisees were meticulous in their adherence to them. They were sure that in order to be acceptable to God, they needed to keep these rules, but Jesus turned their thinking upside down. He pointed out that having really clean hands and following endless religious rules did nothing to change the person that you were. What mattered was what was in your heart. If you were seething with bitterness and anger, no amount of washing or other clever rituals could help. Jesus wanted to get to the heart of the matter.

I honestly haven’t spent much of my life thinking about my heart. However, nine years ago, that all changed. I had cellulitis and when I was rushed into hospital, my heart was racing at 240 beats a minute. That wasn’t sustainable. I was swiftly treated with intravenous antibiotics, and within a day or so, I was much better, but that incident forced me to think more carefully about my heart. We would all do well to receive Jesus’ challenge and to look at our spiritual heart. If our hearts are full of pride and envy, there is no wonder we’ve got problems. We need to make sure that our hearts are full of the Holy Spirit, who is constantly producing his fruit within us. Singing hymns and songs, raising our hands in worship and praying will do nothing to bless us if our hearts are not sorted out.

Question

What is the condition of your spiritual heart?

Prayer

Lord God, I invite you to fill me with your Holy Spirit, so that my life will constantly produce good fruit. Amen

Mark 6:37

Jesus said, “You feed them.” “With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!”

The feeding of the 5,000 was a spectacular miracle, but Jesus didn’t rush into performing it. First of all, he challenged the disciples with a blunt command: “You feed them.” Just imagine how they would’ve felt! Suddenly, they had to come up with an answer. They started thinking through the implications and quickly worked out that they would need to work for a long time to earn enough to feed such a huge crowd. They were firmly convinced that Jesus’ challenge was completely impossible.

The problem with the disciples was that they were thinking in purely human terms. Jesus was trying to help them think beyond the normal limitations of life. Their response was entirely reasonable, but the snag with it was that it didn’t take account of God. It left no room for miracles. As disciples of Jesus, they needed to stop thinking in purely practical terms and start seeing things from God’s perspective. The miraculous feeding of the 5,000 must have been a major moment in their development as disciples. They had to start thinking in completely new ways.

I have spent a large slice of my life in church leadership meetings. In every single meeting, we have had to make decisions, and often we have had to face very challenging situations. I believe that God wants us to make good plans and think carefully through the implications of all our actions, but at the same time we always need to be listening for the voice of God, who will often call us to do things which don’t make any human sense. God is still the God of miracles, and he calls us to see things from his point of view and to never forget his amazing generosity and miraculous power.

Question

In what situations are you looking for God to do a miracle at the moment?

Prayer

Loving God, forgive me for those times when I only think in a human way. Help me to always remember that you are a God of miracles. Amen

Mark 6:31

Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat.

The disciples had just returned from their first mission trip, and they were full of it. They couldn’t wait to update Jesus and he, in turn, was keen to hear what had been going on. He invited them to head off with him to a quiet place where they could have quality time together and catch up on all the news. It was a great plan, but it failed spectacularly. As they headed off in their boat, the crowd spotted them and reached their destination before they did!

I draw two conclusions from this fascinating account. Firstly, Jesus valued the opportunity for taking time out. He cared for his disciples and was aware of the pressure that they were under. Mark records that there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn’t even have enough time to eat. They desperately needed to get away from it all. We are just the same. We can’t keep going at full pace all the time. There are times when we need to have a deliberate plan to stop.

However, the second conclusion I draw is that our plans don’t always work out! If Jesus’ plan for having some quiet time with his disciples failed, we shouldn’t be surprised when ours don’t work out. We ought to plan to have quiet times and breaks in our busy routines, but we always need to be light on our feet. Mark tells us that when Jesus stepped out of the boat, he had compassion on the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He wasn’t going to ignore their needs, so he scrapped the original plan and ministered to the crowds.

I love the realism of this account and the fact that Jesus was so flexible. His intention was to serve God his Father and he was committed to doing so even when it mucked up his original plans.

Question

How good are you at being flexible when your plans suddenly change?

Prayer

Loving Father, help me to serve you effectively, even when things don’t work out in the way that I had planned. Amen

Mark 6:3

Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.

This was an agonising moment. Jesus was rudely dismissed by the people of Nazareth. They couldn’t work out how someone they’d known for nearly 30 years had such an amazing ministry. Some of the people may have gone to school with Jesus and others would probably have known him and Joseph through their business. Through the centuries, it has been believed that Joseph, and presumably Jesus, were carpenters, although we can’t sure. The word in Greek describes people who worked with stone and metal as well as wood. However, whatever their precise line of work, they would have had customers. Jesus was being rejected by people who knew him well, and their rejection was brutal – they wanted nothing to do with him.

The problem that the people of Nazareth had was that they could only see Jesus in human terms. They knew his family and everything about him. They couldn’t bring themselves to believe that a local boy could be anything special, and that continues to be the challenge with Jesus. People are happy to see him as a remarkable human being. They warm to his teaching; they love how he reached out to every kind of person; they are amazed by his miracles and impressed by his consistent love for people. However, they want to leave him there. They are resistant to the idea of him being the Son of God, but Mark’s Gospel is good news only because Jesus was both human and divine at the same time. Only in that way was he able to bring salvation to the world and so, however dismissive people might be, we need to be absolutely clear that Jesus was both God and man.

Question

Why do you think the people of Nazareth were so reluctant to accept that Jesus was the Son of God?

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, I worship you and praise you for entering into the life of our world so fully. Amen

Mark 5:18-19

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him. But Jesus said, “No, go home to your family, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.”

This healing took place on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. It was a very different area from the other side of the lake, where Jesus spent most of his time living and ministering. Most of the people on the east side were Gentiles. Jesus was confronted with a man who lived in the burial caves and who couldn’t be restrained. He was known as Legion because there were so many evil spirits in him. No doubt the local population lived in great fear of him. Whenever he was put in chains and shackles, he just snapped the chains with his wrists and smashed the shackles. Jesus healed the man and ordered the evil spirits to enter a local herd of pigs. Two thousand of them hurtled down the hillside and drowned in the lake. Inevitably, the owners of the pigs were outraged by this, and the local population begged Jesus to leave the area.

It was clear that Jesus’ ministry in this area had come to an end, so although he was keen to stay with Jesus, Legion had a job to do. The people’s hostility meant Jesus couldn’t remain there, so Legion needed to be the messenger. Jesus ordered him to go to his family and tell them what had happened, and he was clearly very effective in this. We learn that he travelled throughout the region telling people the amazing things that Jesus had done.

There are many occasions when, like Legion, we might choose to keep things the way they are, but God wants us to move on. He wants us to go for the harder option of speaking to other people about him and helping them to understand how great he is.

Question

Are there times in your life when you should have been going out and speaking about your faith, but you chose the easier option of meeting up with other Christians?

Prayer

Loving Father, thank you for the amazing things that you have done in my life. Help me to always be ready to share them with others. Amen

Mark 4:38-39

Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.

The account of Jesus stilling the storm is well known, but only Mark records the rather rude question of the disciples. To imply that Jesus didn’t care that they were about to drown suggests that they didn’t know him very well. They were still trying to work out who he was, and when he had brought calm to the situation, the disciples were absolutely terrified, asking with shock and surprise: “Who is this man? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (v41).

When things go wrong, it is easy to lash out at God. In the heat of the moment, it is easy to suggest that God doesn’t care when we face rejection, or an illness, failure or accident, but it’s a question that we never need to ask. God always cares for us, whatever the circumstances. We will often face difficulties and challenges, but they are a consequence of sin and the brokenness of our ungodly world. They should never lead us to doubt the unchanging nature of God and of his love for us.

The psalmists had many moments when they accused God of being absent, but it is never true. God is always present. Psalm 103:8 reads: “The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.” The Hebrew word translated as ‘unfailing love’ is hesed. The word is often used in the Old Testament and it speaks of the fact that God is a covenant-keeping God. He will never stop loving us because he has promised to be faithful, and he will keep his word whatever the circumstances.

I totally understand you may sometimes feel that God is far away and doesn’t care, but you need to know that you are wrong. He will never stop loving you.

Question

In what way is your life blessed by knowing that God’s love is unfailing?

Prayer

Lord God, forgive me for those moments when I have doubted your love for me. Thank you that you will never leave me or forsake me. Amen