Reading the Gospels for Lent

 

Read ~ Mark 3-5  

 

Mark’s narrative moves a rapid pace.  Just in chapter three alone ~ Jesus heals a man whose hand was withered; he no more than turns around and a crowd has congregated needing healing; after seeing the last patient of the day, he and his disciples hike up a mountain for a ritual of blessing and sending; only to come down from the mountain top to have mob outside his house calling him Satan (always nice to be appreciated for your hard, loving work).  And that was just his schedule in the morning!  (Totally kidding, we have no idea how many hours or days chapter 3 covers, but we seem to cover a lot of ground and activity).

 

Whew.  Give me just a minute to catch my breath.

 

Okay, I’m better.  Chapter 4 is Mark’s take on the parables of the seeds and sower ~ reminding us of that great question, what kind of soil is in your soul?  Where is the soil of your soul rocky or rough or rigid or ready to receive God’s presence, realizing that we are all four kinds of soil all at once.  I love how Mark then has the calming of the storm, because right now we all can feel like we are living storms emotionally, relationally, politically, socially, economically, and globally. 

 

And then, we land in chapter 5, which is one of Mark’s longest stories of Jesus confronting a man with an unclean spirit.  This beloved son of God has been forced to live amid the tomb ~ essentially, he is left for dead among the dead.  How often do we still do this today?  How often do we force to the fringe and fray those people who are not like us?  Those people who are like porcupines to our souls?  This man cries out, tears his clothes, but people in the nearby village act as if there is nothing to see here, move along.  This beloved son of God sees Jesus, cries out, Jesus sees him and asks him his name.

 

I love this.  The power of asking someone’s name.  The power for someone to name him or herself.  The man says his name is Legion.  Fun Bible Nerd fact here, legion is a term for a Roman military unit.  The man adopts and adapts a name of the foreign military machine.  We miss this.  What does it mean that Jesus looks into the eyes of the one who is at war with himself?  How often is this story our story?

 

What/who are you battling today?  My hunch is that there is a legion inside you.  Maybe you are battling despair or disease or depression or discouragement.  Maybe you are battling people who won’t listen to you or feeling like you are not enough.  Maybe you are battling voices in your head that want to point out, in a not so helpful way, all your bumbles and stumbles.  Where does legion ~ a foreign army ~ seem to have taken up residence in your soul and living rent free in your mind?

 

How might Jesus be calling that out of you?  How might Jesus be offering healing, asking you to set down the names you call yourself for your true name?  How might Jesus be saying, set that aside and here enjoy some delicious bacon?  I need to hear this every day, maybe every hour.  Amid the hustle and bustle, the tyranny of urgency and joyless racing we live our lives, I want to sit with Jesus.  Finally, notice that once the man is healed, he and Jesus sit down for a chat among the tombs.  I love that Jesus meets us where we are and will stay with us in that place.  How might Jesus meet you in your life today with a love and grace that heals and frees us?  May you and I both experience and encounter tactile/tangible/lived responses to that question. Amen.