1ST WEEK OF LENT begins on Wednesday, February 14. Devotions for 9 days are posted. As I’ll be travelling this week and unable to post again for a few days, I’ve included devotions up until the 2nd Sunday of Lent. Scroll down for each day.

DAY 1: Ash Wednesday, February 14
PREPARE TO LISTEN.  Be silent for a moment then pray: You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.  (Psalm 51:6)
READ: Mark 1:9 Galilee: ‘Where the story begins’
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
INSIGHTS
Jesus’ first public appearance (although he said and did nothing) was at the Jordan River in Judea, probably opposite Jerusalem.  He journeyed to John, who baptized “in the wilderness” (1:4), an isolated and ignored place.  Jesus, however, “came from Nazareth of Galilee,” his home town and where he ministered for almost all his earthly life.  This is where Mark’s story begins.

Nazareth was an obscure village in the backwater province of Galilee, a ‘‘Nowheresville,’ as Ched Meyers suggests (Binding the Strong Man.  1991, p. 128).  It was on the Northern border of Palestine, and thus on the periphery of political and religious spheres of influence and power.  It was populated with both Jew and Gentile, who were treated with suspicion and contempt because generally regarded as poor, uneducated, unclean (by Jewish religious elite), the fringe of society.  Devout Jews avoided Galilee if they could, marginalizing their fellow Jews who lived there.  Not exactly a strategic part of the world to practice ministry, especially one as significant as Jesus’.

Our Lenten journey starts in Galilee, where Jesus ministered to the obscure, the poor and the oppressed out on the periphery of power.  From the beginning, Mark is a challenge to those of us (most of us in the white Western world) who belong to the centers of power.  We need to humble ourselves and be willing to learn from Mark about the Messiah who avoided the rich and powerful in Jerusalem and rejected the acceptable trappings of power and influence.  Following Jesus means going out to the periphery with him.  There we will discover it costs to be Christian, a true disciple (follower) of Jesus.  There we may also learn that some of our beliefs about the meaning of Christianity have little to do with the Jesus Mark describes.  Following Jesus means going where he goes and mixing with the sorts of people he did, experiencing life on the ‘periphery’ with the oppressed and marginalized of society.  And as we do, we’ll discover this is the place where God’s favor rests.

FOR REFLECTION
Your Galilee maybe a literal place with the outcasts of your society, or it may be a symbolic place where you’re faced with your naked self and forced to name where you are (spiritually, not just physically), and what you know now.  If we want to journey with Jesus, we must begin where we are—whatever our Galilee is.

Name your Galilee and be there for now.  Name where you are now by reflecting on what you know about Jesus.  As you journey this Lent, be prepare to unknow what you think you know, to ask questions and to change your mind and your heart.  Following Jesus means giving up stuff in order to take on a new and more authentic life.

What question did you hear Jesus asking you today?
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER
Lord of the periphery, help me know you that I may dare to follow you more faithfully.  May my heart and mind stay open to your way of life whatever the cost to my comfort.  Amen.
GO AND LIVE IN OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST following him into ‘your Galilee.’
 
DAY 2 (Thursday)
PREPARE TO LISTEN.  Be silent for a moment then pray: You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.  (Psalm 51:6)
READ: Mark 1:1 ‘The Beginning’
1The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
INSIGHTS
The story begins abruptly and with few words—the beginning of the good news (gospel) of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  It sounds more like a book title than an introduction to a story.  Rather than a description of the main character, Mark begins with a ‘one-liner.’  It’s intended to shock his readers and to entice them into reading the entire book.  There are three things we need to reflect on because they prepare us to read and learn from Mark in ways we experience Jesus.

First, because the good news is a person not an impersonal creed or principle, Mark boldly claims two titles for Jesus; he is both Christ (Greek for Messiah) and Son of God.  To Mark’s original readers, this was an outrageous claim and they would expect proof.  Those of us who grew up in the Christian church no longer read these words with astonishment.  They don’t shock us.  We’re familiar with them and rarely pause to wonder about them.  However, there are only two other places in the New Testament when these two titles, Messiah and Son of God, are used together to identify Jesus (John 20:31 and 2 Corinthians 1:9).  Therefore, we too should be surprised and shocked and join the chorus demanding proof.

Second, the term, good news, is one that was commonly used by both Jews and Romans.  It was most often associated with the victorious defeat of the enemy and the return of the conquering hero king and his army; good news indeed.  In other words, the stage has been set to read about a king who will be victorious over an oppressive and powerful enemy.  Once again, we’ll be shocked as we read Mark to its conclusion.  Jesus will not triumph over the enemy (Rome) but end in seeming ignominious defeat and death.  Of course, we know Jesus was victorious through his death, but Mark will force us to rethink our image of Jesus and the kind of victory he won and the kind of power and authority he wields.  It is the very opposite of what we often conceive of.

Third, the word beginning is a hint to go back to the very first words of the Bible, “In the beginning” (Genesis 1:1).  We’re meant to think about creation as we read about redemption in Jesus.  The good news connects redemption with creation.  The story Mark tells is about a new creation in Jesus Christ, when all creation (not merely a few individuals) will be restored to its original goodness and purpose.  This is the good news, the gospel.

Mark begins in this brief and somewhat vague manner enticing readers to turn the page and then the next page to discover what the good news is about and how Jesus is good news.  He has whet our appetite, created a desire to read on and discover more.  Keep turning the page.  Read Mark with your mind and heart open to see how the writer chooses to prove his claim about Jesus.
FOR REFLECTION
Make a list of what you think the good news in Jesus is.  Then, tear it up and throw it away.  Begin with a blank page and an open mind and heart to discover what Mark teaches about Jesus.  Keep adding to your list as you read and learn about Jesus and how he is the good news.
What challenge did you receive today?
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, I think I know what the good news is, but I’m going to give that up and be led by your servant Mark into a deeper and more authentic understanding.  Keep me open to learn new and even difficult truths about your gospel.  Amen.
GO AND LIVE IN OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST as you commit to learning new truths about Jesus and his Way.

DAY 3 (Friday)
PREPARE TO LISTEN.  Be silent for a moment then pray: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. (Psalm 51:1)
READ: MARK 1:2-8 ‘A strange messenger’
2As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 3the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”’, 4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.  6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.  7He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.  8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
INSIGHTS
The abrupt introduction over, Mark jumps into his story, beginning, not with Jesus but with John the baptizer.  He’s introduced to us with reference to two Hebrew prophets.  (The quote is from both Isaiah 40:3 and Malachi 3:1.)  John is simply identified as “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,” as Isaiah wrote.  For centuries, Jews had looked forward to this ‘voice’ and imagined what he’d be like.  It’s likely they had grandiose images of a great person proclaiming God’s message.  What they got instead was an unknown person who ate weird food and dressed in strange clothing.  Mark intends that his readers will make a connection to the ancient prophet, Elijah (read 2 Kings 1:5-8) and therefore doesn’t explain further.  Readers are expected to wonder about this mystery, a common technique in Mark to keep us reading his Gospel.

​There is a second unexplained mystery in Mark’s statement that Jesus will “baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”  He never explains this in his Gospel and only refers to the Holy Spirit on three other occasions that have nothing to do with this verse.  Once again, live with the mystery and be led, through the Spirit, by Mark.
FOR REFLECTION
Mark writes that people from all over flocked to John for a baptism for the repentance of sin.  Imagine joining them.  What sin/s would you need to confess?  What sin/s does your society need to repent of?
Discern what question Jesus is asking you today.
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER
Lord, I have sinned against you, sometimes knowingly and willfully and sometimes unknowingly.  I repent and receive your mercy of forgiveness through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
GO AND LIVE IN OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST, grateful for forgiveness in Jesus.
 
1ST SUNDAY OF LENT, February 18.  (There are readings for 6 days for this first full week in Lent.)
 
DAY 1: Sunday, February 18
PREPARE TO LISTEN.  Be silent for a moment then pray: Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. (Psalm 25:4)
READ: Mark 1:9-11 ‘No one followed’
9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.  11And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
 
INSIGHTS
Mark introduced Jesus (1:1) in dramatic and attention-getting terms: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God.”  We’re filled with expectations of meeting someone great.  Yet, when Jesus finally appears on stage at the Jordan River, his entrance is described “in the most shocking anti-climactic fashion conceivable” (Meyers, Binding the Strong Man.  1991, p. 128).  We’re introduced, not to a popular TV star or evangelical preacher or charismatic president, not to a well-known figure we’re anxious to nominate as our leader.  No, Jesus is merely one of that anonymous crowd who came to John (another marginal character in the story) to be baptized in an unpopular place—the wilderness.

At the moment of his baptism, the drama returns.  Read it again: as he was coming up out of the water, Jesus saw “the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.”  This is precisely what the prophet Isaiah hoped for, praying, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down…, to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence!” (Isaiah 64:1-2).

Mark leaves us guessing as to who else, if anyone, saw this dramatic act.  However, it’s likely that all there heard the Voice from heaven.  Mark doesn’t give a name to the Voice, but he expects his readers to recognize a long tradition of ‘the voice’ being identified as God’s.  For instance, the Psalmist (Psalm 29) repeatedly (seven times) refers to “the voice of the LORD.”  This means that God doesn’t live in wordless silence.  He speaks, sometimes loudly and clearly, as at Jesus’ baptism, and sometimes softly and faintly, and we need to sit in our own wordless silence to hear God’s voice.

The question that we must ask ourselves today is this:  Would we have followed Jesus on the basis of the dramatic baptism and the voice from heaven declaring this Galilean stranger was God’s beloved Son?  No one did on that day, despite being witnesses to it.  They couldn’t since, as v12 indicates, the Spirit immediately drove Jesus back into obscurity and solitude in the desert for 40 days.  The story that follows is another anti-climactic one, described in few words—a fierce battle between Jesus and the satan.  When Jesus returned from this to public life to begin ministry, he went back north to Galilee and, that region despised by so many.  And no one followed him there
FOR REFLECTION
It’s easy for us to think we’d for sure follow Jesus after this.  But would we?  Think about it as you consider the preachers, politicians, mentors you follow and perhaps even idolize.  What challenge do hear Jesus making you?

Notice here, and indeed throughout Mark, the places and people at the periphery, the margins of society.  Jesus was driven by the Spirit ‘into the wilderness.’  Ponder on this as you go through Lent.
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER
Lord, I want to follow you today, but am aware that it’s not easy or even popular.  Please show me the way and empower me through your Spirit to say ‘yes’ to your way.  Amen.
GO AND LIVE IN OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST, following Jesus even into a while in the ‘wilderness’.
 
DAY 2 (1st week)
PREPARE TO LISTEN.  Be silent for a moment then pray: Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. (Psalm 25:4)
READ: Mark 1:21-28 ‘The conflict is brewing’
21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught.  22They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.  23Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?   Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ 25But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’  26And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.  27They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this?  A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ 28At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.
 
FOR REFLECTION
Symbolically, this story gives us Jesus’ earthly ministry in a nut shell.  Therefore, it’s not surprising that Mark has placed it as Jesus’ first public act.  The first verse gives the setting—in Capernaum (a very Jewish town in a mostly Gentile Galilee); on the sabbath (a Jewish sacred day); in the synagogue (a Jewish sacred space).  It is in this space and with this audience that Jesus will experience constant conflict and confrontation.
 
The conflict is hinted at in two terms that that frame the story of exorcism, describing the reaction of the synagogue audience: ‘astounded’ (v22) and ‘amazed’ (v27).  Mark has prepared readers for the frequent confrontations Jesus will have with the Jewish hierarchies.  The synagogue audience, headed by the religious leaders hinder him all the way to the end.  Symbolically, we’re given a snapshot of the ultimate conflict that wages between God and the satan and of the ultimate victory.  This story, in other words, gives us hope, preparing us for Jesus’ eventual triumph over those who oppose the way of God.  As the Story gets tense, especially towards the end, this is the story to return to for the assurance that Jesus has the power and authority to overcome.
 
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER
Lord Jesus, when I struggle and wonder whether you’re still in control, may this story be the assurance I need to stay true and loyal to the end.  Amen.
GO AND LIVE IN OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST, assured of his power over evil.
 
DAY 3 (1st week)
BACKGROUND
I’ve deliberately chosen to skip most of the first half of Mark to focus on the passion of Jesus in the second half.  Therefore, we’ve jumped from Jesus’ first act to this final story in the first part of Mark’s Gospel.  Like most of this first section, the story takes place near the Sea of Galilee, this time in the town of Bethsaida.  This was once a fishing village at the mouth of the Jordan river and later rebuilt and upgraded by Herod the Great into a Hellenistic city.  You’ll notice that Mark continues to call it ‘village’ rather than ‘city’ (another hint at his concern for the periphery folk).  This is the first of two stories of the healing of blind men.  Their stories bracket the mid-section of Mark (8:27-9:1), acting as entry and exit points, marking the beginning of Jesus’ journey from Galilee to Jerusalem and the cross.
PREPARE TO LISTEN.  Be silent for a moment then pray: Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. (Psalm 25:4)
READ: Mark 8:22-26 ‘He looked intently’
22They came to Bethsaida.  Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him.  23He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’  24And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.’  25Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.  26Then he sent him away to his home, saying, ‘Do not even go into the village.’
INSIGHTS
‘Some people’ brought the blind man to Jesus in the village of Bethsaida and begged him to heal the man.  Jesus took his time, taking the blind man outside the village, where he then used his saliva on the man’s eyes.  This isn’t the first time Jesus acted in this manner.  When he healed a deaf and dumb man, “he took him aside, in private, away from the crowd” and used his saliva to effect healing (7:33).  But this is the only time healing wasn’t immediate.  It took two stages, two touches.

There is a symbolic spiritual meaning to this story, making it a story about each of us today.  Sometimes we believe we’re ‘healed,’ that we’ve finally ‘got it,’ only to discover that when we look up, our vision is fuzzy; people look like trees, walking.  We’ll see this with the apostle Peter in tomorrow’s lesson.  He correctly identifies Jesus as ‘Messiah,’ yet fails to see clearly what that means.  His vision remained ‘fuzzy.’  It took a second touch for the blind man to see plainly.  Notice a little detail Mark included that we often overlook.  The man “looked intently,” then his sight was restored.  Looking intently, that is, looking with our entire being alert and waiting, is necessary for ‘fuzzy’ sight to become ‘plain’ sight.

An interesting aspect of this story is that the blind man is instructed to go home and not return to the village.  He isn’t invited or encouraged to follow Jesus as a disciple.  The man could be representative of the many who receive healing from Jesus but show no interest in continuing with him as his followers.  He belongs to those who are unwilling to pay the price.
FOR REFLECTION
The question for reflection is a touchy one: Am I also blind?  Am I willing to return for Jesus’ second touch and then ‘look intently’?
What keeps you back from returning for a second or third or more touch?
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER
There are times, gracious Lord, when I think I see clearly, but too often my sight is fuzzy and I miss your way and truth because I fail to ‘look intently.’  Today I want to practice looking intently, remaining open to the surprising truths you will reveal to me.  Amen.
GO AND LIVE IN OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST, looking intently for him ‘on the way.’
 
DAY 4 (1st week)
BACKGROUND for those wanting to go deeper in Mark
To enter more fully into the lesson today, we need a better understanding of Mark’s purpose that is given in the abrupt opening verse (1:1)—to tell the Gospel (good news), which is Jesus Christ (Messiah), the Son of God.  After that abrupt statement, Mark rarely uses these two titles for Jesus.  ‘Messiah’ isn’t used again until in 8:29, with Peter’s confession, and only sued a few times in the second half of this Gospel.  The title, ‘Son of God’ is used in both halves of Mark, twice by demons (3:11; 5:7) and twice when God identifies him as ‘my Son’ (1:11 at his baptism and in 9:7, his transfiguration), and once at the cross.

Since Mark identifies Jesus at the beginning with two titles, it’s surprising that Peter’s response to Jesus’ question about his identity only uses one title, Messiah.  In their similar accounts of this story, both Matthew and Luke use both titles (see Matthew 16:16: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God”).  So, we have to wonder why Mark chose to use only one.

This isn’t the place to wonder about the accuracy of the gospel writers and whether one of them got it wrong.  That’s missing the point entirely.  I believe Mark has been very deliberate in limiting Peter’s response to ‘Messiah,’ period (remember, Mark uses words purposefully).  We’ll discover, when we read Mark to the end, another person (the centurion at the cross when Jesus died) completes Mark’s opening claim, saying, “Truly this man was God’s Son” (Mk 15:39).  Being an excellent storyteller, Mark has divided his Gospel into two main parts.  The first part is devoted to proving that Jesus was Messiah.  It focuses on the works that Messiah did.  He brings his story to a climax when Peter boldly responds to Jesus’ question of identity.  From this point in his Gospel, Mark will focus on teaching about and ‘proving’ that Jesus is the Son of God, bringing this section to a second climax with the centurion’s cry at the cross.  Since we’ll focus on this second half in this devotional, it would be helpful to keep wondering what evidence Mark presents to prove that Jesus is Son of God from the passages we read.
PREPARE TO LISTEN.  Be silent for a moment then pray: Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.  (Psalm 25:5)
READ: Mark 8:27-33 ‘On the way’
27Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’  28And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’  29He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’  Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’  30And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.  31Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.  32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
INSIGHTS
This episode in Mark gives his climax to part I of his Gospel and forms a transition between its two halves.  The disciples have spent about three years with Jesus, giving them plenty time to get to know him and how he defined the identity and mission of Messiah.  Yet, they remained clueless.  Some days they were sure he was Messiah, other days they were back in that state of “seeing people who looked like trees walking.”  Mark often highlights their confusion about Jesus.  For instance, after Jesus calmed a storm on Galilee, the disciples were “filled with great awe [think fear and trembling] and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him’” (Mk 4:41).

Before we can continue the journey with Jesus to the cross, we too need to face the question about who (and what) we think Jesus is.  This isn’t a question for some ‘un-evangelized’ person.  Jesus didn’t ask the curious, ‘non-believing’ crowd.  He took his disciples (already followers and believers) away to the most northern, most Gentile and most sparsely populated part of Palestine, Caesarea Philippi and made them think about who they thought Jesus was.

It was while he was “on the way” that he posed his question.  This is a story detail we must attend to.  ‘On the way’ is a symbolic reminder to us that we too are on a journey.  We haven’t arrived at the destination and are still in need of guidance and transformation.  We’re in transit and need to keep moving, one step at a time, from where we are now to where Christ is leading us with his questions.  The way of Jesus requires living with a pilgrim rather than a settler mentality.
FOR REFLECTION
Before we reflect on Jesus’ question (see tomorrow’s devotion), we need to ask ourselves: Am I willing to be a pilgrim, on the way, not yet arrived?

What is Jesus asking you today to help you walk with him ‘on the way’?
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER
Lord, I know you meet me ‘on the way’ and invite me to be ‘ever reforming’.  Please show me today what I need to be and do.  Give me the strength to change into a person who becomes, bit by bit more like you in all things, whatever that means.  Amen.
GO AND LIVE IN OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST ‘on the way,’ as a pilgrim rather than a settler.

DAY 5 (1st week)
PREPARE TO LISTEN.  Be silent for a moment then pray: Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.  (Psalm 25:5)
READ: Mark 8:27-33 ‘Who do you say I am?’
(There was a lot in this brief passage in Mark and therefore I’ve chosen to repeat it.  See yesterday’s reading for the text.  Read it again ‘as if for the first time,’ and know what you see, rather than still seeing what you already know.
HELPFUL BACKGROUND
Caesarea Philippi was a center of pagan worship, containing ruins of at least 14 pagan temples.  Mt Hermon, Israel’s highest mountain, was nearby.  On this mountain, religious people representing a variety of religions, placed their idols in the many crevices in the rocks on Mt Hermon.  Into this region of paganism and thus enemy territory, Jesus dared to take his disciples and challenge them with the question about his identity.  Once again, he’s with the marginalized of society.
 
INSIGHTS
Jesus removed himself from the crowds and took his disciples to the northern most tip of Israel into the heart of paganism, asking the question about his identity.

He began with an easy and less personal question, “Who do people say that I am?”  It’s always easier, less intimidating and less revealing to answer for others than for ourselves.  The disciples were quick to respond, giving the exact words that Mark has already referred to in an earlier episode (see Mk 6:14-15).  Jesus then puts the screws in, forcing them to think personally: “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter is quick to respond: “You are the Messiah.”

This is only the second time in Mark that the term messiah is used.  The first time was in his introduction (1:1).  Christ (christos) is the Greek form of the Hebrew word, messiah.  It was, for the ancient Jew, a politically loaded term.  Naming Jesus as Messiah was outrageous.  It meant that he was being claimed as the one anointed by God in fulfillment of ancient prophecy to redeem Israel.  In identifying Jesus as Messiah, Peter has boldly suggested that the revolution to overthrow the occupying enemy forces, has begun.  This means Peter and, and no doubt the other eleven also, were under no illusion that following Jesus would involve sacrifice in a good cause, the revolutionary overthrow of Rome.  However, they were under a great false illusion in thinking the revolution would be a physical one, making Israel ‘first’ and ‘great again,’ ignoring the rest of the world.  Jesus would have to battle their false illusions to the end.  Sometimes I think he’s battling the same false illusions in 21st century followers, especially those in the USA.

Peter isn’t commended for his answer, as in Matthew’s account of this event (Mt 16:17ff).  Instead, Jesus sternly ordered, in strong language often used to silence demons (Mk 1:25), silence.  Mark leaves it to the readers to reflect on possible reasons for this.  It’ll take thoughtful and prayerful reading of Mark to its conclusion to even begin to understand.  As you read further in Mark, keep in mind that Jesus was battling false ideas about the identity and mission of Messiah and relate that to our day as well.
FOR REFLECTION
Many of us live and work ‘in the heart of paganism’ today.  The fact that Jesus comes to us in that place is, or should be, a comfort to us.  And, most, if not all of us, live with some of our own illusions about Jesus that maybe false.  Therefore, his question is one that we must respond to, personally and honestly.  Spend a few moments wondering what your answer to Jesus would be today.  Imagine your response, completing this sentence: ‘Jesus, you are ….’
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER
Jesus, I believe that you are (name what you wondered about)….  Help me to give up my false concepts and be guided by your Spirit as I read Mark to gain a more authentic picture of who you are.  Then help me believe and courageously follow you, wherever that may lead me today.  Amen.
GO AND LIVE IN OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST who keeps us on our toes with challenging questions.

DAY 6 (1st week)
BACKGROUND
In response to Peter’s confession that Jesus is Messiah, Jesus explained, for the first time, his mission—suffering, death and resurrection (8:31).  Peter immediately dared to rebuke Jesus for, in his opinion, an outrageously false view of Messiah’s mission, only to be rebuked in turn in the harshest language Jesus used: “Get behind me, Satan!”  We never learn of Peter’s reaction to this, because Mark immediately jumps to Jesus addressing the crowd, not just disciples.  The teaching he gives is clearly linked to his mission, indicating that his followers will share it with him.  The crowd, however, weren’t with Jesus when he initially taught the disciples about his own mission and thus lack this information.
PREPARE TO LISTEN.  Be silent for a moment then pray: May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.  (Psalm 25:21)
READ: Mark 8:34-38 ‘Come and die’
34He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.  36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?  38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’
INSIGHTS
In the first half of Mark, Jesus made very personal and individual calls to a few to follow him (see 1:16-20), with little explanation.  Here, at the beginning of the second half of Mark, as Jesus begins his final days, the call to follow is made generally and in more detail, as Jesus spells out the cost of being his disciple, that is, a Christian.  There are three imperatives in these verses: i) deny yourself; ii) take up your cross; and iii) follow me.  Only the third one corresponds to the initial call to his disciples at the beginning.

It is the second imperative, ‘take up your cross,’ that forms the crux of discipleship.  Let’s be honest, we have tended to romanticize the cross today, designing carefully crafted crosses in wood, gold or silver, transforming it into a harmless and even pleasant image.  We have turned the cross into an effortless way of salvation.  As a result, we’ve forgotten what the cross meant to Mark’s original readers; forgotten that it was a symbol of shame, violence and death.  They associated the cross with the brutal and cruel execution of political dissidents and other miscreants.
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When the crowd heard Jesus’ words, they knew he meant only one thing—‘Come and die’ (as the 20th century martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it).  They also recognized there would be political implications if they dared to follow Jesus; that the way of the cross was a rejection of all forms of violence, including those against a brutal oppressor like Rome.  The way of the cross was a call to stand against the ruling elite and perhaps, literally, lose their lives.  There was nothing romantic or nice about the cross.
FOR REFLECTION
In asking us to ‘take up our cross’ and follow him, Jesus has only asked what he himself was prepared to do for God the Father.  What are you prepared to die for?  What are you prepared to live for?
RESPOND TO JESUS IN PRAYER
Lord Jesus, you neither promised nor taught easy discipleship.  Taking up my cross is so hard since it is a call to ‘come and die.’  Strengthen me today to practice this hard way once again, for the sake of your name and sacrifice.  Amen.
GO AND LIVE IN OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST, carrying your cross.