Paula Wiseman

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Home » Mark

Posts that reference the Gospel of Mark

An Invitation to Discipleship

By Paula Wiseman

invitation to discipleship title graphic

Come.
It’s is an invitation.
An invitation from Jesus Himself.
It is an invitation to discipleship.

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” Mark 1:17

Notice Jesus doesn’t simply say, “Believe in Me.”
Although He says that often, throughout the gospels.
This is something more.

Come.
To come, what do you have to leave behind?
Are you willing to leave it?

Follow Me.
Stay close. Watch. Learn from. Listen to.
Imitate. Obey.

But there’s more.
Fishers of men.
Not fishing, like a vacation.
No. This is a job.
A task. A calling. A holy responsibility.

Discipleship
So what do you say?
Are you in?

Filed Under: Monday Meditations Tagged With: Invitation series, Mark

Why Christmas: The Ransom

By Paula Wiseman

Why Christmas The Ransom title graphic

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45

This is a radical statement.
Kings don’t serve.
God is worshiped.
But Jesus came to serve
And Jesus came to become the ransom to buy our freedom.

In the Old Testament, it was the money paid to redeem a mortgage or a firstborn.
Sometimes it was a half-shekel.
In New Testament times the ransom bought a slave’s freedom.
It returned a prisoner of war to his home and family.
This time the ransom was the life of the Son of God.

That is an audacious demand.
But then, our sins are scandalously brazen.
And our destiny was utterly hopeless.
But the love of God is unfathomably deep
And the willingness of Jesus Christ is staggeringly unwavering.

So He came
Not to be served
But to serve
And give His life as a ransom.

Make certain you are one of the ransomed.


Read the other Why Christmas posts

Filed Under: Monday Meditations Tagged With: Christmas, Mark, Why Christmas series

Are We Willing?

By Paula

Are we willing title graphic

Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”

Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Mark 1:40-41

We aren’t lepers, but we have junk that eats away at us.

Junk that makes us feel like outcasts, like we are unwelcome, like we don’t belong.

But here’s what we do. We put words in Jesus’s mouth.

“This is what you deserve.”

“This is your punishment.”

“Things are never going to get better, never going to change.”

That’s a tragedy.

The reality is, if we have the boldness to approach the King of Kings, look how He responds.

He is moved with compassion.

He stretches out His hand.

He touches us.

He says, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

Be healed. Be restored.

He is willing.

Often more willing to answer than we are to ask.

Filed Under: Monday Meditations Tagged With: Mark, words of Jesus

Into the Wilderness: Communion

By Paula

into the wilderness communion title graphic

But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. Luke 5:16 (NASB)

We’re winding down our study of the wilderness in Scripture with this next-to-last post. We’ve seen a lot happens in the wilderness. Wandering. It is also a place of transition. The restoration of relationships can happen in the wilderness. Sometimes it is an opportunity for instruction. Last week it was a place of temptation. But if we look closely at the gospels, we’ll see that Jesus regularly spent time in the wilderness. Why? Communion. Not the bread and wine kind, but the sharing intimate fellowship kind.

Jesus is God, and He enjoyed a unity with the Father beyond our comprehension. To redeem us, Christ had to set aside His glory and take on humanity. It is no wonder that He needed, longed for, enjoyed His times of prayer and communion with the Father. Those times left Him focused and energized for the work before Him. Throughout the gospel of John especially, Jesus attests that He is on assignment from the Father and He only does as instructed. (See John 5:36 for example.)

Do we, like Jesus, need and long for those times of intimate fellowship with the Father? We certainly need them. God help us long for them. No doubt, those times would help us regain perspective that God is sovereign and His kingdom work is our highest priority and privilege.

Communing with the Father wasn’t the only reason Jesus headed for the desolate, wilderness places. Look at these verses from Mark.

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place, Mark 6:30-32

Jesus was watching out for His guys. He knew they had just finished an emotionally and spiritually draining mission. Even though they had great results to report and were excited and energized, He knew they needed to decompress and recharge.

We would be wise to see the wisdom in Christ’s actions. He wanted them to take some time away with Him after the great success. Why is this wise? We would keep going as long as things are going well, wouldn’t we? Build on the momentum. Seize the opportunity. Jesus has a bigger picture in mind. He knows He is preparing them to be servant leaders after He returns to the Father. His disciples cannot shepherd His church without close

The other consideration is that this break helps inoculate the disciples against the idea that the success is all their doing. He reminds them in John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.”

Pride is sneaky and regular communion with Jesus, after success as well as failure, can help keep it in check.

One more quick point– the crowds weren’t far behind the disciples during this break. They trekked around the Sea of Galilee, and once they caught up with Jesus and the disciples, it was back to work. Don’t put off those opportunities to get away with Jesus and tell Him everything.

(After teaching the crowds and it got toward dinnertime, the disciples suggested Jesus send them home. Jesus instead challenged the disciples to feed them. You can read more about the feeding of the 5,000 in each of the gospels.)

Next week, we’ll finish our time in the wilderness.

Filed Under: Thursday Theology Tagged With: Into the Wilderness series, John, life of Jesus, Luke, Mark

Jesus and Women: The Woman with the Issue

By Paula

And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” Mark 5:34

One of the things that set Jesus’s ministry apart was the way He interacted with women. However, each encounter was chosen because it teaches us something about Jesus and our relationship to Him. It is important to notice in each case, Jesus treated these women with dignity and respect that was unheard at that time and in that culture. That in itself is instructive as we interact with people now.

So far we have looked at an exchange between Jesus and His mother at the wedding celebration in Cana of Galilee. Last week, we looked at His conversation with the woman from Sychar who had come to draw water from the well. This week, we’ll break down what happens when a woman reaches out to Him in a crowd.

By this point in Jesus’s ministry, He was pretty famous. His reputation as a healer meant that huge crowds quickly assembled whenever He was in the area. In Mark 5, this is the situation. We don’t know exactly what town He is in, but we know from previous chapters He is in the general area of Capernaum. He has just arrived back in that area after spending a few days in Gentile country casting out demons. Jesus is met by a desperate father, Jairus. He was a synagogue ruler, a local pastor, if you will, whose twelve-year-old daughter was dying. Her condition was beyond medical intervention. Jesus was his only hope.

Of course Jesus consents to go with Jairus, and it is on the walk over that this woman with the issue reaches out to touch Jesus.

Now it is important to understand that this woman was not a distraction. She was not a delay. She didn’t mess things up so that Jairus’s daughter died. Her story is an important reminder to us. She had suffered for twelve years, the girl’s entire lifetime. While Jairus and his wife delighted in their daughter, in watching her grow, in sharing her life, this woman was drained of her finances and her hope for any kind of cure.

One of the ugliest parts of the curse sin brought on the world is that innocent people suffer. Jesus Christ came to overturn that curse, and every miraculous healing is a testimony to that.

When we reach out to Jesus in our moments of desperate need, we are not distracting Him or delaying Him or preventing Him from attending to something more pressing. We need the power of the Gospel working in our lives, and He is gracious to supply our needs.

Now, let’s think for a moment why this woman wouldn’t want Jesus to know she touched Him. Why didn’t she just ask for healing like Jairus had done for his daughter? The accounts say it was a bleeding thing. The older versions say “an issue”. Newer translations say a discharge, or a hemorrhage or something similar. The point is, the woman almost certainly had a gynecological condition. Apart from the physical pain and suffering that caused, she would have been ceremonially unclean the entire time. She had not been able to attend a worship service in twelve years. Anyone who touched her would have been rendered ceremonially unclean. That isolation, that guilt, that burden would have been so, so heavy.

But I like the old word “issue” because of the more current meaning and the play on words. We all have an issue or two we need to bring to Jesus for healing.

But here she is, in a huge crowd. Everyone is jostling one another. I picture it like a crowd leaving a huge stadium or concert. Everyone who touched her will be considered unclean. She knows this and knows the risk she is taking. But it will be okay because as soon as she touches Jesus, she will be healed, and no one will be unclean. She just has to get close enough. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” Mark 5:28 It won’t slow Him down. He won’t even know.

Except He knew.

When Jesus turns and asks who touched Him, He wasn’t looking for information. He knew. He was offering the woman the opportunity to publicly testify, to declare her faith. Jesus wanted other people to see what kind of faith she had. He was living out what He would soon explain to His disciples. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, Matthew 10:32.

I love the detail Mark includes. She fell down before Jesus “and told Him the whole truth.”

When we have the opportunity, let’s be faithful to tell the truth about what Jesus has done for us.

And then there’s the response. Jesus calls her Daughter. He wouldn’t have had to call her anything. He had her attention. She knew He was talking to her. But He makes a point of calling her daughter. It was a term of endearment, of familiarity, of relationship, and thus, of status. He wanted those around to understand that He had the same concern and compassion for her that Jairus had for his precious daughter. She was not an outcast. She was reconciled to God. Her issue was resolved. And He told her to go in peace.

Jesus has that same gentle compassion for us. He chooses to call us His. Go in peace with that assurance.

(P.S. If you’re not familiar with the what happens next, He raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead. So it was all good.)


Read all of the Jesus and Women Series

Filed Under: Thursday Theology Tagged With: Jesus and Women series, Mark, Matthew, miracles of Jesus

A Study in Contrasts: Greatness

By Paula

A Study in Contrasts Greatness title graphic

We are continuing our look at contrasts in Scripture marked by the conjunction “but.” We’re going to finish up with a couple in the New Testament then we’ll turn our attention toward Easter. Today let’s look at Jesus’s words about greatness.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45 (ESV)

In this passage, Jesus responds to a request from James and John to be seated on Jesus’s right and left hand in His glory. He deflects their request, but not before it becomes a source of indignation with the other ten disciples. Jesus takes the opportunity to teach His guys a critical lesson they would need, especially after He was gone.

And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. Mark 10:42-44

There are several notable ‘buts’ in those verses as well. Then our focal verse demonstrates Jesus is modeling this for the Twelve. Let’s break down Jesus’s words and see what we can learn from them.

Power may get you ahead in the world, but it does not equal greatness in the kingdom of God.
We are in an election season in the US and day after day, we see candidates who will say anything, spend anything, align themselves with anything and advocate for anything in pursuit of power. Jesus turns that completely on its head. Servanthood is the mark of greatness. Jesus says this in a culture where servants had few, if any, rights. They had very little agency and opportunities for anything else were essentially nonexistent. Jesus raises their status by becoming one Himself.

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve
The name Jesus uses for Himself is very telling. The Son of Man. One of us. He identifies with us, with our needs with our helplessness. He came, not to be served, which was His due. Jesus Christ is God Incarnate and all worship and glory and honor is due Him. It is His right. But He voluntarily came to serve. Read the gospels closely. See how many times the crowd pressed Him. See how many times He healed the sick until late at night. Notice when He taught for hours, track Him as He walks miles and miles preaching in every village and town. He surrendered His agenda, His priorities and His energy to accomplish the Father’s purposes which meant serving those He encountered. That is greatness

Please do not misunderstand me. I am not advocating for exhaustion and burnout in the name of the kingdom. I firmly believe we need rest and refreshing. We are not divine and do not have supernatural stores of energy and endurance. But seeing Christ’s example should cause us to question our priorities. Are we self-centered with our schedules and resources? Have we been ignoring a Holy Spirit nudge to invest ourselves in a ministry or in a person?

Are we humbly serving in our churches? I have watched as a church member who noticed a wad of paper at her feet call for another member to come pick it up. Some members are the type to tell you the toilet is backed up and some are the type to head in with a plunger. If you pick up groceries for an old lady, she can’t return the favor. If you change the oil in a single mom’s car, she can’t pay you back. That’s not the point. Jesus calls us to serve.

But to give His life as a ransom for many
This is the ultimate act of selflessness. Christ did what we could not, cannot do. Nor can we give our lives for the salvation of another. However we can give our lives, our time, our treasure to ensure everyone hears the gospel. That is our singular focus. I love Bible study, but the gospel comes first. I say this as someone who is completely uncomfortable initiating a conversation about the gospel and under full conviction for the words I write, God help me. Jesus purpose was to give His life. Ours is to bring others to Him.

As we reflect on Jesus’s words, let’s resolve to achieve greatness in the kingdom, to selflessly serve, to commit to God’s purposes.

Filed Under: Thursday Theology Tagged With: Mark, Study in Contrasts series

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