The power of God

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The power of God

“Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick.”

Isaiah 43:16-17

As a History teacher, I often find myself taking groups of school children to scenes of great conflict.  There are two trips which to me emphasise the enormity of the conflicts of the twentieth century.

I used to take Year 7s to the D-Day Landing beaches in Normany to see for themselves the location of one of the most important and significant invasions of recent years.  I’m always amazed at the scale of the ‘Mulberry Harbours’ that were constructed by the Allies and floated across to France to enable them to launch an invasion in an area where there were no natural harbours.

Every year I take Year 9 students to the battlefields of the First World War.  I’m always gobsmacked by the extent of the trenches we see in northern France and Belgium, and the level of needless slaughter that took place in what are essentially little more than boggy ditches.

I am therefore struck by this passage in Isaiah in which we can see the extent of God’s power.  Whilst the First World War raged on for four tears, God can bring down an army at a stroke.  He can lie an army down so that they cannot get up again.  He can finish them off like the spent wick of a candle.

Similarly, whilst in order to invade Europe at the end of the Second World War, the British had to spend many months and an astonishingly large amount of money creating the facilities that would enable them to mount an invasion from the water, God can make a way in the sea, he can part the waters – just like he parted the Red Sea for Moses.  It makes sense that he can, though – after all, he created the water and the land!

In our current Mark Marathon passage, Jesus demonstrates that he, too, can make “a path in the mighty waters.”  Whilst the disciples were rowing flat out against the wind and the waves to try and make any progress across the sea, Jesus calmly steps out onto the water and walks across it.  Surely Jesus demonstrates right there that he is the Son of God.  How else would he be able to walk across the water?

Often we treat God as if he is a close friend.  In a way, that is entirely correct – he is, after all, our heavenly father.  Just in the same way that we should also respect our fathers, though, we must also respect God our Father.  After all, just remember the extraordinary power that he has!

Treading the waves

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Treading the waves

He speaks to the sun and it does not shine; he seals off the light of the stars. He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

Job 9:7-9

I love sailing.  Given the choice, I’d be out on the water every day during Spring, Summer and Autumn, pottering about in my boat, trying to make it go faster, testing myself against the elements, and generally enjoying speeding across the surface of the water.  As sports go, in my mind it can’t be beaten.  Having grown up sailing, I decided a few years ago that I would take up windsurfing.  I discovered that windsurfing is much harder than it looks.  One of the first things that must be mastered is just the act of balancing on the board.  When that’s been done, just practising pulling the sail up and moving into position on the board is incredibly tricky.  Most people spend more time in the water than on the water, and I was (and, I’m ashamed to admit it, still am!) amongst their number.  I might as well try walking across the water – I’d get no wetter!

In today’s verses, Job says it’s pointless arguing against God, because he is the creator of all things.  He can tell the sun not to shine, and it does not.  He can stop the stars from twinkling.  He created the heavens and all the stars.  Additionally, he alone, as the Lord of creation, is the only one who could tread on the waves of the sea.

Yet this is exactly what Jesus does in Mark 6, in our current Mark Marathon article.  He calmly walks across the lake straight into the wind, and is about to pass the disciples in a boat.  There is no doubt at all in their minds that their master is walking on the water.  They even think that he is a ghost!  Job, though, in the Old Testament, tells us that one person alone can do this – and that is God.  Here, then, we have Jesus clearly laying claim to divinity, trying to prove to his appointed disciples that he is not just their master, not just an inspirational teacher, but he is in fact God.  I don’t know whether the disciples grasped this for themselves.  They were terrified to see a man walking on the surface of the water.  They must have been even more terrified if they had recognized this man they thought they knew as Jesus.

Here, then, we see evidence once again that Jesus is God.  Will you recognize that Jesus is the son of God, and accept him as your saviour?  Or will you choose to think of him merely as a nice guy and a good teacher?  Opting for the former could transform your life.  Will you accept this transformation?

Are you ready?

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Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Luke 1:16-17

In the days before the internet, television and radio it was very hard to get yourself known across the country.  This could be especially problematic if you were a politician hoping to win high office.  In the latter half of the nineteenth century in England, it was necessary for politicians to travel hundreds of miles across the country and deliver speeches everywhere they went if they were to become well known.  William Gladstone, one of the greatest Prime Ministers of the nineteenth century was particularly good at this.  He became known as ‘the People’s William’ because of the rapport he built up with the British.  Much of this was due to a guy called John Bright.  He spent a great deal of time travelling the country in advance of Gladstone, speaking at public meetings and telling people just how great Gladstone was, and how he hoped that they would have the opportunity to meet him themselves one day.  He was known as the “John the Baptist of Gladstonian Liberalism.”

Bright was given this nickname because his was a similar task to that of John the Baptist.  John the Baptist travelled around Galilee telling people how great Jesus was, and how he hoped that one day they too would have the opportunity to meet him themselves one day.

Our current Mark Marathon article covers the death of John the Baptist, and yesterday’s Daily Reading considered the confusion over Jesus’ identity; was he John the Baptist?  Or maybe he was Elijah?

The confusion between John the Baptist and Elijah is interesting, since they both performed similar functions.  John the Baptist preceded Jesus, and prepared the way for him.  Today’s verse is the voice of the angel who visited Zechariah, John’s father, before the birth of John.  Zechariah is told that John will “make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”  In the same way, Malachi 3:23 tells us that God was sending Elijah to prepare for the day of the Lord comes, and to turn “the hearts of the fathers to their children.”

As we saw yesterday, Jesus was neither John the Baptist or Elijah; he was considerably greater than both.  Both came to prepare people for the coming of the Lord, however, to ensure that they were ready.  Are you ready for the coming of the Lord?  Do you need to make any changes to your life to ensure that you are?

Jesus Prays

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Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

Mark 6:45-46

Do you ever have those days when it feels like everyone wants a bit of you?  Where you’re getting demands from left and right?  Where it feels like you haven’t even got time to breathe, and all you want is a few minutes to yourself, just to rest?  As a teacher, my days are always full, and always involve lots of interaction with other people.  After a really busy day, all I want is to go home and have some “me” time.

Jesus was having one of those days.  He was just about to go and get some rest with his disciples when a large crowd turned up.  Being full of compassion, he gathered the crowd round him, taught them, and even fed them.  By the time the crowd had begun to disperse, he must have been absolutely exhausted.  He decided that he had to have some “me” time too, so he went up a mountain to get some quiet and to recover from the day’s busyness.

How Jesus chooses to spend his “me” time is interesting.  He chooses to spend his time with God the Father in prayer.  The gospels do not record the words he prayed, but I suspect he may have thanked his father for sustaining him through the day, for giving him the words to teach the crowd, and for helping him to feed the five thousand.  He may also have asked God to help him to understand the next step in his ministry.  What he prays, though, is idle conjecture; the important thing to see is that he does it.

How many of us when we are really tired and stressed try to muddle through on our own, trusting in our own ability to cope?  I know that I do.  Perhaps we should reflect on Jesus’ actions a little more, though.  Perhaps we should thank God for helping us through our busy periods, and pray for him to sustain us as we continue to struggle through.  Rather than trusting in our own strength to succeed, maybe we should be more proactive in calling upon the name of the Lord?  If Jesus did it, after all, it must be worth a try.

Man cannot live on bread alone

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Man cannot live on bread alone

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Deuteronomy 8:3

When I was on mission a few years ago, a few of us were very naughty when we were in Minsk, the capital city.  We sneaked out of our hotel and headed to McDonald’s.  We were witnessing to Belarussian students, and were supposed to be living alongside them.  Only the richest people can afford to eat in McDonald’s, though, and so it was off limits to our local friends.  We were getting increasingly bored, though, of the national dish – pilmeni, a kind of cross between a mini Cornish pasty, a dumpling, and ravioli.  We were served it every night at supper.  By the time we visited Minsk, therefore, we were desperate for some western food – even if it was only McDonalds.  The reality is, of course, that we are spoilt living in the west having such a wide selection of food to choose from.  For many millions of people, this just is not available.  For lots of people, food of any kind is a blessing.

There’s a distinct parallel between our current Mark Marathon passage and today’s Daily Reading – a verse which was, of course, quoted by Jesus when he was fasting in the desert.  In our Mark Marathon passage, Jesus has been followed by a large crowd who have been so transfixed by his teaching that they had not noticed that it was time to eat.  Jesus, though, miraculously provides them with a simple meal, and feeds all five thousand of them.  In today’s Daily Reading, we are reminded that God miraculously provided food for the people of Israel when they were in the desert.  Additionally, in today’s reading, we are reminded of the importance not just of physical food for our bodies, but also food for our spirits.  The Israelites were taught that man cannot live on bread alone, but needs to feed on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.  The reason why people need feeding in the Mark passage is, of course, because they have been doing exactly that – they have been feasting on the words of Jesus.

We should be thankful and grateful for the food that God provides us with every day.  We must not forget, thought, that our spirits also need feeding.  We must ensure that we feed on the word of God every day.  We must ensure that we spend time immersed in God’s word.

Green pastures

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Green pastures

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.

Psalm 23:1-2

Have you ever tried to travel on the railways on a Sunday, only to discover that there’s a rail replacement bus service because of engineering work?  It’s very irritating.  A few years ago, when I was commuting from Colchester to London by train, the weekend engineering work overran, and on Monday morning, all the commuters were herded off the trains at Chelmsford station to wait for buses to take us all into London.  It didn’t work, of course – there were simply far too many people to shuttle us all into buses.  People were getting extremely angry, and it looked as if a riot could break out at any minute.  The police turned up to try to take control, and the local news programmes appeared to film what was going on.  I decided to accept that I was going to be late, and wandered into town to get a coffee at Starbucks whilst I waited for things to return to normality.

Now I don’t think that me heading to Starbucks was necessarily the Lord making me lie down in green pastures, but I can see a parallel with today’s verse, and with our current Mark Marathon article.  In Mark 6, Jesus shows compassion to the crowd that has gathered around him.  He recognizes that they are tired and hungry.  The first thing he commands them to do is to sit down and take the weight off their feet, whilst he sorts out the food situation.  You could say that “he makes them lie down in green pastures.”

In fact, as I have pondered over these verses this evening, three other parallels between Psalm 23 and Mark 6 have jumped out at me.  Jesus and his disciples want to get some rest, so they head out in a boat to go to a solitary place they know.  What does the crowd do?  It follows them, and in fact actually gets to the spot Jesus is heading for before the boat.  This seems to me to tie in with the Psalmist talking about the Lord leading him beside quiet waters.  Then, of course, there’s the parallel with the imagery of a shepherd.  In Mark 6, Jesus had compassion on those following him because they were “like sheep without a shepherd.”  The Psalmist famously states that the Lord is his shepherd.  Most notably of all, in the Mark passage, Jesus responds to the needs of the people; they need food, and he gives it to them.  Psalm 23 affirms that we shall not be in want with the Lord as our shepherd; he will provide for all our needs.

Once again, I get a reassuring and comforting view of God from today’s verses, and Mark 6.  The Lord is my shepherd, and will tend to me as if I was one of his flock.  I will not be in need if I put my trust in him, because he will provide for me.  The Lord will lead me by still waters, when things get tough.  When things get really bad, he’ll make me lie down in green pastures to give me time to rest and reflect.  Whether those pastures are literal pastures, or metaphorical pastures (Starbucks, anyone?!), I don’t know!

Get some rest!

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The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 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.”

Mark 6:30-31

Sometimes life can get really hectic.  I know that over the last few months I’ve found myself under great pressure at work.  Sometimes it gets to the point where I feel like I have a million and one things to do – meetings to attend, presentations to deliver, lessons to prepare, marking to be done, reports to write, colleagues to observe.  Sometimes in the midst of all that, even though it doesn’t always seem like a good idea at the time, I just have to get away – just for a couple of hours.  I like to sit in a café with a cup of coffee and a good book or copy of that day’s paper.  It might seem like wasted time when I have so much to do, but I feel so much better after a bit of down time, and can be so much more productive.

It’s good to see in this verse that Jesus whole-heartedly endorses these crafty breaks.  The last time we saw the disciples, they were sent out to heal and teach.  Now, here they are, returning to Jesus after what has clearly been a very busy period for them.  All they wanted to do was stop, rest for a bit and having something to eat, but they felt that they had to keep going because so many people were making demands on their time.  Jesus simply calls them aside, however, and takes them out into a solitary place to get some rest before continuing their mission.  He knew that if the disciples were to perform at their very best, it was crucial that they were able to have some down time before continuing with their work.

Remember that as you get super busy at school or work.  Jesus recognises the importance of rest and relaxation.  When you find yourself getting stressed, just take a few minutes out to distress.  You’ll feel so much better when you return to work, and will be so much more productive.

Header image produced by DALL-E 2 AI on 30 April 2023.

Just who is this man?

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Just who is this man?

Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendour, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem.

Luke 9:30-31

I’m absolutely hopeless with names.  As a teacher, that’s quite bad.  Weeks can go by, and I still don’t know the names of everyone I teach.  It’s not just a problem at work, though.  When I meet someone for the first time and they introduce themselves, their name seems to go quite literally in one ear and out the other.  I guess the real problem is that I’m not very good at listening!  I do find myself confusing people quite a lot, especially in my larger classes at school, and thinking that one child is actually another.

In our current Mark Marathon passage, we see quite a lot of confusion about just who Jesus is.  We meet Herod, who has started to hear about Jesus.  He wants to know who Jesus is, and how he is able to achieve the magnificent miracles that seem to be a feature of his daily existence.  Some people believe that he is John the Baptist, come from the dead, whilst others think that Jesus is Elijah, or, at the very least, a prophet like Elijah.  The Jews believed that Elijah, who had not died but was taken to heaven, would reappear to mark the beginning of the end times, when God would began to wrap up his plan.  They were not that far off in some ways.

Jesus, of course was neither John the Baptist nor Elijah.  We know for a fact that he cannot be Elijah, because at the Transfiguration he is seen chatting to both Moses and Elijah, as Luke describes in today’s verse.  Both Elijah and Moses are important figures – Elijah represents the Prophets, and Moses the Law, both of which were crucial to the Jews.  Jesus, however, is greater than both of these two men.  They are seen here reflecting God’s glory, whilst Jesus actually displays the glory of God himself.  Jesus, in Matthew 5:17, actually tells us that he is actually the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets; in other words, everything that Elijah and Moses represent.

Elijah and Moses were phenomenally important people in God’s plan for us, but neither comes close to the importance that Jesus has.  Jesus, the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah, is the culmination of everything that Moses and Elijah stood for and acted upon.

Throughout Mark’s gospel, people are challenged to reflect on the identity of Jesus.  Throughout our Mark Marathon series, we too have been, and over the coming weeks, will be, challenged to think the same.  Just who was this man Jesus?

Mistaken Identity

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King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

Mark 6:14

Once when I was at a Bible study group meeting, the leader in the course of our discussion asked how many people had met the Queen.  Much to my surprise, almost everyone’s hands went up!  My friend Katie, who I went with, and I kept our hands firmly down, however, neither of us having been fortunate enough to meet our monarch.  Whether the Queen would actually know any of the members of my Bible study group by name would be another matter, however.  I suspect that she might know one of them, but the rest probably not.  If you were to meet the Queen and drop my name into the conversation, she certainly would not have the first idea who I was!  Neither would the Prime Minister, or even my MP or local councilor.  I’m relatively anonymous really – like the vast majority of people.  It takes someone truly special to stand out.

Interestingly, Jesus appears to have been someone truly special.  King Herod had heard of Jesus.  In some ways, Jesus was simply one person, a small town carpenter, living under Herod’s jurisdiction.  In that sense, there is absolutely no reason why Herod would have heard of Jesus.  Herod had heard, however, about the amazing things that Jesus was doing.  He had heard about his teaching.  He had heard that he was healing the sick.  He had heard that he was casting out demons.  The fact that Jesus had come to the attention of the King shows just how much of a stir Jesus was causing.  Here was clearly someone a little special.

Herod clearly wanted to know about Jesus.  He had heard that lots of people were suggesting that Jesus was in fact John the Baptist come back from the dead, and this is in fact what he himself believed.  He must have been rather worried, since it was he who had had John killed, on the whim of his wife, Herodias.  He must have been concerned that he had come back to take revenge.

Of course, Herod did not understand at this stage who Jesus was.  He was unclear on Jesus’ identity.  Yet the fact that the King had heard about him shows the extent to which Jesus was arousing the attention of people in Galilee.  Jesus has since aroused the attention of billions of people over the last two thousand years.  He still arouses the attention of millions of people around the world today.  Are you amongst their number?  Have you given thought to who Jesus might be?

Shake the dust from your feet

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Shake the dust from your feet

But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.

Acts 13:50-51

Have you ever been to see a film and thought that it was so brilliant that you recommend it to all your friends?  It can be rather disappointing if some of them go, but tell you that actually they didn’t think it was all that good.  Maybe you’ve read a book and thought it was outstanding, and have then felt rather let down when a friend who read it on your recommendation thought it was poor.  It can be rather upsetting when you think that you’ve got something great to share with your friends, but they don’t share your excitement.

Despite the fact that he was followed by crowds everywhere he went, Jesus often had moments of disappointment, when people didn’t accept his good news.  The whole passage in our current Mark Marathon article is imbued with this disappointment when Jesus’ own neighbours reject him.  He also warns the disciples that they will encounter some people who will not listen to them or welcome them.  He tells them simply to move on, shaking the dust off their feet when they leave.

We see the same thing in today’s verses.  Paul and Barnabas have not had a particularly warm reception in Antioch, where they have been preaching and teaching.  Whilst many of the Gentiles who heard them were delighted to have heard the gospel, many of the prominent Jews in the city were not so keen.  They turned to the leaders of the city for support, and together stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and banned them from the city.  Were they concerned?  No, they simply shook the dust off their shoes and moved on.

Both in Jesus words, and the experiences of Paul and Barnabas, it is clear that there will be some who do not want to hear the gospel.  What should we do if people don’t want to listen to the gospel when we talk to them?  We shouldn’t be downcast.  Instead, we should walk away and turn to our next group of people.

Be prepared for lack of success when you talk to your friends about your faith, but don’t give up sharing the gospel.  Simply turn to someone else.