Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

As we move through Mark’s gospel, we encounter a couple strange miracles.  

When Jesus met a deaf mute, he put his fingers in the man’s ears, took them out, spat on his finger, touched the man’s tongue, looked to heaven, sighed, and said, “Be opened.”  It worked! The man’s ears were opened and he spoke plainly (Mark 7:35).  

Weird, eh? 

Jesus did most miracles with a word or simple action. He healed Peter’s mother-in-law by taking her hand and helping her up (Mark 1:31). He healed a leper with a touch and the words, “Be clean” (Mark 1:41). He healed a paralytic by commanding, “Get up. Take your mat. Go home” (Mark 2:11). 

So why, this time, did Jesus stick his fingers in the man’s ears and spit and sigh? 

Mark 8 has another unusual healing. This time Jesus spat on a blind man’s eyes, touched them, and asked, “Do you see anything?” 

The man replied, “I see people. They look like trees walking” (Mark 8:24). 

Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes again, completely healing them.  

John’s gospel also tells about an unusual healing. Jesus spat on the ground, made some mud, applied it to a blind man’s eyes, and told him to go wash in a pool (John 9:6-7). He did and his sight was restored.  

That’s three times Jesus healed with saliva. I wonder why. And I wonder why Matthew and Luke didn’t mention this in any of their stories about Jesus. Perhaps they too found it odd.   

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, I’m not sure why you used your saliva to heal. But it’s a profoundly human action. Not like the God of creation speaking the universe into being. More like a man in a body of clay, using saliva and simple words.  

I think you are teaching us that healing can be a process. Like the man who was halfway healed so people looked like walking trees. Like the man with mud on his eyes, stumbling to the pool to wash. Like the man with your fingers in his ears. 

How often we hear but fail to understand. We see, but our vision is muddy.  

O Jesus, heal us. Help us hear, and understand, and obey your voice. Give us clear vision and true hearing and intelligent speech as we journey through life’s impediments.   

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Today in Mark 7, let’s look at Jesus’ encounter with a Gentile woman. Back then, Jews called Gentiles “dogs”. Do you think Jesus will follow this cultural norm? Surprisingly, he does.  

The woman said to Jesus, “Please drive a demon out of my daughter” (Mark 7:26). 

Jesus replied, “It’s not right to take children’s bread and toss it to dogs.” Ouch.

Some commentators soften Jesus’ statement by saying he didn’t use the word for vicious wild dogs. No, they assert, he used the word for pet dogs. Other commentators have it that Jesus wasn’t calling the woman a dog, but was testing her faith by communicating that his main mission was to Israel, not Gentiles.

I respond: Did Jesus need to call people “dogs” to clarify his mission? To me, the dog reference is harsh no matter how you interpret it. I don’t want to be compared to dogs–wild or tame! 

Jesus said, “It’s not right to take a child’s bread and toss it to dogs.” My take? That Jesus was really good at reading people. He and the woman both knew that Jews considered Gentiles as dogs. But she wasn’t on a mission to change the culture or get more respect. All she wanted was: Please heal my daughter! 

So when Jesus made a comment about dogs, instead of taking offense, she flipped it to her advantage. “Even dogs under the table get the crumbs children drop,” she said (Mark 7:28). 

And Jesus responded, “Good answer. I grant your request. Your daughter is healed” (Mark 7:29). 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, we are flooded with cultural stereotypes and false ways of thinking about people. Teach us to ignore cultural and racial and gender slurs. Like the woman who ignored the label “dogs”, may we be slow to take offense and quick to tell you what we need.  

Teach us to love people across cultural and racial barriers, across divisions of education and gender and status and politics. Speak your healing words to us, and through us to everyone we meet. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Where does sin come from? Did the devil make you do it? Was it your own idea?

Today in Mark 7, consider Jesus’ answer. 

Pharisees didn’t understand why Jesus was so relaxed about long-standing Jewish traditions, so they said to Jesus, “Our religious tradition requires hand washing before eating. Why don’t your disciples follow this tradition?”

 Instead of answering their question, Jesus got angry and lit into them.  “You’re a bunch of hypocrites,” he said. “Your traditions don’t honor God. Here’s an example: If your parents need something you have, but you don’t want to give it to them, you simply declare it dedicated to God. Then you don’t help your parents with it. Do you think God wants you to dedicate your stuff to him? Or does he want you to use your stuff to help your parents?”  

Jesus addressed the crowd. “It’s not what goes into you that makes you dirty. It’s what comes out of you” (Mark 7:15). Really? What if I consume alcohol, nicotine, pornography, and social media? Those things going into me from outside don’t make me dirty? What’s with that?

Jesus explained, “Washing your hands doesn’t make you clean because it’s not dirt on the outside that makes you dirty, it’s dirt on the inside.” Bad behavior is a symptom of a heart that wallows in evil.

Jesus said, “From inside, from your heart, come evil thoughts, immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly” (Mark 7:21-23). 

Listen to what Jesus said. Does he mean that when I lower a bucket into the well of my heart, it comes up brimming with bad behavior? Is he saying my heart is rotten, a snakepit that corrupts and poisons everything I do? 

Hardly an optimistic picture of the human heart. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, the commandments forbid bad behavior. Murder. Lying. Stealing. Adultery . But you say bad behavior is brewed in my heart. How can I change my heart? 

It’s still January, but our New Year’s resolutions have failed. Our self-discipline has fallen into the ditch. Our bookshelf is heavy with self-help books, but they aren’t much help. 

You say the problem is bigger and deeper than our behavior. Our hearts are tangled in self-interest, slaves to forces we don’t understand, infected with diseases we can hardly name. 

O Jesus, wash our dirty hearts. Give us new minds, new spirits, new hearts that will overflow with love instead of evil. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Mark 6 records one of Jesus’ most famous miracles, feeding thousands with five loaves and two fish. 

But first, a different story about hunger. Once, when Jesus finished a 40-day fast, the devil suggested, “Since you’re the son of God, solve your hunger by turning stones to bread.” Jesus said, “No thanks. People don’t live just by bread, they need God’s words” (Mat 5:2-4). 

But in Mark 6, Jesus fed the crowd with a miracle. Five loaves and two fish became a feast for 5000. So . . . why didn’t Jesus do for himself what he did for the crowd? 

Here are three suggestions. 

1. The stones-to-bread miracle was the devil’s idea. Jesus didn’t trust suggestions from that source.

2. Turning stones to bread is weird. Time and erosion turn stones to sand, not bread. But nature multiplies food. Fish breed more fish; wheat produces more wheat. Jesus respected nature. He didn’t do unnatural things like making bread from stones. 

3. Remember Adam and Eve eating forbidden fruit in the garden? Their action clearly said: we can manage our own lives just fine without advice from God. They used God’s gifts in a way that disregarded their relationship with the giver. Didn’t work well for them, did it? 

The serpent from the garden showed up in the New Testament to invite Jesus to make the same statement . . . to use his miracle-working power to manage his own life, disregarding his relationship with God to feed himself. 

Jesus didn’t fall for it. He said, “People should attend to bread and to God’s word.” His whole life–hunger, miracle-power, mission–were gifts from God. Jesus used the gifts to honor his relationship with God.  

Notice that before the miracle of loaves and fish, Jesus had compassion on the crowd, because they were like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:32-56). The people needed the words of God that Jesus taught and the meal Jesus provided. 

They enjoyed his teaching, but lunch? That was special. It’s a good day when someone else picks up the tab. After lunch, the crowd fell quickly into the Adam-and-Eve trap. They wanted to manage the situation, to make Jesus king, and they suggested he could by supplying another miracle meal. They wanted to use Jesus as their gravy train (John 6:14-15, 25-35).  

Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Eat my flesh, drink my blood” (John 6:51). 

“Too weird,” said many followers, and they left (John 6:60-66). 

The 12 disciples didn’t understand the miracle either. A short time later, when Jesus walked on water and calmed the storm, Mark tells us that the disciples were amazed by the new miracles because they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hard (Mark 6:52). 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, thank you for your compassion for the crowd. We too are like sheep without a shepherd. Teach us the words of God and feed us with daily bread and spiritual food. 

Help us understand the miracle of the loaves and fish, to see that you provide all the gifts we need–bread and teaching and safety in the storm. Soften our hard hearts. 

Help us to hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the word of God you speak to us (Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent). Live in us and through us. Teach us not to define our own mission in life, but to participate in the work you are doing in the world. Help us not to live the self-managed life, but the life of walking with you. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In Mark 6, Jesus sent his 12 disciples on a ministry tour. There was no fundraising–Jesus told them to travel without food or money or extra clothes, and to enjoy whatever hospitality was offered along the way. They preached, drove out demons, and healed the sick. 

I find it surprising that the disciples were ready for this ministry. Until now, the only thing we’ve heard about their spiritual development is Jesus’ comment on a stormy night, “Have you no faith?” 

But here they are, embarking on an amazingly successful  experience of faith and ministry. 

Perhaps our spiritual development is like that of the disciples–slow and faltering, until one day Jesus trusts us with ministry.

Meanwhile, King Herod heard stories about Jesus and wondered. “Who is this man?” Someone suggested Elijah, someone else a prophet, and some said “It’s John the Baptist raised from the dead” (Mark 6:14-16). 

Mark explains why Herod adopted the John the Baptist theory. 

It started with Herod’s complicated love life. He got a divorce and his step brother got a divorce, and Herod married his step brother’s ex. John the Baptist stepped forward and told Herod that this violated Old Testament marriage laws. Time for John to be cautious . . . Herod’s wife, Herodias, did not like a prophet interfering in her love life. She convinced Herod to throw John into prison. 

Then at Herod’s birthday party, Herodias’ daughter danced for the guests, pleasing Herod, who offered her any gift she wanted–up to half his kingdom. She consulted her mother who said, “Ask for John the Baptist’s head on a platter.” Not your average mother, I think.

So Herod beheaded John to please his wife and stepdaughter. But he didn’t feel good about it. When he heard about Jesus, he thought John the Baptist had come back from the dead to remind him of his sin.

After this brutal story, Mark resumes the disciples’ ministry story. They reported to Jesus everything they did and taught, and then left with him to get some rest. 

Two comments on this string of events.

1. John’s ministry ended in martyrdom, but the disciples’ ministry so far has been full of miracles and exorcisms. Hard to predict where following Jesus might lead you. 

2. We don’t learn much from Mark about how the disciples grew and matured as they followed Jesus. We know that early in the story, Jesus criticized the disciples for lack of faith. Near the end, Peter denied Jesus three times. Between these bookends, Mark tells us almost nothing about their spiritual formation. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we feel the horror of Herod beheading John the Baptist. But brutal violence continues in our world. School shootings in America, genocide in Sudan, unrestricted warfare in Gaza and Ukraine. 

But your mission on earth continues. As when John was in prison and the disciples preached and healed and drove out demons. Jesus too was teaching and healing. 

Make us disciples of Jesus. Help us grow spiritually, like the disciples did. Teach us to see and follow your heart, to hear and obey your voice, to love you all our life, to be faithful to you in death. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube