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

In Mark 8, we consider Peter’s great revelation about Jesus. But first, some background. 

In the Old Testament, people were anointed with oil for important jobs.
– Moses anointed Aaron as high priest (Ex 29:7).
– Samuel anointed David as king of Israel (1 Sam 10:1, 16:13).
– God called Cyrus, king of Persia, his anointed one, and Cyrus let the exiles return to Jerusalem (Isa 45:1).
– The prophet Daniel predicted a future anointed one, a new king of Israel (Dan 9:25-26). 

What word do you think the Old Testament uses for all these anointed ones? It uses the Hebrew word “mashiyach” which English borrows as our word messiah. Think of it this way: high priest Aaron a messiah. King David a messiah. Cyrus of Persia a messiah.

After Alexander the Great conquered the world, Greek became the universal language of trade and scholarship. So the Israelites translated the Old Testament into the Greek Septuagint version. But there was a problem. Greek didn’t have a word for “anointed one”. 

Solution? The translators invented a new word by creating a noun out of the Greek verb anoint. 

Their word was christos, which became our English word Christ. In the Greek version of the Old Testament, this made Aaron and David and Cyrus all christs. In the New Testament we meet Jesus Christ, Jesus the Anointed One. 

Now, back to Mark 8, where Jesus asked his disciples, ”Who do people on the street say I am?”  

They replied, “People say you’re John the Baptist, Elijah, or a prophet” (Mark 8:28). 

Then Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?” And Peter said, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29) 

Strangely, in my Bible Peter says, “You are the Messiah.” Translators had to decide whether to use the Greek Christ or the Hebrew Messiah translate Peter’s words into English as the anointed one.

Confusing? What does it all mean? 

It means Jesus was special. God’s power and wisdom rested on him, as it did on Aaron and David and Cyrus. 

It also means God’s promise of a Messiah in the Hebrew Old Testament, or a Christ in the Greek version of the Old Testament, was fulfilled in Jesus. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, we have long believed you are special. God called you his son. You took up the job of priest that Aaron didn’t finish, and the job of king that David began, and the office of prophet that Daniel honored. 

We confess with Peter that you are the one specially anointed by God–the Messiah, the Christ. You are the new prophet, the new priest, the new king. Be our king. Teach us to live in your kingdom. 

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, I point to an interesting pattern in chapters 7 to 9 of Mark’s gospel. 

In Mark 7, after feeding 5,000, Jesus walked on water and stilled a storm. The disciples were so astonished at his power over the storm that Mark comments, “Their hearts were hard. They didn’t understand about feeding the 5,000” (Mark 6:52).

Then Jesus got into an argument with the Pharisees about clean hands and clean hearts. Again the disciples didn’t understand, and Jesus said to them, “Are you so dull?” (Mark 7:18). 

Next, Jesus healed the daughter of a Gentile woman who asked him for crumbs under the Jewish table, and he healed a man who was deaf and mute. 

What an interesting sequence of stories. Throughout, the disciples have no clue what Jesus is up to as he feeds the 5,000, stills the storm, and teaches about clean hands and clean hearts. They are deaf to his message and blind to his mission. But the woman? The one who wanted crumbs from under the table? She understood, and so did the deaf and mute man who received healing. 

So . . . why doesn’t Jesus heal his disciples too, by helping them hear and understand his message. Why doesn’t he heal their blindness and deafness? 

In the next sequence of stories, Mark repeats the pattern. 

This time, Jesus fed 4,000 and argued with Pharisees. Later, he warned his disciples about the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod. The disciples still didn’t get it. “Is Jesus talking about yeast because we didn’t bring enough bread?” they asked (Mark 8:16).

Jesus replied, “Don’t your eyes see? Don’t your ears hear? There were lots of leftovers when we fed the 5,000 and the 4,000. This isn’t about bread. Don’t you understand?” (Mark 8:21). 

Then Jesus met a blind man, healed him just enough so he could see people like trees walking, and touched his eyes again to give full eyesight. 

That completes the second pattern. Jesus fed a crowd, argued with Pharisees, dealt with disciples who didn’t see or hear or understand, and then healed a blind man. 

I sympathize with the disciples. I’m not much better than they in seeing a connection between feeding 5,000 and walking on the water. Or a link between feeding 4,000 and warning about the yeast of the Pharisees. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, we are like your disciples. We hear the stories we have always heard, and live the lives we’ve always lived, and see the things we have always seen, and we fail to understand the life of faith you teach. 

What is the meaning of your miracles? Does healing a blind person mean you can heal our inner blindness? Does healing the deaf mand mean you can heal our spiritual deafness? 

O Jesus, open our eyes. Unstop our ears. Loosen our tongues, until we see and hear and speak for 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”.

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