Tag: Gospel According to Mark

Persistence That Heals

It’s hard to stay focused. There is so much to distract our attention. Even when you set your mind to a task, there seem to be ever increasing temptations to stray. Whether with personal goals, workplace initiatives, or community aspirations, it takes enormous efforts to persist.

Sometimes what undermines our persistence is the unpreparedness for the distractions or obstacles. We knew that it wouldn’t be easy, but we weren’t ready for how hard or how long it would take. Other times our desires get diluted for the goal we had set to achieve. Or, we question the worthiness of the original goal we set.

Persistence is the secret sauce of success. Seneca defined it as “constancy of purpose.” To persist is not sexy or convenient. It often makes you unpopular because you always have to say “no” to others who mean well but would otherwise undermine your commitment. Or it wears you out, especially fighting the temptation to take the wider road more often taken. To persist is grinding it out, feet on the ground, every day showing up, resolving to stay at it.

Jesus had to persist. Sometimes we think that because Jesus was God, everything was easy for him. That somehow because God is all-powerful, Jesus effortlessly stayed the course. In the gospel according to Mark, we have a story of Jesus hiding in a house across the Israelite border in Syrian-Phoenicia. He had confronted the Pharisees and convicted the crowds and felt the need to get out of the country and let things cool off for a bit. Persisting in his mission led to conflict and the need to get away to reflect on what to do next.

Jesus came as the King of Israel with a mission to deliver his people from slavery, to proclaim forgiveness of their sins to those that would repent of their rebellion towards God. Jesus came with the power of God to bring about the salvation of God’s people, to bring healing to their broken hearts and hope to their sin-wrecked lives.

So when a Greek woman from Syrian-Phonecia discovers him hiding in her village, she seeks him out and asks him to heal her demon-possessed daughter. Jesus essentially says no. That’s not what he came to do – he came first to set Israel free from the evil one. She was asking him to deviate from his mission, and he resisted her request. But nevertheless, she persisted. She didn’t take no for an answer from the King of Israel. As a mother, she couldn’t do anything else but persist for a yes. Jesus was deeply moved by her persistence and healed her daughter.

The persistence of Jesus in his mission almost caused him to say no to a healing opportunity of a little girl from an enemy nation. The persistence of a distraught mother overcame Jesus’ resistance to deviate from his mission to Israel. Jesus didn’t heal many non-Israelites. He rarely left Israel. But to those that asked, he would say yes. Why? The mission of Jesus was to restore the mission of Israel: to be a people that leverage their power in the world for the healing of the nations. As God’s people, they were to persevere in the ways of justice and mercy, a source of light amidst the dark empires of the world.

Her persistence expanded Jesus mission of healing. Jesus persisted in his mission of healing, including women, the poor, outcasts, and outsiders. And now Jesus persists with you. There are more mothers out there pleading for their daughters to be healed due to the ravages of evil. There are more fathers begging for their sons to be rescued from death. And Jesus is calling you to leverage your power, the power of our community, the power of your workplace to persist in the healing of the wounded.

What’s your purpose in the world? What is God calling you to do? May you join in with the expanded mission of Jesus to heal what has been maimed, abused, neglected, and corrupted. The world needs more healers who persist.

Why Trying To Be A Good Person Is Bad For You

I’ve always tried to be a good person. I’m a pleaser, so often my attempts to do good are driven by my desire to make others happy. I certainly try to be a good person as a way to love God and love my family and friends.  I like trying to be a good person.

But if I’m honest, trying to be good can sometimes be bad for me and my community. How?

In my effort to be a good person, and to appear as a good person, guess what typically happens? Yes, that’s correct: lots and lots of denial, rationalizing, defensiveness, and well intentioned but maybe naive help.

My desire to be good can undermine my acceptance of the not-good within me or coming from me.

In one of the stories that Mark tells about Jesus, the religious lawyers confronted him about why his disciples ate with unwashed hands. Jesus, it seemed to them, was okay with lawbreaking. He, however, turned their questions around on them, accusing them of hypocrisy.

It’s ironic, since the Pharisees and religious lawyers were so committed to being good people and devout followers of Israel’s God. So how was it that in their attempts to be good they were bad?

In the teachings of Moses God makes it clear that people are to honor their parents, especially in their old age – and this includes caring for them financially and being a blessing to them (instead of being a negligent or abusive curse).

But the Pharisees had found a way to designate their finances and time to God as a way to both look pious and avoid the expense and difficulty of caring for their aging parents. They found a way to avoid keeping  commands of God by coming up with a way to be devoted to God.

In this case, their attempts to be good people was bad for their parents.

Jesus then goes on to make a bigger point about unclean hands and being good people. He was accused of defiling his body by eating with unwashed hands. But Jesus points out that it’s not what goes in that defiles the body, but what comes out. Don’t worry about the food that goes in to the stomach, pay attention to what comes out of your heart.

This is provocative stuff. Jesus describes twelve inter-connected evils that are already in our heart: immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride, and folly.

My first instinct, and probably yours too is to scan the list and see which ones apply. As an act of humility we might pick a few we all struggle with. But this is where our addiction to being good corrupts our judgment. Jesus is saying that all of these evil thoughts are in our hearts.

And if we’re always looking for ways we’re not guilty of them, we’ll be blind to the ways we are guilty. And if we’re never convicted, there’s nothing to confess and repent.

Everyone agrees Jesus was a good man. So how was it that Jesus was crucified for being seditious (a law-breaker and a political threat) and for blasphemy (slandering against God). He was put to death by men and women who thought of themselves as good people seeking to be devout followers of God.

The irony? In trying to be good and devout people they killed God.

Hypocrisy is undermined by humility. It takes humility to confess the evil thoughts within our heart. It takes humility to hear from others how we have wronged them, even though we thought we were doing the right thing.

Being good can become a vague assertion that can prevents us from being honest and humble about the bad that is really in us. And that’s bad for us.

Who then can be good? Only God is good. The rest of us, well, maybe we should give up on trying to be good and work to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

This is, ironically, what Jesus strives for us to become and do.

The Courage To Be Misunderstood

If you’re a leader, you’ll be misunderstood.

If you care about people, you’ll be misunderstood.

Even if you serve people well, you’ll still be misunderstood.

If you’re like me, it’s terribly frustrating to be misunderstood. I have a deep need to be liked, so I have to fight against the urge to please everyone with my decisions. Whether as a leader, a neighbor, or a family-man, the risk of being misunderstood is constant.

But rather than being afraid of being misunderstood, we ought to accept reality, and face it with courage. Sure, we ought to do our best to keep things in context while being truthful and wise in our explanations. But if it’s laced with fear, you’ll undermine the trust you need to overcome the misunderstanding.

It’s courage, not fear, that overcomes misunderstanding.

That’s what we see in Jesus, as told by Mark in the gospel. After feeding the five thousand, Jesus had sent his disciples across the lake in their fishing boat while he went up into the mountains to pray. Late that night, as they struggled against the wind, Jesus came out to them on the lake. They were terrified by Jesus – how can he walk on water and why does the wind stop when he shows up?

They still did not understand Jesus. But that didn’t stop Jesus from being with them, speaking into their life, and giving them courage.

Jesus risked being misunderstood by his own disciples even as he worked to train them for his mission. It took courage for Jesus to teach them, send them out to preach and heal, to live with them, and then still be misunderstood. Sometimes they were still afraid of him!

“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

If it was difficult for the disciples to understand Jesus in the first century, imagine the challenges we face in the 21st century. We are separated by two millenniums and six thousand miles. Jesus is still misunderstood in America, even (mostly?) by Christians. That includes me.

So when we see how patient and persistent (and sometimes exasperated) Jesus was with his disciples when he was misunderstood, we can imitate him in regard to those who misunderstand us.

All people have power. Some know it and use it to their advantage, often at the expense of others well-being. A lot of us don’t think too much about the power we have over others. Which means we may not appreciate how we make others afraid of us.

Our desire to be understood could be another attempt to control and exert power over others. We would be wise to pay attention to the power we have (even if we think it is impotent or misunderstood) and how we use it in regard to others.

Jesus used his power to heal, to welcome, to embody the love of God, and to proclaim the forgiveness of sins for those who would repent.

Jesus used his power to transform lives, to set people free from fear in order that they may live a life of courage and trust in the God of Israel. And the whole time he risked being misunderstood. By his family, by his friends, his his disciples, by the religious and political authorities, by his own mother.

As you sense God’s call on your life to serve him in this world, your “yes” to the Lord may result in misunderstanding.

Like all important decisions, the greater the stakes, the greater the risk of misunderstanding. But when Jesus is calling you to follow him, we can hear his words to his disciples in every generation, every nation, every storm: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

What is Jesus calling you to do with your power?

What are the ways that Jesus has been appearing to you, inviting you to trust him with your life?

In what ways does Jesus make you afraid? What are you afraid of losing as you sense Jesus making himself real to you?

What kind of courage is Jesus calling you to exude as he invites you to join him in his work to heal the world for the flourishing of all?