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

In Mark 11, after Jesus drove foreign-exchange merchants and livestock dealers out of the temple, the leaders asked him, “Who gave you authority to do that?” (Mark 11:28). 

Jesus knew they wouldn’t believe his answer, so he replied with a question, “Was John the Baptist’s baptism from heaven? Or did humans invent it?” (Mark 11:29-30). 

The temple leaders said to each other, “Careful, this is a trick question. If we say John’s message was from heaven, he’ll say, ‘So, why didn’t you believe it?’ But if we say John’s message was human, we’ll get stoned because everyone thinks John was a prophet” (Mark 11:31-32). 

So they answered, “We don’t know where John’s message was from.” 

Jesus replied, “Then neither will I tell you where my authority is from” (Mark 11:33).

Some comments on this curious turn of events. 

First, it’s not obvious to everyone when God is at work. The temple leaders had spent a lifetime studying their scriptures and practicing their religion. There’s no way they wanted questions from  a rude 33-year-old newbie who had zero training and no credentials. They didn’t appreciate Jesus trespassing on their turf and criticizing the way they ran the temple.

I wonder, are we aware and receptive when God is on the move? Or like the temple leaders, do we want to practice our religion undisturbed by hard questions?

Second, Jesus didn’t give a straight answer to a simple question. He could have said his authority came from God. Instead, he responded to a question with another question. 

Many of my questions Jesus doesn’t answer either. Why does God permit so much evil? Why doesn’t he answer more prayers? Why is the church so weak and ineffective? Maybe, like the temple leaders, I’m too foolish or ignorant or unbelieving to receive the real answers to my questions.

My third comment is that Jesus wanted the temple leaders to focus on something other than their sly questions. He showed them God was at work outside the confines of their temple religion. God was at work in Jesus’ miracles. He was at work in Jesus’ outraged response to temple abusers. God was at work in John the Baptist’s preaching and baptizing. But the temple leaders? They just couldn’t see God working in unexpected ways and through unconventional people like Jesus and John. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we have endless questions. But our duty is simple and clear. To believe in Jesus. To love others. To pray.

So we set our questions aside. We invite you to overturn the tables of our comfortable religion. As Jesus cast out the abusers in the temple, cast out our sins. Quash our self-serving, self-preserving instincts, and let us lose our lives and find them in the cross. 

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 11, after parading into Jerusalem, Jesus cursed a fig tree. Then he drove money-changing hucksters out of the temple. Feel the passionate anger in his words, “This is supposed to be a house of prayer. But you’ve made it a den of robbers!” (Mark 11:17, quoting Isa 56:7 and Jer 7:11).

William Barclay (The Gospel of Mark, The Daily Study Bible (Edinburgh: St. Andrews Press, 1975), 272-275) describes the situation this way. The inner temple, the court of priests, was hidden behind three levels of access. First: the court of the Gentiles, open to anyone. Next: the court of women, open to Jewish women. Third: the court of Israelites, the place of sacrifices. 

At Passover, people came from around the world to worship, pay the temple tax, and make sacrifices. The family of Annas, an ex-high priest, saw these tourists as a business opportunity. They needed local money to pay their temple tax and a supply of doves to make sacrifices. Sweet! Where better than the outer court of the temple to charge exorbitant exchange rates and sell doves at extortionate markups to people who came to worship!

Jesus didn’t think so. He said the outer court should be a place for people to pray, not a place to take advantage of them. So he acted violently, scattering money and overturning display tables, driving out the astonished businessmen.

The common people enjoyed the show. But Jesus’ anger offended the temple leaders. Who does this guy think he is? How dare he criticize us! We’ll interpret the law and determine what is and isn’t allowed in the temple. 

After leaving the temple and finding peace and quiet overnight, the next day Jesus and the disciples saw the fig tree. It was withered from the roots up. The disciples said, “Wow!” Jesus said, “If you have faith, you can tell a mountain to throw itself into the sea. In fact, whatever you ask in prayer, believe you have received it, and it’s yours” (Mark 11:22-25). 

Let’s pray. 

Jesus, we understand your clearing of the temple, but not your immense anger. Our society is full of Christian commercialism–religious books and art and magazines and music and posters and souvenirs. It can’t all be wrong, can it?

Jesus, were you angry at the commercialism, or at its location? Do you see in us some money-grubbing, grasping, and commercial part of our hearts that offends you? 

Our faith does not wither trees or move mountains. Our faith does not receive whatever we ask in prayer. 

O Jesus, change our hearts, move the mountains within us, change our plodding performance to vibrant faith. Teach us to live in the power of your kingdom. Teach us to ask and believe and receive. 

Amen. 

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

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep414. Mark 10. The Blind and the Seeing.

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

At the end of Mark 10, blind Bartimaeus received his sight, but the disciples continued in their spiritual blindness. 

Here’s the story. 

For the third time in Mark’s gospel, Jesus told the disciples he would be mocked, spit on, flogged, and killed (Mark 10:33-34). 

The disciples’ response? James and John said, “When you come into your glory, we want the best seats of honor beside you” (v. 37). Weren’t they listening to what Jesus said? Was he talking about glory or about being tortured and killed?

Jesus replied to the disciples, “You have no clue about what you’re asking. Are you prepared to be baptized with the baptism I will soon experience?” (v. 38).

“Sure,” they replied. “No problem. Bring it on!” (v. 38). 

Jesus said, “OK. Count on it.” They didn’t understand that Jesus was walking into a baptism of torture and death. 

Then Jesus continued, ”But it’s not me who assigns seating in God’s kingdom. So don’t count on the seating arrangements you want” (v. 40-41). 

When the disciples heard James and John asking for favors they got angry. So Jesus played the peacemaker, saying, “In the Gentile world, the game is control. Lords lord it over people and officials officiate and Trumps trump everybody. But in God’s world, leaders serve, and slaves are first in line. Look at me,” he said. “I came to serve and to give my life as a ransom” (Mark 10:45). 

The disciples were blind to Jesus’ meaning; they couldn’t grasp the vision of him dying. They saw him as king, not a king’s ransom. 

Mark’s gospel moves to the story of blind Bartimaeus, who called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47). People told him to be quiet, but he shouted more loudly, until Jesus asked, “What do you want?”

“I want to see,” he replied. Jesus gave him sight, saying, “Your faith has saved you” (Mark 10:52). 

Two comments. 

The disciples won’t see clearly until after the crucifixion and resurrection. The crisis of Jesus’ death will lead them to a place where God’s spirit can bless them with the words Jesus said to Bartimaeus, “Your faith has saved you.” 

Second, like so many of those Jesus healed and saved, we never hear of Bartimaeus again. Was it just his eyes that Jesus saved, or was it his whole person? 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, when you restored Bartimaeus’ sight, you said his faith saved him.

His simple faith contrasts with the disciples’ politicking.
– They argued about getting places of honor
– They didn’t understand that your kingdom privileges those of low status–servants and slaves, the disabled, blind, lame, and deaf. 

O Jesus, our wealth and technology does not buy us privilege in your kingdom. We invite you to baptize us into your family, to give us servant robes in your kingdom, to teach us to take your name into a world that despises 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 10 a rich man decided not to sell everything to follow Jesus. As the man walked away, Jesus said to the disciples, “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mark 10:25).  

Think about that. A camel going through the eye of a needle? A ridiculous image. Amazed, the disciples asked, “Then how can anyone be saved?” 

Jesus replied, “It’s impossible for people. Only God can do it” (Mark 10:27). 

Some interpreters explain Jesus’ camel-and-needle image by pointing to a Jerusalem city gate “The Eye of the Needle”. Camels could enter only if they were unloaded and knelt. 

Two problems with this explanation. First, there is no evidence that such a gate existed. 

And second, it changes what Jesus clearly said. He didn’t say, “It’s possible to enter the kingdom of heaven if you unburden yourself and kneel down.” 

He said, “It’s impossible. No one can engineer their own salvation. It’s just as  impossible as a camel becoming needle-small.” Jesus often taught by using impossible pictures and improbable situations. His idea of what is possible depends on God alone.  

Peter, as usual in Mark’s gospel, had something to say: “We’ve left everything to follow you” (Mark 10:28). 

The rich man didn’t leave everything. But Peter and his friends did. Was Peter implying, “We’re better than that rich man”? Was he saying, “Look, we’ve walked through the eye of the needle”? 

Jesus said to Peter, “Seen and noted. Anyone who has left home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or fields for me and the gospel will be amply rewarded; and they will also be persecuted” (Mark 10:29). Then he warned them, “Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”  

Was Jesus warning Peter not to rate his own commitment too highly? Peter started with faith and enthusiasm, leaving everything to follow Jesus, but that did not guarantee him a position at the head of the line. If the first are last, perhaps Peter the first apostle might become Peter the least.    

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we have not left everything to follow Jesus. But we feel the pull of his teaching. He tells us not to hoard, but to live with open-handed generosity. He tells us to leave our isolation and participate in community. He teaches us to abandon our attempts to prove we are right, and to trust his forgiveness for sins we know and sins we don’t know. 

O Father, help us grow into this story of the rich man, to lose the things that are important to us, to let go of our conviction that we should be at the head of the line, to sacrifice the petty comforts we love. And when at last we stand before you, may we know your judgment is just, whether we are first or last.  

Amen. 

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

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube